Oz election thread #3 - Rudd's Labour

Why thank you, hinge!

From a long-ish article in today's AGE from Kim Beazley. (Well worth a read in entirety.)

This quote pretty much sums up how I see the situation, too. Which makes me think there must be some behind-the-scenes bargaining going on (on any number of issues) between Canberra & Jakarta right now. The "sudden influx" of refugee boats off the coast of Australia has everything to do with Jakarta applying pressure on Australia. A bargaining tool, perhaps? Or a show of displeasure? As in the past.

But when you think about it, why couldn't asylum seekers (to Australia) be "processed" in Indonesia by UN & Australian authorities, rather than having to take that perilous journey by sea? Most who have been held in detention have eventually been allowed to stay in Australia, anyway:



http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/lets-not-rock-the-boat-on-border-security-20090422-afay.html?page=-1

Tandberg should know. He used to be a teacher!

Who the hell is advising Julia on Education, anyway? Treasury? The cheapest "solution" possible? Making it look like Labor is doing something when its not. Sigh. :

A couple of letter to the editor today about "Teach for Australia".:



http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/letters/we-must-find-a-new-supplier-20090422-afak.html?page=-1

Here ya go. Audio version in the link:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 16/04/2009

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe do Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull.

BRYAN DAWE: Mr Turnbull, thanks for your time.

JOHN CLARKE: It's very good to be with you, Bryan, and good evening.

BRYAN DAWE: How are things going?

JOHN CLARKE: I think things are going pretty well now, thank you.

BRYAN DAWE: In what sense are they going well?

JOHN CLARKE: Well, they are going well, Bryan, in the sense that we are the Opposition, and we are opposing things, and we are opposing them effectively.

BRYAN DAWE: What are you opposing?

JOHN CLARKE: Well, we oppose everything, Bryan, we're the Opposition, that's our job. Our job is to oppose.

BRYAN DAWE: Oppose recently?

JOHN CLARKE: Well, we opposed plenty of things recently. Look at this broadband fiasco, for example, Bryan. What an absolute circus; they don't understand money. Where is the business plan, where are the costings? It's a circus, we oppose it.

BRYAN DAWE: Yes, you do. So you oppose everything?

JOHN CLARKE: We oppose pretty much everything, Bryan. Yes, so if the Government is in favour of it, we oppose it.

BRYAN DAWE: You oppose things, whatever they are?

JOHN CLARKE: We oppose whatever the Government says whatever it is.

BRYAN DAWE: In other words if the Government is in favour of it?

JOHN CLARKE: If the Government is in favour...

BRYAN DAWE: You'll oppose it.

JOHN CLARKE: We're against it, yes.

BRYAN DAWE: Good. Whatever it is?

JOHN CLARKE: Whatever it is, Bryan, regardless of what it is, our Opposition is stalwart.

BRYAN DAWE: Right. Are you making any ground on the Government at the moment?

JOHN CLARKE: Electorally?

BRYAN DAWE: Yes.

JOHN CLARKE: No. But of course, there's a much more important issue.

BRYAN DAWE: Well, what's more important than making headway against the Government?

JOHN CLARKE: Getting better at opposing things, Bryan. You see, we're not the Government, we're the Opposition. We need to get better at what we do, and that is oppose.

BRYAN DAWE: Mr Turnbull, I understand that, but how are you doing that?

JOHN CLARKE: How are we getting better at opposing?

BRYAN DAWE: Yes.

JOHN CLARKE: Well, for example, we didn't use to oppose everything.

BRYAN DAWE: And now you oppose everything?

JOHN CLARKE: That was a mistake. A bad policy mistake, Bryan. We've corrected that, we are now opposing everything.

BRYAN DAWE: Terrific.

JOHN CLARKE: We oppose everything the Government does.

BRYAN DAWE: Mr Turnbull, you used to be regarded as an intelligent and rational person once?

JOHN CLARKE: I'm fiercely intelligent, Bryan, any fool will tell you that.

BRYAN DAWE: But you just complain about anything.

JOHN CLARKE: No, that's wrong, Bryan. I don't complain about everything, I oppose everything. There's a difference.

BRYAN DAWE: But if you oppose everything, doesn't that make you very predictable?

JOHN CLARKE: No, Bryan, it doesn't make us predicable at all. We frequently don't know how best to do it. There's a hell of a stoush in the party room. I mean, there's nothing predictable about what goes on.

BRYAN DAWE: But doesn’t that sometimes put you in a position of arguing against things you should be supporting?

JOHN CLARKE: If we were the Government.

BRYAN DAWE: Yes.

JOHN CLARKE: But we are not the Government, Bryan. This is the crucial point. Grasp it, we are the Opposition, our job is to oppose.

BRYAN DAWE: yes, but if you develop a policy while you are in Opposition, and it becomes popular, then you've got to enact it. What are you going to do?

JOHN CLARKE: If we become Government?

BRYAN DAWE: Yes.

JOHN CLARKE: No chance, Bryan.

BRYAN DAWE: Why not?

JOHN CLARKE: Well, have you seen the figures? We are not even coming second at the moment. We are getting better at opposing, though, I’ll tell you that.

BRYAN DAWE: Mr Turnbull, thanks for your time.

JOHN CLARKE: Nice to talk to you, Bryan. Now when you do one of the these with Kevin Rudd, what happens at the end, does he go home?

BRYAN DAWE: Yes, he goes home.

JOHN CLARKE: How does he go home?

BRYAN DAWE: He's got a Commonwealth car.

JOHN CLARKE: Well, you see, that's wrong. I am opposed to that.

BRYAN DAWE: Why? He's the head of Government.

JOHN CLARKE: Yes - No, that's wrong. Does he go home in, what, just his suit?

BRYAN DAWE: Yes.

JOHN CLARKE: Get a pogo stick, Jeffrey, we're leaving. In the suit?

BRYAN DAWE: Yes.

JOHN CLARKE: And a frock

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2545070.htm

He's a god.

(John Clarke.)


A god.

I'd marry him in a minute, Deb!

Love 'im!

Lol!!!

Could we start a fantasy site with him as our lerve god?

I just love it when one is too engaged in talk and badinage to remember to make love!!!


Liked the Beazley article, by the way.

Why not?!

Such an unlikely looking lerve god, though, don't ya think?

But I just have to look & him ... & I larf & larf & larf ... in the nicest possible way, of course!

Yes, he made a lot of sense.

(But, let's admit it, he aint no lerve god!

Sorry Kim,)

The man's BRAIN is soooooo sexy!

I feel like I'm eavesdropping in the girls toilets!

On last weeks Insiders one of the journo's (not Piers) said that the press room was referring to the leader of the opposition as (wait for it...)


Malcolm Returnbill

Boom boom.

Malcolm Returnbill! That's clever! Perfect!

As for your discomfort at eavesdropping in the girls' toilet, hinge .... you can contribute, too, you know. Like revealing your secret admiration of Julie Bishop's impeccable style & grooming, for example .....

<choking on wheeties>

Ouch.

This "whole coming of age" meaning that a bunch of poor little buggers get to be slaughtered in a dumb war and left to rot there when they should have been taken off thing gives me the willies.

Yes.
Sigh.
I know, Deb.

Always seemed to me, if we are going to celebrate a "great" war, then it should be WW2. That one always made a lot more sense to me, in terms of Australia's involvement.

Mind you, I have great sympathy for any ordinary person who becomes a soldier & does his (or her) duty, in any war .... only to return home, nothing like the person they were before their "service to the country". I have the greatest sympathy for their nearest & dearest, too, who are left to pick up the bits of the person they used to know, with so little real support from the government/s who sent them off to war in the first place .... Doesn't matter whether it was WW1 or Vietnam. The story's not that much different ....

And as for the poor buggers who are looking for refuge, who are fleeing war & conflict ... their story (& reception) has become much tougher in recent years, if anything.

Though, to be devil's advocate:

Were the ANZACs STUPID?


They were VOLUNTEERS.

There was plenty of opposition to the war.

There was plenty of material around critiquing the propaganda of the UK etc.



There were "conchies" in the UK, where there was a draft.


Were the ANZACs dumb, brutal, bloodthirsty boys, doing what they do, and have done through the millenia, almost as a game, caught out by the horrible advances made in killing machines since the last dumb war flocked to by dumb Ozzies ( Boer War) and ignoring easily available information that might have made them think twice?

Robert Graves, in "Goodbye To All That" speaks of the "colonials" (Oz, Canada, NZ) as being especially savage in their treatment of German POWs (slaughtering them) (nowhere near as bad as the Ghurkas, but still...)