Humble servant of the Nation

Hinch shows damage of good intentions mired in egomania

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hinchMuch has been made of the Turnbull government’s successes in the last week of sitting in the federal parliament. Malcolm Turnbull is crowing but there is a broad understanding the hot ticket item, the ABCC legislation which passed through the Senate earlier this week, has been rendered a dud and that Derryn Hinch was played by the CFMEU to cough up concessions.

While being tricked by the CFMEU’s office bearers is hardly something anyone would want to put on their political resumes, Hinch would not see it that way. He may have his own explanation for it. I have no doubt he could spout some rationalisation at the drop of a hat. That is a talent he undoubtedly possesses.

More generally, I’d suggest voters should be leery of people like Hinch becoming representative politicians. Perhaps we should adopt a tacit rule that wherever a political party appears with the word ‘justice’ in it, that party is not worth the ballot paper it is written on. Where it appears featuring the name of a media personality before the word ‘justice’ you can put the house (or indeed the Senate) on it being a self-serving exercise in the sort of ‘look at me’ politics we have come to know and despise in this country.

Full column here:

414 Comments

  • Mack the Knife says:

    Now that Mr. Key the NZ ex-PM is out of work he may jump over here like a lot of his fellow countrymen & women do. Hopefully he will and Centrelink might find him a job, with his cv he could be our next PM if they fastrack his citizenship application. Cheers bro, thet would be choice! Maybe he might take a consultant position with the ARU, that would be choice too.

  • Dismayed says:

    Hillsong Morrison has just linked the ABCC to the Negative GDP. WTF? This government is disastrous and dishonest. Supporters of this government should hang their heads in shame.

    • Trivalve says:

      He’s probably thinking he can get away with that becuase everyone is trying to figure out whether Trump’s figure of 4 billion for a new Presidential jumbo (AF1 is the call sign, not the plane) is remotely feasible.

  • Dismayed says:

    I see the Arctic is still 22 degrees above average for this time of year. 22 degrees. The Nations people want action, the Nations businesses and industries want action. It is the vocal minority of deniers from the right wing conservative outrage industry who are stopping the Nation from preparing and being proactive and taking opportunities in new “innovative” technologies and industries. They then have the hypocrisy to scream about concerns for their grandchildren facing rising debt. The cost of doing nothing will far outweigh the cost of actually doing something. No surprises.

  • Razor says:

    Dismal,
    Re my job numbers and your usual slanderous pap.

    http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/adani-announces-first-jobs-for-megamine/news-story/3b27bc85e15c30b1464cd0b5057a0148

    Blue collar jobs plus white collar will get us there nicely thanks.

  • Rodent says:

    Great Warren cartoonist in the Tele today over the Zoo boxer and the kangaroo matching up dispute two days back.
    It shows Pauline planting a straight right cross on Culleton One Nation rebel as the receiver kangaroo.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    We note our “current” PM Turnbull down at the Sydney Fish Markets this morning holding a media conference to blow his own trumpet Mr Insider. Malcolm should take note the Fish rots from the head down! Cruel observation but true in his case.

  • Yvonne says:

    ….and yet another backflip from Malcolm. This cannot go on. Someone has to find the integrity to tackle the huge issues of climate change and emissions. Like it or not, coal-generated power is one of the biggest culprits – Adani mine may bring jobs, but at what cost? And where are we going to find the money, not to mention the time, to switch to nuclear power?
    I think the Adani issue together with his prevarications on a price of carbon will spell the end for Malcolm. Who’s next?

    • Razor says:

      Would you rather kids have no future and decide to blow their brains out Yvonne because that’s the stark and unpleasant reality.

    • Mack the Knife says:

      Yvonne, assets like coal reserves are owned by the state thanks to the constitution at Federation time, then they pay the royalties to the state government. The mine was approved by a Labor State Govt, not Malcolm. He just chipped in for the railway line, which was first suggested by one K. Rudd if I remember rightly, you know, him of the short-lived PM career.
      Dismayed just keeps banging on about the coalition and Adani but the mine has nothing to do with Malcolm.

      • Dismayed says:

        The Queensland Government is NOT providing $1 Billion of taxpayers money to a “project” that is not economically viable, will not produce returns and will not produce the jobs and No bank will touch. Only the coalition want to throw Taxpayers money at this to save a couple of seats from their new coalition partner the raving mad hansons. Wake up dinosaur.

        • Mack the Knife says:

          Dismayed as usual you are going off on a tangent and getting personal. All I said is the Qld Labor Govt approved the mine as coal reserves are state owned and the royalties go to the state. Yes Turnbull has his hand in the railway line. If it is such a dud project how can our “never get a thing wrong Labor Govt” be making such a mistake? Bit of balance in your one-eyed comments would be useful, as well omitting to call people names. How juvenile.

      • Yvonne says:

        Well, Turnbull certainly is involved now, MtK. And seems to be swaying in the wind.
        Agree, it’s a controversial decision.
        Townsville desperately needs jobs after the Palmer fiasco.
        Every scientist I know who is involved with global warming)emissions is frantic with concern. Theur unanimous opinion is that things are happening much faster than predicted.
        Who knows,where all this will end? It won’t affect people on this blog – but it could affect their children and certainly will impact on their grandchildren.
        It’s kind of like a no-win situation and the social and economic consequences will of course come into play.
        That’s why, nuclear power seems a solution.
        I find it worrying and confusing. And the inability of government to run this country user helping.

    • JackSprat says:

      But but the Indians, like the Chinese, can increase their emissions without cost.
      These two over-populated countries which have minimal carbon sinks will add a bucket load of greenhouse gases over the next 15 years.
      Modern coal fired power stations are very efficient as far as green house gases are concerned – or so I am told by those people who justify the building of them in Japan and China etc.
      We can only hope that somebody cracks Fusion quickly. Otherwise the world is stuffed.
      Malcolm does not have a clue. Who’s next – I wonder if the NZ PM wants to migrate?

  • Lou oTOD says:

    JackSprat Dec 2

    Further to the exchange on pollution in Neverfail Creek (love that name btw) Jack, pick up today’s Manly Daily as it gets a run. All we need now is to catch the perpetrators, shouldn’t be too hard when the material tests are completed.

    Cheers.

    • JackSprat says:

      Thanks Lou.

      The Manly Daily took those photos last week – we were hoping they would publish it then so we could keep the pressure on council to get off of its backside and start a cleanup. Part of me wonders if it is pure co-incidence that it happened after the most visible part of the damage has been cleaned up. There was another article in Pittwater online which came out last week.

      The perpetrators admitted liability the weekend that it happened – rumor has it that it will classified as an “accidental” spill.

      The oxygen levels right down to Rylands track is about point 6 (normally 7.6) which means that the creek is biologically dead – the water will clean up but but will take years for the biodiversity to come back..

      The two “water witches” (as they call humorously themselves) in the paper were instrumental in alerting council to the problem and keeping pressure on council to do something. They have started a cleanup.

      Hazmat is getting flack because they did not do any containment and supposedly had it under control – well that is the excuse from council for not doing anything. It does not take into account that they did the inspection from a road and never bothered going down stream.

      I understand how people with “causes” get so frustrated when dealing with bureaucracies – it is like talking with a brick wall.

      The debate got a bit heated on the local facebook page – two people have been permanently banned and total entries were deleted.

    • JackSprat says:

      The aspect missing in all of this Lou was elected representatives. If this had happened last year we would have and the Mayor and three Councillors down there pronto and would have been confident that we would have gotten action from the bureaucracy.
      With an interim administrator in place, there is no alternate conduit.
      Meanwhile, these non-elected officials are making decisions that will affect us all for generations – like Ingleside and the Hospital plan.

      • Lou oTOD says:

        Tell me about it Jack.

        This cockeyed attempt by Transport NSW to permanently block a major access road to Clontarf and Balgowlah and Fairlight and Manly has been slipped through while the new mega council is in administration. And in the Premier’s own seat FFS.

        Then there’s the cunning plan to snaffle half of the only flat public golf course on the Peninsula, to put flat sports fields on it that would be used once or twice a week.

        I lived through council amalgamation in Kennett’s Victoria, and it was a fantastic evolution o floral government. What is happening in NSW is just diabolical, and the bloke in charge has to cop it for fxxxing these decisions up.

        You recon Pauline is a joke? Duck Smith is on board, and she is being given a floor to dance on.

  • Carl on the Coast says:

    darren (1.43pm 6 Dec)

    says: ” …. the biggest money spinner there is …. 3 years on Bell Group”.

    I would have thought, darren having your paw in the Bell Group cookie jar for 3 years is nothing to crow about. Its been a milch cow for you blokes ‘playing’ with the ‘law’ for over 30 years.

    Your MO is bleedingly obvious.

    • darren says:

      You’d be wrong, Carl. Three years as a salaried lawyer basically doing a massive amount of discovery work and nothing else, all the time missing out on the opportunity to develop contacts with ‘real” clients? No, an interesting experience – because I got to see all the real stuff Holmes-a-court and Bond got up to (most of which has never been made public) -but other than that pretty much 3 wasted years. And the pay wasnt much cop at that firm at the time either.

      Youre failing to distinguish between working lawyers and the people who make the real money on these things. It aint the employees, I can tell you that.

    • Nod and a Wink says:

      I think dear Darren is confusing the Bell Group with his real employer, Centrelink.

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