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Issue No. 201 | 31 October 2003 |
Criminal Logic
Interview: No Ifs, No Butts Unions: National Focus Industrial: Fools Gold Bad Boss: Bones of Contention History: The Gong Show Politics: The Hawke Legacy International: Sick Nation Economics: Closed Minds Review: Mixing Pop and Politics Poetry: One Size Fits All
It's Official - Life Worth $1800 Greens Set to Bowl Workers� Homes Law Rewritten To Get Workers� Cash Pressures Lead To Truckie Deaths Soup Kitchen Signals Bleak Future For TAFE Carr Sweeps Cleaners Off Their Feet
Postcard The Soapbox Media The Locker Room Culture Politics Postcard
Industrial Manslaughter The Miracle Of Tom
Labor Council of NSW |
Tool Shed HEIL BRANDIS
Queensland Liberal Senator George Brandis this week lives up to the old adage that it's hard to think with the mouth open. In the senate this week he took up a theme that has been aired by that other oxygen deprived hypocrite from the loony right, Andrew Bolt, with shrill accusations that The Greens are Nazis. While the Greens are many things, and don't always represent the interests of organised labour, accusations that they are Nazis are pretty out there. Especially coming from a man who propped up the Government's race-baiting children overboard claims and conspired in the SIEV-X cover-up. He might do well to study the Nazis attitude to Trade Unions. An attitude that bears a remarkable resemblance to the policies prescribed by his own party. This name calling is coming from the man who described John Kerr as 'the victim of the Dismissal', 'my beloved friend' and someone who 'marched always in the ranks of honour'. Marched?!! Staggered more likely. Despite being a John Howard look-a-like Brandis is a Costello booster who has teamed up with shonky branch stacker Santo Santoro (remember the Liberal Party branch members who lived in China?) to further embarrass conservatives north of the Tweed. He has also served a term as a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a high-powered conservative Washington think-tank has been credited with shaping Australia's new interventionist foreign policy, including the Federal Government's stance against North Korea. He told The Courier-Mail that the institute was the first to abandon the notion of sovereignty in favour of "humanitarian intervention". Then this low-life grub found time in his miserable life to stuck into Jim Cairns, but only after he died. While Ruddock was denying that Australia's Pacific Solution involved 'Detention Centres' Brandis let the cat out of the bag by referring to them as such during the Senate inquiry into SIEV-X. At the Senate inquiry Brandis repeated the now-discredited claims that asylum seekers used children to pressure the Navy. "The peculiar evil of this case was that they weren't threatening to harm themselves, they were threatening to harm children, including according to some of these reports, children as young as two. Don't you think that ramps up the level of moral blackmail?" A breathless Brandis told the inquiry. It's breathtaking that someone as morally challenged as Brandis can keep a straight face while he accuses anyone else of having Nazi sympathies. Brandis also takes a keen interest in higher education, something that it appears he could benefit from. "The independent report was a completely confected excuse," said Brandis of the SIEV-X inquiry. What the hell does confected mean? Made into candy? In his role as a member of the Senate inquiry into higher education the rather self important Senator Brandis felt unis should take their begging bowls over to private sector and stop bothering the government. As one inquiry observer explained: " I thought private sector paid taxes too. I thought better unis meant better thinkers, workforce, execs, admin types; so better economy, more taxes, higher senators' wages - apparently enlightened self-interest not part of Brandis' job description." Brandis is also got the Queensland Teachers Union in his wildly misguided sights. Unfortunately he could probably do with a bit of help from a few Primary School teachers himself. Check out the grammar on this latest attack on the Queensland Teachers Union: "The new funding system recognises the socio-economic needs of parent communities - and also that is fairer." Back to school for you George, with remedial classes in History AND English. Our morally and intellectually challenged Tool Of The Week may be right about there being Nazis in parliament, but the best chance he'll have of spotting one is when he has a shave in the morning.
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