Apart from many obvious porkies about most things, the present government needs to go, for the single reason we need to see what else the masters of the deception and fudge have been hiding under their seats. Should the government changes hands, I would not be surprise if there is a bon-fire somewhere, where burning files would create more CO2 global warming gas... Be aware.

We need to ask hard questions about the "intelligence" on Iraq (which we knew and know was doctored to suit an invasion), we need to get all the bits missing in regard to the AWB scandal and many other tap dancing events from John and his cohort of porkyists, warmongers, insensitive failed priests, floggers and professional fudgers...

And to bring "inexperience" into daylight there is this famous quote by Berlioz (a french composer) about his compatriot Saint-Saens: "The only thing that Saint-Saens lacks is inexperience..." This was said in order to value "inexperience" as a tool of discovery and grand inspiration, away from facile fluff.

And between you me and a lamp post, Kevin Rudd has more experience than when Howard came onto the scene and creamed us for the good morons we are... At least Kevin values people more than John Howard. And with Maxine on board, Australia should regain its prestige as a fair and honorable country — values badly tarnished under John Howard... 

...Get rid of John Howard...

PM hasn't encountered 'genuine anger' over WorkChoices

John Howard says only three or four people have mentioned WorkChoices to him over the past six weeks.

The Prime Minister says he has not detected any genuine anger during the election campaign about the Coalition's industrial relations laws.

Labor has promised to wind back WorkChoices if it wins Government and has been campaigning heavily on industrial relations with leader Kevin Rudd today accepting a 90,000-signature petition against the controversial legislation.

But John Howard says only three or four people have mentioned the issue to him over the past six weeks.

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Gus: is there any thin reality passing through the PM's skull?

Rudd is given a 90,000 plus signature to a petition against Work Choices and Howard hears only three or four "mention" of Workchoices... Not even a single complaint...

While Howard's Fair Choice tribunal has rejected many AWA for being crook, it should have rejected all the rest — as its framing of the working AWA are below par under the Howard Government laws...

Kick John Howard out! 

David Barnett feels the ALP has never understood the connection between higher basic wages and higher unemployment "Industrial relations is not an issue on its own. It is at the centre of economic management. It is about the price and supply of labour, which is central to economic management. Moreoever, it has never been properly understood by ALP governments."

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Gus: Wrong. The ALP has always understood the connection between higher basic wages and higher unemployment. It also understands that more often than not, with lower wages, up goes the salaries of execs and CEOs. to the proportion of zillion to one... While some people are happy for the CEO of Sumpthin' and Rather to make a mint, most reasonable people would see a restraint and less champagne from the top end of town as an indication of true growth spirit, when your average pay packet shrinks.

But no, remuneration for top rungs — often employed to do some quick slash and burn for a quick profit — operation that can bring a company to its knees by lack of vision beyond the moment — is far excessive for value. On another level, the "new" jobs created by the Howard government contain "work for the dole" and other such.

On another level too, the mining "boom" — a "boom" irrelevant to what the Howard government does, in slashing the workforce ability to protect itself — is the major fuel creating jobs...

More protections for workers and more equitable sharing of the proceeds is all one can ask.

If there is strong demand for a product, the company making it can "run itself". All the CEO, like Costello, has to do is pays the bills collect the money and cash in the difference. Stop the fiddle... Once greed starts to permeate some aspect of industrial relations, especially via Work Choices, it is another unnecessary stress put on "working families"... Some can be better off, most will be worse off. Howard hopes that he has hurt less people than those he's stuffed. But to be fair, decent people cannot accept, even if they are "better off" themselves, that other people are worse off under the new laws...

Labor leader Kevin Rudd says every time he walks through a shopping centre he encounters people angry about the Government's controversial industrial relations reforms.

Yesterday the Prime Minister said he has only been approached by three of four people during the course of the election campaign who had expressed concern about WorkChoices.

But Mr Rudd says that is not what he is hearing from the community.

"I can barely walk through a shopping centre in this country without people coming up to me to describe to me in their own words the impact of WorkChoices on their lives and their family's lives," he said.

"Mr Howard these days treats working people as economic commodities. I do not, I never will."

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Gus: read two blogs above... 

It's not the economy, stupid

By John Langmore

There is growing recognition that economic activity is a means to the end of human wellbeing rather than an end in itself. The economy should be the servant of society, rather than society the servant of the economy.

An opinion poll conducted since the election confirms those held before it which showed that more voters were concerned about health, education, workplace relations and climate change than about taxation, interest rates or prices.

There have been 15 years of relatively rapid economic growth, for which there is widespread appreciation.

Yet there seems to have been a reaction amongst many voters against the preoccupation with economic issues. Many people feel that obsession with the economy has marginalised attention to their concerns.

Many of us would identify with the caller on a talk-back radio program who criticised a planned hospital closure. Not only would this reduce the quality of medical services available to people in the district, she said, but it would also remove a lively focus of community activity. The talk-show host asked whether Australia could any longer afford public facilities such as the hospital, to which the woman replied: 'We live in a society, not an economy'.

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Gus: now that we've got Rudd for rudder, we should concentrate on consolidating community activities... Hopefully he wont hit us with much, apart from a few price rises due to Costello having been asleep at the climate change wheel for ten years and asleep at the wheel of the economy as a whole — now boasting the biggest trade deficit ever, and an underlying inflation way above what he tooted...

Glance at toon at top...