Xenophondness?

Sometimes quixotic Senator Nick Xenophon has decided to quit direct involvement in federal politics and return to his home state of South Australia where he hopes to stand for election to the state parliament. Noted for his campaign stunts when previously in state politics, this time he intends to form a new party BEST SA with an initial aim of becoming a 'third force' alongside the major parties.

Pundits have already opined that he may achieve a balance of power position after the upcoming state election... and have gone as far as saying he could be a future premier of SA? I suppose anything is possible in today's fraught Australian political landscape, though 'Premier X-man' does sound like a bridge too far in one gigantic leap for 'Nick'.

Modifying laws to accommodate the FEAR card.

Sounding somewhat like the saviour of all mankind, our PM joyfully announces that among other legislative white-anting he has now brought us into the 21st century by enabling law enforcement agencies to extend incarceration of suspects for 14 days without charges having to be laid. And, it seems that includes minors 10 years old and above!

What is it about this ruling mob that attracts them to locking people up without any proof of evil intent or actual law-breaking activities?

Australia Day controversy.

I'm the product of paternal seeds which were sewn by a former Londoner who first set foot on this continent during the last half of the 1850s.  He was a free settler obviously attracted to this country by the then gold rush, because after disembarking in Melbourne he was soon a citizen of Inglewood right among the diggings. I believe that town remains well populated by Masons and off-shoots of that tree even to this day.

The country remained a collection of colonies until the federated nation of Australia came into being on January 0l, 1901. I'm therefore non-plussed by the fact thats many Australians still regard their national day of celebration as January 26th on which date in 1788 the 'great southland' was hi-jacked by the British Empire primarily as a dumping ground for convicted felons they no longer wished to house in the 'old country'!

I'm immensely proud of my country of birth, but not by the way it was first established. Our forebears finally achieved some form of honourable independence as a nation by forming the Commonwealth of Australia as a separate entity from Britain on 01/01/1901... which intentionally or not, seems to be echoed by latter-day national sports fans in their chant 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie OI,OI,OI!

 

The great Postal Survey?

Well, the government has had its day in the High Court and now awaits the decision on whether or not their decision to substitute a simple legislative method of determining 'Marriage Equality' with what looks more and more like an attempt to boost the coffers of Australia Post with mis-directed tax-payers funds passes the test of constitutional constraints.

Lesson may well be 'don't promise things you can't deliver'... which should be the main premise in chapter one of the Political Bible?

The Perils of Pauline?

I used the caption 'If the hat fits, wear it!' as the text associated with 'Barnaby the bi-national' earlier this week. It would've fitted this piece about the perils of Pauline just as well... but I couldn't fore-see her idiotic stunt in the Senate.

Barnaby

Barnaby Joyce is undoubtedly talented in many aspects of his life's work.  Sadly, political leadership does not appear to be among his best attributes. That is not to say his contribution to parliamentary activities will not be missed should his dual-citizen status be found by the High Court to be incompatible with the meaning of section 44-(i) of the constitution.

All other considerations aside... Barnaby is one of the most entertaining of the Buffoon Troupe at present performing for us in Canberra. Should he be enjoined to vacate the 'House', our ability to laugh-off the continuing failings of our political leadership will be sorely strained!

Plebiscite blues?

The persistence in avoiding a parliamentary vote on legislation to enable same sex marriage is beginning to look like a 'death wish' on the part of the coalition government. Instead they want to waste millions of dollars of tax-payers money to skirt around the need to show leadership and/or back-bone in prosecuting their right to implement representative governance already bestowed upon them by the last election result. OK their 'policy pitch' in the lead-up to the election may have included the promise of plebiscite on 'marriage equality' ... but Billy the blind miner's dog knows that was purely a sop to quieten the rabid right wing of the Liberal party.

With the general consensus being that any form of nation-wide vote on the question would result in a substantial YES victory... the electorate will look upon the exercise of a nation-wide plebiscite or postal vote as a pure and simple waste of money which could be put to better use in the government's constant bleating about 'Budget repair' or better still in support of better HEALTH, EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT opportunities, ENERGY reform and/or INFRASTRUCTURE building!

As the accompanying cartoon suggests...maybe the people have already given their response to the stupidity of plebiscite by stripping the coalition of fourteen seats at the election?!

'Collision' Parties meet

The governing parties are meeting today to try getting everyone on the same page about how to proceed with satisfactorily taking the 'Marriage equality' question off the 'to do' list.

With the back-stabbing far right clique actively trying to ham-string legislative processes which don't fit their view of the world and a contingent of rebels vowing to short-circuit expensive and fragile public plebiscite or mail-in voting schemes with direct legislative action in the parliament... today's talk-fest will be attractive media bait, if nothing else.

Pseudo Italianization?

There's nothing essentially wrong with being known as a 'mother's boy'... except, perhaps, if you happen also to be an elected member of Australia's parliamentary elite subject to section 44 of the Constitution?

Senator Canavan now has the job of wading through the coagulated bowl of spaghetti Momma has included him in as an apparently unwilling ingredient.

Good luck with that Matt.

Dual Citizen-ship disease

It seems the federal parliament has been suddenly stricken by an epidemic of the dual-citizenship  virus, the main symptom of which appears as memory-loss.

Unless it is quickly brought under control, the knife-edge balance in the house of reps. is likely to be upset by members being obliged to resign willy-nilly due to strict eligibility requirements of the constitution.

Goodness gracious!

Fixed Terms for Federal Parliaments?

An extra year ostensibly giving elected representatives more time to implement their policy promises?

Judging by their average accomplishments over recent parliaments... one wonders if even 10 year stints would produce results from these professional snails?

 

Madagascar Ahoy!

Today I looked back over the past week's news stories to see if any logical or even remote connections could be fashioned into a cartoon theme.

Massive berg breaks away from the antarctic ice sheet and sails off to who knows where?
Could that involve migrating penguins seeking a warmer clime? If so, what destination?
Madagascar...of course! But, TV News tell us the indigenous Lemur population is facing
a bleak future because of habitat loss due to a mad rush to mine sapphires where once were
great rain forests!

    

Menzies' Legacy?

Having lived through the Menzies era, I can confidently opine that R,G. did not have people like Tony Abbott in mind when he became founder of the Australian Liberal Party. It was meant to be a centrist party based on liberal policies (note the 'small L') and in no way fostering the extreme right- wing aims of the British Conservative party. Indeed, one of the wartime leaders he is reported to have most disliked was Winston Churchill and that may well have partially driven his intentions to mould the Liberal party as a 'middle of the road' entity in the spectrum of Australian politics.

ANTipodes revisited.

Back in 2011 I authored a Cartoon blog hosted by an 'over 50s' web site based in Brisbane. One of the  regular mainstays of that effort was a single panel series titled ANTipodes which was a parody built around english language words containing the letters ANT (in that order) describing supposed activities of an ant colony.

At the time the space available for illustrations was quite restricted (e.g. initially 8x8 cms only) necessitating fairly simple drawing /text arrangements. I was then mostly using a VECTOR based drawing application which allows expansion or contraction of digital artwork without any loss of line clarity, so 'postage stamp' sized pieces of 2011 can be readily enlarged to 20x20cms with a key-click as was applied to the example on this post.

The G 19 Summit

I've been marooned in the doldrums since the end of June, lacking the drive necessary to produce cartoons even though an almost continuous parade of likely subject matter was passing my field of awareness on a daily basis. I'm happy to report that the G20 ...err G19 summit meeting in Hamburg has sparked a flicker of interest mainly focussed on the Trump appearance at his first big international political bun-fight.

Never thought I'd feel anything but disgust at this imposter's antics as he play-acts his tenure in the role of POTUS. However, I actually felt sorry for the bloke after viewing footage of his reaction to inter-action with the flock of other world leaders yesterday. He is obviously being cast as an 'outsider'
... largely (IMO) because he clearly acts as if he doesn't know what he is supposed to do and say in this level of leadership.

Citizen speak?

How lucky are those of us who were born in Australia? We never had to go through the largely ridiculous mine-field of Q & A being put together by those doyens of language, values, sporting stats,  and gawd knows what else masquerading as a federal government in Canberra at the moment. I imagine most of us 'natives' would fail the test now being prepared for hopeful immigrants seeking citizenship in Australia. We'd probably fail the present test for that matter(?)

The preferred level of English required of future applicants is said to be 'level 6 university'... whatever that is. My only recent exposure to 'university' standard language has been viewing a variety of professors being interviewed as expert spokes-persons on ABCTV news programs seeking input on matters of education and its role in the social sciences. I've been appalled by the number of them who start virtually every sentence with the word 'SO' and pepper their statements with other now hackneyed business world expressions such as 'around' instead of about; 'reaching out' instead of seeking; 'going forward' instead of ahead or future; and lately the ancient Roman 'cohort' in lieu of group or crowd! Is this the 'university standard' rubbish prospective Australians need to learn in order to fit in with the new order of things?

Well, at 82 y-o-a I don't propose using that version of English any time soon, so why should new-comers be compelled to?

Jack Frost calling...

This cartoon first saw the light of day during 2012 in support of a blog dealing with a run of then
extraordinarily COLD weather in the greater Melbourne area. During the past week or so, the same pattern of foggy, freezing starts to each day has been repeated enough to justify a second run for Mr. Frost as well.

Originally drawn @12 x 12cms (to suit the space provided for illustrations in the host web-site), it was also fortunately constructed in a Vector application which has enabled me to increase its size to 20 x 20cms without any loss of clarity or sharpness of line.

Taking a Liberty?

Here's a bonus post of something I did c. June 2012 when the then projected TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement) was first out-lined to the public in nations expected to participate.

I recall one onerous factor was the proposed built-in ability of Multi-national corporations (mostly U.S. based) to sue any member nation they felt might have stunted their profiteering 'rights'.

The drawing of 'Liberty' was actually made in 2009 for another illustrative purpose. The smile, eyes and URL tag on the fold of her gown were added to support the TPP disquiet.

Three blind mice?

Many of our so-called elected officialdom strive mightily to convince us that they are fit for the task of representing us despite our collective doubts to the contrary... then do something which proves the basis of our doubts to be correct.

Just stupid!

Mrs May's dismay?

When you allow EGO to dominate your vision of what's possible in politics... you often end up with Egg 0n Face. Such is the fate of British PM Teresa May who thought a snap election would increase her power profile for up-coming Brexit negotiations with the EU. Wrong! The 3 year early general election has left the Tories with a 'hung' parliament instead of the anticipated 100 plus seat majority they and Mrs May thought they would  have.

As I've said elsewhere... I think it is poetic justice especially for extraordinary hubris displayed by a so-called political 'leader'. All others of the MAY ilk beware!