Howard and Costellos' misuse of words.

For a while now it has been annoying me that the government [and others who should know better] continue to use misleading words to describe policy outcomes and political achievements.

For example the use of average yearly income that is $50,000 that of course takes into account every one from the very high income earners to the lowest.

The more accurate description is of the median income which is only $26,000. I can understand why you would want to give the higher amount it makes your policies appear fairer, there are less poor people. But that doesn’t make it right. There should be serious journalists taking the government to task.

Another one is the use of the word house-owners or householders, used when interest rates are being discussed. Higher interest rates will not affect householders per se, it is Mortgagees that are affected. A simple difference but one that implies all homeowners are affect when that is blatantly untrue.

If journalists and politicians want to be believed then they should widen their vocabulary to encompass the bigger picture instead of focusing on their narrow policy/journalistic views.

Lastly if I hear the Prime minister or Treasurer say one more time, that Telstra is government owned I'll throw a telephone book at them.

It is owned by us the people, the common people. It is part of our Common-Wealth. Unfortunately, either by stealth or accepting of policy, we have allowed this government to sell off the remaining 51%.

I did read somewhere that around 80% of the population are against the full sale of Telstra. But under this type of governance we only get 30 seconds of democracy every 3 years.

Woof.