Nicholas Cowdery slams Rees government on Ferguson amendment

Nicholas Cowdery, the NSW Director Public Prosecutions, has criticised the Rees Labor Government's amendment to the Housing Act for the sole purpose of evicting Dennis Ferguson from public housing.

Addressing Politics in the Pub last Friday on the topic of "Police Powers Out of Control", Mr Cowdery decried what he called "an appeal to populism" and "quick political point-scoring by appealing to the lowest common denominator" in "the mindless belief that this will solve social problems".

Mr Cowdery reminded the audience of a history of similar single-target populist attempts by NSW Labor, including the legislation to extend the detention of Gregory Wayne Kable, later struck down by the High Court, and the more recent Bikie Legislation.

Mr Cowdery called for a national charter of human rights to counter short-sighted government erosion of civil rights.

OK, enough with this desperate attempt to sound like a cadet reporter with the SMH, and back to DH-ese.

What most shocked DH in Mr Cowdery's presentation was his revelation on the legislative precursor to Hitler's horrific "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". HItler's justification for his anti-jewish legislation was that he was forced to apply a legislative solution to hose down vigilantism in the community provoked by the presence of Jews, failing which, "a final solution" would need to be applied. Now there's a slippery legislative slope to hell!

Maybe those young whippersnappers, Nathan Rees and David Borger, (purportedly Leftists yet!!!) should learn some history! Generation X politicians are such a disappointment to DH. They seem to have entirely forgotten the terrible history of the early 20th century...

Why are they allowing the Daily Telegraph to dictate legislation?

All these pieces of legislation have achieved bugger-all beyond eroding the civil liberties of future generations. Makes yer heart bleed, dunnit?!

Gittins' slur on age pensioners in public housing

[DH posted the following foaming diatribe to the SMH in response to a remarkably badly pitched and divisive article by Ross Gittins, Jobless fall by the wayside in crusade to harness grey power. Gittins intention was admirable enough. He wanted to lambast Federal Labor for its crocodile tears at the $7.50 rent hike imposed by NSW Labor on the $30 aged pension increase. He was quite right to denounce Jenny Macklin's arrant populism and hypocrisy, when Federal Labor has thrown unemployed people to the wolves. But was it really necessary to paint aged pensioners, especially those silvertail pensioners who live in public housing (!) as greedy and powerful, and add more fuel to populist flames?]

DH wrote (and has now polished):

Normally I'm an admirer of yours, Ross, but how on earth did you become a mouthpiece for the "divide and rule" game, especially when you're not even a member of the ruling class? Why are you sooling the lowest classes, read, the welfare class, to fight amongst themselves like so many desperate gladiators, while the truly wealthy get off scot free?

It's not the greed of pensioners that keeps Newstart at its outrageously low level. $30 is still a pittance. If you must point the finger at the parasites that are fleecing this country, couldn't you start with a plumper, more juicy bunch of bandidos, like bankers or real estate agents or land speculators or something?

You've got a point about Federal Labor though. I'm not an aged pensioner, by the way, but stuck on a barely subsistence level of Newstart, despite being highly qualified and applying for hundreds of jobs, and absolutely outraged at being abandoned by the likes of my local member, Tanya Plibersek, who I used to think so highly of, and whose election I worked towards. Now call this a cliche, but still I'd like to see my former heroine try to live off $130 a week. Not that I don't like Tanya personally, but the class struggle is the class struggle, and we're no longer on the same side.

Going after politicians is fair game, but you won't hear me begrudging pensioners their lousy $30 a week, or pitting those "silvertails" who you reckon live in public housing against the poor beggars living in private rental. It's not housos who caused their plight but greedy speculators and gutless governments who didn't and won't legislate to protect Australian citizen's right to decent, secure and affordable rental housing.