Humble servant of the Nation

Barnaby Joyce, Malcolm Turnbull split in spectacular style

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Let me take you back. Way, way back to the evening of December 2, 2017. The Prime Minister and his deputy stood arm in arm at the West Tamworth Leagues Club. Joyce had just won the New England by-election by a thumping margin and Turnbull declared he was “putting the band back together.”

Ah, good times.

Alas, rock stars and politicians are, if nothing else, a difficult and unpredictable lot. Velvet Underground reformed and got halfway through a European tour in 1992 before the band’s two enormous egos, Lou Reed and John Cale, remembered why the band had split up in the first place. The two men hated the sight, let alone the creeping presence, of one another. The tour and the reunion ended abruptly, and Reed and Cale went their separate ways.

The Turnbull-Joyce combo did not come to grief because of crippling personality conflict. although it may do so at some time in the near future. But back then the band had only broken up when Joyce discovered his unfortunate New Zealand-news. We subsequently learned the High Court did not so hold and Joyce was off to a by-election that on the parliamentary numbers at least, threatened the Turnbull government’s majority.

Full column here.

1,092 Comments

  • Dismayed says:

    the former head of India’s Ministry of Power, E.A.S Sarma, “The Australian politicians are obviously not properly briefed by their offices about the viability of Adani coal,” Mr Sarma, who has done a detailed analysis of the properties of the coal at Adani’s Carmichael deposit and the economics of its planned mining venture, said.
    “My assessment is that by the time the Adani coal leaves the Australian coast, [it] will be about $90 a tonne.“We cannot afford that, it is so expensive. My assessment is it will not be possible for the Indian market to absorb Adani coal.”

    • Bella says:

      And Boom.
      Another huge blow to their filfthy project.
      Adani wanted our money to refinance their loan on Abbott Pt.
      Gina wanted taxpayers to pay for the rail line.
      Surely it’s over.

  • Dismayed says:

    NSW coalition government will knock down stadiums and rebuild them? WTF Dig a hole fill it in. Is there where the extra infrastructure money is going. Disgraceful. No Surprises.

  • Dismayed says:

    Another example of the coalition corruption. Spending on “consultants” continues to reach record levels. The coalition buys the advice it wants. It pre determines outcomes and outsources the responsibility at huge taxpayer expense. Labor cut the cost use of consultants by 32% on the Howard regime cost.The coalition sacked 15,000 Public Servants in its first 2 years and increased the cost of “advice” by over 20%. Better economic manager? Pigs arse. No surprise.

    • BASSMAN says:

      Its about pouring money into your donors’ pockets Bald. The Looter form of ‘mateship’. What do you think all of those Royal Commissions are for? To line their lawyer mates’ pockets-they never get any convictions for the hundreds of millions expended since 1996.

  • Dismayed says:

    Excellent data and article by Professor Bill. “More recently, as the unfolding neoliberal attack on workers’ rights has become more entrenched, poverty is now found in the underemployed, which is the ‘new’ way in which capital suppresses wages growth.” “as the latest data from the CHP shows, the poverty arising from the flat wages and rising costs in now spreading into a new problem for workers – homelessness, traditionally the burden borne by the most excluded people in our society. At the moment, we are in a race-to-the-bottom, which is nowhere any reasonable policy strategy should aim for.”
    http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=38736#more-38736

    • The Outsider says:

      That’s scary about Toronto house prices.

      My brother-in-law from Ottawa bought a lake cottage in Quebec last year and asked me if I’d be interested in owning a half-share. Anyway, as much as we loved staying in the cottage, I decided we wouldn’t buy in. Your link justifies my decision, somewhat.

    • Boadicea says:

      It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the housing market when rates start to rise here – a lot of homeowners are mortgaged to the max with huge loans, and a 1-2% increase could break them.

  • The Outsider says:

    The bravest POTUS in history: http://www.news.com.au/world/donald-trump-claims-he-would-have-marched-into-florida-school-without-a-weapon-to-help/news-story/443a53cb228967f24fc84eab8b8625ab

    What we need is The Donald at every school, avec or sans firearm doesn’t matter.

    Donald’s willingness to launch himself into any life-threatening situation is borne out by his exemplary military service record.

  • jack says:

    watched Q&A again.

    no doubt very even handed, two guests from the UK, both absolute Tories, and a bunch of conservatives backing them up,

    bloody hard for Tony to keep them in check

    • Boadicea says:

      Oh dear 😥

      • Dwight says:

        Boa, I’m just a country boy and when you kill your own food you get a different attitude towards it. My younger sister has acreage on which she’s building a log cabin. There’s also a stable and chicken coop. Last year she raised three turkeys and so her granddaughters didn’t get attached she named them Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.

        • Boadicea says:

          Yeah 😣. I guess that it was a “rescue” pig made it all a bit sad Dwight. Crikey, naming the turkeys would make it harder when their day of reckoning loomed. Just call ’em 1, 2 and 3?

    • Carl on the Coast says:

      Dwight, I noted the insert in your Molly the pig link about the dog dragging the tow chain. It reminded me of my tearaway days of unspent youth when on one occasion I was assisting in checking out a rundown grazing property out of Goulburn NSW, back in the early ’60’s, and came across a badly neglected small mob of sheep, including one with a rabbit trap embedded in its hind leg. It had obviously been dragging it around for quite some time judging by the length of the wool clip and the fact that the bone appeared to have regrown around the jaws of the trap.

      I can still remember my immediate, involuntary reaction being – ouch! I think that’s when my philosophy for caring and concern for wildlife/animal conservation generally kicked in and it has stayed with me ever since.

      Give me a lentil burgher any day.

  • Bella says:

    Just heard Jacinda Ahern talking of her achievements so far & I’m sad.
    Sad that all we get is old backward dregs who strive only to protect their own interests whilst NZ & Canada get actual human beings who look to the future with a moral sense of right & wrong. 🌏

    • Bella says:

      Oops that’d be Jacinda Ardern…😋

    • Milton says:

      I’m sad that what we have representing Oz, as would be serious interviewer, a lecherous, dimwit, manifest in Charles Wooley. He looks like the sort of person who, if in the vicinity, would make you control your bladder if you were contemplating a piss in a public toilet.
      His journalistic skills are best suited to MKR, and the bachelor style shows.
      Seriously, 60 Minutes used to be, for mine, a quality investigative journalism show. I was young, and perhaps naïve, but not that blind to think the fluff they put up now rates prime time tv. at best it should serve insomniacs and fellow losers, like me, around the 2-4am slot.

      And I will be there for you, Jacinda after you’ve made [y]our coin and left the left behind you. I’ll be right there, apples, my love! Giddy up.

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