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From the Labor side of politics. Why not? We're plastered with Murdoch crap. And finally someone from Labor sums it all up and gets the whole picture. The US has entrenched poverty over generations; people who can't get out of poverty through no fault of their own, forever remain in poverty with little help from the gov to aid them in getting employment. They are blamed by many as being poor because it's their fault, when it wasn't.
Unfortunate circumstances happen to all people from all walks of life. In some cases when it happens to poor people they haven't the capacity to deal with it, financially being one of the first things to crumble, but not the least. Mental illness is a huge issue; how will we eat? how will we pay rent? will we be safe?
This gov however sees fit to target me. Me FFS. What possible contribution could I ever make to the National pissy little debt? I don't care about the debt. I care about eating and having a roof over my head. Fighting simply for survival, mentally, physically, emotionally, financially. Readers of this blog know the bla...... Why the fuck are they targeting me?
Are they trying to punish me for not being bloody catholic? Passing judgement that I made the "wrong" decisions and I deserve what I get? Isn't being HIV enough? Do they have to throw the book at me too? That's what I feel this gov is on about.
These are the questions now being asked in the public debate following the Abbott gov's budget disaster (still in progress mind you - like watching a slow train wreck over months). Australia is rejecting the US model, and in abject horror now at what the Abbott gov is trying to do to this country:
Across the Pacific, a decade or more of wage stagnation is one of the most troubling indicators of America’s failure to share the gains of post-war, and now post-crisis, prosperity effectively.
In one of his most fascinating speeches since leaving the prime ministership, Paul Keating attributes American wage stagnation to the fracture of the binding social philosophy of the US kicked off by the Reagan-era shift to conservatism. Published as the last chapter in his book After Words, the speech argues that this shift is marked most clearly by the radical Republican obstructionism of Gingrich in the 1990s, replicated by the Tea party movement more recently, seeking to cement structural inequality in the political framework.
Australians are waking up to the fact that the Abbott government, with Hockey at the wheel, is now trying to drive Australia down this discredited economic and political road. Their first budget asks those on low and middle incomes to carry the heaviest load while the wealthiest gain new entitlements; a fact claimed not just by Labor politicians but proven by the independent National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM).
Judged on their decisions to date, we now have a government that sees inequality as an objective to be met, not a challenge to be overcome. This is appalling in the here and now and devastating for the future. As Miles Corak’s Great Gatsby curve suggests, inequality in one generation breeds inequality in the next, consigning future generations to social immobility. more
Speaking of far out Australian nutbag politicians (where the fuck do they all sprout up from? - oh yeah - old white bitter catholic men) this one is a real doozy. These nutbags I've noticed do have rather the propensity of coming from Queensland, but this case is from the Northern Territory.
Enter NT pollie "Deputy Chief Minister" (sounds impressive) Dave Tollner, who saw fit to bring the sexuality of the son of one of his political opponents into the political debate. Um, well that's putting it very mildly.
What actually happened was that Tollner lost it and went bananas, which of course in the macho hetro world would include a thick dose of anti-gay homophobic insults. Normally these insults are limited to "Ya fuckin poofta" or such like, but in this case entered the full on homophobic world of comments such as "pillow biter" and "shirt lifter", well and truly said in a fit of homophobic rage.
May I present to you, crazy Australian Northern Territory politics :s
DEPUTY Chief Minister Dave Tollner has called the gay son of fellow CLP politician Gary Higgins a “pillow biter”.
The homophobic rant has angered several colleagues and sparked another episode of Country Liberals turmoil.
Mr Higgins told the parliamentary wing this week he would boycott all party meetings while Mr Tollner remained in a leadership position.
Multiple and senior Government sources confirmed the story to the NT News yesterday, raising concerns about Mr Tollner’s behaviour.
He is understood to have called Joshua Higgins – a staffer for Community Services Minister Bess Price – a “pillow biter” and “shirt lifter” directly to his face in a stunning outburst over the content of a draft speech that was shown to cabinet.
When cabinet reconvened, Health Minister Robyn Lambley asked cabinet secretary Gary Barnes to leave the room before launching a broadside at Mr Tollner and demanding he apologise to Joshua Higgins, which he subsequently did. more
Clive loose-canon Palmer's extreme and strange rant on national telly the other night about Chinese "mongrels" over his private court dealings, has caught the ire of the Chinese. They are not happy. No surprises there, I mean his rant was seriously wacko and out there.
Gladly though, the Chinese critics of Palmer appear to have a much milder and sane temperament than said Palmer and have seen it for what it is. Basically, some wacko nutbag that's metamorphosised into a wacko nutbag politician. Happens all the time there you know in Australia. Remember that crazy Pauline Hansen, ha ha ha ha .......
While the Chinese government has yet to publicly comment, a prominent Chinese newspaper, the state-run Global Times tabloid, weighed into the controversy, saying Australia should be taught a lesson.
"China cannot let him off, or show petty kindness just because the Australian government has condemned him," the newspaper said in an editorial in its Chinese and English editions.
"China must be aware that Palmer's rampant rascality serves as a symbol that Australian society has an unfriendly attitude toward China."
The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, and though it does not have the same mouthpiece function of its mother publication, its words can carry weight in government circles.
However, the government-run Xinhua news agency took a softer line, saying in a commentary that "one rotten apple" should not be allowed to ruin relations, noting that the Chinese embassy had received emails of support from Australian people who felt embarrassed by Palmer. more
OK, so the AMA puts out a suggestion to the gov as a possible compromise on the senate impasse, suggesting that pensioners and children should be exempt. Sounds like sort of a step in the right direction but really there shouldn't be a doctors tax at all that undermines the universality of Medicare, but Abbott won't even give on that. He's rejected the idea, saying that it's fair that we pensioners should pay it. Yes, in Abbott's old bitter catholic white man moral world, he thinks it's fair to charge pensioners for a service they need with money they haven't got. And he actually defends this position thus:
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne on Thursday, Mr Abbott said pensioners already paid about $7 for prescriptions subsidised by the government under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
"I don't think it's unreasonable for a comparable amount to be paid for visits to the GP," he said.
Read more
Oh really? This fuckwit needs brain surgery. Just where the fuck am I supposed to get this $7 that some rich guy somewhere has decided that it's not "unreasonable" for me to pay? And who says I can afford even the $6 prescription fee anyway? At the moment we're using the credit card to eat.
What another portrayal of this gov not having the faintest idea of what's happening in the real world. They actually think that I have enough money to pay this, at the same time they're wanting to slowly starve me over time with indexation? Yet he says this is reasonable?
WTF? Gays are supposed to not have equal rights because it will hurt the religious feelings of Christians? Oh fuck off......
To all the clobbered minorities that this gov is demonising........ And to all those doing the demonising........
Powderfinger - Nobody Sees from
Damon Escott on
Vimeo.
Now he says he was misinterpreted over the poor don't have cars comment. He was never really sorry. He's blaming everyone but himself for his derangement. What's next, poor people don't work?
Audio here.
Kevin bloody Andrews has come up with a real beauty this time. He reckons mental illness sort of stops and starts, and that you should go to work when it stops. Apparently he's now well trained in the field of psychiatry. Um, well no not really:
'From a psychiatric perspective, this is indicative of a lack of understanding of the complexity of chronic mental illness and the myriad impacts of this on a person's life and capacity,'' the submission says.
It warned that making the DSP available only to those with ''permanent disability'' risked leaving a large group of people worse off.
The College of Psychiatrists said it was difficult to predict how mental health symptoms would manifest, ''making it problematic for people suffering from mental illness, even if it is 'episodic' in nature, to maintain steady employment''.
Even between episodes problems could occur, the college said, and people with mental health issues could have physical problems due to the side-effects of medication.
Read more
Amazing how a Canberra politician can suddenly come up with a brand new theory on mental illness. Wonder who cooked that one up then, oh yes, the McClure welfare review.
And not a moment too soon.
We have received the welcome speech from the social worker people, and are now the proud recipients of a brand spanking new (for us) social worker. She rang and we have an appt next Tuesday. This is absolutely the best news we've had for a while.
We're both burnt out with bureaucracy. Last weeks bullshit that saw me in Centrelink 4 times in two days, causing that terrible panic attack on Friday night, was just enough. Have done an online complaint, but other than that it's pointless trying to bash your head against a brick wall. Just can't do it anymore as it's too distressing. Dunno exactly how the social worker could help but no doubt these things will be discussed.
Also this whole disastrous situation is entirely caused by David's work, who discriminated against him because of HIV, forced him out, and now appears to be doing a real number on him. Even to the point it seems of trying to block any payments he can get from Centrelink by lying to them. That, and simply that, is why we find ourselves today in this dilemma. It has created huge stress for David in all this, and he really needs someone to help with the court case. It's even stressful for him just going through the statement being put together by the legal people.
Hopefully the social worker will come with a magic wand, wave it around, and all will be well......
OK Australia. This is it. We're fucked us two. Australia has always prided itself in having a very good welfare system. Well if anyone needs it, it's us now. Nigh on two months since contacting Centrelink, David still has not a cent and they've cut my pension money by $100 a week.
I had a friend a while back in Florida, my best friend in fact at the time, who killed herself as she could get no support to survive and wasn't going to do homelessness. On the verge of the sheriff coming to evict her and her cat, she killed herself. I always blamed the US for that and it's intransigence to the poor. I never thought I"d experience it here.
I'm not doing homelessness either. Not after working 30 years. Not after that being in Australia and the compassionate country it tries to represent itself as being.
So put your money where your mouth is Australia. So far we've seen nothing whilst in the deepest of need. Are you going to do what the US did to my best friend in Florida? Or are you going to help us?
For those overseas, this is Penny Wong of Labor, and the opposition leader in the senate. In a long time same sex relationship, her partner and her had a baby when Labor was in office. The picture of the two holding the baby was quite some news at the time, all good though. Even the Daily Terrorgraph had a lovely front page article about it.
Here, on the same show that Clive loose-canon Palmer did his weirded out China rant, she lays out clearly and succinctly that the reasons why this budget is just about dead in it's tracks is because Australians don't share the same values as the gov does. Indeed, Australia is a much bigger and broader community than a bunch of bitter old white catholic men in Canberra.
WTF? I actually don't quite know what to make of this. Some legal stuff going on with him and China, and he gets on the telly and does this rant about Chinese "mongels". Quite bizarre.
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