Scott Morrison Minister for Social Services 4 days before Christmas........Worse than putting The Grinch in charge of Christmas.

21 months to go Rhino - Labor well in front for now but a day can be a long time in politics - let alone a month or 21 of them.  I think i'd rather be in Bill's shoes though

Abbott today - biggest achievement for women in 2014 - removing the carbon tax

You can't make this **** up

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

Just checked around..oh dear he did say it...


Speaking as a white male, I'm angry that woman are monopolising the benefits of the carbon price repeal

the boomtown..dug up by mining millionaires..and nothing to show for it..
The govt is out of ideas except raising utility bills,whacking up licence fees etc..
Busted arse..they have no talent except Barny,that's why he never sacked the chair sniffer,he was the only other with any talent..

Commissioner Dyson Heydon's curiously incomplete TURC report.....

independentaustralia.net

Peter Wicks

23 12 2014


Trade Union Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon has given several people an early Christmas present with his Interim Report, writes Peter Wicks from Wixxyleaks.

Last Friday there must have been a lot of thankful people dishing out a lot of thank you messages.

Last Friday Commissioner John Dyson Heydon handed over his Interim Report regarding the Trade Union Royal Commission.

The report was originally due later in January, but was released earlier for reasons that may only be speculated upon. But it is fair to say it was released on a day that shows that the government thought this Royal Commission had been a failed exercise, why else dump it out there without the prime minister on the Friday before Christmas?

The most thankful of all would be Kathy Jackson, whose appearance and testimony at the Royal Commission caused more headlines and front page news stories than any other witness, what with charity shags and claims of ambush. In fact, the only witness that received more attention on the day they appeared was former Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the day she was shown at long last to be completely clean, even in the eyes of a right-wing witch hunt like this Commission.

Jackson would be thankful she has been completely ignored by the Commissioner's report. Not even the $250K

she took from cancer workers and threw in a personal bank account to go on a wild spending spree. The

account that was disguised to look legitimate in the HSU books and then, when discovered, an attempt was

made for it to be passed off as a slush fund.

Not only did Jackson go on a wild spending spree, but she shared the love and the loot around with accomplices, giving huge sums of money to her ex-husband Jeff, as well as a big chunk in an envelope to her factional ally and standover man Marco Bolano — apparently so Marco could use the money to illegally fund his own union election campaign.

Still, Commissioner Heydon must have been asleep at the wheel on those days, as it didn’t rate a mention, apart from one passing reference.


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

Joan Evatt
@Boeufblogginon

By @benschneiders http://www.theage.com.au/national/failure-to-deal-with-kathy-jackson-undermines-credibility-of-royal-commission-20141219-12aof9.html … Air-brushing Jackson from its report beggars belief raising serious questions about RC's integrity.

7:05 PM - 19 Dec 2014

Failure to deal with Kathy Jackson undermines credibility of Royal...

What do you do when your star witness in a politically motivated inquiry turns out to be an alleged thief who may have stolen more than $1 million? Just ignore it

The Age @theage
.......................


                         WHERE'S THE MONEY KATHY?

In 2003 Jackson's HSU branch received a $250,000 payment from the peter MacCallum cancer hospital to settle a back-pay dispute where workers were owed $3.16 million. The workers did not recieve a cent of this money and Jackson took the money and put it in a bank account controlled by her. She then spent it on herself-at JB Hi-Fi, David Jones, supermarkets, a dentist and $50,000
on her former husband.

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



He must have also missed the section of his counsel assisting’s report that recommended Jackson be referred to the Department Of Public Prosecutions for criminal charges.

Also thankful would be Attorney General George Brandis and Senator Eric Abetz, for saving them the embarrassment of their Royal Commission pointing out their star witness as the most corrupt person appearing before the Commission if the allegations are proven true. Even based on those allegations she has admitted to under oath during the parts the Commissioner seems to have slept through, there has been no other witness appear that has personally acquired such vast sums of money from their union without the members knowledge, let alone blessing.

In fact, there must be a truckload of Coalition MP’s, including Abbott himself, going “phew” and silently giving thanks that Commissioner Heydon was happy to put his own reputation at risk to save them the embarrassment of pointing out their unwavering support of an alleged criminal.

However it is the union movement that should be thankful, particularly the CFMEU who seem to have been the most targeted in this whole taxpayer-funded charade.

The union movement should be overjoyed that this report cannot be taken in any way seriously, if its 1,817 pages have blatantly missed possibly the most corrupt official to have appeared before the Commission. This highlights the fact the whole commission has been nothing but a very expensive witch hunt done for political purposes.

But perhaps the most thankful of all should be the public; after all, as the legal fraternity involved rack up hundreds of thousands of billable hours, it is the public that are footing the bill.

You may think that’s nothing to be thankful for, but at least we now know exactly what it is we are paying for.

Any doubt that this Commission was actually about protecting member’s interests rather than a witch hunt for political purposes has now been shown as wishful thinking.

There is only one certainty in all of this and that is one of the items on the Royal Commission's agenda

was the protection of the Coalition's golden girl Kathy Jackson.

Perhaps a hint for the media was the departure of the Royal Commission’s media director Adrian Kerr immediately after the report was released. This meant that after Commission dropped its bombshell, they could not face media scrutiny about it.

Kerr had been visibly uncomfortable in his role on some of the sitting days and was particularly touchy on matters involving the Commissions integrity. In his email to the press regarding the release of the Commissioners report, Kerr finished off by saying this

    'This is my final day with the Commission. Thank you all for a great professional year on the job. I’ll keep your contact details for future reference.'

A strange way of announcing your departure to the country's media — or perhaps strange timing is better phrase.

A Royal Commission is considered the most powerful legal inquiry this country has in its arsenal and is considered by many to be beyond reproach.

An inquiry of this magnitude, set up to expose corruption in the union movement so offenders can be criminally prosecuted, that is found to have as part of its agenda the protection of possibly the most corrupt union official this country has ever seen, is an inquiry that is, in itself, corrupted to its core.

We should be thankful that, at long last, that the Royal Commission has shown its true colours.

A corruption inquiry that seeks to smear the union movement and selectively ignores allegations of corruption on a grand scale? The only thing that could be more corrupt than that is the Government that set it up.

You can follow Peter Wicks on Twitter @madwixxy. Catch up on the full Jacksonville saga here.

https://independentaustralia.net/jacksonville



A corrupt commission run by a corrupt Gov't to protect the corrupt.

They are a f ukin disgrace

2014 has been a shocker, hopefully they do a better job in 2015

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my comrades, bigted, wombleoz, AFL, Monday Mike, joel and whoopi a merry christmas and thank them for their contributions to this thread this year.

It's been a tough year for us, comrades, but a year of hope for us as this turd of a government lurches from one stuff-up to the next.

I think we should spare a thought in our prayers for those wonderful men and women of the Senate who have wisely used their role as the house of review to shield us from some of the more draconian bastardry that Abbott and his henchmen have attempted to force upon us. Let's hope they can continue to hold the line in 2015 and force this disgraceful government to fall apart, so that in 2016 we will finally get our long awaited opportunity to



J   U   N   K     t h e    M   O   N   K

seems the right has gone pretty quiet and aren't willing to defend their man Tony

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

we're falling further and further behind Teddy

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

Wtf is Abbott doing in Iraq? Will be a massive mistake if he promises more troops imo

And where is the Federal presence in SA for the fires? Surely there should be someone there offering assistance - Warren, Julie, Barnaby - who is in charge??

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

The visit was all about domestic politics BB - needed some front page distractions.  I really hope he doesn't commit boots on the ground though, not you BB, our brave men and women from the ADF

GST on the table now as well - which is sensible, you can't talk about tax without talking about it but won't help change the general feeling that the government doesn't believe in a fair go and wants to whack the worker

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

"Advance Australia unfair"

wasn't I seen the light, always voted labor, but gilliard fcuked up the labor party so bad, im now a swinger


vote 1 sex party

I have not heard of the Australian Progressive Party, Womble. As for leaders, I don’t see any in the current parliament except maybe Turnbull. But who would  want the job anyway? Decent people like Hewson and Latham were chewed up and spat out by a system that favours political creatures like Keating and Abbott.

The best PMs I have seen are Whitlam (for his vision) and Hawke (for his pursuit of consensus). I think Hawke was on the right path with consensus but the adversarial nature of our system won out.

I think that Parliament as it operates at the moment is not doing the job it was designed to do (implement the will of the people). Unless there is a hung Parliament, the House of Reps is a waste of time. Passage of legislation is a formality, speeches are routinely delivered to a near empty chamber and Question Time is a sideshow.

What really matters now is who controls the Senate. The people don’t trust  the major  parties  any more and neither is likely to have a majority in the Senate any time soon. Everything hinges on the votes of the Independents who hold the balance of power. It shouldn’t be this way and is grossly unfair. The Independents  are  placed under enormous pressure to decide the fate of huge complex pieces of critical legislation with limited time and resources (and maybe competence). The process of deciding the final draft of legislation should be in the House of Reps where the expertise and resources are.

Are new parties the answer? I don’t think so. The two party system (left and right) is entrenched  and  is common throughout the world and with good reason; it reflects human nature. People naturally view things with either a left or right bias. This is why two people can look at the same thing but each can ‘see’ something different. This is why political debate is so heated and never ends. (just look at this thread)

I think the answer is to make the existing parties do a better job of implementing the will of the people. Change the current adversarial system to one based on consensus.

The model I am thinking of is loosely based on how large public companies are run.

Increase the number of seats in the House of Reps to 200, maybe more. This should give the government enough talent to select a ministry from, increase the chances of members actually representing their electorate instead of their party and give smaller parties like the Greens a chance of gaining a fair number of seats. Government would be decided as it is now, a majority on the floor of the House. Government would then select from its own the PM (CEO), Treasurer (CFO) etc.

All legislation would require a higher percentage of votes to pass, I am thinking around 65% although this could be fine- tuned over time. You would want a number high enough to ensure   Government could never pass legislation by itself but not too high so that a consensus position could not be reached. Would this result in a deadlock?  I am not sure. The Governor General could intervene and call an election but the Opposition (if it won) would end up in the same position, needing to compromise to reach consensus to pass its legislation. Perhaps other measures could be added  to  ensure that consensus is reached in a timely manner.

Abolish the Senate.

Once elected, the parliament would select a National Advisory Council (Board of Directors). 20 to 30 people, equal numbers of men and women, from all walks of life, eminent in their chosen path and widely respected would be appointed.  A   sort  of council of wise elders. It would be like selecting a whole lot of Governor Generals all at once. The leader of this group (Chairman of the Board) would also become Governor General/head of state/president. The task of this council (with the help of as many expert committees as required) would be to set out the future direction for the country. Their focus would be beyond the current electoral term. The House of Reps would  focus  on the current term, running the country , consistent with the broad direction outlined by the Council.

And that just leaves us, the voters (shareholders) to continue to do what we do now, vote once every 3 years.

Our country is like a yacht sailing into the wind, endlessly tacking left then right, travelling a long way but not getting very far. It would be much more efficient start up the outboard motor and head straight to our destination.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions?

I was thinking that the diversity from Labour left to liberal right was already there. The 65% idea was to effectively have a permanent minority government and needing some of the opposition support to pass legislation was a form of review at the same time.

Agree that some brake on Government excess is needed and that the current Senate is managing that, just not in a way that inspires any real confidence.

Want someone other than the Government of the day to determine the National Interest.

Probably agree with term length, but maybe with a recall provision.

States are past their use by date but can't see WA, Qld and Tas agreeing.

Finding it difficult to think of reasons to disagree with your closing line. They have created their own unique version of stupid.

Seems we will now have the lowest speed broadband that allows it to still be called high speed broadband according to the U.S.A' s new definition of high speed broadband.

Perhaps they could invade us and remove our version of the Taliban........they don't like science, technology, education and women either.

im like the kid when any of these waste of space ****s talk now...

we're definitely being duded on broadband - spend the extra money and gives us something worthwhile imo

the reality of the medicare changes are hitting, Abbott/Dutton and co are about to get a massive reality check on how much Australian's value bulk billing and universal health care

WORST GOVERNMENT EVER

Win for doctors and patients alike.  Taxing families with sick children a disgrace......Liberals in dissaray, no hope next fed. election ...... National Party starting to look more like the Extinct democratats from years gone past.   Only corner of the world Nationals can be heard is the country of Queensland.

When are these clowns going to realise that Medicare is off limits for this term of government. If they want to make changes to Medicare, take it to an election.

I am a moderate liberal and am p1ssed off at where Howard/Abbott have taken the party.

Had a look at the Australian Progressives (not to be confused with the Australian Progressive Party) policy vision statement. Quite impressive, they certainly have the social responsibility side of things covered. The fiscal responsibility side of things could prove more challenging.

At this point in time I don't think that we should be targeting welfare for savings, the focus should be on increasing export income by developing new export markets into Asia and tax reform. People like Luke Sayers can point us in the right direction.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-19/national-press-club-luke-sayers/5904162