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.

[gleee58]

An interesting article on the subject on the SBS site.   I've posted the first few paragraphs, worth having a look if anyone is interested.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/02/26/comment-did-brandis-break-law-requesting-triggs-resign...

By Brendan Gogarty, University of Tasmania and Helen Cockburn, University of Tasmania

Beyond the political rhetoric and point-scoring, the saga has raised serious political and legal questions about the AHRC’s independence.

Perhaps the most alarming of these questions is the allegation of malfeasance against Attorney-General George Brandis for “corrupt and unlawful conduct” against an office within his portfolio.

The referral

The most recent allegations against Brandis stem from Triggs' evidence to a Senate estimates hearing earlier this week. She told the committee that on February 3, prior to the publication of an AHRC report on children in immigration detention, the attorney-general’s departmental secretary, Chris Moraitis, delivered a request for her to resign her office on Brandis' behalf.

Triggs said she was to be offered “other work with the government” if she resigned. As a consequence, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus formally referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Drefyus wrote:

"The Attorney-General’s offer to an independent statutory officer of an inducement to resign her position as President, with the object of affecting the leadership of the AHRC to avoid political damage to the Abbott Government, may constitute corrupt and unlawful conduct."

Independent officers and the separation of powers

The independence and impartiality of public officers is a fundamental aspect of the rule of law which underpins Australia’s constitutional democracy. That is especially true of legal officers, who should ordinarily hold the government to account and keep it in check.

Despite its pivotal role in ensuring that the government adheres to its human rights obligations, the AHRC is not a judicial body – which the High Court asserted in 1995. Rather, the AHRC is empowered to undertake self-initiated, non-judicial inquiries, give advice and report on governmental compliance with the human rights obligations set out in Commonwealth and international law. But the commission lacks the courts' constitutional safeguards.

These inquisitorial, “quasi-judicial” roles can make administrative scrutiny bodies such as the AHRC particularly unpopular with the government of the day and prime candidates for political and executive interference.

While the conduct of Moraitis – and, more importantly, of Brandis – might have constituted a breach of separation of powers had the statements been made to a judge, Triggs is part of the executive. She falls under the attorney-general’s ministry. As such, the legality of the alleged offer must be determined by legislation alone – not constitutional principles.

[cherry*135]

Tick, tick, tick

[cherry*135]

The Guardian

Fascinating little story this morning from my colleague Daniel Hurst. The education department is currently opposing in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal the release of documents detailing the modelling underlying the Abbott government’s higher education reforms. Education department associate secretary, Robert Griew, has invoked a couple of arguments against releasing the material. The first is it will undermine the tradition of public servants providing frank and fearless advice to their ministers. (This is a common argument in these administrative cases.) The second is the figures are .. well .. essentially invented.

Here’s Daniel:

Griew’s statement – tabled in a Senate estimates committee hearing on Wednesday – argued the release of predictions about university fees could undermine “genuine price competition” and “have a potential dampening effect on the frankness of advice” provided to ministers in future. Griew also noted that a series of spreadsheets depended on “a number of assumptions about relevant parameters such as student population, level of fees for various kinds of university courses at various locations, rates of completion of study and other factors. In each case, while presented as assumed facts and informed by departmental analysis and research, these figures were essentially invented by departmental officials for the purpose of providing material for analysis based on assumed patterns of behaviour,” he wrote.

[cherry*135]

The Circus - Wed 25 Feb

 Photo- Mike Bowers for The Guardian

[cherry*135]

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@vicr3000 wrote:

Something positive ?

Abbott government to move on country of origin food labels after hepatitis A outbreak linked to imported frozen berries

The Abbott government says it will act on country of origin labelling in the wake of the hepatitis A outbreak from frozen berries imported from China.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has asked Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce to prepare a submission for cabinet by the end of March.

"For too long, people have been talking about country of origin labelling. And nothing much has changed," Mr Abbott said

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-to-move-on-country-of-origin...

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This is what Abbott said LAST WEEK

Poo in frozen berries but Abbott resists stronger food labelling

AFR

20 February

Mr Joyce has called for tighter food labelling laws after confirmation of at least 11 cases of hepatitis linked to berries packaged in China

But Mr Abbott resisted any change because it would create red tape and drive up supermarket prices. “The bottom line is that companies shouldn’t be poisoning their customers,” he told ABC radio.

 .... But Mr Abbott did not support changes to food labelling laws.

“It’s always got to be a question of getting the balance right because every time we demand more regulation, every time we demand different types of labelling, we add to the costs and the consumer has to pay,” he said.

 Desperation

The Guardian

The government is caught between an ebbing instinct to be economically rational and to be consistent with its past heavily simplified slogans – cutting red tape, tending the debt crisis, being open for business; and its current mad survival insitinct, which prioritises populism and bouncing around on the talkback preoccupation of the moment over everything else.

The scramble is so profound and such a feature of daily existence now that nothing, apparently has to be consistent with anything else. The prime minister doesn’t bat an eyelid when he says one thing one day and something else entirely the next.

It’s always the risk with aggressive simplicity. So much in politics is about periodic repositioning – you have always got to give yourself some room to move because events change and priorities change. There is no deftness about any repositioning going on now – just desperation.

[vicr3000]

Solution to the children in detention issue ?

TO CONSIDER

Now, I reckon that the Gov't MIGHT consider letting them out, children and families, IF they had an iron clad guarantee

that IF the AS were told, no, after investigation, they would NOT be granted refugee status, Visa's and they had to leave,

it wouldn't end up with a whole load of court cases by Burnside and others saying "Oh, but they have already put down

roots in the Community" etc etc etc.

Because of the previous issues with extraditing people once released and the lenghty legal fights that went on,

I think that has hardened the Gov't into doing it again, the end result being, more people stay in the camps.

Just a thought, would be interested to hear what others think.

[debra9275]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/24/tony-abbotts-death-cult-act-is-already-wearing-...

The stage management of Monday’s big security jamboree at Australian Federal Police HQ was worthy of an Academy Award.

Lots of bunting, people in ribboned uniforms, spooks, coppers and a cast of old political stagers – George Brandis, Kevin Andrews, Michael Keenan, Peter Dutton and the prime minister himself – all doing their best to keep their gravest expressions fixed in place.

Serious issues are at stake, yet the difficulty for the Abbott government is that not many citizens take it seriously. This is an outfit with a bad attack of the totters, and in these circumstances it’s not surprising that a call to arms falls flat.\

In his 17 months as prime minister Tony Abbott has addressed the topic of national security and terror on over 320 occasions, in media releases, speeches, doorstops, interviews, and so on.

I totally agree with this article

[debra9275]

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/glenn-lazarus-accuses-abbott-government-of-cha...

Palmer United senator Glenn Lazarus has launched an extraordinary attack on the federal government saying its management of the crossbench is "dysfunctional" and a mess. 

Senator Lazarus issued a blistering statement on Thursday complaining that his requests to know what legislation the Senate would be debating next week remained unaddressed. 

"The Abbott government is so dysfunctional and in such a mess that the Senate program has not yet been finalised or released," Senator Lazarus said on Thursday.

"The Abbott government needs to get itself sorted out and start operating properly. The dysfunction is causing chaos everywhere," he added.

he's not wrong there

[gleee58]

what was it about that photo?

[polksaladallie]

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@am*3 wrote:

The Circus - Wed 25 Feb

 Photo- Mike Bowers for The Guardian

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It seems there is a bad smell there.  Or a threat of girl germs?