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Showing posts with the label Scotty From Marketing

Flashback: The Man Who Wasn't There

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The election is over. After 9 very long years, the Coalition has at last, mercifully, been removed. As many have noted, there's a general feeling of a nation breathing a sigh of relief. But while the most corrupt, inept, and malicious government in living memory is gone, the damage goes deep, and relief will very quickly need to give way to resolve, and action - on climate, ICAC, the social safety net, health, education, and even the restoration of a functional bureaucracy and state, a vast amount of work will need to be done. And the old donors haven't gone away - public pressure will need to remain high. There's a lot of damning detail to be shared about the dirty campaigning and old-media hysteria which surrounded this election. There was a worrying, frenzied tone to it this time - the use of smear and disinfo tactics imported from the US and UK was extensive. But covering all that is for another day. For now, here's a quick flashback to a telling episode that came f...

The Muppet Show

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 Flashback - article written in March, 2021. In 2018, Scott Morrison described his squabbling band of gaffe-prone grifters as a "Muppet Show". On taking the Prime Ministership, he assured breakfast television that "the curtain's come down on that Muppet Show - and an absolute new curtain has lifted up!" The unintentional implication that the nation was about to witness the launch of Scotty's All-New Muppet Show was reinforced by his next miscalculated response: Presenter: "How do you unite a bunch of Muppets?" Morrison: "Well, I'm doing exactly that in terms of my colleagues." In the two and a half years since, the volume of corruption and ineptitude has become so great as to make the compilation of a complete list near-impossible. But just to refresh, here's some of the show's notable lowlights: Robodebt theft, deaths & $1.2 billion settlement; $100 million Sports Rorts plus Gaetjen's whitewash; slashing funding to t...

Scotty's Bear Cares*

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Scott Morrison, Saturday January 29, while clasping an unlucky koala in front of assembled cameras: "We love to throw our arms around koalas. And they love to throw their bear arms around us when we get to have a cuddle. What this is about is continuing to throw our arms around our koala population". Continuing? In the last 20 years, Koala numbers have halved in Queensland & dropped 60% in NSW. Land-clearing, drought, and fire mean koalas are currently on track for extinction by 2050. The $50 million announced by the Prime Minister yesterday - should it ever eventuate - is earmarked for monitoring, research, and habitat restoration. The latter is near-pointless without climate action, and the previous two will confirm we need climate action. There are no mysteries as to why koalas are dying. Australia's climate, farming, and "development" policies are killing them. Setting aside the accounting tricks, carbon emissions in Australia have risen 7% since 2005. S...