{"id":284,"date":"2006-07-06T10:42:28","date_gmt":"2006-07-06T00:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=284"},"modified":"2006-07-06T11:00:20","modified_gmt":"2006-07-06T01:00:20","slug":"screwing-australians-soberly-wisely-and-sensibly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=284","title":{"rendered":"Screwing Australians soberly, wisely and sensibly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thanks<\/div>\n

John Howard uttered the most repugnant lie of his 10 years as Prime Minister when he said that he would exercise the Liberals’ bully majority<\/a> in the Senate ‘with care.’<\/p>\n

“We will use the majority we have,” Mr Howard said to applause.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We’ll use it … soberly, wisely and sensibly. We won’t use it capriciously or wantonly or indiscriminately, and I make that solemn promise on your behalf to all of the Australian people.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The plain truth is that Howard has Australia well on the road to fascist one-party rule with utterly callous disregard to the needs and desires of the people. There’s little doubt left as to whom Howard and the Liberals actually represent. Their primary clients are corporations, legal fictions which don’t have a right to the vote… or at least didn’t when I last checked.<\/p>\n

The so called ‘Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2006<\/a>‘<\/em> is nothing if not a codification of the Howard Government’s abandonment of any pretense<\/a> of ministerial responsibility. Now the Government will control the Senate estimates committees<\/a>, which have to date held the Government’s feet to the fire over corruptions like the AWB scandal. Big dollar corporate donors to the Liberal Party will now be gleefully encouraged to hide massive contributions. New restrictions on voter registration will make it harder to register and vote, especially for inexperienced Australian voters like myself (as a relatively recently naturalised Australian citizen), and those just turning 18.<\/p>\n

What’s not capricious about solidifying political power in perpetuity, for its own sake? Is there nothing wanton about turning Australian workers into serfs as a matter of public policy? Chucking asylum seekers and their children in offshore prisons for their sheer hide and cheek to demand protection from despots can’t be anything other than indiscriminate.<\/p>\n

Come 2007, we must no longer<\/strong><\/em> tolerate this rape of the Australian electorate.<\/p>\n

-weez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Howard uttered the most repugnant lie of his 10 years as Prime Minister when he said that he would exercise the Liberals’ bully majority in the Senate ‘with care.’ “We will use the majority we have,” Mr Howard said to applause. “We’ll use it … soberly, wisely and sensibly. We won’t use it capriciously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}