|
Testing citizenship
2007-09-25 14:59:00 I have previously written a post criticising the government's proposed citizenship test. The Democrats leader Lyn Allison released a YouTube video criticising the test. An article embedding the video can be found here. There is however another brilliant, animated criticism of the test which says it all. Enjoy:
By: Talk It Out
The numbers game
2007-09-23 13:33:00 We've been hearing a lot about numbers recently. There are the poll numbers. They bring to mind Mark Twain's famous opinion about lies and statistics. One week Howard is down, the next week he's up, one day its doom and gloom for the Libs, the next they are catching up as the numbers inexplicably rearrange ...
By: Talk It Out
Geeky Australian Politics Stuff
2007-09-05 00:44:00 Simon Jackman a Stanford University Professor is covering the Australian Election in The Bulletin. He is an uberpoligeek, but he writes in a way even I can understand when we are dealing with the arcane world of political polling and election prediction.His latest article makes a strong case for a Labor Landslide. Goodbye John Howard.His blog is interesting too. He does a lot of work looking at betting odds for individual seats.
Australians all let us rejoice?
2007-08-26 16:08:00 Mr Howard may still remember longingly the "good old times" when the Australian government could keep out people with skin colour or political views it didn't like by the simple expedient of giving them a language test in any European language. The Australian people have allowed the Howard government to get away with a lot, ...
By: Talk It Out
Religious extremists and good citizens
2007-08-23 14:14:00 The media reports that earlier this month Howard met with Bruce Hale, the leader of Exclusive Brethren. Howard claims that there is nothing objectionable about the meeting, stating "They're Australian citizens, its a lawful organisation and as prime minister I have met an enormous number of organisations." I guess almost $400K in pro-Liberal party advertising ...
By: Talk It Out
Aspirational nationalism or nationalist aspirations?
2007-08-21 15:51:00 In a speech given yesterday, Howard set out the "agenda" for a fifth term in government. The third item on the agenda was "to embrace a sense of aspirational nationalism to guide relations between different levels of government in Australia". The term "aspirational nationalism" sounds like a political slogan rather than a concept with meaningful ...
By: Talk It Out
Sleazy clubs and sleazy politics
2007-08-19 14:26:00 Newsflash, newsflash! Four years ago Kevin Rudd had bit too much to drink (ie got pissed) and visited a "gentleman's club" (ie a strip joint) in New York. How absolutely dreadful! It's not like every one of us overindulged in alcohol at some point in our lives and its not as though almost every Australian ...
By: Talk It Out
Don?t blame me, blame the States
2007-08-04 08:50:00 Howard loves to take credit when things go his way - be it a slight dip in unemployment rates, a strong economy at a time when economies prosper around the world or the interest rates, when they are low. While most of us may think that taking credit for something means you need to accept ...
By: Talk It Out
Andrews wins gold in suspicious character competition
2007-07-30 14:48:00 If coming up with ludicrous accusations was an Olympic sport, Kevin Andrews would be a gold medal winner. His statement that the the speed of Dr Haneef's departure from Australia only made him more suspicious would have been funny if it didn't suggest that something is truly rotten in our government. Haneef's speedy departure is suspicious? ...
By: Talk It Out
Haneef and the true dangers of anti-terrorism measures
2007-07-29 15:41:00 After a four week ordeal, Mohamed Haneef has finally left Australia. Kevin Andrews refused to reinstate his visa, but allowed him to go back to India. This "generosity" comes at a price - Haneef is free to leave only on the condition that he doesn't talk to the media or allow his picture to be ...
By: Talk It Out
John Winston Howard Whacks the States
2007-07-28 00:43:00 John Howards sophisticated reelection strategy.You can play too.
Can democracies deal with terrorism?
2007-07-27 12:47:00 There was an opinion piece in the Australian concerning the difficulties for politicians in a democracy in showing restraint in their responses to terrorism. The author argued that the shock value, rather than fatalities of terrorist acts means that politicians have no choice but to demonstrate that they are tough on terrorism, especially in a ...
By: Talk It Out
Real choice and Workchoices
2007-07-24 16:10:00 I was at the Law Institute of Victoria Workplace Relations Section debate yesterday. The topic was "AWAs: Should they stay or should they go?" and the two combatants were Jeff Lawrence of Liquor, Hospitality & Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) and next secretary of ACTU and Christopher Platt from the Australian Mines & Metals ...
By: Talk It Out
Re-creating Tampa
2007-07-21 01:00:00 Once upon a time the Howard government was dangerously close to losing an election. But its fairy godmother delivered it a special election time gift - a ship called Tampa, with its cargo of a couple of hundred desperate bedraggled refugees rescued from their sinking boat. It's arrival saved the government. The carefully stirred fear ...
By: Talk It Out
Ruddock and the rule of law - who rules and whose law?
2007-07-18 14:57:00 Ruddock's apparent response to an opinion piece in the Australian regarding flaws in the process of selecting federal judges could not have been published at a worse time. Given that the government has just subverted judicial process and undermined the rule of law by locking up Haneef after he'd been granted bail, Ruddock's "opinion" piece, ...
By: Talk It Out
More misuse of public resources by the Howard government
2007-07-15 10:32:00 No, I'm not referring to the expensive refit of Howard's plane or the posh cabinet chairs - travelling in luxury is not the most objectionable example of Howard government's misuse of public funds. Misusing taxpayer money to keep himself in power is much worse - especially when the money is directed to misinformation of the ...
By: Talk It Out
Some weekend entertainment - Search for a scapegoat part II
2007-07-06 15:49:00 A few weeks ago I posted a video made by "killerspud" about John Howard's search for a scapegoat for the next election. Now there's a second installment as the search continues. Thanks to killerspud for his permission to use the video on this site. Hope you enjoy watching it.
By: Talk It Out
A truly Minimum wage increase
2007-07-05 15:43:00 The Australian Fair Pay Commission released its July 2007 wage decision (which will come into effect in October 2007). The summary of the decision can be viewed here. The Commission increased the federal minimum wage by a princely amount of 27 cents an hour for the workers on pay scales under $700 per week and ...
By: Talk It Out
Welfare as a means of (even more) control
2007-07-05 12:43:00 In the previous post I commented on the government plan to "quarantine" a part of the welfare payment to parents who are considered not to be spending enough money on essentials for their kids and what the move meant in terms of using welfare as a means of control. The federal cabinet approved the plan, also ...
By: Talk It Out
Welfare as a means of social control
2007-07-03 15:47:00 I have deferred writing about the Howard government action on child abuse in indigenous communities as I am still in two minds about it. However, one aspect of the plan involves quarantining a portion of welfare payments received by indigenous families to be spent on essentials for children. While the concept of ensuring that children ...
By: Talk It Out
Playing pass the responsibility
2007-06-30 14:32:00 A federal system of government (ie. a system of state and commonwealth governments) has many advantages. One of its disadvantages, however, is the ability of a government to pass responsibility or blame for various defaults to another government (eg. commonwealth to state and vice versa). The game of pass the responsibility is more likely to ...
By: Talk It Out
Green with envy or just plain stupid
2007-06-28 13:22:00 The Age reports that the Labor party are planning another "assault" on the Greens, with the aid of Dr Evil and Mini Me billboards and a website. The campaign is apparently to be based around the fact that the Greens have occasionally voted with the Liberal party opposition in Victorian parliament. No doubt the billboards ...
By: Talk It Out
Crystal balls and election year politics
2007-06-23 16:36:00 A yet another embarrassing leak about big business plans to advertise in support of Howard's WorkChoices revealed that the business groups commissioned economic models to speculate on what economic benefits WorkChoices brings to Australia. The models are likely to be used as basis for advertisements to tell the voters about the inflation, unemployment levels and ...
By: Talk It Out
Nothing a sound beating won?t fix?
2007-06-16 12:47:00 About a week ago Tony Abbott was doing his best to pretend that his opposition to same sex couples accessing IVF or adopting kids had something to do with concern for children's well-being and development, rather than pure prejudice. Well, now this "champion" of children's rights says that there is a case for reintroduction of corporal ...
By: Talk It Out
Search for a scapegoat - starring John Howard (sort of)
2007-06-16 09:38:00 For some weekend amusement of the political kind here's a great video about Howard's search for a scapegoat for the next election. Thanks very much to "killerspud" for his permission to use the video on this site. Enjoy.
By: Talk It Out
Not committed to preventing genocide
2007-06-16 05:23:00 The Howard government has reportedly rejected the UN request to contribute troops to an international force for Darfur. Since February 2003 the genocidal conflict in Sudan has claimed as many as 450,000 lives (although the figure of 200,000 is often utilised) and created some 2.5 million refugees. One might question the adequacy of the UN and ...
By: Talk It Out
A BBQ with Hitler, Stalin and Mao
2007-06-14 15:47:00 In a post yesterday I contended that the government (with the help of right-wing commentators) has manipulated public discourse to stigmatise expressions of opinion adverse to their ideology. The post contained a few examples from the day's newspapers. Well, how about some more evidence from today's papers: First, there's Wilson Tuckey, a Liberal party MP from WA. ...
By: Talk It Out
How did we let democracy become a ?conspiracy??
2007-06-13 16:04:00 A healthy democratic society thrives on debate and discussion of the merits of different view points. In a healthy democracy a multitude of voices can clamour for attention, each as entitled to be heard as the next, each equally entitled to persuade and lobby. There are several ways to undermine a healthy democracy. One is by ...
By: Talk It Out
Humanitarian grounds useless when humanity is missing
2007-06-12 15:50:00 It should come as no surprise that the Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has refused a plea from an injured Sri Lankan asylum-seeker (the man has shrapnel embedded in his head and suffers from psychological problems) to apply for on-shore protection from Australia (where he has 20 relatives to support him), rather than be shipped to ...
By: Talk It Out
The Left looks skewed from the Right-field
2007-06-12 11:17:00 Reading an editorial such as the one published today in the Australian, I am starting to wonder whether it is preparing to merge with the Herald Sun. The offending editorial is titled Reality bites the psychotic Left - not the sort of title that foreshadows a well-balanced piece of writing. The piece (which lacks a byline) ...
By: Talk It Out
Interference that Howard doesn?t mind
2007-06-07 15:26:00 Threats of "consequences" by Cardinal Pell did not sway members of the NSW Legislative Assembly, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of repealing the ban on therapeutic cloning. Pell was unapologetic about his conduct, stating that he hoped that the upper house "will be better informed" and vote against repealing the ban. Presumably "better informed" means ...
By: Talk It Out
Unseparation of church and state
2007-06-06 15:58:00 A few days ago I criticised Cardinal George Pell over his plans to force educators in Catholic schools (which receive government funding) to take a "vow of fidelity". It seems that compelling educators to surrender their intellect and will to the church is not enough for Pell. He'd like politicians to do the same or ...
By: Talk It Out
Is political theft a crime?
2007-06-05 16:03:00 No, it's not, but if it was, John Howard would probably be doing life by now. We can all remember how he "borrowed" Pauline Hanson's policies, boosting his popularity by playing of the xenophobic sentiments initially stirred up by One Nation. The positive effect of sending One Nation into obscurity, where it belongs, was more ...
By: Talk It Out
Would I lie to you?
2007-06-04 13:32:00 John Howard has tried a few strategies to boost his popularity ahead of the election. There was the expensive taxpayer funded advertising, the personal attacks and smear campaigns, the backflip on WorkChoices to introduce the so-called fairness test and the usual scare tactics. His latest strategy is the best yet - appeal to the voters to ...
By: Talk It Out
When its time to change, it?s time to change
2007-06-03 10:13:00 Howard just can't help himself. He just can't hide his utter disrespect for the voters. Scared by the opinion polls he has made some feeble attempts at humility - the annihilation warning, the pretended backflip on his WorkChoices policy. But pretending to listen to the electorate just doesn't sit well with John Howard. So in ...
By: Talk It Out
Open discussion or frightened censorship - which is better?
2007-06-02 11:48:00 Having just written about Andrew Bolt's inability to understand the concept of politics of fear, it was interesting to read Tony Coady's excellent article titled "Fear drives a bid for censorship" in The Age. Coady critiques the proposal for banning creation or reading of materials that "advocate" terrorist acts. As Coady points out, what constitutes ...
By: Talk It Out
If I can?t have your money, no one can!
2007-06-01 15:03:00 The notion of a fair political battle does not seem to appeal to the Liberal party. If their conduct over the past years has not furnished adequate proof of that, the proposal ban unions from making political donations unless authorised by vote of a majority of their members, comes close. The Liberal party does not like ...
By: Talk It Out
Wither open government?
2007-05-30 16:17:00 A few days ago I couldn't help but marvel at the hypocrisy of Mark Vaile who stated that holding a high office in Australia carried a "great expectation of total transparency". His statement was of course right in principle, but how sincere is the belief of the Howard government in transparent and open government? The Westminster ...
By: Talk It Out
Be afraid, be very afraid?
2007-05-28 15:53:00 What do you do if you have become unpopular, your policies are unpopular, you can't convince the voters that taking away their rights is actually good for them and the billions you have spent on advertising yourself can't seem to lift your approval ratings? Resort to the tried and true way of winning elections - ...
By: Talk It Out
What a way to spend 2 billion dollars!
2007-05-28 14:33:00 New figures provided to the Senate estimates committee suggest that Howard government spending on political advertising over its decade in power is reaching $2 billion dollars. It looks like I was too generous in my previous post, which refers to political advertising spending of "only" $1.7 billion. Of this amount, over $550 million has been spent ...
By: Talk It Out
Rudd, Rein and witch-hunting Howard government style
2007-05-27 15:30:00 Yesterday I wrote about the political attacks on Kevin Rudd's wife, Therese Rein. One of companies owned by Rein mistakenly underpaid 58 of its employees. When the error was discovered, the underpayment was rectified. The Howard government and its supporters took advantage of the issue in an attempt to undermine Rudd's position on industrial relations. ...
By: Talk It Out
No fairness test in election year politics
2007-05-26 08:20:00 It would be a mundane story. A company underpays its employees. It carries out an audit, discovers the underpayment and repays the arrears. Worse things happen every day - workers on AWAs lose some or all of their "protected" award conditions, employers sack sex-attack victims for assisting the police. The government passed legislation specifically to ...
By: Talk It Out
No fairness test in election year politics
2007-05-26 08:20:00 It would be a mundane story. A company underpays its employees. It carries out an audit, discovers the underpayment and repays the arrears. Worse things happen every day - workers on AWAs lose some or all of their "protected" award conditions, employers sack sex-attack victims for assisting the police. The government passed legislation specifically to ...
By: Talk It Out
Who do we blame for politicians abusing their power?
2007-05-24 15:09:00 There is an interesting article by Kenneth Davidson in today's Age. Its titled Blame the High Court, not the pollies, for partisan ads. Davidson argues that through two decisions, one in 1992 (the famous ACTV implied rights case) and one in 2005 (the WorkChoices advertising case), the High Court opened the floodgates to the abuse ...
By: Talk It Out
Who do we blame for politicians abusing their power?
2007-05-24 15:09:00 There is an interesting article by Kenneth Davidson in today's Age. Its titled Blame the High Court, not the pollies, for partisan ads. Davidson argues that through two decisions, one in 1992 (the famous ACTV implied rights case) and one in 2005 (the WorkChoices advertising case), the High Court opened the floodgates to the abuse ...
By: Talk It Out
Hockey?s comments pretty ugly
2007-05-23 16:12:00 The Libs have shown their backwardness yet again. They just can't seem to be able to get over the fact that Julia Gillard is a woman and a politician in one package. First it was the "socially barren" remarks by Senator Heffernan. Given that Heffernan suffers from chronic "foot in mouth" disease, they may have ...
By: Talk It Out
Hockey?s comments pretty ugly
2007-05-23 16:12:00 The Libs have shown their backwardness yet again. They just can't seem to be able to get over the fact that Julia Gillard is a woman and a politician in one package. First it was the "socially barren" remarks by Senator Heffernan. Given that Heffernan suffers from chronic "foot in mouth" disease, they may have ...
By: Talk It Out
Hicks? return does not undo the damage done
2007-05-21 14:13:00 After five years confinement in the infamous Guantanamo Bay Hicks has returned to Australia. There are pictures of him getting off the privately chartered aircraft (an expense which has attracted some media comment), there are statements from his lawyer that he is "elated" to be back in Australia and there is the usually "profound" headline ...
By: Talk It Out
Hicks? return does not undo the damage done
2007-05-21 14:13:00 After five years confinement in the infamous Guantanamo Bay Hicks has returned to Australia. There are pictures of him getting off the privately chartered aircraft (an expense which has attracted some media comment), there are statements from his lawyer that he is "elated" to be back in Australia and there is the usually "profound" headline ...
By: Talk It Out
Beware reds under your beds screams Akerman
2007-05-21 12:29:00 It may be a cheap shot, but who can resist it? Piers Akerman, whose capacity for producing senseless right-wing tripe is second to none (well, maybe Andrew Bolt) has outdone himself. His article "Labor shows its hand" in the Sunday Telegraph is a prime example of what happens when right wing zeal far outweighs all ...
By: Talk It Out
|
|
 |
|
 |
