You may be wondering, like I am, who is running the country.
It certainly isn’t the prime minister.
One could pose a forlorn argument that it is the executive, the cabinet calling the shots but that, too, doesn’t pass scrutiny. On Tuesday, Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull were strident in opposition of a Royal Commission into the banks. It would not happen they said. Not on their watch. The commitments lasted less than 48 hours.
Tuesday’s titans have once again become Friday’s flotsam.
So who is running the country?
Sam Dastyari thinks the Chinese might be in charge, if not today then at some point in the not too distant future. Wealthy Chinese businessmen with strong links to the Chinese government imagine Australians as their drinks waiters and golf caddies of the future so with a gleam in his eye, Shanghai Sam has got out of the blocks early.
“The Chinese integrity of its borders is a matter for China. Seven iron, Mr Huang?”
Full column here.
Since the 2016 election, there are three things that have become clear to me:
(1) Despite my early confidence that Malcolm Turnbull might have learnt a lot from the Utegate incident, he’s failed to be an adequate PM. In fact, he’s turned out to be worse than Tony Abbott in some respects.
(2) Tony Abbott’s behaviour as a backbencher has confirmed that he was utterly unsuited to be PM.
(3) Bill Shorten compares favourably against Abbott and Turnbull, which is a sad reflection on the parlous state of politics in Australia.
Shorten is a poorly made lamington
Guess those diesel generators are earning their keep over in SA right now 🙂
Yvonne, you are aware that Tasmania installed a massive bank of diesel generators last year? Are you trying to make light of the unprecedented weather that has struck SE Australia in the last couple of days?
Funny how renewables are dependent on the weather Dismal.
I guess the lights stayed on in SA this time around 🙂
.
Fully aware of that Dismayed. It was when the dams ran low (TasHydro sold a lot of electricity to Victoria and emptied the dams – and then it stopped raining) and the Bass cable broke. At least they had the foresight to get the generators up and running before our lights went out. Not one power failure. Feet firmly on the ground not off w ith the fairies.
It’s pouring cats and dogs here – so no need for the generators!
Your electricity pylons seem to fall over a lot – maintenance issue maybe?
They can power 30,000 houses for one hour
By dat I mean the big battery
Saw that Bassy. 30,000 houses is not many. Does that mean the whole state for about 5 minutes?
Sure. And worth it. If the population of Tasmania lost “Home and Away ” for five minutes that could cause a swing of about 26% .
Fake news Yvonne, just more of your fake news.
Anyone got the betting against Turnbull winning the next Fed? I don’t think I would be betting against it just yet.
If Turnbull wins the next election dear Mr Baptiste I will migrate to North Korea. My advice get your money on Shorten now at the juiciest odds available. Cheers. P.S. do those North Korean chappies drink Whiskey, very uncivilised if they dont?
Noted Henry. Kimmie is delighted, you and he have much to discuss. But it’s not going to happen.
if Dastirayi tipped off his Chinese mate that his phone was tapped who told Sam, or did he just guess?
I suspect in this day and age there would be an expectation that someone like Huang’s phone would be off as they say in the intelligence community.
that may be right, but why does Sam tell him now, after dealing with him for years?
it smells to me like he tells him because someone told him.
hawke stood down his great mate mick young for telling eric walsh about combe and ivanov.
You may be right, mate but it is speculative and we are not likely to ever find out. Mark Latham is saying similiar things in between welcoming neo Nazis to our shores.
Jack is on the money JTI. Only one person in opposition may have been privy to that information. The same bloke who has still, other than the slap with a wet lettuce leaf, backed Sam. Smells big time to me!
Dasher should have said to Huang “I’m leaving my phone inside, the PRC could be listening.” That would have snookered ASD.
Methinks Dastardly Sam, the faceless man, has got friends in high places, jack.
He should be out of parliament but he’s still there. Now why is that?
Political leaders can strip MPs of their various roles but they can’t kick them out of the parliament.
Huang comes from China.
He is successful and rich.
If he upsets the wrong people he will be very unsuccessful and very unrich.
He lives with surveillance on a day to day basis.
The real question is “How much influence does he have on Sam and what does Sam have to provide to keep in his good books?”
You can bet your bottom dollar that Sam is not the only one he has influence over and they will all not be in the Labor Party.
I see that there has been the odd threat from China along the lines that if we do not pull how heads in we will get the same economic treatment as South Korea got over their missile defense system. That could get really interesting.
When one ties one’s economic well being to a totalitarian state that brooks no criticism from within its ranks, one would have to naive to assume that the same treatment will not be dished out to those not big enough to retaliate.
It is time for us to start to diversify our economy away from China if we want to stay as an independent country.
The current threat come from our stance in the South China seas. If successful, one does not have to be too clever to realize that it would just be the beginning on many other subjects.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/chinas-army-mocks-australian-military-concerns-with-poetry/news-story/bd79a33cb47b38ff5f7c198c8ee5c361
“Mr Chen’s editorial, which he also delivered in front of Australian leaders at the Fourth Australia-China High-Level Dialogue in Melbourne last week, attacked the Australian media and urged them to read Chinese President Xi Jinping’s policies.
He also said Australia could face an economic backlash from China if the Australian media continued to report on Chinese government influence techniques in Australia, which he dismissed as a “misunderstanding”.”
I think we should have an enquiry into all of our politicians, how much money, they or their families have made, and how did they make it.
JS. Yes yes we know the story yellow peril, reds under the bed.
Dismal, occasionally you show a modicum of intelligence when you want to use it.
Stop using old cliches think things through.
But there again in the Chinese case and knowing Labor’s attachment to that country, I doubt if we will ever see anything objective from your good self on the subject.
I imagine that they are right now talking about signing up to OBOR. We’re already in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and that’s being used to finance it.
IMHO, that would be surrendering. I think OBOR is more geopolitical than geoeconomic. Had an exam question on it this semester; interesting responses from my large international contingent.
Dwight, I bet you did. I note that the Universities Council finally came out and said they would not allow any changes in Curriculum in Australian Universities in answer to demands from international students. I know of several cases where the Professors have had to chang some of the content of their courses so these students are not offended. Let alone if these same Professors are allowed to fail these students. International students are a huge boost to the coffers of Universities, but this should not be to the detriment of the quality of Australian students education.
This is going back 10 years or so, Penny. But I once met a lecturer at Monash Business School who resigned rather than give a pass mark to substandard assignments from overseas fee paying students as he had been requested to do.
Appropriate
Hacker: Don’t tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers:
The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country;
The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;
The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
Sir Humphrey: Oh and Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?
Bernard: Sun readers don’t care who runs the country as long as she’s got big ****.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M.
a return to cabinet government would be a good thing.
Who would replace him?
No one at this stage. If it continues to get ugly they could go back to TA to save the furniture.
It’d be full of borers
I suggested a few blogs ago that Annie, his most loyal fan, might get the last laugh on us – and got shot down in flames.
I think it may well happen. Of course they will be lampooned from here to next year. What fun.
It would be entertaining to see TA work away at Shorten. After all government in this country is but a cabaret.
Maybe “Annie” is TA.
Hmmm – she didn’t mention bike riding though? Or smuggling budgies.
Annie needed to take a Wiss JB!
Nah, Wiss has got real smarts. If the Bott was a player I reckon he would be trying to bluff and bluster on very little knowledge like the legendary cowgirl.
Mind you, it takes a smart person to play the fool.
Boady. Well, he wouldn’t would he.
Scott Morrison could be in play Mr Insider, provided he actually wants the gig? Cheers
I doubt that Tony Abbott would save much furniture.
ooh, I like that Jack and will take it as an endorsement! A shame about the furniture though.
Over twice the number of coalition voters think Abbot should leave parliament than thought so when he was deposed. ( above 36% of coalitions supporters polled recently) He is toxic. Abbott and his acolytes are the reason the coalition is in the position it is today. Not sure he would save any “furniture”
Well I see Shorten has changed his language on the issue to something along the lines of “our screening for citizenship is certainly superior to that of the government’s”
Interpreted into plain English that probably means we will see a few more heads roll next week – from Labor. God, the man is a hypocrite.
Why?
He gets accused of having a political tin ear and then when he plays the game like everybody else he is a hypocrite.
If the accusations end up unsubstantiated then he cops it yet again.
If they prove to ve correct then wee Willy is the one with egg on his face.
Why JS?
Because Shorten has spent the last couple of months refusing to cooperate in this citizenship thing.
The cards are down now – and his language has changed. There will he dome from a Labor – and he knew that all along. but played for time. Bloody hypocrite times two.
Sorry – I thought you were talking about Turnbull
Careful dear Boadicea that’s our new PM Elect to be you are calling a hypocrite, but between you and me you are spot on, I would add an “opportunist”. Cheers
Posted last blog, Mr Insider but most relevant for the future of Turnbull. 47 seats and a Majority win to the brilliant QLD Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk, Mr Insider, she now moves into the “magnificent bastard” class. Poor old LNP waffler Timmy Nichols can now go back to flipping burgers or whatever he is good at, if anything!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/qld-election-2017/
TODAY’S NEWS:- Yet another new record for gross government debt… $515.9 billion. Up a bone-crushing $243 billion in 4 years and 3 months since the Sept 2013 election but just note this- From Dec 2007 to Sept 2013, the previous Labor govt increased debt by $220 billion in just under 6 years which is bad enough. The rate of debt though is MUCH FASTER under the Liberals and they have no GFC to drag them down and a booming economy. Without a doubt, the worst government EVER!
A reminder:-
Hockey….The National
Press Club, 2012… “The condition of the budget will not be an excuse for breaking promises” AND “We
will achieve a surplus in our first year in office and we will achieve a surplus for every year of our first term”.
Abbott:- 30th August 2013, 774 ABC Melbourne. “If we do win the election and we immediately and say “Oh we got it all wrong, we’ve now got to do all these different things, we will instantly be just as bad as the current government
has been and I just refuse to be like that”
During his first budget reply on May 12, 2011, Abbott said: “People can be confident that spending, debt and taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government.”
HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH IT? Labor is hopeless in holding this mob to account over debt .
Because Labor KNOWS that they are part of the problem by allowing through expenditure increases but no cuts.
If Turnbull had one iota of communication sense, the whole world would know this.
JS. Are you suggesting the Labor party are running the show? Seriously man get a grip. Spending has been above 25.5% of GDP for the entire coalition government. It was only at that level for 12 months under Labor. Taxation jumped under the coalition. Tax receipts have been higher in every year of the coalition government. This coalition government have added spending measure after pork barrelling spending measure to the budget. Hillsong Morrison has out Borrowed Hockey who out borrowed all Treasurers before him. That is the facts. Whether you like it or not.Tell us just when does this government become responsible for the 80% of their policies that have passed the Senate? ? Stop making excuses and take responsibility for voting in and blindly supporting the worst government in Australia’s history. In this day and age government have access to the most up to date research and data and this government has chosen to ignore it for pure ideology, or blatantly misinform the Nation with it. Worst Government in Nations history.
……and Shorten? Hopeless! When debt was much less than it is now under Labor Abbott was on it 24/7. Hopeless lets them get away with Murder1. Never mentions debt….worse govt ever.
JackSprat – i’m guessing that Turnbull’s usual and most efficacious communication style would be along the lines of “in no uncertain terms”. Alas, and he is sadly not alone, he has censored hisself into sterility, thus firing blanks at best. He reveals himself as but a husk.
There’s a bit of blame to be spread around for the parlous state in which our general politics has descended: A diversified media, career politicians, political correctness, journalists (?) as “identities”, the journalist/opinion writer divide/vagary, the lack of connect between our pollies and the populace (as a result of their lack of “normal” work experience, and insularity)….
a bit vague, but more pissed.. may delve into this area at a brighter timer.
good idea Milt, you sexy bastard, but don’t forget to touch on the wafer thin and ambiguous “difference” between our majors, and the old ideologies and the lack of class and diction in our pink leaning pollies.
If Labor past the 2014 budget nasties it would only increase revenue by $11billion.No one spends Like The Looters.Howard was one of the biggest spenders and taxers according toOECD and IMF figures
Passed
A lot to digest there BASSMAN but I get your drift, a couple of stiff Whiskeys helped. The “Fixers” are “kerfcuked”, if you get my drift. Cheers P.S. what a pity someone of note was not standing against Joyce, he only has a field of Country Bumpkins to contend with.