James McGrath; another ‘Libertarian’ senator?

On the basis of Senator James McGrath’s maiden speech he has a lot going for him among libertarians. Some of his views are straight from the Liberal Democrat’s playbook, while others are consistent with our aims:
  
Getting rid of compulsory student union fees isa step in the right direction.  The idea that an organisation be allowed to charge a compulsory fee on those it claims to represent because of their employment or other status is akin to granting ownership of those people or allowing a taxation power over them.
Having a senator with a strong commitment to freedom of speech is a welcome addition to a house that sadly lacks many members who have either an understanding, or real commitment to the concept.  It will be interesting to see how many qualifications he puts on it, given that the LNP tends to be rather PC whipped and timorous on the issue.

His support for the abolition of the federal departments of Health, and Education are basically the same as the LDP case and for the same reasons.  Neither of them actually run a school or hospital and merely intrude on what is a state responsibility.

There are though a number of other departments and bodies that need the axe, the Department of Climate Change, being one that immediately comes to mind, as well as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.  The first is designed to engage in histrionics on Global Warming, while the latter helps the new generation of carpetbaggers to invest in more expensive green energy that is compulsorily sold off to consumers under a government mandate.

There is no place in a free society for the government picking winners or engaging in social engineering.

This raises the issue of his call to increase the GST by 50% and extend it to cover all purchases including food ‘with compensation for low income earners’.  While the taxes he mentions need to be abolished or reduced, especially payroll tax, slimming down the federal government and passing some of the savings to the states would be a better idea than a tax increase.

The idea of a consumption tax replacing stupid and iniquitous ones like payroll tax is admirable however, these taxes were supposed to be abolished under the original GST proposal, but weren’t. This seems to be rewarding bad behaviour by the states. 

Low-income earners need just as much basic foodstuffs as the rich although perhaps at a lesser quality.  There seems little point in increasing the price by 15%, then compensating them for it.  This merely creates churn, which requires more public servants to administer the scheme.

GST funding is not distributed rationally among states but is rather sent out on the basis of ‘each according to his ability, to each according to his need’, which would have to be reformed for any sort of fairness to exist.

Another problem is the ABC.  While he correctly makes the case for it to be sold or abolished, he claims that it should be done as some sort of penalty for left wing bias.  In an age where there are numerous sources of commercial TV and radio entertainment there seems to be little reason to spend over a billion dollars per year providing a government network to compete with that.

It’s rather irrelevant that it’s left wing; that is merely the consequence of being a state media entity dedicated to providing ‘high brow’ stuff that the ‘common heard’ doesn’t require and is therefore not catered fo by commercial networks.  We don’t need it.

The senate will be better for having this guy in it depending on whether he follows through, or merely votes the party line, good or bad.  

Packer, Gyngell revisit Bridget Jones Diary, cops get involved

 Image (L): courtesy, News Ltd

In Australia we are still trying to find out what happened elsewhere in the world after a bit of a blue in Bondi took all of the press’s attention for the day.  Our third richest man, James Packer and Nine CEO David Gyngell decided to settle their differences in the tried and tested Aussie manner with a punch up in front of Packer’s home.

While most of the population regarded the whole thing as a bit of a joke, the ABC was able to find a suitable list of sooks and the self-righteous who found it deeply disturbing.  This includes one idiot who fretted about it “harming Australia’s reputation as being sort of the Wild West for business.”

There is some suggestion of corporate fallout from it, but both seemed to put up a decent show so shareholders can be pretty confident as to the ability of their respective men.

Probably the thing Bruce Gyngell should take away from the event is that if you have a big bloke like Packer really pissed off with you, it’s a bad idea to park across his driveway.

The New South Wales police have decided to get involved, despite reports that neither combatant has laid a complaint.  This seems to indicate that the state has no actual crimes to deal with, or its police have less of a sense of humour than those in Queensland.

It seems totally illogical for law enforcement to waste its time trying to find something to charge someone with when no harm was done apart from the odd black eye, bruises, and a few lacerations.  The fight seems to have been a consensual act between two adults, both of whom seemed to want to do it.

Nobody else was hurt unless one of the minders who dragged them apart strained a muscle, so the police should but out.

ABC; keeping it classy

Several months ago, the public broadcaster and left wing shill, the ABC demonstrated both its class and its idea of how to deal with critics with the photo shopped image of News Ltd commentator, Chris Kenny (Right)

Kenny’s complaint was handled by the ABC’s Audience & Consumer Affairs division, which unsurprisingly came up with the following dismissal:

“A&CA’s assessment is that the skit was likely to offend but the segment was justified by the editorial context.  While strong in nature it was consistent with the Chaser style — one very familiar to its target audience.”

The ABC managing director Mark Scott has been dragged kicking and screaming into an apology after Kenny was granted the right to sue for defamation.

For the benefit of overseas readers, the ABC’s Q&A program is our equivalent of ‘The View’ except it has a varying panel consisting of one rightie up against four lefties and the leftist moderator. When they wish to be really cynical, they have Malcolm Turnbull as the rightie.

Tim Blair informs us that tonight we are in for a real treat with obscure, but foul mouthed playwright Van Badham on the panel:

THE ABC has defended the decision by its Q & A chat program to invite little-known playwright and anarchist Van Badham on to Monday night’s show. 

The ABC will also pay for her flights and accommodation. 

Badham’s Twitter account features obscene attacks on various politicians, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott (‘‘a lying sexist c ...”), former PM Kevin Rudd (“the c ... that caused all these f ... ing problems”), Environment Minister Greg Hunt (“an insult to the word c ...”) and the entire 2013 Labor caucus (“let me into that caucus room to kick the mother...ing sh.. out of the dumb c ... rags in there”). 

Q & A producer Peter McEvoy said his show “aims to provide a platform for as wide a variety of views as possible’’. 

“The point ... is to generate an informed, civil discussion ... By necessity this means some guests will have views others might object to,” he said.

In Douglas Adams book, Life, the Universe and Everything, there is mention of The Rory Award, which is given for category: "The Most Gratuitous Use Of The Word 'Fuck' in A Serious Screenplay".

He possibly came up with the idea for this while watching the ABC.