innovation

Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox is the cartoonist of the year for the 2016 Behind the Lines cartooning exhibition which opens to the public on November 30, 2016.

http://cathywilcox.com.au

Dear Cathy...

Old Gus does not rate a penny is this area... But look at it this way, Old Gus did his first cartoons in 1951... and is still going strong despite weak knees and a fading memory. Over the years Gus has developed an unhealthy cynicism towards the political class (since 1951 to be exact) and it's grown into an obsession beyond sanity, as it should.

Happy cartooning.

From the Gadfly...

The Serbian community in Sydney sure knows how to have a smashing time. What better way to have a fun evening than invite Tony Abbott along to join 26 dancers on stage in a Serbian jig at the Bonnyrigg Sports Club?

The merriment didn’t stop there, because Australia’s former prime minister then took to the microphone for a rousing speech about the achievements of his government. In particular, he extolled family values, by which he said he did not mean “two men and a poodle”, but a man and a woman with children, who went to school where boys are boys and girls are girls. 

Whatever, it struck a chord with the Serbian bishop who praised an increasingly demented-looking Abbott as an upholder of Judeo-Christian values. He was presented with three books, including one on the history of Serbian wars – but maybe not war crimes. Abbo was sent home with a standing ovation ringing in his jug ears. 

A politician who never tires of dancing and spruiking at ethnic community festivities surely has his eye on a bigger prize.

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2016/12/03/gadfly-trial-and-canberra...

see toon at top...

...

Abbott told parliament that, with its limestone exterior and bronze and marble lobby, the tower charged rents of $847 a square metre on its 61st floor, “which is significantly less than what the taxpayer is forking out for Centenary House”

Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, at $953 a metre, was just a little more than the then Centenary House rent. Abbott proceeded to say: “If the leader of the opposition is not prepared to end the rent rort and pay the money back, the Australian people will conclude he is an even bigger spiv than Donald Trump.”

The speaker: “Order! I ask the leader of the house to withdraw that latter reference to the leader of the opposition.”

And the Libs complained that Bill Shorten called Trump “barking mad” and “entirely unsuitable” to be president.

read more law titbits at:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2016/12/17/gadfly-slo-motion/1481893...

It was a British reporter who dubbed Canberra "the coup capital of the Western world" as one prime minister after another was brought down not by the voters but by their colleagues.

As Australia started burning through its prime ministers faster than the notoriously impatient Italians, the BBC's Nick Bryant marvelled that "as the country has grown stronger, its politics have become nastier", as its economy grew more stable its politics became more volatile. Now an Australian researcher spells out just how rampant the political bloodlust has become, just how addictive it is turning out to be.

"So in the century up to 2010," writes Tiffen, "three sitting prime ministers were victims of party coups. Then in just five years three more followed," Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.

"It is not not only prime ministers who have become more vulnerable" to coups, says Tiffen, emeritus professor of government at Sydney University. It seems to be a national neuralgia. "In the 1960s, there were no successful leadership challenges in the major parties, federal or State, but since 1970 fully 73 leaders have been ousted by their colleagues."

And the pace is accelerating. Thirty-two leaders have been deposed, State and federal, so far this century - an average of two per year. Tiffen's research confirms Australia's dubious distinction as the most febrile, restless and murderous political jurisdiction among parliamentary democracies: "This forced turnover of leaders is not the norm in any other country. The total of 73 [32?], of course, combines seven different governments, but even if we confine the figure to the national level, it is still 16."

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tony-abbott-will-he-make-a-comeback-in-cou...

See toon at top...

Tony Abbott has warned that the government’s so-called Gonski 2.0 funding reforms would face vigorous debate in the party room and the Liberal party should not undermine parental choice of schools.

In an interview on 2GB radio on Wednesday, Abbott also poured cold water on a call to make him governor general, continuing to push his credentials for a return to the frontbench.

Despite Abbott sounding a note of dissent on the education funding changes, the Greens and even Labor have indicated they could help pass them in the Senate.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/03/tony-abbott-says-...

Tony Abbott does not want the public schooling to be palatable or equitable. He is a full-blown Catholic and wants education to be under this religious mantra. He is a big shit who never understood anything beyond political machinations and payolas... He should have been retired by his party. He should be sacked as a "liberal" (KONservative) for basically trying to destroy Australia's future. "The Liberal party should not undermine parental choice of schools?" This was he has been trying to do all along: undermine this choice by creating "privileged (religious) schools"... The gall of the man...