Crikey readers had a huge weekend in the comments section. First there was a great deal of rallying against the environmental mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin (and of the country at large), with readers pointing the finger squarely at a certain National MP. Elsewhere, former MUP CEO Louise Adler got some further support following last week’s board resignation stoush, and readers went in to bat against multinational tax rorts, responding to an article by Wayne Swan.
On the Murray-Darling rort
Marcus Hicks writes: It goes even deeper than a bog standard rort. Barnaby admitted that he dealt with water allocations in a way he knew would piss off “the greenies”.
Peter Wileman writes: When Barnaby’s fingerprints are on it, it’s dodgy or inept. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and allow that he is, and always has been a useless, self serving bludger. The reef, the river and the country have all suffered greatly under the rule of representatives of my generation. I can only apologise to younger Australians, but I wonder that they are not marching on Canberra.
David Howe writes: Not only has the commons been plundered for profit but those profits have been enhanced by generous government handouts, effectively doubling the cost to the state.
On the ongoing MUP board scandal
Jackie French, AM writes: Louise Adler and her board have added enormously to Australian intellectual debate and cultural richness. Publishing a commercially successful book means the publishing house can afford to bring out more academic or niche texts, not fewer. MUP have done so. May I suggest that those academics who cannot see this do Logic 101 so they can recognise a fallacious argument? Or possibly Ethics 101 if they know that their argument is fallacious but use it to substantiate an entirely different agenda of power and censorship.
We are all the poorer for the loss of what had been a superb publishing board.
Note: I have never been published by MUP, nor by Louise Adler. My publishers’ books compete with hers. But a rich, diverse and enticing literary scene benefits every publishing house and author.
On the need for multinational tax overhaul
Judy Harden-Holden writes: For years inequality of outcomes has stared us in the face as the basis for the growing tsunami of global problems: environmental, social, economic. To have Wayne Swan strongly identify inequality as the main driver of these problems is a step in the right direction. Sustainability was supposed to be about economic, social and environmental outcomes (in that order I fear). Economic outcomes always trumped the other two.
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I do not understand how country people can be so dumb ,the national party pollies are absolute jokes and the country people vote for them election after election ,dumb ,Barnaby has failed year after year ,cheated year after year ,lied year after year ,dumb country people i do not understand…………
Some say the NP has some unfinished work after the Murray Darling Basin; …the Great Barrier Reef.
Will Joyce ever answer for his environmental mismanagement? OF COURSE NOT!
What I find difficult to understand about why the Rootbeater is still at large in that he didn’t just admit that he’d encourage water theft, he boasted about it and why, “to piss of greenies”.
It is open & shut – his mouth wide open ought to shut him away for malfeasance in public office which attracts a higher penalty that commercial corruption.
There must be a royal commission into federal politics in if the allegations that Joyce facilitated $100,000,000 in corrupt water sales to his rich cotton farming mates and the scope of the donations he has allegedly received from Gina Rinehart are proven true, then criminal charges must be considered, the stories of broken water meters allowing untold amounts of illegal water being pumped into wealthy property owners and land being built up to stop normal and flood flows to other smaller adjoining properties must also be investigated, the rotten stench from this government and particularly from the national party must be eradicated ASAP to restore some faith in our political system before we become another totally corrupted and rotten state like the U.S
There must be a royal commission into federal politics if the allegations that Joyce facilitated $100,000,000 in corrupt water sales to his rich cotton farming mates and the scope of the donations he has allegedly received from Gina Rinehart are proven true, then criminal charges must be considered, the stories of broken water meters allowing untold amounts of illegal water being pumped into wealthy property owners and land being built up to stop normal and flood flows to other smaller adjoining properties must also be investigated, the rotten stench from this government and particularly from the national party must be eradicated ASAP to restore some faith in our political system before we become another totally corrupted and rotten state like the U.S