Summary: THE FOCUS GROUP Australia and The Budget Of Doom SomethingWonky fails to make enough noise about the GP co-payment and the LNP thinks it’s safe to go ahead with it; ALP mysteriously quiet. WHY chipping away at universal healthcare is a terrible, terrible idea, this zombie proposal in particular. WHY the ALP putting pressure on now, before the Libs are locked in, is so vital. Libs to close Medicare Locals, just like they promised they wouldn’t. What does your doctor know? Kevin Andrews to send DSP recipients to his crack team of NO YOU’LL BE FINE practitioners What’s the LNP’s new excuse for breaking promises? Pyne suggests it’s hey those were Labor programs, we never said we wouldn’t cut those. Greg Jericho points out the lunacy of making budget surpluses an aim of economic policy that overrides everything else. Then Greg points out that the Coalition is banking on voters confusing “fixing the budget” with “fixing the economy”, without bothering to show how. Clive Palmer threatens to block carbon price and mining tax repeals But fear not - we’ve got $12bn for fighter planes that don’t work and can barely fly and would be “quickly outmanoeuvred in the skies” if it did. Free, stupid speech Croatia slightly annoyed with Libs sending MP to pass on PM’s good wishes to celebration of pro-Nazi regime from 1940s; summons ambassador. George Brandis declares it “deplorable” that people aren’t taking climate change deniers’ transparent idiocy seriously and treating their shameless garbage with as much respect as actual science. Angry with a VCA decision to refuse a youth camp’s appeal against being subject to anti-discrimination legislation, the Australian “Christian” Lobby loons continues its courageous efforts to redefine “religious freedom” to mean “being discriminatory gits” Can we even spell infrastructure? Anthony Albaneses calls for high-speed rail, explains that Australia “needs” it, which would be great if any of us believed the ALP would genuinely make it a substantial part of their platform. Malcolm Turnbull caught out lying about the NBN to Triple J listeners Awful leftists not letting the bad sort of ICAC stuff go New NSW Premier Mike Baird yet to answer Fairfax’s ten questions about his connections with Nick Di Girolamo. Two weeks after thanking Nick Di Girolamo for his expensive wine gift, Barry O’Farrell tried to appoint him to a plum spot on an undisclosed board (without disclosing the gift). Gerard Henderson asks ICAC if it’s happy causing a Premier to lie and then decide to resign; does a Tony with his outrage at Kate McClymont daring to assert the Premier had told untruths when he told untruths. Peter Martin points out that small gifts can be much more effective at corruptly influencing decision-makers than big ones Meanwhile Queensland LNP MP who was chair of a parliamentary ethics committee resigns after another LNP MP exposes his being charged in 1999 when he was 31 with theft of $7335 from the army by producing fraudulent invoices (the Courier Mail says it is “understood” he was found guilty and got a good behaviour bond; he says “but I was not convicted so I didn’t have to declare it”). But the LNP knew before they put him in charge of thta committee. Real Australian Heroes Bloody leftists completely wrong about ANZAC Day, when Australians discovered a little thing called “friendship” and forged a nation by invading Turkey. The budget is tight but, well, if you’ve got a project to honour our diggers over in France, we’ll bloody find the money. The government that stands behind the troops shows just how far behind the troops it does stand, as FINALLY there are some consequences for that time we repeatedly “accidentally” invaded Indonesia - some anonymous navy
