Author: Kev

The Australian has stooped to quoting Lambie Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has met twice with Mr ­Abbott but remains unimpressed by his prime ministerial charm.

“He just sits there and ums and ahhs,” she told The Australian. “He’s either incompetent or doesn’t know the subject. The Liberal government is in chaos. It’s like having an office manager in the office that can’t run an office.”

Lambie can’t construct a sentence; is a bogan fool with little or no education; is in the Senate because she was bankrolled by PUP leader and gained only .046% of the quota and is remembered for saying, in public, that she is looking for a rich, well hung partner. And she suggests Abbott is incompetent or doesn’t know the subject.  Abbott was most probably using English which would’ve stymied Lambie. As witnessed by this quote on the 7:30 report

Yeah, I think [the vice chancellors] want reform. But what I’m hearing is they didn’t ask for a deregulation. So I’m going to double-check on that… But you know what? These [vice chancellors] are supposed to be the brains of the country. Why are we telling them how the universities should be run? So it’s about time they stood up, they stood tall and they help come up with the solution.

Judith Sloan answers that;

As everyone knows, apart from that left-wing poseur-fraud from the University of Canberra (and ABC fav), all the other vice-chancellors support fee deregulation, including the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania.

Lambie, the Vice Chancellors DO want deregulation and if you read any thing other than the fashion and pick-a-well-hung-hunk mags you would know. The Australian then lines up Windsor, knowing he will shit-can Abbott because he just hates him and he comes to the party and rattles on about how good Gillard was at negotiating when compared with Abbott. And then along come Lazarus;

Senator Glenn Lazarus, who split with the Palmer United Party last week, last year accused Education Minister Christopher Pyne of harassing him after the minister bombarded him with text messages “virtually begging’’ for his vote on the higher education reforms. (Mr Pyne said he had to resort to texts because the then-PUP senator was refusing to speak to him.)

As being in the Senate is marginally more complicated than playing rugby league, Lazarus seems to think that everything the government proposes has to somehow go back to the public and be voted on…..somehow.

Yesterday Senator Lazarus said the “government puts bills to the Senate that have not been developed in consultation with the community. The reason why the government is frustrated with the Senate’s refusal of bills is that many bills being put forward are not supported by the people. The Senate is simply reflecting the will and the view of the people.”

No Glen, the Senate already represents the will of the people.  That’s how you got there…there was an election. Remember? If you are going to vote in the Senate then you need to read up on the legislation, talk to the people putting it forward and to those who oppose it. You consult widely and then you the make a decision.  It’s what you are paid for. Putting your fingers in your ears and yelling la..la..la..la just doesn’t cut it. You don’t oppose it because the minister wants to talk to you about it.  That’s what’s supposed to happen, you dipshit. So, in summary, an important piece of legislation, supported by all but one of the nation’s vice chancellors, was rejected in the senate because the three independents voted with the ALP/Greens because………mmm…….I’m not sure why. They can’t articulate their reasons for voting it down and therein lies the crux of the matter.  The country is being dictated to by uneducated illiterates who don’t appear to have any idea as to where their responsibilities lie. Poor fellow, my country indeed!    

Beyond parody Ever watchful for a case to bash Abbott, the Canberra Times carries a headline;

Tony Abbott’s St Patrick’s Day message causes offence in Ireland

The offence? Mr Abbott signs off his St Patrick’s Day message with an apology that “I can’t be there to share a Guinness or two or maybe even three”. Yep! That’s it.  That has caused offence.  The Canberra Times quotes the Irish PM

TAOISEACH (Irish Gaelic for Prime Minister) Enda Kenny has dismissed the “perception” that Irish culture is synonymous with alcohol, following remarks made by his Australian counterpart.

The Irish are having a debate about alcohol at this very moment with shenanigans abound as the government’s campaign to stop Out of control drinking gets out of control

……. his comments came as a second member of the Stop Out-of-Control Drinking campaign resigned from the newly formed group. Founder of mental health charity MyMind, Krystian Fikert, cited “resource restraints” at his charity for his decision to leave the board, less than five weeks after the launch of the Stop Out-of-Control Drinking campaign.

The Irish Taoiseach has a domestic problem and he might be well advised to keep it domestic. And just to compound the sin; Defence Minister Kevin Andrews also drew a link between St Patrick’s Day and alcohol consumption, tweeting a picture of himself holding a can of Guinness. The shame of it! All of which makes me wonder; just how many people are employed by the media to just surf the web looking for something to bag Abbott about. You have to admit the “offence” is pretty obscure’ To all except the Nanny State, wowser Irish Taoiseach, I wish you a happy St Paddy’s Day and if you partake of the devils brew, then enjoy it and maybe toast the Irish chap and ask the leprachauns to give him a life. And a final word….

CLOSING townships is not the answer to improving health, lifting education standards and tackling dysfunction in indigenous Australia, experts declared, as community leaders rounded on Tony Abbott’s description of life in remote centres as a “lifestyle choice”. It may not be the answer but it is an answer. In making the statement below Abbott has wound up the Left generally and the indigenous industry specifically.  Everyone with a finger in the pie, whose livelihood depends on the indigenous industry, are up in arms. There is also a huge amount of traffic generated by the  “Hate anything Abbott says” brigade who spend their days littering the twitter wilderness with profanities and inanities.

 Speaking on ABC Radio in Kalgoorlie on Tuesday, Mr Abbott said governments could not “endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have”. “It is not the job of the taxpayer to subsidise lifestyle choices,’’ the Prime Minister said. “It is the job of the taxpayer to provide reasonable services in a reasonable way.”

Sorry, he’s right! “It is the job of the taxpayer to provide reasonable services in a reasonable way.” The “culture” and “country” that people use to justify outstations doesn’t feed anyone.  It literally keeps them down; keeps them in third world conditions and encourages the factors that keeps them starring in stats about incarceration, disease, women and child beating and worse. It doesn’t help them and when the government, hobbled by the obscene debt left to them by the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd debacle, question what is basically reinforcing failure, people scream. The answer can’t include reinforcing failure; it must includes health service, education and jobs. No jobs in a ten house camp on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. There are hundreds, if not thousands of towns across Australia that have closed down.  When the jobs run out, people with half a brain run out as well and go to where the jobs are; where they can educate their kids and where they can access reasonable medical services. Why is it that some Australians aren’t subject to that supply and demand factor that creates, then closes towns as industry, mining or agriculture come in then move on. The  debate started when the West Australian  government announced the closure of up to 150 of the state’s 282 remote Aboriginal communities. Premier Barnett has repeatedly claimed many of these communities were economically unviable, saying some only have 10 people living in them. Is the government really expected to fund a group of ten people living in the desert and provide reasonable services in a reasonable way?  A school and teacher for a couple of kids; a medical centre…a nurse; an industry with jobs? Or is everyone happy just to give them sit-down money to eke away their lives, and the lives of their kids,  in an environment that encourages substance abuse just to get through the day? Some obviously are but I’m not.  I want to help them and reinforcing failure doesn’t help anyone. We need a debate; a rational debate without ideology or emotion. Let’s have one and help our Aussie mates.    

Middle child and daughter Jennifer, has a photographic exhibition on at the moment at the Percolator Gallery, 134 LaTrobe Terrace, Paddington. One of the more adventurous of my brood, she has done the Sandakan Death March Trek, climbed to Everest Base Camp and wondered around Australia, PNG, Europe, UK and the Middle East with camera in hand. She has an eye for colour, perspective and different angles that I never have and even though I might be considered biased, she has some brilliant shots. The gallery is open from 10am to 6pm daily up to and including Sunday  8 March.  Entry is free. Included is a gallery of shots but keep in mind, framing brings them to life. [nggallery id=1]

Work involved in Databases and Photoshop work has impacted on my ability of late to post on the site.

The animated sign language expert captured the attention of television viewers as he translated the Premier’s updates on the cyclone at Emergency Management Queensland Headquarters at Kedron. The trouble is he becomes the centre of attention rather than the person giving the message.   It is so distracting that as soon as I see a person gesticulating I flick channels. There are approximately 30,000 Deaf Auslan users with total hearing loss and if they don’t have a caption function on their TV then give them one at public expense and let the other 23 million who don’t understand the frantic finger and hand language, concentrate on the message. At the very least put the translator in the little box in the corner where he belongs.