Is the Senate real? Have you touched it? Have you licked it?
Sure, there’s an edifice, a room draped in a loud, garish red decor but does the institution itself exist? Perhaps more to the point, should it?
These existential puzzles have arisen after four politicians this year – two from the Greens, one from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and one from Family First have been sent packing. They are persona non grata. If they thought they were senators they now know they were not and their representative careers have been or will soon be stricken from the record.
Section 44 of the Constitution stipulates the following of any person wishing to take a seat in the federal parliament:
Any person who:
(i) is under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power; or
(ii) is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by imprisonment for one year or longer; or
(iii) is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent; or
(iv) holds any office of profit under the Crown, or any pension payable during the pleasure of the Crown out of any of the revenues of the Commonwealth; or
(v) has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth otherwise than as a member and in common with the other members of an incorporated company consisting of more than twenty-five persons;
shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
Full column here.
Di Natale and McKim now scrambling. Sheesh.
Come on Boa, what did Bob Brown achieve? For my mind he prolonged the status quo and gave rise to the disparate Independents. Ok, not bad. But he did fuck all for the environment when he had a chance to. Abbott has done more, and practically.
Bob Browns lack of leadership, maturity, and broader thinking has perhaps provided the template for the Greens irrelevance, and demise.
10 years from now there will be no Green party.
For the last ever there has been no Green party.
start alone
Hey Milton
I’m more interested in the man – not really his politics! I have met him and listened to him speak passionately about things he is passionate about.
And it was pretty inspirational.
In my humble opinion he was the Greens. For better or worse. They seem lost without him- as this weeks events demonstrates.
Having said all that, I am not a Green
In fact I am not anything these days. They’re all hopeless!
But I am passionate about the beauty of Tasmania – and a tad distressed that developers have decided it is rich ground for some ghastly development.
Yairs – he strikes me as a conservation/environment type Green, Boa. I get the impression a lot of the other Greens are more motivated by Marx or similar (esp. Rhiannon).
Bob Brown kept the Eastern Bloc at bay. A great achievement.
bullshit
Well he tried to get rid of Rhiannon – if that’s what the Eastern bloc means. But Di Natale crumbled. That’s why I wonder what’s going on in there. Don’t think it’s all sunshine and roses.
You articulated your point very poorly there smoke.
Now I’ve heard everything Milton.
You say Abbott “did more” for the environment than Bob Brown.
What? Tony Abbott deliberately took Australian environmental conservation back to his happy place; the stone age.
Seriously mate, all he did was step-up destruction & lie his smugglers off alongside his cohort Anti-Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/the-six-big-lies-in-tony-abbotts-attack-on-the-environment-26540/
As for not acknowledging Bob Brown as one of the greatest Australian Conservationists, maybe you haven’t paid attention to his activism since his Franklin River protests.
https://www.wilderness.org.au/articles/saving-franklin-30-years
This man’s infectious passion helped changed the direction of my life & having met him on a few occasions through Sea Shepherd, I have to say that on this subject mate, you really have no idea of his dedication to conservation, particularly in Tasmania right now.
Bella
Ok Bella and Boa – i’ll stand corrected.
Aw shucks, Milton – Go women power!
Milton “Not a sensible or coherent thought in its head.” Probably fits right about here.
About time you cut and pasted from someone who knows what they’re talking about!
Milton By the way we have established dual citizens do NOT get a say in things in this country.
I’m not sure but I might be able to have a say in 2 countries. Alas both of them are going pear shaped and don’t need my help.
Bella
$160million to build the visitor centre at Cradle Mtn – where the carpark at Dove Lake is.
Headline screams from, the Mercury today:
“Cradle Mountain has the potential to be the MONA of the state’s north”
My God, I can’t think of anything worse. FFS – $160million to look at nature’s magnificence through a pane of glass – which has a big ugly 10m archtitectural edifice attached to it.
Having had my say about the Hindmarsh Island Marina in the last post, I am completely with you on this. I have been to Cradle Mountain (and climbed it). Surely the whole point of magical places is that they are the visitor centre. You don’t need another one.
How true NFY. It will never be the same.
I can’t understand the preoccupation this island has with David Walsh and MONA. Are we to morph into a MONA Disneyland?
The Cradle Mtn thing is stressing me out.
Very well said NFY. 😊
Who’s driving this B? Whoever it is has a faulty circuit up top.
Visitors to Cradle Mountain come to respect the natural splendour especially surrounding Dove Lake. No-one needs a multi-million dollar building there & from memory there’s already a National Parks office where people grab postcards or a souvenir if they need that.
The first time I walked around that lake, it was a mid-Spring late afternoon & I hadn’t foreseen how much longer an easy hour walk becomes when you stop for the views & the hut & the wild wombats!
Ended up being so late back it was near dark & that carpark was deserted. Did it all again the next day.
If Tassie wants tourism to keep them afloat, I wonder if they stop to think how much will be lost if ‘commercialising’ its beautiful assets turns them away because it will.
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/talking-point-changing-the-rules-for-hobarts-heart/news-story/0f79770b913c698be7e6586ea40b145c
The Hodgman and federal governments I guess Bella. And the Kentish council approved the Cradle Mtn application. I think MT fell in love with Tassie (as you do) and it got easy from there. Not to mention that the Libs lost two seats in the north of the state at last federal election that cost them dearly.
I am so glad that I enjoyed Cradle as it is – the whole place ill be a mess whilst they construct the monstrosity. See if you can Google the pics.
On top of all that, a Singaporean Co has plans in for 4 highrise hotels in the city. The airport runway is being lengthened as we speak – to cater for direct flights from China – the occupants of which will be offloaded into these cheap construct hotels.
That’s one of the reasons I am enjoying walking in Europe these days. Centuries old routes, with century’s years old buildings that they don’t feel the need to ruin with modern crap. It’s calming!!
They’ll never get it Bella. They just don’t.
“…10m archtitectural edifice attached to it.” ???
Now that i’d like to see!!
Ok, I couldn’t help myself, i’m such a child.
nimby
Yay! The new series of Utopia starts tonight. Bureaucracy displayed at its finest. Brilliant show.
Hard to watch. Too close to the bone.
I have the same problem TV
A 1975 Senate memory, Mr Insider, and most likely one best forgotten. Senator Albert Field who was QLD Premier Joh Bjelke Petersons appointment in 1975 and it marked the beginning of the end for PM Gough Whitlam. Sir Joh always played hard ball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E74aA2hSj3s
How would our country look if this had happened as Joh planned? He certainly did have a fire in the belly, despite the shenanigans going on back home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bs_iwZ4BnI
Razor (from last post),
I hadn’t heard of Jonathan Sri until you mentioned, but he’s gone up in my estimation already after his dissing of that insufferable clod, Peter Dutton, a living, notionally breathing example of the Peter Principle.
I think the Peter Principle applies to the whole of Canberra, TO. Turnbull could be an exception as he never made his way through the public service hierarchy. Which is maybe demonstrated by his inability to cope with the psyche that prevails in the corridors of Canberra!
Boadicea,
I think that you’re confusing political operatives and politicians with the public service.
Having first-hand public of the service hierarchy, both here and overseas, I can assure you that there are some very smart folks in senior positions, but it doesn’t always work that way – not very different to the private sector, really, except that there are formal mechanisms for promotion. It’s not immune from nepotism/cronyism, but those things are a bit harder to do.
TO,
Down here examples of nepotism and cronyism abound. Big hoo ha with TasTafe at the moment.
The big drawback of the public service is the secure knowledge that they cannot get fired. Just promoted to a level of incompetence.W here they sit until they retire with a big pension they never deserved!
I once worked for a computer consulting company – we discovered, in a govt dept in Qld, someone who had authority to purchase computers etc – and had bought himself a nice big computer, and was doing a degree part-time – and no one actually knew what he was supposed to be doing at his real job – it was that long ago since anyone had actually noticed!!
Happens all the time…..
Boadicea,
I suggest that you know next to nothing about the Australian Public Service, if you think that the incidents you describe “happen all the time” and are restricted to the public sector. You’re even more deluded if you think that one can’t get sacked from the APS. As for receiving a pension they don’t deserve, most senior public servants could make more in terms of salary in the private sector, and generally do when they leave the service. As such, the generous pension system compensates somewhat for the discrepancy. You might not be aware that defined benefits pensions ceased in 2005 in the APS.
I’m sure that there are pharmacists out who are just out to get as much as they can from the taxpayer, too, through rorting the PBS or other dubious channels. However, I’m equally sure that these people are very much in the minority.
Well I never have worked in the public service TO. So I guess your statement is reasonable.
I just go on what I have observed really. I’m sure there are many good hard-working people amongst them. But I still think they are a protected species. Maybe things have changed in recent years?
You may hate Dutton but he is smart, honest and does what he says he’s going to do.
Do some research on Sri and see if you still like him…….
Rudd is smarter.
Oh he’s smart alright – but sadly a narcissistic fool.
Razor,
I don’t hate Peter Dutton, but find him to be generally incompetent, the Operation Fortitude fiasco being a case in point. I also think he’s mean-spirited.
My sincere condolences to you if you’re related to the man.
🙂 !!
TO,
Not related. Further he had no knowledge of Operation Fortitude that was all Roman and his very inexperienced senior executives idea.
He micro-managed – remember?
Keep the Senate get rid of the cons. up jumps um er ahbut um er ahbut and says he was advised Against creating the new minefield ministry for truth, revisionism and Pre crime. More bureaucracy not needed. dutton needs to be appeased and made to feel important if he is to continue to support turnbull. the cons con goes on and on. the Nation pays for the cons. if they cant have their way they will wreck it for everyone.
I’ve noticed of late your posts have become more disjointed and to put it plainly, odd. Haven’t you been taking your tablets?
More than 2 sentences always confuses you. You see more than 2 sentences as “disjointed” thinking people see it as normal. No wonder you can only comprehend 3 r’s.
” i) is under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power.” Surely this should remove all royalists or supporters of the royals from being eligible for parliament. Get em out now. start with the likes of abbott , dutton. brandis, hillsong (who has taken over from hockey as the Worst treasurer in Australia’s history)
Ever heard of the Commonwealth, Dismayed?
Yes. The “Commonwealth” of Australia. ” any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power” Surely equates to the Queen of another country?
Apples and oranges, Dismayed. the rules of candidacy are clear.
I have a new piece up that won’t be going on the blog for legal reasons.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/blogs/nixon-a-question-of-competence-not-gender/news-story/ed9c92c65ff4133398be7f54d7af1e19
Very good article Jack. Good on you!
I don’t think many people know of it, Boa. When that letter got to Denis via Russell Savage, it was a real kick in the guts.
Sure would have been Jack. Your dogged investigation in pursuit of the truth and stance taken for Denis is something you can be very proud of.
How much does the Senate cost us Bald including those still on huge pensions and perks?
I thought you lined proportional representation Bassy?
Tablets, lines, you are the one with a problem. Get off the gear.
Man, I just watched Jonathan Sri’s interviews. That’s a strange one, to be sure! Um……. a little different. Good taste in scarves – but as attire for a rather fraught political interview – perhaps not.
Interesting chap Bella. Do some digging and you’ll be a bit surprised. Or maybe not.
Why does it matter what he wears B?
I loved his show of respect & support for Larissa, scarf or no scarf.
You say ‘different’ like it’s a bad thing but it’s not.
In a business of bland suits & hand-size brooches nodding their inept silly heads behind ministers at press announcements, I’m not ashamed to say I love everything about ‘different’.
Regards, Bella
Don’t know enough about him Bella to be too critical. He just comes across a strange on the utube stuff. But maybe the demographic he is catering to think he’s cool! Not really into Qld politics enough either!