Headlines Monday 5th May

Extinction looms on power
Piers Akerman
It’s almost as if state Labor’s atrocious behaviour on the other 363 days of the year counted for nothing. Who do those registering mock shock think they are kidding?

Though those who did not attend the ritual glimpsed only the tip of the proverbial in the grabs deemed fit for public viewing, there is a plethora of examples of the NSW Labor Government’s day-to-day practices which demonstrate a clear pattern of disregard for governance principles and an abuse of management practices.

To take, for instance, just a few cases, consider the corrupt behaviour of Labor Party insiders caught in bed with developers in the Wollongong Council debacle, the unconscionable treatment of the political staffer to former Aboriginal affairs minister Milton Orkopoulos who first raised the alarm about the convicted paedophile, Planning Minister Frank Sartor’s ugly planning power grab, or the sacking of the chairman of the state-owned electricity network (TransGrid) Philip Higginson for refusing to support the nomination of an ALP and trade union-endorsed candidate to the energy industries superannuation board.

As it happens, I believe the state’s electricity generation resources should have been privatised decades ago, and further, in the interests of security of power, that provision should have been made for the construction of nuclear power generation, not because I am particularly concerned about the claimed greenhouse effects of coal-burning power stations on the climate, but because nuclear waste is more containable and less polluting than carbon-based fuel.

The obvious division displayed at the ALP conference highlighted Labor’s growing dilemma over the decline of its traditional trade union base.

No matter how many choruses of Solidarity Forever the True Believers may sing as they weep nostalgically into their pinot gris, or how much they treasure their MUA Is Here To Stay T-shirts, the trade union movement has little relevance today outside the ALP.
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Shot kangaroos worry people more than shot Tibetans
Andrew Bolt
Adidas isn’t sorry it’s sponsoring an Olympic Games held in a country that abuses human rights
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Rudd the risk-averse
Andrew Bolt
One of Time‘s most influential leaders in the world uses his world-class influence to fix the brawl over electricity privatisation that’s tearning NSW Labor apart
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Cash for kidneys? Doctor demands commercial kidney donation
A leading Canberra doctor says healthy Australians should be allowed to sell their organs to those waiting for transplant operations.
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Minister's reputation rides on standing up to Woolies
If the young Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Chris Bowen, can stand up to Coles and Woolworths he may prove himself a future leader. If he can't he's just another political hack, according to Alan Jones.
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RailCorp funds used like 'personal ATM'
Corrupt workers treated NSW's RailCorp like "a personal ATM", an ICAC inquiry into alleged fraud by railway staff has been told.
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Inflation cancer has to be fought aggressively: Swan
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has likened the present rate of inflation as a cancer eating away at the nation's prosperity.
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Man wrecks father's rare Ferrari
A Melbourne man will have to go without pocket money and dessert for the rest of his life after wrecking his dad's prize Ferrari.
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Brave five-year-old rescues family
A boy, 5, stayed calm and untied his parents and brother after a terrifying home invastion by a gun-toting masked man in Melbourne's outer northern suburbs.
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Inflation growing at record rate
Inflation is growing at its fastest rate on record as petrol prices reach new heights and economists say an interest rate cut by Christmas is now looking less likely.
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Nine approves new Underbelly series
Iemma accused of exaggerating need for power sale
Car crashes through petrol station into apartment
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ABC’s favourite Australians line up Left
Andrew Bolt
Vote in the ABC’s online ”My Favourite Australian” poll for the person whose portrait you’d love to see hang in the National Portrait Gallery. And to help you choose, the ABC suggests these serving politicians
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Handing the mic to your mates
Andrew Bolt
Tim Blair discovers that four kids standing in a car park is enough of a protest to attract massive covereage from the New York Times. You can guess the cause that elevates the petty to national significance, at least to journalists of a certain hectoring disposition.
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We have ways to make you healthy
Andrew Bolt
Do you sense a new puritan mindset at work, using the state’s coercive power to “improve” you?
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Crawling to China
Andrew Bolt
Rowan Callick says a booming China will force us to consider how we best deal with this new superpower - but toadying isn’t the answer
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Spin confirmed: “Working families” includes workless singles
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd has said thousands of times he wants to look after “working families”. But what does that classic Rudd spin mean?
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Go those green gases
Andrew Bolt
Leading climate scientist Roy Spencer says slashing carbon dioxide emissions may be just what we don’t need
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ABC unleashes the crazies
Andrew Bolt
The ABC brings you another essay, this time blaming the US for the 3000 who died in the September 11 attacks
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Sub-premium service
Andrew Bolt
For months I’ve been getting junk text messages sent to my mobile phone - motivational sayings that I don’t need, don’t want and never asked for.

Only today have I found that I’ve actually been paying $2 a pop for them, and that to stop getting them I have to ring a complaint number and give some code from my bill. The company that was actually billing me, Opera Telecom, claims it was just the gobetween. After more calls, I found I might get a refund if I send a Canadian company, Burnitmobile, all my phone bills for the past six months. No doubt they are hoping I conclude it’s all too hard.

I feel like the victim of theft. Has any blog reader been stung like this?