Comments on: Rudd’s brilliant disaster diversion from China donations scandal

By: Bohemian

Bohemian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Looks like Kevin Rudd got his stimulus package before the last election Stephen.

By: Anthony Dale

Anthony Dale — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A good piece which I have only got yo a couple of days late!

By: Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

None of our parties should have egg on their face over this political gifting gig. With the inner circle of world investors queued for a piece of national pie fund-raising should be a piece of p*ss. For a gold coin donation the multi-cultural populace turns up to a series of star-studded conventions (glitzed up community cabinets) to nut out how us and them run the country. Aussies will support any event where there’s food fun and mateship and that’s where our sponsors come in. They televise and cater for ‘politics unplugged and down under’ plastering their logos around stadiums and show grounds, handing out sample bags of their products. Royalties for tobacco, pokies, grog etc roll in and tourism sky-rockets with prizes like win a trip to Macau, tour a UK brothel or just hang around the McGauran property for a week. Instead of looking like splinter groups of some Mesopotamia extremist movement our political parties could do it a lot smarter.

By: Greg Angelo

Greg Angelo — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

What else would you expect from Kevin Rudd who is taking over the mantle of “media tart” from the former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. Perhaps it runs in the blood in Queensland. Spin doctoring is the order of the day in politics, and lazy journalists just lap it up.

Why would one be surprised with the Labor Party profiting from gaming machines? With a long traditions of corruption involving branch stacking, shady underworld relationships including one ex-judge, and pig farms, Labor has a long tradition of dealing with the shady side of the street. Unfortunately the Liberal party is no better in each shady relationships. Perhaps setting up a chain of brothels could be more open and transparent as prostitution is not that different from politics.

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Keep going Stephen. The fact the NSW ALP got a similarly large donation from Ho, and Rudd was too worried to accept it suggests an attempt at favours for foreigners and an attempt to subvert our domestic democracy. The USA has banned such donations for good reason.

Personally I would say the timing of Rudd's package has as much to do with the start of parliament and a new narrative as per the Monthly story, but the smothering of the Ho story surely was a bonus. And Ho may or may not be the principal behind the donation to the ALP - who really knows there in the dictatorship of DRC.

Senator Faulkner sounded particularly lame last night saying he has a Bill before parliament to ban such donations. Horse bolts. Gate closes.

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Sundry Labor snouts in a trough feeding frenzy filled by the Black Widow big business gambling parasites who feed Labor titbits for favours from their governments.

By: You Beaut

You Beaut — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

“Chinafile”? Eh? Do you mean “sinophile”?

By: David

David — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

How much kick back from the Libs did you get Stephen to write that load of fertiliser? You are joking? Rudd using the economic package to hide the profits from pokies in Canberra, go to the corner and dont move or talk for the rest of the day, idiot.

By: Anthony Dale

Anthony Dale — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A good piece which I have only got yo a couple of days late!

By: MikeR

MikeR — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The Government's stimulus package was promulgated to get people spending money. The fact that some may have chosen to put their payment into slot machines is irrelevant; the money was spent and the wheels of the economy have turned as a result. BTW has no one considered that spending may have increased in December because it is the holiday season and many folk "luv" the pokies?

Stephen, by all means criticise the package for paying $80M to overseas pensioners etc, they are most unlikely to spend the money in Australia! Independently criticise pokies, if that's what you want to do, but it does seem to be an elitist sport; but to tie the stimulus package, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and the Canberra Labour Club together is a conspiracy theory worthy of the neo conservatives in the Liberal Party, who will no doubt lap it up!

By: Anthony Dale

Anthony Dale — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A good piece which I have only got yo a couple of days late!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Stephen, do you seriously expect us to believe that Rudd unveiled a stimulus package to "cover up" a report on political donations. These things can so easily be sidestepped (ie look at what the other side got) and then moved on from. That is even when the lazy media reports it. Yet in your mind Rudd cooked up a financial crisis to divert media attention from this story.

Good grief. The words "long bow" come to mind!

As for the rest of your story - usual Mayne. Hyperbole and ignorance.

By: Edward James

Edward James — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Stephen , while I have the greatest respect for you, and have on occasion relied on Crikey.com in the days before it was on sold , to stick my neck out just like you. I am struggling with these numbers of yours. Total Commonwealth revenue was originally predicted to rise from $319 billion in 2008-09 to $367 billion in 2011-12. That’s a total of $1.372 trillion. Take $115 billion off that and you get $1.257 billion — a modest drop of just 8%.
When I subtract 115 billion from 1.372 trillion I expect to have a bit more than 1.370 trillion and change. left over. As Forrest Gump would say. The difference is somewhat more than the price of a box of chocolates. I listened to the grim reaper and clock owner remind us last night that he created the “four pillars” I picked up somewhere on information which allowed me to understand these four main banks had exposure to paper “assets” in the order of several trillions of dollars. I have asked Crikey’s experienced and knowledgeable contributors to help me understand why when there is possibly over five thousand trillion dollars in dodgy paper out there world wide and governments are committing taxpayers potential money to pay still more billions to prop up shonky derivatives which have already sucked more than enough of our collective capacity to pay. It is not possible to stimulate a multi trillions dollar collapse of dodgy brothers credit with forty two billons of dollars. Being nice and not encouraging a panic run on the bankrupt banks, seems to be ignoring the cost of the international credit abuse. Which will belong to the paye wage earners of the world eventually.