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.

[freakiness]

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@boris1gary wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kxq__3z9zGM

http://theaimn.com/2014/04/19/lest-we-forget-remembering-abbotts-past/

More on our PM............

26 His famous “Climate change is bleep” comment and later saying that he was speaking to an audience. This of course elicited the question; “Is that what you always do?”

27 His almost daily visits as opposition leader to businesses with messages of gloom and doom about the carbon tax. None of which have come to fruition. His blatant lying often repudiated by the management of the businesses. The most notable being the CEO of BHP and their decision not to proceed with the Olympic Dam mine. Whole towns being closed down. Industries being forced to sack thousands. The end of the coal industry etc.

28 And of course there is the now infamous Leigh Sales interview where beyond any doubt he lied three times and continued to do so the next day.

29 Then there was his statement that the Aboriginal tent embassy at Parliament House be closed. To call his statement an error in judgement is too kind. It almost sounded like an incitement to riot.

30 He is quoted as saying in the Parliament that Prime Minister Gillard and Minister Albanese had targets on their heads. He later apologised.

31 And of course there is also the lie about asylum seekers being illegal.

32 Added to that is his statement that the PM refused to lay down and die.

I think I have exhausted it all but I cannot be sure. Oh wait. Lest we forget.

33 We should not leave out his insensitive comments about the attempted suicide of John Brogden.

34 And the deliberate lie he told to the Australian Minerals Council that the Chinese intended increasing their emissions by 500 per cent.

35 His “dying of shame” comment.

36 His “lack of experience in raising children” comment.

37 His “make an honest women of herself” comment.

38 His “no doesn’t mean no” comment.

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"If we're honest, most of us would accept that a bad boss is a little like a bad father or a bad husband," Mr Abbott said. "Notwithstanding all of his faults you find he tends to do more good than harm. He might be a bad boss but at least he's employing someone ..."

[boris1gary]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/20/nsw-premier-would-consider-privatising-states-public-ho...NSW premier would consider privatising state's public hospitals

Mike Baird says private sector involvement was a way to 'transform and improve health care'

The new premier of New South Wales has flagged that he would look at privatising public hospitals as a way to “transform and improve health care”.

Only days after taking the state's top job, Mike Baird highlighted the role that the private sector has in running NSW hospitals.

But the opposition leader, John Robertson, said NSW families would lose out.

“Our hospitals are here to service the people of NSW. They are not here to be run as businesses,” he said.

Robertson accused Baird of being “out of touch”, saying he was a “former merchant banker who lives on the northern beaches of Sydney”.

“He just doesn't get what it is like to be a family that is struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

Baird's “mode of operation” was to privatise the state's assets, including electricity poles and wires.

The Health Services Union (NSW) secretary, Gerard Hayes, said its members would campaign against the privatisation of hospitals.

“The private sector does not take this work on out of the goodness of its heart,” he said. “It does so to make a dollar.”

To turn a profit, he said they would either slash jobs and wages or offer inferior services.

[just_me_karen]

Did you post anything about his appalling treatment of asylum seeker babies born in Australia? They don't qualify for a birth certificate, just deportation and a MIN number 😞

What a shameful creep he is.

[boris1gary]

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@just_me_karen wrote:
Did you post anything about his appalling treatment of asylum seeker babies born in Australia? They don't qualify for a birth certificate, just deportation and a MIN number 😞

What a shameful creep he is.

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not on this thread (yet). There was some stuff about it in the Sen. Cash thread, post it if you have it, please.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/21/environmental-warning-budget-cut-water-commission

Environmentalists warn against scrapping water commission

The Australian Conservation Foundation says that without an independent umpire, wider disputes over water use could arise

La Nauze said the commission represented good value for money given the water scarcity challenges faced by Australia.

“We live on the world’s driest continent, with a growing population and the growing problem of climate change,” he said. “Water is one of the most pressing challenges faced by the government and there’s been a bipartisan approach that has seen much progress.

“But much needs to be done to safeguard safe drinking water for people in cities and regional areas. The commission shines a light where the government can do better. It would be a dangerous move to switch this beacon off and we’d be very concerned that this would signal an end of the bipartisan approach to water.”

[boris1gary]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/21/dropping-a-holiday-bombshell-on-people-with-dis...

More on the DSP....

There are worrying parallels with the dire situation faced by people with disability in the UK. Tens of thousands of sick and disabled people were wrongly assessed as fit for work by the private company Atos, which was meant to provide independent work capacity assessments. The personal consequences of these decisions has been rammed home by reports of people with Parkinson's disease being assessed as "work ready". Even more disturbing were reports of suicide by people who lost their benefits.

Australia is not the UK and we don’t need to be, yet our debate has also gotten off to a bad start with a focus on psychosocial disability. Assessing the work capacity of a person with a psychosocial disability is notoriously difficult, mainly because the situation is so changeable. When a person with manic depression is well, or even in a manic state, they can seem highly employable – even exceptional. When they are sick they are debilitated, sometimes with little notice.

[just_me_karen]

I can't post it because I'm too busy being sad about tony abbott slashing funding for domestic violence hostels...as I watch the news about yet another father who has killed his children 😞

And also sad because the sexism abbott has validated only contributes to negative attitudes towards women. I nicked that thought from the abc reporter.

[spotweldersfriend]

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@boris1gary wrote:

http://theaimn.com/2014/03/29/abbotts-thus-far-annus-horribilis/

Abbott’s Thus Far Annus Horribilis

Most Prime Ministers when they achieve Government with a sizable majority set out to put in place policy initiatives that might define a legacy they will be remembered for. John Howard’s GST, Paul Keating’s Native Title and Bob Hawke’s sweeping changes to our monetary system come to mind. They all burnt up their political capital in the knowledge that it doesn’t last for ever. They all focused on big things. Large programmes that remain indelible in Australia’s historical political discourse.

Tony Abbott on the other ( seems more intent on burning up his political capital on issues of ideology: on his hatred of all things associated with Labor. With him it’s personal. This can be seen in his undoing of Labor polices regardless of merit or common good worthiness. His politically based Royal Commissions that will trash long held conventions for the sake of a personal vendetta. Commissions that may well come back to bite him on the tail.

I'll forgive you for the typo,boris.Only one 'n' in the headline please.

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[boris1gary]

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@spotweldersfriend wrote:

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@boris1gary wrote:

http://theaimn.com/2014/03/29/abbotts-thus-far-annus-horribilis/

Abbott’s Thus Far Annus Horribilis

Most Prime Ministers when they achieve Government with a sizable majority set out to put in place policy initiatives that might define a legacy they will be remembered for. John Howard’s GST, Paul Keating’s Native Title and Bob Hawke’s sweeping changes to our monetary system come to mind. They all burnt up their political capital in the knowledge that it doesn’t last for ever. They all focused on big things. Large programmes that remain indelible in Australia’s historical political discourse.

Tony Abbott on the other ( seems more intent on burning up his political capital on issues of ideology: on his hatred of all things associated with Labor. With him it’s personal. This can be seen in his undoing of Labor polices regardless of merit or common good worthiness. His politically based Royal Commissions that will trash long held conventions for the sake of a personal vendetta. Commissions that may well come back to bite him on the tail.

I'll forgive you for the typo,boris.Only one 'n' in the headline please.

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[boris1gary]

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/stop-the-suffering-of-children-in-detention-sa...

For Easter.............

'Stop the suffering of children in detention', says Archbishop Philip Freier

Melbourne's Anglican Archbishop has criticised asylum seeker policy which he said was causing great suffering, particularly to nearly 1000 children in mainland detention ''and another 177 in grim conditions in Nauru''.

Philip Freier, in an Easter message, said the resurrection provided hope that ''cruelty, violence and despair do not have the final word'', particularly for people seeking asylum in Australia.

He said churches could not be silent on the issue, ''given how powerfully the theme of caring for the alien, orphan and widow is expressed right through the Bible''.

''My prayer is that we might revive the important humanitarian consensus that children should not be in detention,'' he writes in Friday's Age.

Uniting Church in Australia president Andrew Dutney also reflected on the plight of refugees in his Easter message, saying: ''We hope for the day when Australia welcomes strangers in need, rather than punishing them.'' He said the disadvantage and marginalisation experienced by indigenous Australians was another area of suffering that seemed intractable.

[boris1gary]

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/private-is-better--but-only-at-making-...

Private is better ... but only at making money

The Abbott Government is encouraging the states to sell off public assets in the interests of efficiency. This is a huge risk, writes Judy Crozier.

It’s an article of faith among many that private is better than public.

It’s more efficient, they claim. It just works.

It must do, because money works. The profit motive makes you strive for better.

They say this despite the evidence. The mantra remains even after the near-collapse of world finance, of those massive international and very privately-owned institutions who lost the life savings and homes of countless world citizens. Those institutions who themselves sometimes foundered and sank leaving their investors ashen with shock.

The U.S. Senate's Levin–Coburn Report found the Global Financial Crisis arose out of

'... high risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of Wall Street.'