Solar most popular energy source in Australia

The Lieberals have got their politics invested in the wrong industry. Coal isn't good for Australian politicians, let alone humanity. Abbott and co are completely out of step with Australian opinion.

Lieberal Scrooges - video :)

Abbott knocks back gay marriage referendum - business more important

Didn't take him long did it. Abbott has ruled out a referendum on marriage equality in Australia, citing bla federal parliament, bla got to get business going, bla I love everyone, bla....

So what about a bloody conscience vote then? It's all very well to say it has to be dealt with by the federal parliament, but what good is that if all Lieberals are bound to Abbott's position of no?

However, during his visit to Clayfield coffee shop Dolci Sapori, he said his focus in the next two weeks of parliament would be pushing through budget bills and promoting the benefits for small business, including the $20,000 immediate tax deduction.

Curiously, Mr Abbott did not use the phrase same sex marriage or marriage equality during his media conference, referring only to it as "this issue".

"Not for a second do I want to underestimate the feelings people have on this issue, both for and against," he said.

"But my priority as Prime Minister and the government's priority in the coming fortnight is to give the small businesses of Australia the confidence boost they deserve." more  

What a fuckin load of bullshit. Marriage equality won't come to Australia with Abbott as PM.


 

Welfare "defrauders"! - sound familiar?

Look out people! We have those dastardly new mothers "defrauding" the gov of paid parental leave entitlements, now we have those dastardly welfare recipients also "defrauding" the taxpayers! Abbott reckons us fraudsters are ripping off the taxpayer by $1billion a year! WTF?  

If you can manage to defraud Centrelink and get away with it, I'd like to know how the hell you can accomplish such an impossible task. They check everything with a fine tooth comb before giving you a cent. If you work and pay tax they catch you through your tax return at the end of the financial year and can recoup money from you there if you owe them. Besides, who the fuck would want to be walking around spending their lives looking over their shoulder over a crumby little Newstart payment that hardly even pays the rent let alone anything else. Not exactly a career choice is it. Where the fuck did Abbott get this $1billion figure from?

Or what about this from 2011 and Murdoch's Daily Terrorgraph, even it puts the figure much lower, despite calling it an "epidemic".

WELFARE cheats, tax rorters and crooked public servants are ripping off more than $600 million a year as part of a fraud epidemic across the nation. 

In a stunning snapshot of national crime, more than 800,000 incidents of fraud were recorded by Centrelink, Customs and other government agencies in 2008-09. 

With thousands of families struggling to make ends meet, the cost of welfare fraud rose by 10 per cent to $489 million. more

Anyway even when you do everything you can right you can still end up owing them money. I while back I was overpaid about $600 after starting back to work. That was after the kidney failure and dialysis for two months and I was getting $300 a week in a sickness allowance (like I say, not exactly a career choice). I went back to work, probably a lot earlier than I should have simply for financial reasons, but being as I was spending time at work it became difficult to try and get a hold of Centrelink. A half hour wait in the line, or a half hour wait on the phone. In the end it took me a couple of weeks just to get in to see them, and of course I was overpaid. The money I'd left in my account and paid it straight back. But what if I wasn't good with money and had spent it and couldn't pay it back for a while? Would Abbott label me a fraudster for that?

Similarly this case a while back of a bloke doing contract work on a pension (you are allowed to earn so much on a pension), who tried to do everything right, paid the money back when he found out it was owed, but was still charged with fraud: 

In any given year, Centrelink will deliver around $90 billion in social security payments and other benefits to some seven million people. With such a big budget and vast client-base, it's inevitable that some mistakes occur.We expect Centrelink to be vigilant in policing abuse and rip-offs and anyone who receives Centrelink payments has an obligation to inform the agency when their circumstances change. But should people be penalised for inadvertent errors? Keeping track of what you earn and what you owe is not always so straightforward. One welfare recipient in Adelaide was overpaid by Centrelink but says he did everything he could to sort the problem out in a timely manner. And as soon as he was informed of his debt to the agency he repaid the money in full. Despite that, he's now facing fraud charges. more

So what then is "fraud". The gov seems to think that it includes any sort of overpayment, which often isn't the fault of the client but the system itself. But don't let that stop Abbott blustering about evil welfare fraudsters ripping off hard working taxpayers, by $1billion a year.

Greens senator Rachel Siewert said it was ironic the taskforce was announced in the same week it was revealed that half the calls to Centrelink have not been answered and addressed. 

Ms Siewert said the Centrelink system was overly complex and most of the errors that occur are administrative mistakes by Centrelink staff or genuine mistakes by recipients. 

"The Government's choosing to address this as fraud rather than addressing the complexity of the system, acknowledging that the system is failing and choosing to blame income support recipients," she said. more

Budget 2015: unfairly clobbers poor again - NATSEM analysis

The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has again analysed the Lieberal budget as it did last year. And funnily enough, it comes up with exactly the same conclusions as the 2014 budget; that it unfairly clobbers the poor and most vulnerable, getting them to carry the can whilst the well off are left untouched. This is on top of the recent ACCOSS analysis that ripped the 2015 budget a new asshole the other day.

The odd polls since the budget that have shown an improvement for the gov since the budget, indicate the power of the gov's deception in making a turd look not nearly as bad as last year's turd. My opinion is that this budget is every bit as bad, just with soft and fluffy rhetoric is all. The senate has it's work cut out for it again this year.

Families with children on the lowest incomes will bear the brunt of the federal government's budget cuts, while high income families will actually see their disposable incomes increase slightly over the next four years. 

New analysis from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has shown how the government's budget consolidation - for the second year in a row - is being made at the expense of the less well-off. 

NATSEM ​divides the community into five segments, or quintiles, each with a little over 2.5 million families. It has found the government's families package - including its popular childcare payments - will benefit middle- to high-income families more than low-income families. 

It has also found the poorest 20 per cent of households with children will lose up to 7.1 per cent of their total disposable income over the next four years, after all budget measures are taken into account. 

By contrast, households with children in the top 20 per cent will see their disposable incomes increase slightly, by 0.2 per cent, by the end of 2018/19. more 

Bono dedicates "Pride" to Ireland's yes vote - Phoenix, US

Bono gave a big shout out to Ireland's yes vote on marriage equality during U2's performance of "Pride: in the name of love" in Phoenix, US. The above shared on the band's Instagram page. The video below.

In the past he has said "Marriage is now an idea that transcends religion... It is owned by the people. They can decide. It's not a religious institution."  

 

Abbott cuts food funding for illness that causes brain damage

Perhaps we should start calling this gov Scrooges instead of Lieberals. Honestly, just nit picking away at services that cost fuck all but are essential for those that use them. Like home care for stroke victims and people ill who need help. Now it's a pissy little $256 a month for specialist food, those that need it having a disease that causes brain damage if they don't get it.

 

Update:

The media has picked it up. It'd be like cutting funding to my HIV meds and telling me to pay for them at some outrageous price. What is the price of a human life? What an incredibly mean spirited gov this is.

The restriction on Jayden is profound. Imagine a day where you cannot eat meat, fish, any dairy products, nuts, seeds, legumes and most other processed packaged foods including bread, pasta, cereal and flour. 

This is Jayden's diet every day, the only way we can fill him up is with specially made low protein products. These special medical foods are extremely expensive to buy. 

For example a loaf of low protein bread costs $10 and only has 10 small slices, Jayden being a teenage boy easily eats 2 sandwiches for lunch (that's nearly half of the loaf of bread). A 375g box of cereal is $14.95 (this usually only last 2-3 breakfasts), a 500g box of pasta is $10. The food is approximately 7 times more expensive than regular food. 

Since 2001 the Federal Government had assisted families with a monthly food grant (IEM Grant) to help cover the cost of sustaining the complex and expensive diet that includes specialised low protein foods. 

Jayden is the second eldest person alive in Australia living with his condition, before this time the proper management of his condition was not available and resulted in premature death. Jayden is living testament of the importance of dietary management of this condition. 

But now we have been told that this essential food grant will no longer be available after the Federal Government announced they would cease funding the program by the end of the year. 

I am quite shocked by the government's decision, as we don't get much other assistance from the Federal Government. more  

Update 2:

Petition here.

The Metabolic Dietary Disorders Association (MDDA) – the national patient support group for families living with an Inborn Error of Metabolism (IEM) - has been advised by the Department of Health today that the IEM food grant (a grant supporting individuals living with rare metabolic diseases) will finish in December 2015 and will no longer be funded by the government. 

This is part of the government’s recent cuts to health budget, and effects families who are the most vulnerable and who only have a small voice because their condition is rare. sign petition  

Meanwhile, this is all that's being cut by the gov at the top earners in Australia, whoop de fuckin do:

• $3.1 billion Temporary Deficit Levy 
• $295 million capping of meal and entertainment benefits 
• $845 million tightening of car expenses.  

Staggering Duggar hypocrisy - Dan Savage on the Duggar family

Savage speaks of the incomprehensible hypocrisy of the Duggar family, putting themselves out there as protectors of children when Josh Duggar had himself molested 4 of his younger sisters.

 

Police report:

Congrats to Ireland - landslide Yes victory for gay marriage :)

What an atmosphere at Dublin Castle #MarRef pic.twitter.com/pLQO7Jniqo

— Senator David Norris (@SenDavidNorris) May 23, 2015

Congrats to Ireland. Almost two thirds votes for yes. This can only increase the pressure on Australian politicians to get with the bloody times.

 

23% of US 8th graders think Australia is a dictatorship - WTF?

Dead set. WTF is going on over there? (click to enlarge)

This is the result of a National Assessment of Education Progress report done recently to US 8th graders.  

Here is the question concerned, of which I have snipped above. 

That's not all. 10% think Australia is under military rule, and 12% think the gov discourages public affairs participation. That's nearly half of all US 8th graders who haven't got the faintest idea about a country that is one of their closest allies. 

Is this that stupid US exceptionalism again? That the US is the only really free country in the world or some bullshit like that? *sheesh*

What's next? Will the creationists be teaching that there's dinosaurs roaming the outback? :s 

Zac washes Natasha - awwwww

Their love is reaching new heights :) They've started washing each other now in front of the heater at night. This just done with my camera so not so good quality, especially as Zac is all black it's a bit hard to see him at times. But it's Zac washing Natasha last night.

 

Abbott vouched for a peadophile priest - 1997

As the royal commission into church child abuse is well and truly under way in Australia, and Abbott's mate Pell is being demanded by all and sundry to return from the Vatican and face charges against him concerning child abuse here in Australia, Abbott's past concerns with the Catholic church are coming under increasing scrutiny now. In particular, this one.

May I introduce ex Father John Nester. Below is when he was an actual Father in the church. He went to the same seminary as Abbott in the 1980's, St Patrick's in Sydney.

Long story short, Father Nester was convicted of being a peadophile, then appealed in 1997 with Abbott being one who gave a character reference for him. He won the appeal, only to be defrocked by the church in 2001 by the Vatican, those involved citing "significant additional material". He was forcefully laicised by the Vatican. In other words the church considered him a peadophile.

Abbott however didn't. At least not in 1997, despite having gone through seminary with him. The language used by Abbott was entirely contradictory to the person John Nestor actually was. Abbott described Nestor in 1997 thus:

Mr Abbott, then a federal parliament backbencher, told the court Fr Nestor was an upright and virtuous man who he had known since 1984. 

"He was ... a beacon of humanity at seminary," Mr Abbott said. more

In short, Abbott knew Nestor since 1984, yet somehow apparently had not the faintest idea of his predilections.  

I will leave readers to make their own judgement. I have made mine. He is either a liar, defending a paedophile priest as the church was want to do back then, or......... 

References: here, here, and here. 

Food production - ship of fools

This is the food sequence from a doco Samsara. I haven't seen the doco, but this is truly grotesque. The consumerism and greed that is created by capitalism, humans become pigs at a trough. 


SAMSARA food sequence from Baraka & Samsara on Vimeo.
 

Canada's tar sands oil extraction - ship of fools

An astonishing look at what is arguably the biggest man made environmental disaster ever on the planet. Unbelievable. I've heard nothing about this until recently. Sheer, utter madness. It makes mining the Galilee Basin in Queensland even more stupid.

Abundant cheap energy from the sun, yet we're doing this to the planet.

 

Senate to block budget, again

The early positive reaction to the budget is fast dissipating, and the senate now is setting itself to block key budget measures again. Honestly, how many times does the senate have to say no before this gov listens?

Significant elements of the budget may be blocked in the Senate as their hidden and long-term impacts become clearer, despite its generally positive reception. 

The initially well-received pension changes – which save $2.4bn over four years – are under serious threat because the government has now ruled out any reform to costly superannuation tax breaks. 

The plan to force under 25-year-olds to wait four weeks for unemployment benefits appears certain to be voted down and the $5.5bn in cuts to single income family payments remain in doubt despite the Coalition’s insistence that they are necessary to pay for its generous new childcare package. The plan to save almost $1bn by ending so-called “double-dipping” for paid parental leave seems almost certain to be defeated. 

The budget, which abandoned many of last year’s cuts and delivered $5bn in small business tax breaks, has delivered a quick boost in both consumer confidence and the Coalition’s standing in the opinion polls. 

But as parliament prepares to return for four weeks of sittings before the long winter recess, details are emerging about the impact of some of its central policies. more