You may have heard the phrase, much-beloved by corporate types and politicians alike, “in the space”.
During question time this week, the Minister for Social Services, Dan Tehan, in receipt of a Dorothy Dixer from the member for Tangney, Dan Morton, lauded his colleague for having “a keen interest in the welfare space”.
If you keep an eye on reporting of the corporate world the same phrase pops up with monotonous regularity. A bloke who works in a bank is almost invariably described as having a “long history of working in the finance space”.
It’s an annoying phrase, vague and faddish, and I regret having to use it – but I fear I must because there is something deeply, deeply wrong in the Canberra space.
Come yesterday, the crazy-meter was already quivering at the red extreme after government senator Michaelia Cash’s outburst the previous day. It slipped into “dangerously unhinged” when Labor senator Kim Carr reached deep into his Godwin’s Law sack of epithets to refer to Liberal senator James Paterson as a member of the Hitler-Jugend.
Full column here.
Here is another example why the Private Health Insurance rebate should be wound back. the coalition government continue to support the further degradation of health in this country. They are privatising parts of medicare and supporting the Private health insurance industry in creating the worst system possible. While ensuring taxpayers pay for the Private profits. No surprises.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/06/doctors-attack-bupa-plan-to-restrict-gap-cover-to-its-approved-hospitals
The longer the Fibs stay in power, the more they’ll degrade Medicare by the back door until all that’s left is a US style system & that will be incredibly bad for the millions who can’t afford private cover.
Don’t you remember what Howard and Snedden said……..The Liberals will destroy Medicare incrementally, slowly, via a sort of Mission Creep. As Bill Sneddon said in 1974…. “It doesn’t care how long it takes, we will destroy Medicare over time”. In 1984 Howard said he would “Stab Medicare in the stomach”. He also said he wanted to “Take a scalpel to Medicare”. The Liberals have always had form on this. Who took a billion out of health? Abbott when he was Health Minister.
No I don’t remember that Bassy but it disgusts me now to know how long the Liberals have been plotting to remove free healthcare from the most disadvantaged.
So Labor’s election campaign, wrongly dubbed ‘Mediscare’ was nothing but the truth.
Shame on them.
Absolute disgrace. the cons and their supporters continue to prove why they are the most corrupt party this nation has seen.
“The Tasmanian premier, Will Hodgman, has declared he has a mandate for about 200 policies that were released to interest groups and not made available for public scrutiny during the state election campaign.” Interest groups? Disgrace. No Surprises.
In what universe does Hodgman believe he has a mandate for 200 secret policies he didn’t have the decency to release before the election?
Conservation organisations are also ‘special interest’ groups but they were very conveniently kept in the dark & everyone involved knows why. These Tasmanian Libs are as bad as the federal government when it comes to transparency. There isn’t any.
I might believe his denial that their advertising bill for the election was $5M, cos I reckon the Federal hotel group were so spooked they most likely matched that figure to keep separating the addicts from their pension money.7
Bella, yep. We have the same in SA with the Libs. receiving huge $ sums$ from Chinese business people ( the same one that has given Bishop J $ millions $ ) but again they wont be disclosed until way down the track. The electoral commission has also changed boundaries again notionally giving the SA Libs 4 more seats. ( 3 seats prior to the last election and they still could not get elected. ) It will be a great shame when S. Marshall, who? the SA Libs. “leader” (actually C. Pyne runs him.) becomes Premier. He really does not deserve it and SA is continuing to attract investment from all over the globe SA JAY has done a good job. At least he stands up for SA and highlights the outright Lies the Federal coalition continues to spread about SA.
19% pay increase over the next 5 years, 99 days personal and sick leave plus generous perks.
Wow – join the Victorian Metropolitan Fire brigade – your union is backing you!
Yvonne, Less than 4% per year. The other days off are not an issue. Have you ever been anywhere near a workplace that is inherently dangerous? No. You would be the first to complain if they took too long to get your shanty shack if you left your curlers on too long. You again prove your are blinded by ideology. Fireman, Teachers, Nurses deserve to be paid well. You are a disgrace. No surprise.
You left out Police Dismayed.
Not sure teaching is inherently dangerous but they do a job many would not like to do but do get significant leave in return.
The Guv’nor, yes I did the constabulary and I have had a strained relationship since they decided because I was on church street Parramatta at 11.00pm back in the 80’s I should be beaten with their maglites. I guess begrudgingly they deserve a good pay rate, R/R and plenty of support. I believe there should be a minimum age of about 28 for all operational Police force members. In my opinion most people have yet to develop “emotional intelligence” and life experience to the level required to deal calmly and evenly with members of the public when in their early 20’s. My point initially is that all those mentioned deserve to be held in higher esteem than they are and idiots who make comments about their pay and R/R purely to make an ideological point prove they to don’t have the emotional intelligence or life experience to be commenting in the first place. Yes even the Police deserve to beheld in high esteem. (begrudgingly he mutters).
I could relay some teacher stories Guv. I get an hour or more of them every night. Glad I’m out of it.
I’ve read that Lee Kwan Yew when he had to turn Singapore into a going concern made it a priority to pay his police force well straight off the bat. Well paid force = minimal corruption. He was a smart cookie.
yes TV, very simple equation, give them an alternative source of income first, then offer the best chance of improving your your family wealth, with a severe loss if you go back to the old ways.
Dismayed , I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you that I agree 100% that “Fireman, Teachers, Nurses deserve to be paid well.”
On the matter of renumeration, what do you think of the AFR’s left wing Laura snipping the poor old taxpayer $7,000 a day for spot of “work” courtesy Turnbull’s office? He’s already got a great swag of private advisers, etc, not to mention all the PMC boffins. Enough to make one spew, eh?
I must finish on a personal word of warning. You may not have heard of Diversity Council Australia. They’re a fairly new mob, otherwise known as “the word police”. They would frown upon you severely if they caught you using the word “fireman”, as you have done so above.
Correction, that’s $7,500 a day.
cotc. I think the rate is a little high. $2k a day should be enough for that sort of role. Apparently there was a “tender” process but we know the coalition “tender” processes lack any sort of credibility. I also think it is a huge stretch to call Tingle “left wing” . I don’t agree with the rest of your comment. Why do you cons have to create enemies in the shadows each time someone wants to hold you accountable? Another poor effort Carl. No surprises.
I can understand you having trouble with the latter part of my comment Dismayed, especially as you obviously missed the thrust of Razor’s very witty earlier comment.
Zero sense of humour, or comprehension of the ironic CotC. – wasting your time.
The Diversity Police, oops, council, may make love elsewhere in my humble opinion Carl.
Ever fought a fire Boadicea?
Unions are the only thing standing between us and $4 an hour.
I’m so bloody grateful they exist. What sort of Australia’s ‘fair-go’
would regular workers get if the super rich, greedy corporates were allowed to make all the rules?
Good on the Firies I say, what they do is priceless.🚒
Don’t want them to burn out, Boa.
Can you just imagine how dangerous their job is Milton not to mention the confronting emotional distress they face if lives are lost & they haven’t been able to get them out of a burning house in time to save them.
Real heroes like Firies should be paid far more than the dummies in Parliament House. Zero heroes in there.
Have actually had one experience in firefighting, using wet canvas bags if memory serves, before the rural fire brigade arrived and it was seriously one of the most frightening and definitely exhausting occasions in my life. Changing wind and being careful not to spread the fire behind you is just a fraction of it. I know a few volunteer firefighter, Bella and have the utmost respect for the work they do.
It was solely the hours and not the coin that I was aiming a pun that I couldn’t resist at.
milton 2 days 2 nights and 4 days off has long been the fireries rotation. 3 long term friends who have been in the MFS for close to 25 years and have had some horrific scenes and have had to have longer spells to sort out the issues that arise from constant extreme scenes and high risk situations. Your ignorance is NO Surprise.
Where is Annie when you need her hey? She would have kicked your arse for that. I’m just going to look at you down my nose disdainfully.
What is it with our cricket v.c.? Can’t even handle a bit of Clovellian banter!
Christ, imagine if they had our Gary in the team! There would be all out war in the stairwell
Yvonne, “Gary” Lyon is in the team. Did not take a wicket in the 4th innings on a bunson burner. Watching the Seth Efricaans whinge explains a lot about you. No Surprises.
I dont play or watch cricket, Gary. Sorry, no interest
At what other major ground in the world do both teams go up the same race anyhow?
And they’re staying at the same hotel for the next game. That could be tricky!
Yvonne you seem to know a bit for someone who does not follow cricket? This poor Gary must be someone else you have obsessed over poor bloke.
Mr Henry Blofeld Esq.
Regarding your earlier post musing over Vladimir’s new “Superweapons”. Are you not aware that he has already deployed one of his most devious superweapon? “The Beast From The East ” unleashed is a second generation Russian “Meteorological Weapon of Mass Destruction” (MWMD). As any fool will tell you the change in climate is not down to CO2 concentrations but what those fools do not realise s that those diabolical Russians nd Chinese have been developing these new weather weapons to destroy the economies of peace loving benevolent Western capitalism.
We are ruined I tell you. You have no idea what is to come. I do actually.
Oh gosh Henry, it’s worse than I thought. My contact in the Kremlin tells me Vlad will be unleashing hurricanes driving hailstones the size of bowling balls on Western Europe and the Continental USA in the next twelve months.
In two years the hailstones will be as big as a modestly priced medium sized family sedan.
And what is that fat fool Trump doing? Short selling selected stocks I suppose.
The man should be investigated.
Goodness me Mr Baptiste, thank goodness we built out Bomb Shelter out back. However seeing Vlads “presentation” the other day caused me to reminisce about the good old Ronald Regan days when he “debuted” Star Wars which turned out to be a giant fake designed to frighten the Ruskys. Vlad has done the same I feel courtesy of his own Disney style Animation Dept in the Kremlin. Bless Vlad, possibly the Worlds richest man I do read. Cheers my good friend so glad we are on the same side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hGLBA65tZg
Star Wars was another trillion dollar gift to military/industrial complex Henry. Same sort of scam that they pulled with the “moon landings”. For the same SFA material result. Did the Russians believe it? Rubbish. US companies and Russia were trading fighter aircraft designs and having a joint space program bubbling along merrily by then.
The story is for the dolts who pony up the spondulicks.
Henry, a little research will show Putin’s alleged wealth is vastly exaggerated.
It is tragic, the USA was leading the world in MWMD’s research when Reagan pulled the funding and handed it over, and some, to the “Star Wars” mates who got him elected. Now the USA couldn’t put a decent pre-emptive strike willy willy up.
Tragic! And Australia? With this dill Turnbull splashing money about on conventional obsolete weapons nothing will save Canberra from a fifty foot covering of snow.
Give ’em heaps.
Bring it on. I’d love to ski to work.
I just read that Australia is about to experience it’s coldest winter ever JB, that would be right considering we will be back in OZ from the months from April to October. Still I’m sure Mal will come up with a solution to keep us all warm….bound to involve clean coal I would think.
My source in the Kremlin tells me that they have no plans for a weather attack on Australia this year Penny. They suggest it is a low tech weather offensive strike from the North Koreans, possibly, though unlikely the Chinese. The Russians have decoded some top secret transmissions from Norkies sources mentioning “Operation South Refrigerator.”
Now that’s really weird.
No Carl, very clever, made me smile…
Dr Penny, I would be very surprises if that occurs. Last winter Australia was 1.8 degrees C above long term average. Just as the last summer was. Northern Australia has been about 2 degrees C above long term averages.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2018/03/07/arctic-finishes-warmest-winter-record/?utm_source=Responsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180307_PM_Update
Hope so Dismayed, I don’t “do” cold very well….
Another surprise, i’m not surprised.
From Troy Bramston, in today’s Oz on Shorten and labor.
“National left faction leaders met 10 days ago. They want a major shift in policy: introducing new taxes on high-income earners and investors, ending offshore processing of refugees and boat turnbacks, recognition of Palestine and boosting party democracy. The national right leadership last Thursday vowed to fight many of these policies and is especially worried about the party’s economic credibility.”
This is why the coalition still have a chance. A large rump of the alternative govt, confronted with the economic worries that our economy is facing, come up with new taxes, open borders that would inevitably lead to more deaths at sea and children in detention, a symbolic and essentially pointless recognition of Palestine and some fluff dealing solely with the labor party. Meanwhile, Shorten wants to have his hot pie and eat it too on Adani.
We may be having to choose between B1 and B2 at the next election.
btw are there any votes in matters Palestine?
Penny and Jack,
an interesting take on the US and China and it’s neighbours.
goo.gl/y6mFFP
I see the US has a carrier and escorts visiting Da Nang this week.
Saw that on SBS News. First time since the Vietnam War.
Yes I saw that too, good stuff I reckon….
Looks like the Mongols and Hell’s Angels have merged.
Sorry, that’s the MUA and CFMEU.
Or is that more like the Ndràngheta and the Camorra?
To combat the Mafia, sorry that’s the thieving robber barons.
Won’t be good. The CFMEU are like kindy kids compared to the MUA.
It’s called paddock to the plate unionism Triv. An opportunity to block development, innovation and the employment of ordinary working people, both union and non-union at every step of the supply chain. The giggle is this won’t be good for a Shorten Government either. Notice the AWU doesn’t feature. When the country is held to ransom and electricity Bill can’t do anything about it but fold, how’d you reckon he’s going to dodge claims of being too close to the unions.
Sit back and grab the popcorn TV old mate because this is going to be a cracker!
Absolute rubbish. as usual razor. “And what about wages, eh? As Australia’s terms of trade keep deflating, the income squeeze that has gripped the economy will continue. The primary mechanism that has been used to push that adjustment onto wages is mass immigration, which boosts aggregate demand on behalf of capital but deflates the individual’s labour share of it.”
“The new super union only represents a small minority of workers and it may benefit those few members with some increase in bargaining power. But by supporting unchanged levels of mass immigration into an over-supplied labour market the super union helps kill wages on a much more broad basis.
Employers should cheer it on.”
Seriously razor what would happen if you had to contend with reality.
Numbers don’t matter. It’s the territory they control.
POTUS Trump a man of Peace, Mr Insider, extending the hand of Friendship worldwide as we see the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson arrived in Vietnam Monday for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, as the former foes bolster military ties in the face of Beijing’s build-up in the disputed South China Sea. Also reportedly North Korea in early dialogue with the US Administration. That White House lawn walk with POTUS Trump and Kim Jong un not too far off now.
https://tinyurl.com/y7hczemt
Ah the old gunboat diplomacy! Good luck with that.
hardly gunboat diplomacy, the Viets invited them to visit,
let’s face it, they fought the US for a decade or so, they have seen the Chinese as their enemy for a thousand years.
You miss the point. It’s a show of force directed at China.
I was in Da Nang last year. They’re just #Metoo’s
Seth Efricans are bigger whingers than the English. Siege mentality. No surprises.