Roger Wegener

Are They Mad? #auspol

2012-01-21T21:55:00.000+11:00

Clearly the *bogan in chief* was not able to charm the nervous nellies in the ALP into supporting the deal that she made with Andrew Wilkie. I imagine the conversations went something like this.

NN: Prime Minister the pubs and clubs and their "License to Punt" campaign is killing me in my electorate.

PM: Sorry about that but we have a deal with Mr Wilkie and anyway around 70% of Australian's actually support his approach. And as you know the clubs campaign is dishonest and untruthful.

NN: I don't care about that - the clubs said they would target me and my electorate if I didn't get you to pull the deal. And I have become rather fond of the job and the salary and perks of a backbencher. So tell Wilkie to bugger off or start looking for another job.

PM: Oh - alright then.

And this mob think that we will respect them in the morning.

As one Twitterer said this afternoon - "Time to give Rod Cavalier, John Faulkner and L Tanner total despot power in the ALP. Take out the garbage and get that light burning again".

Because the place has become a friggin disgrace.

Trouble in La La Land #auspol

2012-01-16T23:50:00.001+11:00

If you check out the Essential Report that featured in Crikey today you will learn something interesting about Tony Abbott.

You may also learn some interesting things about Julia Gillard and how a sample of Australians say they will vote - but my purpose today is to comment on Mr Abbott.

Looking at his performance over the past two years - at least according to the people who responded to the Essential poll - you would be surprised that he is still in the job.

Because his approval levels are heading the wrong way. "In January 2010 37% approved of the job he was doing - in January 2012 it is 35%".

As are his disapproval levels. "In January 2010 37% disapproved of the job he was doing - in January 2012 it is 51%".

As Australian's have gotten to know him - it seems they like him less because his "Don't Know's have gone from 26% in January 2010 to 13% in January 2012".

If ever there was a clear indicator that he is doing something wrong - then this is it. The longer he keeps at it then the worse his numbers become.

He seems to be pretty unpopular for a populist politician.

Most of us seem to have worked him out - I just wonder when his colleagues will do the same?

State of Inertia

2012-01-08T11:49:00.000+11:00

I am on my usual pilgrimage back to South Australia - to catch up with family and to do some boat building during the holidays. My trimaran is progressing well and I am hoping to get it in the water later this year. Don't you just love the smell of epoxy and sawdust in the mornings ;-)

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about my home state. Each visit here reinforces for me the slow and relentless decline of the place. But many locals don't seem to notice - I suppose it is the "Frog and boiling water" analogy. The export performance of the place is in serious decline while manufacturing continues its slow melt. As usual the farmers and small business are whingeing and the population is declining as job seekers move interstate. Those who are locked in with local assets or family just commute across a border or two. And the state government chases revenue everywhere.

But not to worry because *mining* will save the state - or at least that is what the local politicians tell us. But then they have been telling us that for well over a decade. They have clearly run out of ideas because now all they talk about is how Olympic Dam will save the state and bring riches for all. As if.

There are clearly huge structural barriers to growth and progress in the state - but that is not helped by B Grade politicians who often talk crap. And a mediocre media that makes stuff up as it attempts to stay relevant.

Take the Leader of the Opposition - Isobel Redmond. She was doing much better when she had a small target strategy and was nearly invisible. Recently she said that when the Liberals win the next election that they will *sack* a bunch of public servants. Brilliant idea Isobel - your strategy of appealing to all those small minded business people with "job envy" will win you lots of kudos.

Doesn't that just demonstrate the calibre of SA business people and their political representatives? "You want to sack lots of public servants because they have job security and tenure and you don't".

Never mind that these public servants spend their meagre earnings in the state - usually buying stuff from small businesses. Hell no we'll just sack a bunch of them and that will make us feel much better. It's called "cutting off your nose to spite your face" and it's dim-witted.

One big reason why the place is in decline is because of this sort of thinking. But I have given up worrying about it - these days I just get a good laugh out of it.

Drongos in charge #auspol

2011-12-19T13:18:00.000+11:00

A decade ago one of our likely lads was caught up in the "War on Error" as junior Bush invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq - exporting freedom packaged up and delivered the American way.

It took almost ten years for David Hicks to get back to the relative calm of his homeland and family after the Liberal/National Government abandoned him to Guantanamo Bay - all to please the neocon's in Washington and to enhance little Johnnies' election prospects at home.

Fast forward another decade and Julian Assange awaits a similar fate after using "actual evidence" to expose the skulduggery that is US foreign policy. And another Australian Government has abandoned him to the wolves and charlatans in the US administration. But this time it won't enhance the election prospects of our Prime Minister - quite the reverse.

WTF is going on with our Governments?

Back when David Hicks was incarcerated, The US was an out of control warmonger and our Liberal/National government was obscene with its encouragement. Little Johnny thought of himself as regional deputy to Bush’s global sheriff. As if.

Back then, Mark Latham our Labor Leader of the Opposition called junior Bush the "the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory". Not very far from the truth as it turns out.

And two Labor Prime Minister's later we have young Ms. Gillard refusing to support Julian Assange because her friend Obama is now US President and he wants our help to wage war across our region. The last thing he wants is anyone exposing US belligerence and skulduggery via Wikileaks so he wants Assange locked up - preferably in Guantanamo Bay.

Question:

"Does it seem to you that we actually have a sovereign government that is looking out for the interests of Australian's - or have we somehow become the 51st US state"?

Evidence and Policy #auspol

2011-12-14T20:34:00.001+11:00

I am not normally a big fan of this place - but their paper "Price Drivers: Five Case Studies in How Government is Making Australia Unaffordable" tells the unfortunate story about how Australian's have been ripped off by successive governments. Here is what they propose.

* Bananas - Dismantle the ban on importing fresh hard green bananas from the Philippines into the non-banana growing states of Tasmania, Victoria, ACT and South Australia, if not all
states and territories.

* Books - Repeal the "30 day rule" in the Copyright Act 1968. Allow a three-year adjustment period for the industry before the changes come into effect. Review the changes five years after the repeal.

* Cars - Abolish the remaining import duties to allow commercial importation of new vehicles. Abolish the Luxury Car Tax. Allow the private importation of used vehicles into Australia that are – not older than 10 years and have not been driven more than 120,000 kms – only from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Japan and New Zealand, and – fit to obtain a "pink slip" on arrival.

* Housing - Increase supply by encouraging councils to take on more residents through local government finance reforms that reward councils for accepting more residents. Policy recommendations are available in the CIS report Australia’s Angry Mayors. Abolish both negative gearing and first home buyers grants. Abolish or at least reduce stamp duty on property transactions. Cap infrastructure levies or replace them with funding streams based on income tax. Alternatively, give councils access to a share of the locally generated GST revenue.

* Retail - Support the Productivity Commission’s recommendation to relax planning and zoning regulations to – increase land supply for retail, and prevent these regulations from being used by established retail-space owners as anticompetitive tools. Abolish commercial viability testing for new shopping areas.

All of these things make perfect sense. The only thing that amazes me is how long it has taken for the expose to become public. Everyone of us ought be asking our MP's to demonstrate what action they are personally taking to put pressure on their leaders to fix these things.

And the fulltime focus of our Prime Minister and her Cabinet should be to deal with them. I do accept that they didn't create the problems but they could win lots of kudos by fixing them. It's not exactly rocket science - all you have to do is look to New Zealand to see how the car proposal has worked out.

Perhaps this is how Julia can re-connect with the people? We can only live in hope.

How to Fix Broken Stuff

2011-12-13T09:47:00.000+11:00

This post by Dave Winer got me thinking.

Not so much about Android and the tech industry - I already use Android and have been in the tech industry for nearly 40 years. And by the way I agree with what Dave says.

But more about how our various Governments seem incapable of getting things to work properly. Particularly those things that they have responsibility for. Like Health.

If you have been following the schemozzle that is QLD Health you will know what I mean.

Disaster follows disaster. If it isn't bogus medico's performing unnecessary surgery and maiming patients then it is bogus finance staff who are embezzling millions. What about the things that haven't yet made it into the media? The place is a circus.

It does remind me of similar stuff up's in another state health system where some of their staff were being paid twice - and a few were being paid three times. And apparently that had been going on for years. Bet you didn't hear about that?

And the various QLD Managers and Ministers and their Premier seem completely lost. Yesterday the Premier announced the dismantling of the Health Department - to be replaced by what? Disneyland probably.

Why is it so hard for seemingly smart people to build an organisation and management capability that actually works? That is the $64k question.

And the answer has two main components;

* The nature of state politics means that they are only ever thinking short term - which is between now and 5 minutes after the next election. An average of 2 years.

* And inertia conspires to keep things just as they are. Change involves pain and it doesn't really matter how broken the system is - trying to fix it will make a lot of comfortable people feel very uncomfortable.

I wouldn't even attempt to fix it - it's far too broken for that. What I would do is build a new system from scratch and transfer any good bits across from the old one. Mind you it will take some smart people to design that new system so it doesn't end up like the one they already have. So I probably wouldn't use the same folks who built the current one - Virginia ;-)

And when it was up and running then I would switch the old one off. A bit like what Qantas is doing with Jetstar.

Straight out of Crikey today - Hilarious

2011-12-05T14:28:00.000+11:00

The mythical story I most love about the late Kerry Packer concerns the businessman who approached Packer in an airport lounge one day with a simple request. "Kerry, I'm about to have a really important meeting with someone. It would really impress this bloke if you came over and said hello." Packer agreed and a few minutes after the meeting started he sauntered over to help his new friend.

But before he could speak, the man waved him away. "Not now Kerry, can't you see I'm in a very important meeting."

The story has been retold so many times there's probably no chance it's true, but it's a great little fable that underlines how important the backing of men like James and Kerry Packer can be.

A Wasted Century #auspol #alpnc

2011-12-04T10:36:00.000+11:00

Nearly 12 years into the 21st Century and we still have no coherent rail system within and between the cities of our nation.

Only Sydney has an even partially working metro rail system and that is just creaking along on century old infrastructure. None of the other cities have a system of any real substance or usefulness. But Hong Kong and Singapore have fantastic systems - parts of which have been designed and built by Australian's. Go figure.

And our city to city and interstate services are just woeful. The only regional rail system with any credibility at all is Vline in country Victoria. This is actually quite good - the service is good, the rolling stock almost relevant and the timetable and pricing sensible. The only problem is that it doesn't go anywhere that anyone wants to be. But that is an accident of geography - not a criticism of Vline.

How is it that in 2012 we still haven't managed to build a fast, reliable, environmentally friendly, customer centric and useful rail transport network? And why is no-one in power even thinking seriously about it?

The Europeans have managed it with all their different countries and languages and complexity - but we can't manage it here. What does that tell you about the *dead hand* of Australian state governments? I am afraid that parochial B grade politicians have seriously stifled progress in this nation for many decades.

I am pretty sure that Queenslander's, New South Welshmen, Canberran's, Victorian's, South Australian's and West Australian's would wholeheartedly embrace a quality rail system that operated within and between their cities.

Instead what we have done is spent our state tax revenues bribing voters with hand-outs - all to keep those same B graders entrenched and in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

And we think this is democracy in action.

Bogan Politics #auspol #alpnc

2011-12-02T15:37:00.001+11:00

Our Prime Minister has spent the past year in vigorous pursuit of her dream. All because she and her colleagues have discarded the true Labor voter, are behind in the polls and need to find a new base.

But her strategy doesn't appear to be working.

Because the bogan doesn't care about politics and isn't interested in becoming anyone's political base. The bogan only cares about cash hand outs and asset bubbles. While you keep shovelling cash at the bogan he will continue to vote for you. When the money runs out - or his house and other assets start to devalue - then you had better get out of the way.

Little Johnny knew that - which is how he stayed in power by dishing out large amounts of bogan cash disguised as family payments and why he set up a tax system to distort the value of bogan assets. He knew that it wouldn't last forever and that he and his party would be toast when it all went pear shaped. But it served his purpose for a decade.

And Kevin knew it too - which is why he did his best to shovel cash in the leadup to the GFC. The bogan got $900 and a house value boost courtesy of the "First Home Buyers Grant" and was happy for a while.

And then Julia deposed Kevin and thought she could continue with the same old ponzi scheme.

But by then the political dynamics had changed. Tony had a firm grasp of the bogan and everyone believed that he would continue with the grand old Liberal tradition of shovelling cash if ever he got back into the big seats. And he probably will - because how else could Tony acquire a base - except with his carefully crafted intellectual argument and personal charisma ;-)

Tony's impossible polling numbers are all in expectation that he will have oodles of cash to distribute when next he gets to pull the levers. I hate to disappoint anyone but that is looking unlikely.

And the rest of us don't want two political parties jousting over the same bogan base - and neglecting everyone else. It might be that capturing a 30% slice of the voting population seems like a grand prize - but is it? And what if the other 70% detest you for doing it?

What if you became the political equivalent of Kyle Sandilands because of it?

There is an opportunity for a smart leader to woo the rest of the nation with a compelling story about their commitment to the national interest.

But we don't seem to have one of those.

Wilful and Blind #auspol

2011-12-02T13:01:00.000+11:00

It's a good thing that our high quality media commenteers are not easily distracted - because otherwise they would get sidetracked by irrelevant issues that are being put about by charlatans and politicians and the like.

You know what I mean. Low value things Like the killing of 256 children, when is the European Community going to explode or the fun and games of the Republican Party could be wastefully using up column inches and distracting Australian's from the real and important stories of the day.

Real important stories like - "What the Labor Party thinks about gay marriage".

FFS.

Grumpy Old Man #auspol

2011-11-27T10:30:00.004+11:00

My distaste for our political class may simply be because I am a grumpy old man. Or because I haven't slurped down enough of the kool aid. Who knows?

But the more I see and hear of our Prime Minister - the less impressed I am. She started out a year ago as a novice but has quickly adopted those quirky characteristics of the political bovver boys. Some might use that as evidence of a fast learner. I would suggest that it's more likely evidence of a slow thinker.

During her reign she has vigorously pursued the bogan - as though this cultural icon will be her political saviour. When all it has done is further alienate thinking Australians.

She has sucked up to the American president and congress and military industrial complex - so now we are part of the US too whether we want to be or not. No debate, no discussion and no consideration of alternatives - all very democratic.

She has even made speeches to the corporate class about how those Australians on welfare need to get off their bums and get back to work. Presumably to fill all those imaginary jobs that are only visible from Canberra.

And she and her Treasurer are pursuing neo-liberal policies that are more aligned with her political foes than a compassionate Labor Government. The economy is slowing, unemployment is growing and yet they are madly in pursuit of a budget surplus. Clever politics. Not.

But the most distressing thing is how she has responded to our citizens who are in trouble abroad.

Julian Assange has been under house arrest in the UK for a year and is about to be sent to Sweden to answer imaginary charges. And once there he will be despatched to the US where a grand jury is waiting to lock him away forever - or worse. For what? Because he dared to tell the truth and expose the hypocrisy of US foreign policy.

All the while our Prime Minister says and does nothing to support him. She is being puppeted by her new best friend Obama.

But closer to home we have a 14 year old boy in jail in Bali - who was caught buying drugs.

And she is all over him like a rash. Calling him on the phone, sending our Ambassador out to negotiate, speaking to the Indonesian President about him and generally lobbying to get the dope back home again.

This pantomime might appeal to her new bogan constituents who will be comforted that she will go into bat for them when they get caught with drugs in Bali - but it doesn't do anything for the rest of us.

Assange is a national hero - and the boy is a bogan dope. And who does our Prime Minister support?

PS An update here.

The Australian

2011-11-19T10:32:00.000+11:00

It's not very often that I agree with the position taken by an editorial writer at "The Australian".

Too many of their opinion pieces have been incoherent, just plain wrong or self serving. But today is different.

I am in almost complete agreement with this.

Border Protection #auspol

2011-11-17T14:48:00.000+11:00

When our politicians eventually get over themselves and realise that they have been taken for a ride by Obama then Australia will need to put in place some real border protection.

Abbott keeps on waffling about how Gillard has lost control of our borders. That is true - but not in the way he thinks.

A few unarmed asylum seekers are no threat at all - but 2,500 heavily armed marines are a huge threat. Again not in the way that people may think. The real issue is how this little enclave will be perceived across our region - and if PM Gillard had any understanding - she would already know the answer.

How is it that our politicians will rant and rave about boat people and the shock jock and tabloid press crowd will spend years demonising them - but a US military invasion of our homeland wins their almighty praise? Answer me that Virginia?

Apparently, dark skinned people in boats who have been displaced by US warmongering in the Middle East are very bad - while US forces in uniform coming here to wage war across our region are very good.

I am just gobsmacked by the hypocrisy. It's pathetic. And not only that but it shows our political actors up as the lightweights they are.

It is obvious to even the most disinterested observer that our political leadership has no real clue. They appear to have no ability to consider the national interest and seem to be dazzled by a US military that creates a bloody mess wherever it goes.

Clearly our politicians don't trust the people enough to engage with them - so why would the people trust our politicians? It looks like becoming a Mexican standoff.

We don't just need to change the political party that gets to exercise power every three years - we need to change the system that gives them unfettered power and allows them to abuse it.

A US military base on Australian soil? That should require a referendum - if not a general election.

How the World Works #auspol

2011-11-14T20:47:00.001+11:00

Imagine for a moment that you are the President of a nation that has created the world's largest and most belligerent military force. And you regularly use it to get your own way.

You have found a new best friend - who is the "Bogan in Chief" of a piddling little nation half a world a way - but geographically close to your only real rival in the global power game.

And your Generals and their puppeteers are looking for the next little adventure to keep your Military Industrial Complex on track - while building missiles and bombs and employing quite a few of your people.

So you hatch an ingenious plan.

Both you and your friend are in a bit of trouble domestically and need a "good news" story to improve your prospects of getting through the next election cycle. What to do?

Well the first thing you do is create a new Pacific Regional Trade Organisation and try to involve as many small and insignificant nations as possible - all to obfuscate around your real intent. You hold press conferences and announce the news that this new organisation will make the world great again - and other blah blah blah.

Which brings me back to your new best friend?

You were clever enough some months ago to let her think that the *idea* of the regional trade thingy was hers alone. And then over time in her earnest way, she has managed to *convince* you of its merit. But you never give in easily and need an *incentive* to sway your people and get them behind the deal.

So the trade off was that you would get ready access to a military base in your new best friend's homeland - as a condition of your support.

And as they say - the rest is history.

I suppose we should be used to it by now - it's been going on for around 60 years.

Reality bites Politician and Friend #auspol

2011-11-13T10:42:00.001+11:00

These are dangerous times for our political class and their hangers on. Especially those who treat their constituents like mushrooms. But most of them haven't worked it out yet. They will soon enough.

Greece has a new Prime Minister - because the old one wanted to hold a referendum on the "austerity measures" that are being imposed on his country by the European Union. The power elite didn't like that idea.

And now Italy's Berlusconi has gone. One minute he is top of his game - hosting bunga bunga parties with Italian starlets - and the next he is toast. Just shows how important it is to keep one's eye on the ball - Silvio.

And James Murdoch gets arrested - someone really is paying attention.

The Arab spring was just the beginning. Now we are seeing a new wave of semi democratic leaders stumble. My guess is that many of the nations that have been pretending democracy will end up in similar crisis. Because when it comes to the crunch they aren't.

Pretty soon a whole raft of pseudo regimes will start to crumble. Why? Because the people are sick of being lied to and ridden roughshod over. The young in particular have become politically active because they feel downtrodden with many being jobless and living in poverty. Pseudo democracy hasn't done much for them.

The rise in social networking - along with Wikileaks - has opened the kimono and exposed the big lie that is democracy. It isn't about the people - it's all about protecting the capitalist elite. In the eyes of the 1% *capitalism* equals *democracy* - end of story.

That's why the US, UK and AU governments are working so hard to neutralise Julian Assange and take down Wikileaks. Because you can often buy a bit more time by shooting the messenger.

So if I were in power in one of these pseudo democracies - I would be rushing to do a couple of things.

* I would be engaging furiously with the people to demonstrate my democratic credentials - all to buy some time.

* While I was working overtime to transition my propaganda machine into one that embraces and exploits social media.

Because it is only then that things will start to look a little less dangerous for our political class.

You think I am joking - don't you Virginia ;-)

Hang On a Minute #auspol

2011-11-11T16:07:00.003+11:00

Everything that is proposed by the Gillard government gets a *no*, *non*, *nein* shout down from the Abbott opposition. Except for one thing - the nasty little war in Afghanistan. Amazingly this gets a resounding *yes*, *oui*, *ja*.

Isn't that one of the dumbest things about Australian politics? I am sure that many Australian's are shaking their heads and thinking - WTF?

Most Australian's don't want us to continue with this shitty little war. We are unhappy that 32 of our young men have been killed fighting there - because we believe that it is a sham with no real purpose. Or no purpose that benefits Australia anyway.

And yet both major political parties are falling over themselves to demonstrate their support for it. Clearly both our government and opposition have been captured by the US war mongers. How did that happen - Virginia?

The real reason the US is still conducting this ugly war in Afghanistan is because they have a "military/industrial complex" to support. If it wasn't Afghanistan then it would be somewhere else. When the troops leave that conflict then the wingnuts in congress will find a way to start another war with Iran or North Korea or maybe even Mexico.

All so their military hardware manufacturers can keep their deadly production going while their hands are buried deep inside the US taxpayer's pocket.

It's a disgrace that the US now relies on war mongering to keep their economy alive. And it's an even bigger disgrace that our government - and opposition - are cheering them on while putting young Australian lives at risk.

And this morning I hear that US marines are going to have a base in Darwin. Is it coincidence that this was announced on Remembrance Day? WTF is that about?

Australia is supposed to be a sovereign nation. We shouldn't be kowtowing to the US or anyone else. If our government and opposition want to suck up to the US military then let them explain that to the people and then let’s have a vote on whether we want to do it. Or not.

Or that's what we would do if we had a real democracy.

#Qantas - Their Mad Ideology

2011-11-06T10:23:00.000+11:00

The biggest cost of the Qantas "own goal" last Saturday will be in attempting to retain their customer base - which is turning away in droves.

And as usual Qantas are doing it the only way that works - with bribes. It looks like their customer retention activities are going to cost $20 million over the near term. The spinners will be ecstatic - what about the shareholders?

So if you are a traveller who was inconvenienced last week - you can look forward to a *free* ticket. And if you are a Qantas frequent flyer then you can look forward to some *free* points.

The only thing is that Qantas *free* stuff needs to be paid for somehow. My guess is that the rest of the Qantas customer base and the staff will be funding this largesse. It probably won't be coming out of the CEO's pay packet - Virginia.

But the bigger issue is this;

According to his own testimony, the CEO took this decision on his own. He decided to ground the fleet alone and then informed the board - who cheered him on. So the cost of this action is due to his exceptionally high quality "business judgement".

I wonder if his "business judgement" will be viewed so exceptionally when the next profit results are released? And when the share price tanks and the customer and staff satisfaction metrics are next revealed.

That's the thing about ideology - it makes people stupid.

Why I Support GetUp #auspol

2011-11-05T11:27:00.000+11:00

Dear Roger,

I wasn’t planning on emailing you today, but you should know what Senator Ian McDonald just said about you during the Senate debate on climate legislation.

Twice, in our Parliament, he called you and other GetUp members “the Hitler Youth wing of the Greens' political movement.”

GetUp member Andrew's response says it all:

I am a 47 year old Australian citizen, retired Police Officer and a member of GetUp. Your comments in Parliament were not only offensive to me personally but offend the office of Senator. Organisations like Getup exist only because political parties, including the Greens, do not adequately represent our interests. We are many and we will be heard.
- Proud GetUp Member, Andrew

Let's clarify something for Senator MacDonald: movements like GetUp are how ordinary Australians respond to out-of-touch politicians like him.

And then this, from Senator MacDonald's colleague Bronwyn Bishop scorning GetUp donors in a committee hearing. When told the average donation to GetUp is just $27, she scoffed: “$27 doesn’t add up to much.”

But we know what it adds up to: a movement of over half a million Australians trying to make our nation a better place. Of 69,087 people so far this year who have donated to make it all possible. Of progress on the issues we care about and bind us together.

Well Senator MacDonald, I'm proud to be a part of that. Those small donations, each week, create the change politicians like this never will.

It's easy to just laugh at Senator McDonald's comments -- until we remember that he could very well be running the country soon.

Come Tuesday, Australia will finally have a bill to start tackling dangerous climate change… but people like Senator McDonald are hell-bent on derailing climate action and overturning the progress we've made.

I joined GetUp because alone, my voice could never be heard. Alone, my spare change could never match the wealth of those Ms Bishop prefers to have influence. But together, we have something extraordinary.

Senator MacDonald can feel free to attack me personally if he disagrees with me, but it is of no place for any elected official to attack everyday Australians who take part in GetUp for daring to play a part in our democracy. Whatever he calls our movement, I'm so proud to be a part of it.

Thanks Andrew, for saying it better than I could, and thanks Senator MacDonald for reminding us why this movement exists in the first place.

Simon Sheikh,
National Director,
GetUp!

#Qantas - Another Thing

2011-11-05T09:53:00.001+11:00

Qantas is so dominant across Australia that I am having difficulty organising trips without using them. I know that the Australian way is to foster and encourage monopoly businesses and to throw in a few minnows as window dressing - but this mob has become too big, too powerful and far too arrogant.

I suppose that is why the far right have manoeuvred to stack the board and management with industrial relations ideologues. As our governments pretend not to have noticed.

And the rest of the airline industry has not been agile enough to exploit the opportunity that now exists. OK they've only had a week to do some strategic thinking - but are they up to it?

I will give them a bit more time to get their act together. But in the meantime I am delaying travel and scheduling trips using "anyone but Qantas".

Intercity bus and train travel and video conferencing is even starting to look attractive. I really do miss the fast, comfortable and convenient Eurostar - but that is half a world away. Nearly 40 years of dithering means that we still don't have a high speed train service between our major cities.

And there is a bit of predatory pricing happening with the current alternatives - but if they were clever then they will use this period to acquire market share and change the intercity travel dynamic - permanently.

If they were clever.

There is a huge opportunity for a travel entrepreneur to acquire a high value customer base using a convenient schedule, quality service and reasonable pricing.

All they have to do is discard the dingbat ideology.

Joyce is a Fool

2011-11-03T19:48:00.000+11:00

Like many Qantas frequent flyers I received a letter from Alan Joyce last night.

Two things pissed me off about it.

* The complete bullshit that is masquerading as content. Clearly Joyce thinks that Qantas customers are morons who will lap up his feeble attempt at re-writing history. His is a one sided and belligerent letter. Here is a piece of it.

Our focus now is on our customers. We want to restore your faith by returning our on-time performance to its normal high levels, continuing to invest in new aircraft and lounges and ensuring the best possible in-flight experience.

* No ability to respond. So confident is Joyce of his position that there is no mechanism to respond or reply to his letter. He won't publish his email address and contacting Qantas by any electronic means is impossible.

He is a dinosaur - and he thinks that we are too stupid to notice. I think that he and his Board are going to learn a very painful lesson.

Weird Conservative Ideology #qantas

2011-10-31T17:11:00.002+11:00

Why we insist on bringing these "whiz-kids" to Australia to manage our icon businesses is just beyond me.

Does anyone remember the debacle that was the AMP under George ~~Turnbull~~ Trumbull - whose "red indian" reign led to a massive $5.5 billion write down at the insurer? He was rewarded with a $13 million termination payment.

What about Telstra and Sol Trujillo and the mess he created? Telstra’s share price dropped by 40 percent while the "hairy chested" little amigo collected $30 million.

Lets see what happens to the Qantas share price and the customer and staff satisfaction metrics as a result of the performance of this latest "whiz-kid".

Part of the Qantas corporate spin is about how their workforce is trying to bargain for some *unreasonable* and *unachievable* job security in their negotiations with the company.

Of course they are. Because for years Qantas managers have been doing their best to remove their workers' job security by outsourcing and offshoring their jobs to Asia, NZ and elsewhere. All in the pursuit of a "cheap and nasty" corporate culture that is so dear to the hearts of our managerial class.

Why is it so unreasonable for staff to attempt to re-gain some "job security"?

The Qantas spinmeisters and media commenteers are busy explaining that the concept of "job security" doesn't exist anymore. They point out that we no longer have jobs for life. And that is probably true.

Except that it doesn't matter so much when you are a Qantas Chief Executive on a AU$5 million salary - because you can afford to spend some down time catching up with your mates for lunch or golf or even a bit of hurling.

It does matter when you are a baggage handler on a AU$40k salary - struggling to feed your family and pay the mortgage.

But then I suppose baggage handlers and their families never catch planes - or at least they never catch Qantas ones so there is no need to treat them properly and pay them a real income.

What we have here is a failure to communicate and a dingbat ideology gone terribly wrong.

32 Young Dead Australians #auspol

2011-10-30T11:41:00.000+11:00

Following the deaths of another 3 young Australians and the wounding of 7 others in Afghanistan - we have seen both the Minister and the Head of Defence standing up and presenting the details on national television. As you would hope and expect.

This time Minister Smith took the time to explain - in simple and thoughtful words why we are there and what the longer term plan is likely to be. And his explanation makes perfect sense - I don't think that is in dispute.

It's just a real pity that neither he nor the Prime Minister has been able to articulate that previously.

What is in dispute is how we got here with 32 young dead Australians.

* How did we get into such a shitty and dangerous little war?
* Why did we follow the US along like lap dogs into this quagmire?
* What changes have we made inside our government to ensure that we don't fall into a similar trap again?
* Why didn't the parliament get to vote on this crappy little adventure and what have we done to fix that?

And so on. These are the real questions that our Government should be dealing with.

And the Government's answer to them all is - "we don't want to discuss that".

Go Virgin #auspol #qantas

2011-10-30T09:42:00.001+11:00

The Qantas CEO and Board have been suckered into starting a war with their staff. For what? So Peter Reith can brag to the Melbourne Club about taking the nation back to the 1950's - again?

Qantas have shot themselves in the foot - big time. The Board and Management of this once great Australian icon should resign.

Regardless of what the Board and the Management and the shareholders may want, the people will not tolerate this sort of treatment of their Australian workers.

If Qantas want to cut costs using Irish management and Asian crew and maintenance staff then let them move overseas and call themselves Jetstar. Oh wait - they've already done that.

"Cut costs using Irish management" - that is a joke Virginia ;-)

The truth is that Jetstar was created for this very purpose. What we are seeing now is the final nail in the coffin of the Qantas brand as the Board and Management pick over the remains and give the finger to their Australian staff.

Basically what they are trying to do is to swipe the name, the safety record and the brand recognition - all for cheap.

The real reason why this has happened now is because the *dingbat right* want to use industrial relations as a weapon to destroy our government. If they succeed then we can all look forward to WorkChoices mark 2.

So I am going to move my support to Virgin.

Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation

2011-10-29T12:10:00.000+11:00

The Australian government has established an “Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation” and published an “Issues Paper” on 14th September 2011.

This is my submission to that Inquiry.

It is not my intent to comment on the full gamut of Australian media because I don’t have the time or the knowledge or the inclination. There are however two elements that I am keenly interested in;

* Media Standards and;
* Media Regulation

But before that, let me explain where I am coming from. I am a mere citizen - an Australian consumer of media and an observer of the effect of our media on our democracy. And I am unimpressed by what has been happening over the past several years.

In my opinion, our democracy has been degraded - in part because our media standards have declined. And our media standards have declined in part because of ineffective regulation.

Media Standards

I am truly appalled by how truth and facts have become a casualty in the rush to remain relevant and competitive in a changing media market.

The News of The World fiasco shows just how bad things have become elsewhere.

There was a time when I used to read “The Australian” every day. From about 1980 until 2004 I was a loyal reader. I seldom agreed with the Murdoch world view but I did recognise and appreciate the quality of that newspaper.

These days “The Australian” has gone feral. At least in terms of the quality of its campaigns and with it’s reporting of truth and facts. It usually presents a US centric and rabid right wing viewpoint that is often biased and untrue.

For example, I have been deeply disappointed by its campaign against climate change. Clearly it has not been interested in serving the national interest.

I choose not to read the Murdoch popular press. And I seldom read the Fairfax newspapers. Because while they are not as bad as the Murdoch version, they are not sufficiently better that I need to go out of my way to consume or endorse them.

Similarly I no longer listen to commercial radio - which seems to have cornered the market in right wing blather and opinionated pap. Some of the stuff they dream up is just horrible. It is difficult to believe that Alan Jones and his ilk would appeal to anyone with an IQ above single digits. Perhaps that’s the idea.

I used to make similar comments about commercial television - but I am probably out of date there as I haven’t watched it for some years.

And I used to rely on the ABC to be fair and balanced with its reporting of events in the nation and across the world. But like its commercial cousins those standards have seriously declined in recent times.

I suspect that the ABC is chasing the same audiences - and using the same source material as its cousins (why?) and that has caused their lack of focus on truth and facts.

Is it my imagination or has the quality of the ABC declined during the reign of the current Chairman and Managing Director? Is this declining quality a part of their KPI’s? Is the ABC Board bothered?

SBS has clearly become the stand-out public broadcaster in Australia.

My view of public broadcasting is simple. If they can’t or won’t present the facts and the truth - then why do we need them?

Media Regulation

It is obvious to me that our media regulation is ineffective. How else did we end up with such low value and poor quality?

Now I am vaguely aware that our media regulation is via the Press Council which has been set-up by the industry itself. It looks like window dressing to me - a “claytons” regulator.

Clearly an effective regulator is needed to counter the excesses of a rabid mogul, a newspaper that has wandered off the reservation and a public broadcaster that is running an agenda.

I don’t know what such a regulator would look like or how they would act - but it is clear that they are needed and that they should have wide ranging powers - probably a bit like the ACCC.

Let’s test a few concepts and ideas before we lock anything in and give the people a say via referendum when next we have an election.

In summary, I would like to see a high quality media that operates in an innovative manner and which adds value to our democracy by focussing on things that are in the national interest. This will require enhanced regulation and supervision and a re-focus on truth and facts.

Can we manage any of that?

Apple vs Google

2011-10-28T18:57:00.000+11:00

I am not an Apple fanboy - more of a Googlesta. I have been using Android for a while now - am currently on my 4th phone - a neat little Huawei IDEOS, running Android 2.2. I just seem to wear them out - must be my fat fingers ;-)

The reason why I am wedded to Android is that I am a Google apps user - have been using this software in my day job for over 6 years now and it just keeps getting better.

Gmail is fantastic - easily the best email client on the planet. And while the other software tools are not yet as advanced they are getting close. The Google team are working hard to improve them and new releases occur regularly. If you get lots of email then you need Gmail with "conversation view on".

I just can't live without Chrome, Gmail, Calendar, Reader and the rest of the Google software. If Larry or Sergey ever get to read this then I really need you to build a *proper* Project Management tool. Please?

Which brings me back to Apple - recently I spent a few days with an iPhone. It looks great, the performance is very good, the screen is big and it feels like a quality product - if a little heavy. But it is seriously let down by its apps.

Now don't get me wrong they do work and some are even capable - but they just don't give me the level of control that I need in my day job. The email client in particular is weak.

And this got me thinking - clearly the iPhone is a mass market product. It is not built for the *road warrior* it is a *retail consumer* type product. And it has obviously been successful in that market. I only know that by looking at the number of people who are peering at them on the train during my morning commute.

But I need software with a lot more *oomph* and right now Android is the only thing that allows me to harness the power of Google apps while I am on the move. So I had to give the iPhone back - sorry fanboys.

I have huge respect for what Steve Jobs achieved at Apple. Clearly he understood his market and the success of the Apple products reflect that - but I just need something else.

Inertia or Innovation - you choose Virginia #auspol

2011-10-24T18:08:00.000+11:00

It’s not very often that I subject myself to an "encounter" with one of our government agencies - because the process is just so painful. It is also a bit embarrassing - because as I keep explaining to my international friends - Australia thinks of itself as an advanced nation.

Last week was a bit special because I had three such encounters.

Firstly, I received a bill from one of our public hospitals for some work that they did to me about a month ago. No complaint with the work though. Of course there is no ability to make payment over the internet or via BPAY or anything else even vaguely convenient. They do take Visa and MasterCard over the phone. And curiously they still accept Bankcard - which closed in 2007.

And the calling number that they published was continually engaged. It took me nearly three days on-and-off to get through before they managed to take my payment.

Got me thinking that perhaps we should upgrade our public health payment processes - before we spend money on shiny new hospitals.

Secondly, I am trying to track down the detail of my Army Service. I was a National Serviceman or "Nasho" during the early 1970's and recently discovered that I have lost my record of service. I want to get it re-issued so I can trot it out as "evidence" of my gung-ho nationalism. Not. The dog also ate my slouch hat and my GP's but that is another story.

So I Googled the Central Army Records Office and sent them an email with my request. Nope - can't do it they said, we must have a "real" letter for our "records", one that is "signed" before the request can be processed.

So I wrote my letter, headed into my office to print it on A4, signed it, went to the Post Office for an envelope and a stamp, queued for 20 minutes, grumbled a bit, sealed it and then sent it off. About two hours effort versus 5 minutes.

Made me wonder if we shouldn't fix our military records management systems - before we acquire a dozen new submarines.

Thirdly, I received a letter from the South Australian Motor Vehicle Registry. Everyone fears this agency because of the arbitrary nature of the revenue chasing schemes that they cook up and the penalties they impose. And this one is a cracker.

I have let the registration of one of my classic Citroen's lapse - because I am not there often enough to use it and the registration fee is way too much. Anyway the letter wants me to return the plates or suffer an "Expiation Fee" because the car has been unregistered for 90 days?

The reason they gave for wanting the plates back is: "to stop them falling into the wrong hands". Say what?

Of course there is no way to send them an email or a TXT or a tweet - or even a fax to get them off my back. Nope I must write a letter, print it out on A4, sign it and then hunt down an envelope and a stamp and finally send it off. And if all that takes too long then I will get another letter informing me of the size of the "Expiation Fee".

It occurred to me that if we were to fix our motor vehicle registry processes - they probably wouldn't need to go off in search of more revenue.

If they still want the plates back then I will put my two remaining stamps on them and post them in the red box.

Isn't *Inertia* a fantastic word - much better than that other one - *Innovation*?

Window Dressing #auspol

2011-10-22T10:57:00.000+11:00

A tweet from Paul Barratt this week reminded me about the shortcomings of some of our government agencies. Especially those that have a watchdog role and the ability to expose corrupt and unethical behaviour.

Some of these agencies are intended to be window dressing. Ombudsman offices, Child Support agencies, Equal Opportunity commissions, Anti Corruption agencies and a raft of others exist to create the impression that governments are actually concerned about these things. When often they are not.

Many of these agencies and their services were created with great reluctance and much fanfare - and sometimes every opportunity is taken to remove or reduce funding and to make it difficult for their staff to do a top quality job.

They should be celebrated when they do succeed despite the best efforts of their political masters.

A few have had spectacular successes. I can't identify them here but their people know who they are.

There are probably a couple of books in it - but until we get an electorate that is awake and alert it will be a waste of time.

And it has been amusing to follow the ducking and weaving of our state governments - some of whom are resisting the creation of anti corruption agencies. Eventually they will give in and the agencies will be created - but probably not ever funded properly.

Investigation and exposure of these tactics is the real work of our mainstream media - but they don't do it. Perhaps that will change when Rupert leaves the building.

What's Their Real Game? #auspol

2011-10-21T20:43:00.001+11:00

Bill Mitchell nails it with this article on "Debt, Deficits, and Modern Monetary Theory" in Harvard International Review.

And if you read it carefully and understand what he is saying then it becomes very clear that our Governments are not actually interested in looking out for their citizens. They are doing something else altogether - something that is built upon a nasty and destructive right wing *ideology*.

Which is why the UK, the USA and to a lesser extent the AU economies are all heading downhill - with their focus on *austerity* and reducing government debt and implementing budget surpluses.

Of course the politics are different in each country but the effect will be the same. A giant friggin mess.

In the UK the Tories are misguided - probably due to their extended period in opposition. Their Chancellor seems to believe that cutting government expenditure will help their economy grow ;-) In the meantime millions of their citizens will have to accept serious pain. The Tories will be lucky to see a second term if they keep this up.

In the USA many more millions will be subjected to even worse pain as the GOP attempts to shaft their President - and the Democrats just look on in awe. Unfortunately the American people have become the victims in a blatant attempt by the Republicans to stop a black man from being re-elected to the white house. It's not even subtle anymore.

And here in AU we have an opposition leader who is trying hard to intimidate our government into adopting a neo-liberal ideology. And it seems to be working a treat - which is why we have a promise by the actual Treasurer to bring the budget back to surplus "as soon as possible". Meanwhile job creation has stalled and the economy seems to be flatlining.

Three so-called developed nations - all with governments playing the *austerity* game and shafting their citizens - because they have been captured by a dingbat right wing ideology - or because they are too dumb to know what such a thing actually is.

I will leave it up to you Virginia to work out who is in which camp.

And now they are all cacking themselves that the Occupy Wall Street protest movement might actually get some legs and turf them out.

Bring it on baby.

Going to a party - A Political Party #auspol

2011-10-19T18:10:00.000+11:00

You only need 500 verifiable members to form a political party. Anyone can create one.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission:

All federally registered political parties must meet the eligibility requirements for political party registration on an ongoing basis. These include:

* Being an organisation (constitution, structure and membership) with an aim of endorsing candidates for election to the House of Representatives and/or Senate; and

* Having:

– at least one Commonwealth Parliamentarian who is a member of the party but not a member of another party; or

– at least 500 members who are eligible to enrol on the Commonwealth electoral roll and who are not also relied upon by another party for registration purposes.

Plainly these requirements have been orchestrated by and for the political parties that have gained control of our parliament.

And our actual members of parliament seem to have gone right along with it.

Was there a fight before they handed over control or was it done in the usual way - ~~bribery and corruption~~ - charm and suasion?

Having a political party as the interface to our politics is like having a corporation as the interface to our wallets - without the protection of the ACCC.

I am curious to know how and why it is "a good thing" for the people of the nation to have a political party determining policy for them and for their hand picked representatives in the parliament?

Have we inadvertently outsourced our representation?

And if political parties are such a good idea then why is the Australian Constitution silent about them?

OK I do understand that the duds in the parliament do benefit - because they don't have to do much thinking or say very much as they follow the leader - but how is that of benefit to the dud's constituents?

It seems to me that political parties mainly provide a thick layer of insulation between the people and their parliamentary members - and I would argue that is not a good thing because it tends to muffle both the actions of the member and the voices of the people.

Australia and Asia #auspol

2011-10-16T16:48:00.000+11:00

Alison Broinowski has a brilliant article about Australia's engagement with Asia or rather lack of it - over at "The Conversation".

For me at least our ham fisted approach to engagement with Asia and our genuflection to the United States is what has helped "distort" our domestic politics. Apparently Mark Arbib spends his days leaking our secrets to the US embassy - when he should be on his bike across Asia.

Why is it that neither our Prime Minister nor Opposition Leader has a history of engagement with Asia? How does either of them expect to be an effective leader of a nation whose future is so intertwined with the region - when neither of them can be bothered to engage with it?

Their only serious regional engagement is by cheering on the decade old war in Afghanistan - where the US is spending $10 billion per month invading a country with a total annual GDP approaching 4/5ths of 5/8ths of SFA. I don't get it.

Our domestic politics are so badly broken because our current political leaders and their parties have no frame of reference across our region. They take their cues from a sick and broken US ideology. But as Andrew Bacevic has pointed out :

employing ideology as the basis for policy is a recipe for disaster.

They actually don't know how poorly we are viewed across Asia because they don't have any long term experience or relationships with the people who live there. They view it as a place to stop over and do some shopping on their way to somewhere else.

Or they view it as a never ending source of fodder for our imaginary "world class" universities where we spend years training Asian students - so they can end up driving our cabs and serving in our convenience stores.

And anyway how is it that insular and opportunistic local politicians can actually get to be Australian political leaders when they have so little international experience?

Beats me too. But it doesn't seem to bother anyone else.

Perhaps that is why Lee Kuan Yew so famously called us "The poor white trash of Asia".

One Brave Politician #auspol

2011-10-16T09:43:00.000+11:00

All it would take is one brave politician to show how it is done.

I was reminded of this again the other day when I was reading Crikey about how Alan Jones is *so influential* in Sydney.

Apparently despite The Parrot's weekly audience of nearly half-a-million listeners, five out of six people in Sydney never listen to him. I am sometimes in an office with five other people - and often wonder who the odd person out is ;-)

And former NSW premier Kristina Keneally said :

There's not a politician in Australia who wouldn't take his call.

Really. Don't her comments just show what Australian politicians are made of?

Everyone knows that Alan Jones is a right wing blatherer and a bully and a bore. Some also think he is a shrill little shill.

All it would take is for one principled politician to stand up for themselves and their constituents and to refuse to be drawn into his orbit - for his power to start to evaporate.

Does such a person exist amongst our political class?

And if one of them had the guts to do that with Alan Jones then others might find some courage in response to the other radio shock jocks and the television make-believe merchants and the Murdoch infestation that has taken over our media.

And then we could start to develop a modern political movement that actually serves the place. One where we could respect our politicians and celebrate those amongst them who would take a stand for the people and for the nation - instead of for the vested interests.

Could it ever happen - or am I just day dreaming again?

Trade Me #NZ

2011-10-15T10:52:00.000+11:00

One of the great technology and business successes in our region is "across the ditch" in New Zealand. It's called Trade Me.

This place really knows how to *do* a modern technology based enterprise. It has been hugely successful in New Zealand and I am forever amazed that they haven't migrated their business and technology model to Australia.

Because we need it here. The local players are all very weak and even the industry giant could learn a lot from our NZ cousins. Plus a little bit of competition from someone who knows what they are doing would smarten the locals up a lot.

But since 2006 it's been owned by Fairfax - which probably explains why it isn't represented on this side of the Tasman ;-)

Five things that make Trade Me so successful are;

* It's simple and clean User Interface and category Navigation.

* Huge User base - approaching 2/3rds of the NZ population.

* An enormous Category List with lots of Products.

* The Buying and Selling processes are much easier than elsewhere.

* NZ bricks and mortar businesses use it extensively - because it adds value.

Some amazing stats here. Nearly 700k people visit each day and there are more than 2.8 million members. All in a country that has a population of about 4.4 million.

New Zealand does many things better than we do - but the performance of Trade Me is just outstanding. We all should be agitating for the Fairfax board to open their eyes and ears and bring it here. Or sell it to someone who will.

#NewsCorp Makes List of 10 Riskiest Companies for Investors

2011-10-15T09:00:00.000+11:00

GMI identified a "Risk List" of 10 companies whose weak governance, poor environmental or social records or misaligned compensation structures present hazards to investors that aren’t adequately reflected in their current valuations.

Here's what they had to say about News Corp:

Although there have been some high-profile management resignations and a few name changes at the board level since the recent scandal, there is little indication that the quality of the company’s governance is improving — particularly in the crucial area of the relationship between the board and Murdoch. As an example, the company’s investigation into the phone-hacking scandal is being led by directors with strong ties to the company and the Murdoch family.

Plus the guardian reported this and Paul Krugman has added this.

Is anyone else paying attention to what these guys are up to?

Thinking @adelaidethinker

2011-10-14T19:31:00.000+11:00

I am a bit of a fan of the "Thinker in Residence" programme that is run by the South Australian Government. Well I am when it exposes the state bureaucrats and politicians to some world class "thinking" - as it sometimes does.

And that is what has happened after someone in power finally agreed to invite a road safety expert into the "thinker" programme.

Professor Fred Wegman has investigated the issues and done the homework and has published his interim report here.

And it is good. Well worth a read and with any luck it will set the scene for a much more sophisticated approach to road safety in South Australia. Time will tell if professor Wegman's effort has been worthwhile.

One amusing element of his report is the following paragraph on page 3:

Professor Wegman notes that many South Australians believe that the road safety problem is related to extreme behaviours — high levels of speeding or drink driving. While he acknowledges that such behaviours are a problem requiring continued action, he says in fact, the majority of crashes occur to ordinary people making ordinary mistakes on the road network.

Amusing because the reason that South Australian's believe this is because the main characteristics of the state's approach to road safety has been a "fear and penalty" programme that targets those twin evils - "speeding" and "drink driving".

The propaganda seems to work quite well but the impact on road safety is probably marginal. It's taken about 40 years for this particular myth to be busted.

It will be interesting to see how and if the bureaucrats and police change tack to a more subtle and sophisticated approach and how many of them get shuffled off into retirement during the process.

#OccupyWallStreet

2011-10-14T12:32:00.000+11:00

If you spend 10 or so minutes going through this slide pack (it's 41 images) then you will be much better informed about what the #OccupyWallStreet protest is all about.

Here is a summary:

* Unemployment - The unemployment rate is at the highest level since the Great Depression.

* Jobs - This is the lowest percentage of Americans with jobs since the early 1980s.

* Corporations - Profits just hit another all-time high.

* Bosses - CEO pay is now 350 times the average worker's.

* Workers - After adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.

* Wage Share - Wages as a percent of the economy have dropped to an all-time low.

* Wealth - The top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth. The top 5% own nearly 70%.

* Taxes - Taxes on the nation's highest-earners are close to the lowest they've ever been.

* Bank Margins - The "net interest margin" made by US banks in the first six months of this year was $211 Billion.

* Bank Profits - And that has helped produce $58 billion of profit in the first six months of the year.

* Bank Salaries - The average banker in New York City made $361,330 in 2010.

And who wouldn't be protesting about all that?

Rudd was Right

2011-09-18T10:58:00.001+10:00

I don't know what our government is up to with asylum seekers. Back in 2006, when in opposition the current Minister Chris Bowen said this about "Coalition attempts to excise Australian mainland from migration zone".

And now he has been caught out trying to do exactly the same thing. What a major "stuff-up" the Malaysian solution has become.

There are three possibilities.

Perhaps he thinks we are all fools and won't notice his volte face. Or this is his feeble little attempt to "wedge" the Opposition. Or the Department is actually running Immigration Policy and the Minister is quite superfluous.

In either case it’s no way to run our nation. There are quite a few disturbing questions about this little debacle - here are three.

Firstly, what about the quality of the Cabinet processes that would allow this to happen?

Secondly, what about the individual Ministers - do they not see a problem? Are there no wise old heads in Cabinet?

Thirdly, what about the big and important issues facing the nation? Are we dealing with them in a similar way?

The reason it's turned out like this is because they are just doing what politicians always do - chase votes and tell lies.

If this is indicative of the way the Cabinet behaves then I can understand why Rudd kept them in the dark and fed them BS when he was Prime Minister.

Because they simply aren't capable of anything else.

Bad Management

2011-09-16T11:19:00.000+10:00

Over at Core Economics, Kwanghui Lim has an article about his experience with on-line shopping. As far as I can tell this is a common theme in Australia.

And then over at Peter Martin's place we have a story about how we are working now - showing where the jobs are.

These two pieces show a major disconnect - on the one hand we have poor on-line shopping experiences and on the other - we are losing jobs in the Media and IT sector.

Maybe I am the only person who can see the connection - but this is a very clear example of what is wrong with the nation.

Bad Friggin Management.

Left Right Out

2011-09-12T14:43:00.000+10:00

Do you remember the kerfuffle in the Victorian ALP that stopped Julia from gaining pre-selection for a federal seat in 1993 and 1996? Neither do I but according to Crikey - “There was just no compelling internal factional logic why Gillard deserved a federal seat”. It was 1998 when Gillard finally got the nod in Lalor after doing a deal with the right.

During her political career our PM has been cosy with the left and more recently she has sucked up to the right.

But if you listen to the extreme conservative commentariat then you will know that she is really a full bore lefty who is just biding her time and will eventually unleash a wave of socialist left policy - all of which will decimate the nation and its people.

But that is BS. Because the one thing that Australian's have already worked out is that she is just another opportunistic politician who doesn't believe in anything of substance - either from the left or the right. This is why her personal polling is so bad.

She may have started out as a lefty and she might have naively thought that she could carry that into the parliament and then into government and onto the executive. But the truth is that our political and media institutions are so dominated by the far right - that it could never happen. She would be pushing excrement uphill - forever.

I suppose you could fight them or you could join them. And she has joined them. She has even enlisted Rupert's help.

The problem with that is she has now trashed her credibility. How can you grow up as a lefty and a social democrat and then when you actually get to pull the levers become just another right winger with all its associated harshness.

Particularly the harshness of mandatory detention and offshore processing with asylum seekers. And warmongering - is it really 29 young dead Australian boys? I am surprised that she actually manages to sleep each evening. Must be the effects of the Prime Ministerial wine cellar.

The simple truth is that her personal polling is a demonstration of the power that is wielded by the folks who really control the place. And a little bit of a warning to anyone else from the left who thinks they can challenge the might of the right.

This is why they have gone all apoplectic about the Greens - because unlike Julia they won't roll over.

We Love Youse All

2011-09-10T18:53:00.002+10:00

One very obvious observation about the decline of the power and influence of the USA over the past decade has been the increasingly ratty nature of their politics. Both major parties are now so consumed by greed and power that they have lost much of their relevance.

But one party, the Republicans are so out of touch with reality that they seem to have relocated to another planet. In part this is due to the rise of the Tea party but it’s also about the massive rise of ideology and religion. And a poorly informed populace that has been captured by an old fox. As Andrew Bacevich says - "Ideology makes people stupid".

The Republicans appear determined to push the American people into joblessness and poverty - all on the back of their weird ideology. I mean who in their right mind would think that their economy could be jump started by cutting expenditure? Only dingbats.

Clearly their Democracy is broken. Perhaps they exported too much of it?

Something similar happened in Australian politics about a decade ago with the rise of One Nation and the attempts of the Liberal party to corral them. Actually what happened was that the Liberals adopted the One Nation ideology and now we have our very own version of the Republican Party. All without anyone noticing or even a mild murmur among the commentariat. It’s all in a days work for an old fox.

And where goes the US government so follow their corporations.

Recently Wikileaks exposed the true function of the US State Department - which is to ride shotgun for Corporate America. One of their roles is to lobby, coerce and bully other nations to ensure that US corporations get favoured treatment around the world. It's been going on for decades and has resulted in the export of a particularly nasty corporate culture.

If you have the misfortune to deal with any of them then you will find yourself in a warzone - minus the gunfire. Its now shock and awe corporate style when you deal with these masters of the universe.

And we seem to have acquired a Prime Minister who has overdosed on their kool-aid. Because apparently "we still love youse all".

Free Speech and Democracy

2011-09-08T19:07:00.004+10:00

Free speech is the most important thing in our Democracy. So say the political commentariat and most others who abuse it.

No it isn't.

When you understand what is happening to our Democracy as a result of our hands-off approach to free speech then you will understand why things need to change.

Tim Dunlop highlights the current fantasy that is "free speech" at one newspaper here. All based on Robert Manne's expose of the antics of "The Australian" in his Quarterly Essay here and here.

The simple truth is that "information" is readily manipulated by unscrupulous and powerful individuals and organisations in their quest to influence your thinking. And their primary method is by exploiting the concept of "free speech".

As Goebbels said "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it". And they do - here and here.

In the case of our media these "big lies" originate with the rabid anti-intellectual drivel that so consumes the far right and the US Republican Party - and is delivered to your thinking organ courtesy of our newspapers and radio and television. See here for an update on current Republican Party thinking. And here for an alternative view.

Low information voters are just not sufficiently "in the loop" in a one sided argument that is pushed at them via our media. There is no "truth news site" - where the real news resides. The charlatans and editors can say whatever they like - all under the guise of "free speech".

This idea used to be called "propaganda" and "brainwashing" - now it's just accepted as a fact of life.

So what is to be done? Well I don't really know but one thing that will help is to undertake an independent and far reaching enquiry into the effect and influence of our media. With the objective being to put in place some effective regulation and reduce the reach of the dominant players.

What we may end up discovering is that our current concept of "free speech" is not quite as important as a properly informed "Democracy".

But whatever the result it will surely become a mammoth battle between truth and lies - which will probably be won by whoever has the deepest pockets.

PS: Big lies - one of the links above points to these "facts".
In summary, Australians believe that the mining sector:
* Employs nine times more workers than it actually does.
* Accounts for three times as much economic activity as it actually does.
* Is 30 per cent more Australian-owned than it actually is.

Couple of Things

2011-09-04T11:31:00.000+10:00

At least two things bother me about our Federal Government. And judging by opinion polls I am not the only one.

Firstly, despite the message they received from the high court last week, they still seem to be hell-bent on playing politics with asylum seekers.

They seem pre-occupied and perhaps even obsessed with the concept of "stopping the boats".

In case they haven't noticed - this is the nasty little agenda set by the opposition and exploited by its populist leader in his relentless pursuit of the bogan.

The Labor party of old wouldn't respond to his dog-whistle and certainly wouldn't be blowing on it in unison. They would be calmly and competently dealing with the issue.

What is actually wrong with taking the moral high ground, recognising our international obligations and "doing the right thing" by the boat people?

Why would our government do it's utmost to chase after and appeal to the uninformed bogan and racist elements in our society - who have been geed up by an unprincipled opposition, a fugly talk back radio crowd and Rupert's editors?

Answer me that Virginia?

Because the only possible outcome will be a further decline in their popularity. And if they had any thinkers' on the case they would already know that.

Secondly, the national accounts for the June Qtr will be published this week. Now I don't have any inside knowledge - but I believe that the numbers will show negative growth. And after the March Qtr this will be the second consecutive quarter of negative growth - resulting in a technical recession.

And who do you think will get the blame for that?

Now I don't want to be a party pooper but don't you think it would be more productive for our government to be "talking about" and "doing stuff" around the big issue known as "The Economy" rather than appearing to be pre-occupied with the relatively minor issue of "asylum seekers"?

Just asking.

Spice Girls

2011-09-02T13:22:00.000+10:00

What is the role of our Federal Government? Is it to deliver some quality governance or is it to be another player in a grubby game of politics with the agenda set by others? Serious question Virginia.

Some of us think that our team of ministers and officials and advisers and the various bureaucracies overseen by the Prime Minister ought to be engaged in a process of understanding big issues and making important decisions for and on behalf of the people of the nation.

Paul Keating did it - and many Australian's expect our Labor governments to at least aspire to his standard.

They ought to be in the business of understanding the risks to the nation and taking action to minimise them - of identifying future opportunities and working out how to maximise them - while protecting our quality of life and keeping us safe and employed.

But they seem to have given up on that. Apparently now it’s everyone for themselves.

There is nothing in the official script of government or even the constitution about playing silly games with unprincipled opposition leaders.

Or attempting to implement stupid policy like the "Malaysian Solution". Or even berating the high court judges who decided that it was illegal.

An illegal policy to deal with illegal boat arrivals - is that clever or dumb?

There used to be an important rule of government - "think" before "acting". But like much Labor history that rule seems to have been forgotten in the populist rush. Or in this case unpopular.

Just because no-one in the opposition is capable of doing any thinking doesn't mean that the actual government can get away with it too.

The real problem for the Prime Minister is that she obviously doesn’t have the nous to deal with these issues - and seems to have surrounded herself with a bunch of sycophants. They should form a band - it could rival the "Spice Girls".

That's the other important rule of being in government - if you don't "know" then find some "people" who do - and listen to them.

But why would anyone offer advice - when no-one in this government seems to listen.

Instead this PM and her crew continue to follow the opposition down every nasty little rat hole they can find.

Good luck with that then.

World in Crisis

2011-08-19T15:34:00.004+10:00

It's when the world is in crisis that a capable mainstream media (MSM) is something that we wish we had.

Because it's only when things are going pear shaped at the speed of sound that being properly informed can mean the difference between "losing your shirt" and "making a killing".

Those Australians who get their news and information from our MSM are being poorly served. There are two reasons for that.

Firstly, the vast majority of the people who work in and around the MSM are simply not up to it. Many have been playing at the journalism game all their working lives and they simply don't recognise or understand facts anymore. Or perhaps it's the truth they don't recognise. Often they are driven by *ratings* or *eyeballs* or *revenue* because that is what their employer demands. And the ones who sit in front of a lens looking pretty have little understanding of what it takes to hunt down a story and explain it to you. Their job now is to be *dumb and blonde and pretty*.

And secondly their employers have all adopted a business model that is built around *obfuscation*. This is the game they play when they want to gain your eyeballs but they don't want to invest in the quality journalism or the effort and resources that are needed to seek out the real stories and expose the facts. So they make stuff up and embellish and manufacture things and basically create a parallel universe which they then write about each day. And this charade is often helped out by presenting nubile young flesh on page 3 or at 7:30pm.

And they do it Virginia, because they think that we won't notice. Or care.

Murdoch may be the most odious practitioner but all Australian media are doing the same thing. Even your ABC. Speaking of which what has happened to the place? ABC evening television is now so bad that it is unwatchable. The only things worth a look are 5 year old re-runs from the BBC and even those are becoming less frequent. Looks like ABC News/24 has sucked all the blood from Aunty. Perhaps they should just point a lens at Mark Scott's desk and play that from 7:30pm?

The big crises in Europe and the USA are either going unreported or are being misrepresented with lightweight commentary. So if you want to be informed - then you will need to find another source.

New Newspapers

2011-08-17T13:24:00.000+10:00

As clever as it might seem for News Limited editors to run a political agenda and to fight the good fight for and on behalf of conservative politicians, it isn't doing their actual business much good.

Well not if you look at the decline in their readership and the lack of trust in their newspapers it isn't.

Could newspaper editors have a death wish - they seem quite happy to trash the credibility of their mastheads and the reputations of their staff with their one-eyed commentary all designed to get the conservatives into government?

It's almost as if they think that Mr Abbott and friends will be able to defy gravity - when and if they manage to get back into the big seats - and magically resurrect News Limited's credibility.

I suppose if you don't have a good understanding of science or reality then it might seem as though you could do it by waving a magic wand. Wasn't it Bush and Cheney who said "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality"? That turned out well didn't it?

So why do you think that News Limited editor's are doing their best to make their newspaper's irrelevant? Could it have anything to do with Rupert's desire to create a conservative political empire spanning the west before he heads off to mogul heaven?

Probably - but what amazes me is the sheeplike behaviour of his staff. Why would they be going out of their way to destroy their livelihoods? Because the way they are going there won't be much left of the empire when the king goes.

I mean who was upset when the "News of the World" passed away? Who will be distressed when "The Australian" goes to newspaper heaven?

But there is an alternative.

Why wouldn't News Limited take on the role of the people's advocate? Why wouldn't they realign their newspapers in support of the ordinary folks who are being done over by unscrupulous business interests and right wing politicians’ and other charlatans?

There is a huge opportunity for a modern media organisation to build a big readership base and associated revenue stream by gaining the trust and respect of the little people. All by telling them the *truth* with a business model based on *facts*.

The reason they don't tells you something about their agenda.

Career in Technology

2011-08-02T12:54:00.001+10:00

We need some more people at CRMNow.

There is an exciting opportunity for thinking people to build a new career as a project based technology consultant.

CRMNow is a technology company - with emphasis on people and projects as well as the more traditional technical aspects. If you are curious and capable, know what a project is and have people and team skills then we want to speak with you.

The technology that you will work with is the Oracle CRM On Demand products and associated web services. All running in the cloud.

The customer base comprises many of the top 200 companies that are situated across Australia and Asia.

Projects range from smaller configurations to large implementations with major customisation and complex integration. Twitter and blogs and other social media are often part of the integration. As are Apple and Android tablets.

The software tools you will use are mostly in the cloud. Gmail and Google docs and project management tools and other document creation and handling tools are used extensively. You will need to learn and become expert in these as well as web technologies generally.

This is a great opportunity to build a career at the leading edge of the technology industry. So if you are interested or know someone who is - then contact me by email.

roger.wegener at crmnow dot com dot au

Stealing your Future

2011-08-01T09:16:00.001+10:00

So in the US the Republicans and the Murdoch media are insisting on an immediate reduction in government expenditure and no new taxes ever as a solution to the so-called "debt ceiling" problem.

And here in AU the Coalition and the Murdoch press are telling us that a "carbon price" will devastate the place and destroy our future.

It's clear that the conservatives and their puppeteers in both nations are just wreckers. Worse, their wrecking will result in long term damage and cause untold pain for many people.

They are completely out of control both in the US and here in AU. In the US they can't handle the fact that a black man is President. Here they can't handle the fact that a red headed female is Prime Minister. And so they have set out to destroy the fabric of the place. They are behaving like petulant children.

None of this would matter much if we had a majority of voters who could sort wheat from chaff. But we don't and the charlatans in the tea party and the coalition know it. Their strategy relies on it. They have spent decades ensuring it is so.

It's not that the conservatives and the Murdoch punditry are stupid - they aren't. They just behave like wreckers because they know that a large part of their "base" don't understand the consequences and probably don't care. And few others are even paying attention.

And that is the problem. Democracy only works when you are paying attention and you are alert to the wrecking games of the charlatans.

Ignore them and they will steal your future.

Do you have a Plan B?

2011-07-19T19:30:00.001+10:00

It is plainly true that the instinct and strategy of our Opposition leader is to lie, mislead and create fear amongst our people. He's clearly Prime Minister material, Virginia.

And the bulk of the daily output of our media is designed to misinform and deceive. They lie to us and we read and watch more of it - what does that tell you about the thinking capability of our people? Clearly few of us can reliably sort wheat from chaff.

Some want to make voting optional. I want to tighten the test. How can an ignorant, scared and uninformed populace know anything about what is in the national interest?

And our Government is so weak and timid that they won't stand up and be counted and deal with these things. They simply don't have a clue about what to do. Truth is they are gone for all money - surely they know that? This creates a great opportunity to do some good for the nation. But they won't because they wouldn't know where to start. What does that tell you about the quality of the MP's in the big seats? Abbott has a destructive strategy - but apparently Gillard has divine hope and a wish list.

Thinking Australians are horrified by it all.

To the Australian media - lie and cheat and connive and mislead all you like. Do your best to distort the truth. Do what you can to confuse and create fear among the people. Let the Murdoch press and Fairfax radio run riot. Even the ABC should keep trying to deceive the people. Go for it moguls and Mark Scott!

Because eventually your house of cards will collapse. Eventually even the most disinterested and uneducated and uninformed bogan will start to pay attention and they will see through your cunning stunts and they will revolt.

And then your days will be numbered. So I hope you have a Plan B.

We will not tolerate wrongdoing

2011-07-15T09:52:00.000+10:00

Here is Rupert speaking about his hero and his business.

"Our new world is one of modern mass communication, phone and text, without limit. Democracy will be from the bottom up, not from the top down. Even so, a free society requires an independent press: turbulent …enquiring…bustling…and free.

That's why our journalism is hard-driving and questioning of authority. And so are our journalists. Often, I have cause to celebrate editorial endeavour. Occasionally, I have had cause for regret.

Let me be clear: We will vigorously pursue the truth – and we will not tolerate wrongdoing".

I wrote about this earlier - but worth another post given recent events.

What really happened?

2011-07-11T12:25:00.000+10:00

What really happened on Sunday is that our Federal government moved the goalposts.

They have initiated a process to move government away from a focus on taxing income to a focus on taxing carbon.

So all those low tax obsessed conservative capitalists can decide for themselves how much tax they want to pay. If they really want to then they can work to decarbonise their businesses as soon as possible - and the benefit to them is that their tax bill will reduce.

Now that really is a perfect reverse wedge.

Opportunity

2011-07-09T11:53:00.001+10:00

A major opportunity has been created by the Murdoch "News of the World" phone hacking scandal and we shouldn't waste it.

That is the opportunity to do something seriously good for the nation by fixing our media.

After tomorrow, Julia and Co. will have dealt with the carbon problem and will have some time to focus on "other things" of substance.

My nomination for one of those "other things" is to take a serious look at Australian media including a detailed review and enquiry into the effect of the ownership by Rupert Murdoch of 70% of our print media. But don't stop there - we need to inquire fully into the operation of radio and television as well.

The review and associated enquiry should be short and sweet with the guiding principle being to look after the "National Interest" as opposed to the "Mogul Interest".

Lets not waste this opportunity - we may not get another.

PS - And if you doubt the need to include television in all this then you haven't been watching the "dingbat" performance on ABC Insiders.

Building the Education Revolution

2011-07-09T11:15:00.001+10:00

There is one key thing that I would say about the "Building the Education Revolution Implementation Taskforce: Final Report" that was released yesterday - and it is this.

"The Murdoch press is continuing its grubby campaign against truth and facts and is doing its best to misinform you. If you want the real story around the Building the Education Revolution - then you will need to go here for the final report - and here for the media release".

I have just finished reading the final report and it is very illuminating. I have reproduced recommendation 4 below - in an attempt to highlight a few of the significant findings.

"Twenty years ago, the Productivity Commission published a major report into the construction industry. At that time, the four major issues limiting productivity improvement were: industrial relations, planning consents, Australian participation and project management.

The Taskforce believes the major issues confronting the construction industry today are different. The BER program has been notable for negligible industrial disruption, and we have observed the benefit of the BER streamlined planning approval process.

We have however witnessed deficiencies in the quality of workmanship, in project management, in public works capacity and in the framework of private certification.

Australia confronts a significant infrastructure and maintenance spend over the coming 20 years. The Taskforce recommends that the Productivity Commission update its work on the construction industry".

These are big issues - if our construction industry and our state governments haven't managed to deal with them over the past 20 years then perhaps we need to find others who will.

And perhaps we also need to find a media that will identify and report on the real issues - instead of their usual fluff and bubble.

Fully Informed

2011-07-05T13:49:00.001+10:00

It's pretty impressive stuff when the average "man in the street" can explain in great detail what is wrong with the nation and with our politics. And has advice on how to fix them both.

This was my experience earlier today.

An acquaintance bailed me up and proceeded to tell me how bad the economy is doing and how the place is right royally stuffed. Apparently all because our government has no idea how to run things and because those communist Greens are now running the place and trying to impose a world government.

He said that the carbon tax will decimate small business and turn the place into an economic wasteland - probably by the end of next week. The solution is that we need to install a coalition government as soon as possible - to stop the rot - and help our small business he said.

Interesting I said and risking another tirade, I asked him how he knew all this.

Well its obvious isn't it - and not only that but it's in all the newspapers, on talk back radio and on all the television news channels. And the chamber of commerce told me he said.

Well there you have it - our people are fully informed. Thanks for that Australian media.

There are just two small niggling issues - and I hate to mention them here.

Firstly, might there be "vested interests" who have captured our media and who are playing games with the "man in the street" all so they can push their dingbat agenda onto him? Surely not.

And secondly, might there be other viewpoints that are based on facts and real economic analysis - and which might be articulated by actual economists here and here?

Just asking.

Democracy and Greece

2011-07-04T09:59:00.001+10:00

This is why "The Conversation" rules. "Greece debt crisis threatens democracy" is an amazing piece of work - well worth the time to read.

It's thought provoking stuff. A few extracts below.

"Unemployment officially stands at 16 percent; the figure is expected to jump sharply in coming months. Over 40 percent of the under-25s can’t find work; little wonder that some of them have joined the ranks of the so-called “known unknowns”, street fighters prepared to take on the widely-hated police."

"Syntagma Square is thus a lighthouse, an early warning station, a reminder of how easily democracy is destroyed whenever power is exercised invisibly, helped along by flat earth news, bribes in brown envelopes, backroom deals and government agreements fixed over long distances with powerful global organisations."

"Big media outlets are accused of being “part of the system”. Bankers and creditors are described as crooks; there are more than a few shouts to turn their guts into garters."

Never let the facts...

2011-07-03T15:27:00.003+10:00

For those who are tuned in, politics in the USA has become amazingly bad and very ugly. And politics here are not far behind. I am pretty sure that we will catch up soon.

In the US all politics is to the right. The Democrats are on the right, the Republicans are on the far right and the Tea Party are on the extreme right. And then we have the Ayn Randians. The place is very unbalanced. And racist.

In the US the faux debate is around economics but that is just a smokescreen for race. The wingnuts who are to the right of the Democrats are annoyed that a black man is in the white house. They don't have a plan of their own but in between watching Fox News and throwing back a Bud or three - they are revolting. I could go on but I don't want any more misspelt death threats ;-)

Never mind that the last Republican white man to occupy the white house was just another wingnut - it appears as though a large number of Americans would still prefer him to a reasonably competent black man.

The debate over there seems dominated by three things - lies, lies and more lies. And a substantial amount of ignorance. OK that is four things.

Which is why the place is heading down the gurgler at a furious pace.

Which brings me back to our own little political adventures. Those of you who watch my blog will know that I am often railing against the dingbat right. The "policy free and populist" right that Mr Abbott is cheerleader of.

He was at it again this weekend over there in my hometown telling all and sundry that a carbon tax would decimate the place - doing his usual "scare the bogans" performance. Just like he did up the road a few months ago.

Of course what he probably isn't aware of is that the Liberal *base* and even large numbers in his own party are sick of his lies. They understand the "science and economics" around climate change - they know a carbon tax is necessary - and they just want to get on with it.

He looks to me like a dead man walking.

PS : And you dear reader would acknowledge that I write about the "right wing" quite a bit. Well today one of the Coalition rusted on's asked me what it was. "I don't know what a right wing is but I am a strong coalition supporter he said". Hmmm.

The Populist

2011-07-02T12:13:00.000+10:00

Funny isn't it how all those *in the know* political commentators talk about Mr Abbott being "populist". Now I don't disagree with this article - Laurie is usually very astute - but two things strike me about all this.

Firstly, the word "populist" might sound sophisticated and intelligent and chummy but how about decoding it for the masses. It might be terribly cool to be "policy free and populist" - but what does it all really mean.

Of course what they really mean to say is that "he is lying to you to exploit your greed and your fear". What they don't tell you is that "being populist = mucking about with your mind".

And secondly, what is the role of the actual voter in this little charade? If you assume for a moment that many voters are not actually able to decode the term "populist" then we are in deep doo-doo. Surely this group can't number more than a handful.

But what about the rest of us - how on earth do we manage to get through the day knowing that the nation's alternative leader is "lying to us to exploit our greed and our fear"? And how do these people feel about that?

That is the real elephant in the room - that no-one wants to talk about.

Apparently it's quite OK for an opportunistic politician to be "populist". But why is it also OK for a large group of the voting population to be so consumed by greed and fear that they are influenced by his deceit?

I dunno but I suspect this is the key to the dysfunctional nature of our polity.

The Game

2011-07-01T09:45:00.000+10:00

Here is some great advice on "How Not to Play the Game".

Far too confronting for most of us I suspect.

Back in the USA

2011-06-30T19:56:00.000+10:00

Back in January this year I boldly predicted that the USA would implode this year. Big call I know.

And here at the halfway mark I think that my prediction is pretty much on track.

Especially if you have been following the nonsense that is happening in the Grand Old Party and with their apprentices in the Tea Party - those folks are just super weird.

But Bill Mitchell is right on the money with his regular commentary - including today here.

I suspect that young Ms Gillard will be getting a little bit nervous about her commitments to the US President and his nasty little war in Afghanistan about now.

Defying Gravity

2011-06-30T18:47:00.000+10:00

What has always amazed me is the way the right wing commentariat and their apologists love to dish it out but aren't able to handle any criticism coming back at them.

Talk back radio shock jocks and the Murdoch attack robots have had it far too easy for too long. I mean why is it acceptable for people like comrade Bolt to continue to pen his bile - all designed to stir up the bogan class - and to name climate scientists? And for those scientists to then receive death threats from his readership - all with no cost and no penalty? Seriously.

Freedom of speech is very important - but so is responsibility and accountability.

I suspect the main issue here is the same one that affects most of the people who are employed in the journalism game in our nation - fear. Fear that if they step out of line and criticise a colleague then they will find it very hard to gain a promotion or another job. They will be ostracised.

The old boys club is very much alive in the rarefied atmosphere of our media. And that's no way to run an important industry that depends on fearless pursuit of the truth and the facts.

And the other thing that amazes me is why at least one of our daily newspapers hasn't worked out that there is a real market for truth and facts. I mean their circulation is in free fall for a number of reasons - one of which is that fluff and bubble and made up stuff is not really compelling anymore. Was it ever?

But the huge success of Crikey and The Conversation shows that people will respond to quality. Surely someone in power in the MSM can see the future - why won't they give it a go?

Because they think they can defy gravity - forever. Or at least until Rupert leaves his post.

Political Capital

2011-06-29T18:11:00.000+10:00

I don't know what you think Virginia, but I think a carbon price is important.

Because we need to price the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels - which has until recently been ignored. It is not sustainable to continue to ignore this major impact on our home planet.

But in reality a carbon price is just a small part of all the many actions that are needed to be undertaken by our government to rebuild the nation and make our part of the world sustainable.

We need strong leadership - determined and capable - and some political capital to rebuild the nation and make it great. All to deliver security for our children and grandchildren and their children.

We need to focus on three main things. Industry, Jobs, Services.

Industry - Right now mining seems to be in vogue. Surprising because it employs bugger all people - less than 2% of the workforce. I personally don't mind which industries are flavour of the month - providing that they deliver jobs and equity to Australian's. Jobs that are meaningful and equity that doesn't steal our heritage. 98% of our workforce is employed outside of mining but those industries are mostly ignored. Let’s get the various ministers together to focus on making them great again. And I don't mean tariffs - I mean competitive advantage. It will require a lot of *thinking* and probably even a bit of *doing*.

Let’s have a national debate about our industrial resources and how we can maximise their use for the benefit of all Australian's - not just the rich 1%.

Jobs - I don't really care where the future jobs come from - but wherever they do come from - we need to make them sustainable and we need to make them full time. Because right now they aren't. And I don't have a problem with the Peter Reith's of this world advocating for industrial relations *reform* but lets make sure that it is genuine reform that is of benefit to the people of the nation. And not the traditional Liberal party reform of *screwing the workers* to benefit the bosses. If the current ministers won't start this process and get the people engaged then we can be guaranteed that another *WorkChoices* like derivative will bob up soon - and screw us all.

Let’s get a real debate underway about what jobs we want and how we will deliver them and also the costs and benefits associated with them.

Services - Our government services need to be fixed. We live in a big country but the service delivery of our various governments suck. Particularly state governments. And it's not a resources thing - it's a priority thing. Our state and regional governments think they are in the business of feathering their own nests and doing what they did last century - let’s make their goal "quality of service delivery" instead of something else.

And let’s also ask sensible questions about what services we need. Some might be discarded and some new one’s added - we haven't had that conversation for decades - but we need to.

But who is asking these questions - and who is answering them?

And if our federal government is not going to take the lead on these things then they need to get out of the way and let the rest of us get on with it.

One eyed bogan

2011-06-29T15:29:00.000+10:00

Have you ever come across the one eyed bogan?

You know the one - always male, in their forties, a tradie, usually a smoker, love their footy and a beer, have a wife and two kids - a four wheel drive and a bunch of toys on the never never, live in suburbia in the McMansion and think of themselves as a true blue aussie - Oi!

Well these used to be their main characteristics - but these days they have another one - they have become political.

I don't know when it happened but sometime between late 2007 and now they decided that they knew enough about politics to have an opinion. Previously they left politics "up to the wife" but these days they think it is important to take a stand - for the benefit of the nation.

Mind you they are just learning about it all - they support the "Liberals" and they hate those communists and socialists and greenies because that is what dad always said - and they don't bother to read anything but get their news and information from commercial television - usually with a VB at the ready.

They are now fully informed because they spend a half hour in front of the TV news each night instead of propping up the bar at the local club. And that keeps the missus happy.

And their opinion is that they don't like that red headed woman but they think that the bloke on the bike is worth a go - because he looks like a tradie.

They don't like the red headed woman because they are hard working tradies who are well on their way to becoming actual "capitalists" and she is from the Labor party.

Yes our hero is convinced of the merit of being a tradie. Only last week he was called out to fix the pipes of the frail old couple down the street - and he stitched them up big time. Hey is it his fault if they don't know how pipes work?

It's clear that tradies are the new upper class. They charge like wounded bulls, they turn up when they feel like it and they stitch you up. Isn't that how it is supposed to be?

And pretty soon they will be determining who our government is. Hilarious.

The Value of Education

2011-06-28T10:10:00.001+10:00

While this article is focussed on experiences in the good old US of A - I am sure that its conclusions apply pretty much everywhere - including here.

Warren Buffett recently told Columbia Business school students, "Right now, I would pay $100,000 for 10 percent of the future earnings of any of you." (Tucker, 2009). He is not a legendary value investor for nothing: When compared to other investment options, a degree stands out as one of the best investments one can make.

Instead of worrying about the education of our kids and grandkids and their future prospects we seem to be worrying more about the fear that is manufactured by our unscrupulous and self-serving politicians.

And Nelson Mandela said "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Exactly.

The sign of NO

2011-06-26T16:04:00.000+10:00

You will all be familiar with the sign of NO. This is the little red circle with a slash through it and a symbol signifying that some activity or another is not allowed.

No smoking, no drinking, no skateboards or cycling, no parking, no camping, no fishing, no rubbish, no swimming, no swearing, no farting, no belching, no laughing - you get the picture.

My friends and I have been running a little competition amongst ourselves to see how many NO's they can find in the one place. We are always on the lookout for a good collection of NO's. Eventually they will find their way into a book of boganisms.

When we go out for a few drinks we compare notes and laugh about the fact that the dimwits with a little bit of power seem to have banned anything and everything - almost everywhere. It's why the joint is now known as wowser central.

Until recently the record was 9. This is what you will find stencilled on the door of a cab in most Australian cities - NO nine times in a row. And in the city rail trains in Sydney. It's pathetic and amazing - half the population can't count past nine, Virginia ;-)

But that record has now been broken - big time.

There is a huge sign - in a public place in a major city in one of the Australian states - where there are twenty seven NO's. Count them - 27 things that you and I are not allowed to do for fear of penalty. It boggles the mind.

I will donate $100 to your favourite charity if you can tell me where it is?

Nation Building

2011-06-26T11:26:00.001+10:00

It has always been my hope that our national government would eventually awake and start to do a bit of "strategic planning" for and on behalf of the nation.

The point of which is to develop an integrated plan to guide national development. I can't recall any serious long term planning activity by any of our governments - Liberal or Labor - State or Federal - since the 1970's. That is why we so obviously lag the rest of the neighbourhood.

But apparently we are happy to go off nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Perhaps there are excellent reasons why the national obsession is with selling houses to each other and digging minerals up for export. But I don't know what they could be.

The housing story was once a get rich quick scheme - but more recently has become a noose for people who paid too much.

And given that our two biggest exports are iron ore and coking coal I would have thought that some of these raw materials could be directed toward developing a real local steel industry. Instead our local industry is a shadow of its former self and China has steel coming out the wazoo - while prices continue to rise.

Surely a succession of smart thinking governments would have planned for a mix of mineral exports and local value added production. Perhaps even in a ratio like 80:20. Another half dozen export oriented steel mills would create a lot of jobs across regional Australia.

But it seems that is too hard. And clearly impossible for the State governments who think the state boundaries are on the outskirts of their capitals.

And I suppose the history of resource based nation building is not so successful anyway.

If you look at the Portland aluminium smelter then you will see that this "congealed electricity" manufacturing process uses brown coal generated electricity at around 1.4 cents/kW/h and has been doing so since 1986. Nice deal if you can get it.

Its entire product is exported - so that is good but the only thing that keeps it going is the hyper-low electricity price - and don't even mention the carbon impacts.

And the North West Shelf Venture has been underway since the mid 1980's and currently exports around 1400 million tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas - which earns the partners about 3.27 cents/litre. A nice little earner for the JV partners but why isn't the nation receiving a market price?

And what will Australian's do when this resource is exhausted - shouldn't we be using this gas to reduce our coal dependency?

If the nation's export performance can only be successful by subsidising multi-nationals in these types of ventures then we definitely need to start thinking about some real nation building.

What say you Minister?

Imagine

2011-06-25T11:05:00.000+10:00

Imagine for a moment that you are a conservative politician - one who aspires to lead the nation.

To achieve that ambition you and your team will need to gain the electoral support and presumably the respect of a majority of the voting population.

Imagine also that you have taken a contrary position on the biggest issue impacting the long term prosperity of the nation such that you don't accept either the conventional "science" or "economics" of how to deal with that issue.

And you haven't modified your contrary opposition despite all the nation's scientists and experts going out of their way to inform you and help you gain an understanding of how to deal with the matter.

Given all this, how do you think the people of the nation should treat your quest to lead them?

Anatomy of power

2011-06-22T14:09:00.000+10:00

When you are likely to be languishing in opposition for a while - possibly even decades - I suppose it seems like a good idea to try something a bit radical in an attempt to alter that.

Which is why the coalition discarded their leader Malcolm and embraced Tony. Two years ago Rudd was at the peak of his power and the coalition was despondent. Back then it must have seemed like a good idea to deny the science and the economics around climate change and try to use "made up" stuff to wedge the government.

Delay and deny and associated fear campaigns seemed like good things to use to create chaos and scare people toward the coalition.

And having decided to go down that path they are now obliged to keep at it because they have far too much invested - as do their partner in crime - News Limited. And anyway their new bogan constituency and big business believed them when they said they would turn back the clock.

But then something unusual happened - the government lost its nerve and abandoned its emissions trading scheme which was at the centre of their popular support. Rudd was soon toasted and Gillard became leader. But she has failed to impress and it is now very clear that had Malcolm been in charge last August - then he would have won handsomely.

The coalition would be back in its most natural state - shovelling cash at bogans - Tony would be a minister and there would be no need to divide and conquer. The blue team would be pulling the levers and everything would be as good as gold.

Except it didn't turn out like that.

Tony is still their leader and for all his stunts he is seriously on the nose with large sections of our population. Despite the ABC's attempt to spin it - the #abbottin3 Twitter hashtag demonstrates that large numbers of thinking Australians don't want him anywhere near the levers.

Both he and his party are now between a rock and a hard place - with all the independent commentators saying they are on the wrong side of both the "science" and the "economics" of climate change.

So what started out as a grand if risky plan to get back into the big seats is turning into a major political disaster. Someone in the coalition will need to deal with it soon - and it won't be pretty.

My ideology vs your reality

2011-06-22T11:16:00.002+10:00

Last night Professor Ross Garnaut said the Opposition's direct action plan is "expensive and foolish". And he also said carbon pricing "happens to be the low-cost way of meeting national targets".

But "Truth is optional" Tony is still batting away on his losing innings. And it's all because he is locked in on the wrong side of both "science" and "economics". It's what happens when you take a dingbat ideology and try to use it as a political wedge - sometimes it just gets run over by reality.

Even the wingnuts in the coalition must understand that and if they could see beyond next Friday then they would know they have a losing hand. The longer they persist with their current fiction then the harder the fall will be.

But that doesn't seem to worry anyone in the blue team - because Tony is front and centre and his "crash through or crash" strategy won't damage them much - will it?

And if they thought they could keep him propped up and just paper over his personality flaws then they just haven't been paying attention to the #abbottin3 hashtag on Twitter - or the ABC interpretation here.

It's all over - but they just haven't acknowledged that yet.

Last year I couldn't even spell minister and now I are one

2011-06-21T11:06:00.003+10:00

There is a good chance that every time a minister in this government opens their mouth they manage to put their foot in it.

What is it about the ministerial class of 2010 - 2011? First it was Ms Gillard drawling nasally about "moving forward" then it was Mr Swan and his limited and repetitive vocabulary and Mr Bowen and his "people smugglers business model" and now we have Mr Ludwig promising "animal welfare outcomes". What does it all mean - I wonder?

Most of the rest of them aren't even allowed near a microphone for fear of what they might say - or do.

Wouldn't you have thought that a senior minister these days would have half a blue clue about how to communicate with the people? Didn't they spend time at baby politician training school when they were in opposition? Aren't they all supposed to be educated, professional and worldly?

You would have to hope that they know something about how to run their portfolios because they clearly have no idea about how to communicate with their constituency - or even anyone else's.

Isn't it a mandatory requirement for any politician - to communicate - BEFORE they become a minister? Or is the cupboard so bare - the bar so low - that anyone who is even partially awake gets a guernsey these days?

Dingbat Register

2011-06-20T19:56:00.002+10:00

Toward the end of this century when all those in denial on the right and elsewhere have long gone and even their children are pushing up daisies and their grandchildren and extended families are searching through the public record to understand what grandad and his forebears did in the great "climate change" debates - then they will come across the truth - and my *Dingbat Register*.

Which is just a list. A bit like Schindlers list - it is a list of Australian's who are in denial about our impact on the planet.

This is the list of names of the people in our society who talk rubbish in the parliament, write stupid letters to the editor, pen dumb comments on science blogs, talk crap on the radio and on television, threaten climate scientists and other people - and who insist that climate change is a myth.

These are the people who spent the best part of the first couple of decades of the 21st century denying the carbon problem existed and who then worked hard to stop any action to deal with it.

They hated science - because it made them look stupid.

These were the dingbats of the 21st century. The only good news is that their comments are on the public record and their names are in my register - so we know a bit about who they are and what they thought.

Sometime after 2081 - with the wind howling and the tide running and the temperature soaring then poor Johnny and his sister Jenny will discover that their forebear was one of the people who could have done something about this problem but didn't - and they will be seriously unhappy.

So send me your details if you would like to make history near the end of this century.

PS - I don't expect the Register to hold very many names as this research found 74 per cent of respondents believe the world's climate is changing and 90 per cent of respondents accepted some level of human causality. The sceptics are a minority group with just 5.8 per cent of respondents characterised as disbelievers.

Call me old fashioned

2011-06-20T15:48:00.003+10:00

Why is it OK for Coalition MP's in the House of Representatives and the Senate and News Limited columnists and other people who have been captured by the far right to deny that climate change exists - when the science clearly shows that it does?

And why is it OK for people like coalition Senator Minchin to encourage the dingbats who threaten our climate scientists?

Why aren't the Federal Police on the case and why aren't these threatening moron's and their cheer squad sitting in a jail cell? Mr Keelty has retired already so he can't be the reason ;-)

It's pretty clear that these people are impervious to logical and factual argument and discussion. They hear it but they won't believe it and they certainly don't want to know about it. Apparently, their ideology outweighs truth and facts. A bit like religion really.

Their behaviour reminds me of the petulant little child whose parents wanted to let him *be himself* just before he used a fork to explore the power socket.

Call me old fashioned but why is it OK for these folks to run riot and rampage through our society - adversely impacting our living environment, risking the future of the planet and making life worse for our grandchildren and their children?

I suspect that our national tolerance is being seriously tested. Well mine is anyway ;-)

Pretty soon normal folks will get sick of this nonsense and then we will have a problem on our hands - it might be a bit of fun and games to coalition parliamentarians but it is our future that they are playing with.

Someone might start playing with the future of their grandkids - and then lets see how that pans out. Revolution isn't pretty.

What's the plan - Virginia?

2011-06-16T18:48:00.000+10:00

The thing that continues to amaze me is why Australian's aren't curious? Why don't we pay attention to what is going on around us? Why aren't our eyebrow's raised - even a little bit?

Given that we are near the beginning of some rather large and fundamental shifts in the way the Australian economy works you would have thought that Australian's would be interested to understand what is going on - and what the impacts on their families might be.

Nope - apparently not.

Few have picked up on the message that is contained in the recent words of the reserve Bank Governor. Fewer still realise what is happening with the housing market and with the jobs of the old industries that we have relied on for decades. Particularly manufacturing and retail.

Nobody that I know is trying to get ahead of the curve - to be positioned for the new opportunities. Everyone thinks its business as usual - as usual.

No-where is this more obvious than the disaster that is state government. Their business model is nearly as broken as the newspaper industry. I once thought that the abolition of state government would not happen in my lifetime - now I am pretty sure it will. The toxic revenue grab that characterises most of the states is going to bury them. That and the complete absence of trust within their constituency. It's serious stuff that won't change until we get a new generation of state politician - who understand. By then it may be too late.

But the influence of the consumer is declining and with it the things that consumers lust after. In truth *consumerism* was always driven by the ATM that is impersonating the house that many people live in. When house values are going up - it's easy to withdraw some spending money. When prices decline then we become shy with deep pockets. Get used to it.

I imagine that Australia's *billionaire* index will move away from retail and housing and media toward other things. Not sure if that is good or bad. But what it will do is create lots of new opportunities for those who are paying attention.

Are you?

Charlatans

2011-06-14T20:04:00.000+10:00

Crikey today - "The view that climate change is real and human-caused has softened since May. Just 50% of voters believe it is happening and is caused by humans, while 39% believe climate change is just a normal fluctuation in the climate.

Liberal voters are much more likely to NOT believe in human-caused climate change - 55% of them think it is purely natural and only 34% think humans cause it, while 83% of Green voters and 64% of Labor voters think it is caused by humans."

Scary stuff. Which is probably why "The Conversation" is on the case.

Those spoilers like Minchin must be laughing their t*ts off. For a couple of years now Monsignori Abbott and the rest of the right wing rabble in the Liberal party have been railing against "Climate Change". Denial is their personal little *in* joke that keeps them fronting up each day and giggling during question time. Here is their man debating with himself - if he is this confused about it then imagine how bad it is for their rusted ons?

And that's the thing. These politicians know that many of their supporters don't get it and aren't smart enough to get it - and so they play them. For fools.

Rusted on's - it's simple, you have been played. And that wouldn't bother me too much - if was just you who was impacted - but the unfortunate thing is that your stupidity is affecting me - and I don't like that very much.

It’s quite OK to have an opinion but if you don't know anything about the subject then you have two choices - either inform yourself or shut the f*ck up.

Here we go again

2011-06-11T14:39:00.000+10:00

Despite the fact that "solar photovoltaic electricity cost has fallen dramatically and is almost certain to fall further" as discussed by John Quiggin, the ABC reports today that "Power prices are set to jump by 30pc".

Funny isn't it how one piece of really good news is offset by another piece of really bad news - and how this bad news is released on a slow Saturday and accompanied by ZERO analysis or justification.

The ABC really has no business pumping this stuff out - or if they want to do that then they should recall an investigative journalist and have him or her write an accompanying piece of analysis - that means something.

Here is the first sentence of their story.

"Households will be forced to pay up to 30 per cent more for electricity by mid-2013, with the Federal Government's renewable energy scheme responsible for 11 per cent of that increase".

All designed to scare the shit out of Barry and Betty Bogan. And what about the 89% of the rise that has nothing to do with the Government. Who do we blame for that - I wonder?

Meanwhile where is the accompanying story about the decline in cost of solar photovoltaic electricity?

If you were to ask me for a solution to this problem then I would tell you that the ABC is so badly broken that it needs to be guided by a board that has an understanding of the need for truth and facts and quality - because the current one either has no idea or is wilfully negligent.

Call Me Names

2011-06-09T19:28:00.000+10:00

Call me names for pointing this out - but just look at the medium term jobs story here.

And in particular look at the South Australian jobs story which has had the biggest fall and the slowest recovery of all the states that are included in the series.

2009 was a serious shocker and this year looks to be sad. The biggest concern are the dips and bumps - showing big volatility. Compare SA with the other states?

But no doubt Mr Rann and his cronies will be spinning this as hard and as fast as they can. You know what they will be saying. "The future has never looked so good", "We need a grand big new hospital", "The Adelaide oval is a key part of our development strategy", "The mining boom is just around the corner". And other blah and BS.

It's all lies.

What they are really saying is that things are turning to sh_t real quick - and they have no idea. So let’s try a big bang approach.

And the big bang involves spending your money to build new *things* - forget the knowledge based industries - forget the smart technology - the state is now near the bottom of the barrel and needs the biggest bang for its buck. Let’s just build lots of stuff.

The really scary thing is that they have had more than a decade to work it all out but they can't - the issues are far too complex for these state politicians to grasp.

And you can all get upset with them and threaten to change to the other party but it will make no difference - our state politicians are simply not capable of responding - or delivering - ever.

Bite Me

2011-06-09T14:17:00.001+10:00

The thing that should be becoming crystal clear - to even the most self absorbed bogan - is that the continuing denial and political dance around climate change is going to end up biting them - big time.

"Whaddya mean my new jet-ski is anti-social"?

Today we find that the Productivity Commission has reported that the rest of the world - or at least those nations that are of most significance to us - are all doing important things to understand and reduce the impact of Climate Change.

So much for the view that we are going it alone.

And there is serious work underway that will demonstrate to even the thickest Coalition MP that a market based carbon trading system is the most efficient way to proceed.

So much for their direct action fantasy.

But none of this is new. Those folks who are in denial now and who think that they can continue to delay and deny are just painting themselves deeper into a corner. But the smarter ones amongst them probably already knew that.

The dimwits, charlatans, liars, fools and opportunists - and their followers will eventually have to eat large amounts of humble pie - or perhaps many of them think the "Rapture" will save their sorry dumb arses.

Perhaps it will - but what if it doesn't?

PS - I asked Cardinal Pell to comment - but his office hadn't responded by press time ;-)

Who's a stupid boy then?

2011-06-09T09:03:00.005+10:00

I was going to write about those deluded folks who beat up on Australian climate scientists and accuse them of being dastardly *communists* along with other unsatisfactory words - usually starting with C.. and F..

I was interested to understand where these dingbat ideas were coming from - and then I remembered unfortunate little Nick. Apparently this giant of the Liberal Party who has been ensconced in the Senate since 1993 thinks that climate change is a *communist* plot designed to impose a *world government* on us.

The only communist plot that I know of is the one from China - you know the one where their industry is eating our lunch - because of decades of denial by Coalition MP's.

Now IMHO that just demonstrates what being a Federal politician does to your thinking organ.

Fortunately he is retiring soon and will no doubt go on to become a lobbyist and/or a member of one of those far right think tanks that litter the landscape of the world and pollute the pages of the press.

I won't be attending his farewell but will send a small note approving of it.

Anyway there are more important things to worry about than a deluded ex politician - as Bill Mitchell discusses here.

This says it all really

2011-06-08T10:25:00.002+10:00

So here's the thing

2011-06-07T20:46:00.001+10:00

Each day I get an email from President Obama - not a personal email mind you - but one from his campaign office seeking my support for his re-election next year. Basically these emails follow a well worn path. They tell a moving story involving some injustice - explain that they need my involvement to make things better - and then ask for my financial help.

It’s a sophisticated fund raising process. And the reason they target me is because I have previously donated - thinking that Obama would be good for the world. Or at least better than junior Bush and his party could ever be.

But this time he is on his own - I won't be donating a red cent.

Mainly because of the way the US are behaving with Julian Assange and Wikileaks. While things appear to be goodness on the surface - behind the scenes they are doing their best to close him down. I wouldn't be surprised if they sent in the Seals to do a job on him.

Because what Wikileaks has done is exposed the lie that is US Foreign Policy. And their incompetent war mongering. The USA is known for it’s out of control military/industrial complex for a good reason Virginia.

Which brings me to another thing. I won't be donating to the re-election campaign of the Australian Labor government either. In fact I will be working hard to get them replaced - not re-elected.

Some of my friends and colleagues dislike our government and its behaviour with a passion but they dislike the alternative even more. And that stops them from taking real action. But I don't see things like that.

I want to see a competent and effective government providing and delivering strong and capable leadership and real policy and programmes - all from a social democratic perspective. And if we happen to end up with a government that is scared of its own shadow and is unable to do that then we need to replace them and find one that will.

And if that means that we need to install a Coalition government then so be it. It's my view that we will never end up with a competent Labor government until they get to spend a lot of time in opposition reflecting on what they did wrong. And it may even mean that we need to wait out an entire generation or more - while they go through renewal.

But don't ever imagine that it would mean that Mr Abbott would be Prime Minister - because that just wouldn't happen.

Why?

2011-06-07T17:14:00.006+10:00

Clive Hamilton is brave enough to tell the truth here.

"Opposition leader Tony Abbott is not foolish enough to attack scientists directly but his dog-whistling can be heard by all but the deafest. He has signalled clearly to the hard-line climate deniers that he is one of them".

And some of you lot ~~want him to become~~ even think he is capable of becoming Prime Minister? Jesus.

And it looks to me as though the dimwits who are making the threats are even using the bovver boys' very own language. What must Cardinal Pell be thinking?

I tell youse - those bluddy communists - they must be stopped - GEDDIT ;-)

The really sad thing about *dumb* is that there is far too much of it. But the really good thing about *dumb* is there is less of it than there used to be.

Purpose

2011-06-07T16:04:00.000+10:00

Jeez - I must be one of those thick Australian's who don't get it.

If it's not a war without a purpose - then WTF is the friggin purpose?

And why won't her majesty stand up in front of us and tell us what it is?

Please explain that to me Virginia.

Lies and Statistics

2011-06-06T19:02:00.000+10:00

One of the real and present dangers associated with relying on Australian mainstream media is the danger that you won't be properly informed.

And if you aren't properly informed then it is likely that surprises will sneak up on you and some of those surprises will hurt.

We saw the effect of that recently with those folks who thought that the mainstream media spruiking of the real estate industry was somehow related to reality and truth and facts. If some of those people had been looking elsewhere - they may have been better informed and they might not be in a perilous financial position now.

And that's the thing. Expectations have been created by our government and the usual suspects in the MSM that things will be just rosy after the disaster that was the March quarter.

Well I don't know what they are seeing - but I do know what I am seeing and it ain't good folks. The June quarter is turning into something much worse than the March quarter - which likely means recession.

Recession being two quarters of negative growth - it's guaranteed. Whether it gets reflected in the statistics is anyone's guess - because those same people who won't tell the truth in the newspapers or on radio or television also don't want you to know the real state of the economy.

Because they don't think you can be trusted with the facts.

Follower or Leader?

2011-06-05T12:35:00.000+10:00

If you were a politician who - as a member of a political party - relied upon opinion polling and focus groups to set the policy direction for you then would you be considered a leader or a follower? Serious question.

And how could you be a leader if you follow the direction of the people whose opinions are contained in any particular poll?

You might think you are being *responsive* but all you are doing is encouraging the folks who work hard to influence public opinion - to keep on doing more of it. All you are doing is signalling to our broken, dysfunctional and scheming media that it is OK to keep feeding our people lies and untruths. Because apparently you will develop policy and govern the nation based on the people feeding those lies and untruths back to you via opinion polls.

If you were a member of a political party with real leaders then you would be trying to influence public opinion by presenting facts and knowledge and truth and science. And you would be speaking directly to the people about why some potentially unpopular policy is necessary. You would be trying to educate and inform. You would be a real leader.

But you won't. You seem to have given up on that - it seems as though many of you check your thinking organ in at the cloakroom when you turn up for work each day.

Politics by Opinion Poll

2011-06-04T16:01:00.001+10:00

A lot of people seem to think that we should *do* our politics by opinion poll.

And most of the time our politicians agree - because that is what gets them to act in either a good or bad way. Public opinion polling has replaced smart thinking and good governance in Canberra and elsewhere.

It's why the dimwits currently in power nearly lost the last election - relying on opinion polls to drive their policy development processes. Because they forgot about the silent majority who want *thinking* to drive our policy responses.

Question: Why else would Gillard and Co. introduce the "Malaysian Solution"? Answer: Focus Groups.

Well let them suck on this "Opinion Poll" and react accordingly.

Consequences

2011-06-04T12:29:00.001+10:00

This report shocked me. But it is very clear to most of us - why it is happening.

The fear mongering and lies of the Coalition and News Limited were designed to have this exact effect.

Mr Abbott and his coalition cronies and his supporters in the media knew that when they started their lowest common denominator pursuit of the bogan and continued with their denial of the science of climate change that their actions would encourage extreme behaviour in some people. Especially people who are not adequately educated or informed.

This is what their winning strategy is all about - scare those people shitless - so they become extreme and say and do the most outrageous things. And the coalition will apparently then sneak back into power on the back of all the associated chaos and confusion.

Now those scared people are doing just what was expected and predicted. All you have to do is read the letters to the editor and the inarticulate comments on science blogs and hear the outrage on talk back radio - to understand the effect. And now apparently the people engaged in the actual science are getting death threats.

This shows Australians at their worst and it's a friggin disgrace.

Confidence Fairy

2011-06-02T19:06:00.001+10:00

One of the things that Paul Krugman suggests as the reason that Republicans are in complete disarray about the US budget situation - is the Confidence Fairy.

I wouldn't mind betting that Abbott and ~~Costello~~ Hockey are roving about in the same ~~la la~~ Disneyland.

The Confidence Fairy is this imaginary being who will magically restore consumer confidence - if only we could find her.

Sorry folks - just my weak little attempt at humour after today's market performance.

And I do like this guy's humour ;-)

Workers Screwed

2011-06-02T18:24:00.001+10:00

So Australian workers are being screwed again - according to the latest numbers.

The following graph shows what has been happening with real labour costs since 1997.

Pretty dismal story isn't it? Ahh - but free enterprise is a wonderful thing though isn't it?

Not to worry folks - *something* will arrive and save ~~our~~ your bacon.

This ain't democracy folks

2011-06-02T15:21:00.001+10:00

The most disturbing thing for me are the long term effects of a government that has been so comprehensively done over by vested interests, rentseekers and corporate pickpockets.

The miners had a big win with the resource rent tax last year and they are now being encouraged to start another fight over the carbon price. Will this become an annual event?

We rolled over to the Bush Administration and the US Military back in 2001 and apparently now we can't change our mind even if we wanted to. Which raises an interesting question about what little Johnny actually committed us to?

News Limited has become emboldened - they have moved on from subtle commentary to an overt campaign of serious lies about the Gillard government. And the government keeps shovelling millions at them in the form of advertising dollars - WTF is that about?

And the ABC was once travelling calmly down the middle of the road - but more recently has become as shrill and as partisan as its commercial cousins. Our government apparently has no opinion about this and nothing important to say? But it still keeps funding them and leaves the board entrenched at the trough?

And the Coalition - well far too many words have already been written about them - so I won't.

But my point is that it is not good for the nation or for its people - when we have a seriously one-sided situation like this and when our government is not so much of a government in any substantial sense.

Every half arsed rentseeker, vested interest and corporate pickpocket will attempt to get on the bandwagon - and get their share of the spoils. All of them aided and abetted by a feckless Coalition.

This ain't democracy folks - this is something else altogether.

So what are we going to do about it?

Any Ideas?

2011-06-01T13:24:00.001+10:00

I am not interested anymore in what becomes of our current Government. Sadly they have demonstrated a complete lack of any real idea about what it means to be in government - ever since they assassinated Kevin and snuck back into power last year.

It is a sad thing to admit but they are clearly a government that is out of its depth.

Anyone with even an ounce of common sense and any real understanding of what the nation needs would know that this government has squibbed it - because it clearly doesn't know what to do - about anything.

They

* Let the mining industry ride roughshod over them,

* Foolishly discarded their traditional base and chased after the bogan vote,

* Have been comprehensively done over by the Coalition on asylum seekers and a carbon price,

* Continue to deny the electorate a say on the shitty little war in Afghanistan,

* Suck up to the US Administration and Rupert - and god knows who else,

* Continually let News Ltd, the right wing media and even the ABC put them down,

* Have cobbled up a "Malaysian Solution" for asylum seekers which is simply wrong - if not illegal,

* Were intimidated by The Coalition into pursuing a "Budget Surplus" when something else is necessary.

And a hundred other examples of poor thinking, bad management and weak governance.

They seem unable even to articulate the successes that Kevin's government had - saving us from the GFC, the NBN, BER, and home insulation programmes - because they have let the Coalition and its puppeteers rewrite history around those.

And I am pretty sure that they are all wandering about wringing their hands and wondering how they got here. And trying to work out how to get out of it.

Who cares?

Fatal Error

2011-06-01T09:44:00.000+10:00

Gillard seems to be making the same fatal error that Howard made regarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

His hubris meant that he abused our parliamentary processes and sent our troops off to war without discussion or debate and all because he had been captured by junior Bush and the Republicans and the so-called "war on terror".

It was unacceptable then and even more so now after 26 of our young soldiers have died in Afghanistan.

It's particularly galling to those Australian's who believe that we are a sovereign nation - to discover that our military deployments and presumably our foreign affairs engagements are subject to the whim and control of the United States.

All of which is bad enough - but the fatal error made by both Howard and Gillard is that they haven't bothered to explain their decision and reasoning to the Australian people.

Perhaps it is necessary to send young Australian's off to war in Afghanistan. But like my fellow Australian's I wouldn't know because our leaders have chosen not to discuss it with us or to justify their actions. For ten years they have kept us in the dark and fed us BS like this.

Howard paid the ultimate political price for his hubris - will Gillard do the same?

And something else

2011-05-31T19:00:00.000+10:00

Following on from my last two posts - a question. "Why won't anyone else in the mainstream media call them on it"?

Why don't Fairfax staff and the rest of the non-Murdoch media tell it like it is and expose the Coalition's dingbat behaviour for the un-Australian and destructive BS that it actually is? Why indeed?

The simple answer is fear. And their desire to remain within the old boys club.

Our so-called senior journalists and their colleagues are all fearful of the power that Murdoch and Abbott wield over their jobs and their promotional prospects. It's pathetic.

I watched Ross Garnaut deliver his final report today and then listened to the lame questions put to him by these same journalists. Not one actually displayed any real understanding of what Garnaut is on about. Actually reading would challenge some of them - lightweight the lot.

Ross Garnaut has credibility and spent a bit of time today explaining his report with its associated science, logic and reasoning. It was clear, concise and it made a lot of sense. As someone who has followed his climate work since 2007, I can say that he is an impressive individual who has dealt with this problem in detail and with class and style.

But tonight and tomorrow in *our media* we will see the most god-awful and distorted picture presented by these so-called journalists - because they "don't get it" - and their employers think that they are in the "outrage business".

It's just crap - pure and simple.

More Stimulus Probably Needed

2011-05-30T20:08:00.002+10:00

Following on from my previous post - I just wonder if "The Coalition" clowns think that the rest of us are completely stupid.

Because why else would they have spent the last year or so ranting and raving about our government stepping in and spending money during the global financial crisis? All in support of the Australian economy as the private sector pulled the pin? Why would they want to remove any government stimulus before it had done its work - and guarantee that our small businesses were decimated? Why else would they want Australia to have a similar GFC experience to the United States and Europe? And why would they want an unemployment rate around 10%?

Duh - I don't know either.

Actually on reflection, I do know. They think that we are as stupid as they pretend to be. They are so opportunistic and reckless and incompetent that they think they can say and do these things and that the rest of us will have forgotten it all between 5 minutes and 6 months later. And they do it because they are just a rabble without any morals or principles. Oh and they do it because Rupert told them to.

Fortunately there is now a permanent record of their stupidity to be found in the history pages of the internet.

Not only are Monsignori Abbott and his dingbat cronies Robb and Hockey incompetent - but they are also a serious danger to our society. They are clearly not an alternative government, never were and never will be.

We can't afford these clowns any longer and the sooner the Liberal party works that out the better.

Wherefore art thou Stimulus?

2011-05-30T14:17:00.002+10:00

So the Australian economy is apparently now *weak* - according to the ABS and the people who track these things. Business indicators here, Car sales here and housing here.

It looks like things in OZ are now getting a little tougher.

But don't expect any more *stimulus* measures from the Australian government - because as we have been constantly told by the *experts* those measures are useless and unnecessary and a waste of time and money.

Or according to the Coalition brains trust and News Limited parrots they are.

Because only a year or so ago they were all banging on about how the *stimulus* was unnecessary and a waste of public funds and other made up BS.

Now of course every half arsed Coalition supporter wants a new *stimulus* package to save their favourite industry.

I just watch all this with total amazement.

A Special Report

2011-05-29T16:49:00.001+10:00

It might be that many of us are not concerned with the long term - thinking that we need to deal only with the here and now. The today as opposed to the tomorrow.

I suppose when the value of your house is continually going up - regardless of what you do - then thinking about today as opposed to tomorrow is quite natural. The day after tomorrow will be better and we will think about that then.

But when your house price trajectory is in the other direction then you will be very concerned about tomorrow as opposed to today. Because tomorrow will mean that your wealth is somewhat less than it was yesterday.

And that is the thing that we seem not to fully appreciate. House prices go down - as well as up. And when they do start to go down then they usually keep doing that for quite some time.

Instead of thinking that our government will bail us out again and again - we probably should be starting to take a bit of personal responsibility.

And one of the things that will help with that is to become a little better informed.

I know that is a foreign concept for many but let’s forget our press and television - and let’s start to seek out the sources of knowledge and information that will help us to deal with uncertain times.

Lots of them exist - and anyone who has been reading my posts will know where to go to find them.

A special report on Australia by The Economist - audio here - is surprisingly good. As is Bill Mitchell. Now I know that Bill can be a little verbose - but this is well worth reading.

The piece I loved and can't resist quoting is this assessment of Julie Bishop by the conservative columnist Greg Sheridan.

"The opposition’s response, through Bishop, was pathetic. It was internally contradictory, unprincipled, amoral beyond even the exigencies of parliamentary hypocrisy and profoundly stupid. Bishop was a dud shadow treasurer and is now a dud foreign affairs spokeswoman. But her response on China betokens a much broader crisis for the opposition. The Liberal Party is now not so much a political movement as a collection of unemployed former ministers in search of a public service to do their thinking for them.

Bishop’s press release of August 19, surely one of the dumbest press releases issued by a foreign affairs spokesperson"

One of the ways that we can become a little better informed is to mark down the nonsense thinking of "The Coalition" until their leadership start to tell the truth and articulate real policy that is aligned with the interests of all Australian's.

Because if you continue to ignore them they will keep doing this sort of sh*t to attract your attention.

Make my Daydream

2011-05-28T09:32:00.000+10:00

For the one or two of you who know who Sarah Palin is and what she has been up to - this is just hilarious.

Brilliant

2011-05-27T18:57:00.000+10:00

Andrew Elder has a remarkable insightful piece here - a must read for anyone interested in the way our politics and our media intersect.

And it raises a big issue - when are we going to have a national debate about the war that we have been prosecuting in Afghanistan now for over ten years? And which has cost us 24 young lives and untold amounts of treasure?

When do you think our democratic processes will ensure our people actually get to understand and talk about this war and its impacts and to decide if it's something that we want to continue with?

Oh you mean never?

So it's quite OK for governments on both the Liberal and Labor sides to think the people of the nation aren't smart enough or mature enough to be told the truth and to engage in a serious debate on this shitty little war?

Hell no - the geniuses in the parliament are much more capable of making these important decisions for us all.

Apparently it's not something the politicians think we need to have a conversation about but the people have decided to have it anyway - which is why the asylum seeker debate is so toxic.

Couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding

2011-05-27T14:41:00.000+10:00

The rest of the world has been observing our shenanigans - and they are not impressed.

Quality Information

2011-05-26T09:50:00.000+10:00

Here and here are a couple of today's gems from the two best information sources in the nation.

Truth, facts and logic - without the dingbat filter. How refreshing.

Poorly Informed

2011-05-25T19:27:00.001+10:00

Crikey has been running an interesting regular piece on the gouging of Australian consumers by local "Bricks and Mortar" businesses. I don't want to make it easy for the non-Crikey readers to find it. But if you are interested then go to the Crikey web site and start looking.

I have been thinking and talking about this for some time and am really surprised that it took so long to get into the public domain.

The reality is that we Australian's have been paying too much for stuff for far too long. Four or five years ago I was ranting about how we were paying too much for housing. Two or three years ago cars were on my list. Today I am raving about shoes and cosmetics and bike gear. Tomorrow?

And finally it looks like some of us are paying attention - because the *OZ retail industry* is in slowdown mode. And they don't like it very much.

Not so long ago Gerry Harvey and other retailers were moaning about how internet retailers were eating their lunch and how the lack of GST on internet purchases was so unfair and other baloney.

Well it turns out that the price difference between online and offline retail prices is usually much much more than the GST component and these offline retailers have been gouging Australian's for decades.

Why is it for example that cars in Australia are nearly double what they are in the USA?

And how do you think Gerry Harvey became a billionaire?

Is it magic or because we haven't been properly informed?

If the bricks and mortar world want to stay in business then they will need to get competitive. But they aren't used to that and so they will try to squeeze their supply chains - probably starting with their staff.

So I guess we can get ready for another round of "Whingeing" about "Workplace Flexibility" and how we need to make it easier to re-deploy Australian workers and bring in more cheap labour from elsewhere.

Because we couldn't ask the billionaires to reduce their share of the cake could we?

Microsoft doesn’t get the cloud

2011-05-25T18:03:00.000+10:00

Is it just me or is Microsoft updating Windows 7 a lot lately? Now I understand why they are doing it - because while the thing might be marginally more stable than XP it is still full of bugs and inconsistencies.

But don't take my word for it - Have you tried deleting a directory using Windows Explorer lately?

And for a person like me who works almost exclusively *in the cloud* - it is damn inconvenient and time-wasting to be installing updates, rebooting my laptop, waiting for the config to finish, logging into Windows, waiting for the config to finish again, firing up the browser and then logging back into all my cloud based apps. So 1980's and so unnecessary.

Microsoft doesn’t get the cloud. If they did they would have a lightweight operating system that just works and doesn't need this continual stream of fixes to update previous installed fixes and so on. I suppose if they did get the cloud then they would be Google - or something similar. And they couldn't possibly build an operating system that doesn't involve a thousand engineers, a hundred million dollars and ten years elapsed time because that wouldn’t be the Microsoft way - would it?

Balmer clearly doesn't use Windows 7. Because if he did then he would be yelling at Microsoft engineers to fix the thing and make it more friendly and usable for people like me.

He probably uses a Mac or Android or a paper notepad - all of which do work as expected.

Great Ideas

2011-05-25T12:21:00.000+10:00

Some of the smartest thinking and writing in the nation is going on - here.

Why did it take so long to surface?

Politics have Changed

2011-05-23T16:55:00.004+10:00

Our politics have changed - partly because politics in the USA have changed - where the opposition Republican Party is now commonly known as the Party of Cranks.

Our Liberal Party is the local version of the Republican Party - they look and act the same and both run similar far right agendas. They are both in opposition and likely to stay there and they both HATE that fact - because they both think they are the natural party of government. Their members are mostly delusional and ignorant and they both attract more than their fair share of strange supporters.

In both countries the legitimate elected government of the day has been subjected to abuse, lies, smear and innuendo - largely orchestrated by puppeteer News Corporation and directed by its Chairman, Rupert Murdoch and President of Fox News, Roger Ailes. Who, judging by their Wikipedia photo's are both old white and ugly males. But also by other mainstream media who are jealous of the eyeballs that this obnoxious behaviour attracts - and they want some of that too. Here in Australia even the publicly funded broadcaster - your ABC is doing it.

And old Uncle Rupert is of the view that his ideas and opinions are the only ones that count. Nothing else matters - he is the expert, the genius and the chief.

Which is why our leader Julia met him for a private one-on-one conversation when she was last in the US.

Previously Rupert would travel to Australia to meet with our political leaders and present his list of requirements - it’s a little bit sad that our political leaders apparently now travel to him to get their riding instructions.

And now Julia and her Ministers and their minions can't seem to understand why they are on the nose with the actual voters. You should all get your eyes tested and have your hearing examined. And an IQ test might also be appropriate.

Because people this is war. You are quite happy to support the dingbat shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and send our boys over there to be killed and maimed but apparently you have no idea that the Republicans and Liberals and News have declared war on moderate governments in the US and in Australia.

And even if you did know that then you would not know how to respond. There is a solution but it's not worth mentioning if you don't even know what is happening.

The very first thing that you should be doing is reading the riot act to the ABC Board. But you won't.

I am not sure if it's because you are gutless or incompetent.