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Talking Politics
- Thread starter Legends of 2017
- Start date
I know the NDIS isn't a "sexy" issue (pardon pun), but the current minister-the same guy who was involved in Robodebt and the resultant suicides, and the same minister who was kicked out of cabinet for fraudulently charging huge home internet bills to the taxpayer- is now telling blatant lies to the public about how funds are being used. his use of the term prostitutes in regards to sex therapists, and his complete either lack of understanding, or unwillingness to give any sort of balance, shows what type of minister he is, and what sort of government we currently have.
he and this government are going to destroy the NDIS if given much more opportunity.
Transcript: FIVEaa Adelaide, Interview with Leon Byner
1 March 2021
The Hon Stuart Robert MP
Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Minister for Government Services
E&OE
Leon Byner:
Now, let's welcome Stuart Robert. Stuart, thank you for coming in this morning.
Minister Robert:
Leon, great pleasure.
Leon Byner:
Now, you're the NDIS Minister and I want to start at the very pointy end of your portfolio. There is a push that the taxpayer should fund sexual relaxation.
Minister Robert:
You mean prostitutes, Leon?
Leon Byner:
Yes. For clients. Where do you stand on this?
Minister Robert:
The Commonwealth is absolutely against it. For your listeners, understanding there was a case that went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to fund prostitution services and the Commonwealth lost. I asked the agency to take it to the Federal Court and the Federal Court ruled that because the legislation doesn't exclude prostitutes, therefore it includes anything. So I asked my state and territory colleagues to assist me in excluding it. None of the states and territories have come back supporting me. Indeed, the ACT have said: no, we must fund prostitutes even though no state and territory has ever funded prostitutes before.
So, I have no choice now but to legislate, to protect taxpayers from actually paying, for the first time in the Commonwealth's history, services for prostitutes.
Leon Byner:
Will that get through the Senate?
Minister Robert:
I believe it will because I don't believe Australians think that it's reasonable, that they should be coughing up for the services of prostitutes, Leon. That's that simple.
Leon Byner:
Do you find it odd that there's even a public debate about whether this should happen or not?
Minister Robert:
There's actually not a public debate. That's what's odd. No one is actually saying to me, you need to fund prostitutes. Indeed, the general public is saying the opposite.
Leon Byner:
Well, what's- what's happened - yeah. But you see, this is an inside job, again, I call it, where you've got various people, some of them activists who are pushing like hell, but they don't talk publicly, probably because they may suspect that it's not a popular move.
Minister Robert:
Well, the average Australian I speak to is aghast that we'd be paying billions of dollars for the services of prostitutes. Now, if people wish to use any services that are lawful in this country, they can do so with their own money. But you can't bill it to the Commonwealth.
Leon Byner:
God. The fact that there's even a discussion on this is extraordinary.
Minister Robert:
It's insane. And the current law means I need to get 100 per cent of the states to agree with me. ACT has said: no, you need to fund prostitutes. And the other states and territories have been silent. So, I have no choice now but to move through, in the coming weeks, to legislate to solve the issue.
Leon Byner:
What do you think the other states are afraid of on this?
Minister Robert:
I don't - I don't know.
Leon Byner:
You'd think on the surface it would be a no brainer, but apparently not. So, what's going on here?
Minister Robert:
It's- it's a no brainer. It is such a no brainer. And I can't understand why the states and territories aren't backing the Commonwealth on this one. I understand that they want greater dialogue with advocates and participants and their support workers. And that's fine to a point except where the point is where the Australian people won't accept it.
And the NDIS is an amazing, an amazing service, world-leading, providing incredible supports for over 432,000 people. And it's beautiful seeing people get so many supports, but we can't risk that and risk the public's good graces.
Leon Byner:
What's the NDIS bill right now approximately?
Minister Robert:
Over the next four years, $113 billion is what's in the forward estimates.
Leon Byner:
Boy. So, anybody that needs NDIS support and there are a lot of people who do. Are you satisfied that through their service provider, they're getting what they need? Because I know - the reason I ask you that is because hidden in that question is an obvious point that many people are telling us that: oh, yes, I'm getting NDIS, but not at the level I would require.
Minister Robert:
Well $113 billion, 423,000 Australians is a lot of investment the taxpayers putting into it. The NDIS is all about choice and control. So, it's about recognising someone's disability and the function that comes with that and then providing reasonable and necessary supports.
But it's also a compact. It's about formal support to the Commonwealth that line up with informal supports with family and friends and community supports. It's not about the Commonwealth providing everything, it's about those three working in tandem together.
minister.servicesaustralia.gov.au
he and this government are going to destroy the NDIS if given much more opportunity.
Transcript: FIVEaa Adelaide, Interview with Leon Byner
1 March 2021
The Hon Stuart Robert MP
Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Minister for Government Services
E&OE
Leon Byner:
Now, let's welcome Stuart Robert. Stuart, thank you for coming in this morning.
Minister Robert:
Leon, great pleasure.
Leon Byner:
Now, you're the NDIS Minister and I want to start at the very pointy end of your portfolio. There is a push that the taxpayer should fund sexual relaxation.
Minister Robert:
You mean prostitutes, Leon?
Leon Byner:
Yes. For clients. Where do you stand on this?
Minister Robert:
The Commonwealth is absolutely against it. For your listeners, understanding there was a case that went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to fund prostitution services and the Commonwealth lost. I asked the agency to take it to the Federal Court and the Federal Court ruled that because the legislation doesn't exclude prostitutes, therefore it includes anything. So I asked my state and territory colleagues to assist me in excluding it. None of the states and territories have come back supporting me. Indeed, the ACT have said: no, we must fund prostitutes even though no state and territory has ever funded prostitutes before.
So, I have no choice now but to legislate, to protect taxpayers from actually paying, for the first time in the Commonwealth's history, services for prostitutes.
Leon Byner:
Will that get through the Senate?
Minister Robert:
I believe it will because I don't believe Australians think that it's reasonable, that they should be coughing up for the services of prostitutes, Leon. That's that simple.
Leon Byner:
Do you find it odd that there's even a public debate about whether this should happen or not?
Minister Robert:
There's actually not a public debate. That's what's odd. No one is actually saying to me, you need to fund prostitutes. Indeed, the general public is saying the opposite.
Leon Byner:
Well, what's- what's happened - yeah. But you see, this is an inside job, again, I call it, where you've got various people, some of them activists who are pushing like hell, but they don't talk publicly, probably because they may suspect that it's not a popular move.
Minister Robert:
Well, the average Australian I speak to is aghast that we'd be paying billions of dollars for the services of prostitutes. Now, if people wish to use any services that are lawful in this country, they can do so with their own money. But you can't bill it to the Commonwealth.
Leon Byner:
God. The fact that there's even a discussion on this is extraordinary.
Minister Robert:
It's insane. And the current law means I need to get 100 per cent of the states to agree with me. ACT has said: no, you need to fund prostitutes. And the other states and territories have been silent. So, I have no choice now but to move through, in the coming weeks, to legislate to solve the issue.
Leon Byner:
What do you think the other states are afraid of on this?
Minister Robert:
I don't - I don't know.
Leon Byner:
You'd think on the surface it would be a no brainer, but apparently not. So, what's going on here?
Minister Robert:
It's- it's a no brainer. It is such a no brainer. And I can't understand why the states and territories aren't backing the Commonwealth on this one. I understand that they want greater dialogue with advocates and participants and their support workers. And that's fine to a point except where the point is where the Australian people won't accept it.
And the NDIS is an amazing, an amazing service, world-leading, providing incredible supports for over 432,000 people. And it's beautiful seeing people get so many supports, but we can't risk that and risk the public's good graces.
Leon Byner:
What's the NDIS bill right now approximately?
Minister Robert:
Over the next four years, $113 billion is what's in the forward estimates.
Leon Byner:
Boy. So, anybody that needs NDIS support and there are a lot of people who do. Are you satisfied that through their service provider, they're getting what they need? Because I know - the reason I ask you that is because hidden in that question is an obvious point that many people are telling us that: oh, yes, I'm getting NDIS, but not at the level I would require.
Minister Robert:
Well $113 billion, 423,000 Australians is a lot of investment the taxpayers putting into it. The NDIS is all about choice and control. So, it's about recognising someone's disability and the function that comes with that and then providing reasonable and necessary supports.
But it's also a compact. It's about formal support to the Commonwealth that line up with informal supports with family and friends and community supports. It's not about the Commonwealth providing everything, it's about those three working in tandem together.
FIVEaa Adelaide, Interview with Leon Byner | Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Minister for Government Services
Leon Byner: Now, let's welcome Stuart Robert. Stuart, thank you for coming in this morning. Minister Robert: Leon, great pleasure. Leon Byner: Now, you're the NDIS Minister and I want to start at the very pointy end of your portfolio. There is a push that the taxpayer should fund sexual...
Yep its a litany:
Christian Porter responsible for serial breaches of the law, now cries "rule of law" - Michael West
Christian Porter is responsible for serial breaches of the law. These, on top of the relentless persecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery, should be enough to have him removed
www.michaelwest.com.au
ScoMo and the rest of them keep insisting that the case against Christian Porter should go to the police, yet they know it can't go to the police because the complainant is dead.
They are just deflecting with a solution they know is impossible.
DS
They are just deflecting with a solution they know is impossible.
DS
Exactly, if he is innocent, an independent inquiry would clear him, why wouldn't he won't that.
Why would he? There isn't much upside for him. There is a section of the population that will never accept he is innocent, claiming the inquiry was rigged from the start. He runs the large risk of the inquiry ending with an inconclusive outcome, because it happened 33 years ago and the accuser is dead. Inconclusive certainly doesn't exonerate him so he's gained nothing. There's little chance an inquiry will have a finding of conclusively not-guilty, which is the only outcome that would assist Porter. He really doesn't have much to gain from one.
Best course of action is to keep denying, claiming "rule of law", and let your employer, Rupert Murdoch, start a campaign to discredit the complainant and her family.
Unless of course the next set of poll numbers show that the LNP have taken a massive hit, then SocMo will be quick to distance himself and call for an inquiry in the same breath as he forces Reynolds to stand down for mental health reasons.
It may be that, in a round about way, an enquiry of sorts is taken out of the hands of the PM anyway.
Reports seem to suggest the SA coroner may find grounds for a coronial inquest, which would end up a default inquiry of sorts and unearth some of the same information that an independent enquiry would have.
So they (the PM & Porter) can avoid all they want. But the legal fraternity will find some other way to push this barrow further. I cannot see this going away without further legal enquiry (whether that being in the form of a coronial inquest in SA, or a Federal independent enquiry) and/or Porter falling on his sword and stepping down.
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From Porter's perspective the enquiry will also dig up anything else he may have done in the intervening years.
I do think this needs to be looked into but the real issue is attitudes to women and not just in Canberra. I'm not sure what an enquiry would find but these are serious allegations and they cannot be pursued by police so it needs to be resolved somehow.
DS
I do think this needs to be looked into but the real issue is attitudes to women and not just in Canberra. I'm not sure what an enquiry would find but these are serious allegations and they cannot be pursued by police so it needs to be resolved somehow.
DS
Yes, that's still open and it will be interesting to see where it leads. Twitter seemed to suggest Scotty from Marketing is seriously considering an inquiry but it will have to include the accusations against Shorten as well.
Exactly. Porter won't come out of an inquiry any better than he is now.
But I'm sensing there's a movement that's gathering steam here in Aus. With the Britany Higgins and now the Porter issue, there's a lot of focus on the toxic misogynist culture in federal politics. If the movement can't be quashed by Murdoch we may see some real change.
Just on this point, i decided to flick through the Herald Sun at work yesterday which i do on the odd occasion. I usually jump straight to the letters to the editor, just to have a bit of a laugh at the craziness of it all.
I wasn't entirely surprised to find not one mention of Christian Porter in yesterdays letters to the editor. None in the 50-50 section, none in the text talk.
But there was plenty of Dictator Dan crap, and the Victorian communist state though...
Yep consider this, a football player in any code would probably be stood down. So football players are held to a higher standard than the AG of the country.
I get the point Ian but I suspect a football player in his position would be now eligible to play because the police have stated they will not be pursuing the case.
