Only a few days into the election campaign and a lot of what Mr
Abbott has been saying is sounding eerily similar to what Mr
Newman said before the last Queensland State election.
Setting up the stage for how bad the economy is, how we are in
dire straits, pretty much “be afraid, be very
afraid”.
I will be explaining a bit about Queensland here, but stay with
me, it is important for Australians to know what the apprentice
has done...
Now I will give Mr Newman the fact that yes the ALP in Queensland
were on the nose, too many arrogant decisions without
consultation – Traveston Dam, Council Amalgamations, Asset Sales,
Water etc., - and a lot of these decisions were obviously
made due to Financial pressure that resulted from a
combination of multiple Natural Disasters, the GFC and yes,
even though ALP people don’t like to hear it, stuff ups like the
Health Payroll system... (Interesting how the
commissioner seemed to point finger at Mr Grierson and Mr Reid
yet the Qld LNP, in the only press release yesterday, found the
Unions to blame? - only in Queensland
SIGH!)
Since the
Newman LNP Government came into power they have been like kids in
a candy store. I am sure that other LNP Governments around
the country are studying them as to how to implement
“Liberal Ideology 101”. We have had
white-papers, enquiries, commissions, you name it, basically the
hit list of everything that has annoyed the conservatives in the
last decade or so has had some imminent LNP mate put into control
over it (some haven’t, but not many) to have a talkfest or
write-fest on what went wrong so they can say how bad the
previous ALP Government is...
As the State of Queensland is supposedly more broke than Spain
& heading towards Greece status as per Mr Costello’s
so-called ‘Independent’ audit (we won’t even start on the
companies Mr Costello represents that gain from privatisation
& asset sales), millions have been spent on these papers that
basically give the LNP carte blanche to do what Libs do best, cut
health & education, sack people, sell off or privatise or
outsource (whichever word is the flavour this week) essential
services, always with that pretty piece of paper in hand (like Mr
Abbott’s blue pamphlet) as justification. This results in a
downcast sad looking Mr Newman saying”
“Unfortunately due to the fact that the ALP (or Unions, the LNP like to mix up the blame too) left things in such a bad state and the ‘independent’ panel/commission/auditor (again whichever flavour currently being used to mix it up a bit) recommended this course of action so we have no choice.”
That last paragraph is very, very important in regard to this upcoming election. How many white papers, commissions or the like have been suggested so far by the Liberal National Coalition? Mr Hockey has already basically said they don’t trust Treasury, so I gather Costello will get another gig there, Mathias Cormann has already stated on numerous occasions that they will be having a ‘look’ at the tax system, GST of course has to be included in that ‘look’ as obviously to have a thorough review of the tax system this is an integral part of it. Now, if Treasury is not the one doing this ‘Tax Review’, which LNP mates will be? I can almost see Mr Abbott now with the same Newman ‘concerned’ look, telling the public...
“It is unfortunate that we have to raise GST but the ALP Government left us no choice, they left the books in such a bad state – insert monologue of economic disaster – that we have to make these hard choices and of course we are taking the advice of ‘experts’ and these experts have recommended this course of action so we have no choice”.
I have a terrible sneaking suspicion that this will also happen
with the NBN. Obviously they will honour work already
started on contracts already signed, but, we will then hear the
sob story about how there is no money, we have to get out of
deficit, so we are putting off the NBN, (Fraudband version) for 3
years until we are back in surplus. Then, the next
step will be a backflip on that as the Developers Council,
Business Council, Real Estate etc., will jump up & down due
to the vast disparity in house prices due to NBN in certain
suburbs & not others... Of course, the LNP Govt will
then do another white-paper and – drum roll please – go to the
free market!
Of course, who is going to put their hand up to help with putting
those dodgy boxes in, as obviously NBN Co will not exist
anymore? I would have a lazy $10 bucks on Foxtel getting
it? Now this will not sort out our copper situation, but
hey, who cares, Foxtel will toss a satellite on the roof for you
if you need it, in a nice broadband/mobile/ TV bundle of
course? But don’t worry, that connection will still not be
good enough for us to subscribe to the likes of NetFlix, we don’t
want to give the punters any other choice besides Free to Air TV
& Foxtel...
I could be wrong, I could be suspicious, or I could be
punch-drunk from the last few years of being in a State with an
over-excited LNP leadership, but every Qld LNP
privatisation/Outsourcing/Sale seems to have gone to a business
that already had links to the LNP & who has bigger link to Mr
Abbott than Mr Murdoch? As we have found in Queensland, big
business LNP investors donors seem to be getting some
pretty cushy deals with the Qld LNP Government, again, I could be
wrong, but is looking that way out in punterland?
I could give many examples of the similar language I am hearing,
but there are too many... If you have the time, have a
cruise through the 'Queensland State Government statements' as
every ‘broken promise’ or just plain ‘bad stuff’ is the
fault of...
A. Previous ALP Government,
B. Anna Bligh,
C. Julia Gillard,
D. UNIONS (they are seriously evil)
and finally E. Kevin Rudd...
The Opposition, not giving us any figures, not trusting Treasury,
‘wait & see what the real fiscal outlook is’ crap is the same
stuff we heard from Newman.
Think about that, think about it very hard...
I may not be the best at maths, BUT, Mr Abbott is promising to
repeal or look at repealing a heap of Government decisions or
taxes, BUT, has not told us what is going to up in taxes, BUT,
still going to put us into surplus because the Coalition are
always better Economic Managers, it is in their DNA.
No cuts, no extra taxes, but will get in surplus? So how
does that add up?
The only conclusion I can come to is that an Abbott
Government will follow the Newman Government blueprint of sacking
all experienced (insert expensive) public servants – teachers,
nurses, fireman, police, health workers and more...- to replace
with cheap graduates. Coalition NOTE you must always use
the terminology of “Public Servants” as that gives punters the
feeling that lazy bureaucratic time wasters are being sacked, NOT
‘essential services’ staff as the public cop that better.
Then when you find that you actually do need some of those people
down the track, you give the contract to a Recruitment company,
or stuff it, let’s just outsource the whole bloody nursing home
or hospital to one of those wonderful ‘Health Services’ companies
who have been so supportive of us. Of course, sometimes
that is too complicated, so let’s just totally sell that Service,
as the free market always performs better? We won’t worry
about the fact that every time the State loses total control of
piddly items such as Electricity or Water that it ends up costing
us a bloody fortune (minor technicality for future Governments to
worry about).
Again... I could give many examples, but suggest you just
follow #Qldpol or Queensland news, as the rhetoric coming out of
the Coalition election campaign is sounding eerily
similar.
Noely
PS: Obviously if you are rather affluent, a woman of calibre or
own a large business, you will be sweet. However if you are
an average punter or minority, sorry, you have been warned...
Newman's Left Us Out In The Wet graphic courtesy of
@justidiousmiz
Top Graphic courtesy of the charming @mcintyre00 of 'Exposing Tony Abbott & The LNP - Memes &
Stuff'