Today seemed like a perfect day for the reptiles to opt into abusing the government and the opposition on the sordid matter of the gambling matter sell out, but they decided to opt out, and carry on their usual jihads.
Rental disorder: nation’s largest property manager backs warning on 30pc rises
Property manager Ray White has warned Jim Chalmers’ budget tax changes could force rents up by almost a third, as the Albanese government publicly rejects the analysis.
By Thomas Henry, Matthew Cranston and Ewin Hannan
The pond guesses that the lizard Oz's devotion to tabloid revenues for the Murdoch empire trumped any concern for hive mind punters ...
$240 rent hike for Christmas: Jim’s people pay price
Rents in Jim Chalmers’ Rankin electorate climb at three times Treasury’s forecast rate
The Treasurer promised rents would rise just $2 a week – but in his own electorate, landlords are hiking them by up to $240.
By Mackenzie Scott and Jordan Lamont
The indefatigable Geoff was standing by to chamber another tirade ...
Tell ’em they’re dreaming: Treasury’s forecasts were simply pie in the sky, Jim Chalmers
The Treasurer’s frustrated reaction to an NAB client note discussing impacts of the government’s housing tax crackdown reveals a politician under pressure.
It wasn't as if they couldn't have turned to the 'toons to see what was going down in the real world, courtesy of the likes of the infallible Pope ...
As a way of continuing their avoidance tactics, the reptiles also dragged truly moth eaten Petey boy out of the closet to join another jihad ...
Costello warns Victoria faces multi-term battle to repair ‘sickly’ state
The former treasurer urges the next state government to rein in spending, slash taxes, and dismantle Daniel Andrews’s ‘command-and-control’ public service.
By Anthony Galloway
Sure enough it turned out that trained parrot Anthony was just regurgitating what Petey boy had offered over on the extreme far right.
The state that gave the world its longest Covid lockdown now faces a $200bn debt crisis – it will take years to escape.
By Peter Costello
Contributor
Couldn't the reptiles rustle up a relevant Victorian Liberal rather than this ossified antique?
What a joy to be able personally to consign both of them to the intermittent archive.
If the reptiles had wanted to strike a Victorian tone, they could have turned to Golding, celebrating the vultures at the footy ...
The pond also did the same archival service for Dame Slap, what with her deciding to act as chief reptile ghoul this day, performatively showing off her routine of hard bigot...
One of the world’s greatest universities, home to Newton and Darwin, seemingly let identity politics trump academic rigour – with devastating consequences.
By Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist
It was the pile on of jihadist bigots that claimed the don, and the pond refuses to indulge Dame Slap in her version of the blame game.
There was avoidance wherever the pond looked.
Instead of the gambling matter, the bouffant one summoned up his usual two minute bleat ...
On the day Australia honoured its Vietnam veterans, their own minister was too busy to meet them – until the Prime Minister personally intervened.
By Dennis Shanahan
National Editor
Oh and the pond should note that the reptiles are still continuing their silent movie ticking clock count down at the top of the digital page ...
It better be good, but the pond suspects it will turn out to be a dud, a bit like when Richard Harris turned up to defuse the ticking time bermb in Dick Lester's Juggernaut. Cut the red wire (or was it the blue one?)
With all that winnowing of the hive mind, the pond had to go below the page to discover Cameron in a tither and a dither ... bermb, bermb, bermb Oman ...
The header: Donald Trump’s foreign policy unravels with threats to key international partners; The threat to ‘bomb the s..t’ out of Oman signals a presidency unravelling on the world stage, with Iran, Gaza and the Strait of Hormuz all defying his grip.
The caption for the bone spurs clown carrying on like a member of the military: President Donald Trump arrives at the White House on Sunday. Picture: AP Photo
It's tough times for the reptiles down under, what with their kissing cousins at Faux Noise still actively campaigning for the triumph of the GOP at the mid-terms, so that mad king Donald might continue his reign without let or hindrance.
This might help explain why Stewie could only summon up three minutes and the reptiles larded the piece with a number of AV distractions ...
These are tough days for Trump on the international stage. Nothing seems to be going right. The war against Iran is at a stalemate, with no hope of a meaningful resolution any time soon. Trump can’t break an increasingly belligerent Iran with military force and can’t even get Tehran to the negotiating table to secure a face-saving peace deal. The collapsed 60-day memorandum of understanding with Iran ended this week with no achievements and no move on either side to try to revive it.
This really should be bromancer turf, but perhaps he was exhausted by yesterday's outing, as the reptiles piled on the AV distractions ... US President Donald Trump is threatening to bomb Oman as it reportedly closes in on a deal with Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them,” President Trump said. The White House has maintained one of its key goals is to fully reopen the waterway for free passage. President Trump also reiterated that the main objective is stopping Iran from having nuclear capabilities. Iran told Reuters it plans to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy continues to fail and it’s giving the US a few weeks to fully implement the MOU and end its naval blockade.
Stewie was as perplexed as the bromancer. Perhaps both of them need to head over to Faux Noise for retraining on the inhouse e-emetre, so they might become clear ...
With each passing day, it is increasingly likely that the Iran conflict will remain unresolved by the midterm elections in November. In other words, Americans will go to the polls with the motivation to punish Trump for this unpopular war and for the soaring gas prices and flow-on inflation it has generated. The likely outcome is that Republicans will lose the House of Representatives and most likely the Senate, making Trump a lame duck for his final two years in the White House.
Trump’s frustration with this situation is playing out in the increasingly bizarre comments and empty rhetoric he is employing on Iran.
His bewildering order this week for the Pentagon to scale back military exercises with an ally South Korea – and hand a diplomatic win to the ‘unthreatening and respectful’ Stalinist dictatorship of North Korea – because Seoul did not do more to help the US on Iran, can only be interpreted as a presidential tantrum.
The reptiles threw in another AV distraction ... US President Donald Trump claims North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has always treated him with “great respect”. “I understand him, he understands me,” he said. “I get along with him very well. What I’m doing is making things safer.” This comes after President Trump ordered the military to scale back joint drills with South Korea hours before they were due to begin.
Stewie was relentlessly gloomy ...
Trump’s beef with Oman is that it is negotiating separately with Iran for a deal to allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran overseeing ships entering the Strait and Oman overseeing those leaving the Strait.
The details of the proposed deal are unclear but Trump is unhappy with the prospect of a deal which could potentially give Iran any form of control over shipping in the Strait.
Trump also lashed out at Oman in May over the possibility that it would join forces with Iran to re-open the Strait with conditions attached.
Oman frames itself as a neutral negotiator between the US and Iran and Iran even though Iran has launched strikes against Oman during this war. But Oman has been too close to Iran in the eyes of some in Washington, with its leader Sultan Haitham, having sent a message of congratulations to Iran’s newly selected supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, earlier this year.
The reptiles turned to a final AV distraction ... President Donald Trump's approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency, with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the U.S. war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday (August 17). Reuters Politics Editor Scott Malone explains.
As a way of wrapping up the Faux Noise follies, Stewie decided the mad King needed a little advice ...
Trump has enough challenges trying to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and seek an honourable exit from this conflict without tilting at windmills and lashing out at countries like South Korea or Oman rather than Iran.
Buckle up Stewie, it's an astonishingly effective distraction, though it's hard to work out what's distracting from who or what these days ...
The lizard Oz editorialist was equally distracted ...
The pond can reassure the reptiles of Oz that the pond is in daily personal contact with the mad King, and no doubt if palms are greased, something can be worked out ...
The header: Are the centre-right ready for a fight on super? One Nation and a Liberal maverick have put compulsory superannuation on the election agenda.
The caption for a man inclined to brag out of turn: Andrew Bragg says super is “probably the biggest failure of public policy in the last 50 years”. Picture: Martin Ollman
"Ned" took a bigly five minutes, and the pond can safely say it had no interest in what he had to say, nor much in the topic itself.
The pond merely offers it as another example of the way the reptiles continue to torment themselves, haunted by Gina's pampered pet Pauline, and the odd pollie inclined to brag too much ...
The immediate retaliation from the Albanese government gives the game away. The two policy edifices sanctified and untouchable in Labor’s pantheon are superannuation and Medicare. Labor sees them as weapons to be mobilised and fortresses to be defended at all costs. And, to a great extent, the Liberals have long been intimidated by these Labor icons.
The centre right is trapped. It resents and disputes the principles that underpin compulsory super but it has always failed to devise any enduring reform that strikes at the Labor model. But with the Liberals needing to be bold, lusting to differentiate themselves from Labor, and a public agonising over cost-of-living pressures, the same issue arises again: will the Coalition strike against the edifice?
Their core proposition is obvious: with real wages declining and living standards stagnant, why should the Australian people tolerate a law that confiscates 12 per cent of their wages to be locked into a retirement fund that they cannot access for the rest of their working life? Who decided on this level of imposed sacrifice? Might its social licence be far less than what Labor and the union movement assume? Will the centre right have the courage and the brains to test the issue?
Many Liberals, if not most, still see compulsory super as the embodiment of government control and union influence, hostile to their core philosophy of individual freedom. The system is a permanent torment for the Liberals – they can’t accept its principles but they can’t devise the means to change it (even when in office).
Two influential Liberals, opposition Treasury spokesman Tim Wilson and housing spokesman Bragg, have long been hostile towards the model. Wilson opposed the increase in the contribution rate to 12 per cent, has previously called for low-income earners to be exempted, and said people should be able to access their super to buy a home.
Last week Bragg called for a New Liberalism and attacked vested interests, with super funds top of the list. He branded the super system a “massive failure, probably the biggest failure of public policy in the last 50 years”. He slammed the 12 per cent compulsory rate, saying it took “from people’s wages to vest them with managers they will never meet”, constituted a loss of liberty and choice, and asked pointedly whether people in their 20s would prefer to put their 12 per cent into super or buying a home.
What happened next defines our politics. Hanson jumped on the train last weekend. She doesn’t have policies but she emotes. Her message on News24: people should be able to access their super. “A lot of Australians are doing it tough now and struggling to pay off their mortgages,” Hanson said. “In some ways I feel that you should give them their money now and let them help them with the cost of living. It is their money. They’ve sacrificed it in lieu of pay.”
Freedumb boy with Gina's pet?
At least it keeps "Ned" far away from that gambling matter: Pauline Hanson believes people should be able to access their super. Picture: Tony Gough
It was up to "Ned" to lather up fear and loathing as best he could ...
The Treasurer said it was the biggest threat to the superannuation model in four decades. And it is another campaign weapon for Labor. If the Liberal Party plans to offer serious changes to the super system, this is a bad start.
If you have been impressed in the past by a Labor Medicare scare, that will be dwarfed by an election based on super, with Labor, the union movement and the power of industry superannuation funds united in their assault on the centre right. Nothing is more institutionally and policy precious to Labor than compulsory super – it would sacrifice everything to win an election-driven referendum.
On display is how Hanson eats the lunch of the Liberal Party, then spits it out. She issues populist declarations (not viable policies) from immigration to super, pre-empting the Liberals who typically find that their own policies, when realised, can’t match Hanson’s recklessness or just duplicate it, and are then dismissed as ineffective or unsure about their beliefs.
In retrospect, Labor’s creation of compulsory super is one of the most astonishing achievements since Federation. It testifies to Labor’s mentality as an institutional party, from its bond with the unions, its creation of Medicare, its IR machinery, to its most recent creation, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, despite its many flaws.
The $4.5 trillion super sector, unique in the world, is based on compulsory contributions from wages to private superannuation funds (as opposed to a nationalised model). It originated as a Labor-ACTU project, the architects being Paul Keating and Bill Kelty, the model developed initially through the ALP-ACTU Accord during the 1980s and then, under Keating’s influence, becoming a mandated super scheme by law with a 9 per cent contribution target.
The pond would dearly love a penny each time the reptiles show that the French clock man keeps living rent-free in their heads ... Paul Keating shakes hands with ACTU secretary Bill Kelty at a rally in Melbourne during the 1996 federal election campaign.
Some pond correspondents might have a view, but "Ned" moaning away about super fun with Pauline isn't the pond's problem.
He's the one forced to shout at clouds that the beefy boofhead's mob are mired in contradictions, and that means the pond just has to sit back and marvel at the show ...
The only remarkable thing about the current outbreak on super is that it didn’t occur earlier, given cost-of-living and housing pressures. In the 2022 campaign Scott Morrison unveiled a policy allowing people to access 40 per cent of their super account, capped at $50,000 – yet delayed the release until the end of the campaign, fearing the retaliatory power of industry super funds.
It was, however, the earlier debate about the lift to a 12 per cent contribution that triggered substantial critiques.
“As the Henry Tax Review and others have noted, higher compulsory super contributions are ultimately funded by lower wages, which means lower living standards for workers today.”
Presumably, Hanson will keep running her campaign. If she gets traction, watch out; that will intensify pressure on the Coalition. The Liberals, meanwhile, are mired in contradictions. Angus Taylor backs stability in the system and also backs investment flexibility for superannuation. Liberal analysis shows that when the super contribution rose from 10 to 12 per cent, real wages fell by 2 per cent over the same time. OK, but what, if anything, will they do about it?
Cam Stewart: "This sort of empty rhetoric only serves to undermine Trump’s reputation and US prestige...".
ReplyDeleteButt, but that's exactly what gives Trump and the US their "reputations".
Hmmm: Phillip Almond:
ReplyDelete"Given there is no such thing as “Judeo-Christian values”, we might do well to abandon the term."
Little Dishonest Johnny is to blame.
https://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-calls-australia-judeo-christian-but-the-term-is-a-meaningless-modern-invention-289381
Neddy, as a long-time inhabitant of both the hive mind and the bubble of political journalism, naturally views superannuation purely in terms of political ideology and conflict. He gives no consideration to its basic purpose- namely ensure the payee’s financial security in their old age, and thus reduce the burden of age pensions on the taxpayer. It doesn’t occur to him that such an outcome - reducing public expenditure - would actually seem quite consistent with Liberal Party ideology. Instead, he happily accepts the claims by the likes of Freedom Boy that government shouldn’t be “telling people what they do with their own money”, even though a general application of
ReplyDeletept 2
ReplyDelete..of such a view would surely see people being able to opt out of taxation being levied on “their money”..
It’s been an absolute hoot to watch the slow realisation by the Reptiles that they can no longer pretend that the Mad King is anything other than a rolled-gold dud. When even the Lizard Oz editorials start expressing concern that the Cantaloupe Caligula may have lost the plot (not that he ever had it…), then surely the jig is up.
ReplyDeleteNo, he never had it. But you underestimate the ability of the reptiles to believe anything they want to believe ... for at least how long it takes them to say it anyway.
DeleteNed wrote 'Nothing is more institutionally and policy precious to Labor than compulsory super – it would sacrifice everything to win an election-driven referendum.', but this reader has no idea what 'everythings' he saw as possible sacrifices for an election campaign. Perhaps it is just standard Reptile 'Oooh, there could be desperate unintended consequences' from - insert whatever prod they received yesterday from whichever industry lobby group visited their e-mails.
ReplyDeleteBut, of course, Ned will not mention why the reptiles get regular communications from industry lobbyists. Much of it is triggered by the industry super funds having a say in how corporations are run in this country. The cosy arrangement, which sees remarkably few people comprise the boards of our companies, and those people nominated for their 'collegial' approach (read - do as they are told, don't rock the boat) can feel quite bruised by votes from now substantial shareholders that question where the company is going, and even hitherto sacrosanct matters like remuneration and fees.
That bruising, and the resultant outrage, happens even though the super funds have been a major source of investment in hopefully productive activities, during the time when individual citizens, on good salaries, have funnelled their spare dollars into the housing bubble, which has also siphoned off much of the funds that major banks have had to invest. Just look at the bleats from the banks about 'Labor's new taxes on housing'.
Yep - great way to run an economy.
Business boards are like pyramids: the few big and successful enterprises share few board members. The ones a bit less prosperous have more proto-directors to choose from and so on down the line though at the bottom (small and/or family only) the set of possible directors shrinks to very, very few. Or so I have found.
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ReplyDeleteNo, it's not 'my money' that goes into my super, it's the employer's money, and if you think that the employer will pay the 12% to your wages if he doesn't have to pay it into super, I can sell you shares in a bridge being built at Victoria Pass.
I'd call that bbo (bleedin' bloody obvious) Joe, but you're the first I've seen to actually say it.
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