Monday, February 16, 2015

Monday Forum – Mr Abbott’s jail before bail, tripe and the need for change

It seems Mr Abbott cannot help himself. This is the key excerpt from Mr Abbott’s now famous video on national security:

I will also be making a national security statement on Monday week.

It’s clear to me, that for too long, we have given those who might be a threat to our country the benefit of the doubt.

There’s been the benefit of the doubt at our borders, the benefit of the doubt for residency, the benefit of the doubt for citizenship and the benefit of the doubt at Centrelink.

And in the courts, there has been bail, when clearly there should have been jail.

We are a free and fair nation. But that doesn’t mean we should let bad people play us for mugs, and all too often they have: Well, that’s going to stop.

The rise of the Islamist death cult in the Middle East has seen the emergence of new threats where any extremist can grab a knife, a flag, a camera phone and a victim and carry out a terror attack.

As a nation we are responding to this threat. Abroad, Australia is working with allies to disrupt and degrade the Islamist death cult. At home, we have provided our security services with more powers, more resources and stronger laws.

We are currently considering additional legislation on data retention that’s before the Parliament – and this will make it easier to keep you safe and we want to get this legislation passed as quickly as we can.

I give you this assurance: As a country, we won’t let evil people exploit our freedom.

Mmm. Mr Abbott promised us a new, kinder, listening Tony. Instead, we have jail before bail; let’s get rid of the benefit of doubt; after all, you know the Government is right. We won’t let evil people exploit your freedom. We are quite capable of doing that ourselves. And I will explain all this to you in simple language that even a mug can understand. This is Michael Gordon’s take'; I’m inclined to agree with it.

Last  week’s Monday Forum - What is your least favourite vegetable and why? drew some interesting comments. Cauliflower came in worst with two votes. However, I really liked Ramana’s nomination of the bitter gourd.bitter gourd

Now here I have to confess to my own confusion. I mentioned eating humble pie, but that (as was pointed out) is a meat based dish. Then I mentioned mushrooms, again (as pointed out) not a vegetable. To add insult to injury, I called the bitter gourd a fruit when it  is, of course, a member of the cucumber family.

Mind you, I am not alone in this confusion. In comments on Ramana’s post someone mentioned tripe, before hastily pointing out that tripe was not a vegetable.   So confusion abounds. Feel free to add to it in whatever way you like, And, before you apply tripe to Mr Abbott’s remarks, I have just done so!

Finally, in the midst of Australia’s political turmoil, the business community and Australian Financial Review are busy beating their breasts and bewailing the way that the current Australian political climate prevents necessary reforms. I happen to agree with them, if not with the detail of the prescription that they wish us to take.

So a challenge. Put your change hat on. What changes would you like to see introduced?

9 comments:

Neil said...

Seeing it is Chinese New Year, I should mention some of the best tripe (not a veggie) I ever had was in Chinatown, but I forget which restaurant! Mind you my mother did a good tripe too. As for Tony A's latest, I really do despair -- except it suits part of his target audience.

Jim Belshaw said...

I have never been able to face tripe, Neil Just too difficult! On your last, I agree,

Legal Eagle said...

I'm glad (in a strange kind of way) that I'm not the only one despairing. What is going on? P.S. I don't like brussel sprouts. Nor do my mum or my sister, but my dad likes them. I hypothesise that my mum, my sister and I have this gene: http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/nov/01/brussel-sprout-gene

Jim Belshaw said...

That Guardian story was quite interesting, LE. I quite like b-s (the sprouts, I mean) but my girls didn't.

Thinking further on the target audience thing, there is a problem
there because it plays to divides.

Anonymous said...

Jim, you asked about changes, so here's two wild ones:

1) The annual budget proposed by the government of the day is to be passed without alteration. Discussion, opposition - yes - but becomes immediately effective. Time enough to cast an opinion upon effectiveness at the next election.

2) Members limited to two consecutive terms. May stand again, but only after another election cycle. And by 'terms' I mean fixed terms.

3) Third one for luck: strict division of powers between federal and state governments; fixed formula of division of total tax revenues between federal and state.

Back to my brussels :)

kvd

Evan said...

Moving to sustainability.

Which means renewable sources of power and other necessities.

Suburban sufficiency in food and as much else as possible.

Tax breaks and other support for new industries.

Education that values children.

City and suburb design that value people and their health.

Jim Belshaw said...

Two very different perspectives of the world, kvd and Evan.

kvd, you should indeed contemplate your brussels!:)

Noted, Evan. Will leave response for the moment.

Rummuser said...

The bitter gourd post generated a lot of traffic offline as well and I have some new ideas for other posts which will come up in due course. Thanks for the plug in.

Jim Belshaw said...

Look forward to reading them, Ramana.