So Stephen Koukoulas has written an open letter to the residents of western Sydney telling them they never had it so good:
It is not clear exactly what issues are fuelling your apparent displeasure with the Gillard Government, but can I point out a couple of issues that you may wish to consider in terms of things that actually matter to you, your family and businesses.
Not a great start.
Last night Paul Murray rattled off ten things that he is annoyed about.
He also has this great line: ‘We’re your boss and we remember what you said’.
A broken clock is right twice a day.
Murray is a moron.
JamesK
1 Mar 13 at 1:10 pm
Those ungrateful bloody outer suburban bogans – who do they think they are, questioning poor misunderstood li’l lardarse?!?!
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 1:16 pm
What is with the round the clock promotion of Sky?
Can we have some more of the beautiful Leigh Sales?
Grey
1 Mar 13 at 1:19 pm
Then you really are a clueless moron who is utterly hopeless at your job.
Resign and seek work as a supermarket shelf stacker, kouk – you’re dealing with concepts that are obviously way beyond your intellect.
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 1:20 pm
Speaking of bellyaching (in Europe) and talking complete garbage, Anatole Kaletsky writes here in the SMH today that austerity is “both politically suicidal and economically counterproductive”.
Gobsmacked doesn’t quite do justice…
Mr Anderson
1 Mar 13 at 1:21 pm
Fixed, grey…
Rabz
1 Mar 13 at 1:21 pm
He should have stopped after the first sentence. It sums his problem up perfectly.
Gibbo
1 Mar 13 at 1:22 pm
So what did Murray prove … He can’t count. I think you’ve given a great example of what the Prime Minister raised – the numerically challenged Murray’s schlock and horror compared with the reasoned supported detail of the Koukoulas letter. I can not recall a better time to be a consumer. And to consumers I would say seize the day… within reason
John Mainard Kaynes
1 Mar 13 at 1:25 pm
That letter is truly gutwrenching. Aside from the obvious (that the ALP are taking undue credit for the economic situation they inhereted, but what’s new), it reads as one massive whinge. Basically it’s “you don’t know what’s good for you! We are good for you, why are you so stupid as to not like us?!”
Talk about a complete lack of self-awareness.
MattR
1 Mar 13 at 1:26 pm
This is from a guy who calls himself The Kook
KoukToken
1 Mar 13 at 1:26 pm
Watching the longer interview which Bolta linked to you can see Chris Kenny desperate to tear into the abject stupidity Gillard & dills like the Kook.
Token
1 Mar 13 at 1:35 pm
Former economics adviser to Gillard, and lists Ross Gittens, Peter Martin, Laura Tingle and Greg Jericho as Favourite Links. Yep, no bias there.
Keith
1 Mar 13 at 1:55 pm
Dinkum Aussie battlers don’t like being told they have never had it so good. Just ask John Howard.
H B Bear
1 Mar 13 at 2:22 pm
Koukoulas is a moron of the highest order
Maws
1 Mar 13 at 2:28 pm
Good on Kouks, the peasants should be reminded how lucky they are. Or not.
I stopped watching Murray a while ago, he tries too hard to be a caring trendy, my instinct tells me he is hiding some personal guilt. Still, thats not a bad vid, and Chris Kenny is generally ok.
Jannie
1 Mar 13 at 2:34 pm
I like Paul Murray (except Monday nights when Mark Latham is on, I dont watch it then). I think he calls it as he sees it, not following any particular line. I agree with him sometimes and not others. I dont need to agree with a commentator 100% to appreciate them. Unlike the ABC where I tend to disagree 100% with the crap they go on with, so watch no news at all anymore on it.
dianeh
1 Mar 13 at 2:40 pm
Before her election Larissa was an environmental lawyer working in the community sector for eight years advising people how to use the law to protect Queensland’s environment.
She grew up in Brisbane and lives in Bardon with her young daughter.
I dunno what the community sector is. Is it like the private sector, but better wages and better attuned to achieving Good Feelings? Anyway, Bardon is a little further up the road and full of well to do people. I guess being an advocate for trees and waterways pays as well as any other lawyer type job.
Anyway, Ms Waters (no mention of a husband, I guess it’s all part of the new Empowerment of Women thang) has moved into a shiny new office located in Paddington
Quite so. Because things could always be better. However in Howard’s defence I would have to say I wish things were like they were back then compared with now. Because right now things could have been a lot better. A lot better. And these arseholes stuffed it all up.
Entropy
1 Mar 13 at 2:42 pm
Let’s try that again.
H B Bear
1 Mar 13 at 2:22 pm
Quite so. Because things could always be better. However in Howard’s defence I would have to say I wish things were like they were back then compared with now. Because right now things could have been a lot better. A lot better. And these arseholes stuffed it all up.
Entropy
1 Mar 13 at 2:43 pm
Watching the full show he makes a tosser of himself falsely claiming (and allowing the Tele’s dopy bint to agree) Scott Morrison make statements which were a dog whistle.
In the OT I posted Chris Kenny’s written response, which reflects what he said on the show.
Until Murray stops that crap, statements like that by JamesK apply to him:
Token
1 Mar 13 at 2:47 pm
What’s the debt comparison today against the surplus 5 years ago?
Where did all of that money go, Stephen?
Ant
1 Mar 13 at 3:04 pm
The media isn’t the boss, the voters are. So who is Murray speaking for? Sorry, but the faux Westie blokiness doesn’t wash.
The media, including Murray, have been completely hopeless at calling Gillard, and her Labor Party, to account. Murray is trying to save his own skin too late.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
1 Mar 13 at 3:10 pm
Grey 1 Mar 13 at 1:19 pm
Here you go. No audio to go with it, though.
Steve D
1 Mar 13 at 3:30 pm
Clear to whom? They should be pretty clear to him. Smell the roses, he suggests. Well, people have taken some time to smell the general whiff of something quite rotten surrounding NSW and now Federal Labor, and it ain’t roses. And that’s just a start to the groundswell of opposition to Ms. Gillard’s visit.
The ‘roses’ are a floral metaphor for the underlying wealth and good fortune of our country, and that is nothing to do with any ‘management’ of our economy by Labor. Some of those roses have thorns too (like the high dollar), that need good management, something which they are not getting. True, we are not yet the economic sewer that is Europe and parts of America, but that won’t last for much longer if the profligate taxing, borrowing and spending of this government are given another three years to ‘mis-manage’ us into penury. Some people, especially in Western Sydney, are well on their way to penury already, as they deal with the regular bills. They know too that their jobs are becoming less and less secure under Labor’s ‘new energy future’ fantasy and lack of real vision for economic development (dinosaur NBN anyone?).
Put that in your rose bowl, Koukoulas.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
1 Mar 13 at 3:31 pm
Oh, I think I got it wrong. They’re giving us a ‘clean energy future’ not a ‘new’ one, aren’t they? So’s you can’t smell that colourless, odorless CO2 they are removing as it floats around the skies in those big black balloons they kept showing us, lying to us by making out it was like car exhaust or coal dust soot.
All part of ‘moving forward’. No-one wonder everyone’s so excited and impressed they are getting a visit from the pinstiped and bovver-booted one. Oh, but wait. That’s the old Julia, isn’t it? The new one’s your aunty coming up roses in a skirt and pearls. Craig the Laid’s wife says so in the Womyn’s Weekly, so that’s alright.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
1 Mar 13 at 3:48 pm
I doubt the people of Western Sydney are actually reading his open letter.
candy
1 Mar 13 at 3:49 pm
Thank you, Lizzie, on being the first one in the thread with an actual argument. It helps that I broadly agree with you, of course
Jarrah
1 Mar 13 at 3:51 pm
Dear people of Western Sydney,
If you are among those who are increasingly being left behind in these “terrific times for the Australian economy”, then take some time to reflect on us who are getting the benefits. We’re doing pretty well, and you should take in our saintly smell and be happy.
If you not that close to the PM, you can stick a rose up your nose.
Love,
Koukou
Leo G
1 Mar 13 at 3:52 pm
When your whole concept of governance is based on column inches then of course you are going to be sensitive to media coverage.
Lets face it, she spent her whole life aspiring to be PM without a second thought for what she’d do once she got there. In her mind she’s just tinkering around in the Australian shed
Rousie
1 Mar 13 at 4:06 pm
Lets go through this…
Interest rates are not set by the government
Many people drive to work, yes, but( I can only account for QLD) public transport has risen by 80% in the last five years making the car more economical to run.
Yes, wages have risen, but so has the cost of living. Electricity has gone up. clothes and toasters are cheaper, but I don’t need a new wardrobe every quarter.
Unemployment rates are a bit disputed. Total hours worked are down though. As I walk around I notice fewer places open on weekends and public holidays because of penalty rates. Pubs and clubs are quieter. We just had the lowest Christmas spend for a long time.
On that, smokes, booze even fitness centers are more expensive.
My super has taken a huge hit, in fact it is nowhere near the balance that it was before 2008. My father in law has lost 250k so he has put off retirement for a while.
The rise in super to 12% and a cut to company tax was supposed to be offset by the $126M raised by the MRRT. The company tax cut didnt happen.
Who would have thunk that paying people on disability pensions would actually increase productivity.
No, not everybody is benefitting equally, in fact, the harder you work and the more money you earn, the more your supposed to help out people who don’t want to work because our government is in debt. Funny old world.
Dan
1 Mar 13 at 4:12 pm
Jarrah, that is a bright and sunny smile you have there. Suits you, Sir.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
1 Mar 13 at 4:18 pm
Not quite. According to the redhead, while she was busy trying to get fired as a lawyer and ripping off widows she wanted to be a school teacher
Dan
1 Mar 13 at 4:22 pm
Lizzie @ 3:31pm pretty much sums it up. I doubt I could add to much other than to say “I agree”
tbh
1 Mar 13 at 4:25 pm
I don’t trust the bastard. His eyes are too close together.
In fact, he’s only one good punch to side of his head to be a Cyclops.
Winston SMITH
1 Mar 13 at 5:25 pm
So one of the true believers tells us we should be happy with our lot, we should be driving a new car(imported), petrol is only slightly up on 2007(our dollar is a lot higher now and wasn’t Kevin going to reduce it anyway)and our power costs are skyrocketing(acording to Obama) so what’s the problem.
What ever it takes
1 Mar 13 at 6:38 pm
Well, my kids have beeen saving heaps on their mortgages due to the low interest rates. My own joint will jump at least 50k in value if the NBN goes ahead. Plus I reckon the disabled in this country need a fair go, and the NDIS seems like a good idea to me. Will I be voting for the libs against my best interests? Don’t think so.
dedalus
1 Mar 13 at 7:32 pm
Has anyone else noticed that there is a growing trend of the left to basically tell people to go eat cake?
Can’t wait until they are turfed out.
MattR
1 Mar 13 at 7:47 pm
Don’t forget her dream job is being a global philanthropist. Fuck me. She wonders why people think she is a lying scumbag. I’ve only ever met a couple of adults with so little self awareness and they have both been borderline psychopaths…
Skuter
1 Mar 13 at 8:06 pm
Richard D
1 Mar 13 at 10:41 pm
Just don’t complain when those wax wings you’re forging for your children start to melt…
Marky
2 Mar 13 at 8:34 am
Just because it costs the government $50k to wire you up to the NBN doesn’t mean that is what the connection is worth.
rebel with cause
2 Mar 13 at 8:47 am
That’s right! Glowball Philanthropist… That’s a pretty big slush fund
She must see herself as some kind of super hero. Teaching children by day, by night she is sticking up for the down trodden worker from her top secret IR cave. Occasionally distributing alms to the less fortunate people of the world. Mentally effing deranged.
Dan
2 Mar 13 at 8:57 am
Yeah! Fuck the country.
It’ll be sorted out eventually.
Just not now when I’m on the gravy train.
JamesK
2 Mar 13 at 9:13 am
Oh yeah and dedalus the no-nothing thinks this Labor ‘government’ is gonna make things better for people with disabilities. Huh, she scoffs. Really and truly what is it with people who think Labor is the crucible of competence and compassion? I have seen it up close and personal in the past and with the current crop of Labor Fakers!
In the clumsy hands of the Gillard ‘government’ the proposed legislation of the NDIS is exactly what Andrew Baker has described the next Leviathan – -
Truly a more evil collection of clauses, riders and definitions I don’t think I’ve seen oh except of course Roxoff’s exposure draft anti-discrimination legislation and all the other crap laws passed by this deadbeat Labor disaster.
It’ll be back to the future for people with disabilities – Captives of Care or may be Captives of Don’t Care.
Typical Labor in its determination to control effing everything – the system is all and people with disabilties will be institutionalised by an omnipotent, omnipresent Big Brother CEO, bureaucrats, gate-keepers, service providers, plan nominees, correspondence nominees, you name it they’re in there. It’s a set-up for failure and fail it will because that’s the design and besides there’s no political will to do it.
Tintarella di Luna
2 Mar 13 at 9:30 am
If you get the NBn, so do all your neighbors. Therefore no particular house can increase in value over the others because they all have the connection.
brc
2 Mar 13 at 10:10 am
Come, we can do better than that.
I reckon that all ordinary people who aren’t rich—and who aren’t also racist or sexist or conservative or opposed to immigration or who are sceptical about climate change, of course—deserve all that those selfish rich folk get; and free food, booze, recreational drugs of choice, housing and health care sound like a good idea to me. All this, of course, should be at the expense of evil rich people, and wicked mining companies!
Deadman
2 Mar 13 at 10:34 am
I think it’s time it was perfectly clear to those who aren’t from Sydney that the PM’s love tour isn’t of the marginals (Lindsay, Greeenway and Parramatta) but of Labor heartland seats (Blaxland, Chifley, Reid and McMahon). That is where Roorty Hill is.
We are talking about a government that is defending its safest seats in NSW.
So they have already given up the westy marginals, plus Banks, Barton, Kingsford Smith and Grayndler. In fact they have given up all of Sydney except four the four safest seats.
We are taliking meltdown.
The ALP having to defend its heartland is like like the Liberals defending Wentworth or Kooyong
The day a Liberal sits in Paul Keating’s old seat of Blaxland is the day that I will cheer. Finally the westies will have realised that Labor just wants them to keep on as poor dowtrodden plebs.
Rococo Liberal
2 Mar 13 at 5:41 pm