Jeff Kennett

Tasmania. Yes, it’s real. It’s “rat shit” and it should be merged into a super-state comprising of the island state, Victoria and South Australia.

Beautiful Tassie. Picture: Tourism Australia

That’s what former VIC premier Jeff Kennett told an audience of Tassie locals at a debate last night. Read about it on news.com.au. The ABC’s AM program reported that his rat droppings rhetoric and state-abolishing proposal were well-received by the audience.

Probably because Kennett delivered some hardarse common sense about what Van Diemen’s land needs to do to get booming. And also because there are a number of things for Tassie residents to be glum about, on the face of it at least. Like the tumours on the faces of the Tassie devil which are exterminating the island’s mascot.

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    09:46am | 16/12/12

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  • Craig says:

    05:44am | 21/07/12

    If Tasmania merged with Victoria, who would Victorians & South Australians have left to look down at? NSW would be OK because they’d look down on the combined Mexicans, just as they do now. WA would keep looking down on all ‘easterners’, and Queenslanders would keep looking down on everyone… Read more »

 

It is a good thing Jeff Kennett hasn’t decided to help stamp out smoking.

All class: Jeff unwinds playing some Snap at Crown. Photo: The Australian

If so he could have sought a board position with a major tobacco company so he could change the business from within. Alternatively the former Victorian premier could have been working towards world peace by sitting on the board of British Aerospace or Lockheed Martin, helping to sell intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Instead, Jeff Kennett has decided to do his bit to end the nexus between mental illness and gambling by running a casino.

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  • Thinking Feeling says:

    12:13pm | 04/06/12

    You really can’t be serious with these observations. Read more »

  • prosperity says:

    11:19am | 04/06/12

    willie:  C’mon, we’ve had continuous war for the last sixty years using fighter planes, missiles and all the other new technologically advanced machines of war, including most lately, drones.  Collectively, they have killed millions.  Who do you think made them? The fairies? Read more »

 

While Jeff Kennett’s work in helping to found beyondblue, the National Depression Initiative, is to be commended, it’s now apparent he has lost his way and it’s time to resign as Chair.

Trust me, you'll be a lot less depressed if you put all your chips on 17 black. Pic: Vince Calati.

First there was the unfortunate incident with the homophobic comments about gay and lesbian parents and the mental health of their children. Let me remind you what he so publicly communicated via an opinion piece in The Herald Sun:

“There is no substitute for parents of both genders. Happy heterosexual marriages are the best environment for the mental health of children.”

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  • Tony Nicholas says:

    04:16pm | 04/06/12

    Well, Greg, if you think kids in the school yard won’t accept a kid with two daddies as normal, where are they getting that idea from then? Ponder that thought.. Read more »

  • Greg in Chengdu says:

    10:34am | 03/06/12

    How often does the average Australian go to a casino? or the average depressed gambling addict? I think you would be much better focussing your attacks on the pokie venues that are dotted around the country in almost evry town. RSL’s and sporting clubs for instance are also supposed to… Read more »

 

TGIF, right? The weekend, of course, plays a huge role in our collective consciousness.

Your dinner probably costs more than the waiter's nightly pay…

Rebecca Black doesn’t feel any need to get down on Tuesday. Rappers don’t name their Rollerskating Jams ‘Thursdays’.

Yet, recently we’re being lectured by those at the top of society’s payroll that we should start treating weekends just like any other days of the week. Suddenly, it seems like everyone who’s ever looked out a high-rise office window with a scotch in hand is against paying workers more on Saturdays and Sundays.

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  • marley says:

    12:33pm | 21/02/12

    @PsychoHyena - the US, Canada and the UK are using communist strategies?  Who knew? Actually, the communist system paid everyone their version of a “living wage,”  whether the work was worth it or not.  That’s why 450 people working on a collective farm had about the same productivity as my… Read more »

  • PsychoHyena says:

    06:16pm | 20/02/12

    @marley I find it interesting that as a capitalist (I’ve seen you claim this before) that you are pointing to countries that are using communist strategies in regards to wages. Hire lots of people, pay them a pittance for their time, have a major gap between the wealthy and the… Read more »

 

When Hawthorn looked like crashing out of the finals, former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett came to the rescue.

Bloody Jeff: Kennett's spray lifted his club. Photo: Alex Coppel

Kennett, the Hawks’ president, didn’t flinch when he gave the Hawks players and coach Alastair Clarkson a giant kick up the butt last week. His strong criticism gave the media plenty to fuel in the lead-up to the Hawks’ do-or-die match against Melbourne.

Captain Sam Mitchell defended his Hawks teammates and an “outcoached”  Clarkson after their pitiful loss to the Sydney Swans, while former Hawk star Shane Crawford hit out at Kennett.

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  • Brendan says:

    12:30pm | 19/08/10

    Jeff only stuck the boots into Hawthorn because he saw how Brett Ratten’s spray got Carlton fired up the previous week. However, where the players might react positively to their own coach privately and publicly slagging them off, a public spray from an outspoken politician turned president, with limited afl… Read more »

  • Peter says:

    10:39am | 17/08/10

    Your dreaming… Read more »

 

Channel Nine’s decision yesterday to cave in to the bullying of the Victorian Government and Beyond Blue is deeply depressing. No doubt the network could see it was in a lose-lose situation.

60 Minutes has been silenced on a very important issue

Even if it were to win in the courts and have the injunction lifted which prevented it from broadcasting a 60 Minutes piece on the suicides of four teenagers in Geelong, it would be forever hostage to the accusation it had blood on its hands if any others from the school were to take the final solution.

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  • Concerned says:

    08:44pm | 20/08/12

    I would be interested to know exactly how many of these young people are on medication or taking drugs like marijuana and their drug history prior to taking their own lives or attempting. We should have mandatory toxicology tests for those who take their lives to see if there is… Read more »

  • Debbie says:

    12:08pm | 20/08/12

    I’m so sorry this happened to you. I can’t imagine the grief of losing one’s child tied up with the whole array of complicated feelings that are left to those whose loved ones take their own life. I agree with you that these parents should be allowed to grieve without… Read more »

 

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