Hurt Victorian Gaming Ministers witty bitty feelings, $12,000 fine.
“Nothing any good ever came out of Victoria.” – Queensland adage.
What sort of pathetic, simpering, whimpering, whining, narcissistic, delusion of grandeur suffering piece of slime, is Victorian Gaming Minister, Michael O'Brien? This idiot feels so precious that the government down there has is about to introduce draconian new limitations on the right of Victorians to freedom of speech, to make it a criminal offense to ‘insult’ him and his staff.
Seeing the Labor government voted out down there seemed for a brief time, like a breath of fresh air, however the Liberal Baillieu Government that replaced them have consistently proven themselves to be more statist than their predecessors. These guys are so bad for the image of the liberal party that they are starting to make Joh Bjelke Peterson look positively libertarian.
The act will make it an offence to "assault, obstruct, hinder, threaten, abuse, insult or intimidate" the minister or ‘authorized persons’ monitoring gambling systems:
The Baillieu Government is seeking changes to the Gaming Regulation Act which it says are "reasonably necessary to respect the rights and reputation of the minister and authorised persons". If passed, the ruling will become law.
The amendment proposed to the Act will make it an offence to "assault, obstruct, hinder, threaten, abuse, insult or intimidate" the minister or authorised persons exercising "due diligence" in monitoring gambling systems such as pokies.
State Labor has seized on the extraordinary amendment, with Opposition gaming spokesman Martin Pakula branding the minister "Windscreens O'Brien - because this proves he's got a glass jaw." "Is the minister so precious that he now needs legislation to protect him from insults?" he said. …
The bipartisan Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee also raised concerns about the move last week, noting "the criminalisation of insults may capture behaviour that is unlikely to hinder the exercise of powers ... or impinge on anyone's rights or reputation."
Asked why the new "offence" law was necessary and what its intention was, a spokeswoman for Mr O'Brien, Emily Broadbent, tried to deflect attention away from the minister, despite his title being clearly attached to the legislation.
If O'Brien had any decency or pride, he would at least exclude himself from the legislation. If he were anything better than an authoritarian prick, he would pull the bill. Matters such as assault are already offences under other legislation, and those public servants who can't bear hurt feelings should be counselled to harden up a bit.
My God, this is like a mirror image of what our asinine Yank politicians are doing! Jim, I can't figure out if your politicians are emulating ours, or ours are emulating yours, or the species as a whole is just a bunch of drooling brain-dead morons. Whatever, they are all stupid, arrogant and power-hungry enough to be extremely dangerous to our very way of life.
ReplyDeleteI fear that Pandora's Box was opened long ago and there's no closing it at this point.
I have to admit that after posting mine, seeing yours come up in the sidebar and reading it, I was stunned by the similarity of the political actions on both sides. Of your options I am inclined to come down on the side of "just a bunch of drooling brain-dead morons."
ReplyDeleteI am hoping the Brits do something equally stupid soon before our mate Angry gets nostalgic for 'the Old Country' and goes back there.
And I thought the Victorians elected a conservative government. Baillieu looks at the moment to be a drag on the federal coalition.
ReplyDeleteHe and his mob have been a big disappointment to those who thought he would wind the big government thing back a bit.
ReplyDeleteThe great thing down there is that the LDP have gained state registration and if these idiots don't improve the real Liberals will be looking for somewhere to go. This gives us a lot of potential down there.