Why an Election in 2018 is more than likely
Notwithstanding the issue of foreign citizenship facing both the Liberal and Labor parties, which could trigger an election in 2018, there is another more pressing issue looming for Malcolm Turnbull, one that he created all on his own.
It concerns the senate, the Constitution and the double dissolution Turnbull called in 2016. It may well be that 2018 turns out to be a federal election year, by necessity.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
How MYEFO masks Deception and Ignorance
A terrible deception has been perpetrated on the Australian people. We have been led to believe that we borrow our own currency from foreign nations, that the money gathered from borrowing and collected from taxing, funds spending.
It’s simply not true. And why is it important for us to know this? Because, empowered with this knowledge we can change the way our country is run. We can call out our politicians for their deception, their ignorance and force them to address the issues that are most important to us.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
Hats off to Queensland
On Saturday night, we witnessed another spectacular crash by One Nation Party in the Queensland state election, following their less than inspiring performance in the WA state election earlier this year.
It seems the more attention the media give them, the worse they do.
During the lead up to both these elections, the mainstream media salivated over the possibility that ON could hold the balance of power, casting them as kingmakers, placing the fear of a missed opportunity clearly in the sights of the major conservative parties.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
Time for the G-G to step in.
Yesterday we heard Greens Senator, Richard Di Natale say the magic words…that he was prepared to ask the Governor General to dissolve the parliament and settle the citizenship fiasco with a new election.
For those of us who remember, only too well, the 1975 dismissal of the Labor government under Gough Whitlam, this must surely be a watershed moment.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Network
Why can’t the nation own the NBN?
The NBN rollout has now been exposed for the debacle that it is. The ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday night saw to that. It is all about money, federal government, currency-issuing money and the miserly, mean-spirited approach to cutting edge technology by the Coalition.
We were told by the experts that the state-of-the-art infrastructure build that would take us into the 21st century was unaffordable in its original form. Minister for Communications, Mitch Fifield said it would be “fit for purpose”, a code for “not great, but good enough,” if ever there was one.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
It’s taxpayers’ money….er no, it’s not!
When we hear that a politician has abused his/her expense entitlements, or that federal cabinet has decided to carry out a postal survey costing $120 million, we throw our hands up in despair and cry out, “that’s taxpayers’ money you’re wasting,” and ask why isn’t this money being spent to build a hospital or a road or better still, to give aged pensioners a bit extra?
What will it take to convince people that the emotive outcry, “it’s taxpayers’ money” is a fallacy and a fraud? What does it take to have our ignorant politicians and economists be properly informed?
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
It’s not your call, Mark
If the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge thought he was going to make a definitive statement in the same sex marriage debate, he will have to do better than yesterday. “They don’t qualify for what we call marriage.” These were his words on ABC yesterday, describing same sex couples.
Bishop Coleridge’s argument is based on the principle that there is more than one kind of love. On that basic point he is right. The love between parent and child, brother and sister, for example is not the same as the love between a man and a woman who wish to marry.
Read more at: The Australian Independent media Network
It’s all happening again.
In case you haven’t noticed, the US is about to start another war. Remember George W. Bush and the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003?
On that occasion it was a carefully calculated move, complete with lies about Saddam Hussein’s arsenal, fabricated intelligence delivered to the United Nations by then Secretary of State, Colin Powell, more lies from Dick Cheney and a compliant Murdoch led media playing along.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
When Bullshit Baffles Brains
Those of us who regard truth as a fundamental democratic value and who have now realised that truth no longer plays a part in our parliament, or our media, know that our democracy has been usurped by plutocracy.
The rest of the population has, through blind ignorance, been reduced to a second-tier living standard and they don’t even know it.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
Can the Government Survive?
When the Turnbull government won the last election by just one seat it was generally felt that they would probably survive the next three years with the aid of a sympathetic media willing to gloss over their vulnerable areas.
Unlike the minority Gillard government, which had to bring all its negotiating skills to the table and stare down a viciously anti-Labor reaction, the Turnbull administration has blundered along, bouncing from one crisis to another protected from a public backlash by a sympathetic media.
Read more at: The Australian Independent Media Network
John Kelly