Extreme Weather Or Mining Magnates, Which Will Liberal Leaders Care About?

Liberal and National politicians across the country are cutting back on programmes designed to help the environment, but have their hand out for Federal – taxpayer – money when it comes to cleaning up after extreme weather events attributed to changing climate.

Barry OFarrell in NSW is cutting back on climate change programmes. Ted Baillieu is slashing renewable energy targets while expanding coal power.

Can-Do Campbell it turns out is Can’t-Do when it comes to protecting the environment. One of his first points of business was the closure of the $430million Queensland Climate Change Fund. Probably one of his second points of business was checking with Clive Palmer, to see if that was acceptable, possibly.

Yet, when it comes to floods, bushfire, cyclones, it is Liberal leaders who have their hands out waiting for Federal funds to aid communities devastated by these natural disasters.

The warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change overnight that human actions are leading to more deadly and costly extreme weather events should give Liberal leaders from Tony Abbott to Campbell Newman pause for thought, the Australian Greens said today.

“The climate scientists’ warnings are getting louder, our weather is already getting more extreme, but Tony Abbott, Ted Baillieu, Barry O’Farrell and Campbell Newman are setting out to undermine climate action,” Australian Greens Acting Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.
source: here

One thing that gets forgotten, or obscured when politicians are making decisions that affect our lives – it is not just the environment, the climate, the planet. It is all of ours, it is our planet, not just the faceless billionaires. So turning over the care of the planet to the very people who profit from its destruction does not make much sense, and even less sense is the voters who support those moves.

image, digital manipulation by @redglitterx
text by @redglitterx
additional text IPCC EXTREME WEATHER REPORT SHOULD GIVE LIBERALS PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

200 broken promises in just one year – that’s Liberal National government

in New South Wales

View this document on Scribd

Source: NSWLabor: http://www.scribd.com/doc/86683557/200-Broken-Promises

QLD Election Blowback, this times it’s personal.

On March 24 2012 , the Word FUCK was heard around the world – QLD Election Blowback, this times it’s personal. by Delon de Circle en Rouge

One day you’re in power for 20 years dragging the state into the 21st Century and the next …Labor {is} falling short of official party status and relying on the incoming LNP government to grant it party offices, staff and resources* with only 6 seat won.

The blame lies with Anna Bligh and the Labor Party campaign. Anyone who had the sickening misfortune to watch the mawkish self-pity of Anna Bligh concede defeat before Saturday, can watch this and tell me would you vote, let alone volunteer to hand out How-To-Vote cards and campaign for our ALP cause, if you saw this video?

Campbell Newman didn’t win this election, nobody likes a smug millionaire with a chip on his shoulder. Although to be fair, a leader he is, much more so than Anna Bligh, and he managed to galvanise a talentless and listless bunch of LNP candidates from the reject shop. Whether they’ll be able to support his ‘vision’ remains to be seen.

ALP strategists should be immediately fired. They stuffed up our NSW campaign and completely fucked up our QLD one. Clearly a bold consistent message wasn’t in their planning. You can argue that Bligh broke plenty a promise; but you can argue that all politicians renege on promises when world reality collides with policy.

Time for a new strategy and strategists. Time for new leaders. Time for aggressive progressive policies. Time to Act. Time to bring in new and youthful ideas and enthusiasm. Time to destroy the left/right paradigm and deliver a more pertinent message one of which is the individual/community vs the Corporations as exemplified by the Occupy Movement. In this way the youth will come to think of ALP as a mainstream progressive political party that listens and not just a moderate Liberal Party that they’re fast becoming.

{edited to add: *source of this quote is behind a paywall – @redglitterx}

What Now For Queensland? (post-election)

Time To Power Up The DeLorean, its back to 1955

With a mob of Reich-wing Neo-Con Liberal-Nationals cutting a swathe across this country, and now have the east coast firmly in their fists, not quite firmly, must make room for some brown paper bags from developers, mining company donations and I.O.U’s made out to faceless billionaires… allegedly.

Apparently the only thing holding the Palmer government accountable in Queensland now is the Murdoch media.

But, there is always the ABC – which has recently been dubbed The ABCoaltion – chock full of their left wing bias (Ha!).

Never fear, Queensland, don’t despair Men and Women of Australia, because everyone knows how fair and trust-worthy the Liberal-Nationals are.

And as for honest, oh the LNP is scrupulously honest, if you don’t believe me, just ask some children overboard, also that charming young Tony Fitzgerald might have something to add too.

Although, we might need to remind them occasionally the word is scruples, not screw peoples

Logan, can I ask, what were you thinking, voting in a US Marine (Michael Pucci)? They will be taking over Darwin with their bases, but now you’re giving them power one seat a time. We are truly headed down the path to become the 51st state.

Look forward to years of slashed wages, slashed jobs in the public service, development in environmentally vulnerable areas, mining in rainforests, the whole state will be fracked, well and truly fracked.

If Queensland wants a prediction of their future, take a look at what One Term Barry O’Fail and Ted FailYou have been up to recently – both selling off assets, cutting services, breaking promises.

Give it six months and they will be doing all the things they bashed Labor for doing only worse… at least Labor puts the money back into community.

Promises all over the place will be broken, because, as is standard when there is a change of government the books are in a lot worse shape than they thought

The Liberal Nationals will slash the public sector for a surplus that will look good on paper, but one persons government waste is another persons livelihood. There will be changes in living conditions and a stagnate economy.

There is always mining to fill up the coffers, because we all know how big miners love to pay their taxes. And, it’s not like anyone needs a Great Barrier Reef, or the Rainforests, or the beaches, or healthy kids in suburbs not when there is coal seam gas that could be extracted.

Also, the benefit of lots of sick kiddies, is they stop going to school. Enrolments fall and the land can be sold off cheaply to developers to build subdivisions and McMansions, now if they could only find some land to build a school for all the working families that will be moving in…

Expect three and a bit fun-filled years of gerrymanders, so extreme, you will look back on the Kat In The Hat as the days of stability and sensibility.

Will this be the Coyote Ugly of elections? Will Queensland voters regret their decision in the morning? Time will tell.

This is sarcasm, this is a comment on the lack of accountability of the Qld government due to there being a Unicameral system, No upper house to hold things in check

by @redglitterx and @jot_au

Special: Queensland Election Campaigning Wrap Up

Campbell Newman

What can be said about someone who acts like he was born to rule. Well, as the child of two federal ministers (son of Kevin Newman, former Member for Bass and Federal Minister, and Jocelyn Newman, former Senator and Federal Minister) he probably feels entitled to rule over the little people. After all, the only good thing about commoners is they pay tax. He claims to want to represent Ashgrove, yet he doesn’t even want to live there. Way to represent.

Bob Katter

Not actually in this election, though absent enough from Canberra that voters might think so. You can vote for his son, though, if you live in Mount Isa, his son, Rob Katter. It could be the beginning of a beautiful political dynasty, move over North Koreas Dear Leader.

the Straddie Mothers, who also happen to be large miners

Thousands of letters were sent to residents of Ashgrove, from a group that called itself Straddie Mothers warning of what would happen if Labor closed down the sandmining on North Stradbroke Island.
The letters were apparently the work of Sibelco Australia, without lodging its interest with the Queensland Electoral Commission

Anna Bligh

Are Liberal National politicians in Queensland really referring to Anna Bligh as Anna Bligh-ar. One track minds. And usually a form of misdirection, when the Conservatives and Neo-Cons accuse you of something, there is a very good chance that is what are they themselves are up to.

And a question many have wondered: how long before LNP completely fracks QLD?

Election night coverage:

Television – live nationally on ABC News 24 and on ABC1 in Queensland only, from 6pm (Qld time, 7pm AEDT)

Radio – ABC NewsRadio and 612 ABC Brisbane, from 6pm (Qld time), 7pm (AEDT) and audio streamed via 612 ABC Brisbane and NewsRadio websites

Online – streamed live at abc.net.au/news, the geo-block will be removed, for people overseas, , go to the ABC’s dedicated tumblr: queensland votes, on twitter, follow the tag #qldvotes and follow @antonygreenabc and @abcelections

text by @redglitterx

Mixed Message Strategy of the LNP in Queensland Election

click for full size image: image from the Murdoch owned Courier Mail, 21-12-2012

Hajnal Black, the Conservative politician of this article, who stood for the Liberal Nationals in 2009, and has been supported by the Australian TEA party and the ADL (whose British counterpart EDL – English Defence League has been compared to a fascist organisation) gave “police the slip as arrest warrant remains active” against her.

And yet Campbell Newman’s party, I mean, the Liberal Nationals try to paint the ALP as being untrustworthy. Black is currently facing five criminal charges over whether she failed to declare a number of pecuniary interests while working in public office.

Yes, because apparently when conservatives run away from the police while facing five criminal counts, that, is considered trustworthy.

The other mixed message here is the bullet holes in the blue of the Australian flag. Considering the most visible member of the Queensland Labor party is Anna Bligh, the use of bullets continues a disturbing trend among conservatives that talk about assassination and killing female leaders and outspoken Australian women, hoping they will suffer or die.
See: Alan Jones talking about Clover Moore of Sydney put her in the same chaff bag as Julia Gillard and throw them both out to sea and in reference to Prime Minister Gillard again Jones said quite frankly they should shove her and Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take them as far out to sea as they can and tell them to swim home, as well as the recent death threats against television host Yumi Stynes, and also death threats against Julie Bishop.

But you say, no sane person would see that as an invitation to kill any politician. The ad is talking about a change and features bullet holes. When the USAmerican Fox-television host Sarah Palin used crosshairs on a map of congressional districts including that of the Democrat politician Gabrielle Giffords, someone took that seriously, and Giffords was subsequently shot in the head.

Why are bullet holes even necessary to make your point about a change in government?

Edited to add: it has been pointed out to me, Waste in The Sopranos-speak, has a very different connotation, where it is used as a euphemism for kill someone

text by @redglitterx

There Comes A Time

There comes a time when we know that we just can’t take it anymore and that we just have to DO something. We can no longer sit idly by (very idle in my case) and observe the deterioration of our democratic processes without speaking out and taking some action to protest what we see as destructive forces in our society.

There are very real threats and are of great concern to a growing number of thinking Australians.

The corruption of the Fourth Estate, or Media, is to the point where it can no longer be trusted to disseminate information required by the population to make informed electoral decisions.

For this reason Red and I decided to set up an information portal to collate and disseminate information relating to Australian politics. The left has a plurality of ideas and potential solutions to problems.

We are a patchwork coat but we shouldn’t argue over whether there should be a zip or buttons on our red and green coat. We must stay a united force with a variety of views. The main goal is to fight modern conservative ideology and halt the corruption of our media and institutions, such as the ABC.

We must develop strategic plans to win back the working class and expose the LNP for the bogus frauds that they are. We need a platform for the left to have a louder voice and counter the cacophony from the right.

A new estate is needed to encourage critical thinking, apply proper scrutiny and hold government, corporations and media accountable. Let’s enlighten more people pay attention to the important events and issues and embolden them to turn left in 2013.

I’m not going down without a fight.

@jot_au
19/03/12