Groan. First off, I wanted to write less about politics. This is partly because it's not exactly my main focus here on this blog - even though the little word cloud on the bottom might fool you into thinking so - mainly because basically, blogging and politics are about as even a match as Bambi versus Godzilla. I can write as much of the facts as simply as I can, but Australia ends up voting in the dumber contender, the more unhinged, the more dissociated, the more fucked up of the candidates. I can proudly say I sure as hell didn't donkey vote, and I sure as hell didn't vote for the Coalition.
Pleiades has been on my case to write something simply because things are so awful already and it's only been 10days since the election. Well... yes.
I know there's been a lot of "he won't be so radical" talk going on but let's face it, the first things he's done are so laden with his own ideology and petty personal vendettas, I think we can dispense with that talk entirely. Clearly it's one of the stages of grief to try and negotiate with the problem so it's understandable people have been proffering these narratives in an attempt to negotiate with the hard-ass bitch with a 12 inch strap-on dildo of a reality, but here's the deal. Tony Abbot is PM, and Australia's to blame.
What exactly has Tony Abbott done? So far he has sacked 3 public servants. This is causing a bit of reassessment as to what he meant by "no surprises".
Mr Abbott has no actual power to terminate a secretary's tenure; only the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, is authorised to sack a department head.
To do this, she would have needed a recommendation from the Prime Minister.
However, Mr Abbott had been in the role for barely an hour before announcing the secretaries' departures.
And, under the Public Service Act, he would have required reports on the proposed terminations from the Public Service Commissioner, Stephen Sedgwick, and from his own department head, Ian Watt, before approaching Ms Bryce.
Ms Bryce's office referred media inquiries to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The offices of Dr Watt and Mr Sedgwick said on Thursday that they had complied with the act, but refused to say when the reports were written.
The Federal Court has previously ruled that departmental secretaries must be given procedural fairness – including the opportunity to put their case – before any recommendation is made to dismiss them.
This followed a challenge by former Defence Department head Paul Barratt, whom the Howard government controversially sacked in 1999 after he had held the job for about a year.
The three departing secretaries will now be entitled to payouts worth a year's pay.
There's been a more detailed look at this here. The main point - is that the Coalition seems to want to go towards a more politicised public service, and preferably in their favour because they're in power more often.
The second (non-)surprise today was that the Climate Commission headed up by Dr. Timothy Flannery has been shut down.
Speaking in Melbourne, Professor Flannery, who has been Australia’s chief climate commissioner since February 2011, said Mr Hunt had been very gracious in their conversation and had thanked him and the other climate commissioners for their work.
Professor Flannery said Mr Hunt did not indicate to him why the Coalition had abolished the commission. He said a formal letter from the government was on its way.
He said the commission in its work had stayed out of politics and stuck to the facts.
"As a result we have developed a reputation as a reliable, apolitical source of facts on all aspects on climate change," Professor Flannery said.
"I believe Australians have a right to know, a right to authoritative, independent and accurate information on climate change.
"We have just seen one of the earliest ever starts to the bushfire season in Sydney following the hottest 12 months on record. Last summer was the hottest on record, breaking over 120 heat records across Australia.
"As global action on climate change deepens, propaganda aimed at misinforming the public about climate change, and so blunting any action, increases."
Well of course they wouldn't explain it because - to quote Tony Abbott on his election night speech - they're not about announcing things, they want to be judged by what they do. What they do speaks loudly to the persistent climate-change denialism in the Coalition ranks. Obviously as a government coming in wanting to 'repeal the carbon tax' as their first order of business, you would expect them to just rub out the organ that is there to provide fair and unbiased facts about climate change and how it affects Australia.
At this point in history, its hard to claim being a climate change sceptic without essentially declaring yourself a nutjob, so Tony Abbott has silenced the organ that disagrees with his core beliefs about reality. Think about that for a moment. We technically have a delusional person running our nation as Prime Minister.
The Money Won't Be There
Really, you'd think that Australia was going to implode under the burden of government debt during the tenure of Tony Abbott as Opposition Leader. The moment he got voted in he's snidely moved the goalposts so that he will return to surplus, but no earlier than the ALP had said they would return to surplus.
The indications are, revenues for government are going to dwindle and things are going to get tougher for the Australian economy. The admission from the US Fed that the US economy indeed isn't strong enough to withdraw stimulus support has pushed the AUD back to US94-95cents. If this is anything to go by, then Australian exporters are going to continue to have a pretty tough time of it. The maths of the Coalition still doesn't add up if they are still trying to get back to a surplus at the same rate and are still intending to do their parental leave scheme, cut company taxes by 1.5%, and repeal the 'Carbon Tax' without cutting Family Benefit B.
Naturally, we can therefore expect cuts. We just don't know what they are, but you can count on the fact that they'll be tinged with the austerity thing that's been so popular (and such a dismal failure) with conservatives in other countries elsewhere. Now that they're in government you have to wonder which of these idiotic promises will soon turn out to be non-core promises. What really worries me is that Tony Abbott seems totally determined to push on with his folly come hell or high water; and that being the case, when it's going to be time for Julie Bishop to march into his office and tell him he's done.
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