Tony Abbott's propaganda machine running at full throttle

Federal Member for Warringah Tony Abbott’s personal website is up and running again – with its entire history before 15 September 2015 conveniently wiped from memory and, at the timing of writing, there is only limited pre-prime ministership access to this site via the Wayback Machine.

The former prime minister has also rewritten his biography page on the current version of the website. 

Here is a transcript of that page with my annotations in red for your enjoyment:

Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister by the Australian people on 7 September 2013 and served for two years. Prime ministers and parliamentary party leaders are not elected by the people but by government MPs & senators. His time as prime minister commenced on 18 September 2013 and he was sacked as party leader and prime minister by Liberal Party MPs & senators on 15 September 2015 so he was not prime minister for a full two years.

In his time as Prime Minister, the carbon tax and the mining tax were repealed; free trade agreements were finalised with China, Japan and Korea; and the people smuggling trade from Indonesia to Australia was halted. Australia became the second largest military contributor to the US-led campaign against ISIL in Iraq and hosted the G20 meeting of global leaders in Brisbane in November 2014. Australia is not the second largest contributor to the US-led campaign against ISIL which commenced in August 2014. Australia entered the campaign in October 2014 with approximately 200 defence personnel, building up to around 780 personnel & 8 aircraft by September 2015. However by February 2015 France had in excess of 2,000 defence personnel deployed on the ground & aboard an aircraft carrier and frigate, plus over forty aircraft on active duty by September 2015.

In 2014 and again in 2015, he spent a week running the government from a remote indigenous community. In 2014 Abbott spent barely 4 days in Arnhem Land arriving on 14 September & leaving on 18 September. In 2015 he managed almost 5 full days, arriving in the morning on 23 August & leaving around midday on 28 August.

As Opposition Leader at the 2010 election, he reduced a first term Labor government to minority status before comprehensively winning the 2013 election.

Between 1996 and 2007, he was successively parliamentary secretary, minister, cabinet minister and Leader of the House of Representatives in the Howard government.

As Minister for Health, he expanded Medicare to include dentists, psychologists and other health professionals and resolved the medical indemnity crisis. Abbott did not become Health Minister until 7 November 2003. The Howard Government began to provide financial assistance to United Medical Protection in May 2002 & the Medical Indemnity Act received assent on 19 December 2002. When he became Minister for Health & Ageing he merely continued this financial assistance. Medical insurance premiums rose quickly in 2003 and then continued to trend upwards during his tenure in the health portfolio.

As Minister for Workplace Relations, he boosted construction industry productivity through the establishment of a royal commission against union lawlessness. Abbott held this ministry from January 2001 until October 2003. The 2001-2003 Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry also looked at construction companies, employers & workplace safety. Construction industry productivity levels actually began to fall in the 2002-03 financial year.

As Minister for Employment Services, he developed private-sector job placement services and Work for the Dole for long-term unemployed people.

Tony Abbott has been Member for Warringah in the Australian Parliament since 1994.

Prior to entering parliament, he was a journalist with The Australian, a senior adviser to Opposition Leader John Hewson, and director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. Abbott forgot to mention his 1987 stint as a full-time journalist at The Bulletin newspaper and then his brief career as manager of a Pioneer Concrete plant.

He has degrees in economics and law from Sydney University and an MA in politics and philosophy from Oxford which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

He is the author of three books.

Since 1998, he has convened the Pollie Pedal annual charity bike ride which has raised more than $4 million for medical research, indigenous health scholarships and Carers Australia.

Tony Abbott does surf patrols with the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club and is a former deputy captain in the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade.

He is married to Margaret and they are the proud parents of three daughters – Louise, Frances and Bridget.

NSW Rental Tenancy Law Review community consultation closes 26 January 2016

NSW Fair Trading website:

The NSW Government is reviewing the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (the Act). The Act establishes a comprehensive set of rights and obligations for:   
  *landlords 

 * tenants

 * social housing providers

 * real estate agents who act for landlords.    
     

As part of this review, you are now invited to view a Discussion Paper to help you consider improvements to the current laws. This consultation closes on 29 January 2016. Read more about how you can have your say below.  

What are we doing?

Have your say

Next steps

Some rental horror stories are being recorded by The Greens Jenny Leong at https://www.facebook.com/events/1513744868919794/.

How will Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce & Nationals MP Kevin Hogan handle local opposition to Turnbull Government's move to lower penalty rates?

Electorates in Northern New South Wales, such as Page and New England have an long-established tourism component in their local economies.

Both full-time, part-time and casual retail and hospitality workers play a big part in the tourism industry in these rural and regional areas, so it is interesting to note that local opposition to the Turnbull Government’s less than subtle move against weekend penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors is obviously on the radar of local voters.

The Australia Institute:

Polling in key Liberal and National Party seats shows strong opposition to reducing Sunday penalty rates for retail workers, according to new ReachTEL polling commissioned by The Australia Institute.

Polling conducted across the electorates of Page, New England, Warringah and Dickson on 17th December shows that between 65% and 79% of people in these electorates want Sunday penalty rates in the retail industry kept the same or increased.

“The research underscores the political difficulty any Government faces if they allow Sunday penalty rates to be cut,” said Ben Oquist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.

“Furthermore the consequences for lowering Sunday penalty rates for the macro economy need to be considered. Lowering the take-home pay for many low paid employees, who are more likely to spend most of their income, could lower the amount of spending in the economy with negative flow on effects for economic growth and employment,” said Mr Oquist.

Page MP Kevin Hogan initially called these local concerns a beat up.

However, with media reporting the possibility that Page and Richmond workers losing a minimum est. $12.2 million and $11.8 million in total income respectively, this was perhaps not the wisest choice of words to use in an election year.

Given that in his own electorate 74.6 percent of all those of all those surveyed and 56 per cent of those Nationals supporters surveyed wanted penalty rates to increase or stay the same, attempting to brush aside valid concern in this way looks foolhardy to say the least.

Hogan appears to have realised this by 29 December and changed his tune when speaking to a Daily Examiner journalist: "I'm very cognisant that penalty rates are very important to many people who don't earn a lot of money….For a lot of people any extra benefit they get is very important to them. I'm yet to be sold there is an economic benefit in cutting penalty rates."

A statement that only the gullible would accept at face value, as his parliamentary voting record shows that he has never once voted against Abbott or Turnbull government legislation or spoken up strongly in the House of Representatives against their policies.

The Minister Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce, takes a different tack by saying that any changes to workplace laws including penalty rates would be taken to an election.  

With 70.7 percent of all those of all those surveyed and 56.9 per cent of those Nationals supporters surveyed wanting penalty rates to increase or stay the same, he will have to work hard to convince his own electorate that reducing these rates is not going to hit the New England economy hard.

Across rural New South Wales a partial abolition of penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors would result in workers losing between $118.9 million p.a. and $220.0 million p.a. with a  loss in disposable income of between $53.8 million p.a. and $106.2 million p.a. to local economies, according to research conducted by The McKell Institute.

Stocktake of waterbirds in eastern Australia has shown the lowest breeding level on record

ABC News 27 December 2015:

A stocktake of waterbirds in eastern Australia has shown the lowest breeding level on record.

The annual aerial survey, conducted by the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW, confirmed a dramatic long-term decline in the number of waterbirds.

Director Richard Kingsford said that over 33 years of counting, average numbers had fallen more than 60 per cent.

The trend continued in 2015 with a further drop compared to the previous three-to-five-year period.

"This is the second lowest number of waterbirds we've seen in that 33-year period and it's symptomatic of the real impacts of this drought that's occurring across the eastern half of the continent," Professor Kingsford said.

The survey covered all the major rivers, lakes and wetlands from Queensland down through New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, including the Murray-Darling Basin and the Riverina.

The team found the Macquarie Marshes and Lowbidgee wetlands were only partially filled, most rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin were also relatively dry, with little wetland habitat on their floodplains, and all the large lakes in the Menindee system were dry.

The Lake Eyre and Cooper Creek wetlands were mostly dry except for a small area to their east, while important wetlands in the Lake Eyre Basin including Lakes Galilee, Yamma Yamma, Torquinnie and Mumbleberry were dry.

Waterbirds were concentrated in relatively few important sites, with only four wetland systems holding more than 5,000 birds: Lake Killapaninna, Lake Allallina, Paroo overflow Lakes and Coolmunda Dam.

Most alarmingly, the total breeding index of all 50 species combined was the lowest on record and well below the long-term average……

Professor Kingsford said climate change also needed to be taken into account.

"For these wetlands, they rely on that water staying around so animals and plants can go through their life cycles, but if you've got less of the water actually coming in at the top end and when it gets to the wetland there's a high evaporation rate then it's really challenging in the long term as well," he said.

"So a whole series of targets have been set and the big challenge is: did we get enough water for the environment over the next 15 to 20 years?"

He warned that if the regulators did not find the right balance, the wider community would pay a hefty price.

"We know in the millennium drought, for example, when there wasn't enough water for the Lower Lakes and the Coorong, governments had to put their hands in their pockets to spend $2 billion to actually rescue that system," Professor Kingsford said.

"We currently have a dredge parked in the mouth of the River Murray which is trying to keep it open — a service that the environment used to do for nothing, and that's costing taxpayers up to $100,000 a week."

He said the birds were a barometer, indicating declining health of the whole ecosystem.

University of NSW, Centre for Ecosystem Science, Aerial Survey of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia - October 2014 Annual Summary Report

Blogging the 2015 Aerial Survey.

Click on the survey route to read a blog post or the arrow button on the top lefthand side to access the list of blogs.

Peter Dutton - the gods' gift to the Labor Party in 2016

This has to come under the heading ‘You couldn’t make this up”, as yet another Turnbull Government minister reveals his contempt for women:

Twitter, 3 January 2016

The Daily Telegraph, 3 January 2016:

PETER Dutton, the minister who once resigned from the frontbench via SMS, yesterday labelled a female journalist a “mad f ... king witch” in a text — and then sent it to the journalist instead of the colleague it was intended for.

The Immigration Minister last night outed himself as the MP who had sent the blistering text about Sunday Telegraph political editor Samantha Maiden after reading her coverage of the Jamie Briggs affair.

The text message ended a horror week for the government after Mr Briggs was forced to resign from the frontbench for allegedly trying to kiss a junior public servant during a boozy night in a Hong Kong bar while on official ministerial business. The text was supposed to be sent to Mr Briggs after Maiden’s story outing the dumped minister for sending photos of the public servant he had taken on his phone, to colleagues.

Mr Dutton, who immediately apologised to Maiden after he realised he had sent the message to her, outed himself in a bid to avoid other colleagues being listed as suspects after Maiden refused to reveal the author of the text.

The minister, successful in protecting Australian borders, said he would cop the incident on the chin.

“I apologised to her straight away, which she took in good faith,’’ he said. “Sam and I have exchanged some robust language over the years so we had a laugh after this. I’m expecting a tough time in her next column.”

Maiden said she had accepted Mr Dutton’s apology and was “not offended by his mobile phone malfunction”. The pair have known each other for more than a decade.….

UPDATE

Prime Minister Turnbull not amused by Dutton’s latest blunder……

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 January 2016:

Senior cabinet member Peter ­Dutton has apologised for calling a female journalist a “mad f. king witch” over her coverage of fallen junior minister Jamie Briggs’s ­exploits in Hong Kong.

The Immigration Minister ­yesterday admitted that he sent the message to the political editor for News Corp Australia’s Sunday papers, Samantha Maiden, after she ­reported Mr Briggs had sent colleagues a photograph of the diplomat who complained about his behaviour at the Stormies Bar in late November.

It is understood Mr Dutton ­accidentally sent the text message to Maiden instead of Mr Briggs in what was intended as a show of support for the besieged South Australian MP…..

Malcolm Turnbull is understood to regard the derogatory comment more seriously, describing it privately as “completely ­inappropriate”.

Maiden’s reporting was highly critical of Mr Briggs and his supporters, and also revealed that the former cities minister had ­accepted first-class flights and gifts of champagne and wine during his parliamentary career. While denying he sent the photograph of the diplomat and his chief of staff, ­Stuart Eaton, at the Hong Kong bar to the media, Mr Briggs said he had shared it with some colleagues ­before and after the complaint in an attempt to highlight the ­“informal” nature of the night.

The Community and Public Sector Union said the breach of the woman’s privacy was ­“disgraceful”.

Although the journalist in question is obviously having fun......

Australian Health Minister and Liberal MP Sussan Ley has some explaining to do

It is bad enough that women in rural and regional areas comprise one third of all female cancer suffers and have on average poorer cancer survival rates than their metropolitan counterparts, now they face this as well...........

Perth Now, 27 December 2015:

WOMEN with breast cancer are being denied a Medicare rebate for expensive MRI scans which others with football injuries, headaches and back pain receive.

The rebate — rejected recently by the government’s Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) — contributes to the bills of up to $30,000 many women face for their breast cancer.

“MSAC did not support public funding for these indications due to of uncertain clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and financial impact” the committee ruled.

It reckoned approving a rebate for the test — worth up to $2000 — would cost the health system around $9 million.

It’s the latest example of Medicare failing cancer patients when they need it most….

Breast surgeon Professor Christobel Saunders one of the surgeons trying to obtain a Medicare rebate for MRIs says around one in 10 women have tumours that can’t be properly seen on mammograms or ultrasound….

“About 10 per cent of women require it and it helps us plan surgery and determine whether we need to do a lumpectomy or a mastectomy.”

“We know breast MRIs work. We have been using them for 20 years they are the most efficient way of telling the full size of the tumour,” she says.

Professor Saunders was part of a group of surgeons who made an application to the governments Medicare services advisory committee which determines which medical procedures attract a Medicare rebate.

She believes MSAC may have over-estimated the number of women who would get an MRI when deciding to reject the rebate.

MSAC granted a Medicare rebate for breast MRIs for just two of the eight indications requested.

It is recommended for women whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes where conventional scans failed to show the source of the tumour.

And MRI guided biopsy is also recommended in patients with suspected breast cancer where the tumour only identifiable by MRI.

But it rejected breast cancer MRIs for six other indications.

Besides breast MRIs the Turnbull Government has slated another 22 Medicare items for removal from the rebate list in this round of cuts: another 6 diagnostic imaging items, 9 items in ear, nose, and throat surgery; 5 items in gastroenterology services, 1 obstetrics item and 1 thoracic medicine item.

Health Minister Sussan Ley is telling all and sundry that doctors themselves recommended these items, however the medical profession does not appear to be so uniform in opinion as Ley implies.

Given that December 2015's MYEFO contained more health funding cuts, the Liberal-Nationals ideological attacks on Medicare and free access to public health services appears set to continue until they have dismantled enough of the safety net system as will enable their MPs to commence creating an inequitable U.S. style health care system.

This is the type of medical treatment just such a system delivers:

Barbara Dawson via Twitter

Sometimes it just takes a hug to make us realise that Australia is not a bad and dangerous place to live

Snapshot found on Twitter in December 2015