Shadow Minister - The reason Swan's budget presentation and question time was lack lustre was that after 5 years of never delivering on a single budget, Swan probably didn't believe the figures, and neither did anyone else

Note the story in todays hard copy media about the federal ALPs half-billion dollar war-chest. Wouldn't it be funny if the red-headed witch forgot to declare it officially as an expense item before the gubmunt goes into caretaker mode, thereby making it available to whoever ?? Whilst someone suggested the RAbbott would be the one most likely to benefit, so could Big Clive although I figure he has a bit more integrity than to squander taxpayers money on buying votes.

Dear Individual,

You continue to accuse others of not thinking
but look at your continued attacks on academics.
Odd to say the least. Unless of course you're
somehow lacking in your self-esteem area.
That's why I stated earlier that thinking was
obviously not your strong suit.

It's thanks to the people that you keep putting
down that we have things like - the world - changing
inventions that have come out of this country.
Things like the Black Box Flight Recorder,
which today every commercial plane carries,
Spray-on Skin - saving people's lives, including the 2002
Bali bombings, the Electronic Pacemaker, the Cochlear Implant
(Bionic Ear), the Ultrasound Scanner, Plastic Spectacle Lenses,
Gardasil and Cervix Cancer Vaccines, and the list goes on.

I do live with reality, it seems that you need to think before
you post.

Dear Shadow Minister,

You keep referring to the "lies" of Labor.
That as we all know is a ruthless exploitation by
the Abbott Opposition and it has spawned a political
craze in trying to expose the opponent's so called
"lies."

But what about the Opposition's penchant for stretching
the truth on impacts of the Carbon Pricing Scheme?
George Brandis's assertion that the Carbon Pricing
Scheme was responsible for 1,900 job cuts at Fairfax
was a cracker. It was merely a natural extension of the
dubious claims that the Carbon Pricing Scheme would wipe
towns off the map, spark mass shut-downs of industry
and send families to the wall under crippling power prices.

The collapse of trust in politics is a defining feature of
our current political culture driven largely by the
kind of negative politics that has characterised the carbon
debate.

Of course the public disdain for this minority government is
helped along by the tabloid media, the shock jocks,
and the fact that the minority government is so good at
passing legislation goes unnoticed.

Labor does desperately need to become more open, transparent
and democratic. Howver it knows this, a Committee of wise
men, one of whom was Bob Carr told it so back in 2010.
However under Gillard's leadership, internal reform has stalled,
which it need to pick up.

Historically Julia Gillard's Prime Ministership will be seen
as an unusually active and reforming period in Australian
public policy. Her legislative achievements have not
translated into public understanding let alone support.
That is unfortunate. But as I've stated previously, when
you've got big media, big nomey, and big business against
you, it's difficult to get any sort of message out.

Also more broadly there are declining levels of trust in
most aspects of our entire political system - including the
media and its role in reporting on it.

Lexi,
Are you seriously linking these fabulous inventions to Academia ? I think you've done it this time. These inventions were made (obviously) by people with a strong sense of pragmatism not by those hangers-ons in the public service. Most significant inventions were made by people who thought about a problem, how to solve it, made things, tried them out etc. not by those who just repeat what others told them i.e. academics.

>>Are you seriously linking these fabulous inventions to Academia ?<<

From wikipedia:

>>Professor Graeme Clark A.C., then Foundation Professor of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne in 1970, led the team that developed the Australian prototype bionic ear<<

See the 'Professor' in front of his name? And the bit where it says he worked at the University of Melbourne? Those make him an academic by any normal definition of the word academic. Academic is a term that covers all university professors - the useful ones like engineering, medical and science professors - as well as the less useful ones like arts professors.

Cheers,

Tony

Dear Individual,

As I wrote to you earlier, the highest form
of ignorance is when you reject something
you don't know anything about.

Education is a progressive discovery of your own
ignorance. And judging from your posts it seems
that yours has been limited.