6 - # of Straya threads or # of times we've changed Prime Minister in a decade?

[Axver]

OK, touché. And perhaps I'm reading a bit much into it being fresh from teaching Holocaust & Genocide. But the point is made just as well without it.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Could we start a petition to change the name of this forum to Leyonhjelm Stand ('For Freedom!')?

 

[Axver]

Could we start a petition to send Leyonhjelm to Manus Island?

 

[Kieran McConville]

Actually that I'd get behind.

Solitary.

 

[Axver]

So, how 'bout that LNP Queensland state MP who defected to One Nation?

Smart, reasonable man, except for the absence of any smart or reasonable qualities.

 

[Kieran McConville]

So, how 'bout that LNP Queensland state MP who defected to One Nation?

Smart, reasonable man, except for the absence of any smart or reasonable qualities.

Oddly, his primary interest seems to be cannabis laws. There are some odd (odd in that you wouldn't naturally associate them with their politics) undercurrents in One Nation, and this is one of them.

Feel the prospect of government slipping that little bit further away, Lawrence (or whoever is the LNP leader now, I honestly have no idea). Eh, I shouldn't whistle past the graveyard, but One Nation 1.0 hurt the unhappy and brief Borbidge government far more than it did Labor.

I am a little bemused by One Nation's 'Queensland campaign' as if there is an election due inside of two years, it's news to me. We went to four year terms at last year's referendum.

 

[Axver]

I thought that the next Queensland election was due in 2018, with that to be the first four-year parliament? i.e. the current one is still on the three-year schedule.

But yeah, the justification regarding cannabis laws is weird. I suppose if you accept a certain viewpoint normally held by left-wing parties, but otherwise associate with right-wing policies, you often have few options in Australian politics. It's far easier, at any rate, to hold specific right-wing views in the ALP than it is to hold left-wing ones in the LNP.

What strikes me though is that One Nation's policies are a total grab-bag and very much optional. Look at Malcolm Roberts arguing for an extreme opposite to the party's explicit policy on New Zealanders. So why you would jump ship to them in the belief they're going to support your cannabis crusade is baffling. Beyond generalised racism and anti-elite grievance politics, there isn't much of a unifying spirit within the party.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I thought that the next Queensland election was due in 2018, with that to be the first four-year parliament? i.e. the current one is still on the three-year schedule.

That makes sense actually, so ok, a year away (they usually seem to have fallen in January or February in recent times).

But yeah, the justification regarding cannabis laws is weird. I suppose if you accept a certain viewpoint normally held by left-wing parties, but otherwise associate with right-wing policies, you often have few options in Australian politics. It's far easier, at any rate, to hold specific right-wing views in the ALP than it is to hold left-wing ones in the LNP.

What strikes me though is that One Nation's policies are a total grab-bag and very much optional. Look at Malcolm Roberts arguing for an extreme opposite to the party's explicit policy on New Zealanders. So why you would jump ship to them in the belief they're going to support your cannabis crusade is baffling. Beyond generalised racism and anti-elite grievance politics, there isn't much of a unifying spirit within the party.

I think the grievance politics are probably the main drawcard. And it's reflected in the assorted eccentrics who seem to join and/or stand for office under its banner. Never is it just a regular bloke (or blokette) who really does run a fish and chip shop or whatever. It's always some crank with his own independent kingdom and dodgy business dealings up the wahzoo.

 

[Axver]

Precisely. And it's why One Nation will not be a long-term force, not without some serious changes to bring about party discipline.

But it does mean we're going to have to ride out some unpleasant bumps over the next few years, and probably the Libs will repeat their late nineties act of quietly poaching much of One Nation's platform. That's the more insidious problem here.

 

[cobl04]

I will never understand these expenses scandals. Mathias Cormann earns over $300k a year and he can't afford a few plane trips to Broome? Get the fuck out of here. Jesus christ.

 

[Axver]

Let's not kid ourselves. If you can find a way to charge something to your work, you will. Any halfway decent MP is going to have somebody in their office staff who knows every fucking loophole and how to exploit it.

My problem is that the loopholes exist to permit the charges in the first place. You shouldn't be able to go on what's essentially a leisure trip and charge the taxpayer for the whole damn thing just because you met a couple of CEOs during half-time at the footy. MPs should be reimbursed on a pro rata basis. Spend 10% of your trip on government business, but spent the rest of it at the footy or lying on the beach or buying apartments? Then you get 10% of your expenses back.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Precisely. And it's why One Nation will not be a long-term force, not without some serious changes to bring about party discipline.

But it does mean we're going to have to ride out some unpleasant bumps over the next few years, and probably the Libs will repeat their late nineties act of quietly poaching much of One Nation's platform. That's the more insidious problem here.

Yeah, precisely, and you already see it with the agit prop regarding Muslims and refugees, not necessarily in that order. Though it wasn't much of a nudge from where the Liberals seem to be anyway.

 

[Axver]

I suppose that's the question isn't it - how much of the Libs' drift to the right can/should be attributed to One Nation, and how much was organic and internal anyway? I mean, come on, Bernardi and Christensen.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I can't blame it all on One Nation, as if One Nation simply emerged fully formed from some godhead. It's all in the air, and was in the air twenty years ago. The hard right have nothing to offer voters except kulturkamph (absolutely misspelling that), so it's a natural enough drift. Even John Howard must have realised this on some level, with all his middle class bribes.

 

[cobl04]

Mike Baird has just retired, haha.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Well I don't know about haha, it sounds like he legitimately has major health issues in his immediate family, but yeah, good luck to the government after this (not). Perhaps this would be a timely time for Daniel Andrews to annex the state?

 

[Axver]

Here's a right laugh, feat. Bronwyn Bishop saying another stupid thing: https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust/status/821929472462991360

 

[Kieran McConville]

Thanks, Bronwyn.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I see the news around Centrelink's legalised extortion just goes from bad to worse, with an item today suggesting staff are actively instructed not to correct errors unless the customer explicitly takes them to task. I'd like to think there will come a terrible reckoning for all of this... but as I said last week, short memory.

 

[Axver]

If only this had happened a year ago. The government would not have survived an already tight contest. But with the next election not due for over two years, I fear you may be right.

 

[Kieran McConville]

If only this had happened a year ago. The government would not have survived an already tight contest. But with the next election not due for over two years, I fear you may be right.

That's the thing isn't it. These... moments of moral clarity... always happen early in a term. Still, if a minister doesn't go down over this, it may linger. I'd like to see Labor take a break from their holidays and maybe do more than just wait for power (yeah, I know, the shadow minister made the sort of statement you'd expect, but it's hardly the caravan of courage here, or the convoy of hope or whatever that Gillard-era conservative march on Rome was called). It won't necessarily come on a plate.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Can I assume none of you strayan regulars were in Bourke Street Melbourne this afternoon?

 

[Axver]

Fortunately I was not. About a 20-minute walk north.

As if 20 January 2017 wasn't fucked enough.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Yes well, Melbourne is a fairly large place, I figure. So ok.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Bourke Street driver identified as James 'Jimmy' Gargasoulas

 

[Kieran McConville]

Bourke Street driver identified as James 'Jimmy' Gargasoulas

I love how debased our language has become that we can all breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't terrorism-related (ie. Muslim related).

 

[Axver]

Classy text I got from one relative before we even had much idea what was going on: "of course it'll be a druggie or an import".

Who even says "import"?!

 

[Kieran McConville]

It's a new slang to me, I must admit. You talk about imports, I picture electrical goods or maybe out of season mandarins (not the public service kind).

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Bronwyn Bishop going on Sky News constantly to cry about socialists is one of my favourite things.

 

[Axver]

What now? Is the Hottest 100 too socialist? Are Aboriginal people all reds under the bed? Are people at rallies sipping too many socialist hot beverages like lattes?