The Gillard Government

[sails]

Four Corners tonight is a bio of Julia Gillard, and afterwards Q&A returns with Graham Richardson, Amanda Vanstone, Catherine Deveny and Gerard Henderson.

Maybe the bio of Julia Gillard is to try and repair her falling polls:

From the Australian: Labor and Julia Gillard stuck in reverse

Emotional stunts are becomming a pattern, IMO. As soon as Ms Gillard doesn't get what she wants, she (and her fans) start working on the emotions.

Such as the levy being only "a cup of coffee" to make people feel guilty (including Abbott) when the real reason people are opposing are the the following facts:

1. Disaster relief should be part of taxes already paid
2. Instead our taxes have been used for overseas aid and now there's nothing left (unless its for something the government wants such as NBN, overseas aid, etc.
3. Many don't trust this government to manage the levy efficiently
4. There are concerns that it will become a permanent thing to enable this government to continue is apparent compulsive spending habit.

Prior to Julia Gillard being elected, it seemed that the main approach was to work on the emotions of other women that she was to be the first female prime minister. I felt that the Womens Weekly thing was all part of that emotional campaign.

Calling Mr Abbott a "wrecker" when he is simply doing his job of opposing in opposition is nothing more than another emotional stunt, IMO.

When a government has to resort to emotional stunts to get what they want it, I feel it shows that there is very little substance in their policies or their ability to govern.

Even on the labor side of Hawke and Keating, I don't remember this level of emotional pressure being put on the electorate. To me, it's taking advantage of the goodness of most Australians and she doesn't fool me and many of the people I know with these unrealistic emotional stunts.

 

[drsmith]

Speculation is mounting that the government is considering welfare cuts to pay for disaster reconstruction, including cuts to the education tax rebate and family tax benefits.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...ith-welfare-cuts/story-fn59nsif-1226001304287

If we are allready down to increased taxes and this during a resources boom, well, it's a worry.

History, I suspect, will judge the fiscal mismanagement of the latter years of the Howard government and Labor since coming to office harshly.

 

[Mofra]

Will the welfare cuts target the middle-class welfare rorts inherited from the Howard government? Welfare should be for the needy, not the greedy.

 

[Calliope]

Will the welfare cuts target the middle-class welfare rorts inherited from the Howard government? Welfare should be for the needy, not the greedy.

You were critical of me recently for making a generalisation, and now you are assuming that middle-class people are greedy.

 

[Julia]

Scathing article by Phillip Adams about Julia Gillard. Obviously he will have some bias given he regards K. Rudd as a friend, to the extent he relinquished his long held membership of the Labor Party when Rudd was dumped, but even so, if he's right, then there are plenty of knives out for Ms Gillard within her own party.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...-turn-on-gillard/story-e6frg7fx-1225998053845

 

[Logique]

Didn't mince his words did he.

Today Julia Gillard was the most emotional I've ever seen from her during Question time, while talking about the flood victims. It should appear on news and 7:30 Report tonight.

 

[sails]

Didn't mince his words did he.

Today Julia Gillard was the most emotional I've ever seen from her during Question time, while talking about the flood victims. It should appear on news and 7:30 Report tonight.

After her stony appearances next to Anna Bligh during the Qld floods, is this another emotional stunt or for real? I guess we will only be left to wonder especially with the number of Julia's that have appeared in a very short space of time.

She has also acknowledged now that BER was a bungle and has promised no further bungles.

No more bungles, the PM insists

Gillard conceded yesterday she had learnt a lesson from bungled programs in the past - including the lack of value in her own $16.2 billion school halls program - and promised "value for money" in the flood reconstruction seven times in about as many minutes

.
Does Ms Gillard take the Aussie people for fools? After all the spin to cover up the bungles, she now admits it? Apologies to the die-hard labor supporters here, but it's very difficult not to be skeptical...

 

[Julia]

Today Julia Gillard was the most emotional I've ever seen from her during Question time, while talking about the flood victims. It should appear on news and 7:30 Report tonight.

After her stony appearances next to Anna Bligh during the Qld floods, is this another emotional stunt or for real? I guess we will only be left to wonder especially with the number of Julia's that have appeared in a very short space of time.

Anyone who saw Ms Gillard's tearful performance as genuine is very naive.
She went through all the personal contact with flood victims in her various tours in the areas affected and remained her usual robotic self throughout.

Then we have multiple media comments about how wooden she is, and whacko, out come the tears in parliament today.

Utter rubbish. I don't buy it for a millisecond.

 

[Sean K]

Anyone who saw Ms Gillard's tearful performance as genuine is very naive.
She went through all the personal contact with flood victims in her various tours in the areas affected and remained her usual robotic self throughout.

Then we have multiple media comments about how wooden she is, and whacko, out come the tears in parliament today.

Utter rubbish. I don't buy it for a millisecond.

The only thing not robotic of her performance during the floods was her cheesy grin while describing how terrible it all was. I think she was happy about it...

How did this woman become our leader?

 

[noco]

Anyone who saw Ms Gillard's tearful performance as genuine is very naive.
She went through all the personal contact with flood victims in her various tours in the areas affected and remained her usual robotic self throughout.

Then we have multiple media comments about how wooden she is, and whacko, out come the tears in parliament today.

Utter rubbish. I don't buy it for a millisecond.

Yes, it was a good act! I wonder who put her up to it? This woman is soooo desperate to win back popularity.

 

[drsmith]

If the following is true, then the "so called" greatest moral challenge of all time has just become the greatest election caimpaign lie of all time.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...year-ets-in-2015/story-e6frg6xf-1226004719022

Hopefully, someone in the Liberal Party will take a few moments to put down their knife and go through the video footage and transcripts of the 7:30 Report from the last week of the 2010 election campaign, inparticular, an interview between Kerry O-Brian and Wayne Swan.

 

[drsmith]

Hopefully, someone in the Liberal Party will take a few moments to put down their knife and go through the video footage and transcripts of the 7:30 Report from the last week of the 2010 election campaign, inparticular, an interview between Kerry O-Brian and Wayne Swan.

I've done it for them, but will they be able to read it while stalking each other in the dark, knives in hand ?

KERRY O'BRIEN: Very briefly, address Joe Hockey's question about a carbon tax. You would say an ETS.

Is there any likelihood of a second Gillard Government introducing an Emissions Trading Scheme within your next term?

WAYNE SWAN: Kerry, We've made our position absolutely clear. I know they're running a scare campaign that a carbon tax is coming because I saw their ads in North Queensland when I was there last night.

The Prime Minister has made it very clear that we are going to go out and achieve community consensus, which was fractured by Mr Hockey and the Liberals when they voted down the ETS. That is where the ETS is, it's voted down, it's voted down. We have to go back to the community and proceed how we go from here, thanks to Mr Hockey.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Okay. Now, brief response Mr Hockey.

JOE HOCKEY: What was that? Was that yes or no? That was just... The fundamental question is, are you going to rule out a carbon tax in the next term of the Government - yes or no?

WAYNE SWAN: We have made our position very clear. We have ruled it out. We have to go back to the community and work out a way in which we can put a cap on carbon pollution.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Okay...

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2981491.htm

 

[sails]

Here is more proof that Swan didn't mean a word he said in that interview BEFORE the election. Aussies were well and truly deceived:

From News.com.au - today's date:

Carbon price will happen 'from July 2012' Prime Minister Julia Gillard says

and then they have plans to switch this to an ETS in 3-4 years later - is this sheer arrogance or what? Rudd and Turnbull lost their leadership positions over the ETS. Do Gillard/Swan think they are invincible?

After 2015 or 2016 the regime will switch to an emissions trading scheme.

 

[drsmith]

is this sheer arrogance or what? Rudd and Turnbull lost their leadership positions over the ETS. Do Gillard/Swan think they are invincible?

Perhaps the only one left standing will be Bob Brown.

During the election campaign, Wayne Swan confirmed no carbon tax during this term as noted above if re-elected.

Julia Gillard less than 72 hours before the election (during the electronic media blackout) suggested a price on carbon would be legislated during this term, but not come into effect until into the following term. Slippery, but still dishonest in terms of a carbon price in 2012.

The only one that was honest during the campaign was the ALP's bed partner, Bob Brown, who said a price on carbon would be introduced this term.

Despite all the bluster in the media about the ALP talking tough with the Greens, I would suggest the Green tail is wagging the ALP dog.

No comparisons with the GST please, unless the ALP intend going back to the polls before introducing a carbon price.

 

[noco]

How much more imcompetence are we to see from this Gillard Government. Will she take the axe to the NBN?
Does she really know she is doing? Will we really see the new 4th Joolya in 2011?
Only time will tell but it's certainly not looking too good for our fearless leaderATM.
http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermai...has_any_government_failed_at_so_much_so_fast/

 

[noco]

Instead of all these new big taxes planned by Gillard and Swan where somewhere down the line we are all going to pay the unkown for goods and services affected by a CPRS, an ETS, the MRT, a flood levy and God knows what else they have in mind, why doesn't this Government raise the GTS to 15%. at least we would all know how much extra we would have to pay.
There method of raising money is like the dreaded sales tax imposition we had endured before the GST. Previous Governments raised the Sales tax when it suited them to bring in more revenue and very few people were aware of it. It was a hidden cost added to what ever one bought. Keating raised the sales tax on motor vehicles from 20% to 25% and nobody were any the wiser. The same thing will happen with all these new taxes. You will all be none the wiser untill you realize how much the cost of living has increased.

 

[Julia]

Ii think the government cannot help but be aware of the rising anger and worry by consumers about the rapidly rising electricity prices, and they'll therefore offer significant compensation to lower income earners.

This will probably further enrage the Greens, along with the government's insistence on compensating polluting companies. From the Greens' point of view, compensation negates the message that (according to the Greens) we must all cut our electricity consumption and get familiar with home grown cold food, candles for light, cold showers and bicycles for transport.

So there should be a few skirmishes ahead. Could be amusing except that we will have to listen not just to Julia Gillard's droning voice, but the whining of Christine Milne. Just can't abide that woman.

 

[noco]

Ii think the government cannot help but be aware of the rising anger and worry by consumers about the rapidly rising electricity prices, and they'll therefore offer significant compensation to lower income earners.

This will probably further enrage the Greens, along with the government's insistence on compensating polluting companies. From the Greens' point of view, compensation negates the message that (according to the Greens) we must all cut our electricity consumption and get familiar with home grown cold food, candles for light, cold showers and bicycles for transport.

So there should be a few skirmishes ahead. Could be amusing except that we will have to listen not just to Julia Gillard's droning voice, but the whining of Christine Milne. Just can't abide that woman.

What an entangled web we see starting to unfold. New taxes and increased taxes together with compensation paid out those affected. It all has to be administed by bureaucrats at a cost to the tax payer. Why can't this Gillard Government keep it simple?

 

[todster]

They succeeded in getting everyone to give up the fags so now they need to get the money elsewhere.

 

[-Bevo-]

Retailers brace for bonanza
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2011/02/12/207201_news.html

Went to centrelink the other day to collect the free 1000 bucks because I lost power for more than 48 hrs due to Yasi, I can say now I totally understand why this government needs more taxes, here in Townsville I think that there would be few people that faced hardship due to Yasi yet this government were just throwing money around like it means nothing most people I know couldn't believe they just recieved that amount of money for what was really a small inconvenience, I reckon flatscreen TV's, iphone's and other popular gadgets sales will do well here over the next couple of weeks.