Category: Politics

INDEPENDENT candidate Andrew Wilkie has emerged pleased from his prime ministerial meeting, saying Julia Gillard was genuinely interested in supporting his push for national pokie machine reform. Amazing, isn’t it? I can just see her….poker machines! What on earth are you on about? Ah yes…silly of me. Of course the most important thing on my mind right now is poker machines reform….yes Andrew, it is terribly important and I support your ideas, as does all of the ALP. I figure the first time Julia thought of ‘poker machines’ was just after she heard that Wilkie was into them. That’s what comes from desperation – frivolous, knee jerking single issue management. How many other single issue demands are we going to have to comply with before we get stable government? Not good.

The “Unelectable” Abbott and the voters have prevailed – almost ….it’s all down to the Independents and the last few seats to be counted.

Lower house independents Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter said they would meet to discuss how they would approach forming a stable government but in separate interviews on the ABC all three refused to back either Labor or the Coalition.

And and that’s the way they should play it. They can do a lot for their constituents but I have met Katter and Windsor and in the long term I can’t imagine them backing the ALP/Greens. Julia Gillard;

“the people have spoken and it’s going to take a little while to determined exactly what they said”

They’ve said you’re gone Julia. Tony Abbott;

“And I say that a government which found it very hard to govern effecitvely with a majority of 17 seats will never be able to govern effectively in a minority.”

I watched ‘Red’ Kerry and have no complaints with the way he handled the night. I was impressed with Stephen Smith, as I always have been, and must say he handled what must have been a shock to him, in a calm and professional manner. I also visited live blogs at Jack the Insiders and the ABC’s The Drum. The Drum was the most entertaining with people vowing to shift overseas if Abbott got in. A move, that on the whole, would enhance the intellectual standing of Australia. I hope they’re packing now…the writing is on the wall. I felt their pain as well as the anguish and spite of Maxine McKew. It was exquisite. The Greens have increased their power and that augers bad for the country (what on earth is in the water in Victoria – LSD?) The only possible plus I can see is that with one of them in the house of Reps the voters may see more of their insane policies and maybe, just maybe, think a bit. Optimistic I know but one can always live in hope.

Let’s have a look at the woman who would be PM and her party Following a long line of wives of our leaders, all fairly classy women in their own right; from Patty Menzies, Zara Holt, Betina Gordon, Sonya McMahon, Maragaret Whitlam, Tamie Fraser, Hazel Hawke, Anita Keating, Jeannette Howard and through to Therese Rein we have plumeted to the latest boyfriend. The latest of three since she’s been in Parliament. Call it what you will, ad hominem comments, misogyny, (definitely not true – I love ’em) or silly old fart, I simply I don’t like it. I do look for social stability in a leader. She thinks Jim Cairns was a winner and denies she’s had anything to do with the socialists for years – “It was just when I was young”. Bullshit, as late as 2004 she was still a member of the Socialist Forum. Her first foray into International Affairs centered around her trying to get the boaties off the front page. She spoke to the President of East Timor when she should had spoken to the PM. She then said she wasn’t thinking about East Timor and then said she was. The ALP can’t understand NO. The East Timor parliament has voted NO, Their PM has said NO, their Defence Force Chief has said NO but Smith still says ‘we are still negotiating’. If they are still negotiating then it’s with themselves. I mean what part of NO don’t they understand? The N or the bloody O? No answer before the election and likely a bad answer after. In an attempt to get ETS off the front page Gillard has said she is going to get a 150 Australians together to debate the issue and take it from there. So the greatest moral challenge of our time has been neutralized for the election by a silly idea that wont work and is basically tasking other people to do the work that the ALP were elected for. Veterans on COMSUPER (DFRBFD) Pensions. The graph shows the problem The Coalition will index the pensions to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) or the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI). whichever is the highest for all recipients over 55. The ALP refuse to address the anomaly and will do what they have always done – ignore us..no votes in it. Well, be very careful Julia, there has been a very well coordinated marginal seat targeting by the ex service community and all parties have conceded our point and will address the issue – except the ALP. Foreign Affairs. Gillad looks like she will be obliged to give Rudd Foreign Affairs. That’s the same Rudd who is on record as saying “The Chinese ratf****d us” That’ll be good, won’t it? And then after the election watch Rudd as he continues to build his CV for UN Leadership. Crossing the Hornibrook Highway heading north I spied the local ALP stalwarts on the side of the road with a hand printed sign proclaiming loudly RAIL!. Ah yes, the rail connection to the Redcliffe Peninsular has been promised for as many elections as I can remember – never happened of course and wont happen this time either. Comes from the same knee jerk response bin that the Epping rail link came from. Gillard simply did not care that literally billions of dollars were wasted on rorts, scams, overpricing, gouging and simple thievery associated with Labor’s complete lack of oversight during the Pink Batt Fiasco and the BER Debacle. She is not a new face. She was present for all of those bad decisions as part of the Gang of Four. She would have voted on them and yet we are expected to vote her in on a lot of words spoken since. Deeds speak for themselves. Remember the Pink Batts (have you seen Garrett lately/) Remember the Greatest moral challenge of our time (have you seen Penny Wong lately?) Remember the NBN – the most expensive broadband answer IN THE WORLD BAR NONE. It wasn’t in the budget and is not costed thus there is no guarantee that the costs will be limited to just $43b. Remember their lies – Abbott will bring back work choices. How the hell is he going to do that when the Greens are going to have the balance of power in the Senate? In her final day of campaign all she can do is repeat the lie – Abbott will bring back Work Choices. Repeat mantra several times…mention the word risk 20 odd times. Like the Epping and Redcliffe railway lines – some people will believe anything. She lies while Abbott reminds the country of the Pink Batts debacle – a fact I’m keeping my fingers crossed tomorrow night. Not for myself, not for my beliefs, but for the good of the country. Another three years of ALP incompetence will just put us further behind the eight ball. Like Whitlam’s fiasco it could take the next Coalition decades to get us back on track if the country doesn’t cut their losses and get rid of them now.

GREENS Leader Bob Brown says voters are rolling their eyes as Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott bicker over the terms of their next debate. As different from voters rolling their eyes at virtually everything you say Bob? At least they are debating the future of the country whereas you never debate anything and have policies that will economically ruin the country. Go away Bob and be quiet and just be thankful there are sufficient gullible voters in the community shallow enough to give you a job.

REAL ACTION TO SUPPORT VETERANS

The Coalition will provide $45.6 million for initiatives to better support Australia’s veterans and their families. To further help veterans with cost of living expenses, the Coalition will increase assistance for Veterans’ Pharmaceutical costs. From 1 January 2012, the Coalition will remove out-of-pocket expenses for pharmaceuticals for disabled veterans in receipt of 50 per cent of the General Rate of Disability Pension, or higher (including EDA and TPI). This will enable more than 87,000 veteran disability pensioners, including our most disabled veterans, to save up to $168 per year. This extension of the Pharmaceutical Safety net will cost $38 million over the forward estimates. The Coalition will also provide more recognition for Veterans’ widows and wives. We will establish a ‘VWWInc’ website for networking, information and advice. A national memorial recognising the contribution of widows and wives will be funded following consultation with them. The Coalition will identify, contact and encourage eligible indigenous war widows to apply for their entitlements. The Coalition will provide support to help Veterans make the transition from post-deployment and military life. The ‘We’ll Be There’ programme will provide training and support for volunteer veterans and ex-service people, to be available 24 hours a day, to speak directly to veterans. This programme will complement existing services provided by Vietnam Veterans’ Counselling Service. The Coalition will provide $7.5 million to expand the Building Excellence in Support and Training (BEST) Programme and the Training and Information Programme (TIP). These programmes assist ex-service organisations to provide pension and welfare assistance with resources and support. Giving these organisations support and training will help members of the veteran community and their family to receive practical assistance with claims for assistance from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The Coalition will respond to the Review of Military Compensation Arrangements. There is concern regarding the inflexibility of the current Act and the compulsory aspect of the rehabilitation requirement. The Coalition will consult with the veteran and ex-service community following this review. The Coalition will provide $100,000 towards the building of the Montevideo Maru memorial. This funding will be provided in the 2011-12 Budget for this memorial for those who lost their lives on the Montevideo Maru and in the Fall of Rabaul in 1942. The Coalition will conduct an audit of the locations of National Service Records, including the first and second intake, with the intention of having these records centrally located.

And this to me is the clincher;

As previously announced, the Coalition will introduce new indexation arrangements for members of the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (DFRDB). Under the Coalition, from July next year, beneficiaries of the DFRB and DFRDB schemes aged 55 and over will have their pensions indexed to whichever is the highest of three indexes – the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) or the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI).

Australia’s service personnel, past and present, deserve respect and recognition from the community for their service. The Coalition is committed to caring for Australia’s veterans and their families and understands that this can only be achieved with renewed compassion, understanding and action. 12 August 2010

ALP Veterans Policy? Haven’t seen one yet that’s worth reporting.

I’ve made the New York Times They are carrying a link to my post on Julia Gillard’s irresponsible dealings with the National Security Committee where she sends a junior staffer to attend in her place. Now if I can just get Australians to recognize how bad she is then all will be well in the world. Still, as I mentioned in the original post, the people voting for her wouldn’t know what National Security was anyway.

Dennis Shanan nails it in todays Australian

In six weeks, Labor has dumped Kevin 07 as leader because he was unpopular, installed Gillard because she was popular, changed strategy and Gillard’s image to the “real Julia” because the false, campaigning Julia was unpopular and now turned to Kevin 10 because the real Julia was unpopular.

Says it all really

Gillard doesn’t even bother to attend National Security Committee (NSC) meetings and punters are actually considering voting for her. There just is no excuse for missing the most important single meeting governments hold, the meetings that deal with life and death, with our soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere, with the physical security of the nation. Rudd often didn’t bother to attend either but he looks a positive paragon of virtue compared with Gillard’s practice.

Rudd at least sent his chief of staff, Alister Jordan, to attend in his absence, though the NSC meetings where Rudd was absent were chaired not by Jordan but by the next most senior minister present. However, Gillard sent one of the most junior people in her office to the NSC meetings in her place.

Strange world but then the people about to vote for Gillard most probably think it more important that we have a woman in power, or the ALP in power at whatever cost, or the unions in power or anything but Abbott. National security..what’s that?

That’s a good enough reason by itself to vote for him. And no, I’m not going to link to their out-of-context Abbott quotes.

JULIA Gillard is to create a Citizens Assembly to forge a national consensus on action on climate change and a commission of experts to help inform its deliberations.

The Prime Minister will also today recommit Labor to carbon trading, but pledge that it will be introduced only when “the Australian economy is ready and when the Australian people are ready”.

There, that’s got that problem out of contention for the election. I don’t think the tree-hugging Hippy Greens are going to be very happy but as they have joined the ALP they really can’t complain. Shades of Rudd’s failed 2020 conference, isn’t it? I can guarantee the vast bulk of any such citizens so assembled will be marching to Gillard’s tune. I doubt, for example that Andrew Bolt will get a slot. It’s a cop-out. We elect politicians to make these decisions and we accept their call even if we don’t agree, at least until the next election. But this “Ooh it’s contentious and might lose me some votes -let’s call a Citizens Assembly and then we can blame them if it goes pear shape” response is not, under any definition, doing what they are, or could be, elected to do.