The shortcomings of the ALP, and by extension of the media that allowed them unfettered access to popular power is too obviously exposed to public view.
Journalists who plumped for the ALP are calling themselves dumb.
Hypocrisy is too evident, so that it is commented on, but none have the courage to seriously examine the meaning.
It is common to hear the statement "But no one is any good anyway."
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
ALP and Media Stress Over How Not To Hurt Each Other
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Bongiorno indeed to Labor
Andrew Bolt
Gerard Henderson rightly notes that the Liberals have a problem with the media - in this case Paul Bongiorno:
Paul Bongiorno’s question to the Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne on Meet The Press on Sunday was indicative of the problems the Coalition is likely to face from sections of the media, for the next three years at least. Bongiorno put it to Pyne that he should not raise the issue of Kevin Rudd’s past dealings with the West Australian operative Brian Burke since this was ”raking over old coals”.
According to Bongiorno, the Australian people “have voted” and “adjudicated” on this matter because it “was canvassed at some length in the run-up” to last November’s election.
As a political point this line works well. Indeed, it was run by the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, on Insiders the previous week. But this is not a valid journalistic argument. For example, can anyone imagine Bongiorno telling Senator Bob Brown three years ago that he should not raise the children overboard affair against John Howard since this had been adjudicated at the 2004 election? The Bongiorno question provides just one example of how some journalists apply different standards to the Coalition as distinct from Labor.
They liked Rudd until they voted for him
Andrew Bolt
How dumb to wake up to Kevin Rudd only the morning after the night before:
THE Federal Government’s plans to overhaul industrial relations laws have been blamed for a record slump in its approval rating among the small business fraternity.
Figures contained in the latest Sensis Business Index show approval of federal government policies has plunged 34 percentage points to negative 5 per cent since the November 24 election.
It is the largest quarterly fall in federal government approval ratings in the 15-year history of the index.
It’s not that Rudd has said anything different about IR since the election. So why did business rate him so highly before?
What happened to no more fighting?
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd before the election promised he would end that nasty arguing between the Federal Government and the states:
Mr Howard, as part of his political tactics, wants to pick fights with the states and territories for the political purpose of trying to demonstrate strong leadership,” Rudd said. “What the nation wants is not an exercise in desperate political tactics but, rather, national leadership that brings the nation together, not seeks to divide it.”
And the Labor Premiers hailed Rudd as the peacemaker that John Howard was not”
JOHN BRUMBY: … Kevin Rudd’s always been a great believer in cooperative federalism; he’s always been a great believer in the Federal Government and the states working together.
It was always nonsense, despite being hailed by many commentators as the new dawn. Fast forward to today:
THE Rudd Government has knocked back a plea by the states for more no-strings-attached health funding, insisting they must deliver genuine improvements to public hospitals to qualify for its $2 billion health bailout…
Instead, [Health Minister Nicola] Roxon took a swipe at state inefficiency, saying states had to demonstrate they were willing to boost efficiency to qualify for more money.
Howard not bad to battlers at all
Andrew Bolt
Labor is trying hard to make the Howard Government seem like economic wreckers. But the damn facts just keep getting in the way:
The Fair Pay Commission (FPC) says Australia’s lowest paid workers are better off than they have been in a long time.
FPC chief Ian Harper today released the first Economic and Social Indicators Monitoring Report (ESIMR) looking at the impact of wage-setting decisions on the country’s lowest income earners.
“The lowest paid households have actually improved their real disposable incomes over the last two years,” he said.
So Work Choices didn’t beggar them, then? Such a surprise.
The Liberals should be using data like this to wallop Labor and set it benchmarks.
The madness of the Left
Andrew Bolt
I enjoyed the theories of Dr. Lyle Rossiter - author of The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness - a little more than I believed them. And yet:
Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:
- creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
-satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
- augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
- rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.
“The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind,” he says. “When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.”
Missile launched at ALP policy shield
from news.com.au
AUSTRALIA'S involvement in a global missile defence scheme is open for discussion, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says.
His comments come despite Labor Party policy, which opposes such a program.
"That's not to say we're not always willing to talk to our friends, our partners and our allies as technologies change, as cost dynamics change and indeed the global dynamic changes,'' Mr Fitzgibbon told Sky News today.
He rejected suggestions such a scheme, known as Son of Star Wars after a similar Ronald Reagan era plan, would hurt relations with China and Russia.
"I acknowledge that the bodies that upset global balance are the nation states that don't conform with international norms.
"And that's why the Labor Party is looking to restore the authority of international institutions like the United Nations, to re-engage them in these things, to ensure that collectively as nation states we maintain the global balance and global peace.''
Mr Fitzgibbon said the parliamentary Labor Party was always willing to engage in dialogue with its allies.
But he rejected the suggestion that Australian involvement in the missile scheme was one of the inevitable outcomes of a defence white paper due to be finished by the end of the year.
"We will let the white paper determine our strategic circumstances,'' Mr Fitzgibbon said.
"No one can predict what will be our defence needs in 10 years or more particularly in 20 years. While you've got rogue states like North Korea emerging, well, who knows what we might need to do in response.''
Joint approach to indigenous problems
By Nicolas Perpitch
THE federal and West Australian governments will work together to fix "appallingly bad" Aboriginal living conditions in the state's northern Kimberley region.
WA coroner Alistair Hope yesterday released his report into the deaths of 22 Aboriginal people from alcohol or cannabis-related abuse since 2000.
In a scathing criticism of the state and commonwealth governments, Mr Hope said there was an almost complete lack of leadership, coordination and accountability in the delivery of services to Aboriginal people.
He said this had contributed to appallingly bad living conditions including a failure of education, substandard housing, shocking health levels, the region's high suicide rates and "massive" alcohol abuse.
Mr Hope said alcohol was both a cause and effect of many problems for Aboriginal people in the Kimberley.
His report recommended the WA and federal governments give one person or organisation responsibility for closing the "vast gulf" in well-being between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the region.
It recommends relevant officials be held responsible for achieving targets.
WA Premier Alan Carpenter said today he had been in contact with federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin's office this morning and looked forward to working with the Federal Government.
"I'm very pleased that the recommendation has prompted the Federal Government, the new minister Jenny Macklin, into a co-operative spirit immediately," Mr Carpenter said.
Earlier today, Ms Macklin said the conditions highlighted in the report were prevalent throughout the country.
"These are horrific findings from the coronial inquiry," Ms Macklin said.
She supported a bipartisan state and federal approach to deal with the appalling conditions of Aboriginal people in the Kimberley, saying such an approach was made a priority by the prime minister, the state premiers and chief ministers at last year's Council of Australian Governments meeting.
Mr Carpenter said recent changes to WA's Department of Indigenous Affairs and yesterday's decision to strip Indigenous Affairs Minister Michelle Roberts of other portfolios would enable her to better co-ordinate efforts.
Fitzroy Crossing Aboriginal leader Joe Ross said it was time for governments to move past rhetoric and act.
"The report's not going to solve the problems immediately," Mr Ross said.
"It's incumbent on the state and commonwealth governments to work with Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people to put together innovative programs and initiatives that tackle the problems."
Mr Carpenter said he supported the report's recommendation to extend an alcohol ban on all but low strength beer in Fitzroy Crossing to other parts of the Kimberley.
He also supported the coroner's call for compulsory income management to be introduced, particularly in cases of child neglect, and for Community Development Employment Projects to be kept on in communities.
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