Re the pinned post created by dthead which states and I quote; remember no tit for tat posting. That’s the mods job. (end of quote)


Ummmm, really.... so your job is to do the tit for tat posting????? Here's me thinking tit for tat postings were not to be encouraged and there you are writing that it is your job to do tit for tat messages!!  Or did you write that to see if anyone actually read it?

Re the pinned post created by dthead which states and I quote; remember no tit for tat posting. That’s the mods job. (end of quote)


Ummmm, really.... so your job is to do the tit for tat posting????? Here's me thinking tit for tat postings were not to be encouraged and there you are writing that it is your job to do tit for tat messages!!  Or did you write that to see if anyone actually read it?

I noticed that too but just presumed that Mr Head's tongue was firmly in his cheek when he typed it!

BG

Re the pinned post created by dthead which states and I quote; remember no tit for tat posting. That’s the mods job. (end of quote)


Ummmm, really.... so your job is to do the tit for tat posting????? Here's me thinking tit for tat postings were not to be encouraged and there you are writing that it is your job to do tit for tat messages!!  Or did you write that to see if anyone actually read it?

I noticed that too but just presumed that Mr Head's tongue was firmly in his cheek when he typed it!

BG

Yep and my humorous tongue was firmly in my cheek when I typed my reply as I thought it was good funny to resist

Meanwhile Commonwealth government spending in particular the re-awarding of defence contracts without tender, is exploding with billions of extra dollars being blown without much oversight (Michael West);

Analysis of Austender data by data-warehousing expert Greg Bean shows some $81 billion worth of government contracts have been amended. Around $5 billion of previous defence contracts were amended in just the week to August 29 alone. The total of amended defence contracts to August 29 is $57.7 billion.

The news of a massive contract blow-out follows revelations here that $74 billion, or 20 per cent of all Defence contracts, have been awarded directly to foreign defence companies – therefore escaping Australia’s tax net – rather than to their local subsidiaries here. It is important to note, says Bean of the escalating blow-out of contracts, that the figure of $81 billion represents the total value of contracts, not the value of the amendments. And while the data is difficult to break-down to establish the precise value of the amendments, it is in the many billions of dollars.

Yet again defense escapes any proper scrutiny because of "in confidence" clauses; but every single time they 'amend' a contract that's many millions more going to providers and contractors with no public examination of whether it represents good value to the taxpayer or not. Therefore it's impossible to say whether its being run well or not - the submarine procurement process for example. And there was also this interesting tid-bit:

[Prime Minister Turnbull] announced a $3.8 billion fund in January this year to boost foreign sales of Australian arms, although that spending was earmarked to offer loans to Australian weapons makers, so it is unclear whether there is a connection with the overall rise in defence spending as Greg Bean’s Austender analysis covers foreign contractors. And the reason for the rise in no-tender contracts remains unclear.

Wow, a slush fund worth a whopping $3.8 billion to promote something secretive with (probably) developing countries buying our weapons; no public information about what's going on (it's a secret don't you know) and no accountability. What's not to like?

Scott Morrison's government already in trouble with another two-party preferred saying that they will lose perhaps 20 seats. From The Guardian:

A fortnight on from the leadership bloodletting in Canberra, the latest survey of 1,050 voters has Labor in front of the Coalition on the two-party-preferred measure 54% to 46%, and the Coalition’s primary vote on 36%.

Interestingly, the survey went on to identify some key issues for the voters:

A majority, 60%, agreed with the statement: “The new prime minister was not elected by the people and has no legitimacy. He needs to go to an election as soon as possible.”

“A larger majority, 67%, agreed with the statement: “I’m sick of the major parties changing their leaders. I would consider voting for a third party to send a message to them both,” while 68% agreed with the statement: “Labor is the alternative government and I want to hear from them what their policies are – not what is wrong with the Liberal party.”

Caught a bit of parliament and it's so nice to see all the kiddies at play again.

Bitter old Malcolm Turnbull, I guess he said nothing about being a wrecker (unlike Tones). Fairfax's Peter Harcher said today:

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has been texting and calling Liberal MPs to urge them to refer Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to the High Court.

…Moments after Fairfax Media published revelations on Wednesday night of his texts and calls, Mr Turnbull confirmed on Twitter that he had been lobbying his colleagues, including his successor, Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The LNP have become even worse than the Labor Party if that's possible - now we have a former PM who left office and his seat trying to destroy the current government from the outside. If ever we needed evidence that Malcolm Turnbull was a childish and self-centred man then there it is. He doesn't give a damn about the LNP (or the nation's well-being) now, he just wants to destroy the party that made him Prime Minister.

The Scott Morrison thread may not be as long-lived as the Turnbull one...

Bitter old Malcolm Turnbull, I guess he said nothing about being a wrecker (unlike Tones). Fairfax's Peter Harcher said today:

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has been texting and calling Liberal MPs to urge them to refer Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to the High Court.

…Moments after Fairfax Media published revelations on Wednesday night of his texts and calls, Mr Turnbull confirmed on Twitter that he had been lobbying his colleagues, including his successor, Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The LNP have become even worse than the Labor Party if that's possible - now we have a former PM who left office and his seat trying to destroy the current government from the outside. If ever we needed evidence that Malcolm Turnbull was a childish and self-centred man then there it is. He doesn't give a damn about the LNP (or the nation's well-being) now, he just wants to destroy the party that made him Prime Minister.

The Scott Morrison thread may not be as long-lived as the Turnbull one...

Turnbull always has been in it for himself, he doesn't give a stuff about anything else, he was the WORST PM we have ever ever had! he is absolutely determined to destroy the current LNP!

Kind Regards

Turnball, always wanted to have PM, on his CV.
Didn't matter for how long, or what party he was representing.
Now he's on the outside of the outside tent, still pi$$ing in.
If and when Australia becomes a republic, MT will make a claim on that.

It's a lot like the Billy McMahon days.  
Whitlam described McMahon as "Tiberius with a telephone" because of his non-stop plotting to overthrow as many colleagues  as necessary until he was elected leader. Like all of them, he had his favourites who were rewarded with ministries, and the ones he didn't like were shot off to the back bench. One of these was Jim Killen.
On one occasion, Billy was holding forth in the House, with a bit of breast-beating, culminating in the line, "I think I must be my own worst enemy." From the back bench came the sonorous voice of Killen," Not while I'm alive."

Turnbull always has been in it for himself, he doesn't give a stuff about anything else, he was the WORST PM we have ever ever had! he is absolutely determined to destroy the current LNP!

Kind Regards

I'm truly and genuinely appalled by Turnbull's behaviour, he's acting out like a spoilt child by trying to get the new government of Scott Morrison sacked by losing more MP's. I was one of the people who believed that Turnbull may have been different after he knifed Tony to become PM - instead it turns out that he was a spineless toadying corporate who was purely after that job because of the status and power it attracted. Once there he turned out to be even worse than Abbott at not listening - not listening to anyone. Not his own party, not the Australian public, nobody.

And now that he got the sack by his own party he's determined for himself that they should not be in government any longer because if he can't be PM then nobody can.

I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

I'm not sure what the problem is - but you certainly can't compare any of these people to the stature of former PM's such as Curtin, Chifley and Menzies. Whitlam I'm not a fan of but at least he had an agenda other than corporate mate-ship after politics. Even Billy Hughes resigned from the Labor Party on his principle - which was that conscription should occur. Again, at least these men had principles and agendas not exclusively related to either enriching themselves personally or just getting their names in the history books.

Credit at least to Gillard and Rudd that they've not continued to comment on current politicians from outside the tent - the LNP appear to be incapable of exorcising this leadership ghost. Again, there's serious problems that need attending to like the energy crisis... in fact I take it as a measure of our descent as a nation that we can't stop our gas from being pillaged by multinationals. Image leaders of the past standing by doing nothing while this rot went on - it just isn't in our national interest to allow it to happen and yet nobody in parliament (bar Hanson and Katter) wants to assert sovereignty and stop the theft.

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

I'm not sure what the problem is - but you certainly can't compare any of these people to the stature of former PM's such as Curtin, Chifley and Menzies. Whitlam I'm not a fan of but at least he had an agenda other than corporate mate-ship after politics. Even Billy Hughes resigned from the Labor Party on his principle - which was that conscription should occur. Again, at least these men had principles and agendas not exclusively related to either enriching themselves personally or just getting their names in the history books.

Credit at least to Gillard and Rudd that they've not continued to comment on current politicians from outside the tent - the LNP appear to be incapable of exorcising this leadership ghost. Again, there's serious problems that need attending to like the energy crisis... in fact I take it as a measure of our descent as a nation that we can't stop our gas from being pillaged by multinationals. Image leaders of the past standing by doing nothing while this rot went on - it just isn't in our national interest to allow it to happen and yet nobody in parliament (bar Hanson and Katter) wants to assert sovereignty and stop the theft.

They picked on the wrong man to stuff around. MT is much more intelligent than the whole coalition. He will get Dutton and I hope he does. Someone described Dutton as an old school plod that sees everything in black and white. If Dutton is so sure of his position why doesn't he refer himself to the HC? As for Hansen and Katter, they are both idiots and don't have the necessary intellect to do anything worthwhile in parliament.

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

You just don't get do you? You voted for them and your getting what you deserve. A pox on the voters.

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

You just don't get do you? You voted for them and your getting what you deserve. A pox on the voters.

What gave you the idea that I voted for any of them?

I would like some decent, honest, competent people to vote for that have the interests of Australia and its people at heart.

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

You just don't get do you? You voted for them and your getting what you deserve. A pox on the voters.

Point of order, we didn't vote for them!! that's the point, how did we know we would end up with a bunch of muppets like these!? these pollies today are a speschal breed, they are dumber than the dumb! why don't we just blow them all up and start again!

Kind Regards

It goes from bad to worse: The Australian is reporting today that Scott Morrison has been in contact with Malcolm Turnbull, pleading with him to stop undermining his government:

The appeal comes amid accu­sations that Mr Turnbull and his former deputy, Julie Bishop, have engaged in a campaign of subversion by casting further doubt over the eligibility of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to sit in parliament, in an implicit threat to the government’s majority.

The Australian has confirmed that Mr Morrison’s office has contacted several key figures close to Mr Turnbull over the past 48 hours seeking a detente after weeks of damaging leaks against the new Morrison government from suspected former Turnbull government insiders.

There's also a strong possiblity that Dutton will be referred to the High Court next week with Julie Bishop indicating that she may cross the floor on the matter.

In the meantime, wasn't there a country that needed running?

As if to reinforce how mealy-mouthed ScoMo is going to be as PM, he apologises for posting part of a music video that had a song on it that might have had naughty or rude lyrics... ABC.

The Prime Minister has been forced to remove a video, tweeted from his personal profile, dubbing some of his antics to a song by US R & B star Fatman Scoop, after criticism the lyrics were inappropriate.

Mr Morrison is featured gesturing to his Coalition colleagues, who raised their hands in unison.

It was mixed with Fatman Scoop's 2001 hit "Be Faithful"... ...While those lyrics may prove fairly innocuous, the rest of the song's more sexual themes raised concerns over what message the Prime Minister's office was trying to send.

Mr Morrison deleted the video a few hours after it was posted.

This is crazy, he's worried that he used a chorus from a song that had other lyrics in it not-so-savory for the kiddies? I'm not even sure if he knew what he was supposed to be apologising for on Twitter... I'm not sure what's going on in Canberra but I'm starting to agree with other posters here that we may have to Guy Fawkes the place and start again, these people are all beyond help.

I am surprised by Turnbull's behaviour although, after decades of watching Australian politics, nothing should surpirse me. For years, the term "hater" has been used widely in numerous publications about a variety of (ahem!) Honorable Members. One can go back to the ALP in the 50's with Doc Evatt and Eddie Ward being two of them, and they weren't the only ones. The Libs had their share as well.
Abbott has shown a valiant attempt to be included in their ranks.  He promised no undermining etc, and then proceeded to do his level best to stuff Turnbull until he succeeded.
I had thought better of Turnbull, but he has now shown that the old tradition lives on.
If ever we needed proof that the welfare of the country is a minor consideration, and that a snout in the trough is priority number one, and revenge is priority number two, we've been seeing it in spades for the last three years, and it's still going on.

As if to reinforce how mealy-mouthed ScoMo is going to be as PM, he apologises for posting part of a music video that had a song on it that might have had naughty or rude lyrics... ABC.

The Prime Minister has been forced to remove a video, tweeted from his personal profile, dubbing some of his antics to a song by US R & B star Fatman Scoop, after criticism the lyrics were inappropriate.

Mr Morrison is featured gesturing to his Coalition colleagues, who raised their hands in unison.

It was mixed with Fatman Scoop's 2001 hit "Be Faithful"... ...While those lyrics may prove fairly innocuous, the rest of the song's more sexual themes raised concerns over what message the Prime Minister's office was trying to send.

Mr Morrison deleted the video a few hours after it was posted.

This is crazy, he's worried that he used a chorus from a song that had other lyrics in it not-so-savory for the kiddies? I'm not even sure if he knew what he was supposed to be apologising for on Twitter... I'm not sure what's going on in Canberra but I'm starting to agree with other posters here that we may have to Guy Fawkes the place and start again, these people are all beyond help.

Not unusual for Canberra - Clive Palmer twerking on radio for example....  Still, ScoMo should've vetted the lyrics first.

I am surprised by Turnbull's behaviour although, after decades of watching Australian politics, nothing should surpirse me. For years, the term "hater" has been used widely in numerous publications about a variety of (ahem!) Honorable Members. One can go back to the ALP in the 50's with Doc Evatt and Eddie Ward being two of them, and they weren't the only ones. The Libs had their share as well.
Abbott has shown a valiant attempt to be included in their ranks.  He promised no undermining etc, and then proceeded to do his level best to stuff Turnbull until he succeeded.
I had thought better of Turnbull, but he has now shown that the old tradition lives on.
If ever we needed proof that the welfare of the country is a minor consideration, and that a snout in the trough is priority number one, and revenge is priority number two, we've been seeing it in spades for the last three years, and it's still going on.

It's like the knife cabinet was opened a few weeks back, and now everyone's raided it and is running around with a knife/chainsaw/axe like some 1970s slasher movie...

If ever we needed proof that the welfare of the country is a minor consideration, and that a snout in the trough is priority number one, and revenge is priority number two, we've been seeing it in spades for the last three years, and it's still going on.

I don't think it's as simple as that; there's a lot more than just personality politics at play.

The Aussie public are under a lot of economic stress, look no further than household savings being eroded to fund expenditure combined with record household debt. The average household isn't sustainable, they have too much money going out the door on things like power, gas, rates etc. The sheer expense of government services in particular has skyrocketed - look at these recent rates rises in Victoria of 30-50% in the City of Wyndham alone; no wonder households in that area are among the most financially stressed in the nation. All of this happening in an environment of extremely low "emergency" interest rate levels not seen since the war - there's a lot of people out there on the edge living a hand-to-mouth existence.

So when people like Turnbull or Sco Mo tell them things are all okay or fiddle around the edges of a problem like NEG without addressing the core issue of electricity tripling in price since the turn of the century then the public get justifiably angry. That's the basic cause of your "five Prime Ministers in ten years" problem; nobody is willing or able to take on the endemic problems persisting in our political economy because to do so would mean having to try and unravel 35 years of neo-liberal economics that have got us to this point in the first place.

Not unusual for Canberra - Clive Palmer twerking on radio for example....  Still, ScoMo should've vetted the lyrics first.

And why is Clive spending money to try and get back into politics - I'm pretty confident that nobody in Queensland would want him back would they?

'I again ask fellow Railpagers - what did we do in a former life so badly wrong that our karma was these hopelessly selfish, vain and egotistical people whose only interest is in having power for the sake of it? What did we do to deserve these arsehats, honestly!'

Buggered if I know in either former or current lives but it must have been pretty bad.

A pox on them ALL. Male, female, Labor, Liberal or whatever.

The only person who entered Parliament with an honest intention was GUY FAWKES .................

I'm not sure what the problem is - but you certainly can't compare any of these people to the stature of former PM's such as Curtin, Chifley and Menzies. Whitlam I'm not a fan of but at least he had an agenda other than corporate mate-ship after politics. Even Billy Hughes resigned from the Labor Party on his principle - which was that conscription should occur. Again, at least these men had principles and agendas not exclusively related to either enriching themselves personally or just getting their names in the history books.

Credit at least to Gillard and Rudd that they've not continued to comment on current politicians from outside the tent - the LNP appear to be incapable of exorcising this leadership ghost. Again, there's serious problems that need attending to like the energy crisis... in fact I take it as a measure of our descent as a nation that we can't stop our gas from being pillaged by multinationals. Image leaders of the past standing by doing nothing while this rot went on - it just isn't in our national interest to allow it to happen and yet nobody in parliament (bar Hanson and Katter) wants to assert sovereignty and stop the theft.

They picked on the wrong man to stuff around. MT is much more intelligent than the whole coalition. He will get Dutton and I hope he does. Someone described Dutton as an old school plod that sees everything in black and white. If Dutton is so sure of his position why doesn't he refer himself to the HC? As for Hansen and Katter, they are both idiots and don't have the necessary intellect to do anything worthwhile in parliament.

In the long run, Turnbull will "get" Dutton. He's in the pot but, his goose is yet to be cooked.
May have taken a page from Keating's book, in reference to Hewson. I wanna do you slowly.