Friday 19th of April 2024
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a plastic PM...

the lion...the lion...

And on this matter at least, it appears that our plastic prime minister is implacable. When the premiers met at COAG last week with a plea for a national agenda to end the state-based confusion on climate policy, Turnbull simply reiterated his – or Tony Abbott’s, or Cory Bernardi’s – current policy: no carbon pricing, no emissions trading. No nothing. We will bumble along as usual.

But he has not been entirely idle. Yet another leak tells us that the government is set to ditch Abbott’s signature Green Army – the bunch of youthful conscripts dragooned into an expensive make-work program to mask the real extent of youth unemployment. The real Greens Richard di Natale said it was about time – the Green Army was never an environmental initiative, which seems a bit harsh; some trees were planted, some weeds pulled.

But it led to few if any real jobs and will not be missed – any more than the rest of Abbott’s absurd Direct Action plan would be if Turnbull ever had the ticker to pull the plug. Once again it was a slap at Abbott which no more than enrage the increasingly feisty pretender when what was need was a killer blow.

And the other news on the environment front is that Turnbull is still considering a billion dollar loan to the multinational mogul miner Adani on mate’s rates, although the company has already admitted that it doesn’t really need it in order to dig up a large part of the Queensland landscape and further endanger the great Barrier Reef in the process. Still, it would be a friendly gesture, so why not? The hell with GDP.

In spite of all this Turnbull remains determinedly upbeat: innovation (although not obviously, on environment policy) is still the key to everything, we must keep on keeping on, and sooner or later, something will come out right. It must, mustn’t it? The law of averages says so, and that is one scientific truth Turnbull is still willing to espouse.

Of course in the meantime he risks being exposed as an unprincipled coward, a fraud and a poltroon. But that will be just another poll. And you should never rely on just one set of figures…

read more:

http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=8590

small fodder damage...

In further bad economic news for the federal government the jobless rate unexpectedly rose in November, a week after figures showed the economy suffered its worst performance since the global financial crisis.

The unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 5.7% – a level not seen since July – when economists had anticipated it staying at 5.6% for another month.

Labor has said the latest rise in the jobless rate shows the challenges facing the Australian economy and that the federal government has no solutions to solve them. “No wonder the Australian people do not believe Malcolm Turnbull when he talks about jobs and growth,” opposition employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said on Thursday.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/15/australian-jobles...

small target, small... mind...

As he joins the Australian Republican Movement at its 25th anniversary celebration on Saturday, Malcolm Turnbull will surely have a rueful thought for what might have been.

If the 1999 referendum, in which he led the "yes" case, had been won, he more than any other single individual could have claimed the mantle of the man who delivered the republic.

It would have been a huge and lasting achievement, whatever the subsequent years brought.

As it is, it's a fairly safe bet that Turnbull will never usher in a republic. He and many others — though not Labor, which is more impatient — see this as not coming back onto the agenda until after the Queen's reign ends. Whenever that is, achieving a republic would be no cakewalk.

The failed referendum was an example of how, if an opportunity is lost, it can be a long time before another comes.

Turnbull can point to the fact that the deck was stacked against the yes case in 1999. In particular John Howard, as the staunchly anti-republic prime minister, played a canny cruelling game.

But in the future, when the debate returns seriously and assuming there is some momentum for change, it will quite probably be a more complicated issue than last time, and potentially even tougher to get a yes vote.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-16/michelle-grattan-big-issues-out-of-malcolm-turnbulls-reach/8126834

grattangrattan

and you can send food parcels to manus island...

Australians can make the Christmas season easier for those who still have to work by driving safely, preparing for natural disasters and looking out for each other.

read more:

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/good-news/2016/12/25/malcolm-turnbull-chr...

idiots...

Bob Hawke has blamed “the increasing intrusiveness of the media into private lives of politicians” for what he sees as a decline in quality of MPs and leaders in Australia and abroad.

In a wide-ranging address at the Woodford Folk festival in Queensland, where the 87-year-old has spoken for eight years in a row, the former prime minister said “poor quality of representatives … is not a purely Australian phenomenon – it’s a worldwide phenomenon”.

Hawke said the world was living through a unique period where it was the first time since the end of the second world war that there hadn’t been “an outstanding political leader … anywhere in the democratic world”.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/28/bob-hawke-blames-...

What a lot of codswallop from the former PM who was a philanderer and a bombastic sexist crapperoo who told lies. The poor quality of our present politicians is only due to the poor intellectual quality of our politicians. Nothing to do with the media. Look at Bernardi and Ms Hanson... Do you think the media created these monstruous characters? Go away. They exist by themselves convincing people that they know cheese when they actually know nothing. They are idiots on a stick who have only one thing in their favour... Er what was that again? Don't worry, I'll think of something...