Talking Politics

[K3]

Going the way of the Democrats.

Maybe it's Palmer's turn to fill the void for a couple of decades

That is a really good point Baloo. Just as the Democrats were reliant on a super leader in Chip, so too the Greens fortunes have been directly tied to Bobby Brown. Once Brown left, that was pretty much then end of them I recon.

We really need a 'peoples' party to get some power in Australian politics, but for now Clive will need to do. I just hope he doesn't balls it up through his obvious self-interests.

I am also pretty chuffed to see a rise in independents, especially when most of them aren't career politician. It makes for a bit of a breath of fresh air.

 

[tigerman]

That is a really good point Baloo. Just as the Democrats were reliant on a super leader in Chip, so too the Greens fortunes have been directly tied to Bobby Brown. Once Brown left, that was pretty much then end of them I recon.

We really need a 'peoples' party to get some power in Australian politics, but for now Clive will need to do. I just hope he doesn't balls it up through his obvious self-interests.

I am also pretty chuffed to see a rise in independents, especially when most of them aren't career politician. It makes for a bit of a breath of fresh air.

Yes if more people voted independent you'd find the the two major parties listening a bit more!! Which could only be a good thing.

 

[K3]

Tony Abbott 'consulted Rupert Murdoch over paid parental leave'
Prime minister gave News Corp boss, rather than party room, full rundown of scheme, says authorised biography of Joe Hockey

Rupert Murdoch: supplied with enough detail of paid parental leave scheme to have his Australian-based editors briefed. Photograph: Josh Reynolds/AP
Tony Abbott gave Rupert Murdoch a “full rundown” on his planned paid parental leave scheme before announcing the policy in 2010, in a marked contrast with his decision not to consult the party room, a new book reveals.

The then-opposition leader’s discussions with the News Corp boss are outlined in a book published on Wednesday about the treasurer, Joe Hockey, by the former News Corp columnist Madonna King.

The release of the authorised biography came a day after the Productivity Commission issued a report that suggested some of the $5.5bn earmarked for the paid parental leave policy should be diverted to childcare to make a bigger impact on workforce participation.

The plan to provide six months of paid parental leave at the full replacement wage is opposed by large parts of the Coalition party room and is yet to be legislated.

In the book, King reveals Murdoch was consulted before Abbott announced the policy – including a levy on big business – on International Women’s Day in March 2010.

“Big business rumbled but didn’t erupt at the scheme, but the party room was in uproar,” King writes.

“The hardheads knew that it would open the Coalition up to an accusation of raising taxes even though the extra tax would only apply to big businesses. But, more importantly, neither the party room nor the businesses who would pay had been consulted.

“Abbott, however, had conferred with one leading business figure, the media proprietor Rupert Murdoch, who had been in Australia the month before for his mother’s 101st birthday …

“The new leader, like many before him, had dinner with Murdoch, where he gave the media mogul a full rundown on the scheme – supplying enough detail for Murdoch to later have his Australian-based editors briefed on Abbott’s plan, which he considered a visionary approach to dealing with a real problem in his workforce. They were encouraged to support it, notwithstanding that it represented a tax impost and was skewed to be of most benefit to parents outside their middle-Australian readership.

“This fact was unknown to members in the party room, who condemned Abbott’s solo policy-making on such a fundamental issue.”

The book says Abbott had alerted Hockey to the parental leave plan “but Joe recalls the subject as a brief add-on in a telephone conversation, with no specific date or details attached”.

Abbott told King that Hockey was “one of the very few colleagues whom I discussed the paid parental leave proposal with”. Abbott said Hockey saw merit in it, even if he did not “enthusiastically” support it. Abbott subsequently told the party room he had made the decision as leader.

Hockey told King he and Abbott subsequently “had a heart to heart” about the process, leading them to pledge to work more closely with each other.

The Coalition has repeatedly been forced to defend its paid parental leave scheme, which it argues should be considered a workplace entitlement rather than a welfare payment. Numerous Coalition backbenchers have spoken out against it in light of the budget position.

Hockey told the ABC on Tuesday: “I'm very mindful again that we have in fact gone to two elections with a commitment to a paid parental leave scheme and, again, I say we are asking everyone to respect the mandate that we got from the Australian people to deliver our policies. It is not one election, it is two, so there is a pretty compelling argument for us to be very true to our word and deliver a paid parental leave scheme.”

The book, Hockey: Not Your Average Joe, provides details of Hockey’s early life, his rise to the role of treasurer, and his first budget.

It says the budget – key measures of which are unpopular and are unlikely to pass through the Senate – was “much softer” than Hockey would have liked but Abbott “was taking a much more cautious approach”.

The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, seized on this account on Wednesday, saying the “revelation in this book that Joe Hockey actually wanted to go further in the cuts in the budget is a stark reminder of just how out of touch Australia’s treasurer is”.

Bowen also said it was “extraordinary” for the prime minister’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, to name potential successors to Abbott.

In the book, Credlin says both Abbott and Hockey are keen not to fall into the John Howard-Peter Costello competitive dichotomy.

“Joe’s absolutely a contender and he’s probably got his head above every other contender, but I think we’re a long way away from saying he’s an heir apparent – and he’d say that, too,” Credlin says.

The book also tells of a curious incident during Hockey’s time at university that prompted his decision to enter student politics, beginning a chain of events that led to his federal political career.

It says that Hockey as a young child told “everyone who would listen that he wanted to be prime minister one day”, but by his third year at university he had not mentioned those political ambitions for some time.

That all changed when Hockey visited the University of Sydney’s students’ representative council front counter seeking a movie pass. The woman at the desk “had dismissed his query”. The book says Hockey thought the woman was rude; he felt that his fees went to paying her salary and that meant she was in his service.

“I would have liked her to be nice to me,” Hockey says in the book, “so I thought I should give politics a go.”


http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jul/23/tony-abbott-consulted-rupert-murdoch-over-paid-parental-leave-book?CMP=fb_gu


Wow...

 

[Brodders17]

That is a really good point Baloo. Just as the Democrats were reliant on a super leader in Chip, so too the Greens fortunes have been directly tied to Bobby Brown. Once Brown left, that was pretty much then end of them I recon.

We really need a 'peoples' party to get some power in Australian politics, but for now Clive will need to do. I just hope he doesn't balls it up through his obvious self-interests.

I am also pretty chuffed to see a rise in independents, especially when most of them aren't career politician. It makes for a bit of a breath of fresh air.

im sorry but anyone who thinks Palmer is the answer to anything in politics, except a bit of populist baloney doesnt pay much attention. IMO.

 

[Carter]

im sorry but anyone who thinks Palmer is the answer to anything in politics, except a bit of populist baloney doesnt pay much attention. IMO.

Yep, agreed.

 

[mld]

I don't know, I can think of a few questions that could end with Palmer.

 

[Carter]

I'm not easily offended, especially by scumbag politicians.

But ever since Joe Hockey tried to justify the $7 GP fee by saying it was a pot of beer or a third of a pack of cigarettes, he's fast become my most detested politician.

From smoking cigars and dancing in budget week to claiming he actually wanted to go harder with the budget cuts, rarely has a treasurer seemed more out of touch.

Absolute germ. Hopefully one term germ.

 

[Rantnrave]

most loathsome government in everyday..in our history....morrison,hockey,abbott..men of ignorance,arrogance,non compassion.....they just hate everyone

those 153 sri lankans..all those children..still stuck somewhere out there on the ocean for three weeks....that alone makes me more angry and dismayed that i thought possible..imagine them being your children out there

and i thought howard was low..nothing beats this guy abbott

 

[K3]

Wow, talk about cluelessnes in an area he is responsible for... dang. Shame posting this article will probably cost the ABC another hundred million of funding in retribution. olice:

Oh, and I can't recommend the video snippet highly enough. I recon Margaret and David would give it at least 4*
----------

Attorney-General George Brandis struggles to explain Government's metadata proposal
AM By Sarah Dingle
Updated 23 minutes agoThu 7 Aug 2014, 10:57am


VIDEO: George Brandis struggles to explain data retention laws (ABC News)

The Federal Government's push for expanded powers to access people's digital information is mired in confusion.

The proposal which would see telecommunications companies hold onto customer records was announced this week as part of a raft of measures to strengthen counter-terrorism laws.

It would involve telecommunications companies retaining customer's internet records, or metadata, but not their web browsing history, which is considered to be content.

The Prime Minister's Office says your web browsing history is not considered metadata, and so did the Attorney-General's Department in a submission to a review of the Telecommunications Act.

However, when asked on Sky News to clarify what metadata means, Attorney-General George Brandis struggled.

Brandis: "The web address, um, is part of the metadata."
Journalist: "The website?"
Brandis: "The well, the web address, the electronic address of the website. What the security agencies want to know, to be retained is the, is the electronic address of the website that the web user is ... "
Journalist: "So it does tell you the website?"
Brandis: "Well, it, it tells you the address of the website."
Senator Brandis also added: "What people are viewing on the internet when they web surf will not be caught. What will be caught is the web address they communicate to."

Watch the full interview with George Brandis here
Technology commentator and systems administrator Stilgherrian says the confusion is deeply concerning.

"Any small businessperson who's doing business on the internet at least knows the difference between a URL - the text version of a full address to an internet page - and an IP address, the numerical address of a computer on the internet," he said.


AUDIO: Listen to Sarah Dingle's report (AM)
"He's clearly not on top of the concepts, and yet we're dealing with something here that is about the operation of our intelligence services but at the same time there are human rights and privacy implications.

"If our chief law officer isn't across the kind of nuances in this, this many months into the discussions, that's a real cause for concern."

'Presumption of innocence at risk'

Whether metadata includes browsing history or not, Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson says he is worried about keeping everyone's metadata for two years to be accessed by security agencies as it could remove the presumption of innocence for ordinary Australians.

Liberty vs security


The crux of the privacy concerns over mandatory data retention is this: knowing that someone might be watching makes us act as if someone is watching, writes Matthew Beard.
"We're going to have telcos keeping data on the assumption that there is a potential for average Australians to potentially commit crimes and therefore the data to be available should the Government seek to use it for their own purposes.

"We all want a free society, we all want a safe society, but people should be innocent until they are proven guilty? There is the risk that it may amount to treating people as though they are guilty until they are proven innocent," Mr Wilson said.

The outgoing National Security Legislation Monitor, Brett Walker SC, told Lateline that keeping two years' worth of metadata on Australians is not unreasonable.

But he says there is a traditional way of protecting privacy which must be included.

"A warrant is a traditional way by which we say drastic powers ought to be exercised only when somebody outside the agency, usually a judge or a magistrate, is satisfied that sufficient cause is shown to justify that reversal of what we expect," he said.

Mr Walker warned if security agencies dipped into years of metadata without a warrant, Australians would develop an "understandable suspicion and hostility" towards them.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-07/brandis-explanation-adds-confusion-to-metadata-proposal/5654186

 

[Brodders17]

i was going to post:
a comment on the latest Abbott broken election promise, with the dumping of the proposed laws to protect the rights of bigots and racists, or
a comment on the other latest broken election promise with the quiet shelving of their inequitable paid parental leave scheme or
a comment on the inability of Abbott or Brandis to define a pretty key concept of their new data collection laws or
a comment of Abetz linking abortion and breast cancer or
a comment on treasury modelling showing Hockey and the government knows that their budget would hit low income earners the hardest or
a comment on Morrison's continual attempts at hiding his potentially illegal actions from the Australian people or
a comment on any number of other unfair policies, political blunders and mean spirited actions of this government

but i thought positive thoughts are better than negative ones so i should post something positive about this government.
i cannot think of anything though.

can anyone post anything at all supportive of the current Abbot lead Liberal government???

 

[K3]

Besides the diplomatic bumbling, I thought Abbott did a pretty good job of representing 'us' with his handling of the MH17 tragedy.

 

[Baloo]

Besides the diplomatic bumbling, I thought Abbott did a pretty good job of representing 'us' with his handling of the MH17 tragedy.

Agree.

 

[Rosy]

can anyone post anything at all supportive of the current Abbot lead Liberal government???

Their proposed paid parental scheme being pushed to the back of the cupboard.

 

[Carter]

Besides the diplomatic bumbling, I thought Abbott did a pretty good job of representing 'us' with his handling of the MH17 tragedy.

As callous as it sounds, tragedies like MH17 are usually poll free kicks for unpopular PMs.

 

[Baloo]

Joe Hockey is lucky Christopher Pyne is also a minister.

I originally thought Hockey would be a good choice for leader / PM, but the more expiosure he gets, the more he's damaging his reputation.

 

[Coburgtiger]

i was going to post:
a comment on the latest Abbott broken election promise, with the dumping of the proposed laws to protect the rights of bigots and racists, or
a comment on the other latest broken election promise with the quiet shelving of their inequitable paid parental leave scheme or
a comment on the inability of Abbott or Brandis to define a pretty key concept of their new data collection laws or
a comment of Abetz linking abortion and breast cancer or
a comment on treasury modelling showing Hockey and the government knows that their budget would hit low income earners the hardest or
a comment on Morrison's continual attempts at hiding his potentially illegal actions from the Australian people or
a comment on any number of other unfair policies, political blunders and mean spirited actions of this government

but i thought positive thoughts are better than negative ones so i should post something positive about this government.
i cannot think of anything though.

can anyone post anything at all supportive of the current Abbot lead Liberal government???

How about a comment on the highest unemployment figures in over a decade?

Oh wait, positive. Nope.

 

[K3]

As callous as it sounds, tragedies like MH17 are usually poll free kicks for unpopular PMs.

I am pretty sure this is proven with the fact that no government, in Australia, has been voted out during a time of conflict.

Just need to hope that all conflicts are settled within a two year period. ;D

 

[Tommy H]

Joe Hockey is lucky Christopher Pyne is also a minister.

I originally thought Hockey would be a good choice for leader / PM, but the more expiosure he gets, the more he's damaging his reputation.

Really? Hockey...oh dear. He is a very average minister. Very average. And that about sums up that party.

 

[KnightersRevenge]

i was going to post:
a comment on the latest Abbott broken election promise, with the dumping of the proposed laws to protect the rights of bigots and racists, or
a comment on the other latest broken election promise with the quiet shelving of their inequitable paid parental leave scheme or
a comment on the inability of Abbott or Brandis to define a pretty key concept of their new data collection laws or
a comment of Abetz linking abortion and breast cancer or
a comment on treasury modelling showing Hockey and the government knows that their budget would hit low income earners the hardest or
a comment on Morrison's continual attempts at hiding his potentially illegal actions from the Australian people or
a comment on any number of other unfair policies, political blunders and mean spirited actions of this government

but i thought positive thoughts are better than negative ones so i should post something positive about this government.
i cannot think of anything though.

can anyone post anything at all supportive of the current Abbot lead Liberal government???

Okay I'll give it a go.

I'm positive The PM should have kept his mouth shut on Scottish independence. ;D

 

[KnightersRevenge]

So the British Born PM and his front bench of old white anglo-saxon men (Team Australia?) have been fumbling the ball ever since they won the scrum. But I don't get the impression the other mob have landed any telling blows in the interim. I wonder how relevent Labor is in a non-unionised world? They don't seem to speak to me, or for me, any more. Is it me, or is it them? What party is relevent to someone who is appalled by the constant dog-whistling on asylum seekers? Labor was the architect of a lot of the current policy and only argues around the margins. Or the need for immediate action on climate policy and the expansion of the renewable sector? Labor squibbed it. Or the need for major rail infrastructure, national and metropolitan? Labor builds roads same as this mob. The need to support the science and research sectors to do blue sky research, not the modern political nonsense of targetted funding trying pick winners. To be fair anyone trumps the LNP on this score.

At the end of that it seems obvious it is me, not them. But that doesn't help much. Every time Sarah Hanson-Young partially hypnotises me with those eyes and draws me in to the abyss of the black infinity that lies in that gap between her teeth my rational brain hiccups and reminds me that she truely doesn't think any more than the PM before she speaks. And that the Greens are trouble makers. Enjoying the scramble but never in the contest.

So who do I vote for?