Summary: THE FOCUS GROUP establishes why SomethingWonky wins awards every week for Most New Segments In An Australian Political Podcast Hosted By Dave And Jeremy (a niche category, granted) We Didn't Start The Fire checks in on Victoria's latest scheme to drive people from Morwell, with Hazelwood still burning, more than three weeks on. Vic Lib govt eventually calls to start evacuating people from Morwell, sort of. Train ticket to anywhere... but what about when you get there? Hazelwood owner denies flogging off fire-fighting equipment. One Door Shuts, Another Opens checks out employment with the new Abbott government 50,000 jobs to go in the public service? Meanwhile, Tony finds work for 15,000 people in his "Green Army" at half the minimum wage, working without health and safety protections. Because hard manual labor is half as important as any other job in the country and twice as easy. Not clear that the Abbott government understands what the word "minimum" means. Also, plenty of work in Scott Morrison's department, with the revelation that he has 66 departmental spin doctors (plus 33 through customs) whose main job appears to be telling the media to eff off. Easy work, and Scott's not as stingy as Greg Hunt, offering paying significantly more than half the minimum wage. (Scott's subcontractors are extremely stingy, sure, paying PNG workers a few dollars a day, but not Australian citizens.) My Aunt Was Murdered By An Out Of Control Huon Pine is heartened to finally hear a Prime Minister recognise the real threat to this nation - too many trees. "We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest." If Tony Doesn't See It checks in on Tony and Bill at the International Women's Day breakfast, Tony suggesting the glass ceilings were already smashed so it was fine for him to come along and get them re-glazed, both of them searching for nice things to say about their daughters and coming up with "beautiful" because FEMINISM IS REDUNDANT. This Is What Happens When You Privatise National Assets joins Tony Abbott in asking - why shouldn't Qantas have all the advantages of being the national carrier with none of the disadvantages? Or are Qantas and The Coalition now at war? Qantas "led to believe" sacking 5,000 workers will lead to government support, asks for $3 billion unsecured loan Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott claim the "carbon tax" is behind Qantas' woes Qantas issues statement saying "no it isn't" Joe then tells cabinet "if the airline was unfazed by a $106 million carbon tax bill, it could not be in serious trouble" and the Coalition says no to help other than putting a bill to parliament that won't pass Qantas points out such a bill won't pass. Abbott reveals how much money Qantas asked for and suggests Qantas managers are crap: "Look, if you go back over the last decade, for much of the time Qantas has been hugely profitable. Now, under good management, there is no reason why Qantas cannot be very profitable; there’s no reason why Qantas can’t continue to be one of the world’s great airlines." Other companies take note - if you want the help of the Australian taxpayer under the Coalition, you have to blame your woes on the "carbon tax" loudly and often. The Dog Ate My Homework Assignment (About Not Decimating Australian Industry) asks, is there anything Tony Abbott can't blame on the carbon tax? What The Hell Are You Doing!??! is astonished at the Labor Party actually complaining that the Coalition is being too slow in putting its terrible policies before the parliament to become legislation. Dear Tony Burke, PLEASE SHUT UP. Tess Newton-Cain has whinging leftists smearing the good people of the Pacific Stuck In Her Craw David Bridie points out "the people of Manus Island are neither primitive nor a pushover. They have the highest literacy rate in PNG, and Manusians punch above their weight in terms of top public service positions"
