Diary of our stinking Govt.

[boris1gary]

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.

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.

[bella_again]

Wow, kind of leaves you speechless, it just gets worse and worse. I wonder what the governments definition of permanent will be? Half dead and in the grave....

[monman12]

Sunday, a day of rest from C&P,s from  Independent Media and citizen bloggers/ wannabe journalists venting their rose coloured  spleen. Oh dear, no rest I am afraid.

I find it somewhat ironic that the citizen blogger uses figures from the Circus in 2013 indicating a budget surplus in 16-17 ( that  flat Swan song sounds familiar)  and conveniently, or does not understand,  the ramifications of the soon to be blocked attempts to reduce budget outgoings and debt.

Gimme, gimme more and greener grass, that I  expect from many of the two flocks, unfortunately (un-fortune) the mobs/flocks do not appreciate that they must climb the hill to be hand fed.

So in keeping with the regime of many and numerous C&P contributions (many unread or researched) I will add another in this post for  which I must apologise because: I have commented,  the author is a real and respected journalist,  and he lambastes all sides, it does happen BIG.

Swinging with the changing wind: Aussies have given up on expecting pollies to be candid or consistent

• Laurie Oakes
• The Daily Telegraph
• June 28, 2014

 The climate change issue that dominated politics this week shows why. Take Gore, the former US vice-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“I am not a citizen of Australia and I don’t feel I have the privilege of entering your political debate,” Gore said earlier this month.

Yet there he was on Wednesday standing beside Clive Palmer in the Great Hall of Parliament House and entering our political debate in a big way — by giving his blessing to the climate change policies of the Palmer United Party. In doing so the celebrity climate change activist — who has said over and over again that a price on carbon is the only meaningful way to counter global warming — provided political cover for Palmer to help the Abbott government get rid of the mechanism that puts a price on carbon in Australia.

Inevitably the bizarre joint news conference sparked debate over whether Gore is a fraud or a fool.

At the very least, by associating himself with a billionaire owner of coal leases and a polluting nickel refinery who will profit handsomely from abolition of the carbon tax, Gore invited allegations of hypocrisy. And he got them.
Palmer himself? It’s only a couple of months since he was proclaiming disbelief in the whole idea that human activity contributes to global warming. Scientists, he claimed, could be paid to say anything. Now he adopts the stance of an environmental warrior, committed to retention of the Climate Change Authority and opposed to any change in the Renewable Energy Target designed to ensure 20 per cent of Australia’s energy comes from sources such as wind and solar by 2020.
The PUP leader’s approach is one that Abbott, who confessed a few years ago to being “a bit of a weather vane”, would have understood when they met on Thursday morning to negotiate the demise of the carbon tax.

The Prime Minister has held every position there is on climate change, from branding the science “absolute **bleep**” to claiming before his recent Washington visit he accepts it, and from supporting an ETS when John Howard embraced it to asserting a price on carbon would destroy the economy.

Greens leader Christine Milne was full of self-righteous indignation over the impending repeal of the carbon tax when she fronted the media after the Gore-Palmer circus.
Australia would have a well-established emissions trading system — too entrenched to be abolished — if she and the rest of her party had supported Kevin Rudd’s legislation instead of helping the Coalition defeat it in the senate way back when.
The Greens should blame themselves. They were greedy — and hypocritical.

As for Labor, Bill Shorten and his colleagues are in no position to claim the high ground on climate change. Under Rudd, despite his claim it was the great moral issue of our time, the party squibbed a double dissolution election on an ETS, then went into a funk and shelved the legislation.
Julia Gillard made a solemn election promise of “no carbon tax under a government I lead”, then broke that promise. Hypocrisy doesn’t get much more blatant than that.

Which brings us to the environment minister.

“The news that the senate will now support repeal of the carbon tax is unambiguously good news for Australian families,” Hunt said after Palmer’s announcement. Hunt was once one of the parliament’s most ardent advocates of a carbon pricing mechanism to counter global warming.

As Liberal opposition leader after the Howard government’s 2007 defeat, Brendan Nelson tried to water down the Coalition’s commitment to an ETS, arguing “we cannot solve global climate change alone”.
Hunt, as shadow environment minister, along with then shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull, was prominent among those who forced Nelson to toe the line and publicly support the introduction of a cap and trade scheme within four years.
Hunt backed a leadership change by Turnbull, partly because of Nelson’s shakiness on carbon pricing. And when Turnbull’s leadership was challenged in turn by anti-ETS forces in the Coalition, Hunt stuck with him to the end.
But as soon as Abbott became leader, Hunt switched sides effortlessly. Suddenly putting a price on carbon was an appalling idea. Adaptable is one word that could be applied to Hunt. It is the kind one.

Now that is acceptable disapprobation for all

 nɥºɾ

[cherry*135]

Bella "People really don't have a clue as the life these people face, if its not in their family they do not want to know. It's sad because as a society we are losing our empathy and compassion for those less fortunate and making it about the almighty mighty dollar."

It is sad & disappointing.

As boris mentioned.. Where is the job creation??
If the Govt want to get more people off Govt benefits (e.g. Unemployed youth) into work, there has to be jobs for them to move into. Permanent jobs, not casual, seasonal, part time jobs.

If they expect them to study if they can't find work. If they can find a place in a course & be prepared to borrow $1000's for a paltry Cert. or Diploma. They will become one, in hundreds of job applicants with a shiny new cert. But no work experience and be unlikely to be hired for that reason.
Read the job ads LNP govt... Be a rare one that doesn't say.. Must have experience....even for quite basic skill level jobs.

[cherry*135]

There were lots of 'I don't recall' answers in this scandal.

Senate inquiry to investigate explosive federal police bribery claims over wheat board oil-for-food scandal

Mr Fusca, a 30-year veteran of the federal police, led the AFP taskforce into the wheat board's $300 million payments to the regime of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in breach of United Nations sanctions.

In addition to alleging that a senior federal police officer had told him that if he could "make the oil-for-food taskforce go away, he would be appointed as next co-ordinator", Mr Fusca said in a 2012 federal court statement that his taskforce was not given enough resources and had shut down prematurely.

He also made the sensational claim that the police taskforce, which ran between late 2006 and August 2009, had cultivated a high-level informant who indicated that "senior government officials'' had been aware of the wheat board's payment of kickbacks.

In 2006, prime minister John Howard, foreign minister Alexander Downer and trade minister Mark Vaile appeared before the Cole royal commission into wheat board payments to the Iraqi regime.

The motion to establish the Senate inquiry instructs the committee to report on the work of the federal police on the oil-for-food scandal, the resources provided to Mr Fusca's taskforce and any other related matters by September 4.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senate-inquiry-to-investigate-explosive-federa...

[boris1gary]

but we should spare a thought for the "poor miners".....there is more of this article, well wortha read for those that don't insist on only those in the pocket of uncle rupes are worth reading.

http://theaimn.com/lets-forget-poor-miners/

Let’s not forget the poor miners….

The high fiving over the repeal of the carbon tax made me despair at the ignorance of our government – a battle lost but the war continues.

The Abbott government is preparing to axe the mining tax as its repeal bill passed the lower house for a second time on Thursday, with the government limiting debate to under two hours.

The coalition says the mining tax has failed to do its job, raising only $340 million since its introduction.   Parliamentary secretary to the minister for finance Michael McCormack also said the tax undermined confidence in Australia as an investment destination and its reputation as resource supplier, which raises the obvious question asked by Chris Bowen, “If it doesn’t raise enough money, then how does it damage the mining industry?”

The total revenue in 2012 for BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Woodside Petroleum, Newcrest and Xstrata was A$167.23 billion. Add to that the revenues of the self-defined “small” miners.  Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting alone made a $1.2 billion net profit in 2012.  It is projected that in the next decade they will make at least another $600 billion

State governments will hand over $17.6 billion in mining subsidies over the next four years.  The federal government will contribute $4.5 billion a year.  That’s $36 billion over the next four years given to companies who are making superprofits from mining our limited resources.  That would pay for a real NBN, or high speed rail, or all the programs that have been slashed by the Coalition and then some.

We are told we must encourage investment by mining companies because they underpin our economy.  And yet the facts do not bear this out.

Take Glencore for example, our third largest mining company, who, according to an article in the SMH, paid no tax on the $15 billion profit they made over the last three years.  To achieve this they employed aggressive tax avoidance measures, borrowing money at 9% and then relending it in interest free loans.  Their profits largely go offshore to foreign shareholders.

”The truth is that Glencore Coal Investments Australia’s operations in Australia are, because of the Group’s business model, branch operations of the Swiss-domiciled parent entity, which uses the now dormant legal shell of an Australian body corporate in an attempt to hide the reality of its branch business in Australia.”

The company disputes this, saying it has paid approximately $3.4 billion in taxes and royalties in Australia over the last three years.  Even if this is true, it’s a bleep fine return for selling something you don’t own.  I wonder how much it has received in subsidies during that time.

Mining companies are also unreliable employers.  They quickly sack employees, often on the basis of what the resource market is doing, because profit is paramount.

In March the Australian reported:

“Glencore’s Ravensworth underground operation will be the first coal mine suspended by the Switzerland-based resources titan due to the sharp slide in prices for the fuel, although this follows hundreds of job cuts over the past year as the company looked to bolster the profitability of its sites.”

Followed by this in the Courier Mail last month:

“SWISS mining giant Glencore will shut its Newlands underground coal mine in central Queensland with the loss of 50 jobs next month, but eventually 196 jobs when production ceases next year.

Last year about 450 workers were axed from Newlands and Oaky Creek as the company restructured.”

Over the past two years, coal producers have slashed 12,000 jobs—more than 1,500 destroyed in the Hunter Valley and 8,000 in Queensland—with impunity.

Glencore’s global coal assets Peter Freyberg claimed that the industry “isn’t as competitive as it should be,” and warned that “productivity, industrial relations and regulatory settings were factors impacting the industry’s competitiveness.”

The mining companies want the ability to hire and fire at will and “flexibility” to make instantaneous changes to work practices, such as shift rosters and the use of contract labour, to meet shifting production demands.

In February, the Abbott government quietly reopened a visa loophole that will allow employers to hire an unlimited number of foreign workers under a temporary working visa, in a move that unions say will bring back widespread rorting of the system.

Before the loophole was closed in 2013 by the Labor government, companies in the mining, construction and IT industries were knowingly hiring hundreds more foreign workers than they had applied for.

In one example, an employer was granted approval for 100 visas over three years, but in 18 months he had brought in 800 workers under the 457 visa.

In the Coalition’s bid to remove all ”red tape” from the 457 skilled migrant visa, employers will not be penalised or scrutinised if they hire more foreign staff than they applied for.

[monman12]

"omg, ever have that "please make it stop" feeling, i have it everyday with this sad excuse of an "adult government"...there are no jobs, unemployment is rising, jobs are going every day - HOW ABOUT SOME JOB CREATION......"

I do wonder if posting comments that are demonstrably wrong make the author feel better or are designed to bolster a political myopia!

Australian Bureau of Statistics

• Labour force commentary May 2014

  Employed Persons                                                                Unemployment Rate

                                 

TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,573,100.
• Unemployment decreased to 719,700.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.9%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.7%.

Homework: Research (sorry) the variation in the unemployment rate  for the period when the Circus was in town. Hint: it increased

nɥºɾ

[boris1gary]

at least we can all give a sigh of relief for rich tax avoiders....

Rich tax avoiders are sitting back and laughing

The former Business Council of Australia (BCA) president Tony Shepherd’s Audit Commission revealed the agenda that local and foreign corporations are pursuing through the Abbott Government. Through a manufactured “budget crisis” they are putting the squeeze on working Australians.

The same BCA knows very well that its corporate membership is engaging in massive tax avoidance. Towards the end of last month they co-hosted, with legal firm Clayton Utz, a seminar on the OECD and G20 decision to try and restrict base-erosion
and profit-shifting loopholes that have scandalised Europe, with revelations that giants like Amazon Books and Google have paid next to nothing on huge profits in countries like the UK.

The seminar was told by Tax Office officials that 233 multinationals in Australia were “under review” and had collectively sent around $60 billion to related parties in tax havens outside this country in 2012. That money, if taxed at the company tax rate in Australia, would provide revenue to the government that would allow it to fund social programs rather than cut them.

One of the mechanisms for avoiding tax on these billions of dollars was for a company to register a trading hub in a tax haven, transfer to it the Australian company’s intellectual property rights, and then have the hub “charge” the Australian company for use of those rights.

Massive untaxed profits, exit stage right.

Reports from the seminar suggest that rather than chastising themselves for this dishonesty, business participants sought assurances that sections of the transfer-pricing legislation introduced by the Labor government when it held office would not be used to try to recover these untaxed profits.

The Deputy Tax Commissioner Mark Konza assured business that the tax commissioner would not “go crazy with this power”. In fact, he said, the powers would be “rarely implemented” because of associated legal difficulties. Big business was further assured that Abbott’s decision to slash 3000 jobs at the Tax Office would probably hamper what little effort the ATO may have
been planning to put into the task.

At around the same time, it was revealed that the number of superannuation clients with funds of more than $5 million had increased by 76% in the past three years, and those with over $10 million in super had doubled, reflecting the increasing numbers of super-rich living off our work.

Given the tax breaks and concessions associated with super funds , the super rich are able to receive income ( returns on investments made with their money by super funds) on which they pay 0 - 15% instead of the top rate of 46.5%.

These disclosures prove once again that there is no basis for budget "crisis" warnings. The problem is not there is insufficient money in this country to provide for the governments revenue.

The problem is that there is too much in the hands of corporations and individuals who can use profit-shifting and superannuation to laugh at the rest of us mug taxpayers.

These social parasites are past their use-by date. Their unfairness and arrogance are intolerable.

[boris1gary]

---

@monman12 wrote:

"omg, ever have that "please make it stop" feeling, i have it everyday with this sad excuse of an "adult government"...there are no jobs, unemployment is rising, jobs are going every day - HOW ABOUT SOME JOB CREATION......"

I do wonder if posting comments that are demonstrably wrong make the author feel better or are designed to bolster a political myopia!

Australian Bureau of Statistics

• Labour force commentary May 2014

  Employed Persons                                                                Unemployment Rate

                                 

TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,573,100.
• Unemployment decreased to 719,700.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.9%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.7%.

Homework: Research (sorry) the variation in the unemployment rate  for the period when the Circus was in town. Hint: it increased

nɥºɾ

---

another hilarious post monman12, even hockey expects unemployment to rise, oooops - never mind we will wait for the great and good to come up with the 1million jobs promised before the election - after all - they don't break promises do they monman12.... 1million jobs - can't wait.

[boris1gary]

although getting rid of FOFA will create a few jobs I hear - for fraudsters anyway - now isn't that the LNP way - jobs for your mates (not to mention family members).

It hasn’t taken the federal government long to downplay the scathing findings of the Senate inquiry into gross failings ..., or for the CBA to protest a degree of innocence.  There seems to be no appetite for pursuing the root cause of such scandals as they go right to the top of our most august corporations.

The story of fraud and failure by a bunch of so-called financial planners employed by the CBA is now well known, thanks to brave whistle blowers and Fairfax Media’s Adele Ferguson and no thanks at all to our useless watchdog -  ASIC  - asleep at the wheel again with no sign of the fire in the belly and the healthy scepticism about money handlers that such a body needs.

The senate inquiry has laid bare the appalling behaviour of the CBA employees who were mainly concerned about pumping out product, exceeding sales targets and boosting their own income. It also has signalled a problem with culture at Macquarie Bank. What’s worth adding is that the people who carry responsibility for that culture are the boards, CEOs and their senior reports at the biggest end of town.

There’s nothing new about pump-and-dump, churn-and-burn boiler rooms – from the foreign exchange joints that opened here back when our dollar floated to Larry Pickering’s race horse and stock market software con jobs to dubious cold-calling share shares people to the execrable Jordan Belfort of self-titled Wolf of Wall Street infamy.

They are all the result of management culture that results in a quite frightening pack mentality on the sales floor.

What happened at CBA – and has happened in various sections of pretty much all our great and good financial institutions – is that the senior management set a culture of pushing product down punters’ throats, of flogging stuff first and foremost, and correspondingly rewarded and punished people on that basis.

If the boards and CEOs of our banks and AMP were serious about looking after customers, they would be doing all they could to professionalise the financial advice industry. They’re not. That would cost money. It might not sell as much product. It’s not nearly as important as the bottom line and those bonuses.

ASIC needs to keep that in mind when dealing with the big end of town – and it needs to grow a pair.

In the meantime, don’t expect any leadership in this area from the federal government – it’s more interested in being open for business, reducing regulation, letting market forces function and looking after  mates, even without Arthur Sinodinos as the relevant minister.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/cba-financial-planning-failure-goes-right-to-the...

[boris1gary]

monman12, as you obviously see the need for calling anyone and everyone who is on the left of the LNP or tea party or any other extreme right wing organisation "myopic" maybe it is time for some evidence that your own posts are not "myopic" in their defence for all things conservative. I can't think of a single poster who has been tagged as "myopic" by yourself who hasn't posted something that they have disagreed with done by the ALP - not one. Yet I have not seen a single post from yourself that is critical in anyway of this current mob, not a single word. Myopic at all? Or just blindness? Blue and red tag..mmmm....just blue would be honest.