The End Of The Beginning Of The End Of John Howard III
March 21st 2007 03:09
Hey there,
I'll make this the final post in this series, so I'll try and cover the more important errors that appear to have blighted the Liberal Party and hacked away at their credibility over the last eleven years. The only reason I've dragged it out over three posts is because there is a long list and let's face it, they all deserve some airtime, but obviously we can't cover everything and keep you all interested.
Refugees.
This has been a particularly thorny issue because underneath all the talk is a beating black heart in Philip Ruddock and Amanda Vanstone and their defence of a policy that treats asylum seekers like common criminals. Once I was, as part of my daily work duties, forced to read a number of applications for asylum, each one signed off by Philip Ruddock, the vast majority (read about 99% of them) being rejected, no matter how desperate the cases appeared in the application. Fear of death upon return, persecution for religious and/or political beliefs, war, famine and no doubt various other reasons all appearing to be not sufficient reason for being allowed to remain in Australia. The step to even refuse them entry into Australia and processing them offshore is abhorrent, particularly after they may have been duped and swindled into paying exhorbitant fees to unscrupulous boat owners to risk life and limb to leave their strife ridden homes. A better solution would probably be to process them here in halfway houses, let them be a part of the community, feed them, clothe them, help them and then make your decisions. Seems fair right? Instead we're fed lies and limp platitudes as the Government passes the buck and outsources a new flavour of Hell for those needing Elysium, not just asylum.
IR 'Reform'.
This is a huge one, perhaps not needing a lengthy discourse. The idea was simple, try and break down the power of the Unions by handing more and more power over to employers who can hold employees to ransom, dictate terms and essentially make people beg for less. The Liberal Party hates Unions. The ruling elites hate Unions. Corporate powerbrokers hate Unions. It seems the Liberal's IR 'reforms' were serving all these people. Ancient grudges existing from the playground to the penthouse where the idea of people demanding fair and reasonable conditions and pay at work is selfish and ungrateful. The right to a fair days wage is important, the right to strike and protest is crucial - workers NEED some recourse to some degree of power that can shut up their bosses when necessary - there's no way in Hell a good, democratic country is going to allow the workers to have their powers stripped away. Situations where staff members are fired and rehired under worse conditions and less remuneration is horrifying. It's almost as if we're one step away from shoving kids up chimneys for ten hours for tuppence and it seems fair and reasonable. If there's only one issue which should have the Libs turfed out, this is it. My grandfather, Left to the core and to the bitter end is oft reported to say, "He's gone too far this time". No kidding Grandfather. 'Out they go' should be our response. It's amazing how quickly politicians payrises go through. I'd like to see them have a reason to strike. They never do. Everything's sweet.
Other issues.
Some of the other matters that are worthy of our attention include the plans to expand Australia's nuclear facilities, enrich Uranium for export (but not to Iran of course), the behind-closed-doors dealings regarding Peter Costello's claims on the leadership of the Liberal party, the bungling over the body of Jake Kovco (how can they get the wrong body!?) and what exactly did happen in relation to his suspicious death? There was also the early issue of the GST and how it hit the lower income families harder, the shambolic and evil Children Overboard scandal, ostensibly a lie peddled by the likes of Peter Reith before the election in 2001. That wasn't enough dirt to stick to the Liberals as they cruised to another election win. Then there's the Government's policy on Aid. Now this last one is interesting, because Australia is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals that says we will help to dramatically reduce extreme poverty by 2015, contributing 0.7 of 1% of GNI to alleviate the debts of the world's poorest nations. Now this is a great idea, but someone high up in the Government made the mistake of claiming that the MDGs weren't a big issue, they were doing enough and the issue wasn't important enough to win an election. No, but it might save lives. That's a sickening attitude. We're at about 0.32 with eight years to go. We're not doing enough, that's why they need to be voted out.
Cheers
Michael.
I'll make this the final post in this series, so I'll try and cover the more important errors that appear to have blighted the Liberal Party and hacked away at their credibility over the last eleven years. The only reason I've dragged it out over three posts is because there is a long list and let's face it, they all deserve some airtime, but obviously we can't cover everything and keep you all interested.
Refugees.
This has been a particularly thorny issue because underneath all the talk is a beating black heart in Philip Ruddock and Amanda Vanstone and their defence of a policy that treats asylum seekers like common criminals. Once I was, as part of my daily work duties, forced to read a number of applications for asylum, each one signed off by Philip Ruddock, the vast majority (read about 99% of them) being rejected, no matter how desperate the cases appeared in the application. Fear of death upon return, persecution for religious and/or political beliefs, war, famine and no doubt various other reasons all appearing to be not sufficient reason for being allowed to remain in Australia. The step to even refuse them entry into Australia and processing them offshore is abhorrent, particularly after they may have been duped and swindled into paying exhorbitant fees to unscrupulous boat owners to risk life and limb to leave their strife ridden homes. A better solution would probably be to process them here in halfway houses, let them be a part of the community, feed them, clothe them, help them and then make your decisions. Seems fair right? Instead we're fed lies and limp platitudes as the Government passes the buck and outsources a new flavour of Hell for those needing Elysium, not just asylum.
IR 'Reform'.
This is a huge one, perhaps not needing a lengthy discourse. The idea was simple, try and break down the power of the Unions by handing more and more power over to employers who can hold employees to ransom, dictate terms and essentially make people beg for less. The Liberal Party hates Unions. The ruling elites hate Unions. Corporate powerbrokers hate Unions. It seems the Liberal's IR 'reforms' were serving all these people. Ancient grudges existing from the playground to the penthouse where the idea of people demanding fair and reasonable conditions and pay at work is selfish and ungrateful. The right to a fair days wage is important, the right to strike and protest is crucial - workers NEED some recourse to some degree of power that can shut up their bosses when necessary - there's no way in Hell a good, democratic country is going to allow the workers to have their powers stripped away. Situations where staff members are fired and rehired under worse conditions and less remuneration is horrifying. It's almost as if we're one step away from shoving kids up chimneys for ten hours for tuppence and it seems fair and reasonable. If there's only one issue which should have the Libs turfed out, this is it. My grandfather, Left to the core and to the bitter end is oft reported to say, "He's gone too far this time". No kidding Grandfather. 'Out they go' should be our response. It's amazing how quickly politicians payrises go through. I'd like to see them have a reason to strike. They never do. Everything's sweet.
Other issues.
Some of the other matters that are worthy of our attention include the plans to expand Australia's nuclear facilities, enrich Uranium for export (but not to Iran of course), the behind-closed-doors dealings regarding Peter Costello's claims on the leadership of the Liberal party, the bungling over the body of Jake Kovco (how can they get the wrong body!?) and what exactly did happen in relation to his suspicious death? There was also the early issue of the GST and how it hit the lower income families harder, the shambolic and evil Children Overboard scandal, ostensibly a lie peddled by the likes of Peter Reith before the election in 2001. That wasn't enough dirt to stick to the Liberals as they cruised to another election win. Then there's the Government's policy on Aid. Now this last one is interesting, because Australia is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals that says we will help to dramatically reduce extreme poverty by 2015, contributing 0.7 of 1% of GNI to alleviate the debts of the world's poorest nations. Now this is a great idea, but someone high up in the Government made the mistake of claiming that the MDGs weren't a big issue, they were doing enough and the issue wasn't important enough to win an election. No, but it might save lives. That's a sickening attitude. We're at about 0.32 with eight years to go. We're not doing enough, that's why they need to be voted out.
Cheers
Michael.
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Comment by jadamo76
You might want to check out my views on whether John Howard sold us out