The week in Australian federal politics was headlined by the triumphant return of ‘Bad’ Malcolm Turnbull.
Australians had become accustomed to the pinkie-extended punctilios of Pleasant Malcolm and it has become clear they don’t much care for them.
So with nothing left to lose, Bad Malcolm got a run and delivered a withering character assessment of the Opposition leader. It was a terrific spray, no doubt, so full of harsh burns Bill Shorten may well still be plastering himself in aloe vera.
Bad Malcolm left his best line to last: “This sycophant, blowing hard in the House of Representatives, sucking hard in the living rooms of Melbourne — what a hypocrite.”
Understandably, lovers of the pugilistic arts weren’t about to get too excited. Should the People’s House ever become the House of Stoush with ‘Truffles’ Turnbull and ‘Wee Billy’ Shorten coming to blows, it would make last week’s Danny Green-Anthony Mundine fight look like the Thriller in Manilla.
Full column here.
OK.
“You” in the following is whoever reads it.
Let’s all say something nice about a politician – they do have their good points.
Then let’s analyse their work load.
# of meetings that they attend outside of Canberra
The number of times they have to put their hands in their pockets for raffles etc.
The number of phone calls that they take after hours and on weekends.
The stress that their families are under 24*7.
The number of face to face encounters with absolute idiots.
We pay them a middle manager’s salary. Many talented people cannot afford to go into politics. There are things like school fees and mortgages. Then they could be out after 3 years with a disrupted career.
If you want talent, pay them 1.5 times their average salary of the last 3 years before being elected -fully indexed. That way you just might attract talent.
If you are not prepared to do this stop whinging – we are attracting people into politics who have a social conscious and an agenda or ones that want to feather their own nests.
And stop the 24*7 knocking of the individuals.
And while you are at it, have a real close look at the talent in the public service and the advice they get.
I am willing to bet that nobody on this blog would take the job on – I sure as hell would not .
That’s why we have average intelligence in the job, JS. Nobody intelligent would want a job like the!!
If being a politician is such a lousy badly paid job, explain to me why there are at least five applicants for every job in the reps and 12-15 ( I am being conservative with the figures here) for each job in the senate. Excuse my naivetiness but I thought that being an MP was mean’t to be for public service.
Perhaps we should set the minimum age as 40, where they would have made their pile had their families and were ready to give something back…
A pollies life IS hard work
BUT
There is no shortage of them lining up for the gig. Half of 2GBiased have put themselves
up for pre-selection and been knocked back…Jones 3 times!
And they get to go home every weekend, more often than not charge whatever they can to the tax payer……..let’s not forget the freebies which public servant’s can’t accept . The daily expenses for renting their “wife’s” rental property plus claiming negative gearing from the ATO, is it any tougher than anyone else who is on $200, 000 a year who doesn’t get to go home before 9pm at night, answere’s emails/phone calls at all hours, oh and let’s not forget the working weekends bit………..and there’s the supperanution compared to a member of parliament
If they don’t like it there’s more who would like their job.
Oh and I forgot, doesn’t stay on the corporate payroll after they retire and expect the customers and shareholders to foot the bill.
The daily expenses for renting their “wife’s” rental property plus claiming negative gearing from the ATO….No doubt Smokin’ Joe made an art form out of this with his multi millionaire wife. Now he is in the USA double dipping. Love the man.
This is a timely & telling article written by 26 year old Alex McKinnon,
It is a must read so please take the time because he is speaking up for the next generation, a generation who believe that their future is being “kneecapped” by the Turnbull government.
“We need no introduction to the breezy contempt in which the current government holds us.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/10/morrison-and-co-are-kneecapping-my-generations-future-and-laughing-about-it
Many of us have a very personal stake in the next generation and I for one expect real action on renewable energy and climate change from a government who seem to choose to remain deaf to the tsunami of Australian voices demanding they be heard.
Oh dear……..
Oh dear what Razor?
Did you read it at all or did you dismiss it because it came from the Guardian? You’d be forgiven cos I dismiss most of the ‘alternate facts’ in the murdoch press myself.
If you did read it, can you at least put yourself in their shoes for even a minute to understand that our young adults want to have a say in their own future & they are not getting it.
Listened to an interview this morning, Bella. Of course I am generalising, but one of the problems seems to be that the people you are referring to do not engage in the political process. They do not bother to vote. Instead they protest. Which will not get them anywhere.
We get the government we vote for. Until they put a cross on a piece of paper at the ballot box the world will not change for them in the way they would like.
The heart of the problem is that people like you, and quite a few others representing themselves on this blog have no interest in addressing climate change and wont give up a damn thing for those who will bear the brunt of it. Your attempt to lay the blame for lack of action on the younger people is cynical and risible. It is us that should be at least attempting to clean up our mess.
Younger people are not being made aware of the enormity of the dangers they face because the older well padded by whom they have been misled to trust, own the news outlets are captives of vested interests.
The wilfully ignorant and deliberately obfuscating deniers, especially those of comfortable means are possibly the most disgraceful selfish a***holes ever to exist. They have the education, opportunity and means to do something to address the calamity but remain steadfastly determined to wring every last comfort and pleasure they can from a dying environment for themselves. Al the while abetting the arguably criminally negligent lack of attention by the media and even supporting the stupid self absorbed clowns who demonise and sneer at those who do protest.
This is what is really happening, and when the young people become aware of how they have been ripped off, you better watch out for the government they do elect. Way beyond the ken of someone born to a life of privilege , the latter day Marie Antoinette’s, to even begin to imagine.
The French aristocracy never saw it coming either.
You been doing deep-breathing exercises on your day off me old mate?
Yeah, I suppose now is not an ideal time to raise the matter of the whistleblower who alleged NOAA manipulated data re the slowdown in warming.
No sweat, there’ll be another time.
Alleged?
That’s all rubbish, JB.
The youth don’t read right wing papers – they are not controlled by them. They read newsfeeds, on FB, Twitter and the like, whose ideologies they agree with.
Social media and protests will not change governments – and you know that. They have to VOTE. Only in that way will they get change. Only then will they outvote the obfuscating old derniers.
Most of the kids I speak to, or attempt to speak to, brush it off with ”’we’re not interested in politics – boring ” – and delve back into their smartphone which seems permanently attached to the left hand while the right hand swipes or types.
The protests etc actually only serve to turn those that do vote (the old fossils ) to the extreme right it seems. Ridicule and insult do not change minds I’m afraid.
They may well be disillusioned with the government elected, but they need to get off their butts and do something a bit more constructive than protesting and Face-booking.
It will be interesting, if they do all that, to see what government they do elect, JB. I’m all ears and eyes, mate. I don’t have an issue with that – not at all.
What I do have an issue with is the stupidity – you quote the French Revolution. Unfortunately , (and I mean that quite literally. It would indeed be nice to have a simple unpolluted world again), the world economy is far more complicated than bringing out the guillotine and decapitating all and sundry in one’s country. We live in 24/7 time don’t forget.
Yvonne, you continue to prove old Baby Boomers like are the most out of touch selfish self entitled generation seen in this nation. The youths of today are trying to work many have 3 part time jobs, ( lack of full time jobs being created) study and try and work out an ever Dismaying world. It is clear you would not be able to handle growing up today. It is clear you get your contempt for younger people through your bitterness of ageing and sheep like adherence to your support of the cons.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2017/feb/12/government-shows-contempt-for-millennials-no-wonder-theyre-not-optimistic-greg-jericho
I think we have to give the young people more credit, besides voting is compulsory in Australia, so we can’t pull out the excuse that they don’t vote.
Most young people I speak to, family members included, are exactly like I was and imagine you were young. Having fun, but still with the worries of their future. My eldest granddaughter has three jobs , including coaching higher grade netball and finishes her degree this year and us well aware of the issues
Just generalising Penny. Of course there are plenty of responsible kids around. But there are heaps around who are not on the voter’s roll – they couldn’t care less and have no interest in politics. probably because they have been turned off by politicians – but one would think that would be an inducement to enrol and be pro-active?
You’re living in la la land. I said “media” not newspapers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofodxNPwOHM
Watch that. And listen carefully.
Stupidity? You think there wont be massive retribution when the young and their children are starving? That’s stupidity. Ms Antoinette.
You’re right in one way mate but you have to take into account how collectively disgusted they have become with the appallingly low standards of the men & women who’re obviously just in the job to line their own wallets.
The 18 to 35 age group see them all as sycophants, taking the taxes they pay & pissing it and their futures straight up the wall by investing any of it in coal.
Regards bella
Bella I have three sons in your group and they despise the Getup crew and their ilk.
They are all bushman and self made. They had to work. Mr and Mrs Razor gave them nothing. 2 out of 3 believe in AGW but laugh at the dreadlocked wankers of their cohort that throw shit and do nothing!
Of course they despise GetUp mate, they’ve been listening to you their whole lives as my son has listened to me. I’m very proud to say he has taken up the mantle now big time.
No dreadlocks in sight.
Not sure what you mean by ‘their ilk’ Razor however I’m guessing you mean environmental champions who protest the destruction of pifling little things like the GBR and corporate greed.
Mine’s a builder, has his own business & his own home without any financial leg-up from me, in fact he’s always stealing my bills & I can tell you that he & his mates are not laughing about their future with the current fwits (his word) in charge.
Have a good day, Bella
Some commenters may well consider Malcolm Turnbull’s now widely celebrated, finely finessed performance this week was simply just another one of those exaggerated histrionic pretences that occasionally occurs during QT.
It’s hard to argue against it being predominately theatrical. But it seems some critics, including on here (see last topic), obviously allowed their political leanings to get in the way of being able to recognise and acknowledge Turnbull’s entirely accurate character assessment of Opposition Leader Shorten.
I mean, for those to consider the whole of Turnbull’s speech as being “pathetic” because it achieved “zero, naught, nothing”, and then to effusively applaud Paul Keating’s QT antics as having the ability to stick it up the then LNP opposition and make us laugh, is fanciful.
If those who consider even just a few of Keating’s more milder appraisals of the then Opposition Leader Howard as being “a mangy maggot”, “a dead carcass swinging in the breeze”, “a shiver waiting for a spine to crawl up”, are a source of hilarity, then they are easily amused.
Bet they weren’t too amused with ‘the recession we had to have’ and 17% interest rates.
PS. I think Turnbull did him softly.
Good grief dear Carl you are easily won over, easily impressed dear chap. No future for poor old Milton Trumble my good fellow, all P@W.
I wouldn’t underestimate him HB. Not saying that because I approve, or disapprove of the man. Just sayin’..,…..
Moi, “won over, easily impressed”?? Not so my dear HB, not so!!
I closely read all of your utterances each morning before going for a gargle and then cleaning my teeth, my dear chap.
Turnbull, couldn’t help himself, did himself. Not so softly.
His inner contempt for the hoi polloi vented under pressure and his chummy cronies didn’t have the brains to refrain from acting like the triumphalist wannabe upper class twats and snots they are. The masks slipped. Idiots.
He might as well have torn an arm off for Bill to beat him over the head with, and Bill will.
I didn’t see the incident. I’m guessing Tony Abbott at least had the smarts to exclude himself from the supercilious hurrahs?
Turnbull told us plenty in that classist vent about parasites, envy & sycophants that he obviously loathes.
I mean how could the son of a wharfie like Bill Shorten not remember his ‘place’ in society. How dare Shorten & others like him, wander unaccompanied into the realm of the ruling class.
Maybe Shorten has forgotten himself and has become a tad ‘uppity’ & even dared to break bread in somebody’s grand design. Wasn’t ‘uppity’ the term slaveowners used when their slaves tried to get above their ‘station’?
Abbott must know he is now that much closer to striking his waffling, craven enemy in the back.
Bella
TA sat there with not much expression.
Shorten had it coming – he has been jibing MT since Peta coined the Mr Harbourside Mansion insult.
So it’s okay for Shorten to do that and not okay for Turnbull ton retaliate?
”Upper class twats and snots” – you’ve been reading too much Keating methinks JB!!
You could be right. But then Keating is a lot more savvy than you.
Sure, Bill Shorten had that coming, I’m sure he is delighted, and he has a lot more cunning than I gave him credit for. Sucked in Malcolm. Abbott had not much expression? Would he be thinking “You’re an idiot Malcolm.”
JB
says: “I didn’t see the incident. I’m guessing …”
I think it was Gandhi who said – “If you didn’t HEAR it with your own ears, or SEE it with your own eyes … don’t invent it with your small mind and share it with your BIG mouth”.
Not sure if Gandhi had politicians in mind so I suppose that may let you off the hook on this occasion me old mate.
Well, as it turns out Gandhi wasn’t there either, and I predicted that accurately.
You “think” Gandhi said it? You mean you weren’t there to hear it with own ears?
Lest it escape notice amongst all this petty pontificating in Canberra Jack, Prince Leonard of Hutt River Province has announced his abdication from the throne tomorrow, some 47 years since he abdicated from Australia. His son Graeme will assume the throne.
Now if any of these blowhards in Cantberra needed a lesson on the Constituiton and getting on with life after taxation, the good prince has been a beacon. He even left the ATO in his wake, though I note they are back sniffing at the gates of his kingdom. Good luck to them I say.
Three cheers to his royal Highness. By the bye, Malcolm has declined to attend the celebration, I bet he’d love to swap Royal cards.
Prince Leonard – a genuine legend. But we miss Princess Shirley, do we not?
Spot on, JTI. This line sums up the “social climber” speech perfectly: “a money fight between Waylon Smithers and Montgomery Burns”.
Turnbull seemed to be berating Shorten for wanting the things he, Malcolm, already has. Clearly hobnobbing with billionaires is a suitable pastime only for those with the necessary refinement (and cash) to do it properly, such as Malcolm himself. His message appeared to be not that the trappings of wealth were anything to be ashamed of, but rather that Bill should know his place.
Some pundits have compared this effort with Gillard’s misogyny speech. It’s true that both were passionate outbursts from desperately cornered PMs, but there are some notable differences. For a start, to have had the same muddled messaging as Turnbull’s speech, Gillard’s would need to have been delivered by, say, Bill Heffernan. More importantly, sexism is a real thing that affects real people, as opposed to, er, billionairism or whatever Truffles would have us believe he is the victim of. That was reflected in the rough democracy of YouTube views in the days following each speech: millions as opposed to thousands.
Meanwhile, Mal’s speech has at least explained that sucking noise coming from my living room. I suppose it was too much to hope that someone else was doing the vacuuming for a change.
Or maybe the ghosts of J Edgar Hoover in the living room, John?
Spooky.
I think you missed the point JOH. Turnbull was pointing out that BS was a hypocrite – pretending to be the poor man’s friend – but ripping them off via his AWU rorts, whilst all the time enjoying the hospitality of the rich and famous. He didn’t exactly move to live in Beaconsfield did he?
Just wondering if anyone on here has a reputable link to what the carbon footprint is for the manufacture and installation of a single wind turbine. I have a figure but Injust wish to verify it.
Here is one view.
https://stopthesethings.com/2014/08/16/how-much-co2-gets-emitted-to-build-a-wind-turbine/
But when they catcg fire god knows how many carbons they emit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/windpower/10971762/Wind-turbine-fires-ten-times-more-common-than-thought-experts-warn.html
Many thanks Robin old chap. I’ve got a couple of others as well.
I think I may have just voiced my hair tearing frustration at it all. We know it has to be a broad tent, by why does it have to be a bloody circus tent as well?
Indeed Wraith, and now along has come Trump in the USA to bring the “circus” to the World, ready or not! What say you to his Presidency so far, some 20 days in?
Dogs breakfast would be fair.
Circus performers are usually rather talented these days…
Always have been, Rhy’s – , perhaps more so in the past- a source of income and entertainment through the ages. Now we have Shorten as the resident heckler and the poor sod doesn’t have it in him to tame a bear. Seriously what plans, policies, haircuts are Labor wanting to seduce the dgaf (made thatup! cynical youth.
I don’t watch American talk shows, Wraith. So can’t rate my IQ against them. You obviously do watch them to feel qualified to make that comment?
Putting that aside. I still think Turnbull’s spray was very funny, clever – and necessary. Nothing like a bit of spice to liven things up!
JTI,
Your analysis is almost beyond dispute.
The pathetic ‘quality’ of our current representatives is manifest, not matter from which ‘partisan’ direction one commences the analysis.
But ……. these worthless elected rabble are not to blame!!
It is our fault – we the Voters – we put up with this pathetic performance. We allow ‘partisan’ loyalties to excuse a wanton disregard for the ‘National Interest’.
Of course, as much as it might pain we Political Tragics, the vast majority of the polity have little interest in or indeed knowledge of politics, beyond the ‘screaming headline’ of nightly news or fish and chip wrappers.
I would put it to you, notwithstanding the economic boffins views to the contrary, that collectively we are headed for another ‘recession we have to have’!!
As per last time, this will concentrate the mind, small business which currently is doing it tough will get decimated, larger retail outfits particularly those in fashions etc are already going under. Put over the top of this the car industry closure and the associated component manufacturers and business does not look good.
This Energy debate is fatuous, only made almost surreal by the suggestion by SA Premier that he might ‘re-nationalise’ the Electricity Industry. The fiscal and Sovereign Risk ramifications of that are mind-boggling!!
Think foreign sub-builders and the additional costs for risk in the price.
Yet, what can our representatives not address – all of the above!!
And Budget repair!!
I offer again, my own political strategy ‘vote the Bastards out’!! Vote against the incumbent irrespective of party and policy. Do it for three elections until the arithmetic in the Federal Parliament is reversed. Currently only about 32 of them are in danger of losing their job; for the other 210 or so their biggest battle is pre-selection.
When 200 of them think they might well get the flick – then they might get the message!!
Bloody long comment for a hot Friday evening, PLMO. Take five schooners and call me in the morning.
Dare I say it. Jack. but we have snow forecast for Sunday in the SW here. 🙂
I saw the Tassie weather forecast, Yvonne. What a difference the Bass Strait makes.
Indeed. Jack
A very pleasant 18 or so. Packed to the rafters again – Wooden Boat Show in full swing.
You recon this is hot Jack? Try walking down to the pub on a sunny Kalgoorlie afternoon.
I had a mate who worked on drilling rigs out in Western Queensland in the 1970’s, where obviously the concept of refrigeration was alien. So they put their long necks out in the sun, and drank them hot, I kid you not.
I nearly threw up listening to his stories.
Don’t vote for them-don’t vote for them-don’t vote for them-ANY of THEM!
……and then what, Bassy?
The daily expenses for renting their “wife’s” rental property plus claiming negative gearing from the ATO….No doubt Smokin’ Joe made an art form out of this with his multi millionaire wife. Now he is in the USA double dipping. Love the man.
Others will vote for them
It’s been said before but I shall repeat it – we need a political system that creates high barriers to entry for apparatchiks yet encourages people with real life experience and talent.
We need proportional representation. Then they would all HAVE to work together.
It’s hot, guess it’s me + dog =sofa/air con tonight
Warmish outside here, too, Tracy. Inside, you could hang meat.
Bloody beautiful here in Nth Qld! Just finished mowing the yard and hardly raised a sweat!
Hot as Hades today Jack, with a couple more to follow. Gee I’m sick of this climate change, can we get back to calling it the weather like they did when the last Sydney record was set 128 years ago?
Dismayed will be shattered to learn NSW powered through the day, even though 2 of 4 pods at one of the State’s biggest power stations, Liddell, were out because of leaks in the boilers. No whinging happening here, but fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Good night folks, sleep the sleep of an old pollie counting his entitlements.
dismayed is hopefully ropeable over load shedding Wednesday followed by a ” no problems” Friday .
crooked bastards should be sued by SA
Dismayed that the federal government continues to lie to the country and most of the media do not hold them to account. Dismayed that so many people swallow the lies purely to feel part of their disgraceful ideology.
loutod you must have missed the news about the Aluminium smelter in NSW having to shut down due to lack of power.
More dismal rubbish. Tomago consumes 12.5% of all the electricity used in New South Wales. They voluntarily reduced production to help the State get through the peak load from record temperatures.
Households did the same,with significant reduction in power drawdown as people controlled their power consumption.
Well here in the tropics it’s 27 degrees with an expected low of 23 tonight. Seriously though these are Middle East temperatures, we used to leave there for the summer because we were not expected to work in temperatures over 40…take care all of you, this isn’t funny….
Severe fire warning here tomorrow, like most of NSW. It will be hot where I am 41 degrees at 600 metres above sea level is bloody hot. The cats could burst into flames, poor buggers.
er do you believe the earth and oceans are warming and man is a large contributor to this pain or is it just ‘weather’ son.
The climate has been changing for millions of years Bassy! Why do you think you can get fossils of fish in the desert!
What are we at now, 13 of the last 14 years the hottest on record? I’ve always struggled to understand those people who say it should be business as usual. Simply from a risk management point of view, the world must reduce its reliance on fossil fuel burning. Something like coal isn’t cheap if there’s even an outside chance it will contribute to further changes in climate. Shifting the focus to renewables must ultimately be cheaper as renewables require no fuel.
And require no jobs……..
Yes, there are solar plants that employ two or three people on site, that’s it. 55,000 are employed in coal mining and related industries. This is similar to the numbers employed in the textiles and footwear industries in this country in the 1980s. Those jobs are gone and haven’t come back. People have retrained and got better jobs. Australia was a leader in photo-voltaic manufacturing technology as an example. Most of that investment has gone overseas already and with it, future technological advances. Investors are not going to come to create new industries including high end manufacturing (which this country badly needs) without the certainty that comes from fixed policy responses. Under the current government, Australia has no national energy policy, there is no carbon reduction scheme in place besides the RET and what carbon reduction is occurring is funded by taxpayers at a level that is unsustainable in the long term. The states are going their own way and it’s haphazard and driven by politics. There will be a role for coal as part of the energy mix here and elsewhere into the long term future but at $55 a tonne, it’s barely worth pulling out of the ground. The glory days of $140 a tonne are gone and they aren’t coming back. What investors need is certainty across the board. If the country gets stuck in 20th Century, we will be in a very bad place in 20 or 30 years time. The failure to create certainty through policy is more about satisfying 30 per cent of the Liberal Party than the national interest. There are consequences to doing next to nothing.
Razor says:
FEBRUARY 11, 2017 AT 7:40 PM….yes the climate HAS been changing for millions of years but NEVER at the RATE it is now. From the Industrial Revolution on, ice cores and other evidence show clearly the rate of change has increased since Man started pumping billions of tonnes of pollution into the air every year. Are U a smoker? Well think of the atmosphere as our lungs. Do you think all of this shit being pumped into in the atmosphere is good for the earth’s lungs?
The Turnbull government has been sitting on its own requested advice that an emissions intensity scheme – the carbon policy Josh Frydenberg put on the table only to rule out just 36 hours later by the hard right – would save households and businesses up to $15 billion in electricity bills. Turnbull has rejected this by claiming it would push up prices but analysis in an Australian Electricity Market Commission report handed to the government months ago found it would actually cost consumers far less than other approaches, including doing nothing.
The Finkel review cites the market commission, Australian Energy Market Operator and Climate Change Authority as evidence. Under all modelling scenarios the commission found an emissions intensity scheme was the cheapest option for consumers and business resulting in lower costs and less impact on energy security than other approaches submitted
Even more damning is The Review Panel on Renewable Energy headed by Liberal hard right man Dick Warburton, a confirmed climate change denier. His review stated that the renewable energy target actually puts downward pressure on electricity prices. Dick Warburton concluded that to remove the renewable energy target would see wholesale prices for electricity go up.
Now keep in mind this was the unanimous view of the committee appointed not by Labor, but by a Liberal government. How Turnbull and the Liberals can ignore all this for pure politics is mind boggling.
Here I am huddled in front of my heater. Coldest February day on record
That’s kinda the point, Robin.
AGW isn’t just about an overall increase in global temperatures as a result of CO2 emissions. It’s also about increased variability in temperatures, i.e., more extreme weather events.
I find it passing strange (hello, i’m morphing into Rudd) that no one likes the baubles and the high end of town and the commensurate luxuries like the working class heroes, the battlers friends, the labor party types. Consider the Hawke’s, the Keating’s (in his high class Parisienne brothels office), the Rudd’s and now Shorten. Burke too, and a few others, didn’t mind Obeid’s largesse either. They hate those that have it but desire it more than most.
And it was typical of Shorten to try and hide behind the deceased Pratt, considering it an offence to his corpse. Yet another victim.