“Taxpayers will see through it. They don’t want their money wasted on glossy advertising designed to make the prime minister feel good. [The PM] is about to boost government promotion to a massive new high. It’s time a brake was put on this fraud. There is clearly a difference between necessary government information and blatant government electoral propaganda. Now the government is going to use taxpayers’ money on a disgraceful scam.

“In any other business, the shareholders would revolt and throw out the management which wasted their money. The problem for the government is not communication. The problem is that it is tired, it has broken too many promises, it has hurt too many people. This propaganda blitz will make the electorate feel even more angry.”

“This grubby tactic will backfire.”

But just who said this about the PM driving his own political bus with government fuel?

It was Johnny Howard in 1995, speaking of Paul Keating.

Karma, baby.

– weez

image: Alan Moir for The Sydney Morning Herald

Public considering change of govt: Howard

Prime Minister John Howard has admitted that the public is contemplating a change of government, in the wake of the latest poll figures.

Today’s Fairfax AC Nielsen poll puts Labor ahead of the Coalition by 58 per cent to 42 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

But the Government’s primary vote has edged up for the second consecutive month, rising two points to 39 per cent compared to Labor’s 48 per cent.

And the poll showed that most voters back the Coalition as the best economic manager, but the Opposition is seen as the best option for industrial relations (IR).

Mr Howard says the Government is facing a tough battle to win the next Federal Election.

“It’s quite clear that the public, after 11 years of this Government, is contemplating a change, I understand that,” he said.

Nice try, Johnny.

Even YOU know you screwed yourself by screwing Australian workers with WorkChoices .

-weez

MORE: No Shit, Sherlock- part 72; Joe Hockey says “We got it wrong on WorkChoices industrial relations fairness”

EVEN MORE: HoWARd reckons the Liberals are “facing annihilation.” I could have told you that when Labor was returned to NSW government despite being some of the most corrupt and inept managers the state has ever known- and when Pru Goward very nearly wasn’t elected to the seat of Goulburn. Iemma publicly credited WorkChoices for Labor’s landslide victory- Goward also admitted that WorkChoices had very nearly cost her the election.

We were assured by Bob Carr that the use of drug sniffer dogs on public transport and in pubs and clubs in certain Sydney suburbs was intended specifically to target heroin dealers. A NSW Ombudsman’s report into the record of sniffer dogs says that’s not quite how the woofers are working:

THE drug sniffer dog program is an expensive waste of money that fails to catch serious drug dealers but manages to embarrass thousands doing nothing wrong, a NSW Ombudsman investigation has found.

The Government believes the dogs interrupt the supply of illegal drugs, but the two-year investigation found they stop three times as many people who are not carrying drugs as those who are.

During the study, 10,211 people were stopped at train stations, in pubs and on streets – but only a quarter of those searched were carrying illegal drugs. (more…)

Let’s play a new game; spot the drug war propaganda talking points! (more…)

The Fairfax papers are simply the best in Australia. The SMH and The Age are very fine old papers, trying to have a go in a new century. However, someone over at Fairfax has decided that for a paper to be commercially successful in the modern media mix, it has to cost next to nothing to run. In pursuit of ‘productivity,’ Fairfax wants to lop 35 workers out of the SMH and Sun Herald staffs and make existing workers cover their duties. (more…)

What rights have government to tell you when you can and cannot die? None!

This is the assertion of the members of Exit International, a voluntary euthanasia support group led by Dr. Philip Nitschke. This group of terminally ill people, aged 55 to 94 who are suffering from motor neurone disease (as affects Dr Stephen Hawking) or emphysema, have chosen the drug Nembutal, a powerful sedative, as their ‘peaceful pill.’ More interestingly, this group have managed to synthesize Nembutal in ‘backyard’ laboratories, as well as smuggle a bit into Australia. (more…)

Johnny-come-lately has suddenly come to the realisation that WorkChoices is about to lose an election for him. Grahame Morris must have forgotten to tell Johnny that labour is not a commodity.

Johnny’s now acknowledging that WorkChoices gives employers too much power to screw workers- and needs a fairness repair.

The Bard put words in Caesar’s mouth;

“It’s only hubris if I fail.”

Well, Johnny… you’ve failed.

-weez

image: Consumer Affairs Victoria

Zero-tolerance policies on illicit drugs have little or no basis in medical evidence and often have consequences which increase harm to users, to the point of killing a few.

Consumer Affairs Victoria got on the methamphetamine/ice scare bandwagon and banned ‘ice pipes’ in 2004. Problem is, ‘ice’ users will not stop using the drug just because these glass pipes are banned from sale. Users will simply find an alternate means of smoking the drug.

Before I left the US in 1996, cheap crack cocaine was flooding into the neighbourhoods around my house. One of the people sucked in to using the drug was a very good friend of mine for many years- until his needs for the drug outweighed the value of his friendships. Crack is smoked using the same sort of pipe that Victoria banned. These pipes were also banned in my previous locality in the US as ‘drug paraphernalia.’

My ex-friend’s solution to the unavailability of ‘crack pipes’ was to make his own by breaking off a roughly 4″ piece of glass tubing from a longer section, leaving sharp, jagged ends on the tubing. He stuffed a piece of a copper or stainless steel scouring pad into the tube to trap the crack crystals for vapourising. The sharp ends of the tubing would frequently cut his lips bloody… and he shared his home-made pipe with other crack users, who invariably cut their own lips as well. This would significantly increase the chance of transmission of several blood-borne pathogens like Hep C.

There’s no reason to suggest that the very same thing won’t happen in Victoria. Bravo, another holy victory for the zero-tolerance drug warriors!

But let’s look for a moment at ‘ice’ and how we in Australia got there from here. (more…)

image: ABC 7:30 Report

While promising on the 7:30 Report that Fair Work Australia will not be a retirement home for trade unionists, Kevin Rudd further pledged to remove the political bias on the ABC board by instituting a transparent appointments process. (ABC 7:30 Report video – seek to 5:49 for Rudd’s ABC Board comments)

Bravo, Kevvo.

Like Amounda, will Howard’s ABC board wonks, Windschuttle, Brunton and Albrechtsen soon become Australian ambassadors? I’d like to nominate Windschuttle to be Ambassador to the Australian Aboriginal Nations; Albrechtsen would be right at home in Saudi Arabia. Brunton would surely benefit from a few decades of immersion in communist Chinese political culture.

I want my ABC back. If Labor is elected, that might just happen.

Could Rudd be persuaded to get the damn ads off of SBS, too?

-weez

Keating’s absolutely right– HoWARd is a positively antediluvian, precopernican obscurantist.

No, he is!

Really!

In other news, during his alleged retirement, Keating has apparently ingested 2 OEDs and a Webster’s with a side of Roget’s.

-weez