“Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity,” said Lord Acton. Words Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews might care to ponder as the ‘rorts for votes’ furore puts his government in a perilous position. Indeed, Mr Andrews might also reflect on Lord Acton’s more famous quote: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It had Walter wondering:
“Bronwyn Bishop took a $5000 helicopter ride apparently ‘within the rules’ but was hounded out of the Speaker’s chair and the parliament. Labor diverts enormous amounts of taxpayers’ cash to fund an election campaign, then spends a further $1.42 million in legal fees all the way to the High Court to stop the investigation again using taxpayers money. If this is not corrupt behaviour then what is?”
Don gets Comment of the Week for his dandy, damning anagram:
“When you take the letters in Daniel and swap around the ‘a’ and the ‘i’ you get Denial.”
David declared:
“The claim of comrade Daniel Andrews that the MPs did not personally benefit from the corruption is a total lie. The money that came from the taxpayer went to their own personal election campaigns and on this fact alone, they did personally benefit from it.”
Beng was bothered:
“They have cheated Victorian taxpayers and won the election using money obtained through fraud.”
Peter pointed out:
“Well, Comrade Sally McManus did say they it was OK for Labor-affiliated members to simply ignore ‘bad’ laws. “
Roger was ropeable:
“The breathtaking retort from Andrews that they paid the money back is like the bank robber keeping the money and then returning it to the bank and saying he didn’t commit a crime.”
Martin mused:
“ ‘Some animals are more equal than others.’ Orwell’s observations in Animal Farm are accurate — those in the upper echelons of the left always think they are above the law, that they can do what they like and get away with it.
“As the underlying philosophy of socialism allows for the ends justifying the means and they all think they are carrying on a messianic crusade to bring about a socialist utopia.”
Les says:
“Daniel Andrews is arguing that no personal advantage was gained. For a politician surely being elected to parliament is one of the greatest forms of personal advantage that is on offer.”
Remember Barry, said Bernie:
“In 2014, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell resigned over a $3,000 bottle of wine. In so doing, he merely adhered to the standard that applies to politicians and matters of honesty. In this instance, we have 21 ALP pollies engaged in what is clearly fraudulent misuse of public money.
“And you have Dan Andrews on the record as saying in 2015 that ‘I take responsibility for each and every thing that happens under my leadership.’ Well, it’s now time for him to man up, adhere to those words — and resign.”
Clifford chimed in:
“It’s getting easier to understand now why criminals and gangs thrive in Victoria, when even the State Government is in on the act, the crims and gangs have nothing to fear.”
Blobby was blunt:
“Come on, these are the guys who spent a billion dollars no to build a road.”
Echoes of Lord Acton from Tim:
“If they had a moral compass they would not have taken the money.”
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Take two Stefanovic brothers, a speakerphone and an Uber trip and you have a recipe for red faces all round. Today Host Karl Stefanovic and his brother Peter dialled up the stoopid with their not-so-private assessments of various Nine Network colleagues and bosses. Rob03 was gobsmacked:
“In public. On speakerphone. Why would you do that?”
Scott said a dirty word:
“Ego”.
Geoffrey agreed:
“Karl is weighed down with too many tickets on himself.”
Kay had her say:
“So Georgie doesn’t force her opinions down the throats of viewers? How utterly refreshing! Go Georgie!”
Losers, said Conrad is a Winner Again:
“Stupidity personified.”
John preferred Georgie:
“Georgie’s professional approach compared with Karl’s left wing bias and self aggrandisement ensures the longer lasting of these two will be Georgie Gardner.”
Matthew mused:
“I think Karl has it completely wrong. Gardner is a presenter and I don’t want to hear her opinions I want to hear the news. Karl is an opinionated moron who I don’t watch anymore because I can’t stand his moralising rants.”
No idea, said Kate:
“When Prince Harry was in Afghanistan the entire British press knew about it but collectively agreed, for Harry’s safety and the safety of the men around him, to keep it a secret. Along comes irresponsible, self- interested New Idea and breaks the story. Harry, much to his chagrin, had to be pulled out of Afghanistan.”
Controversial, Christine:
“The Uber driver did nothing wrong. What we have here are three TV personality snobs/bullies judging colleagues in the presence of a 4th person who they perceived was a lower class than themselves that he was invisible.”
Today is so yesterday, said Julie:
“Today used to be such a good experience with Steve Liebman, Tracy Grimshaw, lovely Rossco the newsreader and the funny, clever weather guy. It is now dreadful. “
Something’s off, said Oriana:
“I find it hard to believe that the Uber driver was able to remember all the names of people discussed during the conversation and what was said about each individual, then able to recall every detail and make notes. I’m sorry, but I’m not buying his story.”
Stuart was sceptical:
“It was written by an Uber driver, who took notes on the conversation after dropping off his passengers. Amazing that the driver was able to remember the 45 minute conversation word for word. Obviously has an extraordinary memory. “
Douglas damned the driver:
“What’s the name of the Uber driver? Why should he/she be anonymous? If you want to betray someone else’s privacy, why should you be allowed to remain in the shadows?”
David was scathing:
“Personally I think Karl is the modern day equivalent of Mike Moore from Frontline and Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Like those two TV characters, Karl has an enormous and very misplaced ego.”
Dennis decided:
“Karl has lost his gloss. His ego has taken complete control. Time to bring in Ben Fordham.”
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Tony Abbott backed Peter Dutton over his immigration lifeline for South Africa’s persecuted white farmers, while various Greens called him names and suggested the White Australia policy was back. Malcolm of Mona Vale said:
“Bringing in South African farmers ticks all the boxes for me. (1) They are being persecuted (2) They will be grateful rather than resentful (3) They will not demand welfare (4) They will work on farms away from the big cities (5) They will not form crime gangs or become jihadis.”
John agreed:
“It is absolutely right to offer a safe Australian passage to white farmers in South Africa. They are being targeted by reverse racism which has been brewing from day one of Nelson Mandela’s rainbow nation determinations. Whilst his intentions may have been pure there were many others lusting for the opportunity to drive out the whites — now the government is sanctioning such brutalities.”
David doubled down:
“There are two outstanding Liberal MPs who make sense these days ... Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton.”
Kevin concurred:
“I’m pretty sure these white farmers won’t be committing violent home invasions, car jackings and general gang mayhem and violence. They’d go straight out to rural towns and get started again.”
R. Ambrose Raven raved:
“Ask those fleeing ISIS or the Taliban who came here by boat. Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar had them either sent to concentration camps, or extraordinarily rendered back to their torturers. It all came soooo naturally.”
GD disagreed:
“Ambrose, Australia takes 13,000, or is it 20,000, humanitarian refugees every year. Over the past ten years, these have all come from the Middle East, India, or the Sudan and Zimbabwe.
“What is wrong with taking a few thousand white farmers from South Africa as part of this intake? We admitted an extra 1200 Syrian (mostly Muslim) refugees recently, why can’t we rescue South African farmers as part of our humanitarian program?”
Shane mansplained:
“Appalling, what I think of SHY. Courageous, what I think of Dutton. Weak, what I think of Bishop and Cormann. Failed, what I think of Turnbull.”
Realpolitik said Bill:
“SHY knows that self-reliant South African white farmers will probably never vote Green.”
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Eat your hearts out, said Yassmin Abdel-Magied, as she picked up a gong for free speech from Liberty Victoria, following in the footsteps of Gillian Triggs, Waleed Aly and journalist David Marr . Claire shared:
“Gillian Triggs, Waleed Aly, Yassmin Abdel-Magied. All against free speech, all recipients of this worthless award.”
Paul pleaded:
“The prize should have gone to Bill Leak.”
Erasmus exclaimed:
“So a person who has tried hard to close down the free speech of others gets a free speech award. That’s how things work nowadays. The luvvies hand out awards to each other for saying the ‘right’ things in their echo chamber.
“Remember, this is the woman who walked out on speaker at the Sydney Writers’ Festival because the speaker dared suggest it was ridiculous to tell writers it was cultural appropriation if they had characters from other cultures in their books.”
Peter pointed out:
“Liberty Victoria? There’s an oxymoron!”
Moz was moved:
“Congratulations Yassmin. Fantastic achievement!”
Ian was incensed:
“This is like giving Attila the Hun the Nobel Peace Prize!”
Anne added:
“Wasn’t Voltaire the one who referred to Mohammed as a ‘sublime charlatan’?”
Otalp’s wife offered:
“Liberty Victoria, on awarding Ms Triggs her award last year, said: ‘This year’s Voltaire salutes Professor Triggs for her courageous stand on people’s rights, especially free speech. As she said recently, ‘It is important that we teach our children to be strong and to speak out for the values that are important to them. At the same time, it is important that we have legal protections in place where people are silenced by hate speech or don’t have the power to speak back’.
“And her apogee: ‘Sadly you can say what you like around the kitchen table at home.’ None of these expressed limitations on free speech gel with the famous quote attributed to Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
“Voltaire would not have approved of 18C Section of the Racial Discrimination Act, as there were already laws to counter true hate speech. 18C is so subjective — ‘offend’, ‘insult’ … that there will always be someone who disagrees with what is said and descend on the AHRC, with lasting consequences for the victim. As the QUT students and Bill Leak found out, with dire results.”
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Easy to point the finger
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