The Whitlam Government

https://theaimn.com/the-anglo-american-ambush-of-the-whitlam-government-11-11-1975/

Prophetically, in a sense, Whitlam placed an epigraph to his record of The Whitlam Government, 1972-1975 (1985). It reads as follows:

“And one has to reflect that there is nothing more difficult to handle nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to conduct than to make oneself the leader in introducing a new order of things. For the man who introduces it has for enemies all those who do well out of the old order and has lukewarm supporters in all those who will do well out of the new order.

The lukewarmness arises partly from fear of their adversaries who have the laws on their side and partly from the incredulity of mankind who do not put their trust in changes if they do not see them in actual practice. Thus it arises that whenever those who are enemies have the opportunity to go on the attack they do so forcefully and the others put up a lukewarm defence, so putting themselves and their cause at risk at the same time” (from Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), The Prince, at Chapter Six).

But such was the wisdom of the hindsight.

‘Tax the rich’: one man’s hard truth comments at Davos go viral  

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/tax-the-rich-one-man-s-hard-truth-comments-at-davos-go-viral-20190131-p50uot.html

“Rutger Bregman, the Dutch writer whose 2017 book Utopia for Realists caused a stir by arguing for universal basic income, a 15-hour week and the elimination of borders, is not the only person to criticise the World Economic Forum for elitist hypocrisy.”

The Guardian, Friday 22 February 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/au

I am very glad that this independent newspaper, The Guardian, is still around. Just by looking at the headlines I am satisfied they report on all the inportant issues in Australia. There is a lot going on in politics here in Australia right now. Maybe you want to check ot a few things by going to the above link!

I find it interesting for instance that Catherine Murphy says that Julie Bishop had a career playing second fiddle to men. Well, she did go far, didn’t she, but not quite to the top. So far we have not had yet a female Liberal Prime Minister. In the Liberal Party the struggle for the top job is enormous. Prime Ministers change frequently. But it is not much better in the Labor Party.

These items on the front page I find also interesting: An article about bank victims, about health expenses on Manus Island, about the company Helloworld and about coal bans by the Chinese.

Wednesday, 20 February,2019: The moving of a motion in the Australian Parliament on this day

Jim Chalmers is a Labor MP and Shadow Minister for Finance.

Jim Chalmers is attempting to move this motion:

I seek leave to move the following motion – that the House,

one, notes that yesterday it was revealed the finance minister received free flights to Singapore from Helloworld, which he booked by calling the CEO of this ASX-listed company directly, just before it was awarded a multimillion-dollar whole-of-government contract by the minister’s own department,

(b) today, it has been reported that US ambassador Joe Hockey, who has a million-dollar shareholding in Helloworld, helped a Helloworld subsidiary lobby for the embassy’s travel contract,

(c) the CEO of Helloworld and one of its largest shareholders, Andrew Burnes, is a Liberal party heavyweight and currently Liberal party treasurer with connections to a number of Liberal party politicians,

(d) the finance minister told Senate estimates yesterday that he had “a close personal relationship” with Mr Burnes,

(e) Mr Burnes was previously a colleague of the now-prime minister during the prime minister’s time at Tourism Australia,

(f) since being awarded government contracts, the share price of Helloworld has skyrocketed, making shareholders like Mr Hockey and Mr Burns rich,

and (g) it was reported that the Herald Sun asked almost all of the 82 Liberal MPs in parliament whether they had received free travel from Helloworld, but only 14 said that they had not,

and, (2) therefore calls on the prime minister to investigate and report to the House how far this Helloworld scandal reaches into his government.

He is denied on the voices.

Updated 

15:01

Jim Chalmers with the Nick Champion question (just cut down) to Scott Morrison:

Is the prime minister confident that trips like the one by the minister for home affairs and Joe Hockey with Helloworld’s CEO and Liberal treasurer Mr Andrew Burnes to Las Vegas, were paid at the full commercial rate?

Morrison:

Again, Mr Speaker, the member comes here and just makes assertions …

He makes … and then he asks me to respond as if those assertions are true, Mr Speaker. No, he is not asking – it is said to me, how dare he answer the question, he is not asking a question, he is making an assertion about something he hasn’t even established as a fact and on that basis, Mr Speaker, I don’t agree necessarily with the presumption of the question and therefore, on what basis should I allow a member to come and simply just come to the despatch box, cast aspersions on people in this chamber and the other chamber and former members of the chamber simply because the Labor party wants to distract attention from the fact they’ve come into this place and undermined Australia’s border protection regime, Mr Speaker?

We know, because they’ve been boasting around the media for some time, that they have had this little issue for some time in the drawer and when the pressure is on, they pull it out.

He finishes before Tony Burke can ask him about relevance.

15:45

For those asking, all of the crossbench, except Bob Katter, who was not in the chamber, voted with Labor to suspend standing orders.

Labor had lost three MPs (I think) to 94a

15:39

Ayes – 71

Noes – 71

But there is no absolute majority, so the motion fails.

AndScott Morrisoncalls an end to question time.

 

I think  Jim Chalmers, being only forty years and a very impressive speaker, might become quite an asset for the Labor Party in the Australian Parliament. You can have a look here about the two books he has written so far:

https://auntielive.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/jim-chalmers-makes-the-case-for-a-fair-go/

 

Springtime in Perth Western Australia

I like these pictures very much and I like what Kitty-Kat did write about springtime in Perth, Australia.

knsander97's avatarKitty-Kat Chronicles

Here in Perth, Western Australia Spring is finally here and my garden is full of life and all the flowers are in bloom. This is a garden that Dad and I started a few years ago with a lot of hard work digging out a lot of lawn and then mulching as we put plants in. Now it has developed more to have shrubs and succulents, the honeybees native to the area love it and when I went to photograph it today they gathered around me.

It can be seen from our front window of our house and never fails to put a smile on my face and others to see all those flowers nodding in the spring sunshine. It is getting warmer, but still cooler nights prevail at this time of year. We are still having rainy days and then you see all the flowers close up tight to…

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Another Weekend gone

This is a reblog from the 10th of February 2014. I wrote about it how we spent the weekend with cake, coffee and the family. I just love to be reminded how we had such a good time with family. And it is great to be able to look at all these pictures again!

auntyuta's avatarAuntyUta

Caroline did bake this cake. Caroline did bake this cake.

It was a good weekend. We had the family visiting with little Lucas. And we received the great news, that in September Lucas is going to have a little sister or brother. How exciting this is for the whole family!

Caroline and Matthew arrived yesterday at lunchtime. This afternoon they left again to go back to Sydney. Yesterday we had Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad) and Bouletten (Berlin Meat Patties) for lunch. Caroline did bring some cake which she had baked herself.  We had this yesterday for afternoon coffee when Monika came with Mark as well as Troy and Ryan who did bring little Lucas along. Ebony, the newly expectant mum, had stayed at home to have a little bit of a rest.

This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2914. This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2014

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Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I went for a bit of Supper to the AGA (Australian German Austrian) Club. Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I went for a bit of Supper…

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Faith in Spring – Frühlingsglaube

Here in Australia we are approaching autumn not spring. Still I like these verses by Ludwig Uhland. I just looked at this post and thought it would be good to reblog them. They are tagged under ‘springtime’.

auntyuta's avatarAuntyUta

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German Verse by Ludwig Uhland

In the original German with a
line-by-line prose translation in English

FrühlingsglaubeFaith in Spring
von Ludwig UhlandProse translation by Hyde Flippo
Die linden Lüfte sind erwacht,The gentle winds are awakened,
Sie säuseln und wehen
Tag und Nacht,		They murmur and waft
day and night,
Sie schaffen an allen Enden.They create in every corner.
O frischer Duft, o neuer Klang!Oh fresh scent, oh new sound!
Nun, armes Herze, sei nicht bang!Now, poor dear [heart], fear not!
Nun muss sich alles, alles wenden.Now everything, everything must change.
Die Welt wird schöner
mit jedem Tag,		The world becomes more beautiful
with each day,
Man weiß nicht,
was noch werden mag,		One does not know
what may yet happen,
Das Blühen will nicht enden.The blooming doesn’t want to end.
Es blüht das fernste, tiefste Tal:The farthest, deepest valley blooms:

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