Every now and then there’s a spike in traffic to an “aged” post, as there was recently to Moscow on the Molonglo. This means that somebody has referenced and hyperlinked it. In this case it is New Social Democrat, which is a pretty interesting site.
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Graph courtesy of Greg Jericho. The blue line shows real and projected Labor spending on higher education, the red line Coalition, sourced from budget papers.
The rhetoric of the Abbott government is big on freedom, and Joe Hockey’s homilies, drawing on the wisdom of “Margaret from Jangwarrin, Victoria” (a deserving pensioner, compared to Vilma of Kevin Rudd Land, who’s presumably been on cruises and is thus undeserving), are big on the need for individuals to lift themselves up, make their own choices, take responsibility and so on.
The contradictions of all this rhetoric in relation to free speech for Andrew Bolt haven’t taken long to unravel, of course. So too with the political strategy inherent in Joe Hockey’s budget.
Universities have been liberated by Christopher Pyne to set the level of fees they choose, and Doctors are free to continue bulk billing selected patients if they like, and the states are free to raise revenue from anywhere they like to fund education and hospitals.
