General Chat

down the coal hole

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/27/malcolm-turnbull-to-trigger-byelection-by-quitting-parliament-on-friday

But now it is the era of the party room
Party games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6wxDqdOV0

Jeez, Rollo, I'll have some of what you're having.

You are so wide of the mark that I wouldn't trust you to hit a tethered elephant with a peashooter.

The first sentence of your second paragraph just about summarises all the so called democracies of the 'free world'

None of them matches the stature of Bill Hayden who was man enough to put the party before himself.

A true politician, in my opinion.

I remember that period clearly and the feeling his self-sacrifice created among the voters.

In most democratic countries, even the USA, politics is driven by a rough n ready set of principles so you know what kind of thing Labour/Tory, GOP/Democrats are likely to serve up.

In Australia it is not like that at all. Politics from Canberra down to State and city government is driven by envy, hate, fear, nepotism and cleverly disguised corruption. Some of this goes back to Oz aristocracy ( "the Squatters" ) , some more to hatred of "the Poms" and to quite a high degree racism. The average Australian is fed up with it.

Oz should not be thought of as a big country either. The population is about 20M. It is essentially an archipelago of islands surrounded by desert rather than the deep blue sea. It is the refusal to come to terms with this which is at the root of the failure of the counry's governments, one after another, to cope with climate change. More coal mines is not the way to go.

Of course Oz is far from unique in having governments located in la la land. The UK for instance is also governed from there. Oz here today soon gone has only been emulated by Italy.

Yes, but for how long?

No doubt he will take us to the next election, due early next year, but after that, who knows?

Seven PM's in eleven years, and not one of those has gone for a full term of Office :-|

The last one to so do was John Howard who I always considered a bit wishy-washy, but compared to the last seven he was a Titan.

Liberal Party Treasurer Scott Morrison has been sworn in.
(Televised on Sky News)

All the queen's horses and all the queen's men....
Looks like a fair go for Australia then, enter (left) Bill Shorten a follower of Brutus.
:-0

The Circus continues, it is now the turn of the clowns:

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/dutton-battles-to-get-signatures-for-his-petition/news-story/fe161c79565e93e91c0313caeba678f2

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/peter-dutton-could-be-derailed-as-prime-minister-before-he-even-takes-the-job/news-story/c0eaeee9cc6deb468a472fccf77d5511

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/malcolm-turnbull-has-gone-down-all-guns-blazing/news-story/a8601167293d16

Will the last politician to leave Canberra please turn out the lights!

:-D :-D :-D

We still have Mortein, JoyLouise ;-)

How much to be a fly on the wall in their homes? :-0

This has hit the nail on the head
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/opinion-this-latest-nonsense-in-canberra-is-exactly-why-australians-hate-politics/news-story/f380bf30cffc50152a01d58b6945ed85

Well it happened and Turnbull survived, but it's going to be an interesting few weeks :-D

If the press is to be believed there could be a challenge as soon as today (Tuesday)

"What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I'm a ghost you can see
If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take
"
G.L.

Not to mention the sun-belt so-called cleaner industries,

Rollo, did you miss my inverted commas indicating a tongue-in-cheek comment?

You can fool some of the people .... etc, springs to mind.

The US environmentally clean?
No chance at all. Just look at the damage that fracking has caused.

Trump, like most populists, promises things he can never deliver but people sign on to his ship of fools all the same. The rust belt remains the rust belt because there is no nobody who is going to put a buck into obsolete plant which demands expensive energy. In the UK towns such as Ebbw Vale, Middlesboro and Redcar have the same problem.

Australia does not have a government in the usual sense of the word but then neither does the UK.

It matters little whether people believe in climate change or not either way they will have to work out a way to live with it. Australia was understood by its native peoples. In little more than 200 years the Europeans have debauched it.

"Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is
Now you all were saying that you want to be free
But you'll come runnin' back (I said you would baby)
You'll come runnin' back (like I told you so many times before)
You'll come runnin' back to me, yeah"

Jagger

Did anyone think it was only a matter of time before Aussies (especially those living out woop-woop) decided that their wood stoves and fires, their 4-wheel drives (essential in places) and a rise in their food prices because of extra charges on diesel road trains would result in higher living costs for them?

It is all very well setting targets on emissions but not all governments have accepted them, least of all those of the world's developing nations.

If push came to shove, I can't think of any government that would happily hand over its responsibilities to any opposition parties nor leaders willing to relinquish their posts if they could remain in power by acquiescing to an abolition of policy on such as this.

Incidentally, has anyone checked out how Trump's doing because it was my understanding that he was going to bring back manufacturing industries into his fold to appease the jobless and lower unemployment.

While many of these were making use of cheap labour, a good few were dirty industries and all they entail sited in other countries so the US could remain 'clean'.

A man is like a rusty wheel
On a rusty cart
He sings his song as he rattles along
And then he falls apart

And we'll sing hallelujah
At the turning of the year
And we work all day in the old-fashioned way
Till the shining star appears

A man is like a briar
He covers himself with thorns
He laughs like a clown when his fortune's down
And his clothes are ragged and torn

And we'll sing hallelujah
At the turning of the year
And we work all day in the old-fashioned way
Till the shining star appears

A man is like a three string fiddle
Hanging up on the wall
He plays when somebody scrapes on the bow
Or he cannot play at all

And we'll sing hallelujah
At the turning of the year
And we work all day in the old-fashioned way
Till the shining star appears

A man is like his father
Wishes he never was born
He longs for the time when the clock will chime
And he's dead forevermore

And we'll sing hallelujah
At the turning of the year
And we work all day in the old-fashioned way
Till the shining star appears

And we'll sing hallelujah
At the turning of the year
And we work all day in the old-fashioned way
Till the shining star appears

Richard Thompson