Friday 13 July 2012

Newman's DCMs


Bruce Flegg trying to look intelligent
























Last week my brother-in-law got a DCM*.

He is one of thousands of conscientious hard-working Queensland public servants shafted by the makeshift mafia currently masquerading as a government. Thirty-something years of loyalty and service counts for nix when you have an arrogant and power-drunk mob in George St.

This, despite a clear undertaking given before the election that permanent public service positions were secure.

See this quote from the LNP’s election manifesto - “An LNP Government will also commit to no forced redundancies.”

This mob has been in power for a little over a hundred days, but has already gone completely feral. 

The most recent out-of-control behaviour (just last week) was the spectacle of the LNPs state treasurer (ex-Copper Barry O'Sullivan) barging into GoPrint and demanding access to financial records. This character is not an elected member of government. His sole qualification is his cosy relationship with Bruce Flegg, Minister for Public Works. The exercise was repeated at GoPlant.

The managers involved would have been within their rights to call the police to evict him from the premises. That would have been interesting, given O’Sullivan’s background as an ex-Copper.

I wonder why he's an ex-Copper. Could it have something to do with penchant for abusive and intimidating behaviour? Since when in a Westminster democracy has it been kosher for a party apparatchik to browbeat senior public servants at the behest of a minister?

This same apparatchik previously achieved notoriety by abusing, in the crudest terms, a dumped LNP candidate prior to the election.

Napoleon Newman disowned Flegg on the floor of parliament, but that looks like about as far as it will go. Whatever happened to the new wave of transparency and accountability promised prior to the election?

The rationale given for O’Sullivan’s intrusion at GoPlant is that he has experience in employing people with disabilities, as does GoPlant. What is particularly objectionable about this is Bruce Flegg hiding behind a group of employees with disabilities in an attempt to rationalise unacceptable behaviour.

Just ask Fran Vicary, CEO Queenslanders with Disability Network, what she thinks of the new government’s treatment of Queenslanders with disabilities. From what I remember of Fran (whom I knew as a student in the seventies) the LNP needs to be very afraid. This person is a fearless and effective advocate.

I can’t say I’m surprised by what’s going down. This behaviour is in the DNA of conservative governments once they’re in power. There’s a characteristic pattern which involves demonising a target group (refugees, Vietnam Veterans, public servants – take your pick), and blaming them for gross mismanagement.

As a Vietnam Veteran, I well remember the treatment received post-service from a succession of Coalition governments who dropped us like hot potatoes, conveniently forgetting that they’d conscripted us in the first place.

There’s a streak of Goebbels in all of this – tell a lie often enough, and people will believe it. The big lie in this case is that the ALP is to blame for the current chaos. Funny that – last time I looked, the LNP is in power.

The latest – from the floor of the LNP convention - is a motion to forbid teachers from relaying scientific fact about climate change. It looks like we’re heading back to the days of Rona Joyner and sundry lunatics who were running around loose in the days of Bjelke-Petersen.
 
And Queenslanders remember where that ended up….. 
 
* Don’t come Monday.

Sunday 8 July 2012

Time to Grow Up












I still buy the Catholic Leader every Sunday - more out of habit than anything else.

It's editorial  slant has moved away from true Christian values under onslaught from the new dispensation, characterised by the views of Pell and Ratzinger.

Having said that, they still publish some good letters.

Here are two well worth blogging  -

 Need to “grow up” for asylum solution. 

In the recent words of the Western Australian Liberal, Dr Mal Washer, it is time to "grow up". 
Slogans will not cut it. 
Putting people with no charge in offshore prisons under temporary protection without the chance of family reunion is no answer. Neither is punishing several hundreds by returning them to the transit country and placing them at the end of a "queue". 
And treating the mental and physical health and well-being of those we detain as expendable is immoral. Where are the mature leaders willing and able to put before us the world situation regarding people movement and ready to situate Australia's response in the context of what other nations are doing? 
Why, in a race to the bottom, are so many politicians eager to beat the drum of fear, hostility and aggression in the quest for votes? We need real co-operation across party lines to find a regional response such as dealt with the outflow of refugees following an earlier conflict in which we were also involved - the Vietnam War. Let's support the efforts of those back-benchers and independents who are presently meeting to achieve a bi-partisan response. Let's encourage an "effective" regional solution that respects the rights of those seeking asylum not just our desire to "protect our borders". 
As long as persecution and war exist in our world, those needing protection will be with us. 

Genevieve Caffery
Greenslopes
Qld 

Plenty of good sense exhibited there. Then there was this one - 


Admiration for boat arrivals 

One just has to admire greatly the fortitude and determination of the hundreds of asylum seekers making their way to our shores by boat. 
Their zeal and efforts of almost missionary proportions in seeking a new home thousands of kilometres away" down under" after paying for their "illegal" passage and readily accepting serious risk to life and limb are completely outstanding. 
It seems a real shame that our ever-growing secular Australian society has not retained similar visions and aspirations of Christian faith, hope and determination.
But alas apparently it has not, as our recent Census statistics have revealed 

Richard K Tiainen 
Holland Park West, 
Qld

Taken for Granted

Pic courtesy Leader Today Yesterday I went to the state school down the road, and voted in the local government elections, something I'v...