A politician telling it like it really is - political snippets for 11 November 2013

A rare frank admission of what motivates a politician - Ghana's president has fired a deputy minister reportedly caught on tape saying she'll stay in politics until she makes $1 million.
There’s a leaked tape on which a voice purported to be that of Victoria Hammah is heard telling a female interlocutor that she will not quit politics until she makes at least US$1m.The two ladies, who appeared to be traveling while having the gossipy conversation, are also heard on the leaked secret audio tape harshly condemning the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Rachel Appoh, for instigating bad press against her boss, Nana Oye Lithur.
A quote for the day about campaigning. 
Campaigns are less successful at persuading undecided voters than they are at encouraging their own partisans to grow more fierce. The manic charges and countercharges of an election mostly remind voters which side they were on to begin with.- from A game changer for campaign reporting a review of two new books on the last US presidential campaign.
Losing the bright young public servants. There's fear and loathing in Canberra - fear of losing your job while the value of your home plummets and a loathing of the politicians responsible for trying to reduce the size of the public service without payments to those made redundant. And the discontent is not confined to those now finding themselves on what the Australian Public Service Commission calls the "redeployment register." Many of the younger public servants of my acquaintance are now realising that the method chosen by the Coalition government to cull 12,000 from the public service will stymie for years their own prospects of promotion.

That there will soon be an exodus of the best and the brightest young minds to jobs in the private sector outside of the national capital in one sense will not concern the government. In the short term it will simply contribute to the natural attrition it is seeking. When the aim is to honour this part of the pre-election rhetoric of quickly reducing the budget deficit the long term consequences are not considered.

When combined with a near freeze on new recruitment from outside those consequences will be both considerable and bad.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Scott Morrison getting ahead of Malcolm Turnbull in the GST debate?

Image
Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra Scott Morrison has become a true believer in the cause of raising the GST, determined to drive a major switch in the tax mix. The big question is whether Malcolm Turnbull will end up in the same place as his treasurer. Turnbull is keeping his options open. “Changes to the GST are certainly part of the tax debate and certainly being actively considered by the government,” he said on Friday. If Turnbull agrees with Morrison, all will be well and good between them. On the other hand if Turnbull eventually opts for caution and doesn’t walk down the GST road, or in the shorter term feels Morrison is getting ahead of the game, that would be awkward for the gung-ho minister, who would the need to manage his retreat. Morrison wants a high profile and he seeks the limelight. But that carries risks. There is always that salutary tale from Labor days. Paul Keating was passionate about introducing a broad-based consumption tax. Bob Hawke let
Read more

Prime Minister Scott Morrison under pressure as the question about knowledge of a rape gets embarrassing

Image
Any    day   of   the   week Five words by Scott Morrison that fired up social media commentators today. #NotMyPM pic.twitter.com/YiGTGzLNU5 — M🕯️cr💧ft ...... 🍥 🐒🚶......🧠 (@KaurnaCopia) March 18, 2021 They saw an angry and embarrassed Prime Minister. A politician under considerable pressure. Looking for a way out and not being able to see it. Hansard tells the story of how it came about: Members of Parliament: Staff  Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): My question is to the Prime Minister. Thirty days ago, the Prime Minister told this House that he asked his former chief of staff, one of the few people he's ever shown empathy for, to verify what his office knew about the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins only metres from where he works. Mr Gaetjens reported his findings on the Prime Minister's sports rorts within two weeks. Why is this report, about the Prime Minister's staff, taking so long, and will the Prime Minister release this
Read more

Making a mockery of Labor Party pre-selections

  The shenanigans of the SA branch of the Labor Party just gets worse and worse. The Federal Executive of the Party should intervene to stop this madness. What follows is a post I received this evening from my friend Maggie Dawkins about her daughter Alice's courageous decision to take on the power brokers and seek preselection for the seat of Spence. "Alice innocently exercised her right as an ordinary member of the Labor Party to nominate for Spence. What she may inadvertently have stumbled upon is a done deal agreed to by faceless power brokers of the Left and Right factions. Ordinary members have not been consulted, but it is all leaking out as Alice calls the SA Party office to account. It appears that many members may not be comfortable with this done deal, as they are contacting me, not only as Alice’s mum, but also as a board member of Whistle Blowers Australia. Is the deal correct? Who knows? Perhaps time will tell? We know that some of it is correct, for example, Ni
Read more