Category: politics

Our Visit to Queensland Parliament..

The invitation came, we thought no, then why not.

My local State Member Jim Madden’s office emailed me a invitation to join him and some other constituents to a afternoon BBQ and tour of Queenslland Parliament House on the 2nd December 2018 and after some hesitation both headed off to a unknown destination for a adventure. Not bad for two over sixty sixes.

Planning as I do the journey I proceeded past my beloved German Club and proceeded to cross the Story Bridge, down Ivory Street, past the old Waterside Workers Club of my childhood, left at the Customs House and down to what I thought was Parliament House,confusing that with the Parliamentary Annex which was our destination.

Typically we asked security who sent us to get a parking available but not explained to the security guard it was for disabled, consequently we circled the place twice then out of frustration returned to the guard who said Oh, park right here, this is the place your looking for. R..I..G..H…T..!!!!!

On entry we were scanned, X-rayed and interrogated all part of the hospitality then aimed towards the lifts and told the 7th floor was the target zone.

On entry welcomed accordingly and after introductions proceeded to have light refreshments and good conversation with fellow Ipswich people.

The subjects were broad but all ended up on a political narrative with topics from all levels of government with varying opinions, complying with the location.

After a sumptuous lunch, love the snags, we set out to tour our place of democracy in Queensland.

And impressive it was, steeped in history and tradition, and enlightening to us who follow the political game on what we see via the media and how it really is.

I got to sit in the Speakers Chair and that was recorded, as that is not how it works in my house where she who must be obeyed reins and often I’m in the Opposition.

We were treated to a extensive history lesson and fittingly the day concluded in the Parliamentary Chook House, home of the chickens who look after the herb and vegetable gardens used in the Parliamentary kitchen. Yes they do have real chefs and people employed in hospitality.

Really it’s a experience worth engaging in if you truly interested in how our democracy works.

Thanks Jim Madden Alp Member for West Ipswich. And staff for a memorable balmy Sunday afternoon indulging in Queensland history.

Time for our Youth To Shine.

Oh dear, the older we get the more wiser we are supposed to become.

We will always get those who think the old days were the best, the lifestyles were simple, so that’s good enough for us today, why change, and Now that group has become a political movement.

I’m a 50’s kid and we lived a dream compared to our parents, but ask our parents now if they lived a dream you will get a completely opposite response.

I’m yet to see those pushing the Trumpian ideology of protectionism, anti climate, anti migration, anti equal women’s opportunities, racial and religious divide, provide one forward thinking policy. They see our countries future is to go backwards to the way it was.

The hate youth involvement because it shakes the foundations of what is your place in society , your too young to understand, the cry, forgetting that youth today has 1000 times the access to information that was only available when a newspaper was finished being read or when the radio TV was turned on.

At 21 I could not have a beer in a pub but I could go to war at 19. Only the well off could go to university regardless if you had the talent, as long as you had the money, while the state school kids had to fight for a single grant, and the trades were regarded as the lower end of the class divide., and the shop assistants and labourers were servants.

They will have you believe they were the good times, and they were for the privalaged.

I see a case in today’s world for the voting age to be dropped to 16 as those young people today know and are aware and mature as much as some of the so called adult punters that go to the polls and vote informal deliberately, or turn up just to avoid fines.

We’ve run our race, started wars, split nations, invented weapons, diseases to destroy the the planet, yet say to our youth your too young.

What utter rot.

The LNP’s Trump Faction hard at work.

I would be the last person to tell the LNP how to do their business, however putting that aside I do take issue with the media description of them having a “female” problem within their ranks.

The truth is they have a “male” problem and if you look at their team sheet the line up speaks fo itself. People like Abbott, Abetts, Dutton, O’Sullivan, supported by the Kroger’s support fed by Jones and Hadley and Sky after Dark no wonder the boys club mentality sets a very slanted platform for any person who wishes to contribute let alone a female.

Personally,politically, I hope they don’t change, dig coal, close the borders, deny climate change. Reject renewables, and bully women out of the way, but that’s not good for our nation, any nation, and Victorians agreed, Saturday.

We need to install a government/governments that will look to our future, provide adequate and timely infrastructure and jobs with plans for our kids and elderly that will accommodate our growing population, and stop the scaremongering and fabricating excuses for ideology incompetence, and the real question is the LNP prepared to pay price of keeping the Trump faction worth loosing women’s participation at the ballot box..

The baseball caps have it Scomo.

Our Lingo is Precious.

Since the last round of musical Prime Ministers I have noticed a number of suttle image and cultural changes that trouble me.

Firstly it’s the new baseball capped advertising billboard PM mirroring Trump, then comes the lingo where our Returned Service Men and Women referred to as Veterans, our Emergency Workforce of Police and Ambulance, Fire Fighters and support are blanketed with the term of First Responders, all lazy American terms or lazy English..

Lets not hand over our culture and language and reject Americanisation or we will be left with that word “bunch” as a description for anything plural instead of a bouquet of flowers.

It starts with the little things that are important if we are to remain who we are.

Murdock Media rails against Federal Corruption RC.

Paul Murray’s spin on the introduction of a Federal Royal Commission into Political corruption he describe as “overreach” cannot go unchallenged.

The tarnishing of political opponents were not far from his pencil I recall when the Trade Unions were and former Prime Ministers had to front commissions commissioned by the Coalition days after the election. His support for a Banking enquires was in line with Coalition policy until they were dragged kicking and screaming to the bench, which leave me thinking why the resistance to a Federal Iccac and what do the politicians have to hide?

When the media takes a stance against government transparency I question its ethical standards regardless of which side of politics you support. Protecting politicians is not the role of media unless you want a media landscape like America.

I hope this hung parliaments first job is to announce that Royal Commission into Political Corruption and we will see which side screams the loudest and after Murray’s article it’s becoming obvious one side is clearly nervous.

Leave TELSTRA Employees Out of it.

I feel the pain of TELSTRA complaints every time I see and hear how customers are responding to the lack of service, performance and lack of basic good corporate citizenship.

I don’t expect customers of the this day and age to appreciate the corporate ethics the company had before it was decided the shareholders held more priorities than customers. I agonise when I see guards left on footpaths for years, pits crumbling, non identifiable people accessing the network at pillars knowing how confidentiality and privacy protocols no longer apply or monitored.

Every day in Australia we see good people in uniforms go to work and represent a company, cop the abuse, and do their best for a employer knowing full well they are working with people and systems that are not performing to our standards but may meet some benchmarks set by a bean counter that only understands profit and outsourcing Australians.

Shannon’s experience is common, and will continue until we take back what Australians owned and paid for before privatisation.

I had a American telecommunications expert tell me the network I was accountable for was “too good” and costing too much to maintain and customers had to expect delays in installation and repairs, FACT and that was just before the days of Blunt as MD. That signalled lip service to customer service.

Outsourcing responsibility, accountability, service and especially company brand is a decision only someone who has no respect or appreciation for the vastness and history of the Australian telecommunications network and the attitude accepted by overseas call centres of its “just another call” is not acceptable here and never will be, but please remember those Australian employees you vent your spleen on today are not the people who sold the farm and it’s machinery.

Polling Complacency, a Danger to Our Culture.

The expulsion of the young Nationals should start the alarm bells ringing in all political institutions in Australia.

The simple fact the strategy was to infiltrate a major party and change political platforms in such a blatant way and go unchecked shows that our political systems can be influenced by the extreme be it left or right and the smaller parties are not exempt.

On social media I am seeing groups accelerate decisive propaganda preying on people’s emotions, encouraging religious and cultural divide, all in the name of being “Real Australians” a nationalistic trend that is happening across the globe by ult-right organisations. These groups thrive when people become political disenfranchised and results in people voting for the minors as a protest vote. Those minors are easy meat for the extremists as the structures are in place and the numbers easier to be stacked and then balance of power is the objective.

I am in favour of competition in our democracy but I do not want to see our divide grow as it has in America. We are smarter than that I hope, but let’s not fall into the trap that “all politicians and Parties are the same”, either, their not. Some ideologies are deadly serious to change our culture to one controlled by interest groups similar to the NRA.

Be aware punters, not complacent.

Referees Blamed for Government Incompetence.

Dannielle Fords “Cutting Umpires Slack” article (See Below) should be read and digested by not only the arm chair warriors but the men behind the microphones and front the cameras and the scribes who present themselves as keepers of all knowledge on sport.

Anyone who has refereed sport experiences critical analysis for decisions that occur within tenths of a second and now we see the media gaggle question the Video Assist because it exposes infringements too well or or takes too long.

The VAR systems is accepted as the normal in European sport and unfortunately we Australians are yet to embrace it as this nations downgraded NBN speeds delays swift decision.

For instance in Bundesliga the centre in Cologne can monitor up to 5 matches at one once and have a decision expectation via 19-21 cameras on each ground within 26 seconds unless a on field intervention is required., Australia one per ground at snail mail speed., so when the squarkers in suits whinge they should be asking the question why do we in Australia are incapable of delivering the technology accepted as the norm overseas.

This is a classic example of when near enough is not good enough and our politicians felt our 55th place in the world in internet speed was acceptable for them I assure them running 55th when our sporting standards is effected just doesn’t cut it with the masses.

Ratepayers Pay for Strategic Genius’s Failures.

I can only applaud the administrator to cut the losses ipswich ratepayers on the city’s mall but unfortunately it will not repair the damage council caused to the the businesses and long standing trading family’s of our great city when it made the the diabolical decision to build Riverlink.. The total incompetence of that decision thinking stripping patronage from a facility that was already ratepayer funded to appease developers then sell it off to overseas owners who used it as a tax dodge, then proceeded use our funds again repair and renew several time since, all of which failed and costed us possibly billions over time. 

The city’s strategy may have looked good on the drawing board but councillors failed when it come to realising that the although Ipswich population  may have be growing the wages weren’t and by introducing extra competitors the slices get smaller. 

I see Springfield residents are demanding extra attention and funding, may I suggest those residents take a drive around ipswich and long standing neglected ratepayers do not have curbs, channeling, parks, footpaths but are blessed with garbage pickups and maybe sewage full stop. Another council strategic masterpiece. 

The real lesson is we cannot let developers set the agenda as it has in the past administration, as ratepayers are sick of seeing photo shoots of suits in hi vis bibs and silver shovels and I fear with the opening of this Costco thought bubble will be counter active to bringing customers back to support our city centre let alone existing retailers in shopping centres 

Good luck Greg, in sorting out this scramble egg.

Gay Bashing Reignited by the Good Christians.

This nation and our LGBTQ’s community was dragged through the mire of hate and recriminations, with the referendum to appease the what turned out to be a distinct minority of people who wanted SSM to be outlawed in this country.

Not satisfied with that result that all should be treated as equal the LNP immediately commissioned Ruddick to deliver a slanted outcome to compensate the proportion that voted NO, then proceeded to hide it for It’s political reasoning.

Well Zannits cartoon in today’s QT has regenerated the non acceptance of those have no control over who they are and is a total disgrace. We as responsible adults should have a obligation to teach and live acceptance, but obviously some of the good church going hypocrites feel kids and teachers will infect their pristine views on who and who isn’t fit to be educated in private schools.

It’s gays this time, then will it be blacks, asians, if they don’t fit the pristine model?

In a culture that has hidden, supported, criminals who destroyed children’s lives for decades world wide and still ongoing have the audacity to point the finger and discriminate at those who through no fault of their own are dealt a hand that is different leaves me breathless, and surely the QT should make it clear on its stance on such a toxic ,unfunny and divisive piece of trash disguised as a cartoon

See below

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