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The contempt with which the Abbott government and its ultra-right senior Ministers hold the bulk of Australians only becomes worse, more dictatorial and more frightening with time. No wonder calls for their removal grow louder each day.
As with all LNP governments are the servants of the rich, who believe arrogantly, that they were born to rule.
Following the decision to stop fighting climate change, by removing a price on carbon that added 0.7% to the cost of living (which ordinary Australians were compensated for), it seems the only outcome was to save costs for biggest polluters and give them a signal to freely pollute the air we breathe.
The claim of $550 per annum savings for the householder were always fanciful and will soon be proven so. The real cost of such short-sightedness will be paid by my children and their children as the future in Northern Australia in relation to severe weather events now looks bleak.
A very wise old man told me 30 years ago that in the future working people would struggle to survive in Australia with a roof over their collective heads. He told me that the conservatives in Australia had a nasty side that the public had not seen. That was true, until now. First we were assaulted by Howard’s WorkChoices, soon to be followed by Abbott’s WorkChoices Mk2. Make no mistake, these conservatives are out to return workers to serfdom.
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On the State scene there is a continued hope in Queensland that people have woken up to the economic brutality of the LNP. Newman promised us price freezes on electricity which were soon followed by prices rises, most recently of 13%. Which is better than our counterparts in NSW who the LNP there slugged 17%. They really hate ordinary people don’t they?
Last Saturday the Queensland LNP were sent a very strong message in Stafford (the electorate next to Newman’s). We have been told we need to make strong choices. We have. But not of the kind Newman expected. Following strong choices in Redcliffe, Dr Anthony Lynham captured 61.5% of the vote. The LNP have long been on the nose, but now it seems the writing is on the wall and there is a light at the end of this very dark tunnel.
Many LNP state politicians must be nervous give the scale of recent swings and the fact that they sitting on margins of less than 5%. Personally I welcome the rejection of failed conservative policies which have given Townsville an unemployment rate of 10.5%.
A curious letter from Sam Cox MP arrived at my home yesterday telling me of what a great job the LNP had done with our Townsville Hospital, (with funding allocated by the Gillard Labor government - *unstated in the letter). He went on to claim credit for clearing the dental waiting list (again thanks to the previous Labor government). If they do in fact manage to reduce times for eye treatment, this will be their first and only achievement in this area.
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Personally I was very angry at the Bligh government in relation to their sale of Queensland Rail’s profit making arm. It was a backward step and the government was duly punished. It beggars belief that now the Newman government seeking to do likewise, but on a grander scale.
The sale of public enterprises reduces revenue to the governments that in turn reduces their ability to fund services, so services are also cut, and workers are sacked. As always, it is people in rural and regional Australia will suffer the most with these backward steps.
We are left with two Queensland’s and two Australia’s - one for the wealthy and one for the poor. This approach underlines the ultra-right wing policies of selfishness and insatiable greed, where only the privileged few are looked after at the cost of the majority.
My local LNP state politician seems to be in panic mode if my letter box is anything to go by. It has been bombarded with leaflets describing to me how great his performance has been. The latest glossy brochure lists 40 small achievements in the past 2 years, including taking credit for the hard work of the police in seeing “Crime statistics improve in the past year…”.
There were no mentions of any visionary plans for the Thuringowa electorate, or Townsville or North Queensland in general. But then the kind of visions that the LNP has are ones they aren’t willing to tell us about until after an election.
As a final note – Alan Jones rarely says anything that is interesting or surprising. But in this clip he surprised me. Perhaps it is just another sign of how much trouble the Newman government is in, when one of conservative politics most unashamed cheerleaders begins bagging your government.