richard.obrien's blog

In 1987 a young Tony Abbott turned his back on St Patricks seminary and a future in the Catholic priesthood. Six months later he wrote an article for the Bulletin. Apparently the modern Catholic Church had failed to live up to the ideals of the young Tony who admired the judgemental, homophobic and sexists traditions of the church but was not comfortable with what he saw as more modern concepts like caring for the sick and poor, forgiving sinners and generally carrying about other people.

The National Commission of Audit was set up by the government in October last year. One of over 50 reviews announced since Abbott became PM the stated purpose of the commission is to review the performance, functions and roles of the Commonwealth government. The actual purpose of all audit reviews since Jeff Kennett first came up with the idea in 1992 is to identify what government programs and services can be cut, privatised or outsourced.

The 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest. In the last 30 years the richest 1% of Australians have increased their share of income by 100%, in the USA it has increased by 150%. Governments world wide have spent trillions in tax dollars bailing out banks and other large corporations since the GFC. While spending on health, education welfare and foreign aid has been cut to record lows, tax cuts for high income earners have continued to increase exponentially.

Happy Australia Fortnight and a bit.

Contrary to popular belief the 26th of January is not the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet. The 11 boatloads of criminals and economic migrants that began European settlement in Australia arrived at Botany Bay between the 18th and the 20th of January 1788, 2 days after the arrival of a French scientific expedition.

The Gonski Review:

* Was the most comprehensive review of the Australian education system in 40 years.
* Developed over 5 years.
* Consisted of a bipartisan panel of 5 experts, 3 of whom hold the Order of Australia and another the Australia Medal.
* Received over 7000 submissions, visited 39 schools and consulted 71 education groups.

The Pyne Review:

5265617 and Chistopher Pyne would like our kids to spend more time learning about Gallipoli and Western (ie British) culture. With that in mind I'd like to suggest the Diary of Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, a British war correspondent at Gallipoli.

Upon arrival at Christmas Is asylum seekers, usually still covered in shit, piss and vomit after their time at sea, are lined up and all prosthetic limbs, hearing aids and glasses are confiscated and destroyed. They are not replaced. Women in detention are denied sanitary products.

Nothing breaks my heart more than hearing a billionaire say they feel ostracised from society.

With little more to live on than a billion dollar fortune, unfettered access to the best food, medicine and services available on the planet, a political party devoted to cutting his taxes and reducing his employees' wages and a global media empire committed to defending his interests and preserving his privileged status Ken Langone has now had to endure the indignity of listening to Pope Francis talk about the plight of poor people.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has described conditions in mining camps as being worse than those at the Nauru immigration detention centre.

Ms Bishop's comments follow a damning UNHCR report last month, which called on the Australian Government to stop sending asylum-seeker children to the detention centres, singling out the Nauru centre in particular, saying it is rat-infested, cramped and very hot.

This followed an Amnesty International report which described conditions in the detention centres as "cruel, inhuman, degrading and violating prohibitions against torture."

Asylum seekers detained on Manus Island experience temperatures around 35 degrees and extreme humidity. Water is rationed to 500 ml per person per day. Amnesty International has described this treatment as tantamount to torture.