Diary of our stinking Govt.

As it's more than 100 days now, it has been suggested that a new thread was needed.  The current govt has been breaking promises and telling lies at a rate so fast it's hard to keep up.Woman Happy

 

This below is worrying, "independent" pffft, as if your own doctor is somehow what? biased, it's ridiculous. So far there is talk of only including people under a certain age 30-35, for now. Remember that if your injured in a car, injured at work or get ill, you too might need to go on the DSP. They have done a similar think in the UK with devastating consequences.

 

and this is the 2nd time recently where the Govt has referred to work as welfare???? So when you go to work tomorrow (or tuesday), just remember that's welfare.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-20/disability-pensioners-may-be-reassessed-kevin-andrews/5400598

 

Independent doctors could be called in to reassess disability pensioners, Federal Government says

 

The Federal Government is considering using independent doctors to examine disability pensioners and assess whether they should continue to receive payments.

 

Currently family doctors provide reports supporting claims for the Disability Support Pension (DSP).

But Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews is considering a measure that would see independent doctors reassess eligibility.

 

"We are concerned that where people can work, the best form of welfare is work," Mr Andrews said at a press conference.

 

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I will try a "popular" and very easy posting format:

 

http://www.smh.com.au/national/former-hsu-boss-michael-williamson-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-20131015-2v...

 

Former HSU boss Michael Williamson pleads guilty to fraud

 
Michael Williamson, once the president of the Australian Labor Party and the head of the powerful Health Services Union, is now facing a jail term after pleading guilty to a raft of charges, including defrauding his former union of close to $1 million.

Williamson, 60, had been charged with more than 50 offences but those had been rolled into four major charges, Magistrate Graeme Henson was told at Sydney's Downing Centre Criminal Court.

The charges related to cheating and defrauding the HSU East branch, creating false documents with the intention to deceive and the recruiting of others to hinder a police investigation.
Former HSU boss Michael Williamson leaves court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraud charges.

Former HSU boss Michael Williamson leaves court after pleading guilty to fraud charges. Photo: Peter Rae

In total, the four charges carry penalties in excess of 30 years' imprisonment

Nicknamed "the million-dollar man", Williamson controlled the HSU for 16 years until a 2011 investigation by Fairfax Media revealed his cronyism and corruption in the running of the union.

Apart from paying himself $500,000 – triple what other union bosses were paid – the union employed his brother, son and sister-in-law, as well as his long-term mistress and members of her family.

His son, Chris, used an HSU building to run a recording studio while his wife Julieanne's company Canme (the initials of their five children) received 47 cheques totalling $620,326 from 2001 and 2009 for archiving work that was never performed.
 
 
Jennifer Wison
"It seems to me that it’s a core conservative tradition to use  the most vulnerable people in society as a means to an ideological end."
Williamson epitomises that with his use of HSU worker's funds to fuel his  personal ideology, autonomy.

nɥºɾ

 

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http://theaimn.com/2014/05/03/the-laws-by-shepherd-he-shall-not-want/ 

 

The laws by Shepherd, he shall not want

 

The definition of independent is “free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority; not depending on another for livelihood or subsistence.”  I am not a member of any political organisation or union.  Nobody tells me what to write and nobody checks it before I publish it.  I am not paid to write.  I therefore defend our claim to independence, but cannot do the same for the head of our supposedly independent Commission of Audit, Tony Shepherd.

 

As head of the Business Council of Australia, Shepherd advocates for Australia’s 100 biggest companies, and was chairman of construction and services giant Transfield Services until he quit in October after more than a decade on the board.

 

Transfield has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in federal government contracts in recent years, including reaping $180 million from operating detention facilities on Nauru. In February we learned that Transfield Services will be paid $1.22 billion by the Australia government to run both offshore detention centres

 

Mr Shepherd left with more than 200,000 Transfield shares, allocated to his family superannuation fund, on top of his final salary of $380,000.

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monman12, well done with the c&p, shame it's in the wrong thread.

 

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/jolly-joe-hockey-the-happy-1965-baby-201405...

 

Jolly Joe Hockey, the happy 1965 baby

 

Joe Hockey was born in August, 1965.

 

This, it turns out, means he escapes the full impact of his new policy by a whisker.

 

He ought almost burst into song, a pastime he confides lifts his spirits no end.

 

Something along the lines of It was a Very Good Year would seem appropriate.

 

Should Joe find himself out of a job and down on his luck along the track a bit, he’ll be eligible to apply for an old-age pension at 69 - a privilege that will be denied all those born after Joe's lucky birth year.

 

If his parents had - how do we say this delicately? - held off for just a few months back there in the swinging '60s and little Joe had arrived in 1966, he’d have to hold off himself on applying for a pension until he was 70.

 

Jolly Joe, you understand, announced on Friday that means Australians born after 1965 would have to rethink their working life, because they wouldn’t be able to get the pension until that newly magical age of 70.

 

While the announcement plunged some of the post-1965 set into a state approaching despair, Joe was blithely diverting himself with the soothing sounds of a crooner of the '60s.

 

No Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or any of those cool '60s dudes for Jolly Joe, however. He lulled himself with the tight-pants strains of Engelbert Humperdinck.

 

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government of spin, lies and embarrassments

 

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/experts-sceptical-about-health-minister-pet...

 

Experts sceptical about Health Minister Peter Dutton's health funding 'crisis'

 

Health Minister Peter Dutton has misled Australians with exaggerated claims about the unsustainability of the healthcare system, say economists and public health experts.

 

Contrary to claims by Mr Dutton, four health and economics experts interviewed by Fairfax Media said there was little evidence that Australia's healthcare costs were unsustainable.

 

And patient advocates warned the adoption of the National Commission of Audit's recommendations – including compulsory fees for doctor visits, emergency hospital charges and relegation of Medicare to only the needy – would bring about the end of universal healthcare.

 

"[Mr Dutton] is using scare tactics about unsustainability," said Stephen Leeder, emeritus professor of public health at the University of Sydney's Menzies Centre for Health Policy.

 

While healthcare costs are the fastest growing area of government spending and growing at a faster rate than national productivity, Professor Leeder said there were "many areas of inefficiency" that could be tackled before dismantling Medicare bulk billing. The minister and those in charge of the commission of audit were "too far removed from the front line" and were doing "accounting rather than health policy", he added.

 

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"monman12, well done with the c&p, shame it's in the wrong thread."

 

Why exactly would that be B1G? You have a post (well a C&P comment)  from  Jennifer Wison contained within the post/thread which states:

"It seems to me that it’s a core conservative tradition to use  the most vulnerable people in society as a means to an ideological end."
 
I reply "Williamson epitomises that with his use of HSU worker's funds to fuel his  personal ideology, autonomy."
 
By any debating standard,  responding to a statement with a  connected/relevant example is perfectly valid . Even if you do  not appreciate the response!
 
Oh gosh, I stll have some way to go with this C&P posting regime as the above was not copied.
 

nɥºɾ

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http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-faces-another-conflict-of-in...

 

Abbott government faces another conflict of interest scandal

 

Illustration: Matt Golding.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

 

The Abbott government faces another conflict of interest scandal after it was discovered that an adviser to the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Nigel Scullion, held a majority financial stake in a business that operated within the minister's portfolio.

 

Only months after the conflict of interest controversy that forced the resignation of Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash's chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, Senator Scullion faces a similar problem in his office.

 

Under the government's strict rules, ministerial advisers – who have influence over government policies – must not be involved in businesses that could profit from ministerial decisions. 

 

The minister's adviser, William "Smiley" Johnstone, is the majority shareholder of Indigenous Development Corporation (IDC), a property development business that is on two of the government's "standing offer" lists of favoured suppliers. Both lists relate to Senator Scullion's portfolio responsibilities.
 
 
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http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3879733.htm

 

Conflict of interest threatens Great Barrier Reef

 

"............7:30 has learned of disturbing accusations about the body charged with protecting the reef, the Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Our investigation has revealed two of the Authority's board members have links to mining and resources companies that could benefit from port developments. They also have links to the family of infamous NSW politician Eddie Obeid who is currently facing another corruption inquiry......."

 

".........The other Marine Park Authority board member in the sights of environmentalists is former Labor candidate Tony Mooney who unsuccessfully ran for Federal Parliament in 2010. He was also Labor mayor of Townsville for 19 years and was appointed to the marine park Board by the Gillard Government in 2011....."

 

".....Queensland electoral records show he received a $5,000 donation for his 2010 campaign from the Obeid Corporation. Mr Mooney's day job is here at Guildford Cole where he's a mining executive paid $250,000 as manager of stakeholder relations. The company plans to run six coal mines in Queensland....."

 

".........a spokesman for the Environment Minister Greg Hunt told 7.30 he has ordered an immediate probity inquiry into Labor's appointment of Tony Mooney to the Marine Park Authority board. Mr Mooney and Jon Grayson declined to be interviewed, as did the Marine Park Authority and the ports operators........"

 

What is the difference, apart from the colour, and the number with criminal convictions?

 

Myopic Tongues2 Small.jpg

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@boris1gary wrote:

@crystal**flake wrote:

Super has always been a bit tricky as lots have lost alot in the past.

 

The family home shouldn't be touched in my opinion.

 

Love bumping up the pension age, love getting rid of one of the family benefits, now someone needs to do something about dole bludgers.

 

I think putting a "levy" on doctors visits is good too, why don't they up the medicare levy a bit too.


jiuh.jpg


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my favourite this week (QLD Govt advertising ) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/full-frontal-campaign-pops-up-porn-website they say the agency made an error.. i say its clever ad placement .. they know who their supporters are.
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monman12, the LNP are in government, it's May 2014.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/secret-blacklist-of-immigration-lawyers-201405...

 

Secret blacklist of immigration lawyers

 

A secret blacklist of lawyers and migration agents compiled by the Department of Immigration has been discovered, sparking outrage about the ''vindictiveness'' of the department and calls for an immediate inquiry.

 

The list of so-called ''agents of concern'' names 30 lawyers and migration agents around the country who have been deemed to be ''high risk'' or of concern by the department, leading to greater scrutiny of their applications for clients seeking partner visas.

 

Some of the lawyers and agents on the covert ''Agents of Concern List A and List B'' have been in business for decades and more than three-quarters of them have never had any official sanction against them.

 

Documents obtained by The Sun-Herald under freedom of information laws have revealed that Department of Immigration officers were supposed to use the list as part of a risk assessment of applications for partner visas, then ''destroy'' it. But a number of copies have been unoffically released through different sources.

 

One migration agent said on an industry website: ''The very existence of such a categorisation of migration agents, for whatever purpose, is shameful; it exposes the secretive and clandestine activities for which the department has a reputation.''

 

Barrister Greg Barns, a spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, warned the list was highly defamatory. ''McCarthyism is alive and well in Australia and it's in the Immigration Department,'' he said.

 

Mr Barns said the list questioned the professionalism and integrity of everyone on it.

 

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