Let’s face it, Bill Shorten is the only reason Coalition MPs still get out of bed every morning. Without him, they’d be stuck in the foetal position, rocking gently from side to the side, sucking their thumbs.
If we thought the Turnbull government was a broken husk of a government, we’d be right but in the past six months with the intensity building feverishly over the last fortnight, Bill Shorten has reminded us all that Labor, too, is a shambles, caught in a web of its own making.
A brief history of Shorten’s position on the $16.5 billion Adani mine in North Queensland reveals he’s done more revolutions than Che Guevara. Six months ago Shorten gave the mine the thumbs up. Then he dragged out the party line that he supported the Adani mine provided it “stacked up economically and environmentally.” That was two weeks ago. After a whirlwind trip of the Great Barrier Reef, courtesy of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Shorten had a trademark change of heart, followed by another. Last week he threatened to put the kibosh on the mine entirely. This week he says he no longer supports the mine but will reluctantly let it go ahead.
I’m getting vertigo just thinking about it.
Full column here.
As I have said many times Stan is hopeless. His tinkering with Super is death for him at the polls.Abbott also did it costing me $30 a week-I notice Morrison has not mentioned this of course. A mate of mine went down $50 a week
when Abbott changed the Super rules. People need certainty in their lives as it relates to Super. With govts of both sides raiding it, retirees do not know whether they are Arfur or Martha. Stan is figuring most of those effected will be the rich Super holders. He is an idiot. He should have done what the Looters do-announce the nasties after you have won the election.
Bman Labor’s announced changes are s good saving measure removing a double dipping rort. “Shareholders will still get the tax imputation to reduce their tax liability. * But a federal Labor government will no longer give cash refunds to people whose taxable income is zero.”
http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/labor-plan-to-scrap-a-littleknown-tax-rebate-would-hit-weathly-investors-selffunded-retirees-and-save-59-billion/news-story/afcf94aed7f7ea5e1de50affe3d4bd1f
Good to see Labor talking about removing some of the unfunded Howard/Costello wealthy welfare. No one will pay more tax and the taxpayer will be relieved of putting cash into the pockets of those who already have NO tax liability.
“Analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Office says the top 1% of self-managed funds claimed, on average, cash refunds of $83,000 in 2014-15.” “this change only affects a very small number of shareholders who currently have no tax liability and use their imputation credits to receive a cash refund”.” people hit by the policy change will not pay any additional tax, they will just not get the cash bonus currently claimed.” Good for the budget that the coalition have blown out at an unprecedented rate. No surprises.
AGW and climate change for the feeble minded and also scammers to make money out of. Just ask Al.
And the earth is flat. 😨
I think its appalling that the Australian taxpayer has forked out $500,000.00 to assist Peter Scully in the Phillipines -who is accused of the most dreadful acts of paedophilia. A grim read. Video evidence is there.
He should be funding his own defence.
I’m amazed at how long it’s taken to bring him before a judge.
It’s disgraceful Jack. After all we’ve been through here to be funding this guy is sickening. He deserves to rot in a Phillipine gaol.
That $500k could go to victims of paedophilia here.
The justice system in the Philippines is totally corrupt. Sometimes if you don’t bribe the judge he might not even turn up for court! I have witnessed many examples of this when I lived there for a few years.The courts are so clogged up it often takes years to get a hearing. Much of that $500k would have went in bribes. The best evidence of corruption is a President (Duterte) who brags about drive by killings he did when he was younger. Then there are the thousands of people who have been murdered in Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ most of them with no trial no hearing, no justice-many kids have even been shot by police. A person can be reported for dealing in drugs and police are at liberty to just go and shoot them without recourse! If somebody doesn’t like you they can call you a drug dealer and Goodbye Jerusalem! Most of those who have been killed are the poor. The drug barons cannot be touched. They are too powerful. Over 7000 have been killed.
Yep, Bassy. I should imagine his life behind bars there will have all the comforts he is accustomed to as well – if you get my drift.
It was reported a while back that a police station that contained the evidence against him had burned down and they were struggling to rebuild the case. Not sure where they’re at with that.
I think it is appalling the taxpayer has forked out $millions$ for the legal fees of several coalition politicians and political appointments.
Shameful Boadicea, what can one say. Cheers
Rabada banned, that’ll change the dynamics.
Has 48 hours to appeal.
Guilty as charged.
So now the brittle Australian line up only has to worry about Ngidi, Philanderer and Steyn, Morkel, Morris or whomever else comes in oh and Maharaj ?
They couldn’t pay me enough money to vote for Shorten or Turnbull. Neither Party has any idea for a workable, achievable indigenous policy framework. The first one to come up with a decent, civilised, respectful policy in this area will get my vote. My suggestion for overcoming the lack of credentialed leadership on both sides would be to promote an unknown straight up from the backbench and let the nominee grow into the job. Cometh the hour, cometh the person. National interest is being stifled by ambitious timeservers who want their ‘turn’. I don’t want Bishop or Plibersek, Pyne or Bowen or Albo; I want a fresh face not welded to Party history and not controlled by a faction, a union or a donor. I may be asking too much there, but demanding a new deal for the indigenous peoples is surely not an onerous insistence. Our current hodge-podge of failed policies is a national disgrace.
I hear you Wissendorf and some good ideas you proffer but sadly in my lifetime its never changed. The Party’s no matter what they are called are riddled with political people who owe allegiance to someone else in the party for their passage. Fresh ideas you say, what a lovely thought. Cheers
That is why I haven’t voted since 2007!
How much is “enough money? ” That’s a serious question, I want you to set a ball park figure I can use when I negotiate the sale of my vote.
BASSMAN – The ABS don’t have the numbers online for 2008 – 2010. They no longer collect the data; this explains why the data in my earlier link stopped at 2015. Year 2008 was the first year showroom sales exceeded 1M units for a calendar year but sales tanked across the board at the end of that year. https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/2008-new-car-sales-hit-million-16247
A useful graph here http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/9314.0Main+Features1December%202017?OpenDocument shows all sales plummeted at the end of 2008 but recovered in 2010 and have trended upwards since, while my earlier link shows numbers for local product sinking through the floor from 2010 onwards. With the trend for all sales trending up and trend for local product heading south, it’s a reasonable call to suggest consumers were ignoring the local marquees. A table further down the page shows Holden and Ford maintained sales above local production, explained by their own imports; Focus, Barina etc
The government is ripping the guts out of the ABS, for reasons best known to themselves.
Lingering disharmony from the census stuff up.
They’d already started. The census was actually a significant success, apart from that first night.
JB & Bella,
Does this article make sense? It’s not all over the world is progressing.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/doommongering-by-activists-and-media-bias-against-good-news-is-getting-worse/news-story/354379751f36c01718c86b4472f6a24f
Again Razor, I don’t get those links, but obviously you believe every article/opinion they put in print.
We’re ‘progressing’ alright mate but not in the direction you think.
That makes no sense whatsoever.
Good news never made a paper sell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN_AqUK_3LM
The late Hans Rosling: https://youtu.be/hVimVzgtD6w
The finkelstein review into media found that Newscorp reported negatively 82% of the time on Labor government announcements.
Nonsense. Even if it did, what the hell was the Finkelstein review other than an absurd attempt by a government to interfere with the independence of media?
JTI thank you for the response. I don’t think media outlets should be able to run deliberately biased agenda’s. Privately owned, independent or otherwise. Just as I believe further concentration of media ownership is not a positive for democracy and society neither is media outlets running agenda’s or ideologically based information services. Especially in highly concentrated markets. Those organisation stop being “media’ organisations and become Political organisations. Most people used to read the paper to find out the facts. That is very difficult these days because more and more media outlets appear to be aligned with a philosophy or ideology. In my opinion.
That is just perception, Dismayed and coming from someone who works at News Corp I can tell you it is a long way from fact. For example no one at News, in editorial or management tells me what to write. The CEO at The Aus, Nicholas Grey, is an old friend of Malcolm Turnbull’s but he doesn’t tell me to go easy on Malcolm or anyone else for that matter. It just doesn’t happen. Viewed from the outside, bias is perceived rather than real. The Finkelstein inquiry was one of Gillard’s mistakes, an act of umbrage for no good reason that at its worst could be said to have challenged the principle of a free press. Worse than that, it was dumb, allowing some fairly low altitude flyers a free hit on media. It came to nothing and so it should have.
The article makes perfect sense Razor. Script writers and broadcasters obviously seek out, massage and promote negative news stories. And the gullible, gormless public gobble them up. Not to mention all the salacious gossip about who’s up who and who’s not paying the rent.
PS. that should be “news stories”.
Hang on Carl, you chastised Wraith for her statements, next thing you’re calling the public gullible and gormless. I don’t know about you Carl, but I read a lot of newspapers, access a lot of media and you know what, I can work things out for myself. The sad, well it’s not really sad I guess, thing about todays’s media is that young people don’t read newspapers, don’t watch television etc. but get a lot of their information from YouTube, social media and other forms of media. If there’s a breaking news story, you can bet your sweet bippy, I’ll find it on Twitter before anywhere else. As for gossip, I think you’ll find most people will take everything with a grain of salt, that is if they read it at all….
Well Razor, if people had listened to “doomsayers” thirty years ago we might not be be stuffed. Only idiots don’t get what is happening to the climate of the planet, or vested interests.
As far as I can see it’s almost nothing but “good news” and mawkish emotionalism being fed to the “smile or die” (Thanks Barbara) slack jawed public.
Yes the article makes sense, pretend it’s not happening and keep the idiots occupied.
Remember that $340 Billion Hoard and Costello spent between 2004/07 of the $360 Billion extra unbudgeted for mining boom revenue and the $80 billion a year Structural deficit the left the nation in the budget? It will continue to be a heavy strain on this Nation for years to come. No Surprises. Better economic managers pigs arse. Oh and before the cons mention the usual NDIS etc rubbish if it is in the budget it is payed for according to this coalition government? But then hypocrisy is also a conservative commodity produced in mountainous proportions.
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/03/australias-problems-get-much-worse/
Else where in the media the coalitions “policy’ is being shown to be as corrupt and false as the government is. No surprises.
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/03/nothing-energy-guarantee-hosed/