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.

[fourandsixpants]

Yes there is absolutely nothing intelligent or human about Abbotts' policies.

Now that the personnel changes have been made, 2015 will be the year that propaganda war will move from demonising asylum seekers to demonising and scapegoating the unemployed and those “too lazy” to look for work.

The unemployed and discouraged workers will be blamed for the fall in living standards and for the budget blowout. Those targeted most directly will be the young.

Microeconomic and structural reform will be put forward as the solution, any mention of inadequate demand will be dismissed.

Australia’s world beating and deep thinking journalists –those that still have a job because they were prepared to do a stellar job beating up fears around the budget emergency – will no doubt convince themselves and an anxious brain-washed public that this is the issue of the day.

[iapetus_rocks]

unabashed copy and paste follows, but it is worth reading, all the same.

capitalism requires that there be not just unemployment but that the unemployed be unhappy.  . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. Capitalism requires an excess supply of labour in order to bid down wage growth and industrial militancy. When Norman Lamont said unemployment was a “price well worth paying” to get wage inflation down, he was just blurting out the truth seen by Kalecki 50 years earlier – that “unemployment is an integral part of the ‘normal’ capitalist system.”

2. Capitalism needs the unemployed to look for work – to be an effective supply of labour. This requires that they be “incentivized” to seek jobs by meagre unemployment benefits and by being stigmatized. In other words, the unemployed must be made unhappy.

3. Blaming the unemployed for their plight serves a two-fold function in legitimating capitalism. It distracts attention from the fact that unemployment is caused by structural failings in capitalism, sometimes magnified by policy error.

And in promoting the cognitive bias which says that individuals are the makers of their own fate, it invites the inference that, just as the poor deserve their poverty, so the rich deserve their wealth.

http://mattbruenig.com/2012/02/19/unemployment-is-a-structural-problem-in-capitalism/

[fourandsixpants]

Thanks for this link iapetus.

Last para sums thing up and imo this present Australian Fed Govts behaviour and thinking:

So the contradiction is apparent. To keep inflation under control, we have to simultaneously force 4-6% of the population to be unemployed, and then we have to falsely make them feel like they are to blame for the unemployment. This is totally abusive. It’s like punching some random person in the face, and then making them feel terrible and self-conscious about having a black eye.

[fourandsixpants]

.....but does not explain why this present Fed Govt has allowed at least 3 times 4-6% unemployment

....and if 4-6% is deemed 'totally abusive' then what adjectives would we use to describe the youth un and under-employment that has been allowed to occur since this LNP/Coalition Govt have been incharge?

[aps1080]

I see the ABC got canned for the abysmal coverage of the Sydney NY Eve fireworks.

Apart from awful footage, too long, too many bad jokes, too much talking and of course far too many blatant references to the Gov'ts ABC budget cuts.

Looks like they obviously have money and live air time to waste so maybe another round of cuts due.

[fourandsixpants]

Did not watch sorry so I cannot make comment.

[aps1080]

 And in promoting the cognitive bias which says that individuals are the makers of their own fate, it invites the inference that, just as the poor deserve their poverty, so the rich deserve their wealth.

Agree to an extent that "individuals are the makers of their own fate".

The second part (the poor deserve their poverty) is a load of hogwash. Why do the poor DESERVE their poverty ?

The third part I don't have a problem with as most have to do some work for it at some time,

others do the work AMD strike it lucky, like the kid who just made $30 millions selling an App.

One of the biggest hinderances to capitalism is lack of GOOD people to work or lack of people who WANT to work.

[aps1080]

Australia’s world beating and deep thinking journalists –those that still have a job because they were prepared to do a stellar job beating up fears around the budget emergency – will no doubt convince themselves and an anxious brain-washed public that this is the issue of the day.

Very few good investigative and knowledgeable journos left.

and those “too lazy” to look for work."

I don't agree with demonising the unemployed but what is wrong with giving those “too lazy” to look for work

a hard time and forcing them to take a job close to home if one is available ?

[aps1080]

---

@j*oono wrote:

---

The people are alive.

Unlike in that picture which shows a few dead people.

[fourandsixpants]

ref.

Very few good investigative and knowledgeable journos left.

 ..............................................................................................................................................................................

....same problem with blue tie politicians atm.