On Politics, or why I hate Tony Abbott so much

I  promise to try to make this interesting!!

Now I can’t and won’t claim to be an expert on politics but that doesn’t mean that I can’t use reason to make conclusions based on the facts as I see them.

Main issue one: The Resource Super Profits Tax. (One of the main reasons why Kevin Rudd’s popularity dropped and he stood down)

FIRSTLY. It is called a “Resource Super Profits Tax”. Whoever coined the phrase “Super Tax” is a propaganda spewing genius. It is a tax on profits that the mining companies earn. They earn a lot of profit. There is a large increase in the tax rate, yes, but they have significantly reduced royalty taxes. Royalties were a flat rate. Companies could bust on projects or earn essentially no profit but still be taxed highly on their EARNINGS. It is policy like this that helped Australia, relatively, stay clear during the financial crisis and it is a safeguard against the collapse of the mining industry if another market crash occurs.

The proposal for these tax reforms have been around since late 2008. It isn’t news. Even I knew about them and I do not read finance or mining news, ever. Think about what you were doing in August 2008. That  is long time.

My favourite part of this whole debacle are the people who are staunchly opposed to it saying things like this:

“It has been misrepresented that companies aren’t paying enough tax that they’re making super profits, that is a lie, that’s nothing more than a lie if you look at the facts.” (Reg Nelson, Beach Energy)

We all know that “if you look at the facts” is political speak for “I can claim this because the facts are going to be so vague and the average Australian will not look up the facts they will just trust me based on how “Australian” and therefore “trustworthy” I appear to be. Call me out on this, if you disagree, but every time someone says stuff like this I cringe. The government does it, the opposition does it, every political person does it. It’s essentially an attempt to make the people who don’t know feel stupid about not knowing and therefore cause them to trust the person who clearly “does know”. Clever and means you do not have to explain yourself. In this instance; the Government has done a lot of explaining and the opposing parties have done a lot of “No?! Because… because NO.”

Also, side note. These mining big wigs have spent tens of millions of dollars on an advertising campaign against the proposed tax. Tens of millions of dollars on something that may not even eventuate. Without blinking. If they can afford that then surely they can afford the tax? I would much prefer the Australian Government to have that money than some cashed up bogans. Speaking of tens of millions of dollars. These adverts are like “WE ARE PAYING MILLIONS(!!!) OF DOLLARS IN TAX”. Bitch please. You are billion dollar companies.

Next major issue! The refugee/asylum seeker/boat people/illegal immigrant “crisis”.

These four terms are synonyms in this example. It is the people who come from poverty or war stricken countries on tiny boats to Australia, while trying to avoid the authorities. You can tell what someone thinks of them by what term they use. Obviously “refugee” is a lot more sympathetic than “illegal immigrant”. So, my favourite sped in the world, Mr Tony Abbott (the opposition leader) has said he thinks that any boat that is seaworthy enough should be turned around. GREAT POLICY. SURELY THERE ARE NO FLAWS LIKE BOATS BEING SABOTAGED AND A FUCKTON OF PEOPLE DROWNING!?

If you read or look at the news it is apparently a terrible issue/crisis every time an Australian dies in unnatural circumstances. The teenage boy who committed suicide this weekend from bullying, the bigwigs who died in a plane crash, the Australian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan (admittedly that warrants vast media attention and respect). You get it all the time “three hundred people were killed INCLUDING AN AUSTRALIAN, GUYS, HOLY SHIT!” Quite frankly I think that these REFUGEES should be looked after. I do not mind paying tax for that. Just because, as long as Australia is awesome (and where they come from is shit), they are going to keep coming no matter what we do. It becomes a humanitarian issue, not a political or a national one. Guess which of those is the most important?

I do not even want to get into the racial issue but I do not see why where they come from should matter, at all. However, pretty sure if they were from Europe (the further west in Europe, the better) then nobody would care. Australia just has a long, long history of racism and neglecting human rights. So this isn’t really a surprise.

NEXT ISSUE: JULIA GILLARD vs TONY ABBOTT.

Ok so as of this morning, Australia has it’s first female Prime Minister. Also it’s first non-sped Prime Minister in almost longer than I can remember (we’ve only had Kevin Rudd and John Howard while I have been conscious enough to ‘get’ politics).

Why this is good:

• She is smart. I thrive on calling politicians speds. It is my favourite thing to do. Julia Gillard has not (yet) given me reason to
• She is eloquent. When she speaks it is clear and understandable. I could understand Kevin Rudd but a lot of people have no idea what the hell he’s saying.
• She is slightly more left wing. Thus the being branded a “communist”. She, personally, may be one but she can’t change the direction of the party to rabid left-wing policy. She CAN however, influence a more left wing Australia WHICH WE NEED PRETTY BADLY. (See humanitarian issue above, for example)
• “She is not known for putting conservative religion prejudices ahead of legal equality and fundamental human rights.”
  (reference) Notice how she emphasises that it is a “Government” decision and also notice that she appears to sound rather bitter about it.
• She was born in Wales AND is partnered (not married or any of that shit) to a hairdresser and she has no children. This = awesome (slash really lesbian).
• She has been acting PM before
• She is not Tony Abbott.

Why this is bad:

• She wasn’t elected by the people (yet). While we theoretically just elect party members and they CHOOSE the PM, it still feels a bit sour
• If she fucks it up, Australia is fucked to remain some right wing shit hole where nobody but white men have any rights
• Communism is not cool. Ask the rest of the Micenkos. Oh wait. They’re essentially all dead from bullets in the ex-USSR
• Australia is mysoginistic and racist and conservative and SO MANY PEOPLE will be trying to get her to fuck up or APPEAR to have fucked up.

Tony Abbott

Why I hate Tony Abbott so much:

• He is anti-abortion
• He has claimed that women should save sex for marriage. Women specifically. Clearly men are OK having as much sex as they like
• The whole ‘turn asylum seekers’ boats around if they are seaworthy” bullshit
• He said he “felt threatened” by the LGBTI community. HE SAID THAT. Now he’s trying to claim he loves LGBTI… FFS
• He has called climate change “crap”
• He has scary ministers from John Howard’s era
• He always is topless or being a media whore by wearing silly outfits. You are not Lady Gaga
• He admits that we should not to believe anything he says unless it is written down. THANKS
• He literally and admittedly has no idea about economics. He’s going to fuck up all of Kevin’s work which was planning for the future and then blame Kevin when things go to shit. If he gets in I can guarantee that this will happen.

The End.

Again, please feel free to clarify and/or disagree with points that I have made. If you want evidence to my claims I can look them up. I haven’t linked to articles because some of them will be a few months old and hard to dig up and I’m lazy. BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THE FACTS YOU WILL SEE THAT I AM RIGHT (sorry, it felt necessary).

PS: Vote Greens.