It's not a big stick approach. The fact that I happen to be holding a whopping great bit of four'be'two is entirely coincidental. Honest.

Pardon me while I get up on my freakin' high horse and spew forth my justified bile about this fucked up government.

You'll have to take my word for it, but when I was writing yesterday's post, I took out a comment about the way that Howard's wilful blindness to the obvious potential to offend of the conduct of a minority of people at Galipolli because he "didn't see it" would never translate into a more nuanced approach to say, "welfare cheats".


I heard that idiot Peter Dutton, the Minister for Workforce Participation ( and I'm eagerly awaiting the Minister for Aromatherapy Massage, btw) on the radio this morning:


ALEXANDRA KIRK: When you say some people, how many people do you think?

PETER DUTTON: It's hard to quantify. But the…

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Five per cent? Ten per cent?

PETER DUTTON: The anecdotal evidence as I've moved around the country talking to job network members who have been involved in the system as far back as the early days of the CES, its… you know, you get estimations of between 10 and 25 per cent, so we're not talking about insignificant numbers, but it also needs to be kept in perspective as well.


As we are all aware, the Howard government has a particular gift of perspective. The media helps them, of course:

The Government says that as many as 25 per cent of the nation's long-term unemployed may be "ripping off" the system ...

Up to a quarter, hey? We can see what you're fucking up to.