Thursday, June 09, 2016

Kerr's Curse: Summit of Sacked Mayors: Coup Putin’s Russia

"Keep hope alive, this battle is not lost". Google on The Antipodean Coup ...
NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley compares the mergers with a coup

Alan Jones likens council sackings to Putin’s Russia in speech to 'summit of sacked mayors'.https://t.co/rDCv9IPm8m


"Keep hope alive, this battle is not lost"... That's the rallying cry opposition leader Luke Foley had for more than 20 sacked mayors who converged at NSW parliament after being unceremoniously dumped under the Baird government's council amalgamations Sacked Mayors protest at Parliament House ...
Ex-mayors attend so-called Summit of Sacked Mayors at NSW Parliament in protest of council amalgamations. @jeloscek https://t.co/EFTPgWo4jV

Simple Sound Bite Mike laughs off plebiscites ...

In NSW, Mr Jones, a Liberal stalwart, vowed he would not give up campaigning daily, "exposing the lies" and has called Mr Turnbull, warning him to intervene in the state matter because the Coalition would lose votes at the federal election. Mr Jones is working with NSW Labor leader Luke Foley who promised to elevate it to the level of a "federal election issue" at the so-called "Summit of Sacked Mayors" in NSW Parliament House on Thursday.


"There are people in positions of influence who will take offence to my being here," Mr Jones told a "Summit of Sacked Mayors" in NSW Parliament House on Thursday. "This debate is being characterised by untruths and lies. "Michael Baird will not concede everything about this forced amalgamation is wrong." Alan Jones

“The process itself has been one long litany of mistakes and miscalculations and dubious dealings by the Government, and it’s telling that both [the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal] and now the Boundaries Commission have felt compelled to disassociate themselves from the political decisions being made.”
“If it wasn’t for a range of vehement campaigns by grassroots communities and the local government sector, the Baird Government would have bulldozed through an even more extensive and undemocratic reform process long ago.
“You can’t pretend it’s not inherently political when the only councils to escape amalgamation are those that happen to fall into marginal federal electorates in the middle of an election campaign.”

Elected mayors & councillors sacked across NSW replaced by Mr Baird's unelected dictators. Black day for democracy 

To conceal his identity, Sir John Kerr chose the pseudonym Mr Frederick King and, for the next three months, "Mr King" and Allens deliberated on a scheme that would effectively subvert the usual oversight of the governor-general's financial dealings by the Reserve Bank of Australia...
It may be the last big untold story from the most divisive episode in Australian political history, but it is not about the pursuit of power or the clash of egos. It's about tax, and the lengths Sir John Kerr was prepared to go to avoid paying it. In a bizarre sequel to the Dismissal, it reveals how Kerr chose "secrecy over transparency" and "self-interest over propriety" in order to make as much money as possible from Matters for Judgement, his account of his sacking of the Whitlam government in 1975. The book was one of the hottest publishing properties offered in Australia and created a bidding war between 27 publishers. The contest for newspaper serialisation rights was just as keen... Sir John Kerr's elaborate plans to avoid paying tax on his memoir about sacking Gough Whitlam

CODA: NFL’s Richard Sherman Talks Football, Taxes & Why Billionaire Owners Should Pay For Stadiums. Politicians think sports stadiums are economic development magic beans. They aren’t.