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Your favourite politician


Yenn

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I have been thinking that politicians don't inspire me. They all seem to be the same and equally useless.

I will start off with the pollie who has my admiration in federal politics.

Maxine Mc Kew, I hope that is correct spelling. If you can remember her, you will probably know why.

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I have two,  no, three favourite pollies in order of preference:

  • The late Sid Spindler - Australian Democrats -but long before they sold out to the Lib Dems.. A man of great integrity and practical solutions. Not willingto bend to climb the greasy pole and therefore would not be welcome in the major parties. Understood issues some pollies only recently are willing to concede - like climate change, pollution, popularims, etc. I remember listening to an interview with him after he retired and thought - what a loss to Australian politics.
  • Dr. Gerry Vaughan - State Victorian member for Glenhuntly.. tireless worker for the community ; not scared to stand up to his party when they were taking the wrong direction and although I only met him a few times, taught me a lot.
  • The late Joan Child - Member for the then Federal seat of Henty, first female speaker of Reps. and my next-door neighour. Again, a tireless worker for her constiuency and between her and Dr. Vaughan, an inspiration to get me involved in politics (and I would become disenfranchised by about the age of 18 - 19). I was amazewd at her compassion.. .and if you think all pollies have their snouts in the trough, well... all three of the above eschewed it..

I know we paint our pollies in a bad light.. Those that have their eyes on the prize probably are more selfish than self-centrerd. They are the ones you hear about in the press, because the lengths theyt are prepared to go to get what THEY want are what is reported in the press. What you don't hear about is they many tireless MPs and senators on all sides of the political divide that work their posteriors off for their constituencies/communities and the betterment of Australia (or their state or council).

 

But I will also havfe a special mention of 3 ex PMs (in no special order):

  • Mal Fraser... Too early in my life (or interest in politics) to judge his PM performance, but he was head of the razor gang. However, his post-PM performance (pants above or at his ankles) was amazing.. a tireless proponent of social justice and the little guiy after his reign as PM.. So I can't comment on his days as PM, but afterwards... seemed pretty good..
  • Bob Hawke - Not perfect, but a good all round bloke.. but also governed Australia for Australia.. tamed the unions more outrageous tactics (Norm Gallagher, anyone)... But made sure corporate interests were also in check.. A PM opf all the people.
  • Paul Keating - I didn't like him at first, butsome of his legacy has had a profound impact for the better on most Aussie battlers.. Yes, her had high mortgage rates when he was Treasurer... but so dod the rest of the world and to think Australia could buck that trend and not go broke given the structire of Australia's economy is fantasy.

I can't think of too many others..Gillard - maybe, but thatwould not be founded on much more than the press in the UK at the time...

 

 

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2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Paul Keating - I didn't like him at first, butsome of his legacy has had a profound impact for the better on most Aussie battlers.. Yes, her had high mortgage rates when he was Treasurer... but so dod the rest of the world and to think Australia could buck that trend and not go broke given the structire of Australia's economy is fantasy.

High interest rates under Keating brought on a bout of everlasting National amnesia. Highest housing interest rates were under the Fraser government with Howard as Treasurer in April 1982 (21.4%). The Hawke government's highest was 19% in December 1985, and the Keating government's was 7.9% in December 1994.

 

It's a good example of how personal dislike for a particular politician (Paul Keating) can cloud one's concept of the truth. The narrative has grown to fit the disliking of him.

Edited by willedoo
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16 hours ago, Yenn said:

I have been thinking that politicians don't inspire me. They all seem to be the same and equally useless.

I will start off with the pollie who has my admiration in federal politics.

Maxine Mc Kew, I hope that is correct spelling. If you can remember her, you will probably know why.

Although her term was brief, Maxine earned her place in history for unseating one of our most intolerable PMs.

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One that I don't respect was talking on Australia all Over this morning. He said that he has regular talks with john Howard. Now that is a worrying thing. To consider that our present PM talks to the worst PM we ever had, doesn't make him look good.

Glad to see I am not the only one who considers Paul Keating was good. The reason that I forgot that interest rates were higher with Hawke and Howard, was because I paid out my mortgage in 1980.

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I always thought that King O'Malley was a politician with an agenda. He was a member of the Lower House from 1901 to 1917. He was prominent in selecting Canberra as the Federal Capital and for the awarding of the design prize to Walter Burley Griffin. He agitated for the formation of the Commonwealth Bank as a Government holding. He could also claim credit for beginning the building of the Trans-Australian Railway from Port Augusta to Perth. HIs greatest act of social reform was the introduction of a ban on the sale of alcohol in the Capital Territory. It wasn't much of a ban as the pubs of Queanbeyan were only 16 kms away, and there was no ban in bringing alcohol into the ACT. 

 

His political views combined with his personal background and personality traits made him a controversial figure during his career. His antecedents were a bit murky. It seems that he was actually ineligible to be a parliamentarian as he was probably born in the USA and never became a British subject. However, poor record keeping in the mid-19th Century American and Canadian frontiers made it hard to disprove his claim that he was Canadian.  It is believed that he made it out of the USA just ahead of the authorities who wanted to chat with him about a slight matter of a fraud involving tens of thousands of dollars. 

 

 

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Has anyone else noticed that many politicians sound logical, knowledgeable, and sometimes even interesting...............

When they get interviewed (years) after they are out of the job?

 

Did they gain wisdom with age, or is it a sign that they were shackled by media and lobby groups (which might equate to integrity being compromised by bribes)?

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11 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Has anyone else noticed that many politicians sound logical, knowledgeable, and sometimes even interesting...............

When they get interviewed (years) after they are out of the job?

 

Did they gain wisdom with age, or is it a sign that they were shackled by media and lobby groups (which might equate to integrity being compromised by bribes)?

I have noticed that politicians clearly-spoken in opposition quickly becoming very hesitant about what they say after they get into the hot seat.

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On 29/11/2020 at 2:04 PM, Yenn said:

To consider that our present PM talks to the worst PM we ever had, doesn't make him look good.

 

I thought you were talking about John Howard.  The worst would be Tony Abbott.  Howard came a close second, but at least he gave us decent gun laws.

Hey at least we dodged a real bullet - imagine that tool Dutton as PM.

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  • 1 month later...

My favourite politician at the moment........

 

Mr morrison (representing infamous coal lobby) shows us what it takes to lead a country.........

 

"While Sydney choked on bushfire smoke one year ago, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg billed taxpayers almost $5,000 to take a private jet on a whirlwind overnight trip to Lachlan Murdoch's Christmas party."

(Quote borrowed from getup)

It seems that Dutton missed the party.

 

PS I hope this post doesn't get me an asio portfolio!

Edited by nomadpete
added some sarcasm
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Barry Jones...  he went from being a quiz champion to a minister in a Labor government.  He was smart and sure knew a lot of stuff. He was much the same on a recent interview.

What I want now though is a politician who will reduce the red tape which surrounds us too much today. The thing I would like is that there can only be so many regulations, so if you introduce a new one then you need to get rid of an old one, or maybe it should be 2 old ones...

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When I read on these forums someone saying that there should be a law against something, I can see where all the red tape comes in.

Someone just recently said that dogs should be banned from aerodromes. Let CASA know that and away we go. The problem ith red tape is that we have a heap of bureaucrats who love to nit pick their way around every bit of legislation. There is no room for common sense. Just look at what is happening with Covid quarantine.

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Barry Jones was before my time but I've heard him speak since on a number of topics, and he seems to be a very knowledgeable and smart bloke.  Kind of like the exact opposite to Alan Jones.

 

Current pollies - I have a lot of time for Andrew Wilkie, Richard Di Natale (just left), and Albo.  There's a hell of a lot more that I wouldn't piddle on if they were on fire.

 

 

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