richard.obrien's blog

Social Services minister Christian Porter has announced the government’s latest News Limited sponsored pogrom against welfare. Porter is claiming that an unemployed, single parent with four children receives nearly $3,000 per year more on welfare than if they were on a median full-time wage.

The banner used by Channel Nine news this evening for a story about the government having difficulties pushing though changes to paid maternity leave in time for the start of next year.

Not the banner used for the story about Joe Hockey (the guy who came up with the 'double dipping' line) billing tax payers $2,500 in babysitting fees, while collecting his $360,000 annual salary as US Ambassador and a $90,000 per annum parliamentary pension. They didn't run that story.

NAME: Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

VITAL STATISTICS: 4.1% First Preference Vote, $1.2 million AEC Funding, 4 Senate Seats

HEIGHT: 1998 Qld State Election

WEIGHT: Light

DATE OF BIRTH: 1997

DATE OF DEATH: 2012

DATE OF REANIMATION: 2016

GOALS: To live in a free and tolerant Australia where anyone who doesn’t conform to our idea of how Australians should look, act and sound, should leave.

TURN ONS: Racism, Deadbeat Dads, On-Line Gaming.

"Stay out of politics and stick with human rights"
Christopher Pyne commenting on Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs

When you stick with human rights and stay out of politics you end up with the Coalition government's Border Protection policies.

When you stick with human rights and stay out of politics you end up with the Labor party supporting those policies.

When you stick with human rights and stay out of politics you end up with psychopaths like Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton presiding over those brutal, costly and ultimately pointless policies.

As many of you already know, I've recently committed to running as a Senate candidate for Victoria at the next Federal election.

How did that happen?
Last week newly elected One Nation Senator for NSW, Brian Burston delivered his maiden speech to Parliament. During the speech Burston made a number of incredulous claims including lamenting that we never hear about the First Fleet. So I wrote him a response:

https://www.facebook.com/richard.obrien.1971/posts/878992972237486

- With apologies to Bob Dylan

Come gather 'round people where ever you roam
And see funding for services cut to the bone
By a pack of incompetent, self-serving drones
Their fat arses are all that they're savin'
For three years the economy's sunk like a stone,
Oh the times they are a' changin'!

"Why don't we ever learn about the First Fleet?"
-- One Nation Senator Brian Burston

Dear Brian,

The First Fleet consisted of 11 boatloads of illegal immigrants who were allowed to enter this country on January 26 1788. They came here refusing to assimilate into Australian society and began imposing their strange customs and religion on native Australians. They didn't even bother to learn the language. Soon more boats began to arrive and before long Australia had been swamped by immigrants.

In the fantasy version of the world that exists inside my head (the one where the assassin's bullet missed JFK and hit Robert Kardashian's testicals) Hillary Clinton would have been a no show at yesterday's presidential debate.

The suicide rate in Australia is at a 10-year high.

Suicide accounts for less than 2% of overall deaths in Australia but claims the lives of a third of those aged 15-24 and more than a quarter of 25-34 year olds.

The suicide rate in the Northern Territory is twice the national average with 21 deaths per 100,000 people.

The NT rate has increased by more than 38% since 2006 compared with 23% nationally.

People aged 15 to 24 in the NT are more likely to kill themselves than die in a car crash.

This is Jackson Pollock's Number 11, 1952 - better known as Blue Polls. In 1973 the Whitlam government authorised the National Gallery of Australia to purchase the painting for $1.3 million. The decision drew much critisim at the time, particularly from conservative politicians, who claimed it was an extravagant waste of money. Today Blue Polls is the NGA's most popular exhibit, with an insurable value of $350 million.