I was looking at facebook when a certain piece of poetry caught my eye.
I read the poem then almost fell off my chair when I found out my Daughter was responsible for it.
Here it is:
A Poem To The prime Minister:
Where the bloody hell are ya?
Hey there Scott Morrison, have you heard Australia's on fire?
The country that YOU supposedly lead, the situation is now considered dire
But wait, oh no, you aren't, you're enjoying a holiday
Some time off away from work, which I am sure there will be pay
So off you go when we need you, lives and houses are lost
Wildlife is disappearing, to our country what is the cost?
The men and women volunteer, that means the do it for FREE
So why are you getting paid to enjoy a holiday near the sea?
YOU should be here fighting, to lead us all through this
But no you turn your head, and ignore it with political bliss
So how about you take a leaf from the people who really care
The fieries, ambos and coppers and the Australians who want to share
Get down from your ivory tower, and get amongst these folk
The families who have lost everything, these lives lost is no joke
Hand in your frequent flyer points, and open your budget book
Give all the volunteers a break, no tax would be a good look
We scream out for you to lead us, so get off your fat ass
But no you need a holiday, I'm sure it was first class
We think that you have forgotten, what your job really is
Maybe it's time for us to tell you...it's to be there in times like THIS!
Please don't sit behind your desk, get out there and make things right!
While you still are our P.M., for our country you need to fight
I will stop writing this now, but I ask you to do one thing
Don't be a bloody idiot, it's your humanity game you need to bring!
Tracy Lee Mansfield
Thanks for sharing Bruce
Nicely done. :ok:
Unfortunately, all our politicians have shown us is that they have the unerring ability to bicker amongst themselves to no good end and they seem to lack the capacity to address this country's problems.
Pedro
A fine piece of work :thank_you:
there are still people who think he is doing a good job.
When it comes to spending money, every politician in history has been dragged screaming to treasury, unless of course if it's for a Royal Commission, silly out dated submarines or foreign aid and the like.
It's good to see that volunteers in the fire services have eventually been granted financial relief, it's not right that they give up their leave entitlements or indeed income when engaged in emergency action on our behalf, and sadly, some have paid the ultimate price. Defense force volunteers such as the CMF have been receiving relief for decades.
The thing is, people light the majority of fires, 85% as evidenced by the fire services own data, and half of these are deliberate. Add to this the stupid way in which we have been managing (NOT) the fuel load in our forests and National Parks, also coupled with severe widespread drought, is it any wonder our volunteers are being pushed to their limits.
It's obvious the summer fire situation is not going away any time soon, so Governments and councils need to cut their waste and start to properly equip our fire services as well as get back to proper management of forests and bush land. The Government should also purchase a fleet (not just one or two) of water bombers to be run and maintained by the RAAF, they do have trained trained pilots and maintenance people aye.
Last but not least, bring back public floggings in the town square for those who light fires. Alas, this won't happen as we are still in the age of seeking utopia :dead_horse:
Easiest way to put a stop to future fires is to ban the Greens (that or conscript anyone who voted Green to be put on the front lines in fighting the fires and arm them with nothing but a smashed avocado and a cup of soy latte).
On a more serious note just make sure that any stupid greenie dominated council laws banning chopping down trees are scrapped.
183 arson arrests relating to fire in this country since September :@
Something you're not likely to hear from the ABC etc.
So where will you hear that figure?
Quote from: 'JeffH' pid='121083' dateline='1578381762'So where will you hear that figure?
I saw that figure on a US website (Zero Hedge) and even had a breakdown by state. Also saw a figure that 85% of the fires were man made (arson, accidents and accidental loss of control of back burns). But air head greenies like Cate Blancett are blaming "climate change" and think that Australia can stop "climate change" (but ignore that China makes over 1/3rd of the worlds CO2 emmissions and are heading to making over half within another decade).
and my son is on standby for call up (army reservist) to fight the fires, bugger all greenies though have been fighting the fires as they seem to like to shelter in place in inner city trendy areas.
Quote from: 'JeffH' pid='121083' dateline='1578381762'So where will you hear that figure?
Heard it on one of the US news sites yesterday, CNN I think.
I understand Neal's frustration amid the hypocrisy of the climate debate, where China being classified as a developing nation by the so called Paris agreement is free to pollute til 2030 while picking up hundreds of millions of dollars in UN grants. Australia at the same time is contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the fund and being kicked from pillar to post for our trouble.
We are quick to to be told how Australia is the second highest emitter of Co2 per capita, but never acknowledged for our uptake of renewables which is five times per capita to that of Europe, for example.
I have avoided getting into the pros and cons of man driven Co2 climate change other than to say I'm on the fence due to the existence of dissenting views within the scientific community. Not that we will ever hear those views from some of the general media, they have their own agenda which is evidenced by the hysterical actions and comments we see and hear around the country regarding the issue.
Only 24 arson arrests so far -that's bad enough anyway- but a lot of disinformation being spread on the net. Possibly people wanting to download the contribution of climate to the severity of the bushfire emergency.
I consider this a reliable source.... https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGODIyNjQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D (https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGODIyNjQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D)
ABC says....
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-08/fires-misinformation-being-spread-through-social-media/11846434 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-08/fires-misinformation-being-spread-through-social-media/11846434)
And a good article here...Bots and trolls spread false arson claims in Australian fires 'disinformation campaign' (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/08/twitter-bots-trolls-australian-bushfires-social-media-disinformation-campaign-false-claims)
An interesting aside, something I was previously unaware of...Intentional Fire-Spreading by "Firehawk" Raptors in Northern Australia (https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Ethnobiology/volume-37/issue-4/0278-0771-37.4.700/Intentional-Fire-Spreading-by-Firehawk-Raptors-in-Northern-Australia/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700.short)
https://www.sciencealert.com/birds-intentionally-set-prey-ablaze-rewriting-history-fire-use-firehawk-raptors (https://www.sciencealert.com/birds-intentionally-set-prey-ablaze-rewriting-history-fire-use-firehawk-raptors)
Thanks for the enlightenment, especially the police news site which properly explained the data breakdown, and I agree that a figure of 24 arson arrests is absolutely unacceptable.
Firehawk Raptors, clever birds, but hopefully not too clever.
And how many arson caused fires have not had an arrest?
Those 24 arrests are only for NSW and only since late November. Even with the earlier fire arrests and interstate arrests making for a larger number arrested it still means that the majority of the arsonist lit fires have not had an arrest.
My son told me today that reservists with his classification (rifleman) will likely be used to dispose of animal carcasses. Yuck, burnt, rotting, flyblown.
QuoteSomething you're not likely to hear from the ABC etc.
Here is the ABC's latest report mentioning arson and bushfires. Some Coalition MPs say that arson is mostly to blame for the bushfire crisis. Here are the facts (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-15/is-arson-mostly-to-blame-for-the-bushfire-crisis/11865724)
Does seem to be a well researched article by RMIT ABC Fact Check.
Whilst reading that report I couldn't help but think it was a long winded attempt to deflect the idea that people light bush fires, and felt there was a predisposition to disprove the theory as much as possible with going all in on a total denial.
Getting towards the end, the report did say;
"There is no doubt that arson is responsible for a significant number of fires in Australia.
However, the data does not yet exist to accurately dissect the current bushfire crisis. According to experts consulted by Fact Check, that could take some time".
Sounded to me like the reporter had all fingers and toes crossed.
I distrust the ABC on most things, they have their own agenda and bias, and often seek to misinform the public on many important issues IMO, and is why I originally made the comment " Something you're not likely to hear from the ABC etc".
Having said all this, I do admit to my own bias, particularly against the ABC and mongrels who light fires. :angel: :grin:
Only a small minority of the population (9%) distrust the ABC
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7641-media-net-trust-june-2018-201806260239
The only people I know who say they distrust the ABC, are so biased that they misinterpret anything they do not like as "unbalanced".
My "gut judgement" of how unbiased a media outlet is how many people it generates complaints from over all the spectrum of politics and opinion. Not a very scientific measure but, I think, the ABC does reasonably on that criteria.
Al Jazeera (https://www.aljazeera.com/), an arabic news channel, excels on my crude measure -they upset the whole spectrum of nations, politicians, religions and self-appointed commentators. They must be doing something right.
Quote from: 'Ozcoins' pid='121149' dateline='1579147463'So auto is in the small minority (only 9%) who distrust the ABC
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7641-media-net-trust-june-2018-201806260239
The only people I know who say they distrust the ABC, are so biased that they misinterpret anything they do not like as "unbalanced".
Good onya Oz, does that mean 91% of the population are in danger of being duped? I'm more than happy to be one of the 9% :yahoo:
Quote from: 'Ozcoins' pid='121149' dateline='1579147463'Only a small minority of the population (9%) distrust the ABC
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7641-media-net-trust-june-2018-201806260239
The only people I know who say they distrust the ABC, are so biased that they misinterpret anything they do not like as "unbalanced".
Quote from: 'autocoupler' pid='121152' dateline='1579170165'Quote from: 'Ozcoins' pid='121149' dateline='1579147463'So auto is in the small minority (only 9%) who distrust the ABC
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7641-media-net-trust-june-2018-201806260239
The only people I know who say they distrust the ABC, are so biased that they misinterpret anything they do not like as "unbalanced".
Good onya Oz, does that mean 91% of the population are in danger of being duped? I'm more than happy to be one of the 9% :yahoo:
Count me among the 9% who question everything. Have to worry about the gullibility of people (91%) who didn't think through their answer. Unless you have 100% absolute trust that the source(ABC or whatever) is !00% accurate/truthful/unbiased/error free then by default you have distrust to a greater or lesser extent. Considering that around 40% of ABC staff voted "green" at the last election then you have to have some concern (distrust) that just maybe they have (even subconsciously) selected and rejected news articles or edited/presented them a certain way.
Plus with the rain :yahoo: and cold weather we are having the bushfires are mostly yesterdays news.
Oh dear, how did you find out that "around 40% of ABC staff voted "green" at the last election". Don't we have secret ballot?
Quote from: 'JeffH' pid='121173' dateline='1579417915'Oh dear, how did you find out that "around 40% of ABC staff voted "green" at the last election". Don't we have secret ballot?
The figure is from a survey done in 2013 of 605 journalists and of the ABC journos who stated their voting intentions 14 out of 41 said they would vote for the Greens (41%). And yes like any good skeptic you have to question the accuracy of that survey (perhaps greenies are more likely to answer such polls or whatever bias that might exist in a small/skewed sample might inflate the number).
Plus the ballot isn't always a secret as when I worked as a Poll Clerk many moons ago party officials would bus up people from the local funny farm and assist them to vote and its hardly a secret that the votes would be marked according to the parties form.
That is not good.
Hi Auto,
Sorry I mentioned your name in my post, my point could be made without doing that, so I have updated the post.
"Unless you have 100% absolute trust that the source(ABC or whatever) is 100% accurate/truthful/unbiased/error free then by default you have distrust to a greater or lesser extent."
I think what you are talking about is closer to asking the question
"Is the ABC perfect in every regard?"
That question will always only have one answer no matter who you ask it about.
Of course the answer is "No" , but I (and clearly many others) think the ABC is a lot closer than the alternatives.
Quote from: 'Ozcoins' pid='121194' dateline='1579556223'Hi Auto,
Sorry I mentioned your name in my post, my point could be made without doing that, so I have updated the post.
No problems Oz, no offence taken mate :good: . We all have opinions which differ from others, if we are able to have a respectful dig (fun) along the way, that's all good. Our world is becoming increasingly unable to operate in this way, which is a sad thing IMO.
Thanks for taking it well Auto!