Budget woes
The shouting and tumult dies down as the media have allowed every single person dependant on government largesse to vacilitate wildly and often about the budget. The attacks aginst the Abbott and Hockey have been sustained and not without some bias. The ABC did particularly well with Vilma Ward, a Queensland left wing radical activist, being presented as a concerned Pensioner and a sex-line grandmother (there are some sick men out there!) who claims to have been forced into the sleaze business to help pay her rent. When she come on-line ABC’s Faine smiled at Abbott and he winked back. The furore from “The Wink” has gone viral as Faine managed to have a convenient video available even though the ABC claim they didn’t know who she was. Bullshit – they always know who their callers are and what they are likely to go on about.
They don’t just let anyone call, they must be anti-coalition to get a voice and call-id allows them to select callers who have a proven track record of agreeing with the ABC and it’s self-perceived role as opposition to any conservative government.
Glooria, who is actually Judith Power, is a long-time feminist activist and anarchist but insists she has never been a member of a political party, even though Liberal Party twitter accounts claim she is an ALP branch secretary.
In an amusing twist, this sex-line elderly anarchist and radical feminist, who by her own background defines sleeze, accuses Abbott of being a sleazy misogynist.
The hypocracy!
Some sense is rising out of the tumult but there is a lot of work to be done by Abbott and Hockey. Their efforts at selling the budget have been poor to say the least and quite a few have been disappointed that they weren’t more savage in their cuts.
The fight now is all about getting the budget through the Senate and the new Senate, due to sit in July, comes with it’s own problems that occassion dispair at the offerings.
Particularly dispairing to me is the fact that Palmer’s roll call of Senators in both his party and alligned Independants will have the final say in alot of the budget final make-up
PUP senators Zhenya Wang, Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazaruswill be part of the balance of power and to look closely at one of them, Jacqui Lambie from Tasmania, despair can easily turn to depression.
Jacqui Lambie is an ex soldier and a shallow thinker.
- She advocates national service as a means to fix youth unemployment.
- believes “hitting welfare” is not the way the Government should be finding savings and the nation needs “other ideas”
- believes the economy is in good shape and the Prime Minister and Treasurer are panicking.
- believes Abbott and Joe Hockey are nothing less than a pair of deceitful, lying political politicians,”
- believes abuse was an “intractable problem” in the ADF and made such allegations against the ADF that motivated General Hurlley to make an unprecedented intervention suggesting she calm down.
<In an amusing twist, this sex-line elderly anarchist and radical feminist, who by her own background defines sleeze, accuses Abbott of being a sleazy misogynist.
Perhaps, but a lot of veterans will find this far less amusing –
Based on current indexation rates over the last year, by 2022, a married TPI on full service pension will be $244 p/f worse off. Their total loss in five years will amount to over $18000.
A war widow will be $107 p/f worse off. Their total loss in five years will be almost $8000.
The proposed reduced indexation rate will increase the loss each and every year after that.
Now I’m not on a TPI pension, but many blokes I know in my unit are. Haven’t they already paid a high enough price to this nation?
Why should they be targeted in this budget?
Because everyone has to help pay for the Gillard/Rudd spendathon.
I’m disappointed that we didn’t get our preferred indexation as promised but in light of how bad the deficits and interest payments are I’m prepared to help pay. We will still get the TPI pension, we will still get quarterly increases and with proven economic managers in charge, in due course there will be a case to adjust the indexation. Once GDP increases, once Business is in charge of business rather than unions, once the Green waste of money has been curtailed then we will have a case.
Until then, we bite the bullett like the rest of society.