Australia - you're standing in it
OMG Facto..... That is sooooooooooooo bad........ "You get what you deserve" comes to mind. And NSW/Australia deserves this bahahahahahahaha
The Un-Australian doing what it does best...being an utter blowpipe for CONservatives
Ha ha classic headline.
Im not a fan of hers at all, but on the back of NZ success with Covid she did deserve to be re-elected.
Anyway here is the article for some perspective on the headline
"Nobody skewered Barack Obama during his presidency like legendary comedian Dennis Miller. “It’s not all that dramatic with me and Obama,” Miller once told his audience. “It’s not racist, it’s not classist, it’s not ideological. It’s just that he’s an inept civil servant. He’s the guy at the toll booth who’s constantly giving out the wrong change.”
The same could be said about New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. She’s a brilliant politician, but has been a grossly incompetent administrator. And with her seismic re-election on Saturday, New Zealand is in for a dangerous three years.
“There is a distinct chance that if we don’t sort out our economic challenges quickly, New Zealand could end up a failed state,” says Oliver Hartwich, executive director of leading think tank the New Zealand Initiative.
Hartwich is right to be worried. New Zealand has been hit particularly hard by the Ardern government’s heavy-handed coronavirus response. Before COVID-19, tourism was New Zealand’s largest export industry, employing 8.4 per cent of its workforce and bringing in over one fifth of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. With corona, this key plank of the NZ economy has been shut down for the foreseeable future.
Fundamental economic indicators are even more concerning. According to the OECD, New Zealand’s GDP could fall by 10 per cent in 2020. Likewise, unemployment is tipped to rise to just under 9 per cent in 2021 as New Zealand’s $14bn corona wage subsidy program ends. Public debt will soar from 19 per cent of GDP in 2019 to 56 per cent in 2026.
Jacinda Ardern is perhaps the worst person to lead New Zealand through this economic turbulence. Her first term has been marked by political triumphs but public policy disasters. Ardern’s empathic — even admirable — responses to events like the Christchurch massacre and the White Island volcano have masked a damning suite of failures in government.
Ardern squeaked into office in 2017 promising to deliver 100,000 homes within a decade, but ultimately built just over 500. Other projects, like a rail link from Auckland airport to the CBD and a new hospital for Dunedin were attempted, but quickly abandoned. The $3bn Provincial Growth Fund — extracted by Winston Peters in coalition negotiations — has created more jobs in Wellington than it has in the regions. Labour came to government promising to drive down carbon emissions, homelessness and child poverty; all three have risen.
As for what Ardern has planned for a second term, the details are patchy. Labour ran something of a “small target” strategy during the election, relying on the Prime Minister’s star power and perceived success in warding off the coronavirus.
But from what we do know about their “policy-lite” platform, Labour will likely exacerbate New Zealand’s economic woes. Hiking income tax, re-regulating the industrial relations system and a bloodcurdling plan for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 could turn the corona-induced economic shock into a permanent state of impoverishment for thousands of Kiwis. Worse-still is the possibility — still not ruled out at time of writing — that Ardern will go into coalition with the Green Party, with their plans for a new “wealth tax” and climate change evangelism on par with the Greens’ Australian counterparts.
The great shame is that just three years ago, we could look to New Zealand as a beacon of good government and sensible economic and social reforms.
Over their nine years, the National Party governments of John Key and Bill English cut income and company taxes, brought the budget back to surplus, reformed the labour market and privatised state assets.
The hefty economic windfall was deployed towards a revamped welfare system inspired by what Key and English called “social investment”. The leaner but substantially better-targeted spend led to dramatic improvements in everything from welfare dependency and school attendance to crime rates.
But sadly, the National Party that submitted itself to the people on Saturday night was a shell of its old self in government. It put forward a mixed bag of policies — some decent, like repealing planning laws and temporary tax cuts to kickstart the economy, and some just silly, like introducing a target for electric vehicles. In any event, the opposition failed to put forward a clear, coherent alternative to Labour.
Throw in the spectacle of having three leaders in five months, constant infighting, and a $4bn hole in its pre-election costings, the Nationals were clearly nowhere near “match fit” in 2020. They got the shellacking they deserved.
But the surge in support for the libertarian ACT party — which went from 0.5 per cent of the vote to 8 per cent — shows that there is still a constituency for lower taxes and smaller government. In other words, many were looking for an alternative to Labour’s agenda, but the Nationals just didn’t offer it.
The end result should be familiar to Australians. Alarmingly, there are strong parallels between the political dynamics in New Zealand and the state of Victoria: A first-term Labour government that has steamrolled a weak and divided opposition, a popular leader with a big mandate and a hard-left political temperament, a degraded and politicised public sector, and a largely uncritical and compliant media.
The only hope for New Zealand now is that, whatever horrifying plans that Labour has in store, Jacinda Ardern is just as hopeless at actually implementing them in her second term as she was in her first."
Ha classic Indo.
I'm surprised it's not pay-walled...but then again, not really.
Straight from the IPA's mouth where privatisation, de-regulation of state-owned enterprises, and climate change denial reign supreme....if only NZ had a right wing dictator so as to avoid all that un-necessary democracy.
"perspective in the headline"........ Indo talking about "perspective" in Murdoch headlines bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Here's some perspective. She won. The other woman lost in a LANDSLIDE. If that makes Jacinta "incompetent", one would have to say it makes Judith outright useless.
And right-wing kooks say The Guardian is biased. Jesus wept.
Blindboy is back and i thought it was Facto.
I guess the name and pic was just a red hearing.
Guardian and Australian pretty much same bias either way then Sky News next level bias, same with public radio like RRR 3PBS next level bias to the left, they play some good music though.
BTW. SD by perspective i basically meant here is the article nothing more, as just thought it was weird to share a headline without an article, even weirder that WOL hasn't even read the article?
“a bloodcurdling plan for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030”
ooooooohhhhh, scary!
That article was tripe. Complete ideological drivel.
@indo haha yea weird eh? Not really.
Like I said above,
I hadn't read it because in the past ANY 'The Australian' articles I have tried to look at were always paywalled...so thanks for finding it and giving us all a laugh.
Classic summary etarip.
Haha. More hilarity from the 'Info' channel!
Cheers champ, and keep on Dreemin'.
It was the ALP who gave Murdoch his monopoly on Australian media
And that is no comment on Gladys Berejiklian.
I am a firm believer that no matter what position you hold in Australian society it is nobody’s business who you shack up with. Especially if they are dodgy AF.
"....a degraded and politicised public sector, and a largely uncritical and compliant media."
Surely the author had a smirk on his face when he wrote this?
As far as shacking up Sickaz, it's not who she shagged but what she knew or turned a blind eye to. The line know is "but she isn't being accused of wrong doing". Only because no-one else knew about the connection when ICAC started
Remember the circus Gillard had to endure over a similar matter. At least she had the integrity to front the media pack and said let it rip boys and answered every question they had whereas Gladys actually told the journalists to shut it, lets talk about something else. Yesterdays media blitz has Scotty from marketings touch all over it, talk about a "compliant media"
"It was the ALP who gave Murdoch his monopoly on Australian media"
Paul Keating yeah?
Not to mention either him or Bob that started the ball rolling on privatisation with Commonwealth bank and Qantas.
Not that privatisation is a bad thing just depends what it is, but WOL mentioned privatisation in a comment above.
Anyway Sun herald articles pretty much always seem to be pay walled the majority of Australian ones I've clicked on you can view, but you only get a few articles a week then you get Paywalled.
Anyway like i said, give me Glady over Dan any day at least Glady is half competent and not responsible for 20K + infections of Covid-19 and over 800 deaths (over 90% of Covid deaths in Aus)
Not to mention, one of the longest lockdowns in the world (yes needed to be done) but still, lot of people have lost business and really hurting.
Fair crack of the whip.
If Ardern is “policy-lite” what does that make Morrison?
But the Australian has never been about truth or balance.
You only imagine their heads will explode when Dan Andrews is re-elected in 2022.
Despite what the ideologues in the LNP and the Murdoch rags are saying if an election were held in Victoria tomorrow Labor would be returned in a landslide.
That Victoria would vote in the ALP back in in their next election is some grand conjecture.
Polls are showing he still enjoys over 60% public support and the likes of Frydenberg and Hunt get absolutely caned in the non Murdoch media each time they open their traps. Much to the annoyance of the LNP, Victoria like no other state likes its politics in the middle not out on the middle to far right. The next Victorian election is in late 2022 and by then the economy should be all beer and skittles, right? ..... Wrong
The Victorian Liberals endless demand for looser restrictions and a faster reopening is going to look incredibly foolish over the next few months.
Victorians will rightly point to Europe and the USA and say, "That's the direction Michael O'Brien wanted to take Victoria".
The ALP should be vulnerable in Victoria, but they aren't because the Liberals are seriously pathetic.
I’m not saying vic wouldn’t re-elect the ALP, I just thought it was interesting that it was stated as a fact, despite being over a year ahead of us. And anyway poll results these days almost always show results that are to the left of reality, see Trump, Scotty, Brexit.
That so many people see lock downs, social distancing and hand washing as the only tools we have to control a virus that we may never control is very concerning. When would we decide to lift lockdowns if Covid becomes part of the furniture? what is the limit? There are serious health concerns that arise from lockdowns, factors that put the whole population at risk, not just the vulnerable. What about kids education, sports, socialisation. Lockdowns hurt kids the most. Without a functioning economy we have no real means of responding to the crisis anyway, when do we decide to lift lockdowns if things carry on as they are? When our economy is ruined beyond repair.
Lockdowns need to be used to stop the health system from getting overwhelmed, currently they are being wielded as a political axe to cut down anyone who dares questions their effectiveness, morality or consider other possibilities.
Thankfully the Swedes have been brave enough to stand on their own and give us a point of comparison from which at least we might actually learn something from this sad mess.
Sickaz,
I've read reports saying the Swedes aren't going to be taking the same approach as the first wave, and are planning lockdowns in a few weeks.
They failed miserably on the first wave. Thousands of people needlessly died early and their approach didn't protect their economy at all.
"Victoria like no other state likes its politics in the middle not out on the middle to far right. "
More like Victoria is the most left leaning state, most states are more to the middle.
Its not just Covid, mess up remember we are the only state to also sell our soul to China with the belt road scam.
*double post
Whatever dandy dripper ....
More to the left maybe, but by no means a left wing state. Fucken armchair conservatives think the slightest hint of social awareness or empathy is leftist these days. Also they tend to have a tenuous grasp on what socialism is, and no clue what Marxism is.
Spot on Hiccups. The RWNJs scream "COMMUNIST" at pretty much anyone who believes in science and gets offended by racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
Got to be a parody account. As satire it’s flawless.
Says the caricature of himself.
Yep on the political spectrum the traditional middle isn’t left or far left but it’s way left of where the right now sits ...
Yes VL you could be right. Can’t say I know the details about the Swedish economy, I bet small business owners are in a better spot in Sweden than those in the UK, where my in-laws have endured strict lockdown for most of the time since March. They live in a seaside resort town and let’s just say that the town as a whole is suffering from both COVID infections and deaths, and also the ever rising unemployment with its related problems. A large percentage of deaths in Sweden, like NY came when infected people were sent to aged care homes which is why their death rate is high, because many of the people infected were elderly.
I guess what I’m concerned about is the possibility that we might have to deal with COVID long term. I don’t know how we should manage it either. I just don’t see how lock downs should be anything but a short term measure to protect access to, and the function of health services.
Sickaz. Lockdowns are needed to protect the economy. When infection rates go up, people isolate voluntarily, confidence gets crushed and the economy falters.
Countries that have locked down hard and early are in much better economic state than the anti lockdown nations.
Not today.
“I just don’t see how lock downs should be anything but a short term measure to protect access to, and the function of health services.”
Seems the WHO agrees with you.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/who-is-right-lockdo...
... and in China where people were locked in their apartments the economy is going gang busters, or in countries with experience with the SARs virus and lockdown hard and fast likewise and in NZ but hey that doesn't count, right?
... and countries like the UK, the US nor most of Europe didn't fully lockdown hard and fast.
I keep on coming back to what I have thought since late January 2020, if our borders had been closed in mid - late February and had returning international travellers had been quarantined remotely Australia right now would be virus free, the economy flourishing and the envy of the world. Thanks Slow-mo. You most certainly have put the N back in cuts.
And there you have it folks, endorsing China’s response to Covid? Wow
Yeah that seems to have been forgotten about Guy.
All hell was breaking loose in China and for weeks the planes kept coming and there was no quarantine.
If the disease had turned out to considerably worse than it was, we’d be fucked.
At that stage of the game it was ineptitude of the highest order.
Slow-mo at Friday night footie and too worried about upsetting China in stopping its students in country .... remember that folks?
Our borders were closed a full 10 weeks after Australia recorded its first Covid19 infection. Thanks Slow-mo.
When our borders were finally closed Slow-mo wanted returning international travellers to home quarantine, how would have panned out for Covid19? Just like the infected Aspen skiers from Portsea, Victoria who went shopping and partying throughout Melbourne?
I think that was the guts of it.
Related but on a tangent.
COVID could be yet another nail in the coffin of full-time employment.
I expect Lib/Lab will take full advantage of the situation.
Standing in it ? Three feet high and rising.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/oct/20/australias-...
Never waste a crisis
I stepped off the plane in Brisbane from China the last wk of January this yr. I didn't see or hear a word mentioned of any virus anywhere in China or on Chinese media before I left.
I, and seemingly everyone else (9 our of 10 of them Chinese) on the flight, breezed straight through the airport at about 1am in the morning to a taxi in what seemed like record time. No one stopped me, or seemingly anyone else, to ask about anything related to some virus or if anyone was feeling unwell etc. I even had to contend with the usual Chinese queuing frenzy disaster of battling them pushing in etc while getting my luggage and lining up waiting for a taxi...and I wondered if I was actually even in Australia yet...
Later that morning I woke up to a massive Aus media shit storm of virus mania, sensationalism, panic and craziness...and wondered if I was still asleep or had eaten something bad (or good) on the plane...
Within no time I saw someone from the Aus govt or something on tv telling people not to worry about international travellers coming into Australia since we have very adequate border checks in place to check and catch anyone with the virus...and I wondered what fucken planet they were on and if I was on the same one as them after my airport experience not too many hours before that...
Later I found out that a flight out of the same Chinese airport to Melbourne left at the same time as mine, and it was at the gate next to mine, and on the flight was "patient 0" from China who was supposedly the very first person to bring the virus into Australia...
I've never been contacted about anything relating to coming back from China by any Aus authorities. I have been perfectly healthy since I got back though.
.
Fruit pickers from Vanuatu.....no worries !
International students......fuck yes !
Foreign celebrities.....not a problem !
Kiwi “ tourists “......’ken oath !
Australian citizens.......yeah , nah.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/complex-equation-christmas-wish-...
Thanks gsco, chilling incompetence.
Let’s all remember border security and quarantine are both Slow-mo’s legal responsibilities.
"I keep on coming back to what I have thought since late January 2020, if our borders had been closed in mid - late February and had returning international travellers had been quarantined remotely Australia right now would be virus free, the economy flourishing and the envy of the world. Thanks Slow-mo. You most certainly have put the N back in cuts."
"Our borders were closed a full 10 weeks after Australia recorded its first Covid19 infection. Thanks Slow-mo."
You keep banging this same thing out because we all have the beauty of hindsight, but you know full well it doesn't matter who was in power it wouldn't have happened because we were going off advise from the WHO and closing borders is a huge thing that no country wanted to do.
On a world scale we were NOT slow to close borders, basically every developed country around the world closed borders at the same time, maybe there is some European countries that closed borders earlier as were hit earlier, a large amount of countries closed borders after us (developing countries were slower)
Just a few to give the idea.
Aust = 20th March
NZ= 19th March
USA= 20th March
Indonesia= 25th April
Japan= 3rd April
UK=? If closed was after these dates, i think they only just advise people to to travel?
You can find more here
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/3/coronavirus-travel-restrictions-...
BTW. something like 90% of Australias infections and deaths happened in Victoria after borders closed, so it's pretty much a mute point.
Moot.
Moot point.
Moot is a good word.
Okay i learnt something today, always thought it was mute point....I have seen many people write it as such, seems its not, but really it's not important, language and words evolve and change, the important thing is people get what people mean.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/moot-or-mute
"Since moot and mute aren’t swapped elsewhere, why the mixup here? Beyond their physical similarity, could it be that, however unacceptable “mute point” may be to purists, it really isn’t completely nonsensical? Doesn’t the notion of a noisy debate that has gone figuratively silent, or of an issue that is ”silent” in its real-world import, actually seem kind of reasonable? That said, keep in mind that should you use it, the people ready to tell you it's incorrect will not have a mute button."
I wish the fuck you would mute yourself info .... nice to think you don’t expect your politicians to foresee problems only to react when they arise ....
Nah, it’s not fkn reasonable to use mute and moot interchangably.
That’s shit. Fair enough that you didn’t know before, but now that you do it would be lazy / obstinate to keep using it incorrectly.
I wish Scomo had made the call weeks earlier too, if he did he would be praised worldwide and would guarantee a second term.
But its just not realistic, no matter who was in power labor, liberal or the leader it would have happened in that same few day period, its not a decision they would have taken lightly, if the whole thing was a flop and closed borders too early the political and financial fall out would have been huge.
If anyone is to blame for countries not closing borders fast enough it's the mixed messages given by the WHO and also China allowing the virus to spread worldwide.
The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.