More Krudd
Hows this for ‘tell ’em anything and they will come’
KEVIN Rudd has criticised state Labor governments for hurting Australian families with their over-reliance on poker machine taxes, vowing to come up with solutions to wean states off the addiction if he wins the federal election.
Read “Don’t worry about the whole country being governed by Labour…see….I attack them too”.
Fascinating. I seem to recall he had something to do with the introduction of poker machines in Queensland in the first place and so does Richard Congram in letters to The Australian today
KEVIN Rudd says he hates poker machines and their impact on the families of addicts (“Rudd to confront states on pokies”, 11/9). Yet this caring, compassionate man, when he was chief of staff to former Queensland premier Wayne Goss, was instrumental in the introduction of pokies into Queensland clubs. For many years, former National Party Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen had refused to allow them into the state but the Goss Labor government, elected in 1989, quickly reversed the status quo. But perhaps I’m a little hard on Rudd. Perhaps, like Saul on the road to Damascus, he has been born again. If so, I wonder if the redoubtable Gough Whitlam will describe Rudd, as he once described Bjelke-Petersen, as a “Bible-bashing bastard”? Richard Congram Carindale, QldIn the same article Rudd mentions his free tertiary education saying he would never had graduated without the largess of Whitlam.
…..And the Opposition Leader says he also feels uneasy that young Australians do not have access to free tertiary education, which he received in the 1970s under Gough Whitlam’s reforms. But in an interview with The Australian last night, Mr Rudd said the need for economic responsibility precluded a return to free education.Then why mention it? Let me guess. To remind young voters that the ALP are mindful of free education and once had it in place knowing full well that they wont even think about the concept being financially unsustainable. Gee! free education…how goods that…Howard would never think of it…the bastard.
Instead, he promised to ease the burden of the Labor-introduced Higher Education Contribution Scheme, which he said was out of control and prevented children from working-class families from going to university.Why? How does HECS stop kids from working class families going to university in the first place? HECS isn’t paid up-front and it certainly didn’t stop my kids going to uni. In the first place they don’t pay anything until they have graduated and are in receipt of a salary that exceeds a predetermined level. So tell me, what am I missing?
Facebook
Twitter
Kev
The issue about current policy on paying for university places is less about HECS, and more about lifting the restrictions on full-fee students. Every full-fee paying student admitted to an Australian University decreases the number of places available to Australian kids. I believe that some aspects of our national life should be quarantined from market forces – including opportunities for our best and brightest.
Incidentally, it’s interesting how we form a view of political outcomes based on our personal experience. Your comment on Whitlam’s flensing of your regiment is a case in point. I had a different experience of the impact of his policies. His government provided enormous resources to support people with disabilities, although it took some time for the impact to move through to all state jurisdictions. In 1987, long after his demise, I was the founding principal of a new special school in Townsville funded entirely by “Whitlam money”. At a cost back then of $2.8 million, it provided an educational program out in the community for kids who previously had attended school within the walls of the institution they lived in. For many of these kids, it was the first experience they’d had of participating in a world that the rest of us took for granted and it transformed their lives.
Amongst the errors and extravagances of the Whitlam era there were some policy gems which changed forever the daily lives of people with disabilities. I’ve always felt that a fair measure of any community is how it treats its weakest and mot vulnerable.
I agree with your last para and often use the last sentence myself but that is a red herring in any discussion about Whitlam.
Whitlam undoubtedly had some good ideas but for every good outcome like your case there were a dozen dreams that failed to materialize. His government was largely incompetent on the things that matter when running a country. Finance, institutions, alliances, defence were all mismanaged but leftist ideology applied with gay abandon to prove again that it doesn’t work. Borrow money from anyone, (the Arabs, for godsake) ignore rules in place, have a leading communist and president of the USSR Australia group as deputy and the list goes on.
The proper way to look after the disadvantaged is to have a sound economy so the wherewithal to do something is available. To just implement grand plans before financing them is ideology at its worst
You remember personal matters; I remember national ones. As a Sergeant I was formally asked if I would soldier on in the absence of remuneration. I replied Hell yes! Just give me vouchers to feed the family. Anything to get rid of him – the country’s a laughing stock now and if we don’t dig in the situation will be irretrievable.
Pity about Fraser though.
1735099
“Every full-fee paying student admitted to an Australian University decreases the number of places available to Australian kids.”
Rubbish…
Full fee paying places are offered in addition to government funded places.
Kev
“Borrow money from anyone”
I well remember Whitlam’s incredible attempt to borrow $8 billion Middle Eastern petro-dollars using the services of the laughable Tirath Khemlani.
And as Howard reminded Rudd in Parliament last week “…we well remember the sleazy meetings in 1976, when Gough Whitlam sought money in secret from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial Baath Socialist Party to fund the previous year’s election campaign…”
Whitlam was ready to take Saddam’s filthy cash knowing he would be in debt to the leader of a vile regime.
Rudd is taking tens of millions of dollars of union dosh knowing he will be in thrall to them for his entire public life, win or lose.
“we well remember the sleazy meetings in 1976……”
About as sleazy as an administration that turned a blind eye to one of the biggest corruption scandals in Australian history, involving $300 million and the Australian Wheat Board, the Howard government and Saddam Hussein’s Baath Socialist Party.
At least we didn’t have diggers in harm’s way in 1975 (by the way, by 1976, Fraser was in power).
“that turned a blind eye to one of the biggest corruption scandals in Australian history”
Bullshit – Question asked and answered by the only inquiry held by any of the dozens of countries involved in some way or the other in the corrupt oil for food program.
The AWB meme is just another ‘plastic turkey’ for the dissolute left to take solace in.
In short Commissioner Cole found:
Conclusion: the Prime Minister
30.198 There is no basis for concluding that the Prime Minister knew or was made aware during the currency of the Oil-for-Food Programme that AWB was inflating its wheat prices to incorporate inland transportation fees, or other fees however described, or that AWB was paying money to Alia or otherwise indirectly to Iraq. I am satisfied, on the material before me, that the Prime Minister did not have that knowledge.
Conclusion: the Minister for Foreign Affairs
30.215 There is no basis for concluding that the Minister knew, or was made aware during the currency of the Oil-for-Food Programme that AWB was inflating its wheat prices to incorporate inland transportation fees, or any other fees however described, or that AWB was paying money to Alia or otherwise indirectly to Iraq. I am satisfied, on the material before me, that Minister Downer did not have that knowledge.
Conclusion: the Minister for Trade
30.228 There is no basis for concluding that the Minister for Trade knew, or was made aware during the currency of the Oil-for-Food Programme, that AWB was inflating its wheat prices to incorporate inland transportation fees, or other fees however described, or that AWB was paying money to Alia or otherwise indirectly to Iraq. I am satisfied, on the material before me, that Minister Vaile did not have that knowledge.
Conclusion: the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
30.236 There is no basis for concluding that the Minister knew, or was made aware during the currency of the Oil-for-Food Programme, that AWB was inflating its wheat prices to incorporate inland transportation fees, or any other fees however described, or that AWB was paying money to Alia or otherwise indirectly to Iraq. I am satisfied, on the material before me, that Minister Truss did not have that knowledge.
1735099 – Yup you’re right it wasn’t 1976 but on the 16th of November 1975 when Whitlam, ALP national secretary David Combe, and Senate candidate Bill Hartley agreed to make approaches to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for a $US500,000 ‘gift’ to help fund Labor’s 1975 election campaign.
Their secret agreement would have left Labor vulnerable to corruption by a foreign government. And not just any foreign power. This was an invitation to a regime Whitlam knew to be despicable and despotic.
The Iraqis were easily persuaded by Whitlam’s spokesman Bill Hartley that Whitlam’s sacking was a coup d’etat engineered by “imperialism, the CIA and Zionism”.
As a result they were eager to help fund a popular revolt in Australia that they hoped would disengage Australian foreign policy from the rest of the West.
Three days before the December 13 election a Jew hating embezzler named Henri Fischer acted as Whitlam’s spokesman at a meeting with two Iraqi diplomats in a Sydney hotel room to finalise the conditions of the ‘gift’.
It was later alleged Fisher secured the ‘gift’ from Iraq, but instead of passing it on to Whitlam fled with the cash to live in the US leaving the ALP deeply in debt after the election.
In his autobiography, The Hawke Memoirs, Bob Hawke is scathing in his recollections: “Hartley saw the enmeshment of the ALP with Iraq through this proposed transaction as highly desirable. But that Whitlam, who was aware of the abhorrent nature of this regime, should acquiesce appalled me beyond measure.”
As I posted earlier, Rudd is cut from the same expedient cloth as Whitlam and is prepared to place himself in thrall to the ACTU to win government at any cost.
Nowhere near as sleazy!!! It’s a total cop out to compare the Loans Affair with AWB Whitlam and his ministers themselves were involved…in person…they were negotiating with the Arabs. They were operating in direct contravention of the Loans Council to hide it from the states – the very reason the Loans Council was established.
The AWB wasn’t a government department, had it’s own charter and hid information.
Despite the findings of the Cole inquiry, the fact remains that this scandal occurred on Howard’s watch whilst Australian soldiers were in Iraq.
If what happened in the seventies remains relevant, at least back then our government was honest enough to institute conscription of twenty year-olds. We keep hearing how vital victory in Iraq is, but obviously it’s not vital enough to get in the way of a quick quid.
How far back do you want to go? Is Billy Hughes stance on conscription relevant? Should we look at the performance of Menzies before Curtin?
The fact that corporate Australia was content to make a dollar from corrupt dealings whilst soldiers are at risk is a pretty fair comment on the state of our national psyche, after eleven years of Liberal-National government.
Being critical of the current administration on this issue is a bit like poking a nest of wasps with a stick. There’s obviously more than a little sensitivity out there. The history doesn’t quite fit the narrative of a nation united in the face of terrorism.
“Full fee paying places are offered in addition to government funded places.”
Unfortunately, Peter W, it’s not quite that simple….
“At the University of Technology, Sydney, full-fee-paying students in the Combined Bachelor of Science in Maths/ can get into the course with a mark 13.85 points less than the official cut-off.” (Media Monitors – March 2007)
and….
Dean of the University of NSW law school Professor David Dixon says lack of federal government funding has forced law faculties to accept full-fee-paying students (Law Society Journal – March 2007)”
and……..
“There are specified numbers of Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) available to students in each course at each of Deakin University’s Campuses. The number of students wishing to study a particular course – the demand for that course – may be such that not all qualified students can be offered a CSP. Media Statement – Deakin University – 22 January 2007. Domestic fee-paying places at Deakin University.”
And the full-feeing paying students are disadvantaged as well ….
“But COAG excluded full fee-paying students from this policy, potentially leaving up to 20 per cent of future medical students uncertain about whether they’ll have a career in medicine.
Medical student numbers are about to leap higher, and the only students to be assured an internship at the end of their degree are those who have access to HECS,” Dr Yong said.
There’s no such security for full fee-paying students.” (Dr Choong-Siew Yong – AMA Press Release – 25 July 2006)
In summary, local students are disadvantaged, full-fees are promoted by the feds because they’re too lousy to fund the Unis properly, not all qualified students can access courses, and the full-fee medical students are probably wasting their money.
My point is that we need to keep the ideology that the market drives everything out of higher education. It might work if you’re selling real estate – it’s misapplied in securing our country’s future.
Oh those wonderful Whitlam years – how we miss them.
Productivity up 1%, Wages up 70%, Public Service strength up 12.6%, Salaries up 36%, Federal Spending up 80% while Inflation rose to 20%.
I invite 1735099 to read the background to the “Loans Affair” in The Age of 1 Jan 05. The article can be found by Googling “How the loans scandal became an affair to remember”.
Having done so, I would be astonished if 1735099 still believed the AWB performance was as sleazy as the behaviour of the then Prime Minister and Attorney General.
Thanks for the reference HRT – interesting article. A few salient points –
“The story begins with Rex Connor, Whitlam’s minerals and energy minister, a burly former Wollongong unionist. An old-style protectionist, he was determined to ensure Australia’s mineral and energy resources stayed in Australian hands. He had a vision of securing a large, non-equity loan to pay for big mineral and energy infrastructure projects.”
The path to hell is paved by good intentions – maybe old Rex had the right idea about foreign ownership.
“Most strikingly, they reveal how crippling hostility between the government and Treasury apparently nearly allowed Tirath Khemlani, a fawning Pakistani businessman, to swindle Australia out of $100 million”.
Part of the background was a tussle between Treasury and the Whitlam government – after all those years of conservative government; these upstarts had to be given their comeuppance.
“Finally, on December 21, Rex Connor faced the fact that the loan was not going to happen. He sent a telex to the Union Bank of Switzerland and a somewhat sharper version to Khemlani saying the proposal had “been examined by the Australian government, which has decided, in the light of information now available to it, that it will not further pursue the matter”.
The affair was exploited by Malcolm Fraser when he blocked supply.
“Connor and Cairns were eventually sacked for their roles in loans scandals as, ultimately, was the government when the Malcolm Fraser-led opposition used the issue as the trigger to block supply, sparking the constitutional crisis and dismissal of 1975.”
The deal did not go through, and it was cancelled by the Whitlam government.
Fraser’s behaviour wasn’t much better – he obviously believed that the end justified the means, in the same way as Whitlam did. Neither come out of it smelling like roses, but I venture to suggest that Whitlam’s persona indicates that he was naïve, whereas Fraser at the time was ruthless. When you look at his most recent statements about Howard’s ethics, he’s obviously been down the road to Damascus.
“Speaking in Melbourne last night, Mr Fraser said he’s considered quitting the party because he believes it’s departed from the founding principles of liberalism saying it has instead become a conservative collective operating on fear.” (The World Today – 30.12.05)
Sure, the Loans Affair was up there on the sleaze scale, but it sits with the narrative of “Pig-iron Bob” and “the Fiery Particle” (Billy Hughes) in its relevance in 2007.
Whitlam is not up for re-election. Howard and Costello are.
“Despite the findings of the Cole inquiry, the fact remains that this scandal occurred on Howard’s watch whilst Australian soldiers were in Iraq.”
WTF ?
Last time I looked the Oil for Food debacle ended when Saddam was defeated in 2003 in an extraordinary display of military planning and execution.
ADF personnel took part in Saddam’s downfall, but unless they were extremely early for the war, there weren’t too many ‘in country’ for most of the period from 15 Aug 1991 to the scheme’s end on 22 May 2003.
Mind you Australian soldiers were also in Hawaii and a couple more in Malaysia, some were in East Timor and one or two were in Australia – so Howard is multiply guilty of whatever you think being exonerated by an inquiry makes him guilty of … errrr – not guilty of …
Do you know anything about the Oil for food scandal 1735099 ?
If they scrapped the irrelevant courses. I may be more sympathetic
Part of the background was a tussle between Treasury and the Whitlam government – after all those years of conservative government; these upstarts had to be given their comeuppance.
They weren’t upstarts, they were incompetent and had to be stopped before they totally ruined our international reputation. As it was it took years before the western world took us seriously again.
I still cringe at the memory.
“Unfortunately, Peter W, it’s not quite that simple….”
You’re right 1735099, the tale of incompetence by TAFE and University administrators would fill several phone book sized tomes.
I teach in both the TAFE & Uni sector and find the blithe tolerance of mediocrity very disappointing.
University administrators appear incapable of doing simple market research and altering the number of places offered in each course.
This statement says it all really “the demand for that course – may be such that not all qualified students can be offered a CSP”.
If Deakin University is aware a popular course may be ‘over subscribed’ all it has to do is alter its distribution of places to reflect the market’s needs.
As for enter scores, the extraordinary ‘wastage’ in many courses shows an enter score is a guide to nothing except a student’s memory in years 11 & 12 when most are immature little kiddies.
As part of my interaction with students I often ask them to explain why they chose to enrol in a particular unit – the most common answers range from “I dunno” to “because I gotta do something at Uni”.
Some classes, especially artsy fartsy ones drop as many as fifty percent of enrolees in the first six months – committed students, regardless of their enter, who really want their qualifications stay on and as they mature their application and sheer hard work often delivers excellent results, often far better than the high enter whiz kids.
Another area of disappointment is the inordinate waste of funds on all sorts of crack pot projects and the appalling internal politics within educational institutions.
In one department where I teach there is one TV and one projector for the entire staff to share across 15 lecture and tutorial rooms, if I want to use either of these resources I have to book weeks in advance and then often go and find the bloody things on the day I need them.
Where as a neighbouring department has planned its expenditure and given priority to facilitating teaching so each room has a TV and projector as well as access to the campus intranet and internet.
It’s only a little thing I guess but staff can wander straight into a room, plug in a laptop, connect to the intranet, see any messages related to that class, report equipment failure, check changes to class rolls and use whatever multimedia or computer based teaching aids they see fit.
So what’s the difference?
One department has a committed manager at its helm, the other a committee of useless dipshits more concerned with the size and location of their car parks, visits by gabfesters accommodated and paid for by department funds, sabbaticals for ‘senior’ staff and ensuring every member of the full time staff receive a copy of the Age every day and fresh ground coffee in the staff room at morning tea.
So is the tertiary system perfect, no of course not, but it’s more a problem caused by inefficient universities and TAFEs than any other cause.
As for the medical students who can’t get an internship, tell them to look at regional Australia, there are many communities who supply housing, membership of local clubs, cash bonuses and comprehensive training programs to any intern who is prepared to give the ‘bush’ a go.
And the ‘poor’ law students – well I couldn’t give a flying f*&k.
Whether or not the corrupt sale of wheat and Australian soldiers fighting in Iraq was contemporaneous is neither here nor there. Fact is, Howard shares a responsibility for both.
Peter W
“As for enter scores, the extraordinary ‘wastage’ in many courses shows an enter score is a guide to nothing except a student’s memory in years 11 & 12 when most are immature little kiddies.”
Couldn’t agree more.
“As part of my interaction with students I often ask them to explain why they chose to enrol in a particular unit – the most common answers range from “I dunno” to “because I gotta do something at Uni”.”
You’ve probably made a very good argument for some kind of national (not necessarily military) service at the end of high school.
My personal recollection is that I was a much better student after two years in the army, than I was before that experience. Many kids aren’t mature enough to know what they want until they’ve lived a bit – there’s also a bit of biology in there somewhere, especially with young men.
How would two years in some kind of service role help? Examples could include working in bush communities; providing a pool of labour in aged care; providing a seasonal labour force in areas where backpackers are currently the mainstay; assisting in labour-intensive care situations; and an opt-in to the military available, not restricted to the army. There are heaps more possibilities. I’m talking about both genders.
The required infrastructure would be considerable, but it’s been done before with National Service. I believe we are raising a pretty self-centered generation for whom the concept of service is a foreign country. Howard has set up a “Gap year” military training scheme.
By the way, I’d love to know what faculty you work in – my experience as a teacher studying part-time for 15 years across three faculties in three different institutions was that the faculty culture (and as you allude – it’s leadership) was the critical factor.
Non illigitamus carborundum
1735099
People have pointing out for years the corruption of the Oil for food program before you and the MSM hade any real interest in it.
The corruption was deep within the UN but only when it could be used to hammer Howard it got headlines.
But little about Kofi Annan’s son’s involvement or call’s for Kofi’s dismissal.
“Whether or not the corrupt sale of wheat and Australian soldiers fighting in Iraq was contemporaneous is neither here nor there. Fact is, Howard shares a responsibility for both”.– 1735099
You thought it relevant enough before landing on your but.
Relevant enough to use Australian soldiers as emotional cannon fodder to try to prove a point.
Despicable!.
“You’ve probably made a very good argument for some kind of national (not necessarily military) service at the end of high school.”
During the seventies I worked briefly for Brigadier Phillip Greville, he was an ex PW from the Korean war and had some interesting ideas about citizenship.
I can only paraphrase a couple of conversations I remember having with him as the seventies seem to be rather a long time ago now…
He believed all Australians should do a period of ‘service’ to the nation before becoming eligible for the full rights conferred by citizenship.
As you’ve alluded, not necessarily military service, but work on projects of national significance, pipelines, rail projects, dams, clearing noxious weeds and toads from national parks, services for the elderly, first responder training in first aid, fire fighting and flood control, state emergency services, bush fire brigades or rural ambulance services.
He suggested that every one has a capacity to do something be it cataloguing reference material in a state library to holding a stop sign at a school crossing and noxious weed removal from waterways.
In his opinion, those who chose not to do ‘national service’ should not enjoy all of the rights and privileges afforded those who did.
One suggestion was that national service should be a condition of the right to own land and vote (extreme perhaps) and those who chose military service should gain extra benefits like a larger first home allowance, significant support for further studies and a waiver of Medicare levies for life etc.
I doubt such a plan will ever be part of a political party’s platform in the foreseeable future, however to my enduring surprise my SMS & MySpace addicted high school age daughter watched Howard’s gap year ads and declared the idea “totally cool”.
She hopes to spend her gap year in either the Army or Navy!
And she’s not alone, many of her friends also remark on its ‘coolness’ especially when compared to a year working at Wendy’s extruding donuts.
So yes it’s an idea I favour and which I believe a majority of young people would accept.
I work across several faculties and institutions teaching, lecturing and running tutorials on skills and knowledge required as part of several courses so I get to observe the machinations of academic life from a slightly detached point of view.
Many staff members have only taught in one faculty in the same institution since they began their careers, they know no better and rarely interact with staff from other campuses or faculties – it’s all staff room gossip, moaning and groaning at their workload (which is often high) , but never doing anything about their grievances.
Bit sad really.
“You thought it relevant enough before landing on your but.”
Gary, the word is “butt”.
“Relevant enough to use Australian soldiers as emotional cannon fodder to try to prove a point.”
Yeah Gary, I was well used in 1970 – know all about it! Have avoided it since.
“Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be outraged by silence.”