Libs off to a great start.

[Matilda]

We hear this week that Joe Hockey has raised our debt ceiling to half a trillion dollars. Not a peep from MSM or the shock jocks - imagine if Labor had done that!

Then, in the midst of one of the most severe bushfires seen in NSW, PM Abbott, who's become almost invisible since the election (expect to grovel at the feet of Prince Harry) denies that the unseasonable fires are a result of climate change and tells us that "bushfires are a way of life" in Australia. Not in October, they're not, Tony - do you think we don't know? Caused a bit of a stir on Twitter and Facebook, being the only media that will comment on good ol' Tone and his pronouncements.

But not to worry – Environment Minister Greg Hunt sprang to the PM's rescue. In an interview with the BBC – because the Australian media aren't up to the job – Hunt assured the host, Razia Iqbal, that according to Wikipaedia, Mr Abbott was quite right in what he said. Hunt was quite certain, because he looked it up himself.

Great - now the Libs are getting their background briefings from Wikipaedia. It all begins to make sense.

Wonder what they'll come up with next? Malcolm Turnbull inventing the Internet?

[Matilda]

1. Shall we talk about the expense-account rorting?

The Libs won't, that's for sure.

Some Labor pollies have been guilty of gilding the lily when it comes to travel entitlement claims, but fingers have been pointed only at one or two. The Libs, on the other hand, have taken it to an art form.

Don Randall is a household name by now, as the man who claimed $5,000 in travel expenses for him and his wife to fly from his electorate in W.A. to Cairns on "electoral business". Turned out he bought a block of land there. Two weeks after the story surfaced, we're told by Mr Abbott that he flew to Cairns for urgent discussions with the Coalition Whip. About what? That's a secret, says Abbott. Yeah, right.

Already a number of LNP ministers have repaid sums they claimed for attending various weddings, but the biggest rorter of all turns out to be good ol' Tone himself. A total of $50,000 to take his wife and one of his daughters to various race meetings around the country, flying by specially chartered aircraft. And the ugliest of all - charging the taxpayers when he takes part in his ironman competitions and charity cycling events. Every mile, every hotel bill, we have paid for. And he refuses to pay back one cent.

And to make it even uglier, this is the party that's hounded Peter Slipper for claiming $900 on cab fares to attend a wine-tasting. Of course Slipper shouldn't have claimed it, but unlike the Libs, they've refused to let him just pay it back, but instead have had the Federal Police charge him. The same Federal Police who won't even look at the charges that are being levelled against Abbott and his cronies.

Big silence from Bill Shorten (oh, how we need Albo right now!), but at last, a good article from the Hobart Mercury about the sense of entitlement of the LNP, and the partisanship of the AFP.

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/time-to-end-double-standard/story-fnj4f64i-1226747972553?sv=df01637c710f60e82a5d4c5363ca1997#.Um280N6xhlI.twitter

[CBHagman]

2. Oy, another politician who relies on Wikipedia.

Here in the States a junior senator has been plagiarizing passages out of Wikipedia during public appearances. That's pathetic as well as a reflection on the state of things, intellectually speaking, over here, but I must say using Wikipedia as a reference always disturbs me as well.

As for what comes next, strap yourselves in and hang on tight.

[Matilda]

3. What have they done this week?

Apart from not sending a senior minister to the UN Conference on Climte Change in Warsaw (such a good look), on the home front, The government announced today that 25% of CSIRO scientists would lose their jobs. But hey, we don't even have a dedicated Minister for Science, just a portfolio tacked on to a junior minister's roster, so what do we need with science?

We have seen subsidies for the superannuation of low-income earners axed so that the top earners can keep their low-taxed payments intact. And Labor's proposed laws against multinationals shifting money abroad to avoid tax will be scrapped. But this is the Murdoch/Rinehart government, after all.

They are also shamlelessly pandering to the bogans in the community, with their dubbing of asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants", which, by law, they are not, cheered on the archbogans themselves, Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, and Ray Hadley et al.

And a whole bevy of non-staturoy bodies are to be axed, including those on ageing, legal affairs, ethics, and animal welfare. There is no doubt that this is a government that in just two months is handing the country, on a platter, to wealthy corporations and industrialists.

But Abbott can't run forever, and neither can his ministers. They've delayed the 44th Parliament for as long as they could, but next week they have to front up. It isn't mandatory for the PM to always be present at Question Time, and there are no concrete rules for the time span of QT - I'd bet that Abbott will appear as little as he can get away with, and keep the time short. But most of his ministers are as poor at debate as he is - Turnbull is the only one who can give a good showing, in his best barrister form. And they'll be facing questions from an Opposition experienced at debate and good at it - Albanese, Plibersek, Bowen, Burke, and Shorten. Yep, I'm going to enjoy watching the torch being put to the bellies of these ugly people.