The Gillard Government

[Logique]

Bligh's performance has been very impressive during this crisis. ....

The instinctive reactions of Bligh and Gillard were telling. Bligh talked and dressed like she meant business, and spoke to, and of, all Queenslanders, without qualification. 'Working families', and I use the term advisedly, could get in the queue with everyone else.

Gillard went to QLD as the usual packaged product, talking to the usual constituency. Every NZ'er in this forum knows what I mean.

 

[SM Junkie]

Is Julia looking a little emotionless these days?? A little wrinkle free? I think she has gone to hard on the Botox!

 

[sails]

Propaganda........Papua New Guinea have donated 3 million dollars..........papua new guinea life expectancy = 61 years

IFocus, when I read you post, I got the impression they had donated from their own tax funds. So I googled for more information which I have posted below.

Even at $4m, it's actually less than 1% of their annual aid from Australia. Not knocking the donation by any means as it will definitely boost relief funds and it is good of them to return something to Australia in our time of need. But let's also stick to the facts instead of only telling part of the story ...

PAPUA New Guinea has pledged 10 million kina ($4 million) in support for flood-ravaged Australia.

PNG, which receives close to $457 million a year from Australia in aid, has also offered military and logistical help

Full article here: Papua New Guinea pledges $4m for Queensland flood relief

 

[moXJO]

PNG, which receives close to $457 million a year from Australia in aid, has also offered military and logistical help

These are actually soft loans which are a way that Australia can maintain and increase its influence on things like immigration and foreign policy. I think China is doing the same thing very heavily around the globe atm.
PNG has pledged more than Indonesia, but in reality we pretty much are plundering Indonesia’s resources.

 

[noco]

What has are Prime Minister got to hide with NBN exemption of FOI.

Even the Greens are not happy with her decision.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...payer-funded-nbn/story-fn59niix-1225990173260

 

[Mofra]

What has are Prime Minister got to hide with NBN exemption of FOI.

I'm working on an FOI case at the moment in the telco indistry - I can assure you that after the exempt provisions are removed, the remaining information is useless anyway.

They don't need the FOI exemption in any case - under the terms set by the Privacy Commisioner and the relevant legislation, anything that diverts a substantial portion of resources away from normal duties allows an FOI request to be suspended (often indefinately). NBN Co are obviously running at the minimum required staffing levels so adding thousands of hours of work in an FOI request would easily meet the criteria.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

I have done a quick sample of the good burghers of the Ross Island Hotel, their fiancees, fiances and dependents, and Gillard has buckleys of getting re-elected.

If she has lost this mob, she is a gonner.

gg

 

[drsmith]

She may be a gonner well before the next election if the ALP and its assortment of bed partners go anywhere near full term.

She should have been a gonner last time, but Tony didn't stand for anything of substance.

 

[noco]

She may be a gonner well before the next election if the ALP and its assortment of bed partners go anywhere near full term.

She should have been a gonner last time, but Tony didn't stand for anything of substance.

She is most likely happy the floods have given her a breather from the People Smuglers, illegal boat arrivals, BER, faulty Home Insulation, computers in schools, MRT, the CPRS, NBN, the Greens etc. etc. and last but not least Kevin Rudd.

 

[Boggo]

She is most likely happy the floods have given her a breather from the People Smuglers, illegal boat arrivals,.

And they place our soldiers in temporary substandard accommodation at Edinburgh airforce base while the illegal immigrants reside in what was army accommodation at Woodside.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/edinburgh-troops-dont-like-new-digs/story-fn6bqphm-1225991350601

 

[glenn_r]

Caught a few minutes of the Oprah show last whilst channel surfing, it was the bit with Oprah and Gillard walking by the Yarra in Melbourne, my god the way she came across was dead set Red neck, I don't know about you but I would want a more polished leader than her, apart from her fellow Red Necks in the US the rest would have had a chuckle at the leader of down under...

 

[Logique]

Bob Katter, what a guy.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...ee-amigos-schism/story-fn59niix-1225991971441
Bob Katter reveals three amigos schism - by Jame Walker in The Australian January 20, 2011

PARLIAMENT'S three amigos are no more, after Bob Katter accused one of his fellow rural independents of undermining him and the other "went his own way".
Mr Katter has for the first time detailed his disappointment and frustration with the men who steered Julia Gillard into The Lodge after last August's inconclusive federal election.

"The independents' movement in Australia has failed, failed miserably," Mr Katter told The Australian, lifting the lid on infighting between the key crossbenchers.

For a time, feelings were so raw for the maverick Queensland MP that he refused to attend policy or legislative briefings by the government or opposition with Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, his former amigos. This has compounded the difficulty of managing the knife-edge numbers in parliament for both major parties............

...........Mr Katter said he had clashed heatedly with Mr Oakeshott at a meeting the three had with Treasury head Ken Henry during their intense post-election deliberations.

At that point, they had been working towards a joint position on who should be prime minister. Of the remaining crossbenchers, the Greens' Adam Bandt had by then announced his support for Labor and Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie was about to do so. Mr Katter said Mr Oakeshott took umbrage at how the MP for the north Queensland seat of Kennedy had spoken to Mr Henry during their private briefing at Parliament House on September 1.

"Yeah, it was short and heated," Mr Katter said of the altercation with Mr Oakeshott. "And Rob said, 'This is not a Senate hearing', and (I said), 'Then what the f . . . are we sitting here for, Rob, what are we sitting here for. I'm wasting two hours of my time here so we can tell Ken Henry what a good bloke he is'."..............

 

[bigdog]

Sing along with Julie G, Kevin R, Paul K and Bob H

Q&A | The Prime Ministers' Song | Mondays 9.35pm ABC1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ja7Vv_4Vc&feature=channel

 

[noco]

The Labor Party, BIG SPENDERS AND BIG TAXERS. How many more taxes does Gillard want to set upon us?
http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermai...on_tax_how_many_more_taxes_does_gillard_want/

 

[Mofra]

The Labor Party, BIG SPENDERS AND BIG TAXERS. How many more taxes does Gillard want to set upon us?
http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermai...on_tax_how_many_more_taxes_does_gillard_want/

Following a Coalition precedent, from an opinion piece that at least attempts balance (it's well known that Bolt makes Genghis Khan look centre-left):

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/gillard-has-time-to-levy-and-recover-20110123-1a16v.html

 

[drsmith]

If we get a flood levy, it will never be removed. Natural disasters of varying magnitude are regular occurences. Taxpayer bailouts such as a levy would also encourage poor planning.

The government needs to manage this within its budget.

 

[noco]

I have done a quick sample of the good burghers of the Ross Island Hotel, their fiancees, fiances and dependents, and Gillard has buckleys of getting re-elected.

If she has lost this mob, she is a gonner.

gg

GG I think Joolya is starting to realise bein' PM ain't what she thought it would be. Time for her to go.



http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermai...mments/maybe_she_realises_shes_just_not_a_pm/

 

[Mofra]

If we get a flood levy, it will never be removed. Natural disasters of varying magnitude are regular occurences. Taxpayer bailouts such as a levy would also encourage poor planning.

Many levies are removed after a one-off.

The 0.2% increase to the Medicare levy in 96-97 to fund the gun buyback.
The Ansett Levy.
The Timor tax was approved and repealed at the last minute.

The only one that wasn't immediately repealed was the 11c per litle milk levy, and that was eventually scrapped by a change of government (although one wonders if that was the price Rudd paid for more support in marginal seats in Qld).

 

[Calliope]

If we get a flood levy, it will never be removed. Natural disasters of varying magnitude are regular occurences. Taxpayer bailouts such as a levy would also encourage poor planning.

The government needs to manage this within its budget.

There are suggestions it will be added to the Medicare levy

 

[drsmith]

Many levies are removed after a one-off.

To me, it's the many that's the problem. If it's easier for a government to levy than to re-prioritise, then it will levy.

Did we have special levies post the74 Brisbane floods or the destruction of Darwin after Tracy ?

There are suggestions it will be added to the Medicare levy

And means tested too no doubt, should it come to pass.