Monday, November 18, 2013

Speaking of boring, uninformed and a repetitive failure to remember ...

This post is brought to the pond by others.

First the graphic, supplied by higgs boson:


And now to the rest of the content, which the pond owes to the diligent and always informative Northern Voices, which suggests that now that Tamworth has gone over to the dark side and Barnaby Joyce, the north coast might have become the centre of the known universe:

Let's start with Barners:

If you do raise the debt ceiling, you have a rather large train rolling off the edge of a rather large cliff. [(Leader of the Nationals in the Senate and Member of the Opposition’s Shadow Ministry Barnaby Joyce, Financial Review, 14 May 2012] 

Now on to jolly Joe:

Now they are saying they are living within their means but are also saying, 'Just in case, please give us an increase in the credit card limit to $300 billion.' It does not sound like a lot if you say it quickly but it is a hell of a lot of money that Australians have to repay. Enough is enough.... 
The government must appropriately reflect the significance of increasing the limit on the face value of stock and securities that can be on issue under the Treasurer's standard borrowing authority. The Treasurer must then make the case to the Australian people that Labor deserves the right to increase the credit card limit. The Treasurer must explain why he cannot use the Loan (Temporary Revenue Deficits) Act 1953. I asked him a question in this place. He could not answer it. So, to that effect, and I move the following second reading amendment: 
That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House requests the Government to vary the resolution in relation to the Appropriation bills agreed by the House on 8 May 2012 to permit amendments to be moved and debated to Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2012-13.” 
This is the very least that the public deserves...... 
We will quiz the AOFM and the Department of the Treasury at estimates. We want to get to the bottom of exactly why this sneaky government is trying to avoid proper scrutiny on the debt limit. [Liberal MP and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, Hansard, 21 May 2012] 

How about Andrew Robb?

Acting Prime Minister, does the government view the increase in the nation's credit card limit from $250 billion to $300 billion as a very serious issue or no big deal?... This is a budget with the debt issue, this increase in debt from $250 billion to $300 billion debt ceiling.... [Liberal MP and Shadow Minister for Finance, Deregulation and Debt Reduction Andrew Robb, Hansard, 21 May 2013]
(the rest about the kerfuffle, with links, here, thanks to Northern Voices)

Now the pond understands that politics is all about hypocrisy and double-dealing and double-standards and disremembering debates of little more than a year ago, but is there anything funnier than this?

The chutzpah and gall involved is almost unimaginable.

It's why the pond finds it so irresistible we've borrowed from others.

And yet Hockey has the cheek to wonder why he's copping it on Twitter.

All those years beating up a national emergency, and all he can do now is beat up a national emergency.

And so to the bigger question.

Who has proven to be the worst minister in the shortest time?

Jolly Joe Hockey, or Scott Morrison, both intent on creating faux emergencies and crises, because they continue to think they're in opposition, rather than in government?

It looks like a two horse race, but there are plenty of contenders in a widening field ... for a while there Poodle Pyne looked a goer but faded, while the pond has high hopes still for outsider Greg "wiki" Hunt ...

Right at the moment, the pond can't separate the leading horses, but give them time. The odds are getting shorter by the day and someone is sure to stick their noses in front, or into something or other ... and meanwhile the comedy gold just rolls on ...




2 comments:

  1. The problem here, DP, if I may be so bold, is trying to make sense of it. A couple of quotes from Kahneman (Thinking, Fast & Slow) will do.
    “The psychologist, Paul Rozin, an expert on disgust, observed that a single cockroach will completely wreck the appeal of a bowl of cherries, but a cherry will do nothing at all for a bowl of cockroaches.”
    “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.”

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish all these horses the best of luck in this race, DP. I can't think of a better way to express this than: "Break a leg!"

    ReplyDelete

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