Is it worth reporting on politics?

[facthunter]

The Greens have some good policies and but they are hopeless at realising that 100% of everything is not usually available at any given time. They pick the low hanging fruit from Labor who are much closer to them ideologically whereas the LNP, as it is at the moment, regard the Greens as their biggest enemy. Liberals weren't always anti environment. They have migrated to a " hate anything that reduces profit" position where a stuffed environment is just part of life, and society doesn't exist. that was not the Menzies way In about 1946 so IF they want to quote that era they should actually READ the extracts from that time, and not just "make it up" The Anti environment NP hardly represents FARMERS these days. They constantly have to fight mining interests and are well aware of Climate changes happening right where they are.. Nev

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

...The Anti environment NP hardly represents FARMERS these days. They constantly have to fight mining interests and are well aware of Climate changes happening right where they are.. Nev

So true, Nev. A few years ago when BHP and Shenhua were granted permission to explore for coal under the fertile Liverpool Plains (by a Labor government) several local farmers blockaded one of the test sites. At the time I advised a public rally that the major parties would not support their cause, so they should seek help from the Greens. Events proved me right. Bob Brown, Lee Rhiannon and other Greens gave immediate and ongoing support and it took Barnaby 18 months to grudgingly show his face at the farmers' blockade. Joyce and the Nats have consistently ignored the interests of farmers in general and taken the side of the mining industry.

 

When Four Corners exposed the cheating and rorts by large irrigation farms, Joyce defended them.

 

But wait; there's hope! Many rural people have come to realise that the Nationals are in the grip of Big Coal and Big Irrigators.

 

'Anyone but Nats': Rural figures come out against Barnaby Joyce and Nationals

 

 

[Yenn]

Willi. I seem to be in nearly full accord with you on your ranking of PMs, except that you have put John Howard way up above where I have him. He was in my opinion our worst PM. An arrogant stupid little man. He was happy to let an Australian citizen languish for about 5 years in Guantnamo Bay which was a shocking piece of US political thuggery. To demonstrate his stupidity I need only go to the MV Tampa affair. Here was a foreign vessel, going from one non Australian port to another non Australian port, taken over by boat people who demanded to be taken to Australia and were in fact quite capable of being charged with piracy. John Howard couldn't see past the immediate political posturing to the media, and let them come here to be charged and therefore not have refugee status

 

It is a pity that Paul Keating went mad at the end of his time, I agree he was the best and saw him on TV the other night, when he put on a really good summation of current politics. A statesman is what he has become.

 

Malcolm Frazer did far more good after his spell as PM, another who wold have been a statesman.

 

Menzies, I do remember and he was a typical English politician. I don't think he saw himself as Australian.

 

I am having a mental block trying to remember who said "All the way with LBJ" I don't think it was Holt and it definitely is not one of the others on Willis list. Whoever it was they are well not remembered.

 

 

[red750]

Yenn, it was Harold Holt who said "All the way with LBJ." Which is why LBJ attended his memorial service. I was at Essendon when his Air Force 1 (707) landed.

 

 

[willedoo]

Willi. I seem to be in nearly full accord with you on your ranking of PMs, except that you have put John Howard way up above where I have him. He was in my opinion our worst PM. An arrogant stupid little man. He was happy to let an Australian citizen languish for about 5 years in Guantnamo Bay which was a shocking piece of US political thuggery. To demonstrate his stupidity I need only go to the MV Tampa affair. Here was a foreign vessel, going from one non Australian port to another non Australian port, taken over by boat people who demanded to be taken to Australia and were in fact quite capable of being charged with piracy. John Howard couldn't see past the immediate political posturing to the media, and let them come here to be charged and therefore not have refugee statusIt is a pity that Paul Keating went mad at the end of his time, I agree he was the best and saw him on TV the other night, when he put on a really good summation of current politics. A statesman is what he has become.

 

Malcolm Frazer did far more good after his spell as PM, another who wold have been a statesman.

 

Menzies, I do remember and he was a typical English politician. I don't think he saw himself as Australian.

 

I am having a mental block trying to remember who said "All the way with LBJ" I don't think it was Holt and it definitely is not one of the others on Willis list. Whoever it was they are well not remembered.

 

Hello Yenn,

 

I certainly have no admiration for Howard and very little respect for him. I didn't agree with 95% of his politics and personally couldn't stand the man. During his time as PM, I directed my vote in the most effective way possible to try to remove them from government.

 

The gist of my post was crediting him with the few things he did do. Economically, Howard and Keating were on the same page for quite some time until they fell out. It's mainly Keating's doing, but Howard also was a significant contributor to the current Australian economy's workings. He introduced the GST which was a major reform of the tax system. And I think I'm accurate in saying he was a steady hand for the conservatives.

 

My comment about him being a true professional politician: the fact is, he was. He was a professional in the way that he would do anything to stay in government. He would quite often abandon his principles and back down to butter up the voters to stay in power. The name of his game was to take $10 out of your back pocket during a three year term, and then wave $5 in front of your face at election time. Screw you over, then throw some candy around at election time.

 

In that aspect, he was a true professional. Opportunist he was, conviction politician he wasn't.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

?.. John Howard...was in my opinion our worst PM. An arrogant stupid little man...

I fully agree, Yenn. The media set the agenda and write our history. Many people still believe Howard saved us from Labor mismanagement. In reality, he inherited a national debt of $160 billion and ran it up to almost $400 billion. Australia will take decades to recover from his short-sightedness.

 

He sold off crucial public assets to balance the books and locked us in to selling NW Shelf gas for a pittance. He squandered the mining boom on middle class welfare and tax cuts when it could have financed much-needed infrastructure work. He ridiculed scientists' calls for Australia to embrace renewable energy.

 

He overruled a long term RAAF selection process and locked us into buying the F-35.

 

His lack of vision could have endangered the world.

 

One of his first acts was to close down the only asteroid watch in the Southern Hemisphere (to save a measly $5m) Shortly afterwards two large rocks narrowly missed our planet.

 

History will remember the Howard years for the lost opportunities.

 

 

[Marty_d]

OK, this goes way against the grain, but despite my disdain for the bushy-eyebrowed little prick I must give him credit for one thing. Gun control.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Yes Marty, I must grudgingly concede that to him. Apparently he also rejected a clause in our free trade deal with the yanks which would have allowed corporations to sue our government if it did anything to hurt their profits. I fear that clause has more recently been approved.

 

 

[willedoo]

The one (fallible) question is - do the minor parties have the experience to govern rather than just challenge. Of course, the major parties are showing a clear ineptitude themselves, however, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes resources both of the majors have that the smaller ones just don't.. I think that is probably on the mind of a lot of the electorate when they cast their vote (or am I allocating too much faith in the wider electorate?)

Jerry, the problem is that experience and the status quo has failed the Australian people badly over a long period of time. I'd swap it any day for vision, intelligence and integrity.

 

The experience is in the public service. Those people keep government functioning no matter whether the blue hair clowns or the red hair clowns are in government. Without the departmental people, we'd be at the mercy of fools on a permanent basis.

 

 

[Cosmick]

[facthunter]

It's not the Public Services job to decide policy. They generally are aware of this. The current Government want to politicise everything, and get rid of any advice or person who opposes their plans.. CSIRO etc The PS have the staff and experience to background and advise the Ministers impartially and generally do so when permitted.. Sacking vast amounts of them usually results in loss of services and failed privatized replacements being experimented with. This is where most of the "coX ups occurs. with dopey algorithm's being used for social issues where you need PEOPLE to follow up cases that are complex and involve "Human " issues.. Nev

 

 

[old man emu]

It's a bit long, but right on target.

 

 

[red750]

How much dumber can Numbnuts get?

 

Just saw a newsclip of him visiting the devastation of the CA wildfires.

 

Trump: "we just flew in over Pleasure"

 

Aide steps forward ("Paradise")

 

Trump: "We just flew in over Paradise"

 

 

[willedoo]

It's a good lesson for us with the talk of another vote on the republic issue. The big sticking point here has always been that the public want to elect the president. The politicians want to appoint the president, so power is still concentrated in the parliament and the president is accountable to parliament, the peoples representative.

 

A popularly elected president has a public mandate and subsequent power, and leads the way to this country being led by complete fools like George Dublya Bush and this latest buffoon, who would qualify as the clown of all clowns.

 

 

[Bruce]

That's right willedoo. They had it right last time, where the head of state needed 2/3 of the parliament thus ensuring that the person would be bi-partisan. And leaving the real power in the lower house where it belongs.

 

This was overturned by stupid arguments which had the effect of leaving the head of state as the sole perogative of the pm, thus ensuring that we got partisan fools.

 

I always wondered if Turnbull was a fool or did he deliberately sabotage the republican campaign.

 

 

[red750]

This could have been posted in the Silly Pictures thread.

 

[ATTACH]49685._xfImport[/ATTACH]

 

[willedoo]

The Google news feed is a bit slow. The oldest report I can find on the latest terrorist arrests in Melbourne is four hours old. The story broke on the Iranian news hours before that. Red 750, do you know when the news broke in Melbourne?

 

 

[octave]

The Google news feed is a bit slow. The oldest report I can find on the latest terrorist arrests in Melbourne is four hours old. The story broke on the Iranian news hours before that. Red 750, do you know when the news broke in Melbourne?

It was reported on local ABC radio at about 8:50 which was abojt 10 minutes before the police press conference.

 

 

[red750]

I know it was on Sunrise, some time between 8:15 and 9:00, while my daughter was doing her school crossing job.Sorry I can't be more precise than that.

 

 

[willedoo]

Thanks Peter and Octave. The Iranian news had it on about lunch time. So I guess it's just the Google internet news feed that's slow in updating and not other sources.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

[willedoo]

In reference to the thread title, I thought Phil might find this interesting. I was reading a news article and clicked on a link ' why you can trust BBC News'.

 

This is the page it led to.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/help-41670342

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I think I have mentioned on these forums before that I had a (rather young) Marines officer who commanded troops in Afghanistan work for me for about 12 months... He asserted that BBC reports of events he was involved with were quite short of being accurate.. It may be that access to facts is difficult, but then don't spout carp as fact if one doesn't know it is fact.

 

 

[facthunter]

You only ever get Carp out of a warzone where you are all in fact, farct. Nev

 

 

[red750]

I see Dick Smith is considering standing as an independent candidate for the safe Liberal seat of MacKellar promising to tell people the truth about renewables and coal. He says he is not a global warming denier, and believes that we are affecting the world climate. He also says we should be leading the world in pilot training but will most likely be recuiting overseas pilots the way things are currently being run.

 

See his Sunrise interview here.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I see Dick Smith is considering standing as an independent candidate for the safe Liberal seat of MacKellar promising to tell people the truth about renewables and coal. He says he is not a global warming denier, and believes that we are affecting the world climate. He also says we should be leading the world in pilot training but will most likely be recuiting overseas pilots the way things are currently being run.

See his Sunrise interview here.

A great Australian, Dick would certainly be an asset to parliament, compared to many of the nut jobs who have ridden the wave of popular discontent. But would he get voted in on a platform of telling the truth? As Sir Humphrey would say, a brave decision...