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.
Thank you for your ongoing informative articles boris. I enjoy reading. I prefer that your preference for posting links are to articles and news taken from/ providing links to independent sources-rather than the definitely biased mainstream media. I do not believe nor see that the info you choose to provide is either on the whole biased or full of bile. Thanks again.
Thanks Paints, there is something rather sad when all that someone can contribute is constantly bagging other posters, in their defense though there is nothing positive from this mob of unhinged zealots to post about although positive isn't part of the cons thinking. Some very interesting articles this morning...and this article explains the sad mindset of the conservative
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/26/what-makes-them-tick-inside-mind-abbott-government
What Makes Them Tick: Inside The Mind Of The Abbott Government
Decades of research in political psychology has opened a window onto the psychological heart of politics. The Abbott Government embodies the conservative psyche in pasquinade form.
With a prime minister who threatens to shirt-front the Russian president, a finance minister who calls the opposition leader a girlie-man and a government advisor for whom bleep, bleep, bleep and bleep” rolls comfortably off the tongue, it is little wonder people are asking what goes on in the minds of our politicians.
For different reasons, academic psychologists have been asking the same question for some time.
Another ubiquitous finding is that conservatism is inversely related to the pursuit of social and economic equality. Conservatism correlates strongly with a preference for fixed social hierarchies entailing inequality between social groups, along with punitive attitudes towards marginalised and/or non-conforming members of society, who are seen as destabilising elements that threaten social cohesion.
This anti-egalitarian psychological characteristic, with over 50 years of research behind it, is known as Right Wing Authoritarianism. It is predicted by low levels of Openness, with the associated need for a predictable, orderly and controlled social world.
when listed all together, it becomes even clearer why the far righters and their fellow travellers use the same old 6 or 7 worn out, proven to be false lines - over and over again - warning: sit down while reading this long and terrible list of attacks on our country.
and it was written in May, the bit I have posted is only a very small section....sigh
http://thesauce.co/achievements-of-the-abbott-government/
Achievements of the Abbott Government To Date
- Appointed 2 Liberal mates to the Migration Review Tribunal even though they were not shortlisted by the selection committee.
- Chose not to tell asylum seekers that sensitive information about their asylum claims, mental health problems and more was stolen again. The data was on a hard-drive without password protection, outside of the lockable store-rooms.
- Drastically reduced the number of charities and aid organisations allowed into the G20 summit from 75 to 3.
- Reduced leave allowances for defence force personnel and reduced wage increases to below the inflation rate, days after declaring war.
- Introduced laws to allow ASIO to secretly detain people without charge, without any contact to the outside world, and may conduct "coercive questioning" even when less extreme measures are available. Refusal to answer ASIO's questions would be a crime punishable by imprisonment.
- Criticised the Bureau of Meteorology for “homogenising” climate data, because it somehow politicises climate change. The Bureau responded by pointing out that homogenisation is international best practice, is unrelated to climate change, and mostly affects measurements from before the world started significantly warming. The government thinks that by getting politicians to review the Bureau's methedology, climate change will somehow be less politicised.
- Refused to release drastic proposed amendments to national security laws until the amendments were being debated on the floor of parliament.
- Gave ASIO the power to read, delete and modify anything and everything on the entire internet, with only one warrant. No one can sue them if they use that information or power illegally. If a journalist reports such abuse, they will be jailed for 10 years.
- Broke an election promise by cutting ABC funding again ($120 million this time).
- Allowed $5 billion of foreign investment in Australian power industries. Electricity networks are inherently monopolistic (there's only one set of wires to your door), so people who oppose foreign ownership of essential infrastructure will not be able to choose an Australian owned alternative.
- Refused to send the Prime Minister to a UN climate summit with 125 other heads of state, even though the Prime Minister was attending another UN summit in the same city the next day.
- Joined the Iraq war 3.0 by recklessly running in with guns blazing without a clear, public and testable objective, without a proposed timeline, without any explanation of why we won't fail just like the last time and without debating the matter in parliament. The government is calling the war a "humanitarian mission", even though they cut all foreign aid to Iraq just a few months before declaring war.
- Spent $12 million trying to convince Sri Lanka to accept 2 boatloads of asylum seekers.
- Spent $900,000 in just 2 months on private jet flights for ministers.
- Forced all community TV stations off the air, claiming that moving online will be better for stations and viewers. Meanwhile they continue to fervently defend foreign corporate stations like HBO, who stubbornly refuse to make content accessable online.
- Raised the terror threat level to "high", despite receiving no specific intelligence since claiming that the threat level "has not changed".
- Refused to give medical treatment to an asylum seeker with a cut on his foot, who later died because of an infection.
- Rejected visa applications for unionists who wanted to attend a conference, because they didn't have enough "personal wealth".
- Tried to introduce WorkChoices 2.0. The changes will make it legal for employers to pay workers in pizza instead of money. Some workers will get less pay while taking annual leave. Employers will be able to veto industrial action. Unions will be stripped of their right to enter a workplace to discuss things will employees during unpaid breaks. Workers will no longer be paid extra for weekend work and overnight work.
- Scrapped funding for the Red Cross asylum seeker support program. 500 jobs will be lost.
- Removed the requirement for ASIO to get a warrant before using tracking devices.
- Legislated to permit ASIO operatives and associates to commit torture, and any other crime aside from murder, serious injury infliction, sexual assault and property damage.
- Legislated so that courts must accept illegally obtained evidence.
- Privatised Australian Hearing.
OK, change from quoting a Tehran based outlet to an Australian one formed in 2013 (after the Circus was booted out perhaps?) As for its writers it states that it will " take on any material submitted or suggested to us by the public." You do love public/citizen journalists !!
However, like many C&P sources (and posts) research and facts(sorry) are in short supply, as usual.
So a "dug-up 5 month old article of a BIG load of distorted and misrepresented partisan rubbish. I am used to C&P posts obviously unresearched, but this load of copied nonsense is breathtaking.
So a random selection:
Gave ASIO the power to read, delete and modify anything and everything on the entire internet, with only one warrant. No one can sue them if they use that information or power illegally.
On Wednesday afternoon, Senator Brandis confirmed that, under the legislation, ASIO would be able to use just one warrant to access numerous devices on a network.
The entire Internet ?, I suggest you read the legislation and check "network", also If anything is illegal it means it is subject to due process.
"If a journalist reports such abuse, they will be jailed for 10 years".
The Palmer United Party was also successful in amending the law so anyone who exposes an undercover ASIO operative could face up to 10 years behind bars instead of one.
Legislated to permit ASIO operatives and associates to commit torture
ASIO officers who commit torture will not be covered by these immunity provisions.
I would suggest rather than regurgitating others thoughts and assertions lacking credibility, which is why it is in an obscure 1 year old Australian online publication, one would try research and even be tempted to quote more established sources.
Finally with regard to many of the distorted (wrong) points raised that cover terrorism:
The government's first tranche of tougher anti-terrorism bills, which will beef up the powers of the domestic spy agency ASIO, passed the Senate by 44 votes to 12 on Thursday night with bipartisan support from Labor.
Fact (sorry).
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