OK, so he might not be a rapist, but New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has to be the Australian equivalent of Jacob Zuma (actually, he finished school, so maybe not). This guy is chief-bandit in a state cabinet of crooked shits that are robbing this state blind, and there doesn't seem to be much anyone is prepared to
do about it (not even Rudd, though he kept saying 'the buck stops with me' all through his election campaign). You see, Australia now has coast to coast labour governments, as well as a federal labour government, so you'd think that they would all work together toward a roughly common objective, but you'd be wrong. In fact, there is so much division and factional infighting within labour (both at state and federal level) that its sometimes difficult to know who is supporting who for what reason, but easy to see that often the wrong decision is made, because the right people support it. Anyway, thats politics i guess. Here are some things to think about :
Fuck up #1 : The papal visit. Ja, ja, i'm a Jew, so i dont really give two shits that the Pope is coming (he's a German too, and I've never made any secret of my dislike of the chermans), but if he HAS to come, then at least make it worthwhile for the state right? Wrong.
The papal visit is an almighty fuck-up (pardon the pun). Tourist number are way down on what was expected, and the visit, coinciding with World Youth Day (basically a Catholic church creation, not the all inclusive celebration that it is made to sound like), is expected to cost the state AU$160m. Thats ok if the economy is boosted by a huge influx of 'pilgrims', but it isnt. Why aren't people flocking in their millions to visit Sydney to let their young sons get a ride in the pope-mobile? Well, maybe because he has just finished an enormous world tour, including the States? Nice planning guys. Oh, ja, and Iemma is a Catholic, and has been pushing for this thing from the start, if that wasnt clear.
What really chaps my hide though is that the WYD celebrations, and pope mobile motorcade is going to shut down the whole city for A WEEK. Thats longer than APEC, which actually meant something (maybe not something good, but something) to the world. Seriously, the state government is asking people to take holidays during that week, because all traffic, bus and rail services will be affected. Look at the poster in my local train station...
They're saying 'thanks for your tax dollars but could you please leave your own city so that a fundamentalist in a cape can apologise again for his disciples molesting children? - we swear, its a great time for a holiday!'
No, actually its not a good time to take a holiday fuckwits, its the MIDDLE OF WINTER!
I had to laugh though, most of the Popes poping is going to happen at that gambling den, and scene of many drunken naked races, The Randwick Racecourse! I guess the pope is a pragmatist after all...
Fuck up #2 : The privatisation of the New South Wales Power Industry
Basically, Iemma wants to sell off NSW power generation assets (about $10bn worth) to industry. Thats not a private-public partnership mind you, he wants to sell them for good. Now the merits of this plan have been completely lost in the propaganda war waged by the unions, but regardless, when your party humiliates you by voting 7-1 against your plan, maybe you should rethink? Not if you're Iemma. In fact if you're his treasurer Michael Costa, you just ignore your parties opinion, and tell them all to 'get fucked'. Nice one.
Fuck up 3: Standing by his man
You can't fault Iemmas loyalty. Even when it was blatantly obvious that his half-arsed Ports minister had given some mobster friends a job, he refused to sack him. From what i can gather, the whole episode has been swept under the carpet, but Joe Tripodi remains a fat, useless, crook with a cabinet position, and the NSW ports remain chaotic.
Fuck up 4 : He cant even pronounce New South Wales properly, it just comes out as 'niwsouwaaaaals'.
OK, i am getting bored with this, but read up about him having to sack some Wollongong council member for illegal donations (and shagging half of the Wollongong property development fraternity), that one is a corker too.
2 comments:
ya met an ozzie in rwanda who used to work for that government. he left cos they're all a bunch of crooks. his words. he now runs a weird plant thing in coega. cool guy, for an ozzie.
Ja, its widely believed that his predecessor, Bob Carr, was just as crooked, he just had more charisma.
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