Neil Brown, federal politician from the old days when politicians weren't cardboard cutouts, has a few things to say about government waste and expensive minor politicians with minority, unnecessary and expensive agendas.

Conservative though he is, (or because he is) he expresses his pleasure that, after "years of Liberal party waste and profligacy in government spending", the ALP government might "genuinely cut waste and extravagance" and it is absolutely right to cut the number of so-called advisers for independent and crossbench MPs and senators from four to one.

Note 'so-called advisers', whom Brown has a few things to say about from his own experience.

But first, Brown wonders, as many of us do, why:

. They presently have four electorate officers to help write a few letters to ministers on immigration and pension issues for constituents.
. Plus four policy advisers each.
. Turnbull, Morrison and Frydenberg are responsible for this "powerhouse" for empire building, apparently.

Brown goes on to say that any idea that these "bottom-feeders" (advisers and hangers on) are qualified by knowledge or experience to advise, is "ludicrous":

. The average type doesn't have the slightest experience of the real world. It's probably the first job they've had since they left school.
. They will have a diploma in "smoking ceremonies", "transgender activism" or the evils of logging in old-growth forests from some third-rate college that takes anyone they can find to keep their student numbers up. Of twelve months volunteering in a refugee centre.

. They have little or no qualifications for advising anyone, especially at the expense of the taxpayers.

So, what do these 'advisers' do? Brown finds it easier to list what they don't do:

. For starters, he says, they don't really advise at all. MPs quickly learn that if they actually take advice from these characters, they will be laughing stocks.

What they actually do is 100% self-serving, and too long and appalling to keep to 350 words. Suffice to say, Albanese is doing the right thing by pruning the.

Thank You for bringing this subject up for discussion.

I've always greatly admired Neil Brown and got to know
him well through work. He was the Liberal Party Rep.
for my electorate of Menzies and was very pro-library
orientated. A thorough gentleman, articulate, a hard
worker, and genuinely concerned about people and issues.
He always did his homework and knew what he was talking
about on any given subject. A rarity for a politician.

I'm sure that from his experiences in the political arena -
the views he's expressed should be well received and
listened to.

Albanese is doing the right thing by pruning the.
ttbn,
I think so too, let's hope he targets the real problem ones not like Newman did in Qld.

Indyvidual

Albo's not doing too badly so far - apart from the emissions nonsense - but I'm wondering if anyone is going to make the same noise they made about Morrison being absent during the bushfires, with Albo being absent during the floods.

ttbn,
I doubt if the GayBC & majority of Public Service will ever criticise & sabotage a Labor PM as they do with Coalition PMs.
It'd go against the doctrine of their hypocrisy.
But yes, Albo's at least talking a lot more sense than several of his predecessors.

The difference between our former PM Scott Morrison,
and our current PM - Anthony Albanese's travels is
that Morrison left during the fires for a family
holiday ('cause he didn't hold a hose). The current
PM has not had a day off since he got elected - and
his trips were work - not holidays from the QUAD and
NATO summits, Indonesia, Paris and Ukraine - all
work related.

Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott have all praised Albanese's
trips - and what he's managed to accomplish. He did not
leave at the height of the floods. He left prior to
the disasters. Now he's back and intends to do what
should have been done decades ago. He will look at
the long term solutions to our flood areas - and how
to ensure that things don't keep re-occuring. He will
look at ways that things need to change. And what changes
need to be made over time. Just throwing money at the
problem - won't solve anything.

Therein lies the difference between the two men.
One was all spin and photo opps. The current one is a
problem solver. For which we should all be grateful.
Only idiots continue to still snipe.

Shadow Treasurer, Angas Taylor, has criticised Albanese for "circumnavigating the globe" during the flood crisis, only to be told to pull his head in by Treasurer Chalmers. I don't remember Labor and its supporters pulling their heads in when Morrison was absent during the fires.

Of course, Chalmers says that Albo is 'fixing' all the previous government's stuff ups. I would have thought that the best place to do that would be here, where the stuff ups matter; not globe trotting, when Skype or Zoom could have been used - especially now that Labor has pledged a 43% reduction in emissions, many of which are caused by air travel, or so we are told.

The media says that the PM has been "forced to defend" his overseas trips, saying something about "new politics" and "working together" in the interests of the Australian public.

Together with whom? Not the Australian public, few of whom he would have met overseas.

He said that he was "fulfilling a responsibility" by travelling to Ukraine, making sure "every support was being offered". Australian voters and taxpayers didn’t give him that responsibility, nor did they expect him to give a grovelling apology to France for something his predecessor did. Or, come to think of it, his gushing to a bunch of foreigners that Australia was is now "out of the naughty corner" on climate change. What a an embarrassing suckhole!

As the Opposition has said, while 30,000 people in NSW have been forced to evacuate because of the floods, Albanese seems more interested in strutting the global stage than doing someone for them (Perrottet is a dead loss). But of course the last PM was also dazzled by globalism, and he paid the price. Early days yet, of course, but Albo looks like being the same sort.

All the waffling on about a PM not being in the country during an emergency is nothing short of just silly quabble.

Fixing the previous Govts stuff-ups is just a lucky chance to talk themselves up when there's nothing else to say.
Silly Chalmers wouldn't know if he was Arthur or Martha if he had to manage what Morrisson managed.
Let's just wait a couple of months & see how the new lot manages COVID even with hindsight from ar$ehole to breakfast available to them from their predecessors.
Albo does come across as the only one with some competence in that crew & may need to be somewhat of a benevolent Dictator to manage the incompetence of his gang.
I actually feel a little sorry for Albo not having a better pool of ministers to choose from.

Albo's reaction to being questioned about his travel has been described as a 'dummy spit' this morning. Toys out of the pram next?

While Dutton has gone on holiday so soon after the election, without reminding us that he is there, deputy leader , Sussan Ley, has reminded us that we do actually have an Opposition.

Ley noted Albo's moan that he 'hadn't had a day off' in the two months that he had been PM. What a wuss. He clearly didn’t give much thought about what the job entails.

Such a short time into the new government, and the Opposition leader takes a holiday, and the PM wants a break.

Gawd help us!

Come on ttbn, be fair, Albo has been working 7 days a week since his Covid holiday, what's Constable Clod done in the past two months? Been down at the Golden Dragon, 'shirt fronting' the Chinese cook, he's done nothing!

BTW, whose this Sussan Ley person?

Good to see that Albanese has stood up to the CCP's arrogant demands handed to Minister Wong. The bloody cheek of Communists even thinking that a democratic country is going to respect their rotten totalitarianism. Even doing business with them for the sake of our economy is going too far. We should be working non-stop to replace them as trading partners.