Category: Politics

WHAT do left-wing ministers do in a government led by an economic conservative? Simple: they take some of the key jobs and join the club. This is Mike Steketee’s take on Rudd’s cabinet as he uses lots of calming words to say Left is cool but Left is Left, nothing is simple and the proof of the pudding is a long way down the track.

In the first Rudd cabinet, nine of the 20 ministers come from the Left: Julia Gillard, Chris Evans, John Faulkner, Jenny Macklin, Lindsay Tanner, Anthony Albanese, Kim Carr, Penny Wong and Martin Ferguson. That compares with one left-winger in the first Hawke cabinet in 1983, Stewart West.

And Gillard is benign;

Sure, Gillard comes from the Victorian Socialist Left – as Howard government ministers kept reminding us during the election campaign – and Tanner used to wage war against Labor’s Right as the left-wing secretary of the Federated Clerks Union. But this history is about as relevant now as the Cold War is to international relations.

Is it? If I’m a conservative now and have been since the early 60s why does Steketee presume someone who has beaten the drum for the left for decades will suddenly join the conservative club? Doesn’t compute…..keep an eye on ’em.

I’ve been in West Australia celebrating my Mother’s 88th birthday and doing the ground work necessary to facilitate her transfer to nursing care. While there, I stayed with my Sister who has minimal interest in computers or politics so had to be polite and spend time with family and not politics – thus my silence on the issue. Silence over! Some thoughts… I’m devastated and worried about Australia. On Costello. I’d go as well. After dragging the country out of the 96 billion abyss the last ALP govt left us in; after bringing in GST and rewriting Australia’s financial disbursement to state governments; after taking unemployment, jobs, interest rates to the best levels for years the electorate kick him and his boss out. I’d say “get stuffed” as well. Costello will do well as everyone knows he did an excellent job running the 15th largest economy in the world. With that on page one of his CV he will be snapped up by commercial enterprise and I hope he earns millions. He will do so with my blessing and the blessing of every reasonable man and women in the country. Having said all that I’m not sure if he would have made a great PM and I do think we should move on. Rudd simply doesn’t inspire me and I have trouble slotting him into the “leaders” I have known category. It isn’t his politics, it his demeanor and bureaucratic background. Until I see evidence to the contrary I will refer to him as the Chief Clerk. The Chief Clerks biggest problem will be controlling the unions and the Left wing. Julia Gillard, to my mind, is dangerous, recognized by the fact that Rudd kept her out of the limelight during the election lest the media pursue her background. If she had fronted the media every day her left wing socialism would have crept through and frightened the voters. Anyone who hails Jim Cairns as a role model aspires to a different Australia than I or 80-90% of Australians wish for. If you subscribe to theory that Work Choices cost us the election then what you are actually saying is that the ACTU 30 million dollars worth of lies, omissions, half truths and exaggerations cost us the election. Work Choices could have done with some more fine tuning but as they emphasized and aided the demise of the power base of unions they will be repealed for the wrong reasons. Work Choices empowered workers and Business; the ALP’s answer will empower the unions and the workers. Small and Large business, by far the greater employers in the country, are missing from the formula and that never bodes well for the economy. I go away for a week to West Australia and when I return my country is totally different. I only hope the difference isn’t too costly.

AUSTRALIA’S doctor shortage has reached crisis point, with three-quarters of the country’s land area, and more than 12 million people, now deemed as lacking adequate access to primary care. Nowhere in the article is adequate access to primary care defined and as Abbott says, and it’s not unreasonable, the figures were based on a “statistical construct” I’m not suggesting there isn’t a problem but more than half the country lacking adequate access to primary care – I doubt it.

Some stats For a full comparison table download this small .pdf and anyone who thinks it’s time for a change will be able to clearly see what sort of change they are contemplating. Speaks for itself.

Priceless ………………… Priceless! Did anyone else notice that the computer used by Kevin Rudd to illustrate his point that computers “are the toolbox of the 21st century”for his education announcement was a Toshiba Satellite 2590CDT (specifications – processor: celeron 400mhz, ram: 64mb, hard drive: 6.4gb, screen: 12.1”) vintage circa mid 90s! from cousin-in-law Kerry

I’m amazed at how much mileage the media are giving “Howard lied about keeping interest rates low”. We have either redefined the truth or lack of it or I have missed something. Howard said rates would be lower under the Coalition and they are; He said he would keep rates low and they are. What have I missed. This rise is the sixth since the reelection of the Coalition in 2004 but they have all been a quarter or a percent and whereas it’s not good it certainly is better than when the ALP last held power. Chief economist John Edwards said the decision showed the bank’s independence was intact as the rate hike was the first ever in an election year.

“The sharp increase in third quarter core inflation, plus the rapid increase in jobs, the associated fall in unemployment to a 33 year low, signs that housing construction may be coming out of a long slump, and continuing strength in retail sales and business investment, left the RBA board very little choice when it met Tuesday.”

I can’t see many economic negatives there. The rate is now 6.75% and that’s certainly higher than when the Coalition come to power but it’s a whole lot less than the 18% mortgage I was paying in the 80’s – thanks Keating! Under the ALP I was once 24 hours from having myself and my family on the streets. I needed more than one job to pay the interest but there wasn’t any jobs either – no one was investing, they were just waiting to kick Keating out before they did anything. I recovered but just!

Labor candidate Garry Parr called Queensland couple Tom and Rosemary Arthurs “warmongers” when they approached him at a Hervey Bay shopping centre two weeks ago. The couple’s 41-year-old son Julian Arthurs is currently serving with the British forces in Afghanistan. Mr Parr was forced to apologise over the statement, and issued a statement via the ALP central campaign office in the early hours of this morning.

“I apologise unreservedly for any hurt caused by my insensitive comments to Tom and Rosemary Arthurs,’’ he says. “I will be contacting Mr and Mrs Arthurs to offer my personal apology for any offence that I may have caused them during our discussion a fortnight ago. “In addition, I publicly express my support for all the men and women of the Coalition forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their families.”

Pig’s arse you do. Howard et al have demanded Rudd sack him and Rudd is just waiting for the problem to go away and it most probably will until election day at least when the people of Hinkler have their say. This not the first time Gary has made the headlines for spurious reasons; From the Weekend Australian the weekend before last;

GARRY Parr is blunt. “I haven’t got time to talk to you all day,” the Labor candidate for the regional Queensland seat of Hinkler snaps at Inquirer in response to a request for an interview. “I’ve got work to do. I wouldn’t expect you to know what that means.” A tactless approach to the media is particularly strange coming from Kevin Rudd’s candidate for one of the Queensland seats that Labor hopes will propel Rudd into the Lodge. It gets stranger. On Wednesday, Parr, a Bundaberg real estate agent, turned down an offer from the ABC to talk about election issues for five minutes during prime time on local radio.

From the ALP website . Many people in Bundaberg know Garry Parr as the person who helped them buy their first home Well he would, wouldn’t he. He is a Real Estate agent – hardly a reason to elect him. What a tosser! All this must give Rudd a warm inner glow.

It’s hard to be positive in the face of polls but being Infantry helps. What else helps is the fact that votes don’t equal being elected – seats do. And as a motivator – try this mindless comment This man deserves to be on the loosing side. # I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…..bring on Paul Keating…mention him everyday….remind the voters. #ALP ‘has secret NT rollback plan‘ says Howard. Well of course they do. They have backed the left wing agenda of all symbol and no substance and whatever Kevin Rudd says he will not be able to suppress the surge of the Left wing tide that will roll back anything that has achieved outcomes whilst muttering the mantra…….stolen generations….apologise……UN Charter of Human Rights and the new one….Black Tampa. Land Rights, Outstations and Cultural Maintenance has got them nowhere. They need to dry out, normalize, get their kids educated, seek health outcomes and become mainstream Australians and that can’t be done with symbols. #THE Liberal Party has launched a new ad attacking Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd’s failure to have a militant unionist expelled from the Labor Party. Joe McDonald is a union thug and whereas he may not be representative of all of the union movement; too many like him exist and have their hit list of businesses and projects at hand ready for the apocalypse should Rudd get in. Remind the voters every day the dangers of their flirtation with Rudd..do it and do it often.

Reader, commenter and member of the 7RAR Vietnam Veteran brotherhood 1735099 questions the stats on my post on Work Choices where I quoted Joe Hockey’s figures of 400,000 plus jobs being created since Work Choices was implemented in March 2006.The only answer I could find was this graph at the Australian Bureau of Stats Could Joe Hockey have been right and was I right to quote him? You be the judge.