# Australia's moron PM gets more moronic. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 11, 2015, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746 "2015-03-11T08:33:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/21 "2015-03-11T19:50:58Z")
I’m still amused that in a **[list](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=743708&highlight=Australia)** of his Austerity/Ideological cuts I posted here in December was = [SIZE=“4”]\*\*Abolishes the ANZAC Centenary Public Fund Board \*\*[/SIZE] Gallipoli Centenary - 4 years, check. Gallipoli Centenary - 3 years, check. Gallipoli Centenary - 2 years, check. Gallipoli Centenary - 1 year, _called off due to rain_. The **ANZAC Centenary Public Fund Board** replaced the **[ANZAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Centenary_Advisory_Board) Centenary Advisory [Board](http://www.anzaccentenary.gov.au/anzac_centenary/advisory_board.htm)** in 2014. [**[On 7 March](http://www.anzaccentenary.gov.au/fund/pubilc-fund-board.htm) 2014, the Minister announced the termination of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board, as its work had been completed, and announced the establishment of the Anzac Centenary Public Fund Board**. ] One must assume they included the non-likelihood of survivors protesting after waiting 100 years. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/22 "2015-03-11T19:58:11Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I have to object, though, to the notion that a human being is irreversibly “bound,” spiritually or psychologically, to living in a physical location. Certainly a person may be attached to a place because they have lived there a long time, but a newly born person has no such attachment, and in any event the government of a sovereign state really has no business setting policy based on some abstract, fuzzy notion of a spiritual bond a person has to Upper Rubber Boot, Northern Territory, that they can’t make to Lower Doofusville, Queensland. > > It is self-evidently the case that people of any numbers of faiths can find a home and a life in places separated from their spiritual homeland. Not all Muslims have to live in Arabia; 98% of Christians do not live in the Holy Land or Rome; most Jews don’t live in Israel, and so on. Of course those are not the same faiths or spiritualities and it is plausible that Aborigine spirituality is more inherently tied to locale. In the end, however, spirituality is a choice, not an intrinsic, unchangeable feature of a person, and a person must to some extent live with the consequences of that choice. A government cannot practically accommodate spiritual choice past some point of logistical absurdity, and remote communities in Australia’s back country might well be beyond that point. There is a reason most people do not live in deserts, tundras, and at the tops of mountains. They’re awful. This. Just because things have always been a certain way, doesn’t mean they always have to be that way. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/23 "2015-03-11T20:15:44Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …no there is not, and it is because you are not fully up to speed on the mechanics of aboriginal affairs in Australia beyond a cursory understanding that would lead you to believe this. Perhaps you could explain why I’m wrong rather than just saying “no, you’re wrong.” Is it factually incorrect that incredibly isolated, very small communities are difficult to service and economically unviable? Because that’s the truth at the heart of what he said. I would need a great deal of evidence to convince me that isn’t the case. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/24 "2015-03-11T20:28:30Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > But just for the record, I _approve_ of his attempts to have our citizens returned ALIVE. We don’t grok the death penalty here…just doesn’t sit right with most of the populace no matter HOW heinous the crime. It’s one thing to approve or disapprove of your own country’s penal system, but quite another when you’re talking about that of another country entirely. I am heavily opposed to the death penalty but I’m not interested in keeping Americans sentenced to death overseas from their fates (assuming they received a fair trial.) ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/25 "2015-03-11T20:31:03Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Perhaps you could explain why I’m wrong rather than just saying “no, you’re wrong.” > > Is it factually incorrect that incredibly isolated, very small communities are difficult to service and economically unviable? Because that’s the truth at the heart of what he said. I would need a great deal of evidence to convince me that isn’t the case. …for the indigenous people in Australia living in incredibly isolated very small communities is not a “lifestyle choice.” There is no truth in that at all. Perhaps you might like to get fully up to speed on the mechanics of aboriginal affairs in Australia before you comment any further. You’ve admitted you are ignorant on the subject at hand. That’s all that needs to be said really. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/26 "2015-03-11T20:43:07Z")
Scanning the thread list, I read the words “Australia’s moron” and thought “Hm, Tony Abbot again?” ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/27 "2015-03-11T20:56:37Z")
**RickJay** , nobody is denying that servicing remote communities is bloody hard, and in many cases economically disastrous. But suggesting that the government force those communities to just up and move somewhere else smacks of a knee-jerk response to an issue that requires a whole lot more consideration. For a quick background, google Aborigines and Country. The Aboriginal connection to land and/or country (note, not The land, nor The country) is paramount in their cultural, familial and even personal identities. It’s not just a patch of dirt to live on, because unlike western attitudes to land (a commodity to be bought and sold) within Aboriginal culture, the land itself owns the individual. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/28 "2015-03-11T21:17:27Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Perhaps you could explain why I’m wrong rather than just saying “no, you’re wrong.” > > Is it factually incorrect that incredibly isolated, very small communities are difficult to service and economically unviable? Because that’s the truth at the heart of what he said. I would need a great deal of evidence to convince me that isn’t the case. I’m no expert, but I’ll give it a clumsy go (please forgive me, Indigenous Australians, as I’ll no doubt screw it up): Aboriginal spirituality is largely about their creation stories, called “The Dreaming”, which emphasises that human life is fleeting but the Land is enduring. All come from the Land and are owned by the Land, and they tell stories about the Land and how certain geological features came to be as their cultural responsibility. It’s all very well and good to say that they need to find a way to keep their culture alive while physically living elsewhere like other religions have done, but the core of their culture and spirituality is the Land, their connection to it and their belief that they are owned by it. The Land is the central figure in their mythology. You can’t compare it to Muslim people continuing to observe their faith outside their ancestral lands; try axing Mohammed for budgetary reasons and see what that does to them. Of course, “Aboriginal culture” is a gross generalisation, as they are not one homogeneous people sharing a single set of beliefs. They are many, many tiny groups of people trying to keep alive the culture of their ancestors for the last 40,000 years. So, ultimately, while the cost of maintaining these small communities may be high, it must be clearly understood that closing them will ultimately result in the destruction of 40,000 year old cultures that have already been under sustained attack for most of the last 220 years. Yes, their numbers are so low that they’ll probably die out in time anyway and this is hastening the inevitable. Do our past crimes against them that brought them to this point burden us with a greater responsibility towards them in the twilight of their culture? I can’t answer that. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/29 "2015-03-11T21:22:25Z")
Thing is, we are talking $30 million (according to the ABC), combined state/commonwealth funding - across _all_ states - not just WA. That’s a tiny amount in the scheme of things. Our government is spending 8 times that just to put chaplains in state schools. Good article on the issues [here](http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/11/of-three-remote-communities-here-why-are-only-the-two-aboriginal-ones-under-threat). (Guardian) If they close these communities there is _nowhere_ for the residents to go. The larger towns already have problems around unemployment, booze etc and the move will just overload the existing community service organisations and the government will still have to deliver the same, or more, services to the region. It’ll probably be more costly in the long run as there will be long-term, flow-on effects of shifting hundreds or even thousands of people from lands where they have a sense of belonging and community. If this goes ahead I hope the media keep a close eye on the region to see which mining or mineral exploration companies move in. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/30 "2015-03-11T21:35:11Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > If this goes ahead I hope the media keep a close eye on the region to see which mining or mineral exploration companies move in. Oh you cynic you! ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/31 "2015-03-11T21:37:37Z")
😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/32 "2015-03-11T23:06:20Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > - I am still ashamed of the way my govt sent state funded terrorists to a French beach resort as a punishment -and we don’t even have the death penalty That’s not a punishment, that’s a grindhouse-film project! _Bikini Beach Bloodbath!_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/33 "2015-03-12T00:13:47Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > Thing is, we are talking $30 million (according to the ABC), combined state/commonwealth funding - across _all_ states - not just WA. That’s a tiny amount in the scheme of things. A tiny amount? I’ll have you know that’s about $3 per taxpayer per year. A minimum wage earner would have to work for nearly 10 minutes a year to fund that. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/34 "2015-03-12T03:40:45Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …for the indigenous people in Australia living in incredibly isolated very small communities is not a “lifestyle choice.” I did not say it was. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/35 "2015-03-12T04:08:39Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > I assume Bengangmo is French and referring to the French Government sending Government agents to sink the Rainbow Warrior ship while it was moored in Auckland, New Zealand. > > The ship was run by Greenpeace and was intending to sail to disrupt French nuclear weapons tests to be held in the Pacific Ocean. The sinking resulted in the death by drowning of a Greenpeace photographer. > > The French agents were caught and the resulting scandal led to the resignation of a French Defence official. > > The agents were sentenced to 10 years after a plea bargain but the French Government released them after just two years in a unilateral breach of the agreed terms. > > This was back in 1985. > > I only provide this information in case anyone is confused by a story about an Australian politician on an American bulletin board suddenly references the actions of the French government in New Zealand. > > TCMF-2L I’m a Kiwi… Calling me a damn blardy frog bes fighting words…😃 I was (and am) angry that our govt released the murderers to the French - caving to diplomatic pressure. The blardy terrorists not only interfered in our internal affairs in a gross violation of all that is good, they also put diplomatic pressure on New Zealand, sticking there noses in. What the Australian PM is doing is similar - he’s fucking with another countries judiciary, sticking his nose into their punishments - he’s NOT following their laws, but acting like a stuck up bully with no respect at all for another country. Australia is perfectly entitled to help their citizens judicially with whatever support they deem appropriate. They are also entitled to bring pressure to bear on countries that have the death penalty. What they shouldn’t be doing is saying “we gave you aid and if you dare to punish our citizens in line with your legal system we’re going to punish you by withdrawing that aid”. New Zealand caved because of “diplomatic pressure”. Indonesia should not. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/36 "2015-03-12T04:26:15Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I’m a Kiwi… > Calling me a damn blardy frog bes fighting words…😃 So, rather than be compared to an amphibian, you would rather and sooner and liefer be compared to [an Apteryx, a wingless bird with hairy feathers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#Animals_and_other_non-human_characters). Hokay. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/37 "2015-03-12T05:26:37Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > So, rather than be compared to an amphibian, you would rather and sooner and liefer be compared to [an Apteryx, a wingless bird with hairy feathers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#Animals_and_other_non-human_characters). > > Hokay. 🙂 Absolutely :D:) Off topic - but our rugby team is arguably the best team in the history of sport, Our explorer is probably the best there’s been - he certainly knocked the bastard off, And Mordor certainly wouldn’t be the same without Pete… ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/38 "2015-03-12T05:59:42Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > What they shouldn’t be doing is saying “we gave you aid and if you dare to punish our citizens in line with your legal system we’re going to punish you by withdrawing that aid”. I wouldn’t consider that a hard rule. If a foreign nation was planning on executing Australian citizens for being gay, or if the verdict was based on an unacceptably lax standard of evidence, then turning things into a diplomatic incident could be called for. _This_ is merely a dispute over sentencing, and Abbott should not be threatening our relationship with Indonesia for the sake of a pair of assholes whose business is getting people addicted to one of the most destructive recreational drugs out there. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/39 "2015-03-12T08:27:59Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > But take a look at rainbow warrior bombing and how the fuck yards that did it were subsequently treated. Dang! Whooshed you. 😃 The French agents Alain Marfart and Dominique Prieur were transferred from prison in New Zealand to the French Polynesia island of Hao. Subsequently there were a lot of jokes using the word How. In conversation you ask How? To which I reply “Its a French island in the Pacific but that’s not important right now…” A la the movie Airplane. You probably knew this but it has been a long time. Damned funny in a screwed-by-the-French way. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746/40 "2015-03-12T08:30:20Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > I assume Bengangmo is French and referring to the French Government sending Government agents to sink the Rainbow Warrior ship while it was moored in Auckland, New Zealand. > > The ship was run by Greenpeace and was intending to sail to disrupt French nuclear weapons tests to be held in the Pacific Ocean. The sinking resulted in the death by drowning of a Greenpeace photographer. > > The French agents were caught and the resulting scandal led to the resignation of a French Defence official. > > The agents were sentenced to 10 years after a plea bargain but the French Government released them after just two years in a unilateral breach of the agreed terms. > > This was back in 1985. > > I only provide this information in case anyone is confused by a story about an Australian politician on an American bulletin board suddenly references the actions of the French government in New Zealand. > > TCMF-2L Really?.. How [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australias-moron-pm-gets-more-moronic/714746.md?page=3)