Blogs

During the last state election the Liberal Party promised to establish an independent anti-corruption body in Victoria, modelled on ICAC in NSW. Instead they gave us the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC). IBAC can only investigate allegations of corruption where it has evidence that ''a proscribed indictable offence might have been committed''. It is also restricted to only investigating ''serious corrupt conduct''.

Like Joe Hockey I too belong to the sacred brotherhood of men who do their own laundry and I cannot begin to explain to my uninitiated brethren how much insight and understanding of the average Australian one gains from the loading and operating a washing machine. The fact that Joe makes the effort to wash, as well as possibly fold and put on his own undies has been blatantly ignored by a biased media intent on misrepresenting his values.

Here are a few ideas to get you started Tony.
Abolish negative gearing and Capital Gains Tax breaks - $36 billion per annum.
Close Immigration detention centres - $8 billion (plus about that much again in expenses Scott Morrison hasn't tabled)
Fix loopholes in the mining tax - $35 billion
Reverse Hockey's decision to end all ATO investigations into illegal tax havens and fraudulent practices - $27 billion
Close superannuation tax loopholes - $24 billion
End subsidies to mining and the fossil fuel industry - $15 billion

Last week Andrew Forrest proposed that all people receiving welfare payments, including sickness and disability support, should have their incomes managed by the government. Forrest, like the Government, argues that spending has gotten out of control. He, like the Government, has got his maths wrong.

Welfare as a percentage of government expenditure has fallen in the last decade. The number of people on welfare in Australia is the lowest it has been in 17 years. Apart for the age pension all areas of welfare dependency in Australia are decreasing. So why the emergency?

Well that's it ladies and gentlemen. The day we spent three years turning the Australian political landscape into a circus for. The day when the promise that catapulted Tony Abbott and his band of merry thugs, loons and psychopaths into government was fulfilled. The repeal of the carbon tax.

"Generation Debt" Sunday Age (6/7) are the children of the deregulation, privatisation, corporatisation and globalisation revolution that has occurred in Australia during the last three decades. On every available statistical indicator, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer in this country.

The article in the Sunday Age (29/6), "Two tarnished sides of the Arab Coin" by Thomas Friedman which advocates pluralism – the devolving of power from a central authority to a network of government and non-government groups as the solution to the many problems that arise when power is centralised in a secular or theocentric state, raises serious concerns for Australia as well as the Middle East.

The proportion of people in Australia on welfare is the lowest it has been in 17 years. Out of 30 OECD countries Australia ranks 25th for spending on social security. Australia spending on disability support and pensions is well below the OECD average and total welfare spending is less than two-thirds of most European countries.

Government's response: Radical overhaul.

On Sunday June 23, 2014 Charles Lazelle posted to Facebook an article claiming that herd immunity had been disproven. Whilst Lazelle was clearly not a good advocate for the anti-vaccination cause, for a first discussion with such individuals it was interesting insofar that it revealed some of the mindset of some anti-vaccination thinkers some of which can be summarised as follows.

The Geoff Shaw parliamentary saga highlights the limitations of parliamentary democracy when the electorate does not have the power of recall in between elections. Geoff Shaw was elected as the Liberal member for Frankston at the last state election. He became an "Independent" when the Speaker, Ken Smith, referred his case to the Victoria Police. Mr. Shaw's antics in and out of state parliament have been directed to ensure he will never be accountable for his actions. His balance of power status gives him the power to dictate the government's parliamentary agenda.