Budget Fallout 2015

When The SMH Calls You Stupid, You Just Might Be

The Wow-Just-Wow moment arrived in the Herald this evening, and it goes like this:

You would have thought Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey had learnt their lesson – after all, it had very nearly cost them their political lives.
But no. 

The paid parental leave debacle now consuming an otherwise soft and friction-free budget, is testament to the stubbornness of ageing white men and to the durability of their ideas, even really bad ones.

When the all-male Expenditure Review Committee members huffed their scornful reproach and conspired to nail greedy mothers involved in welfare "fraud", as Hockey readily agreed it was, it eluded their lofty wisdom that (a) this was egregious nonsense (b) their policy shift contradicted a core value to which the Prime Minister - no less - was thoroughly welded, and (c) some of their own wives had taken maternity leave from their employers, and the basic federal government scheme of $11,500 over 18 weeks. Oops. 

The stupidity of Abbott and Hockey now paring back entitlements are too numerous to list, but include that right up until months ago, they had wanted to pay $75,000 for six months to wealthier mothers – non means-tested. It was Abbott's "signature" policy remember – specifically confected to fix his "women problem". How's that looking now? Hockey had been its next most enthusiastic proponent. Both had argued it was an employment entitlement akin to annual leave and thus an inalienable right. Once a bitter opponent of paid parental leave (over my dead body) Abbott became unstoppable - a born-again zealot intent on staring down colleagues after foisting it on them without consultation.

Look, there are days where I think I might be the only person banging on about just how stupid WTE Joe and Phoney Rabbit can be, but amazingly, this is not the case. The mainstream journalists picked up on this thing and are writing it. I can't recall Peter Smark ever writing Bob Hawke was stupid, or Alan Ramsay writing Paul Keating was stupid, or for that matter John Howard who might have deserved it more than Hawke or Keating.

I mean, the logic is without flaw; these guys went out and shot themselves in the foot, in broad daylight. What are we to make of this? That it's a part of a some greater cunning plan? Words escape me. And so we're here today with the spectacle of a journalist of a major newspaper in Australia calling out our Prime Minister and WTE as stupid people. And here I was thinking that day would never come!

UPDATE: It's Idiot Season, Open For The Hunt

Today it's Peter Martin starting out with "Idiot":

What kind of idiot labels mothers "rorters"? 

It's the same kind of idiot who thinks it's a good idea to draw a line in the sand between the Coalition and Labor over super. Tony Abbott told Parliament last week there would be "no changes to super, no adverse changes to super in this term of Parliament, and we have no plans to make adverse changes to super in the future".
It was remarkable coming from a government whose Treasurer only six weeks ago reached out to Labor for a "bipartisan" approach on super, saying he had measures "under very active consideration". 

Labor took him at his word, announced its own very mild position, and had the door slammed in its face. 

Everyone knows something will have to be done soon about super tax concessions. The Henry tax review said so, the Murray financial system inquiry said so, and the government's tax discussion paper as good as said so. The cost of the concessions rivals that of the pension, and it is growing more quickly. To say that isn't so, after saying it was so, is to redefine reality. 

On mothers, Abbott took to the election a proposal for six months' paid maternity leave. He picked the period of 26 weeks rather than Labor's 18 weeks "to support women to have the best chance to breastfeed and bond with their infant for the six-month period recommended by international and Australian health experts". The Coalition's policy still available on its website cites the National Health and Medical Research Council and the World Health Organisation as experts finding that the minimum recommended period of exclusive care and breastfeeding is six months. 

In the meantime, Labor's paid parental leave scheme was ensuring that some women had more than 18 weeks. That was its aim. Its explanatory memorandum said the scheme would "complement" existing entitlements, being paid "before, after, or at the same time". Never intended as a substitute for employer-provided leave, it was an add-on that would bring some women close to six months. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman puts the intention beyond doubt. "Employer-funded paid parental leave doesn't affect an employee's eligibility for the Australian government's paid parental leave scheme," it says on its website. "An employee can be paid both."
So it's hard to know what to make of the sudden quasi-criminalisation of mothers who do as the law intended to get paid leave approaching the six months that Abbott insisted was the minimum needed for breastfeeding and exclusive care. 

Labelling them "double dippers" on Mother's Day and announcing that from next year they would be denied access to the government's scheme, Joe Hockey was invited by Laurie Oakes to agree that accessing both was "basically fraud". He replied: "Well, it is.

An object lesson in how to win enemies and influence nobody. I'm glad the press is finally seeing what I saw a long time ago. All it takes is track record of contradictory statements and obvious lack of reasoning by this government to demonstrate just how stupid are these people.

They Cut Screen Australia! What Sadistic Joy It Gives Me!

I don't know how to put this nicely, but the film bureaucrats of this land give me the shits. As a class of citizens intent upon improving our lives though propagandistic (and bad) entertainment, they are all George Brandises of the movie biz without the actual "I-got-elected-you-mofos" bit going for them. They are what you might call unrepresentative swill who have spent decades keeping the pool small, the water shallow, and mostly poisonous. So oddly enough, when their budget gets cut, I have no choice but to rejoice. So hooray motherfuckers, they fucked over the other motherfuckers. Really, I hope somebody loses their fucking job. I don't know who exactly that's going to be, or how it will be broached - I don't give a flying-fuckety-fuck - I hope it's somebody whose career in film-bureaucracy is brought to a fucking miserable end.

The cuts to Screen Australia have been denounced by Screen Producers Australia, which claimed they "will seriously impact the industry", and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which said "the cuts will undoubtedly impact the thousands of MEAA members who rely on these arts and cultural programs for work, training and development". 

The production designer of Mad Max: Fury Road, Colin Gibson, said though the cut was almost expected, he was sure it would have an impact on the industry.
"It's not really a government we were expecting too much largesse in the way of art or beauty to be coming from anyway," he said at the movie's vehicle show at the Sydney Opera House, ahead of the Australian premiere on Wednesday. 

However, Gibson added that he was "not necessarily convinced" that Screen Australia has the best system for supporting the industry anyway.
"So let's see if we can use the agony to our advantage," he said.

Cut it all, I say. Cut the fucking lot of them and throw them in the harbour to be eaten by sharks.