News Corp is in full cry against Q&A questioner Duncan Storrar — principally because Q&A panelist Kelly O’Dwyer made a goose of herself in responding to his question, blathering on about $6000 toasters — industrial-strength, as it turns out, but the sort of thing the public will imagine Malcolm Turnbull keeps in his “harbourside mansion”.
This gaffe added to the perception that the Coalition was just a liiiiiitle out of touch, and so the flying squad scrambled, finding a few disturbing episodes from Storrar’s past. The implicit proposition appears to be that people with a few demerit points racked up don’t get to have an opinion. Well maybe, but if so is Caroline Overington really the person to be leading the charge in The Australian?
The never-boring Overington’s career hit a speed bump a few years back, when a complex entanglement with would-be MP George Newhouse ended with Overington either slapping or shoving around the diminutive Newhouse at a polling station. Now, after a stint at the Australian Women’s Weekly, she’s back. Apparently journos are allowed a few more strikes than people like Storrar, who get targeted when the right is too incompetent to score any points against the actual opposition.
Why is the Australian government subsidising the installation of solar panels for homeowners so they can receive cheaper power bills, but not allowing any subsidy for solar panels if they are installed by low income earners living in state-owned housing? The same low income earners, who want to install solar panels, are currently receiving subsidies for power costs on their utility bills as well as HUGS (hardship utility grant scheme) payments of up to $500 per year towards the utility bills they can’t pay – and this is funded by the taxpayers.
Wouldn’t it be much cheaper across the board for government-owned housing to be solar powered? And, if long-term government-housing residents want to pay for the installation of solar panels to save themselves (and taxpayers) thousands in utility bills – why can’t they receive the same rebates on the installation as homeowners?
I guess for similar reasons that Murdoch’s myrmidons deem that the Duncans of this world aren’t entitled to opinions. They can’t think, or have concerns on environmental issues, amongst others. They are ‘welfare recipients’; tagged and bagged.