Snouts

CHILDREN

AUSTERITY IN EDUCATION

PROTECT INNOCENT CHILDREN FROM RELIGIOUS HOGWASH

EDUCATION EQUALITY

RELIGIONS, PEDOPHILES AND TAX

BAN SMOKING NOW

DRUG COMPANIES

ALCOHOL - START A TEMPERANCE GROUP IN YOUR COMMUNITY

SUGAR AND OBESITY

ALCOHOL AND GAMBLING LAWS IN A LOVING CARING SOCIETY

SUICIDE

AIR POLLUTION

OCEAN WARMING IS OUR GREATEST CHALLENGE

DON'T LET THEM WRECK YOUR ABC

NO MORE CAGED HENS

POLITICAL DONATIONS

STOP PRIVATISATION OF COMMUNAL ASSETS

DEFENCE OR OFFENCE

LABOR: THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

HELLO NEW LABOR - GOODBYE UNIONS?

CARTOONS BY SIR ROBERT GORDON

SUPERANNUATION AND DEBT

TAX HAVENS AND ETHICAL INVESTMENTS

THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AND OXFAM

TAX THE SUPER RICH AND ERADICATE POVERTY

THE FUTURE FUND AND COUNCILS

JOBS JOBS JOBS

CHILD EQUALITY AND JOBS

THE FUTURE OF WORK

THE PEOPLE'S FEDERAL BUDGET

REQUEST FOR PARDON

THE VISION FOR AUSTRALIA

A CALL TO ARMS

BRING ELITES TO HEEL IN UK AND AUSTRALIA

SUPER RICH?

YOUR IMMEDIATE PLAN - WIN. WIN. WIN.

BE A TRUE AUSSIE

SAVE YOUR PLANET

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

AND NOW, THE END IS NEAR?

OSSIFIED OR ON THE RAMPAGE?

BIOGRAPHY

Sir Robert Gordon

Robert was born in 1941 and grew up in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The family built a weatherboard house in the suburb of Thornbury with a large backyard and a veggie patch in 1940.

His father Joseph came out from England in 1925. As Catholics couldn't get work in Melbourne in the depression, Joe, his brother Bill and cousin Tom Clough, would ride their bikes on dirt roads to Mildura to pick fruit every year for George Heatherington.

No locals had a car or telephone in Thornbury in the forties. The iceman would bring a block of ice for the ice box. Hot water for the bath came from a wood-fired chip heater, and a wood fire under the copper boiled up the linen and clothes. Toilet paper was squares of newspaper. The nightman would collect the drums of sewerage with a horse-drawn cart.

Horses also delivered the bread, the milk, the library books, the ice and collected the garbage. There was an adequate supply of horse manure, much prized for the vegetable garden.

A billy can was left outside with money for the milkman. The three kids had a bath every Sunday night whether they needed or or not, in the same water.

In time the house was connected to sewerage, the ice box was replaced with a Silent Knight kerosene refrigerator and the chip heater replaced by a gas bath heater.

The public telephone was two blocks away and there was often a queue.

Collectors would call weekly for contributions to War Loans, and the mums would pay 3 pence or 6 pence. 

Sir Robert walked a mile to Wales Street Primary School. In winter there was ice on the puddles. The eucalypts and peppercorn trees had hundreds of big fat Emperor Gum Moth caterpillars and cocoons.

He joined 2nd Northcote Boy Scout cubs at 8 and left after 13 good years as an assistant scout master.

He topped science in form 4 (year 10) at Preston Technical School, age 15, and was offered a job at St Vincent's Hospital as a trainee pathologist, with two days a week off to study for a diploma and degree. Unfortunately he declined as he felt he wouldn't like looking at dead people.

He worked as a clerk and studied accountancy at night school, before switching to real estate at 17 years of age. 

In the sixties he started buying inner suburban houses on 100% finance, renovating and letting them. Property values soared, and in the mid-seventies he had 23 houses and shops and decided to try his hand at developing outer suburban housing estates. 

He also bought a half interest in a 9,106 acre grazing property near Robe in South Australia. Interest rates doubled in 4 months and property values plunged, forcing him to sell the houses to pay for mortgages on the land, wiping out his entire equity.  Those houses are now worth $50m.

He retired from real estate after 52 years in good standing and was a Mitchell Shire councillor for 9 years to 2009, giving his wage of $135,000 over 9 years to local groups. This included the provision of a 50 seat community bus.

His younger son Jake died of a heroin overdose in India in 2005, leading to depression, business losses and bankruptcy. 

As he has suffered enough, he opted to invoke his right to self-knight under natural justice, and urges others to follow suit, especially tenants, the 3m Aussies in poverty and the 2.56m workers who are unemployed or underemployed in our brave new neoliberal world.

There are many options from which to choose. Do you prefer Baroness, Baron, Lady, Lord, Duchess, Duke, Earl, HRH Queen Amanda, etc?

Sir Robert is a bankrupted pensioner, living from fortnight to fortnight, who owns no property. He is active in Labor and Green politics, the Australian Conservation Foundation and other environmental groups. He says he is as happy as he has ever been.

He believes that we are empowered to stop digging ourselves into a deeper hole. He implores us to pause prior to turning on a switch or starting a motor, and acknowledge that such action means extra misery to be burdened upon our children and grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren. He pleads with Australians and the people of the world emerge from the fog of gobble-gobble economics and rise to the challenge of maintaining the damaged remains of our tiny planet.

We can definitely transition to clean energy within a decade. Our politicians are waiting for you to tell them to do it.

INTRODUCTION

It's December 18th, 2016 at Melbourne Airport. The pre-Christmas rush. 

At the Tiger Air service desk a woman starts screaming, walking back and forth, weeping, mentions of the F word, sitting on the floor, I'm going to die - There's no compassion - We missed the train by 5 minutes - I can't do this. She mentioned the sum of $85.00.

Here we have an Australian citizen honestly and freely expressing her views about her predicament. She didn't hurt anyone. She didn't abuse anyone.

Here we have an Australian citizen who is clearly at her wits end, totally frustrated and devastated, with nowhere to go, except to weep and wail.

How would you feel? What would you do?

She appears to be an emotional person like a lot of us. So what? That's not a crime. After ten minutes a policeman and a policewoman arrived.

The woman was then heard to say into a mobile telephone I'm under arrest and Dad I can't do this any more. Under arrest for what? A victimless crime? Raising her voice? Is that a crime? 

When you finish reading this book you will be a politician in waiting. You will let people know that you want to get along with everyone. That everyone is entitled to their point of view. That you are a fighter for equality and justice, and you are never going away. You will keep meeting with and persuading those who you know are wrong.

The police were standing back while the woman was walking around and talking on the 'phone. Where was the victim of her great crimes? 

This is Business and globalisation in the 21st century. Screw, screw, screw.

The woman, her husband, and a 20 year old woman with a baby completed their group of four.

They missed their plane and Tiger Air had them over a barrel and demanded cash. What else could she do? Walk away and quietly slash her wrists? They planned this trip and paid for it out of their supposed meagre income.

$85.00 is a fortune if you don't have it. To the rich it's not even a petty cash item.

A man in his seventies gave the younger woman $100.00.

Five minutes later the police were seen walking away. They never had the woman in shackles. 

Put yourself in her position. She was unable to pluck a lazy $85 out of thin air at a moment's notice. Only the cost of a meal for two at a restaurant, but a fortune if you haven't got it. Many people can never go to a restaurant.

In the aboriginal culture everything is shared.

Many who strive for money and succeed, find it doesn't bring happiness, often quite the reverse, jealousy, disputes and family breakups.

The only value in money is the good it can be used for right now.

Fifty years ago a young man was seen in busy Swanston Street, Melbourne crouched down on his haunches saying Woof, Woof. He explained to the judge that he was distressed because his dog had just died. Judges must get to hear some extraordinary tales. The man got 3 months in jail. Where was the victim of his great crime? Dogs have more rights than we do. The police should have been fined for wrongful arrest.

Yes you are of course a free citizen in a democracy, but importantly you must never forget that you are not free to say woof. Law and order is a game between small police and small people.

With 3 million Australians in poverty, including almost one child in 5, over two and a half million WORKERS unemployed or underemployed, and real wages flatlining for a decade, most are very frugal with their meagre income.

I missed a train by a minute once and Qantas never demanded money to put me on the next flight.

In Spain I clearly ordered a bus ticket to Reus Airport, a half hour trip. The filthy swine at the bus station sold me a ticket to Barcelona Airport, a one hour trip.

I had paid €78, euros that is, to fly to London from Reus with Ryan Air.

Sensing their great power, and that I had no power, those bastards at Ryan Air extorted a further €100. I said it wasn't my fault, but they said it wasn't their fault either. Shit rolls downhill. The bastard at the top turns the whole food chain into a pack of bastards. 

These people just don't get it. 

It's a privilege to serve the people. There is no greater privilege.

There was a time when the customer was always right. When you stand in your valued customer's shoes and solve their problem with pride. Offering better service than your competitors.

Isn't it nice to help people running late and obviously stressed, as we all are when running late. Our basic humanity and Australianness. An opportunity to give a hand-up to a person in need, as opposed to gutter-dwelling greed. To help instead of hinder.

The old man who handed over $100 at Melbourne Airport was a pensioner who was bankrupted in a business failure. His assets - a car worth $4,500, $660 in the bank and $450 cash in hand. His liabilities - debt to a relative, $1,800.00.

He was emotional and happy. Indeed, studies show that when we give, we are happier than when we receive a present.

A man donated $20m to a university, million that is.

Someone paid off the lay-bys at a store to the tune of $62,000.

A man with two babies in an old pram at the Eye and Ear Hospital car park, who didn't appear to have the airs and trappings of the super-rich, was looking at the pay station in stunned silence. Another man paid his $25.00 fee - a greatly enhanced amount at that time.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a photographer on hand to snap him giving $5 to a homeless man sitting on the footpath, comforted by the fact that his stash of maybe $500,000,000 in the Cayman Islands is channelled anonymously through the likes of a Luxembourg hedge fund earning some 10% to 71% tax free every year.

Such a hard life. $50 million profit, minimum.  Every year. Tax free! Whee. What a man. What an example to all employees and small business owners. Let's make him prime minister for life. Our Malcolm. Up there with Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa. Leader of the most cruel, elitist, racist, bigoted, Christian hard right and climate-changing-denying lunatic Fascist government in the nation's history. I presume you required an accurate description.

Our heroes fought and died on the Kokoda Track and at Long Tan for this - the Australia we are looking at every day.

We can do better than this. We are better than this. Don't be turned off by politics - embrace politics. Join a party today. It's all we've got.

Small government and deregulation are code for let the 10% rob the 90% unfettered by any notion of justice, regulation or fairness.

Former prime minister Gough Whitlam got it wrong when he said: Let the user pay. In our fair-go country - Let's never forget our proud egalitarian roots and help the under-dog. Democracy demands that public goods are bought with taxes raised based on the ability to pay.

In our social contract we have given our government the monopoly on violence. This means that our government can take physical possession of your body. If it locks you up in Darwin, Manus Island, Nauru or anywhere, it has a solemn and inviolable duty to treat you with dignity and respect, and proudly make provision for your everyday needs including education, activities, entertainment, legal support and hope for your future.

The conservatives are deliberately running Hell Holes, contrary to UN laws, with untrained guards helpfully offering women more shower time in exchange for sexual favours. Wasting billions on profit-focussed contractors who have taken the jobs of professionally trained public servants. Look at the disgraceful child abuse at Don Dale Correctional Centre in Darwin. When will those thugs be charged? It is now 2017. When will we ever learn?

Whether you are rich or poor, when you read this book you will have graduated to be:-

....one of Aristotle's philosopher kings,

....a politician who aims to get along with everyone,

....an environmental warrior,

....respectful of our war dead,

....empowered to demand justice, and

....a true Aussie.

Be Strong. Be active. We will never surrender.

In the States a man was found walking around in a figure of eight wearing a sheet and chanting Yabbadabbado (or something). Friendly local police locked him up. For what? 

When the word got out to his mates, twenty of them appeared in sheets walking around in a figure of eight, etc. etc. The police released the man because it was a religion. 

Whether you are super-rich or further down the food chain at this time, this book will give you the key to happiness and the best possible environmental outcome, given that our planet has been trashed by 250 years of industrialisation.

This book will steel your resolve and empower you for the necessary political action. This book will introduce you to the death throes of laissez-faire capitalism and the introduction of social democratic capitalism, capitalism commanded by the votes of the citizens.

This book invites you to promote the Vision for Australia and the Citizens' 2017 Federal Budget.

There is no greater privilege than serving the people, and our politicians should earn our respect and be held in high regard. The two old parties have received their lowest votes ever, after prostituting themselves for their unworthy donors, the hotel and gambling lobby, coal and oil for example. 

Labor and Liberal are a disgrace: ultra conservative, constipated, reactionary and ossified; and everybody knows it.

In 1995, 550 people owned as much of the world's wealth as the poorer half of humanity. According to Oxfam it was 62 in 2016. Now in January 2017, they say it's 8. Very soon it will be two, and their kids will intermarry. It's simple arithmetic. 

The only time to stop this lunacy is now, with effective taxes only on the super-rich and tax relief for struggling families. Donald Trump suggested a one-off wealth tax of 14.5%. 

That should apply to all net wealth whether here or overseas, including trusts and foundations. There should be wealth and inheritance taxes aimed only at the super-rich, and the tax free threshold should be raised from $18,200 to $75,000 to help eradicate poverty. 

YES YOU CAN AND YES WE CAN

Dear Reader, in this book I hope to enthuse you and empower you to grab self confidence with both hands and never let it go.

Now there's an idea for you to consider. Clearly it is one of the options on the table right now.

And what is exactly the most powerful force in the world right now?

Good question.

And the answer?

AN IDEA AT ITS TIME.

And the best idea for you at this time and for all time?

TO SPREAD LOVE, JOY AND HAPPINESS, AND DEFEAT NEGATIVITY, DEPRESSION AND EVIL.

This is realistic and logical and can be your self talk for every day of your life.

The past is the past. Yesterday is ancient history.

The point is that today you are empowered to do good things, to help others and to lead by example. What a fabulous opportunity.

As we progress through life our wealth of knowledge keeps growing. We experience the joys and the miseries.

I was electrocuted and clinically dead in 1988. I was resuscitated by my 86 year old uncle. I see the world differently.

Money is not important and doing good things is most important.

My younger son, Jake died of a heroin overdose in India in 2005. I suffered depression for several years.

Whether you are rich or poor, you can pursue happiness right now and every minute of every day. Over the course of your life your financial fortunes may go up and down. It is possible for you to be happier than you have ever been before, even if you have lost everything.

Old people will tell you that life is so short. Every day you have the opportunity demonstrating your most valuable asset, your self confidence, and kicking depression out of your life.

Step up. Start a youth club and join a political party. Always have a project. 

Millions have died for the democratic rights we have today. Millions have had their lives ruined by war.

You can respect their sacrifice by acknowledging that the fight goes on.

After a war we don't relax in nirvana and dance in the daffodils all day.

We must fight for justice every day and defeat the forces of greed and evil.

One hundred years ago Australia had the highest standard of living on earth. There were tariffs which held up the price of locally produced goods and stopped cheap overseas imports.

A proud egalitarian tradition was established. Jack was as good as his master. Passengers sat in the front seat next to the taxi driver.

After 23 years of conservative rule, a Labor government was elected in 1972.

Two months later the Australian newspaper printed a letter from a Canberra gentleman helpfully advising us that he will not pay tax to feed other people's bastards.

What have we become?

Consider joining an environment group.

This planet is our life raft. It is now poisoned beyond repair by 250 years of industrialisation. Its soil, water and air. All by courtesy of one branch of primates.

Our best option is clearly to act urgently to save the bit that's left.

Money itself is worthless. It's only value is contained in the good things that can be done with it. And, of course, time is the essence.

It has been said that we get more pleasure out of giving than receiving.

If you are one of the lucky ones who is financially comfortable count your blessings, spread the joy, help others and pay your taxes with pride. The tax you pay, hopefully based on the ability to pay, is not a fine or penalty. When you pay tax you are purchasing public goods, the trains, roads, military and the justice and welfare services.

Support environment groups. Join or start a branch in your locality.

You are empowered and therefore we are empowered.

WHERE WE WERE

In Australia at this time we live in a plural, legal, rational, democratic society. We enjoy our rights and fight any injustices. There is unlikely to be a nirvana at any time soon, when multinationals give us $2,000 each and every day, and we can dance in the daffodils. 

All decisions are political and we all should be, indeed must be, involved in the process. We can't relax because our forebears fought the good fight in various wars, because there will always be greed and corruption.

During the Second World War, Changi Jail in Singapore was used for Allied prisoners of war. Every day they were marched to the waterfront to load supplies including beer onto ships for Tokyo. A lot of empty bottles turned up in Tokyo.

One day they were marched along a different route with men's heads on sticks at corners to instil fear and obedience. They were assembled in the city square, where a Japanese officer said: You Australia think Nippon know fuck nothing, but Nippon know fuck all. 

There is a theory that we all need a good laugh every day. The prisoners had a good laugh that day.

If they were caught taking stolen goods back to the camp, they would be killed. With all the fear-mongering they assumed they wouldn't be searched that day. One prisoner marched back with a pineapple between his thighs.

Thousands were sent to brutal camps including the Thai Burma Railway. At one camp six survived out of 2,000. When prisoners were singled out to go there, one chap offered to take the place of a sick one who was selected, in full knowledge that he was certain to die.

At another the prisoners had to carry bags of rice from the shore up the mountain. If you fell over a brutal guard would club you to death with the butt of his rifle, but a kind guard would shoot you.

The Australians weren't trusted and were locked in wooden cages like sardines. When you awoke you would check if the man in front of you had died overnight, and if so, take any small personal items. Then with difficulty you would roll over to see if the man behind had died.

The Australians were starved, and looked at the monkeys for guidance as to edible plants in the jungle. 

The British were trusted and worked in the kitchen. They delayed dog feeding time until after the Aussies returned from work. The slops were poured into a trough and you could be hanging onto one end of a bone with a hungry dog on the other.

1939-1945 Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix took time out from his important work of transferring pedophiles around Australia and the world, to fly to Canberra and arrange for the three Woodruff boys, of Woodruff's Dairy, Port Melbourne, to be excused from the inconvenience of attending World War Two.

They were needed in Australia to continue their important work of making money by selling cows' milk to babies and donating to the church.

Cows' milk has 700% more salt than human milk. After a year or so those babies are a different type of animal. They have different bacteria in their gut, they are fatter and slower than those on mothers' milk.

1956 Dad's and Lads Night at 2nd Northcote Boy Scouts, Thornbury.

Dads and their 15 year old lads were helpfully told that women can become emotional and should be slapped hard on the face once. This was apparently accepted without question, as no comments were made.

1957 A top Victorian police officer was interviewed on radio and explained that the biggest problem with women who are raped was the black pleasure they experienced. This appeared to be the belief of all police, who were all male.

This was not questioned. There was no talk back radio or controversy in the press. 

1973 Truth in Advertising legislation:

Attorney General Lionel Murphy said religions should be excused from complying with truth in advertising because mainstream churches would have to prove their dogma.

Not so in my humble opinion. In our legal rational democracy, why should any group be exempted from our communal laws? Laws that only exist because the democratic process found them to be widely beneficial and necessary. It is a confession from those seeking exemption of their intention to mislead the masses to gain power and money.

Their messages could be worded....

Calathumpians believe that God said that only Calathumpians go to heaven.

Instead of......

God said that only ............

In any case very few really believes these days, if they ever did.

As decent honest members of our modern democracy, religions should WANT to obey all laws and pay their taxes like anyone else. Any thief or lunatic can say God told her blah, blah, blah and set up a cult.

Some decades ago there was a plethora of convicted murderers who claimed to have found God, as the main thrust of their bid for freedom from incarceration.

Church groups in the UK and Australia are social groups, and no-one takes the ancient dogma seriously.

This is openly acknowledged. A vicar in the UK said on radio 50 years ago that the Christian rules for living are accepted without people taking the bible literally.

A priest in Brisbane said more recently that Catholics have been permitted not to take the bible literally for 40 years.

Why are these people, who acknowledge it's all fiction from the bad old days of ignorance, allowed to keep ramming it down the throats of innocent children, the less educated and intelligent?

And at taxpayers' expense!

Aren't children entitled to protection, say until the age of 18, from this toxic divisive crap?

The rules for religions are not much different from the laws of countries on earth. Murder and theft are widely discouraged, unless of course the victims are members of a group out of favour with the writers of the bible.

The bible is one of many important historical books. It is also ludicrous, violent, homophobic and the basis of political power. On many occasions innocent citizens had the choice of believing or being killed.

As Professor Richard Dawkins says in The God Delusion, anyone who believes that there is a big fairy in the sky who gives two hoots as to whether they are being good or bad, is barking mad. Yes mates, barking mad.

1980s Western Sydney police shooting:

...... Camillieri, a 16 year old lad, was sitting in a car when he was shot dead by a plain clothed policeman.

The killer was charged and found innocent of all wrong-doing.

A police inspector helpfully told us on TV that this is a message from the Courts to all criminals that no crime will be tolerated. 

A chilling moment in the nation's history. Are we living in a Police State? Did Hitler win WW2?

What sort of country are we? What have we become? What does this say to all those who have fought and suffered in wars, including the 102,000 who were killed, in the defence our nation?

After the outrageous murder of two young policemen in South Yarra, Victoria, there were 11 suspected police murders. When one killing was announced, Richard Ackland, a solicitor and ABC breakfast announcer, said : They're on the rampage, (the police that is, those public servants to whom we have entrusted the monopoly of violence and a duty of care to every Australian).

An aboriginal man was beaten to death by a policeman on Palm Island. A 

female prosecutor flew up from Brisbane and had dinner and wine at the policeman's house. He was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing of course.

Two monsters cooked an aboriginal father of four, Mr Ward, to death for six hours in 50 degree heat in a van in the WA desert without water or toilet stops, all over an alleged traffic offence.

They claimed to be remorseful. 

One was a woman, Nina Mary Stokoe, who said she thinks of the victim every day. The magistrate, who fined her $11,000, said she was most sorry about the effect on her own life, and that her excuse that as a woman, she couldn't speak to an aboriginal elder for cultural reasons, was unsupported and an insult to the court.

The driver, Graham Powell, was fined $9,000. Corrective Services were fined $285,000, which is a joke as it's paid by the WA government to itself. The contracted company, G4S, was fined a similar amount. They all know they are guilty of deliberately causing the death of an innocent person. They knowingly denied him stops for toilet and water - in 50 degree heat for 6 hours. Their treatment of this father of four is part of their culture. Another day at work. Lucky to have jobs. Counting their defined benefits. Retire with a million, stolen from low and middle income earners.

The Department of Commerce director said the amount of exposure will ensure that this doesn't happen again, and that it raises awareness of workplace safety. ALL WEASEL WORDS TO HIDE THE FACT THAT THE WORLD'S MOST RED-NECK GOVERNMENT HAS DELIBERATELY FAILED TO CHARGE THESE MONSTERS WITH MURDER.

Recklessly causing death is murder. They must be charged and punished.

The conservative WA government bought off the widow with $3.25 million, which appears to be a bribe. I wonder if they got her written or verbal assurance that she would not press charges. Low level charges were instituted against the two monsters after 3 years.

BRUTAL COPS AND PRISON OFFICERS IN THE OUTBACK SHOULD BE