Former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison threatened to revoke the rights of an inner-city Melbourne council to conduct Australia Day citizenship ceremonies after a stoush with its mayor.

In one of his last acts as minister before he was moved to the social services portfolio by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Mr Morrison wrote to the mayor of Moreland, who had protested reading out a ministerial message during the ceremonies.

The message is meant to be read before official speeches. 

Moreland City Council mayor Meghan Hopper told Mr Morrison she did not want to read aloud the message because of the government's controversial asylum seeker policies.

Her letter to Mr Morrison states: "In my introductory speech as mayor, I made a commitment to uphold Moreland's tradition of support for asylum seekers. This is a commitment I intend to honour".

Ms Hopper, an ALP member, said Moreland had made a concerted effort in recent years to welcome asylum seekers and refugees and that the minister's message conflicted with the council's policy.

But Mr Morrison responded that the message would have to be read or the annual Australia Day citizenship ceremony could be cancelled.

He told Ms Hopper that if she did not read the message, she, deputy mayor Helen Davidson and the council's general manager would be stripped of their authority to perform the ceremony.

Ms Hopper said she did not want to be"forced to act as a mouthpiece for a government whose policies this council does not agree with".

"Many citizens-to-be at Moreland are former asylum seekers," she said.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/scott-morrison-threatens-to-stop-citizenship-ceremonies-by-moreland-city-council-20150101-12gdp9.html

And in his new entitlement controller rotten minister, Morrison shows his spots:

Four days out from Christmas, Blind Citizens Australia (BCA), Deaf Australia, Homelessness Australia and Down Syndrome Australia learned they were to be subject to federal government funding cuts.

New Social Services Minister Scott Morrison assured concerned parties that frontline services to the disabled would not be cut, just grants to these and other organisations advocating for the homeless and the disabled.

While one BCA – Blind Citizens Australia – did not fare so well this yuletide, another BCA – the Business Council of Australia – did quite nicely.

Only a week earlier, the government had back-flipped on a proposed tax avoidance reform (Section 25-90) entailing some $600 million in tax deductions that multinational companies could claim on interest on their debts in offshore subsidiaries.

As it turned out, the "stakeholders" with whom the government had "consulted" before it made its decision were the big audit firms (whose best clients are the multinationals) and assorted peak bodies such as the Minerals Council of Australia.

Clearly the voice of assorted business lobbies is being heard more loudly and more clearly in Canberra than the likes of Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia or the National Council on Intellectual Disability and Physical Disability Australia – two more subjects of the Christmas cuts to social welfare.

In the investment world, the typical product disclaimer runs like this: "Past performance is no indication of future returns." The same might be said of government but if last year's performance is any indication, social welfare will be under siege this year while corporate welfare will proceed apace.

Why don't I  trust Abbott?
Bruce Grant

Even when I agree with what he is saying or doing, I don't trust the PM.

― Noël Coward, Blithe Spirit

See also: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/a-challenge-at-sea/5985452

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/9177

See also: "The Age of Deceit"

Gus does not spend too much time watching the box, but he analyses the ratings... Via various means, I get the full ratings of TV shows, blow by blow, around Australia but I am only interested in a few... For example recently apparently, the worm-munching celebs "Get me out of here" on Channel 10 started on a bang then dropped by half but even at the lowest, it got better ratings than the second episode of the supadupa expensive production of "Gallipoli" on Channel nine... Both got more or less thrashed by Channel Seven's My Kitchen Rules...

One has to draw conclusions. Otherwise the rating's game would be in vain. Ratings are used to allocate advertisers' cash to various TV and radio outlets. The better the ratings for a Channel, the greater the proportion of cash it receives from the "pool" sharing. It's complicated but that's the way it works. Some advertisers make the choice to advertise exclusively and the Channel gets all the benefits. 

So the conclusion here is that Western Star Butter gets some points for advertising on My Kitchen Rules with some exclusivity but the battered cream stuff still has to discount the price, to attract attention to it and shift it off the shelves "as a promotion". This may not go down too well with "MasterChef. Who knows.... Anything for a buck these days while you'd be entertained and brainwashed to the value of buttered toasts — that are more interesting than reminiscing about dead people on a beach because of a pommy cock up... Don't get me wrong. Gallipoli is an important chapter in this nation's history, but there are more defining moments such as "invasion day" and the federation, under the lead of Henry Parkes... A quiet rebellion against mother Pom...

Thus the other conclusion to draw is that people are tired of warmongering and glorifying what was a major defeat — a bit as if the French saw Waterloo as a victory. The TV series on the War Memorial in Canberra was exclusive to Foxtel viewers and attracted in the vicinity of 40,000 subscribers... Tony Abbott still inflates his lying existence to the smell of cordite and black powder, while the rest of us are more inclined to stay at home and enjoy a good rest with some red ned... Fraser and Keating hate the Turd for glorifying war as the defining moment of this nation... They hate him for that amongst other hate such as regality and meaningless pompous ocker lying declarations...