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Oh what a night!
2007-11-24 14:32:00 What a great night! Who would have thought that staring at numbers and graphs for six hours could be so exhilarating! The Howard era has finally ended. I must say that Howard's concession speech was both dignified and gracious. He has (finally) accepted the responsibility for the Libs' woes. And, to be fair, a political career ...
By: Talk It Out
And up they go again?
2007-11-07 13:27:00 It is doubly annoying having to listen to yet another Liberal party ad about how interest rates will be higher under Labor because of "union fanatics" "environmental extremists" and learner leaders, when we have now had yet another interest rise (the sixth since 2004) and the prediction is that the rates will keep on going ...
By: Talk It Out
The Leadership debate - IR (un)truth test
2007-10-22 16:12:00 As one might expect, in the leadership debate, Howard made a few claims about the IR "reforms". Lets examine the veracity of some of these claims, remembering of course that one does not need to tell an outright lie to be untruthful. For example, when Howard was asked whether, under his WorkChoices laws employees could ...
By: Talk It Out
The Leadership debate - some impressions
2007-10-21 13:29:00 Well, it was certainly exciting watching the leadership debate, worm-free though it was. I must say that on the whole, I think Howard blew it big time - it is doubtful that he'll want a repeat closer to the election. Howard confirmed one of the most damaging perceptions of him and his government - stuck ...
By: Talk It Out
Taxing elections
2007-10-17 16:02:00 It is almost amusing that every time an election rolls about, the government promises substantial tax cuts. I wonder whether, if elections were held every year, we'd pay no tax at all. Wouldn't that be an attractive prospect? Perhaps not. If Oliver Wendell Holmes was right to say that taxes are what we pay for ...
By: Talk It Out
Is this about teaching history or writing history?
2007-10-13 15:50:00 I must confess that, the less cynical part of me supports Howard's plan to make it compulsory for year 9 and 10 students to study at least 150 hours of Australian history. It is a bit disturbing to see the perception among school children that, simply because history does not appear relevant to a particular ...
By: Talk It Out
Taking the humanity out of humanitarian migration
2007-10-04 15:15:00 Every time I think that this government cannot sink any lower I'm in for an unpleasant surprise. Kevin Andrews' comments about African refugees are as low as they come, but as the election looms closer and no credible excuse for the extremes of wedge politics is found, the government is sure to come up with ...
By: Talk It Out
Good citizens and bad policies
2007-10-01 15:32:00 I've previously written a few posts about the citizenship test and was just about to let the topic rest, until I read a wonderful opinion piece by Alice Pung, in the Age yesterday and felt that I had to comment. As a declaration of bias - Alice is a friend of mine, but the motivation ...
By: Talk It Out
Unhealthy State of hospitals?
2007-09-30 16:12:00 Mr Howard is once again going on about how States are bad hospital managers and how, because the Commonwealth contributes about half the funding to state hospitals, it would like to have more input into their operations. I won't argue with the contention that State governments are not always great managers of hospitals. Hospitals need ...
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
Race to the bottom - more proof that WorkChoices harms employees
2007-09-13 15:46:00 The Workplace Research Centre just released a comprehensive research report into the effect of WorkChoices in the retail and hospitality industries. If any more proof was needed of the harm that WorkChoices causes to ordinary employees, this report provides it. Some 20 researchers looked at every collective agreement lodged between 26 March and 8 December 2006 ...
By: Talk It Out
Workplace relations system - you can?t get the facts
2007-09-09 15:22:00 Barbara Bennett, the head of Workplace Authority and the star of Howard government's ads singing praises to Workchoices, is doing her best to prove that the popular beliefs about Workchoices may not be as mythological as the ads would have us believe and that getting objective facts about the impact of Workchoices and the application ...
By: Talk It Out
Government self-promotion costs now $2 billion
2007-09-03 15:50:00 I have previously written about the Howard government's extraordinary waste of taxpayer money on advertising itself. The most recent Sunday Age investigation reveals that Howard government has spent $2 billion of taxpayers money on political advertising. Two hundred million will be spent this year alone, before Howard calls an election. Since the previous election, Howard ...
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
400 thousand to be disenfranchised
2007-08-14 15:39:00 A little while ago the Howard government quietly changed electoral laws so that the electoral roll closes when the election is called. Those who are not enrolled at the time that the election is called immediately become ineligible to vote at the election. Needless to say that persons most likely to find themselves in that ...
By: Talk It Out
Howard Government to Dissolve States
2007-08-07 16:04:00 The Howard Government today announced plans to use their constitutional power to dissolve the states and to amalgamate all their functions into the Commonwealth Government. Treasurer Peter Costello, announcing the plan said that "We pay for all this stuff, so we want to run it." The states are single handedly driving interest rates through the roof and all the Premiers are closet muslim homosexual drug addicts." Mr Costello later denied that he had said the last part. A national programme of town meetings similar to those used in Australias great friend, the United States will be used to decide local priorities. Local communities will be given the opportunity to propose vote buying public works and Commonwealth Pollsters will evaluate their likely electoral impact prior to the programmes being funded.Communities will have to pledge allegience to the Coalition Government, in order to have their projects funded immediately.Prime Minister and President Elect for Life, John Howard said ...
Cause of Howard government war on States revealed!
2007-08-06 14:54:00 The Howard government knows its in trouble. The polls aren't looking good. Despite the millions of taxpayer dollars the government is spending advertising its unfair WorkChoices laws, the electorate isn't convinced. The interest rates have risen 4 times since the last election in 2004, when the government ran a scare campaign against Labor and promised ...
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
Akerman?s war on good sense - again!
2007-08-03 16:18:00 Piers Akerman can always be counted on for a senseless rant. If you are looking for an example of really bad journalistic writing, Akerman's his latest piece titled "Leadership foreign to Haneef pawns" doesn't disappoint. As usual Akerman displays his ability to write in a balanced and unbiased manner by starting his article with "A week ...
By: Talk It Out
Idiotic government advertising
2007-08-02 13:57:00 If the Howard government wasn't spending insane amounts of taxpayer money on advertising itself, some of its ads could be considered funny. Not because they are by their nature humorous, but because they are utterly idiotic. Consider this ad: That telephone pole got in the way when I was taking the photo, but the left part of ...
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
Haneef fiasco and the politics of (ir)responsible government
2007-07-28 09:45:00 I am in the process of writing a post about what the dangers of overzealous anti-terrorism measures as illustrated by the Haneef case. But before that post is complete, it is worth commenting on responsibility of the various actors in the Haneef fiasco and the hypocrisy of denial of that responsibility by the government. A government ...
By: Talk It Out
A clear case of prejudice
2007-07-26 00:12:00 Two days ago the Democratic Audit of Australia released a report titled "How well does the Australian democracy serve sexual and gender minorities?". The answer is not very well at all, really. While significant advances have been made at State and Territory level, little advancement in rights of sexual minorities occurred at federal level. The ...
By: Talk It Out
Back in the land of the living (back online), with an amusing Howard video
2007-07-22 14:02:00 I have taken myself off line for two days to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before someone spoiled the plot for me. Doesn't sound like much, but its a lot of time for a computer addict. Anyway the book is now read - it is a bit like getting off a roller coaster ...
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
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
A forgotten election issue
2007-07-09 15:21:00 I was very interested to read an article in the Australian by Professor George Williams about the impact the next election will have on the composition of the High Court of Australia. With the political focus on WorkChoices, Iraq, indigenous affairs and the non-exploding car bombs in UK it is quite understandable that even those ...
By: Talk It Out
Julia Gillard?s speech
2007-07-07 16:11:00 On 26 June 2007 I had the good fortune to be present at a breakfast organised by the Maurice Blackburn Cashman Women's Law Section, where Julia Gillard was a guest speaker. The speech has now been published on Gillard's website, so I thought now is a good time to discuss it without much risk of ...
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
Let?s talk about the Liberal party ?thugs?
2007-07-01 11:37:00 The Howard government has been very vocal about so called union "thugs" - using incidences of inappropriate behaviour on part of a couple of union officials to attack Labor's affiliation with the union movement and to run a scare campaign about union "thugs" taking over Australia should Labor win the election. Those suggestions are of ...
By: Talk It Out
Addicted to power
2007-06-26 15:58:00 The Howard government reportedly had the audacity to "warn" the voters against giving the Greens and minor parties the balance of power in the Senate, stating that the government has used its Senate majority "responsibly" (and so presumably should be entitled to retain it). According to the government "responsible" use of the Senate majority includes pushing ...
By: Talk It Out
Sacrificing Australian citizens
2007-06-24 15:34:00 Yesterday, an Australian citizen, Hew Griffith was sentenced to more than a year in jail by an American court for setting up a software piracy ring. There is no question that Griffith broke the law - he pleaded guilty to distributing pirated software. However, the case is extremely disturbing because Griffith did not engage in piracy ...
By: Talk It Out
We don?t support discrimination, we just practice it
2007-06-24 10:43:00 Last Thursday the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) released the report of the Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry - a year long audit of federal laws that discriminate against same-sex couples and/or their children and the impact of these laws. The Inquiry found that: 1. The 58 federal laws in Appendix 1 discriminate ...
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
Encouraging people to become citizens is a dirty trick - just ask Hockey!
2007-06-23 08:40:00 Every time I think that the Howard government has reached the pinnacle of hypocrisy and dirty politics, I'm in for a surprise. Today is no exception. Joe Hockey accused the unions of using dirty "tricks to get workers to vote against the Howard government at the next election". Now that of itself is nothing new, the ...
By: Talk It Out
Who is afraid of whom?
2007-06-20 15:31:00 OK, lets face it, no one can be in the least bit surprised to learn that the intended advertising campaign by business organisations to promote WorkChoices is not quite independent of the Howard Government. The $11 million dollar ad blitz will be directed by a Liberal party pollster Mark Textor of a firm called Crosby/Textor, ...
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
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
The circle of prejudice
2007-06-09 10:37:00 On 7 June 2007 the Victorian Law Reform Commission released the final report into Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption. Among other recommendations, the LRC recommended that same-sex couples not be discriminated against in access to assisted reproduction (such as IVF) and adoption and recognition of parenthood. As the law presently stands only women who are ...
By: Talk It Out
Can we have some evidence please?
2007-06-08 16:08:00 Would you trust someone who constantly asserts things without a shred of evidence to back up their assertions and who throws around accusations that cannot be supported? There is a vast gap between assertions and the truth, a gap that can only be bridged by evidence that one's assertion is based on something more than ...
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
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
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
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