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Rudd tries to ignore the age of discontent
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says he could not live on the single aged pension rate of $546.80 a fortnight. So, too, do Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner.
That payment will be adjusted for inflation on September 20 but the Rudd Labor Government has no plans to deliver any additional assistance until _ wait for it _ the results of not one, but two reviews.
The first review, by Family and Community Services Department secretary Jeff Harmer is due in February but _ wait for it again _ its results will be passed on to the sweeping review of the tax system being conducted by Treasury secretary Ken Henry which is not due to report until the end of 2009.
Whatever happened to the Rudd of last year’s election campaign, the ``I share your pain’’ campaigner who courted every group with a real or imaginary gripe about the Howard government and promised a better, brighter future?
Whatever happened to the Rudd who promised to end the blame game, bring about a new partnership between the federal and state governments, and take the necessary tough decisions?
The reality is that Australian voters find themselves even more marginalised as the Rudd Government retreats behind its ever-enlarging wall of reviews and commissions, and the blame game has been extended by the Rudd ministry’s capture of public servants like the Treasury secretary.
Under Howard, and under former treasurer Peter Costello, there was a proper and formal distancing of Treasury officials like Ken Henry from the political process.
Henry was not a regular performer at Costello’s press conferences, he was present at a number of media conferences but he was sitting firmly in the stands.
Since the election of the Rudd Government however, Henry has been placed front and centre with Treasurer Swan to give him some semblance of credibility and has been given the additional responsibility for the taxation review, conveniently providing space between those elected to govern and those elected to carry out the elected Government’s policies, and setting up a scapegoat to target in the ongoing blame game.
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Obama digs a hole with his mouth
Andrew Bolt
Barack Obama makes a very big mistake:
Barack Obama put his foot in his mouth today when he said “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” - which the angry McCain campaign charged was an outlandish attack on runningmate Sarah Palin.
Campaigning in Virginia, Obama tore into his rivals for not representing real change.
”You know, you can put lipstick on a pig,” Obama said—“but it’s still a pig.”
Many in the crowd who leapt to their feet in delight at the old Washington expression – taking the “pig” comment as a direct slam at Palin.
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Can’t do, shouldn’t preach?
Andrew Bolt
If journalists make poor premiers, how bad must they be as political commentators?
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Nine months, and still no baby
Andrew Bolt
Janet Albrechtsen compares the first nine months of the Rudd Government, all frantic inactivity and empty symbols, with the first nine months of two others.
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Culture wars resume in schools
Andrew Bolt
We were told the defeat of the Howard Government meant the culture wars were over. In fact, they’ve just been resumed with fresh intensity - as children are about to find out:
THE latest chapter in the history wars returns one of its chief protagonists, Stuart Macintyre, to the front line, with his appointment by the National Curriculum Board to draft the course for schools from the first year of school through to Year 12. Professor Macintyre, the Ernest Scott professor of history at Melbourne University and chairman of Australian Studies at Harvard, was sidelined by the Howard government in its pursuit of a national curriculum for Australian history.
That’s Macintyre, the long-time member of the Australian Communist Party. Macintyre, who led a witchhunt against Geoffrey Blainey. Macintyre, who promoted the black-armband view of our history. Macintyre, defender of the fabulist Manning Clark.
And the party continues:
The board has made another controversial appointment in its adviser on the English curriculum, selecting Sydney University literacy researcher Peter Freebody, who is identified with the critical literacy side of the so-called reading wars.
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Police minister Matt Brown simulated sex act on female MP
NSW Police Minister Matt Brown was sacked three days into the job last night after admitting a wild party in parliament house where he danced semi-naked and simulated a sex act on a female MP.
Premier Nathan Rees gave Mr Brown no option but to offer his resignation, just hours after the Labor leader learnt of the allegations and of the Kiama MP's admission to at least part of them.
Mr Brown, the former Housing Minister, attended a party in his office after the June 3 Budget.
Witnesses to the incident, and revellers at a neighbouring party in the office of Ports Minister Joe Tripodi, said Mr Brown appeared to be drunk as he danced semi-naked on a couch in the office, The Australian newspaper reports today.
Witnesses on a balcony adjoining the two offices claimed they saw Mr Brown gyrating atop the green chesterfield sofa in what were described as "very brief" underpants to "Oxford street techno-style music."
He was then reported to have climbed on top of Wollongong MP Noreen Hay before turning to her adult daughter and calling out "Look at this, I'm titty f..... your mother."
Mr Brown has denied using the words described but has not denied the other allegations.
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School for keeping secrets
Andrew Bolt
It’s easily done, of course, and for done for excellent reasons:
THE State Government has been secretly ranking every school from best to worst, prompting fears Victoria is shifting towards a system of league-style tables.
Education Minister Bronwyn Pike’s department has been conducting the study to identify schools that are “at the absolute bottom of the pile”, as part of a broader push to direct resources where they are needed most and make schools more accountable for their results.
The only curious thing about this exercise is that the Premier recently made out it was too hard to try:
Premier John Brumby last week said league tables were “something we’ve not supported in the past, not because we don’t want parents to have more information but because measuring these things is exceedingly difficult”.
Well, we now know it wasn’t too hard, so why not pass on the results to the parents who’d love them best, given their children have only one shot at a good education? After all, in which other area of public policy are you told that the less information you have about a product, the better?
Yesterday Ms Pike’s spokesman insisted the Government would provide families “with rich data to help better inform their education choices”, but it would not publicly provide the information in the form of school-by-school rankings.
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Bhutan gas
Andrew Bolt
A charming story to please The Age’s readers of the resentful Left:
ARE you happy? That’s the simple question the Government of Bhutan asked its people in a nationwide census. An incredible 97% said they were.
The Himalayan nation, a fifth the size of Victoria, prizes happiness above all else, in public policy as well as personal lives.
And Karma Tshiteem is the man from Bhutan with the plan to keep it that way… “Once you cross a certain threshold, money doesn’t get you more happiness,” Mr Tshiteem said.
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Conservative with his pants down
Andrew Bolt
I CALL myself a conservative. But I now need to find a new word, having learned to my surprise what conservative now means at a modern buck’s party.
My lesson came thanks to stripper Linda Naggs (above), who yesterday was ordered to stand trial for the rape of the best man at a buck’s party at Mornington Peninsula last year.
A committal hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard that a stark naked Naggs was riding the de-panted best man like a horse, when she allegedly pushed a sex toy where she shouldn’t.
What apparently made this unfortunate push (which Naggs denies) all the worse was that Naggs’s startled nag was, according to his brother, actually “very conservative”.
This surprised me. Until yesterday, I’d have assumed the last place you’d find a “very conservative” man was under a naked stripper with his pants down, while 30 men cheered him on.
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Garnaut turns up heat on Rudd
Andrew Bolt
KEVIN Rudd’s global warming guru has finally - and reluctantly - exposed the con. Ignore everything the Government has told you.
The truth, conceded Professor Ross Garnaut last week, is that it really is cheaper for Australians to do nothing about global warming.
And, no, it’s not immoral to figure there’s no point spending big money to “stop” this warming when it won’t make a blind bit of difference.
No wonder the Rudd Government refuses to comment on Garnaut’s latest report, released on Friday. Much of the argument for its grand plan to make us slash emissions from 2010 has just been destroyed.
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Meet the leaders you never chose
Andrew Bolt
YOU think we live in a democracy where we choose our leaders? Then wake up and check the leaders of our states and territories.
Voted for any of them?
In fact, six of the eight got their jobs without going to an election. They were picked instead by their party to replace a leader of their own side.
Five still haven’t got the voters’ nod since, which means most Australians have a premier they’ve never had the chance to vote for.
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Teen commits suicide after 'end of world' reports
A TEENAGE girl in central India killed herself on Wednesday after being traumatised by media reports that a "Big Bang" experiment in Europe could bring about the end of the world, her father said.
The 16-year old girl from the state of Madhya Pradesh drank pesticide and was rushed to the hospital but later died, police said.
Her father, identified on local television as Biharilal, said that his daughter, Chayya, killed herself after watching doomsday predictions made on Indian news programmes.
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