Sunday 30 November 2014

Lieberals lose Victoria - one term wonders


For the first time in nearly 60 years, Victoria has chucked out it's gov after just one term in office. Previously such a thing would have been unthinkable.

Tone kept himself largely away from the Victorian Lieberal campaign, but even so he managed to fuck up the one appearance he made down there. The above hug sent shivers down the Lieberals spine, ensuring there was a connection with voters between state and federal gov's. Napthine was doomed.

This then became an election about Abbott and voters clobbered him with it. They made it clear the gov's smug arrogance that it couldn't lose office after just one term was a fiction. Abbott, SSJoe, whining Pine, Asbestos Julie, could all see themselves out on their ears.
"Victorian Liberals say it privately, they're furious about the hug, when Tony Abbott hugged Denis Napthine he earned the enmity of virtually the entire state Liberal party," he said. 

On October 31 Mr Abbott was attending a joint press conference with Dr Napthine when the Prime Minister responded to a question about their working relationship by grasping the Premier's shoulders. 
"It didn't help Napthine at all ... and it should give Tony Abbott himself a fright because his government has to change otherwise it will be a one-term government. more
To further illustrate, here is the bludgertrack of the one term Victorian Lieberals:

  Compare that to the Abbott gov's first term so far:

  

Saturday 29 November 2014

David found System Restore on my Windows 8!

Was pulling my bloody hair out yesterday. One of those ghastly PC problems that you don't have the faintest idea how to fix. BitTorrent was playing up. Eck! At stake was my whole download setup of torrents and free telly watching! That's not a small problem, as torrent downloaders would know. 

Suddenly the whole program refused to open. Thought I may just have to uninstall the thing and do a clean install from online, no great hassle. But the program wouldn't uninstall, Windows 8 reckoned it was still running FFS. 

So after about half an hour getting more and more pissed off, David comes over looking at the screen. He doesn't have a lot of PC experience but he pointed to this little tiny word down the bottom left that said "Restore". Eureka! 

I was almost in shock. Have looked everywhere on this silly Windows 8 for System Restore ever since I got the thing. Windows 7 has it in System Tools but for some reason unknown to man they didn't put it there for Windows 8. And do you think I could find it? Not on your life.

So in short I restored the system and the torrents were away again, phew.

 

Bishop lies GP tax - Promised there'd be no GP tax

Wow, I've not seen this. Have a go at Julie Bishop categorically denying that there would be a GP tax, calling it Labor scaremongering. Then see here defend it after the budget. Lies, lies, lies. She's as good a liar as Tone.

 

Abbott's media cheer squad turn on him

Well now that it appears the gov has recommitted to the $7 GP tax road to nowhere (I think they have anyway) under SSJoe's dummy spit about it, even the media cheer squad that helped him get to power are turning on him, that being Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, and Janet Albrechtsen. 

Meanwhile Abbott continues on in la la land psychosis, describing the political year as "terrific" in a party meeting. What a clown show. Why on earth don't they get rid of him?
Janet Albrechtsen, Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt are among the prominent conservative voices to criticise the Abbott government this week for its struggles. All three commentators were among conservative supporters of Tony Abbott who were invited to Kirribilli House last year for a private function. 

But in light of the government's difficulties they have switched their aim. 

"Another week. Another wasted opportunity by the Abbott government to score a political win. And another reminder of one of the simplest lessons in politics and life: respect is a two-way street. On that critical front, the Abbott government has failed time and again," Albrechtsen wrote in her column for The Australian on Tuesday. 

................. 

On Thursday, Bolt wrote for News Corporation that the government was making "the same blunders that killed Julia Gillard" when it came to the ABC. 

"What is so frustrating for those who wish Abbott well is that this disaster was utterly predictable - and, indeed, predicted," Bolt wrote. 

"In April, even though it killed me, I warned through gritted teeth that the government should honour its promise to the ABC." 

................. 

And in an interview after the G20 summit a fortnight ago, Jones attacked the Prime Minister over the renewable energy target and for "failing the pub test" with elements of the free trade deal with China. 

"To win an election – and you're not worth two bob in opposition – to win an election, you've got to pass the pub test," he said. 

"PM, you don't have a mandate for this." more  
Forget the pub test. If he entered one around here he be told to piss off.  

Friday 28 November 2014

The week in politics - Michelle Grattan

The Lieberals expect Abbott to stay to the next election? Good grief. Are they certifiably insane? 

 

Time Warp cartoon - feat. Tony Abbott :)

Sportsbet calls the Victorian election for Labor

By by Victorian Lieberals :)  

 

Abbott gov in chaos over $7 GP tax


Dead set. This lot couldn't organise themselves out of a wet paper bag. This is schoolyard politics. I wonder what will come out of it in the end? They're so unpredictable now anything's on the cards. Fuck I'd like to be a fly on the wall in Canberra right now.

So at present this appears to be the situation. Abbott finally caved on the $7 GP tax and the media reported that he'd done so, you know the barnacle thing. Then SSJoe pipes up denying that the GP tax was a barnacle, wanting to leave it as part of the canoe (yes this is the absurdity it's reached). Other gov people pipe up supporting the canoe version rather than the barnacle version. One Lieberal senator supports the barnacle version and has threatened to cross the floor and vote against it in the senate if it gets that far. There's also a third version of cutting the medicare rebate by $5 that wouldn't need senate approval. Presently nobody knows by the looks which version is the version :s 

Yes folks, this is Team Abbott falling to bits.
The Treasurer's intervention as the most senior economic minister in the government appeared to have put him at odds with Mr Abbott, forcing the Prime Minister to fall into line. 

However, it is not clear what the government intends to do regarding the plan, with one suggestion being that it would seek to bypass the Parliament to bring in the charge by regulation rather than through legislation. 

That could involve restructuring the payment by reducing the Medicare rebate for bulk-billed patients by $5 on each rebate claimed. 

The government was not saying, with ministers refusing to rule in or out any options. 

There are three competing versions on the future of the co-payment now, ranging from benching it for political reasons, to modifying it and pursuing it through regulation to bypass the Senate, to attempting to pass it as set out in the May budget. 

Speaking in Canberra on Thursday, Mr Hockey said the policy stood and the government would pursue it in the Parliament when it was able to do so. 

Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald has threatened to cross the floor over the GP fee proposal if the government brings it before Parliament. 

The Australian Medical Association has called on the government to make a clear statement on the whether it has shelved or is still pursuing a GP fee. more  


 

Commonwealth Bank to sign with Adani?


The Australian Financial Review has named the Commonwealth Bank as an arranger of finance for Adani Reef wreckers. The bank won't confirm or deny it. Flood the Commonwealth Bank email inbox with outraged protest here, and pressure the bank to come clean.
We refer to an article published last week in the Australian Financial Review, “Adani’s week of positives in an anti-coal atmosphere”, which states that the Commonwealth Bank is one of two lead banks arranging finance for Adani’s proposed T0 project at Abbot point, rail line, and Carmichael mine. To date, CommBank has not confirmed or denied this. 

This project will have grave consequences for the Great Barrier Reef and the global climate, and presents a number of financial, environmental, reputational, and legal risks. Since August, thousands of Commonwealth Bank customers and shareholders have called on the bank to publicly rule out involvement in the Abbot Point expansion and associated mines and rail infrastructure. 

If the Bank does not publicly rule out involvement in this project as a matter of priority, you can expect growing opposition over the coming weeks and months. 

I urge the Commonwealth Bank to show leadership and publicly rule out any involvement with Adani over this project. email it here  

Thursday 27 November 2014

HIV truth - not the lies

Abbott 1 week before election radio audio

Typical. Spectacular Abbott's lies. He duped the undecided's in the election. There should be a law against politicians doing this. It's against democracy to lie to the voters like this. Not to mention the population's sensibilities.

 

 

Grandparents unite against climate change denial

The picture says it all. Article here.

 

Abbott the thug in a pub - true story


Most interesting read of an incident that happened years ago. Abbott was a hot head who disagreed with this bloke about abortion and women's rights. He wanted to take the bloke outside and punch his face in. This is Abbott's version of "negotiation" I guess. No wonder he's fucked it in the senate.

Read the whole article, but here's some of the best bits. This was written in response to the Abbott story about nearly clobbering a woman political opponent in the early days.....
The interlopers were soon identified as radicals involved in student politics at the University of Sydney. We were about to chip our colleague about bringing contacts into such a low-class establishment when he brought them over and introduced them to us. 

It did not end well. They quickly explained how the world went around and why they had to extinguish their opposition at the university and the rest of the country. Unfortunately, I did not agree with everything that was said and a few feathers got ruffled. The main point of contention was a woman's right to control pregnancy, either via contraception or abortion. My view was that it was something those involved should settle on, not people like me who didn't have to live with the consequences of the decision. To the activists that view was just as unacceptable as abortion. 

The largest of the lot was a person named Tony Abbott. He decided the quickest way to settle our differences was to take me downstairs and demonstrate how I was wrong by punching my head in. This was not the way I wanted the evening to go. Yes, we could have gone downstairs. Yes, he probably could have punched my head in — provided I did not faint of fright first — and yes, the evening's discussion would have been brought to an end. 

Punching heads in was something Abbott did well. A few years after he demonstrated how good he was in the boxing ring at Oxford University where he flattened anyone silly enough to get into the ring with him. 

A number of people in the bar pointed out that pregnancy control and me having a punched-in head were almost unrelated. Basically, with a punched-in head it was unlikely I could have convinced anyone to indulge in an activity that might contribute to a pregnancy. Also whether I did or did not add to the world's population, that small fact was unlikely to have a big affect the national statistics. 

Before Abbott had a chance to damage his knuckles on me, Sheridan interceded and got between us. He calmed Abbott down by suggesting this was not the way to settle differences. I was very pleased he did. The point was taken and the discussion ended. Then the students all departed. I had another drink and assuming by then the street impediment free, I too departed. more  

Address to National Press Club - Bill Shorten

Shorten rips into Abbott. Delicious :)

 

Low wage rage - Walmart protests

You go brothers and sisters :)  Dunno why they're getting arrested though. Here the protest root is organised with the police and officials and there's no problem.

 

"Protect the Renewable Energy Target" - rural Australia

You can donate to get this add on the telly here.

 

Abbott's twitter followers are mostly fake

They're not very good at this internetty thing are they :s

 

$7 GP tax scrapped by gov as economy burns


It's happened. Abbott is finally caving. Although it's not going to help. All it'll do is reinforce what the gov tried to do and the voter opposition to it. And it's only one tiny thing in a great stinking pile of bullshit.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has privately conceded defeat on his controversial budget proposal to introduce a new $7 co-payment on bulk-billed GP visits and will formally shelve the policy before the end of the year.

The decision is a recognition of the reality that it had no chance of progressing through a hostile Senate in the face of trenchant opposition from Labor, the Greens, and a majority of the crossbench.

It represents a clearing-away of the first and perhaps biggest political "barnacle" clinging to the hull of the government ship – a description Mr Abbott used earlier in the week to describe policies causing resistance to the Coalition in public opinion polls. more
Removing the $7 GP tax is a political move by a gov on the ropes. It will do nothing to address the wider issue of Australia's economy. Which is looking like it's about as much on the ropes as SSJoe and his silly budget. As if making pensioners pay to see a doctor was going to fix his loony tunes fuckwitedness anyway. 
"We should look at what Tony Abbott's lack of vision has done to Australia's economy," he said. 

"Growth has slumped, the deficit has doubled, we've reached a 12-year high in unemployment and a 13-year high in youth unemployment." more
Much of this is all the gov's doing. Instead of trying a sensible budget they tried an ideological one that was always going to face stiff opposition from the public and senate, but in their conceited arrogance they simply assumed we'd cop it. So psychotic is their world. 

Instead of targeting perks for the wealthy and tax avoidance by large companies, they targeted people with nothing. As if that was going to fix anything. They got rid of the carbon tax and mining tax which further destroyed gov revenue. Again, for ideology. Instead of creating jobs they've been destroying them. Instead of stimulating the economy they're starving it to death.

All in all, this is a humiliating back down by Abbott. One to relish and have him squirm. An opportunity for the public to twist the knife. We won you arrogant prick :)


Wednesday 26 November 2014

Construction worker deaths vs cricketer deaths

OK, there's some big raving hullabaloo about an Australian cricketer who was injured on the job, thus:


He hasn't died, although is in a terrible state in the hospital after having a heart attack on the field when hit with a bloody fast cricket ball. Terrible thing and all, and I hope as everyone else that the poor guy recovers.

At the same time I'm torn about the media hype about it all. Cricketer gets hurt badly, team mates devastated. Um...... is it just me?

How about the number of construction workers killed on the job this year? Under Tony Abbott's gov. Last I heard was about one death a month across Australia. This year it's doubled.


So where is the main stream media outrage about this then? Instead it's all about the bullshit royal commission into the CFMEU supposed corruption. Where is the compassion for these 24 workers so far this year who have died simply by going to work? It appears cricketers deserve compassion, but not them. 

IMO the focus on one hurt sportsman and all the tragedy about it, cheapens the lives of those lost construction workers. I make no apologies about that. But hey, WTF else would you expect from Murdoch?

"Multiculturalism is a failure" - Rise Up Australia christian maniacs

*takes deep breath and counts to ten*

OK, so this Rise Up Australia party is some kind of extremist wacko christian maniac thing. Which there are plenty of, but the only reason I find any interest in it now is because it involves the Victorian election this Sat. One of them is a candidate.


So I looked up the Rise Up Australia website, and look what I found.

Hate.

Ironic a coloured man is having a whinge about multiculturalism BTW. Also I'd have to say that Australia has had a very different experience of multiculturalism. We have the highest per capita immigrants in the world of any country, including the US. I'm one of them being a New Zealander. Northern hemisphere racism and cultural hate, the great majority of Australians reject. We've made something different down here, succeeded where others have failed. Why do you think everyone wants to come here? 
 

Victoria election; christians will be doomed under Labor! - Rise Up bla

Ha ha ha ha ha....... The lunatics are in full force in this Victorian state election this Saturday. Yes folks, if christians aren't allowed to discriminate it will make it very hard to keep their faith...... Oh the poor dears, how will they ever survive? So much for the all powerful god then. Running from a few poofs FFS. Ha ha ha ha ha...... Good grief. Like I said, the crazies are about down there.

Yes darlings, christian love at it's finest:

  

Walmart workers ask for $15 an hour - US

I dunno what they get now, but even $15 an hour is less than Australia's minimum wage. The bazillion-aires can't pay that? Bullshit. Thirty years of working in manufacturing I've heard it all before. Can't afford it, not making enough profits, trust me the boss, bla bla bla....... It's all bullshit, and the only way to get money out of prick bosses like that is to become unionised and be prepared to strike.

 

Penises On Screen - The Feed

"I wouldn't trust them to build a canoe" - Lieberals to Aust. ship builders

Absolutely disgusting. How dare this fuckwit get up there and say to the Australian people that he wouldn't trust Australian ship builders to build a canoe. What an insult. He should be standing up for Australian workers and Australian jobs, not trashing them and sending them offshore.

And so what if the budget is a bit over? Does that mean we should get submarines built overseas? How about the lemon US planes thing then? How did that work out?


 

Victorian Lieberals getting desperate :)

They're gonna be chucked out this weekend.

 

Abbott gov in crisis


The wheels are falling off. No other way to summarise it. They're panicking. Polling is in free fall again. It's finally sinking in that they've fucked themselves royally (pun intended). 

Abbott however appears to be in deep denial, I reckon to the point of psychosis. His refusal to admit that ABC cuts were a broken promise a case in point. Even his own ministers are taking him to task over it, but he doesn't want to budge. It just makes him look ridiculous.

Howard went through periods of very bad polling (albeit unlike Abbott's) but he always managed to pull the polls back into his favour. Abbott hasn't got anywhere near Howard's capacity to do so. Instead he's dug in. No wonder the party is getting frustrated with him.

How much longer can this go on? Something has to give, and it doesn't appear it's going to be Abbott. 

IMO it's too late to make any changes and restore faith in the gov. Nobody will believe a word that man says ever again. He's taken political lying to a level never seen before, at least in Australia.
The refusal had led to farcical scenes in parliament on Monday as the opposition hammered away with successive questions quoting Mr Abbott's words back to him. 

By Tuesday, and with the government hemorrhaging support in the face of a clear broken promise, Mr Abbott finally relented declaring "of course I made that statement," to ironic applause and jeers from across the chamber. 

Earlier in the day, Mr Abbott had told colleagues he was pleased with the year in politics, but was aware that some problems needed resolving before the summer break. 

With the government languishing in the polls for the past ten months, some Liberals and Nationals MPs believe changes must be made to the approach before year's end in order to start 2015 with a clean slate. 

Mr Abbott has been urged in private conversations and in government forums to square up to those policies which voters see as breaches of promises made from opposition to restore integrity and trust by being "a government that says what it means and does what it says". 

One senior MP told Fairfax Media he had urged Mr Abbott to state openly that the ABC decision was a funding cut and therefore a broken promise in order to explain why it was necessary given the budget situation. 

"It was like I farted in a lift," the MP said, describing the silence. more  

ABC to expand digital media - Murdoch pissed off :)

Very interesting. It seems that the new direction of the ABC is a slap in the face for pay TV. And it will be all free. Murdoch must be absolutely livid. Looks like the ABC has outsmarted the gov.....*evil laugh*
To lose 10% of his staff and more than $50m a year for five years, plus the one off whack of $120m from the May budget, presents opportunities for Scott, aside from the despair. 

The managing director has seized them. It’s digital all the way, largely at the expense of traditional regional services across the wide, brown land. 

That is an uppercut right to the chin for regional viewers and listeners, who might reasonably be expected to be Coalition supporters. Mainstream media businesses will also feel the blow, as they scramble to move their content and customers from print to digital. 

Arguably, one of the biggest pains in the ABC’s neck is the infantile carping from News Corp. The Murdochs have been belting out the same chorus against public broadcasters for years. Who can forget James Murdoch’s 2009 MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh, where he denounced the BBC’s “land grab”? 

Of course, for the ABC to announce a massive expansion of its digital business, all of it free to consumers, is one in the eye for a national commercial operator trying to build an online news business behind a paywall.

 ................... 

His investment in the broadcaster’s digital services is driving News Corp bonkers, which is delightful to observe. The spluttering indignation in the Australia’s editorial was the main amusement of the morning. 

“Mark Scott’s strategic statement on the future of the ABC yesterday was a political stunt by a failing technocrat who is out of his depth as editor-in-chief of the national broadcaster,” the paper opined. 

His sin is the expansion of the ABC’s digital services, something News Corp and Fairfax regard as their own private turf. There’s nothing worse than publicly-funded competition. more  

GetUp "no cuts" add for marginal electorates

GetUp wants to hold the Lieberals to account for the savage cuts to the ABC. They have an add to screen on telly in marginal electorates. The add itself is savage, to the Lieberals that is. You can donate to get it on air here.

 

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Is Abbott buying facebook "likes"?

From New Deli? 395,000 likes? Oh please.......



Townsville protests Abbott climate change denial :)

This anti-Abbott protest is catching on. Here is one from Townsville in far north Queensland, right smack in the Great Barrier Reef area :)

 

"Abbott is poison" - Victorian Lieberal election campaigners

Abbott is being kept away from the Lieberal Victorian election campaign. Voters will toss out the Lieberal Victorian gov this Sat after only one term. Lieberal campaigners have called Abbott poison.

Seriously, why haven't the Lieberals turfed him by now? Oh yeah, they're completely out of touch.....
“He’s box office poison,’’ a Liberal campaign strategist said. “It’s not the sole reason we’re in trouble of course, but Tony Abbott and the Abbott Government is a piece of the pie. 

“The higher education reforms are just killing us. “The $100,000 degree thing has just stuck. It’s common knowledge that after the federal budget a lot of the state candidates were told in May to get out of field. They were told to stop campaigning. It was counter-productive. They stopped door-knocking.’’ 

Mr Abbott has visited Victoria just three times during the campaign. 

Last week he travelled to Melbourne to attend a dinner for visiting Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, but he did not campaign. 

Mr Abbott also appeared at a closed event on November 8 for the media to announce a $250 million upgrade of the Tullamarine Freeway. 

Previously, he announced a joint police taskforce into Industrial Criminality and Corruption on October 31. 

During the event, there was an awkward hug between Mr Abbott and Mr Napthine that prompted one of the Victorian Premier’s staffers to say, “Oh s---’’, in front of reporters, a moment that was recorded on a journalist’s tape recorder. 

Asked about the pair’s relationship, Mr Napthine said at the press conference that he had a “positive relationship”, before the Prime Minister put his arms around him and squeezed him in a hug. more  

Victorian councillor tries to ban LGBT promotions

Beware the Rise Up crazies are about. This one in the form of a councillor who has put up a proposal to ban all LGBT promotions in the city of Casey. The first vote failed as half the council walked out in disgust, there's another attempt Thursday.
Her motion also called for council’s public relations department to stop issuing media releases relating to sexual orientation or anything LGBTI-related, that council staff’s LGBTI diversity training should stop, that signs by Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria (GLVH) should be taken down, and that council committees should not be used to promote LGBTI-vested interest.

Speaking to the Star Observer yesterday, Crestani defended her proposal, saying the “special treatment” given to LGBTI people meant they were also “continuing to discriminate against the heterosexual community”.

She said she did not believe one group should be favoured over another, and did not believe LGBTI people were a marginalised group. more
Related is some Lord from somewhere who has come to her defence thus:
Meanwhile, she consulted an expert in non-heterosexual lifestyles, who confirmed that the QWERTYs were far more promiscuous than the heterosexual community: Official survey after official survey had shown that homosexuals had an average of 500-1,000 partners in their sexually active lifetime, and that some had as many as 20,000. One wonders how they found time for anything else. 

The wages of promiscuity is deadly disease. It is now at last admitted, even in official circles, that HIV is chiefly a disease of homosexuals and drug-abusers – and that a far greater percentage of homosexuals than heterosexuals do drugs. AIDS, then, is at root a “gay” disease, and officialdom’s terrified refusal to admit that fact has killed 36 million worldwide. 

Councillor Crestani was so shocked by the official mortality figures for homosexuals that she proposes to circulate a memorandum to all councillors and staff giving them detailed statistics for promiscuity, prevalence of HIV and many other sexually transmitted diseases, and for the consequently short, miserable lives and high death rate of homosexuals. 

As the experts she has consulted have pointed out, the QWERTYs – who represent about 0.5 percent of the population – have brilliantly promoted themselves by carefully shifting the debate away from what homosexuals actually do to each other (just ask any proctologist: all of them are heartily sick of trying to repair the gross damage caused by deviant sexual practices) and on to “celebrating” what is misleadingly presented as a “valid alternative lifestyle.” Deathstyle, more like. Read more
I note said councillor is an upper house candidate for the Victorian state election. Like I said, beware people, the crazies are about.

Monday 24 November 2014

"Don't Send Renewable Jobs Offshore!"

"Promises, Broken"



Shorten carpet bombs Abbott - Canberra :)

Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten today clobbered Abbott and his pissy gov big time. I've always had faith in Shorten. He is an extremely intelligent man. I'd put that intelligence up with Keating and Hawke. 

Many have harassed Labor online, saying Shorten was missing in action when Abbott was declaring war on the poor. I disagree completely. He was simply biding his time, giving Abbott enough rope, presently seeing Abbott hang himself at the G20 and more presently hang himself over his no cuts promise the day before the election.

Watch as Shorten annialiates the Abbott gov today in Canberra, in such a Keating fashion.....

 

 

Walking dead latest - crazy priest nutbag? *spoiler alert*


The priest escapes from his church by ripping up floorboards and crawling out underneath. He stumbles on a bloody great nail that looks like it about goes through his whole foot. He proceeds on. The resolution to the priest will come in further shows. Will he turn into some kind of maniac priest nutjob?

The plot thickens....... 

Sunday 23 November 2014

Hello New Zealand :)

It's taken nearly a quarter million views but finally it's happened. For the first time ever New Zealand has entered into the top ten list of views for the last week. I nearly fainted.

I was starting to wonder if they even had the internet over there. Whenever I email anyone there I'm lucky to get a response within a month, and then only short stuff. My brother in Taranaki owns a business and everything, but is lucky to check his email once in three months :s  

Scott Ludlam's rally speech :)

This was at the protest against ABC cuts, but he mentions also the broader issues of the Abbott gov itself. Brilliant speech. Do you get the feeling there is change in the air?

 

"Falsehood and Plunder" - Victorian Trade Union Choir Nov 2014

With the Victorian Lieberal gov about to go down, the Victorian Trade Union Choir has put together this little gem. Would be a nice song to be going through your head whilst in line at the ballot box :)

 

QLD Lieberal corruption - in bed with coal and gas


This is the Queensland gov that wants to build one of the worlds largest coal mines in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. A gov rotten to the core. Does it get any clearer than this?
Lock the Gate president Drew Hutton said the Newman government had made the system of environmental protection around mines “so heavily weighted in favour of proponents that it is virtually impossible for other stakeholders to have any hope of having their concerns addressed”. 

That system had been “broken for many years”, he said, adding there had “never been a coal mine in the history of this state that has been through the approvals process and rejected on environmental grounds”. 

“Instead of attempting to remedy this, the Newman government has taken a chainsaw to the ramshackle system under the cloak of removing red and green tape, leading the observer to believe [it] must consider the public interest to always and completely align with the private interest of the developers,” Hutton said. 

“In short, the Newman government has reduced environmental regulations to a low level that has not been seen in Queensland for decades.” He said the Newman government had tried to “freeze the community” out by passing laws that made it impossible for all but directly affected landholders “to object to a mining project in court”.

 ........................... 

Lock The Gate’s submission also detailed some $17,324 worth of hospitality given to senior Queensland government bureaucrats by mining companies in the two years to September 2014. 

They ranged from private meals to State of Origin corporate box seats to bottles of wine and Christmas hampers. more
The article also goes into the senate inquiry uncovering secret donations to the Lieberal party from coal seam gas companies, despite Lieberal denials.

So this is what the Reef is up against. A gov system that has never seen a coal mine not go ahead because of environmental danger. Everything gets approved. To me it looks like the only way to save the Reef is to fire the Lieberal gov up there. They're beyond redemption. 

 

Saturday 22 November 2014

Response to complaint Emergency Dept

This stemmed from the other night when I slipped out of the bath doing a half somersault into the edge of the toilet bowl splitting my head open. David made the complaint, so enraged he was at what happened. I myself don't remember a lot of it as I was falling in and out of sleep. Thought I'd only been there about an hour but it was much longer.

Anyway the reply was a complete joke. None of the issues raised in the complaint were addressed; that being that no neuro OBS were done on me for nearly 4 hours upon arrival at the hospital in an ambulance, me being left alone in the Emergency waiting room. Also that a nurse lied to David saying I'd been assessed by two doctors (I wasn't, just the triage nurse who also took no neuro OBS). Also that he overheard a nurse saying they weren't going near me as I was bleeding and infectious (HIV). Nothing was even mentioned in the reply about any of that. 

The nurses also accused David of "verbal abuse" and that they were afraid to approach me as they feared physical violence from David..... .oh please... The big gay nurse David is going to clobber other nurses in an Emergency dept? Give me a fuckin break man. Yes he became animated and cutting in his comments, but who wouldn't in such a circumstance? He never swore and never threatened violence. The nurses just didn't like what he was saying, simple as that, accused him of "verbal aggression" and called the A team security. What a joke. As soon as someone raises a complaint about how they're being treated, understandably frustrated and raised voice, they call security and accuse them of threatening violence. Well what about the threat to my physical condition from negligence? How's that for a threat? So it's become about David now as well, and the insult to his character. Nurses trying to cover their fuckin asses.

Here's a good one. When we were in the waiting room and the nurse was behind the counter tapping on the PC and mobile phone, he claimed he observed me "from behind the counter". Is this a new way to take neuro OBS then? Have they got some kind of new you beaut remote control neuro OBS takerer? Fuckin hell man. That's just an insult to our intelligence.

Here's another one. The triage nurse didn't take any nuero OBS but went over and discussed with the doctor about me. Evidently she was claiming this was a doctor "assessing" me FFS. I certainly wasn't seen by any doctor. The reply stated that I was walking with a "steady gait". I never walked anywhere until I was sent to the waiting room. Is that the doctor's assessment then, watching me go to the waiting room after they'd decided to send me there without even doing OBS? There you go, a new way to take neuro OBS, see how you walk after the fact. Nothing was said about David supporting me walking BTW.

It just went on and on, bullshit on top of bullshit. David's so pissed off he doesn't want to know about it anymore. I however have decided to take up the offer from our ACON social worker to advocate for us with this, sending her off a scan of the reply and a long email. Will get an appt with her when she's able to discuss this further.

Simply, I don't want this to happen to any other HIV person that turns up at that Emergency Dept. The nurses behaved terribly and there was no excuse for it.

Update:

Seeing the social worker next Wednesday at my GPs medical centre. Turns out she goes there once a week seeing people. How very convenient :)



 

Turnbull says Abbott wasn't lying about ABC cuts

Watch Turnbull try and defend the indefensible, claiming that Abbott didn't lie about cuts to the ABC.





Leigh Sales, presenter 7.30: "So how come we are having a discussion about a five per cent cut to the ABC when in the election campaign, the government unequivocally said, 'No cuts to the ABC'?" 

Malcolm Turnbull, Communications Minister: "Well, the Prime Minister said that in one interview I think the night before the election. But Joe Hockey and I had made it very clear on a number of ABC programs in fact that we - that if there were going to be cuts across the board, as plainly there would have to be - across the board of government ... then the ABC and SBS couldn't be exempt." 

Sales: "...they shouldn't have taken 'no cuts' as 'no cuts', they should have been parsing Mr Abbott's comments and Mr Hockey's comments and your comments to try to figure out exactly what that meant?" 

Turnbull: "Well, well, look, you know, I mean, I've defended the Prime Minister on this today and earlier in the week. I think you've got to take his comments, which, look, I mean, what he said, he said, and, you know, it's there, it's on the record. But you've got to take that in context. 

"And I can only assume that what Mr Abbott was referring to or was thinking about, anyway, was the proposition that there would be cuts in - with the intent of reducing ABC services and we've ruled that out." 

Sales: "You must understand that for voters, when someone says 'no cuts' you think 'no cuts'." 

Turnbull: "No, look, I understand that. But to accept that Tony Abbott meant the ABC and SBS, out of all the agencies of government, would be exempt from any savings measure, to accept that, you would have to assume that he had decided on the eve of the election to overrule and contradict the very carefully considered statements that Joe Hockey and I had been making. Now, that's a big call too."  more  

The week in politics - Michelle Grattan

It's not often I see her so merciless..... How much longer can Abbott stay at the helm?

 

Lieberal leadership rumblings - Canberra

Dunno what to make of this. Very interesting: