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.

[debra9275]

the facts as published by the press

why would that upset anyone?

I didn't make up that story about brandis ripping us off you know, it's fact

[boris1gary]

wow

[debra9275]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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a little reminder for those who don't know what's going on

factual too

[gleee58]

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@debra9275 wrote:
Oh, you're saying abbott's not popular because he doesn't want to be?

LOL

clever 🙂

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it's a joke right? abbott puts Australia first has got to be a joke.

[aps1080]

Seem to be missing some of Shortens attributes !!! LOL

Refer to Icy's excellent post on the previous page.

I am surprised women like you support Shorten !

[debra9275]

Personally, I thinks he puts himself and the LNP first Gleee

And it shows in the polls

[boris1gary]

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@debra9275 wrote:
Personally, I thinks he puts himself and the LNP first Gleee

And it shows in the polls

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himself,  his cronies and more private profit for his backers - stolen from us and given to the few

there has been even more since this was written

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2014/07/18/abbott-appointments-are-trusted-class-w...

Abbott appointments are trusted class warriors 

With an unprecedented fervour, the government is filling boards and commissions with old cronies.

[debra9275]

I'm not a huge fan of Shorten, but I really can't stand abbott or any of his party's policies. I doubt shorten will be leading labor when they win the next election, will have to wait and see

[aps1080]

Interesting article and quite true.

Culture of bans is strangling debate

WILL 2014 be remembered as the year of the totalitarian? While the most extreme forms of oppressive rule take hold in other parts of the world, we have our own dictators demanding we adhere to their moral code.

We seem to have drifted into a worrying trend where self-appointed ethical guardians display a puritanical fervour to ban things they deem offensive, no matter how misplaced or overblown their offence may be.

We are in an era where clicktivists use their undiminishing reserves of outrage to orchestrate campaigns to ban T-shirts, video games, songs with offensive lyrics ... they have even attempted to ban former Labor leader Mark Latham’s musings. During these offence orgies, the easily affronted band together to bully individuals or companies which don’t conform to their narrow world view.

Criticism, condemnation and boycotts are no longer enough; like spoilt children demanding vegetables disappear from their dinner plate, the hashtag-happy harpies believe that what they don’t like should no longer exist.

I wasn’t kidding about attempts to ban Latham’s words; there are multiple petitions to have his columns removed from the Australian Financial Review because the contents displease a select few women.

Latham has lately taken on a daddy blogger role, writing about parenting issues and has, in typical Latham style, been scathing of mothers who promote what he calls “feminist parenting”.

Call me old fashioned, but I always thought if you don’t like the work of a columnist then you can choose not to read their work. No one is forcing you to buy the paper or click on the link to their work.

But it seems that exercising personal choice or writing an angry letter to the editor are no longer sufficiently empowering. Now online petitions must be started and pressure applied to any organisation that dares produce content that is contrary to one’s personal belief system.

Unless Latham is inciting violence or using threatening language, then I don’t see how anybody who values free speech could demand that he be effectively silenced.

If his columns defamed anyone then the aggrieved have a legal option but simply being offended is not grounds for demanding the banning of articles.

Surely Latham, who let’s not forget was supported in his campaign to be prime minister by many of the Leftist feminists now demanding he be censored, has a right to express his opinions, just as his detractors have a right to criticise his work.

But despite several columnists writing caustic responses to Latham’s parenting pieces and a plethora of online invective, there are those who will be satisfied only if his work is banned.

It’s a phenomenon we’ve seen again and again as enraged activists demand retail outlets ban legal products that upset their sensibilities. This year, we’ve had Aldi and Big W recall supposedly racist Australia Day T-shirts emblazoned with “Australia Est. 1788” slogans after an all too predictable Twitter storm.

Another social media campaign resulted in Woolworths issuing a pitiful apology and pulling a singlet off the shelves which featured the Australian flag with the slogan “if you don’t love it, leave”. That campaign was more idiotic than most thanks to the involvement of Greens MP Adam Bandt.

The singlet was labelled “disgusting” and “xenophobic” and simply “unacceptable” for modern day Australia. Funnily enough, the same folk “sickened” by the “divisive” Australia Day T-shirts and the “if you don’t love it, leave” singlets seem utterly unperturbed with “F--- Tony Abbott” T-shirts peddled by a Fairfax columnist.

Earlier this month, Target also succumbed to pressure and pulled an R-rated video game, Grand Theft Auto V, off its shelves. The decision came after a campaign by women upset by the violence depicted in the game particularly against female sex workers.

In the online age, all it takes is a few key strokes to add your name to a petition or campaign to ban all manner of things. Retailers can be spooked by an avalanche of abusive Facebook posts, tweets or names on a petition and often react with panic rather than a calm and considered approach.

Target may have thought it had averted a public relations disaster by banning the game from its stores but the decision was met by thousands of equally enraged gamers who saw the ban as infringing on their rights.

Of course, we all have a right to be offended, but that does not entitle us to demand bans as soon as we see something we disagree with.

I, for one, have a very low tolerance for vacuous, asinine commentary and that’s why I avoid Fairfax’s female website, Daily Life, a slightly more miserable version of mummy blogger site Mamamia — but I don’t demand that it not exist. I simply make the decision not to consume the content it produces.

I have an even lower threshold for wretched creeps who think it’s their God-given right to send abusive, threatening or sexist messages on social media. That’s why I make use of the block button and cull any pests from harassing me. We can all take steps to avoid what we despise.

This renewed zeal for imposing one’s viewpoints by stealth is not something to be celebrated. There is no virtue in being easily offended; being hypersensitive does not make you more caring or compassionate. It just make you an authoritarian bore.

[Anonymous]

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@boris1gary wrote:

wow

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That reminds me of the following:

 

World War II vets denied memorial visit

A GRIFFITH man is among hundreds of World War II veterans who will miss the unveiling of a memorial in their honour in London next month after the federal government announced it would only sponsor a small delegation to attend.

The government will fully fund eight veterans to attend the unveiling of the long-awaited Bomber Command memorial and only part-fund a further 40 ex-pilots, officers or tail-gunners.

Outraged Riverina MP Michael McCormack has vowed to fight for full funding for all remaining Bomber Command members to make the trip.

"The air attacks carried out by those men in the skies over Europe were decisive factors in WWII our nation is proud of their efforts and we should do everything we can to get them across," Mr McCormack said.

"It is a disgrace that the prime minister and her entourage would spend the money to go across to Gallipoli but those who fought to protect the good people of the world against the forces of evil in some of our darkest days are not afforded the same opportunity.

"Every other Commonwealth country is sending all of their veterans. We should be doing the same."

More Australians were killed in the bomber command than any other service during WWII.

Local man Jim Mallinson was an air gunner in the 186th RAF Squadron in 1944, surviving an incredible 39 missions.

While he did not intend to fly to London for the memorial opening, he believed the government should offer all of his comrades the opportunity.

See your ad here
"It wouldn't cost them much, there aren't that many of us left," Mr Mallinson said.

"There are a lot of blokes who would have gone five or six years ago, when they first started talking about it, but we're all in our eighties now so I'm not so sure. There would definitely be more than 40 who want to go, though."

Mr McCormack pledged he would write to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith demanding funding for the veterans and would take up the fight on the floor of Parliament.