"lowest rate of ministerial sackings due to incompetence or corruption in the Westminster world"

To uncover incompetence and corruption in someone else requires a minimum of probity and competence in the person doing the uncovering. But as it is, Gillard has cycled through her ministers so quickly that none of them have had the chance to become corrupt -- except perhaps Swan, and who on earth would trust HIM to carry out their instructions correctly?

"Australia has been voted to chair the Pacific Island Forum."

The Pacific Island Forum is a bleeding-heart lobby group dedicated to extracting money from richer nations by guilt, blackmail and any other means it can come up with. The fact that it's chosen Australia to lead the charge simply indicates the contempt with which it regards our supposed commitment to rational economics and fair play.

I'll leave the rest for others; but really, this is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.

Another fantasy from the far side.

Unemployment is creeping up and is now 5.5%, job participation is not above 75% but at 65.1%. Business confidence is at an all time low, and interest rates have been lowered because the economy is doing so badly.

John J - Swan, and who on earth would trust HIM to carry out their instructions correctly

I encountered that dumbcluck at a social event recently & inquired as to why he believed he was worth his $400,000 plus salary. The clown said he didn't get into politics for the money, in fact he claimed he could earn many times that in private enterprise. I don't believe he was particularly impressed by my suggestion that there wouldn't be anyone stupid enough on this planet to employ him :) :) :)

This crap is really starting to get repetitive.

Puts me right off.

<<Another fantasy from the far side>>
<<This crap is really starting to get repetitive>>

Come on guys, be a bit more accommodating.Think of it this way, every column Alan posts here is one less he inflicts on those poor froggies.

And come 14 July (Batille day) we'll all be in the running for services to France medals.

JJ,

Good point, Lowest rate of sackings for ministerial incompetence!

This only means that incompetence is not a sacking offense in the ALP. Probably because there would be no one left.

AA, you will be pleased to know that the International Journal of Public Administration will publish my piece on the BER, another example of bad government policy?

I hope you will have a chardonnay to celebrate this reality.

Shadow Minister - incompetence is not a sacking offense in the ALP. Probably because there would be no one left.

Ahhh, that explains the Blighted Gubmunt we had in Queensland :)

Graham you are being mean. You must be publishing this bloke to show just how far from reality leftie thinking has wandered.

I had an aunt who wrote fantasy novels, but hell this bloke could have given her lessons. He makes Harry Potter look like a biography of an ordinary school boy.

Obviously I am directing this to the author the propaganda division of the labor party.

Quote "unemployment below 5.5%" When you use rubbery figures, and count people working only a few hours as employed and other trickery.

No carbon tax LIE.

That is fantastic Alan. I think you have hit the nail on the head.What I don't understand is why 70% of Australians are not going to vote for the fiscal conservatives who have bought us these magnificient conditions. Can you suggest why, I'm at a loss.

Gee, another panegyric by Austin about his dream date Gillard.

How original; blue ties all round.

Alan you forgot to mention

the wonderful policies leading to drowning 1000 plus refugees
the wonderful management of a huge surplus of money
the great reduction in world temperatures caused by the carbon tax
the great Labour support given to Craig Thompson for spending cleaners money on prostitutes
the great love for the last 3 years between Rudd and Gillard

Oh Alan you must do better.

Chris Lewis:

"This crap is really starting to get repetitive."

You're talking about the comments, right?

Generally, comments on blogs by bored little conservative EOs are both crap and repetitive.

And comments on comments on blogs are even more so.

OLO is like reading the letter pages in the News Corp media, no objective contribution, just vitriolic comments by the usual crew.

there wouldn't be anyone stupid enough on this planet to employ him
praxidice,
a few years ago there were a lot of Australians who did just that. It'll be interesting how many of them are still left come September 14.

individual

as far as I'm aware, the only Blighter who is currently employed is GoAnna herself, and only then because the wong wun pulled strings in Medibank. I cannot imagine anyone employing the red-headed witch or the dying duck, but a the saying goes, there is one born every day

Like the author, I've been living overseas for the last few months. Everyone I talk to on the subject of Australia, bar none, views Australia as one of the great success stories of the GFC. They look at me in disbelief when I tell them that the government is facing annihilation at the next election.

This is what is so sad for people living within Australia, because they don't see how they have been systematically drip-fed to ignore the government's impressive achievements - which are the envy of the world - and only focus on a distorted, largely artificial scenario of incompetence and disarray.

There is a lot that Australians need to learn about how power operates in their own country and the extent to which public opinion is manipulated

Kipp - Quote "OLO is like reading the letter pages in the News Corp media, no objective contribution, just vitriolic comments by the usual crew."

I assume you include yourself in that category, considering you failed to contribute anything of substance.

With the exception of witless sarcasm.

views Australia as one of the great success stories of the GFC
Killarney,
I have a friend who lives in Europe & every time I have a whinge he says what you're saying.
"but Australia is still the best country". I'm not denying that but that is not the point. The point is that why are so many Australians so hellbent on changing that. Australia is not the best country because of our Governments, it is better because of the low population. Try to imagine 200 million Australians, ok you see what I mean ?

Alan, Why do you bother?
People have stopped listening. And you just would not believe the level of unrequited hate, directed against our first female PM!
Besides, the Labour party need to spend some time in the political wilderness, to fix what is wrong.
The very first being the way a Prime Minister/party Leader can be elected or sacked!
Labour leadership ought to be decided by the entire membership, not this or that faction or a majority of the parliamentary caucus. And it should take the entire membership to remove the Leader, not just a few behind the scenes power brokers!
Candidates ought to be chosen by the electorate, in a primary, not a stacked and racked branch, or parachuted in at the behest of a few union heavies or factional chief.
Essential internal reform is arguably the only way we can rid the party of problematic personalities, (fiscal conservatives, economic drys,) who arguably belong on the other side of the aisle; and or, who clearly crave power for its own sake, rather than simply wanting to serve their fellow Australians.
Essential reform will not occur, as long as the party continues to govern.
Besides, winning the treasury seats at this time, is almost certain to be a poisoned chalice, with dark clouds looming on our economic horizon. Most of which will be blamed on/sheeted home to the very next government?
Rhrosty.

The opposition are on a winner here! Just as long as they can keep the masses focusing on the internal conflicts, real or imagined, inside labour, they will not have to release a single costed policy, to win the next election, in a landslide.
Besides, why should they even bother to think up or cost a policy, when all they need serve up is yet another slogan. Or indeed, a book full of them and their aspirations.
Sure to work, given the most gullible have already swallowed all of the negative smear and innuendo campaign, hook, line and sinker?
And then we wonder why, the more able, just don't want to get into politics!
Rhrosty.

G’day, Cobbers. Back in Straya.
Thanks for the feedback. Excellent!

@Jon J, re: “Gillard has cycled through ministers so quickly none have had the chance to become corrupt.”

Have you compared tenures, JJ? How many ministers did Howard sack for corruption?

Refer here: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/ministerial-responsibility-in-australia-accuracy-please/

@Jon J and Praxidice, re Wayne Swan: Which nation anywhere in the world at any time past or present has had better economic management than Australia today?

@Shadow Minister, re: “interest rates have been lowered because the economy is doing so badly.”

Really? Joe Hockey and Peter Costello said countless times, “interest rates will always be lower under a Coalition Government.” Correct?

Interest rates in Australia are now absolutely optimum. Lower than any time in 50 years. But well above Europe’s near-zero rates. No?

@Praxidice, re Queensland: On how many variables are the majority of Queenslanders – not the super rich – better off now than under Labor?

@imajulianutter, re: “why 70% of Australians are not going to vote for the fiscal conservatives who have bought us these magnificent conditions”

Hmmm. Probably the same reason 70% of Australians opposed Whitlam’s 1972 decision to trade with China. Or 70% of Australians opposed Keating’s 1985 proposal to have a goods and services tax. Or 70% of Australians opposed Keating’s decision to deregulate the banks and float the dollar.

History will judge, Keith. Just wait a while.

@Rhrosty, re: “Alan, Why do you bother?”

Because there is still a thirst for the truth. This article – and all my pieces here – get run elsewhere. Responses vary.

Re: “People have stopped listening.”

No, the opposite is true. The contract has not been fulfilled. In Westminster democracies, governments govern and reporters report. That is the deal. Except in Australia.

[North Korea also, though that’s not a Westminster nation.]

Re: “the way a Prime Minister/party Leader can be elected or sacked!”

Really, Rhrosty?

Since December 2006, how many leaders has Labor elected? Two? How many have the Liberals had? Four?

At the last leadership poll, which party had the result 41-42 – a stalemate/deadlock/impasse/deadlock/standoff if ever there was one?

Cheers,

Let's look at your list.

1. A fascinating statistic which you don't expand. According to Wikipedia, Savage was the architect of NZ's welfare state, which has been such a raging success that we now have nearly 20% of the NZ population living and working in Australia.

2. Is Australia really so highly regarded? The UN security council seat cost big bucks and I'm still not sure what we get for those bucks. Ditto for the G20, which is also costing mondo spondulicks and let's face it, the Pacific Island Forum is composed of nations who rely on Austrlia either directly in the form of aid, or indirectly through money repatriated by their citizens who live and work here. "Nanna, you can be chairperson".

3.Gillard got that ovation because she was a feminist woman leader of a country that has embraced feminism like no other and as a result is a consumer products marketer's dream, with 80% of all disposable income in the control of women and about 2/3 as many single parent families as couples with children.Nearly 20% of that income is derived from benefits.

4.Indonesia has pushed Australia around on every bilateral issue since the ALP (Rudd and Gillard, both) took over Government. It's not hard to be nice when you're in the box seat.

5.Not interested in live exports except as a source of export income. Less live exports means fewer people employed to make them happen. Not a good thing if that's your livelihood, but since if it is you're probably male, that's of no concern to our PM and those who keep her there.

6.Australia is beneath Hong Kong and Singapore and above New Zealand and Switzerland. Have you got a more salubrious guest list?

7.What is "optimum" about that range? Home ownership among 34-49 years olds has fallen significantly under the feminist model, in which she gets given the home then sells it because she can't afford the mortgage, even with a taxfree 20% of his gross income to spend on it and he's not got enough left to even think about buying a house.

8. The largest sector in the economy is now government. We had to do something with all those women who did vanity courses. In addition, your figures are rubbery. There is general consensus among those who collect statistics that the actual unemployment rate is over 10% and that underemployment adds another 20%+

9.Australia has had economic growth in the services sector, government employment and retail, mostly retail, as well as the Howard surge in housing construction due to subsidies to purchase.. The plot of retail spending and growth in female employment are almost isomorphic, while male employment has declined from around 85% to not much above 65%. At the same time female uni education has boomed, with around 40% of under 29-year old women now having a tertiary qualification, but less than 30% of their male peers doing so. Since women will have slightly more than 60% of the working life of men, it means we are paying far too much for education that will be largely wasted in many cases.

10. What drove that figure was the mining boom. A highly mechanised workforce producing a high-value product. Nothing to do with Gillard, and despite her and her Government's best efforts to hobble it.

11.I just don't believe you. The only sector doing well is government and related charitable sectors which rely on government for funding.

12.Because the metrics are poor. GIGO.

13.Mining, despite the best efforts of Gillard and Swan to destroy it as a contributor.

14.Strikes were largely abolished under Hawke, thanks to his much-trumpeted Accords and were finished off by Howard. Gillard's contribution to IR has been to accelerate the decline of manufacturing. construction, mining and logistics.

15.Biassed reporters cherry-picking is not news, perhaps?

Not much of a list, Alan, but representatively awful, at least.

Perhaps you could offer Ms Gillard somewhere to stay in France? Seems unlikely she'll be doing much in the way of work for some time after September, although she may have to brush up on her soliciting when the Vic Major Fraud Squad get in touch.

Alan Austin should definitely get a job with Saatchi and Saatchi or Mojo as a PR consultant. Trying to present catastrophic failure as success is a difficult thing to do, but Alan seems to be up to the challenge. The trick is, to find a dozen or more unknown issues that are either a matter of profound indifference to the electorate, or are more the result of circumstances rather than Labor incompetence, and with the use of creative thinking, present them as exemplary triumphs.

It is impossible to refute a 900 word spin doctoring article in 350 words, it would be more fair to OLO to give us 350 words to attack each point Alan has raised. But anyhoo, I suppose I can putt he boot into some of them.

"Australia is being urged to lead the free world.", says Alan. By whom? The ABC? The chardonnay sucking, social climbing Gucci socialist caste? Why on Earth any nation would want to lead the free world when it is full of Alan Austins who never tire of attacking its defenders, and excusing its enemies, is beyond me.

"What transformed relations with Indonesia?". Well, we are no longer urging their Catholic minority separatists to rebel against their own government. And we are forking over $500 million of taxpayer funds to save their trees, another $500 million to build schools, and God knows what other danegeld we are handing over to buy their friendship. Has it ever occurred to you, Alan, that Australian taxpayers are angry about that?

"What is the outcome of Australia's stand against cruelty to Australian exported cattle?" Simple, Gillard's knee jerk response to ban sales means that the Indos are buying someone else's cattle, torturing them, and our cattle farmers have joined the queue to toss Gillard out of government.

Look Alan. What the Labor party desperately needs, is more dysfunctional and unemployable people to migrate into Australia to create an ever growing underclass of crime and welfare prone people who will vote Labor. Then Australia can join the rest of the free world in social disintegration and insolvency.

Has it ever occurred to you, Alan, that Australian taxpayers are angry about that?
Lego,
Obviously no, perhaps Labor brought him in as a PR consultant because even from their viewpoint it can only get better no matter who they bring in.

Most of the time an author who writes totally out of touch with the electorate's sentiment, and blames the media, he or she does not really no that much.

I have asked AA to have a go at an academic piece with his arguments. I know he would struggle with his bias, even allowing for the fact that most humanities academics have a centre-left leaning. I know he would have to alter his thesis in a major way to get considered for any half-decent journal.

While AA and another has mocked my own attempts, I have actually been passed by qualified referees, even if my pieces appear to favour the conservative side (of which I am not one). Sure, I could do my pieces better, but I try my best and always take on board constructive criticism.

Even if AA was to test his arguments to Aust undergraduates, I suspect he would be laughed out of town.

I suspect that even religious institutions and charities wold have problems with silly arguments claiming just how good everything is here in Oz.

I think Labor is gone for along time if they ever choose to side with people like AA. These people have no commonality with the battlers that are supposed to inspire centre-left parties. That is my opinion; the ALP is influenced too much by a poor standard of supposed policy elites

AA thinks his pieces are scholarly because they throw a lot of data around, but most know that leading figures in the OECD do not mask the severe stress that more and more Austs are coming under, which will indeed rise in future years.

I am not saying the Coalition has the answers, but the Aust people do have it right if they decide that Labor has to go. I, as a longstanding Labor voter before 2010, do not find it easy to discard my gut sentiment, but poor governance and failure to anticpate the problems ahead is a valid reason not to vote Labor at the moment.

I am working on a couple of chapters now for academic publication which will qualitatively explain why Labor has been a failure. and they will be published because they make much greater effort than most to incorporate all the reasons why Labor is on the nose.

Unlike AA, I have respect for the public opinion. I do not feel that Aust's have been hoodwinked.

Only a fool would believe that the West has true democracy. Private bankers and their affiliated corporations run our Govts.

Private banks create from nothing as debt, all the new money for our Govts and businesses to function. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Only money that already exists should have debt attached to it. Newly created money represents increases in productivity and inflation. In other words private bankers own your productivity and loan it back to you as debt.

There is no democracy without monetary sovereignty.

'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' by L Frank Baum had a meaning we all missed until recently. It explains the financial crisis we are now living in. Bill Still has made 'The Secret of Oz' doco available free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

Arjay - Only a fool would believe that the West has true democracy.

True, however the powers that be have done a sterling job of pulling the wool over the eyes of the sheeple.

praxidice,
In Australia the sheeple are proud of being able to do that themselves. Look Mum I did it all by myself !

No Alan History won't judge. We Australians will in September and if you were to listen to ALL the media in Australia today you would wonder why, if this Gorvernemt is so successful, why are their elected members about to knife their second elected PM in 3 years?

History will judge that as the issue and not the economic judgements and divell of a few daisengaged foreigners.

You are correct, Arjay, Australia at least does not have a true democracy.

If it did, Australian would still have the death penalty, a restrictive immigration program, a policy of a 10 year probationary period for citizenship, the immediate deportation of foreign criminals who commit serious crimes in Australia, and a policy of deportation for any foreign national who aspires to be come an Australian citizen, but who is unable to find productive tax paying work after five years.

This policy alone would save tens of billions, and would reduce unemployment faster than you could say "parasite."

The billions saved, could be spend maintaining Australian universities so that they can train Australians, instead of them being Australian taxpayer subsidised universities full of foreigners who want our universities to train their young so that they can beat us.

If we had a true democracy, Arjay, we would have a Prime Minister who agrees with the High Court of Australia that the removal of at risk "stolen" aboriginal children from deplorable circumstances "was a humanitarian obligation."

If Australia had true democracy, Arjay, we would have a government committed to helping its own people instead of grandstanding in front of the world and helping every other nations people at the expense of its own.

We would have a government who had the guts to tell the stupid leaders of the Muslims and the Catholics to reform their idiotic religions and exercise strict birth control, just like the Chinese have done, instead of breeding like flies and sending their surplus populations to the Protestant West so that we will look after them.

And we would have a leader who had the courage to tell the Muslims that the reason they are living in poverty is because they have a religion which is so stupid in its medieval beliefs that it has condemned them to poverty forever.

We would also have a government that recognised that the boat people now flooding into Australia to loot our social security systems are all the result of the Indonesian government being complicit in their arrival.

G’day again.

Thanks for this further input. Some brief responses:

@Antiseptic, re 1: Are you really connecting New Zealand's welfare now with the Savage Government of 1935-40? The expression ‘long bow’ comes to mind.

Compare long-term jobless rates for both countries, Anti. New Zealand’s have been below Australia’s for all but the last five years. Other indicators show similar comparisons.

Australia has performed spectacularly better than New Zealand - and the rest of the world - only since 2008.

Re “2. Is Australia really so highly regarded?” The answer is yes, Anti. Ask any Australian ex-pat or overseas traveller.

Or any foreign economist.

Re 6, freedom index. You ask: “Have you got a more salubrious guest list?”

Australia ranks third in the entire world. You want more salubrious?

Re 8, interest rates: “What is "optimum" about that range?”

Okay. Well, lower than 1.75% gives no significant return on savings and hence no incentive to save. Above 4.75% makes repayments more burdensome and hence is a dampener on borrowing for investment.

Australia’s 2.75% is regarded generally as pretty right.

Re 10. Productivity, you suggest “What drove that figure was the mining boom.”

Nonsense, Antiseptic. Productivity has rocketed for the last seven quarters only. The mining boom started a lot earlier than that. In fact, some say it was over seven quarters ago.

Besides, Australia is not the only mineral exporter. Look at the dismal state of all other ore and coal exporters through the boom. It's pretty clear Australia’s economic progress since 2008 has been unique.

@LEGO, re: “Trying to present catastrophic failure as success …”

Failure, LEGO? So how did you go with the question earlier: Which nation anywhere in the world at any time past or present has had better economic management than Australia today?

@imajulianutter, re: “if this Government is so successful, why are their elected members about to knife their second elected PM in 3 years?”

How do you know, Keith? No, wait …. You’ve been reading Murdoch fabrications again, haven’t you? You know that is not the path to wisdom, don’t you?

Cheers,

Phillip S, you have proved my point.

Savage apparently introduced the welfare state to NZ. Draw your own conclusions.

As for long bows, claiming the Gillard-led ALP, with Ministers turning over faster than a teenaged boy at a nudist beach is a model to be emulated is the longest of long bows.

Actually, I'll ask the Reserve Bank. You remember them, the ones responsible for trying to work monetary policy to improve the economy because the Gillard and Rudd spending spree used all the money that might have been available to do useful work.

Yes, I could do with more salubrious company, because claiming Singapore or Switzerland are "free" means the premises of the measure are flawed. As for Hong Kong, it's not a country, it's the laissez faire outpost of a command economy. New Zealand is too small and insignificant to worry about, especially with 20% of their populace in Australia.

So "optimum actually means "arbitrarily chosen to suit my preferred argument". Thought so.

The mining investment cycle only started to pay off in the last couple of years. Before that there was lots of money being spent and lots of land being cleared and lots of infrastructure being built, but there was no product from all that investment. Productivity requires a product, hence the name.

Australia has done well out of minerals because of demand for specific resources, including high-quality coking coal and iron ore, as well as LPG. Other countries with lower quality resources have had less success, as might be expected. It was in spite of Gillard, not because of her. Some increase was due to the massive increase in wages to some sectors, notably those that derive their funding from Government and the flow-on effect of those women having more money to spend on consumerist purchases, thereby reducing the terms of trade.

Whichever way you try to slice it, Alan, she and her government have been and continue to be dismal failures.

Hi Alan Austin.

Your question presumes that no other nation on planet Earth since the beginning of creation to the present time has ever had better economic management than Australia under the Gillard government, and demands that I prove otherwise. Like, you are kidding, right?

Yeah, I think I see what you are doing. Make an outrageous assertion, and if I can't prove that it is wrong, then that proves you are right, eh? Nice try, Alan, but I didn't come down in the last shower. You must think I work for the ABC.

Australia is doing better than the rest of the world, Alan, for reasons that have nothing at all to do with Julia Gillard and the corruption riddled Labor Party. Australia is a European country settled primarily with North European Protestants, and such people are renowned for building safe and economically viable societies. Our commerce has always benefitted from our Protestant cultures low corruption index, despite the best efforts of the Labor Party to change our demographics, and to also change our low corruption reputation.

Do you think that we would be a prosperous country if we were populated primarilly by Muslims? Stick around for another 100 years and you will find the answer to that.

We are a politically stable, free enterprise island continent with one people, one language, and our six states benefit from almost identical, secular English common law. We have a low population for our size, and we have abundant farmland and minerals. But in actuality, Australia's performance for our size and resources is pretty miserable.

Holland is a European country that is primarily a giant swamp that is smaller than Tasmania, and it has a population that is 80% of Australia's. Rather incredibly, this tiny country with almost non existent natural resources has a GDP 60% of Australia's. If the Dutch swapped countries with the Australians, especially if the Australians were being led by a government with Julia Gillard as PM, the Dutch would be the richest people in the world and the Australians would be among the poorest.

Alan Austin,
So, in plain language what you & those ex-pats are saying is that Australia is simply the best out of a bad lot. ?
I get confused when my friends form various parts of the globe tell me about the great things they do & are free to do whilst I in the so-called best country only just make ends meet & have to take extreme measures to protect my property & loved ones. How does this equate ?

Greetings all,

Thanks for these further posts. A few responses before heading out.

@Antiseptic, re: “Savage apparently introduced the welfare state to NZ. Draw your own conclusions.”

The conclusions are clear from the data, Anti. New Zealand since 1940 has had impressive sustainability, growth and social equity.

Re: “Gillard-led ALP, with Ministers turning over faster than a teenaged boy at a nudist beach”

Colorful. I like that.

Just not true, however. These things are measurable, Anti. Do you know how many ministers have been “turned over” since 2007? And how many were turned over during the Howard years?

Count them, Anti. Just no comparison.

Refer here: http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/truth-tally-whats-wrong-with-australian-political-debate/372/

Re: “So ‘optimum’ actually means ‘arbitrarily chosen to suit my preferred argument’.”

It’s not an argument, Anti. An observation. Pretty sound one too.

What would you regard as optimum interest rates for Australia today?

Re: “she [Ms Gillard] and her government continue to be dismal failures.”

Hmmm. So how do you answer these questions, Anti:

1.Which nation at any time past or present has had better economic management than Australia today?

2. What were the factors that rocketed Australia from 12-ranked economy in 2007 to clearly top by 2011 – and forging further ahead each year?

@LEGO, re: “Your question presumes that no other nation on planet Earth since the beginning of creation to the present time has ever had better economic management than Australia under the Gillard government”

No. It’s not an a priori presumption. It’s a conclusion based on evidence. Important difference.

Re: “Australia is a European country settled primarily with North European Protestants, renowned for building safe and economically viable societies.”

Correct. Pretty much. But as noted, Australia was ranked behind the USA, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Finland, Iceland and Luxembourg in 2007.

All but Japan and Singapore had similar philosophical background.

So what was it that rocketed Australia to the top of all those Calvinists through the first three critical years of the global financial crisis? And how do we know?

Thanks, Lego.

Now, it’s Saturday night. Let’s go out and celebrate Australia’s great fortune.

Cheers,

'Now, it’s Saturday night. Let’s go out and celebrate Australia’s great fortune. '

Actually Alan we are saving it til 14 September.
'

Kipp - Quote "Phillip S, you have proved my point."

You sir are either totally delusional or you don't understand and comprehend the English language.

Please be so kind as to activate brain before applying fingers to the keyboard in future so as to not inflict such mindless nonsense upon readers.

Alan, your exact words were-

"Point 11. Australia has zoomed to the top of the table of well-managed economies. That's based on all the key variables. Not just in the world now, but anywhere, any time."

Point 13 " Best economy in the world is creditable enough. Best the world has ever seen is more impressive still. But achieved during the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s? How is this conceivable?"

Your premise is, that the Australian economy under Julia Gillard is the best managed economy in the history of the human race. Gee, I would have thought that a government which took a $16 billion surplus bequeathed to it by a former Liberal treasurer during a time of low commodity prices, and who turned that into a $365 billion dept black hole during a time of high commodity prices (and ever more creative taxation policies), is evidence enough to an electorate of total economic mismanagement? Especially when they have been in deficit for five successive years.

Most people can understand that any person can give the impression of prosperity if they max out on their credit cards, and that is what Gillard and Swan are doing. The only reason why the IMF has not called in the bailiffs is because the bankers understand the cyclical nature of Australian politics. Responsible Liberal governments balance the budget, which is followed by Labor's spend, spend, spend in order to buy popularity, followed by a responsible Liberal government which puts us back in the black.

Australia is doing better than the rest of the world not because of Gillard and Labor, but in spite of them.

And it is not so much that Australia is doing great, but because Europe and the USA are doing so badly. The primary reason for that, is because the dependent classes in these countries keep growing while the productive classes keep shrinking. Angela Merkel said it succinctly when she said "Europe is doing badly because we have 16% of the world's population, 26% of the world's production, and 56% of the worlds welfare recipients."

Morning all,

@individual, re: “you are saying Australia is simply the best out of a bad lot.”

No. Australia is not just ahead of struggling nations. Australia now beats all nations.

Re, “I in the so-called best country only just make ends meet & take extreme measures to protect my property & loved ones. How does this equate?”

Not even the best-run economies provide riches for all, Indi. Yes, many Australians are struggling. [I’m in a depressed region now.]

Remember we’re in the worst global downturn since the 1930s.

@LEGO, yes, those are valid conclusions: “Australia has zoomed to the top of the table of well-managed economies. That's based on all key variables."

The clarification related to your term ‘presumes’. And now ‘premise’. These are not presumptions or premises. Lego. They are conclusions based on evidence. The distinction is important.

The thrust of this article – and others earlier – is when we examine actual data, we reach different conclusions from when we don’t.

Australia’s mainstream media – Murdoch, Fairfax and now the ABC – has adopted the presumption that Labor has been incompetent. And has amplified that ceaselessly. But not with valid analysis of data.

It makes up fake quotes from authorities:
http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/adj-1562/

It fabricates news:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13338

It uses dodgy academics:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14715

And is succeeding. Many Australians now believe “Liberals good, Labor bad” based on this constant misreporting. As in North Korea. “Kim Jong-un good, opponents bad.”

Re, “I would have thought a government which took a $16 billion surplus … and turned that into a $365 billion dept black hole”

Ever bought a house Lego? That means substantial debt. But is usually highly strategic. I had a mortgage once. Now have a house debt-free. Had I taken a bigger mortgage I'd now be even better off.

It’s just not true all debt is bad. Often, the bigger the debt the better. This is true for families, businesses and nations.

Remember, Lego:

1. Australia’s borrowings are very low in comparative terms.

2. Applying those borrowings effectively in 2009-10 is what rocketed Australia to the top of the world!

Cheers

Alan, your conclusions are based on narrowly defined metrics which are not informative. More than 50% of Australian GDP is derived from consumption expenditure, including the consumption of services that are only required to support a model in which all parents work outside the home except some of those with infants or neonates. As you say, the global economy is floundering and there is no doubt that it will get weaker before it gets stronger, which will impact Australia's ability to employ many of the occupations that are currently largely female-dominated, including administration and legal services. Because the economy is heavily geared to provide services for those people, a reduction in their employment will cause a cascade of economic effects through the retail and services sectors in a positive feedback that will be hard to stop.

We are not structurally sound, we have an economic house of cards.

Mornin Alan.

I have already demolished your "valid conclusions based upon evidence" as the creative interpretations of barely significant events which would not impress the electorate, even if the normally left wing press thought that they were significant enough to publicise.

It is amusing that you are blaming the press for not extolling these triumphs of economic management, which you claim that the Gillard Government has achieved. Until recently, with the advent of internet blogs, shock jock radio, and the Murdoch Fox press, there has been little diversity of opinion in the press.

The press in Australia has long had a persistent left wing bias that reflected the values of the university Artz and Humanities graduates who occupy it. If the predominantly left wing press (yourself excluded) can not find anything it can use to endorse Labor, perhaps it is because they can't find anything to misrepresent that they can crow about?

The "cash for comment" scandal that erupted around John Laws was instructive to the public. Instead of the press being considered by people like me as fearless seekers of the truth, they are now perceived as fearless seekers of ratings and popularity. In addition, they are considered by the public to be public relations mercenaries who are not averse to biting the hands of those not feeding them. They can also be perceived as wild eyed left wing ideological zealots who are not averse to embellishing the truth by massaging the facts to fit their left leaning philosophies. Sound familiar?

Now, on the subject of Australia's growing dept. If I had bought a house for $365 billion I would expect it to be a very nice house and a sound investment. The question the public is asking, is where in the hell did all that money go? Other than the new Broadband network that nobody wants anyhow, hundreds of school halls that are too small, a lot of pink batts which resulted in a hundred house fires, what did we have to show for this fantastic sum of money which the Labor Party has squandered?

Alan Austin,
What conditions do the pensioners of other countries live in if Australia is the best country ?
I know for a fact that pensioners in central Europe receive some 75% of their average income in pension. It's not that generous here by miles. Is it that pensioners do not count in your financial manipulation circle ? Have you ever tried to get dental work done in Australia ? Or is dental work not in the financial manipulation game either. Do those managers who run away with peoples' Super funds get away with it in other countries as they do here ? I have spent some time in a country that receives hundreds of millions in aid from Australia yet that country can afford a far more effective criminal deterrence than what we have here. That country also receives hundreds of thousands of tourist visitors more than Australia. They CREATE manufacturing industries in contrast to Australia LOSING them. Yeah well, the financial manipulation system Pie looks really great but our slice of it is too small to see..

Forum members, I would not get to concerned about AA's articles on OLO.

The majority of Aust's a lot wiser than AA. End of story

Here is another story AA does not read.

http://worldinstruggle.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/australia-mass-unemployment-grows-as.html

Dear Alan,

This fraudulent proposition of yours that the woes of JEG and the ALP are down to the media is evidenced as fraudulent by your own assertions.

The woes of JEG in particular and the ALP in general are because they have failed to earn respect, they demand it. They have lost credibility because they have failed to convince the public that they deserve it. They have lost faith with the electorates because they offer spin as a substitute for substance. They have failed to unite our nation because their policies are seen as divisive. They have failed to solve the nation’s problems because they focus upon their own internecine battle for survival. They have failed to deliver against many promises and broken too many promises that the majority have stopped listening.

We Australians have well developed bulltish filters and the cognitive skills to think for ourselves. It appears that we don’t need the MSM as much as you, which is curious, I wonder why that is?

You cannot offer a proposition that all of the media are against JEG and the ALP. That is irrational, unless of course your ideological filter is blocking reality.

Your 15 “stories” are a diversion and try to draw us into your ideological interpretations and argument. But as I suggested in response to your previous article, the further you dig down into content, the further you drift from reality.

The responses to your last article on this topic were clearly a great disappointment to you. Your response to this disappointment is the classic march of folly, the pursuit of that which is contrary to self interest.

Your grinding whine seems to center on our failure to embrace the intellectual and ideological wisdom of your advice. Time to move on Alan, you’re getting to be a bore.

Well may you try to save us “crazy Australians”, but nothing can save the left wing pseudo-intellectuals.

I have been waiting for some time now for Alan Austin to tell us why so many other countries are in dire straits. He just doesn't want to tell inconvenient truths because it might just put the brakes on on the bandwagon.
The reason WHY these countries are in strife is because, now Alan read very slowly so that it gets a chance to sink in, these countries have taken in too many asylum seekers & refugees who have now depleted the coffers. In Australia we still have a chance to learn from that.
I hope it's not too late although some will never learn as we see here on OLO.
I recall 50 years ago in Europe when these pretend refugees started to come into the country & people were saying that one they they'll outnumber us. The european academic do-gooders were of course outraged at these sentiments just like they are here now. Well, 5 decades are gone & their prediction have come true. Are you listening do-gooders ?

Greetings again,

@Antiseptic, re: “your conclusions are based on narrowly defined metrics.”

Not sure, Anti. The metrics are used universally. Happy to provide links.

I don’t disagree with much of your last post, Anti. But do you really believe “the global economy is floundering and it will get weaker before it gets stronger”? If so, why would you revert to the economic philosophy and management which took Australia from 9th best economy in 1975 back to 20th in 1983; then from 6th best economy in 1996 back to 12th in 2007?

@LEGO, Hello again. Thanks for those five paragraphs. Don’t accept the first, of course. But the next three are perceptive and mostly sound.

Regarding the fifth: “The question the public is asking, is where in the hell did all that money go?”

Answer: to construct the greatest economy the world has ever seen, Lego.

Look at these criteria:
1. income – GDP per person
2. GNI income per person
3. income disparity
4. interest rates
5. inflation
6. people employed
7. job participation
8. personal tax rates
9. company tax rate
10. superannuation
11. health care
12. pension levels
13. personal savings
14. productivity
15. current account deficit
16. current account deficit as a % of GDP
17. credit ratings
18. economic freedom
19. value of the A$
20. balance of trade
21. industrial production growth
22. foreign exchange reserves
23. overall quality of life

This is what the stimulus spending in 2009-10 bought. Pretty impressive.

“Other than the new Broadband network that nobody wants anyhow, hundreds of school halls that are too small, a lot of pink batts which resulted in a hundred house fires, what did we have to show for this fantastic sum of money which the Labor Party has squandered?”

Answer: world's best economy ever. Ask any economist to nominate a better one. They can’t.

Incidentally, Lego, just on the house fires, what was the rate of fires per 100,000 houses insulated during the Rudd period? What was the rate during the Howard years?

Answer: one was four times the other. But which one?

Cheers,

Alan, the fact that a particular flawed model is used extensively doesn't undo its flaws.

Part of the problem is that not all contributions to GDP are created equal, as I'm sure you realise. Despite the rsource sector's huge contribution to export income, the capital investment in industry is a tiny portion of GDP, while consumption for households accounts for more than half. Of that, around a quarter is paid for by money transferred to individuals from corporations and other non-personal revenue sources.

As I said, the positive feedback is going to be hard to stop once it starts and is precisely why successive governments, even conservative ones, have reinforced the woman as worker model. They have been desperate to avoid starting it on their watch.

Yes, I do fuirmly beliecve the global economy will get weaker. World population growth rates are declining and within the next 50 years will start to become negative. As well, consumption in the West has been so great that it has almost saturated the market, while prices keep declining in the sectors, like electronics, that drove it so fast. Harvey Norman and JB Hifi will be able to give you the figures, I'm sure. Their problems don't stem from internet purchases stealing sales, but on the fact that there are only so many TVs and stereos and ipods that people can reasonably use and where they used to make $300 or more on each unit, now they only make $50.

It's all going to come to a stop.

I think I know what this is all about. Alan Austin is mistaking Australia for Austria.

Alan

actually Alan it was Barrie Cassidy on The Insiders on the ABC last Sunday who was the most definitive. But there again you think the ABC biased against the Government, don't you?

lol you really are looking really daggy now.

The only way the Labor government could have continued to run surpluses since the GFC drastically reduced revenues would have been to subject the economy to crippling austerity cuts. This would have, in turn, destroyed Australia’s consumer and infrastructure spending, sending unemployment soaring to unmanageable levels. This is the huge mistake that the US and EU made, with crippling consequences for their economies from which all the countries concerned may never recover.

Abbot and his minions in the media are cheerleading the cause to apply these same horrors to Australia come September.

Howard got clean away with his death-by-a-thousand-cuts savagery simply because revenue – from the GST, corporate tax, privatisations and capital gains tax during the boom - was running high. Along with a blindly sympathetic media, the rapid deterioration of Australia’s social spending, infrastructure and badly needed environmental reforms (while, of course, making available plenty of money for keeping desperate people from landing here and for chasing imperial wars) were reframed as ‘sound economic management’.

Even so, fate was catching up with Howard by 2007, when despite still riding high on the revenue boom, his government still racked up almost a $60 billion gross debt due in large part to his government’s obsession with throwing tax rebates and incentives at every privatization scheme going. I’d hate to think what mess we’d be in now if he hadn’t lost government and, thankfully, his seat in 2007. But in about 18 months, I guess we’ll finally know.

Morning all,

Just a few matters:

@individual, re: “What conditions do pensioners of other countries live in if Australia is the best country?”

Fair question, Indi. Several points. First, observing that Australia's economy is the world’s best does not imply that ALL Australians are better off than everyone else everywhere else. The world is experiencing the most severe crisis since the Great Depression. Every country is impacted, including Australia.

Second, Australia’s pensions funding system is unique in that your superannuation scheme is like no other. So comparisons with other places are tricky.

Third, Australia now ranks third in caring for pensioners, behind Denmark and the Netherlands.

Fourth, that’s way better than any time in the past, but could be better.

Fifth, a strong case exists that pensioners are bearing a disproportionate share of the burden imposed by the crisis.

Sixth, there is extraordinary pressure on your Government regarding spending. Outside Australia your deficits are considered puny. But internally there is a bizarre campaign – mostly from the Murdoch-led mainstream media – to reduce federal spending and keep taxes low. This is completely unwarranted, of course. Your tax rate is 25.6%. Denmark’s is 48.1% and the Netherlands’ 38.7%.

Seventh, we shall see the Coalition's plans when policies are released. Historically, the Conservatives have been far less generous than Labor.

Re: “Do those managers who run away with peoples' Super funds get away with it in other countries as they do here?”

Crimes like embezzlement are not confined to Australia, Indi, and certainly not just to Australia today.

Re: “[other countries] CREATE manufacturing industries in contrast to Australia LOSING them.”

Not really, Indi. Swings and roundabouts. Some industries are up, others down. Manufacturing overall is down because of the high dollar. Other sectors are up.

@Spindoc, re: “They [JEG and the ALP ] have lost credibility because they have failed to convince the public that they deserve it.”

Hmmm. By what means do the public perceive what any Government is accomplishing – or failing to accomplish, Spindoc?

Can you see how these observations support the thrust of the article?

@Killarney:

Correct.

Cheers,

Mornin' Allen

I see you have not lost your creative talent to think up reasons why Australia's $365 billion deficit was a cost effective bargain. Did you pluck these issues out of your overly fertile imagination? Or did you Google Australia+Labor+electoral catastrophe+Implausible excuses, and find a site?

If it is the latter, could you please display a link? I would love to see the costings of the 23 amorphous concepts that you enumerated, that you claim were solid investments for Labor's $365 billion dept black hole.

I am particularly interested in item 13, Personnel Savings. Are you implying that some of that $365 billion went into the personnel savings bank accounts of certain notorious Labor power brokers and politicians? Well, if that is your implication, I am still surprised that they managed to stash that much loot. I suppose our economy will benefit from the frequent overseas travel, lengthy lunches, and lingerie sales to ladies of easy virtue.

Item 18, Economic freedom? How many billions did that cost us? And what was the return on investment? I look forward to your astute economic analysis on that topic.

Item 23. Quality of life. Since I am now entering my 9th week of unemployment I most earnestly assure you that we did not get much return on that investment.

2 out of 10 for effort. 9 out of 10 for audacity.

Spot on LEGO,

It’s amazing what you can do with $330Bn borrowed from our children and grandchildren.

Like many of us AA won’t be around to see that debt paid off.

Well done Alan.

Dear Alan,

<< spindoc said, “They [JEG and the ALP ] have lost credibility because they have failed to convince the public that they deserve it.”>>

Funny that, I thought I actually offered SIX reasons for JEG’s woes, perhaps you could go back and revisit the others and address them, if you don’t we might conclude you are struggling with your case and need to cherry pick?

You have tried many times to make the case that our media does not give the full story. Many might agree with that however, it does not matter. Like everyone else on the planet (except it seems you) we have to make do with what there is.

It’s clear that you seek to blame the media for Australians not sharing your perspectives on the issues you raise. But the real problem is not the media is it? It’s you! You are the one who cannot come to terms with reality.

This is the reason you keep drilling down into content, you can’t deal with the big picture so you bang on about the content issues. You are presenting a very 6th form debate and it’s starting to make you look a bit juvenile.

yeah, good effort for a 6th grader. Keep working on it AA, you may get there one day.

Alan,
The labor force participation rate you mention is not what your link to the ABS website states.
You claim 75% but they publish it as 65.3%
Also, they include in the figure, surprisingly, that unemployed 5.5%.
So take that away and we are left with less than 60% of Australia's potential workforce (as defined by the ABS) who are actually working.
Even after taking away the aged pensioners, that's still a lot of people sitting back at home on benefits watching The Ellen Degeneres Show.

EC,

Your point has been made to AA before, it is simply that he cares little for the truth. He has patently ignored most of the important economic measures and tabulated a cherry picked series of measures, many of which on examination are clearly flawed, and show the failings of the Labor government.

Hello again,

Today’s brief responses:

@LEGO, re: “you have not lost your creative talent to think up reasons why Australia's $365 billion deficit was a cost effective bargain.”

The deficit is A$19.4 billion.

Re: “could you please display a link?”

Sure.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/5/14/federal-budget/budget-2013-budget-flags-194bn-deficit-year

Re: “Item 18, Economic freedom? How many billions did that cost us? What was the return on investment? I look forward to your astute economic analysis.”

All here, Lego:

http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

@Spindoc, re: “Like many of us AA won’t be around to see that debt paid off.”

Why not, Spindoc? Have you done the sums? We won’t last another seven or eight years?

Re: “You have tried many times to make the case that our media does not give the full story. Many might agree with that, however, it does not matter.”

Depends what we want in life, Spindoc. Does it matter that most North Koreans believe they live in the greatest paradise on Earth, with the best economy ever, and with the one leader the whole world looks up to with admiration and hero-worship?

Well, Australians are exactly the same. Except the opposite.

@Edward Carson, re: “The labor force participation rate you mention is not what your link to the ABS website states. You claim 75% but they publish it as 65.3%.”

Edward, if you click ‘downloads’ you will find ‘6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia’. Then click on ‘Table 18. Labour force status by Sex - Persons aged 15 to 64 years’.

Then click on line 119.

Voila! Participation rate 76.6%! So it has been adjusted upwards. Excellent.

Re: “Also, they include in the figure, surprisingly, that unemployed 5.5%. So take that away and we are left with less than 60% of Australia's potential workforce (as defined by the ABS) who are actually working.”

Not quite, Edward. Table 18 shows “Persons aged 15 to 64” – which is Australia’s potential workforce. Your 60% is of the entire population, including babies, schoolkids, the elderly and incapacitated. Apples and oranges.

Re: “a lot of people sitting back on benefits watching The Ellen Degeneres Show.”

Hey! What’s wrong with Ellen?!

Cheers,

less generous than Labor.
Alan Austin,
Labor are only overly generous to themselves & their hangers-on. Decent hard-working people get fleeced by Labor like Marino sheep. The Superannuation scheme was probably the only half-decent policy Labor introduced but they totally failed to put safety mechanisms in place for these schemes not to run away with by crooks. I simply don't believe you're telling the truth re being the third best country re pensioners. When the recipients hardly contribute yet get handsome Super whilst those who work for ordinary wages are the ones putting the money in the coffers then that is not a great system. Our pays are utterly out of synch with normalcy. Those working all day get a pittance whilst those with pointless degrees & qualifications get mollycoddled. As far as unfairness goes Australia is probably at the top.
The distribution of wealth in Australia is totally out of synch with real reality. There's no reward for effort yet huge reward for just being there, a sad basis for an economy indeed & a road to nowhere no matter how pretty a picture the likes of you are trying to paint for us. Some of us can still see the canvas underneath.

I don't necessarily with all this article says.

I do endorse what he says about the media.

All we seem to get is:
rehashed "leadership woes" stories
blatant plugs for products
journalists writing about themselves
so-called "celebrities" promoting themselves

Thanks Al

Alan,
I don’t know if you purposely sent me off on a wild goose chase or I just got lost but I didn’t find any 76.6%.
It still seems strange to me that the participation rate is there on your link for all to see and yet you claim it is actually somewhere else.

Also, that 60% of mine does exclude babies and schoolies under 16. (true it might include the oldies)
Now my time to give directions: On that same page, click ‘Explanatory Notes’ then ‘ Glossary’ on the left and scroll down to the definition of ‘participation rate’
“…the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 years and over…”

Hey Alan

29% in the polls today and falling.
Do you reckon they are all lemmings?

Similar polls say Kevy will increase that by 6%.
Do you really think they will leap with Julia?

Reports in The CM Brisbanes Labor bugle say Kevin has the numbewrs but won't challenge unless the support is overwhelming.

Julia's mates appearing on tv are reduced to Emmerson and Bradbury Everybody else is issuing press releases ... unsolicited.

How long do you think this farce can continue?

Greetings again all,

@individual, re: “I simply don't believe you're telling the truth re being the third best country re pensioners.”

Australia being third is according to Mercer, here: http://www.globalpensionindex.com/

I am not making this up, Indi, however much you must now just assume that all Australian journalists make up facts all the time. Most do. That is true. But not all.

If you don’t think the rankings are Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, what do you think they are? Based on what, Indi?

Re: “As far as unfairness goes Australia is probably at the top.”

No. You were near the top a few years ago. You are now far more equal than five years ago. This is measured by the GINI index. Start here: http://data.worldbank.org/country/australia Then google for more data.

Re: “a road to nowhere no matter how pretty a picture the likes of you are trying to paint for us.”

Not trying to paint anything, Indi. Just pointing you to the actual data which shows that you are imbibing falsehoods, distortions and manipulation on a daily basis.

@Edward Carson, no, definitely gave you accurate directions. Have just checked. Are you sure you are clicking on the ‘downloads’ tab on the original page linked in the article?

The tab is in grey, second from the left in the row of tabs, just below all the headings. If you follow those instructions you will eventually access these figures:

Job participation rate Persons trend, column AE: 76.6%
Job participation rate Persons seasonally adjusted, column BO: 76.6%
Job participation rate Persons original, column DE: 76.6%

They all happen to be the same this month. Not always so.

@Imajulianutter:

Hi Keith. Please read the article again. And then read what you have just posted. You demonstrate the validity of the case presented overwhelmingly.

So, thank you.

Cheers,

Seriously, AA's prominence at OLO has no real impact at all.

I can only imagine he is real articulate and hard to debate with in person. in other words, in the right setting, he would come across as cocky and master of his own message. No doubt, he would impress some (a minority).

But what is the real art of politics? It is certainly not about us mere people who write opinion pieces or even academic articles. It is about all players getting out there and selling or reporting their message; some will report news, others will be interest groups, political parties and so on. It is this dynamic interaction which will determine Aust's direction.

So how would AA go before a real audience in most Aust communities or forums representative of the mainstream or cross-section of Aust society, not Q&A or an other rather useless forum which only a minority watch.

The answer of course would be that AA would be booed off; perhaps even laughed at.

So AA, take your opportunities on OLO to promote you bias, and even blame the media, but you really have no idea about what is going on in Aust politics.

Perhaps Rudd will do better than Gillard, but as far as I am concerned, Rudd will make an even easier target for Abbott and the Coalition to ridicule over an election campaign which will indeed focus on real evidence and footage of Labor's many shortcomings.

Chris Lewis,

It might be more helpful, instead devoting your time criticising Alan, that you address his case.

As a fellow article writer, I'm sure that's the type of treatment you'd prefer.

"It might be more helpful, instead devoting your time criticising Alan, that you address his case."

Alan's 'case' has been addressed:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15130

cohenite,

I was addressing Chris Lewis, whose main preoccupation concerning Alan's articles appears to be carrying on a narrative about Alan himself.

Who can blame Chris's preoccupation; Alan is such a fascinating person.

Poirot, I could write a piece responding to AA, but why would I bother. He is a propagandist, who, I repeat, does not understand why Labor is on the nose, choosing to blow his own trumpet above most other efforts as if he knows that much more. Just the way he dismisses almost every reasonable comment is just so annoying.

I will leave him alone, because my efforts to encourage a bit more humility and thinking prowess from AA is indeed wasted. He just knows it all.

At least when I get accused of being a conservative, which I am not, I can point to severe criticism of the Coalition, like in Quadrant when he suggested that the invasion of Iraq without a UN mandate was one of the worst ever policy decisions by liberal democracies, and that the Coalition should have done much more for public housing. But that is me, I actually favour no political party, because both major ones are just as good and just as useless as each other, but both essential to the political cycle so that both welfare needs and welfare waste are addressed at different times.

Now is the time to give Labor the vote for wasting its time in the sun.

Sorry, last sentence should be to give Labor the boot, not vote.

Alan
You have presented the case about how wonderfully adept our government really is. Sadly you don't mention how atrocious EVERYBODY, except labor barnacles, is actually experiencing the reality of this Labor Ship of Fools.

The polls reflect this. That you think the media is actually causing people to think the way they do says more about you than you realise.

Alan everyone in Australia dismisses the medis because they are full of fools who think Australians cannot think for themselves and are likely to be swayed by spin.

Those are the assumptions you also apply everytime you scribble and spout the blatant Labor spin you try to peddle as truth.

Dear Imajulianutter, Cohenite, Individual and Shadow Minister,

Hello again.

Your responses here have been read and considered carefully. But they still seem to support rather than challenge the main thrust of the original article here.

Can you understand how this may be so?

As an exercise, which may assist in clarifying this, please take this short quiz. Only 12 questions. On precisely this topic.

http://newmatilda.com/2013/06/21/wonderful-world-walkley-winners

Let us know how you go, and we can take it from there ...

Cheers,

Jeez Alan really mate,

As soon as I saw the words 'new matilda' I turned off and hit the back button.

Proving the point of the article yet again, Keith.

No?

Cheers,

imajulianutter,

AA likes to deride any quotes from news corp or Fairfax, because the mainstream media is "biased" and probably trying to beam rays through his tin foil hat. Yet openly quotes the New Matilda which is an unashamedly far left wing, and is a collection of opinion pieces with a loose association with the facts.

AA also thinks all Australia is delusional for despising a party that has racked up record debts and has left a weakening economy and rising unemployment.

I know Shadow,I wonder what Alan makes of all those cabinet ministers calling on Kevvy to put up or shut up. I suppose Gillard's most senior Ministers are biased against the government too.

Are they Alan?