Refugees 86. Accepts fewer refugees than the UN has asked (and they ask very little) 87. The extremely expensive and innefective Pacific“Solution†88. Worms were recently found in the food served at Baxter detention centre. 89. Locking up children in hell houses. Many refugee kids have suffered major psychological problems as a result. Australians are well off. We are the first world. When people come to us for help, we treat them no better than the regimes they narrowly escape....
What about that loony Deputy PM, John Anderson. He and George Brandis (Liberal Senator) are off the planet. According to Ando, the secularisation of society (meaning accepting all beliefs, not just the Christians) will lead, of necessity to fascism. Meanwhile, also according to Ando, the Greens are a bunch of communists. It’s terribly confusing for my atheist Green friend. He can’t work out if he’s Left or Right. And to make matters worse for him, George Brandis says the Greens movement g...
A close friend of mine who worked the halls of Canberra’s Press Gallery has often told me of the ways in which Howard has prevented the Australian people from knowing about the mistakes he has made, far more so than any of his predecessors. Much of this has gone unreported (perhaps because a fair portion of today’s gallery are Liberal voters). I asked Kezzia to write an article for this blog about her insight into John Howard. BY KEZZIA Let me begin with a disclaimer: I’m not and...
We're halfway through my list of reasons to vote Howard out now. Economy 42. Foreign debt has doubled under Costello. 43. Costello’s great policy solution to the Superannuation Crisis? Australians should all go forth and multiply. What a visionary! 44. Provided tax cuts for everyone....EXCEPT POOR PEOPLE!!! Tax cuts at the last Budget were provided except to those people who actually need it: those unlucky enough to have to survive on less than 52 grand a year. 45. spent millio...
At last, the crisis in Aboriginal health, where many die from preventable diseases every day, has been brought back on the agenda by the AMA. Although the Labor Party have traditionally been more interested in helping Australia’s original custodians, in this campaign, both major parties have ignored this issue to their shame. Before they both splash out on more non-core promises to those of us lucky enough to have been born into white middle class prosperity and health, I suggest they direct ...
Today comes Part 2 of my list to vote Howard out. Today, the portfolios of Aborigines and Foreign Affairs. So today we’re dealing with Amanda Vanstone and Alexander Downer as well as little Johnny. Aborigines 18a. Abolished ATSIC 18b. Replaced ATSIC with an unelected, unrepresentative board of “dignified” (read “wear suits and act like whitefellers”) yes men who will act in a purely advisory role (read “the Aboriginal people will be ignored”). The real Australians’ only representatio...
After having watched Andrew Bartlett, leader of the Democrats speak at the Press Club, I am left worried. I used to support the Dems, until my faith in them was shattered by their rubberstamping of the GST. Since then I must say that they seem to have been weak. Bartlett is a charisma blackhole it must be said. But is this important? Can I really let my vote be affected by personality when I actually agree with several of his political positions and I believe in the role of the Dems. A fe...
Q: What’s this about the new Medicare safety net? A: It’s one of the ways we’re weakening Medicare. While Medicare has always covered you in public hospitals, the new Safety Net won’t deliver anything to 95% of Australians and the majority of the funds for it will be spent on bureaucratic red tape. This means the price of health care will go up. Q: Like what I pay to my GP? A: Yes, the costs for a whole range of treatments – like specialists, x-rays, tests, scans... Q: But ...
I have just been sent a set of policy statements from the Liberal Party. Because this election is about trust, I was just wondering which of these policies are core promises and which are the promises they don’t intend to keep?
"Children must not be put in jail without just cause"- Malcolm FraserOne of the greatest ironies of the current Government came during budget week. We all remember Treasurer Costello telling us to go forth and multiply, claiming that our ageing population desperately needed young people to boost the economy. We needed workers to support the retirees. Of course, the first irony one notices is the fact that babies don’t usually work for an employer. But the real irony of this “bonk for the econ...
My good friend Rachel Williams wrote this to editors of broadsheet papers the other day and as she doesn't have a blog, I thought I'd post it here. John Howard is certainly spending up big for the election. And I know these promises are genuine. I know this from past experience. John Howard said he would protect Australia's borders and not let in any of those queue-jumping refugees. You know, the ones that were shipped at a cost of millions of dollars to Nauru and the like. Now I hear most...
Picture Max Gillies dressed as John Howard, running around a used car caryard. In fact this is much funnier if you read it aloud in a hysterical John Howard voice... Hi! I’m Craaaazy John from Craaaazy John’s Used Liberal Party Policies and down here in Canberra I’ve gone absolutely bonkers. Take a look at GP bulk-billing. It was at EIGHTY PERCENT under the Labor Government....SLASHED to a ridiculously low SIXTY NINE PERCENT. There’s no way Australian families can afford that! And ...
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson has been running the line (which by the way is quite a clever and humorous line, but it is not Anderson's creation) that the Greens are "watermelons": They're green on the outside, but they're very very red on the inside, if you know what he means. And I have this to say..... John Anderson is right when he says that the Greens are "very red on the inside". Inside them they actually have a heart that beats, and it beats RED blood. This is more than I can ...
Liberal Party Communication Minister Richard Alston recently lodged a complaint against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for left wing bias. If you want to read his letter, you can find it at www.abc.net.au/mediawatch. Dicky Alston, the same clown who supported David Flint as the head of the ABA until Flint recently retired in shame. That was after having written love letters to Alan Jones fawning over his broadcasting abilities, whilst he was supposed to be sitting in judgment on ...
This morning, the Australian reported that a senior person in the Defence Department has confessed that John Howard knew that the children overboard photos were a scam before the election was held. This morning Laurie Oakes was talking with Mr Howard... Oakes: Mr Howard what do you know about the allegations by a senior member of DFAT that you lied about children overboard? Howard: Well we are certain that he's a poo poo head LO: I'm sorry? JH: Yep. He's a schizophrenic too and he suffe...