=== Todays Toon ===
Unsmiling, Chamberlain (left) and Hitler leave the Bad Godesberg meeting, 23 September 1938.
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. When Adolf Hitler continued his aggression, Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first eight months of the Second World War.=== Bible Quote ===
“Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”- Romans 15:2=== Headlines ===
White House continues to avoid discussing details on whether Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak was offered a job if he skipped Pa. Senate primary but spokesman says lawyers reviewed conversations and found nothing.Iran Dangles 'Spies' Release
Insisting detained U.S. hikers are spies, Iran demands U.S. make humanitarian gesture before talk of swap
Gibbs: U.S. Is On the Hunt
America searches for U.S.-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who calls for killing civilians in new video
Palin Says Paul Hit by 'Gotcha' Politics
Sarah Palin says Senate hopeful Rand Paul, facing recent media backlash, is learning what it's like to be her
Fergie 'devastated' and 'regretful' after being secretly filmed offering to sell access to Prince Andrew for $724,000.Kill charge plea over foetus death
PARENTS of unborn girl, killed when her pregnant mum was hit by a driver, want a murder charge.
Interest rates cool urban housing boom
SURGING property market cools as auction clearance rates drop by up to 14 per cent in capital cities.
Meet the car of the future - driven by IBM
TECH giant wants to control your car while you're driving it - and has applied for the right to do so.UK man first to swim under Mt Everest
MAN swims his way into history by braving freezing waters wearing only Speedos, a cap and goggles.
Grand finale: End of Lost as we know it
CAN one series finale live up to the expectations of more than 100 million fans around the world?
Victim of brawl still in a coma
A PUB drinker has been left in a coma following a brawl involving about 30 people in Sydney's CBD where the fight broke out between drinkers at 5.30am.
Man raped, killed daughter in abortion op
A JORDANIAN man has been charged with raping and murdering his daughter after allegedly impregnating her.
Education Minister Verity Firth knew of school heater dangers
EDUCATION Minister Verity Firth was warned by her department more than a year ago that unflued gas heaters in NSW schools were giving off indoor air pollution at "levels over that considered safe for human exposure". The Sydney Morning Herald says a ministerial briefing note it obtained, the accuracy of which was endorsed by senior bureaucrats, contradicts many of the public statements Ms Firth has since made about the health impacts of the heaters. The unflued heaters have in fact been tested annually since 2000, according to the ministerial briefing note sent to Ms Firth in April last year. "Based on the results of this monitoring, NSW Health advised that a substantial proportion of the new unflued low-nox heaters were testing at nitrogen dioxide levels over that considered safe for human exposure," it said. There are 51,000 of the heaters in NSW public schools.
Early election clue found in MP speeches
RETIRING Federal Labor MPs have been told to prepare their farewell speeches for the current parliamentary sitting session in a sign the Government wants to clear the decks to keep open the possibility of an early election. Senior Labor MPs confirmed that, while no official edict had been issued, several retiring MPs had been told to prepare for possible valedictory speeches before the end of June when Parliament rises for winter recess. The move raised speculation the Government may seek to go to the polls as early as August. In NSW, several MPs will not be contesting the next federal election. Roger Price (Chifley), Jennie George (Throsby) and Bob Debus (Macquarie) will not be recontesting. Belinda Neal will also not be running as the Labor candidate for Robertson after losing preselection. "MPs that aren't going around again have been told they should be preparing for valedictory speeches in the second week of the current session," a senior Labor source said.
=== Comments ===
Open Your Bibles, AmericaBy Rev. Bill Shuler
American claim to believe in God while ignoring His precepts. Now our country finds itself in moral decline.
Values in America are on the decline according to a recent survey conducted by the Culture and Media Institute (CMI). Of the 2,000 Americans who took part, 74% felt that moral values are weaker than 20 years ago. In the words of the director of CMI, the study is, for better or worse, a “snapshot of America.”
The report reveals an America that, “no longer enjoys cultural consensus on God, religion and what constitutes right and wrong.” The result is a moral subjectivity that is unparalleled in the history of our nation. Yesterday’s standards have been lost to today’s relativism.
With 87% of Americans claiming to believe in God, one would assume that there would be a nationwide consensus about our values as a nation but a deeper look at the results exposes some revealing insights. Not everyone who claims to believe in God (87%) believes that the Bible is the authoritative word of God (only 52% hold to such a belief) and even fewer (36%) believe people should live by principles as set forth in the Bible. Since the founding of America, the Bible has been the key standard of measurement for moral absolutes in this nation. As of late, a trend has emerged whereby individuals create a self-made standard of morality and the result is unequivocal…we are slipping.
Various factors are noted in the study that shed light on why we find ourselves in this precarious position. The primary influencer in our society is the family yet latchkey kids are growing up without the benefit of nurturing parents. The media that is the second biggest influence on our families often promotes an agenda that is contrary to the values of mainstream America. Those who have increased exposure to TV show a decreased level of personal responsibility and increased levels of moral relativism.
As America claims to believe in God, while ignoring His precepts, it finds itself in moral decline. The need of the hour is to return to God and embrace the teachings of the Bible. It is not too late to recognize that a change of course is not only possible, it is imperative.
Rev. Bill Shuler is pastor of Capital Life Church in Arlington, Virginia.
===
THE 7.30 FORECAST
Tim Blair
Judging by the past couple of weeks, Kerry O’Brien’s interviews on The 7.30 Report over the next five nights should be absolute belters. And if they aren’t, they sure will be when those interviews are subsequently analysed by the broader media.
Sometimes it’s as though two versions of the program are aired – a mild one for the general public and another, more ferociously intense version only visible to pundits and the like.Here is your complete predictive guide to the coming week’s highlights from The 7.30 Report, plus a sampling of post-interview headlines …
===
NEWS BRIEFLETS
Tim Blair
• How do you know when Obama is lying?
• David Harsanyi identifies a point of commonality between technology and climate: “As there is no real problem with the Internet, it’s not surprising that some of our top minds have been working diligently on a solution.”
• This might be the first recorded occasion that Bill Leak’s work has drawn the admiration of someone currently leading the world Formula One drivers’ championship.
• A former Presidential pal speaks Buick to pedestrian.
• I am the star of a romantic novel: “When Egret Pointe’s middle school gets a new principal, everything changes. One look at the town’s proper librarian, and Tim Blair is lost.”
• KFC’s Double Down is gobbled down ten million times since its launch last month.
• An entertainingly sarcastic column from Kwamchetsi Makokha.
• Headline: “Sad Prius Driver Attempts To Race, Ends Up In Jail.”
• Young Australians don’t care about whaling.
• His demise was unexpected, especially by him: “Arakawa, the Japanese-born artist and architect who claimed he could ward off death, died Tuesday in Manhattan at age 73.”
• With 200 showrooms, 400 brands and 2,426 models to choose from at a single location, there’s little chance of buying a lemon in Istanbul.
• Speaking of cars, auto maven Iowahawk explains his refusal to participate in Draw Mo Day. Must read.
• “The Warmists really are a malign and spleen-filled bunch,” writes James Delingpole. “As of course you would be if the science was against you, the public were growing increasingly sceptical, and all you really had left to defend your cause was bullying and bluster.”
• And on the subject of bluster: “After the signing of the Freedom of Press Act on Monday, President Obama declined to take any questions from the press.” He isn’t saying much about all that BP money, either.
===
Rudd’s way: sign up to my spin, or else
Andrew Bolt
Spin, spin, bully, spin:
PORTLAND hospital was rushed into signing a $4.9 million funding agreement for its new GP super clinic so the Rudd government could avoid political embarrassment, a leaked email has revealed.(Thanks to reader Brett.)
Hospital management was told to sign the agreement by noon on Wednesday - just moments before shadow treasurer Joe Hockey delivered his post-budget reply to the National Press Club.
Portland District Health chief executive John O’Neill warned his board members of the urgency of the government’s request in an email that morning: “I have been asked to sign this agreement before 12 noon today - that is, before Joe Hockey makes his budget reply … If not signed, funding will be withdrawn.”
He also forwarded a copy of an email received earlier that morning from the Department of Health and Ageing asking for the agreement to be signed “by lunch time today”.
===
Happy birthday
Andrew Bolt
Mukhtar is a bus driver in Copenhagen.
(Thanks to reader Paul.)
===
Israeli diplomat expelled. Any friends left for Rudd to attack?
Andrew Bolt
Brilliant. After offending Japan over whaling and our China cuddling, India over uranium sales and diplomatic slights, Indonesia over boat people, Singapore over Kevin Rudd’s ”Asia forum”, and China over general dithering, the Rudd Government now drives a greater wedge with our most reliable friend in the Middle East by expelling an Israeli diplomat:
FOREIGN Minister Stephen Smith has told Parliament Israel was responsible for faking four Australian passports used in the killing of a senior Hamas official.How much was this decision - or at least the timing of the retaliation - abother typical piece of Rudd spin, designed this time to distract attention from his mining tax disaster?
“Investigations and advice have left the Government in no doubt Israel was responsible for the abuse and counterfeiting of these passports,” he said today.
Mr Smith has asked that a member of the Israeli Embassy in Canberra be withdrawn from Australia within the week, as a result of the scandal.
UPDATE
Greg Sheridan:
THE Rudd Government has over reacted and made a bad mistake in expelling an Israeli diplomat over the Dubai passports affair.
This action has already dismayed and divided the Government’s supporters. Michael Danby, the Labor member for Melbourne Ports, and the chairman of the parliamentary sub-committee on foreign affairs, immediately condemned the expulsion.
“I do not agree with the decision,” Mr Danby said.
Foreign minister Stephen Smith cited Britain, France, Germany and Ireland in justifying his over reaction.
Yet of these only the British have expelled an Israeli diplomat and that was the action of a dying Government desperately casting around for minority support.
Surely the Rudd Government is more mature and worldly than the most desperate days of the dying Gordon Brown interregnum?
===
But please buy his book before the world ends
Andrew Bolt
Peter Carey, novelist, on ABC Melbourne 774 isn’t sure just what the latest environmental catastrophe is, but believes we’re all doomed again, anyway:
We might have this big hole in the ozone layer that will kill us all, but let’s hope.
This is the vain man who minutes earlier mocked Sarah Palin for stupidity. Of course, no one else in the crowded studio - Jon Faine, Age columnist and professional schoolgirl Marieke Hardy and some other writer - disagreed with either his prophecy of doom or cartoonish depiction of Palin.
UPDATE
The NSW Road Transport Authority warns that driving in these End Times will become harder as the globe nears its fiery end:
SAFE DRIVING DURING SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS(Thanks to reader Tamas.)
It is anticipated that current weather patterns will progressively change and become more unpredictable as a result of climate change. Climate change is the impact on the planet due to greenhouse gas emissions which will increase global temperatures. Climate change is expected to cause unpredictable weather events and conditions such as extreme heatwaves, storms, flooding and bushfires. Driving during extreme weather events or conditions should be undertaken with care and caution. Driving should be avoided in extreme conditions. Where it cannot be avoided listen to announcements on the radio, adjust your travel speed to wet conditions, prepare by taking water and take regular rest breaks at appropriate locations on hot days.
===
I wish sweet reason would always work instead
Andrew Bolt
I don’t want this to be true, but I do remember with both pride and embarrassment how my teacher and classmates at my new school looked at me with more respect when I finally bopped two bullies on the schnozz:
A LITTLE childhood bullying may be good for you. Researchers have found that if boys or girls are able to stand up for themselves, being attacked by enemies can help their development.I do wonder if that experience, among a few others, is why I refused to be deterred from taking the stands I have in the past decade.
Studies have shown that children become more popular among, and respected by, teachers and fellow pupils if they repay hostility in kind. They remember such experiences more vividly than friendly episodes, helping them to develop healthy social and emotional skills.
(Thanks to reader Owen.)
===
Young monkeys see, monkeys do
Andrew Bolt
This is putting an awful lot of faith in the mantra of the blind that screen violence does not affect behaviour:
VICTORIA’S worst young criminals are watching real-life crime on pay-TV, playing violent video games, and being rewarded with McDonald’s.UPDATE
Teen menaces detained in the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre are indulging in a taxpayer-funded crime-fest, watching hours of shows about the world’s worst murderers and rapists.
A mother of one 16-year-old was outraged when he told her the Foxtel crime channel was the most popular among inmates.
Two insiders told the Herald Sun the inmates were also able to play PlayStation games such as Grand Theft Auto, in which gamers can beat pedestrians with baseball bats for cash and shoot police officers at random.
My goodness, but the head of this institution is paid so little - given the responsibilities - that I wonder how much the Brumby Government actually values a skilled leader in such a critical position:
POSITION DETAILS:This was downloaded by reader Alex in February from the Victorian Government careers website.
Title: CEO, Parkville Youth Justice Precinct, Youth Justice Custodial Services
Classification: VPS-6
Salary Range: Value Range 1: $90,789 - $106,142
Value Range 2: $106,143 - $121,495…
The CEO has responsibility for all operational aspects of a Youth Justice Precinct, including leading a workforce of between 150 to 200, delivering good outcomes for up to 122 complex young people, building relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders, undertaking strategic planning and workforce development, maintaining safety and security, and a range of other challenges.
===
Geldof: I don’t like munchings
Andrew Bolt
How could a charity event turn into a bonfire of the vanities - and a grand display of waste? SIR Bob Geldof, the self-described champion of the starving, was responsible for keeping many hungry last week.Two years ago I had similar questions about St Bob selling his lessons on austerity and charity:
Because of him, 150 serves of salmon were dumped at a $1000-a-head event in Melbourne.
The Pratt Foundation evening, held at the Toorak mansion belonging to the late Richard Pratt’s daughter and son-in-law, Heloise and Alex Waislitz, was a fund-raiser for St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, with Sydney chef and star of My Kitchen Rules Manu Feildel doing the cooking…
With Geldof booked to speak for an hour, the plan was to serve dinner while the great man was talking. But he soon put an end to that when he heard about it.
As a result, the salmon catered for the event had to be dumped because it wouldn’t keep.
Luckily, one of the guests was Crown Casino publicity supremo Ann Peacock, who quickly organised for 150 serves of fresh salmon to be transferred from Crown’s kitchens to the event…
Geldof is believed to have pocketed thousands for his gig as guest speaker, paid for by the Pratt Foundation and Mrs Waislitz.
Geldolf’s manager, Mark Cowne, would neither reveal the size of the payment nor justify accepting money from a cancer fund-raiser, but more than $350,000 was raised on the night for a specialist cancer unit.
It’s the kind of behaviour you’d expect from a global warming jet-setter instead:===ANTI-poverty campaigner Sir Bob Geldof charged $100,000 to come to Melbourne and give a speech about world suffering.I’d just laugh if it wasn’t for the fact that at least some of the cash seems to have come from taxpayers:
Geldof, 54, spoke about the tragedy of Third World poverty and the failure of governments to combat the crisis, at a Crown casino function on Thursday night.The payment is believed to have been funded by event sponsors including the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.When our governments promise to give more money to needy foreigners, Bob Geldof is not one of the foreigners I have in mind.
Miners man a new Eureka Stockade
Andrew Bolt
The stakes are upped again:
THE MINING giant Rio Tinto has urged its thousands of workers to mount a grassroots campaign against the government’s proposed resources super profits tax.UPDATE
With tensions between the mining sector and Rudd government at boiling point, the Rio Tinto managing director, David Peever, has sent all employees a letter urging them to lobby their MP, write to the local newspaper and ring talkback radio…
The Minerals Council last night unleashed a radio advertising campaign to run on 190 stations claiming the tax would ‘’make everything more expensive’’ and cut the value of retirees’ shares. The tagline for each ad is ‘’I don’t think they’ve thought this through’’.
Increasing evidence that the Government got this wrong, with a Treasury-led panel suggesting big changes to the plan proposed by its own boss, Treasury secretary Ken Henry:
WAYNE Swan’s hand-picked mining tax consultation panel will urge the government to reconsider a key selling point of its new resource super-profits tax - the promised 40 per cent tax refundability for failed projects.UPDATE 2
The Australian understands that the tax consultation panel, headed by the Treasury’s David Parker, has listened to the arguments of mining companies that they place little value on the 40 per cent tax write-off, and will finalise its report this week before delivering its findings to the Treasurer by the close of business on Friday.
The write-off is a key feature of the proposed tax - the government plans to take 40 per cent of the super profits in the industry but also bear 40 per cent of the cost of all mining projects that fail.
Any move to wind back the tax break on losses would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars, delivering flexibility to address one of the key complaints about the tax - the 6 per cent profit threshold after which the super-profits tax applies.
While the consultation panel will not nominate a new definition of super profits when it reports to Mr Swan this week, the prevailing thinking is that it should be closer to the bond rate plus 5 per cent, or about 10 per cent.
Martin Ferguson never seemed keen on this package:
RESOURCES Minister Martin Ferguson appears to have left everything except the 40 per cent rate open for possible negotiation on the proposed mining tax.UPDATE 3
As the government waits for a report from officials’ talks with the mining companies, Mr Ferguson said: ‘’There will be a profit-based tax in Australia, the headline rate is going to be 40 per cent, but there are refinements that can be made …’’
Mr Ferguson sidestepped a question on whether the cut-in point of 6 per cent rate of return could be raised, one of the key demands that has been made.
Sounds a serious claim:
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the low effective company tax rate proves big mining companies can afford to pay more…But what “independent analysis” did the Rudd Government rely on to make this allegation?
Domestic mining companies pay an effective company tax rate of just 17 per cent, Ms Gillard said.
“For the overseas companies, the multinationals, (it’s) around 13 per cent. This is not a fair share and that’s why we’re moving to introduce the resources super-profits tax."…
Treasurer Wayne Swan used independent analysis included in the Henry tax review to argue “ordinary workers” were getting ripped off by the likes of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
“In Australia, wholly-domestic mining companies paid an effective tax rate of only 17 per cent and multinational mining companies paid an effective tax rate of only 13 per cent,” Mr Swan said in his latest economic note.
But the Opposition’s finance spokesman, Andrew Robb, says the independent analysis they have quoted is a working paper by a student from the University of North Carolina.And this is what the Government relies upon to justify a huge new tax that threatens the country with an investment strike?
“They rely - in an attack on the icons of Australian industry, the reputation of Australia as an investing country - on a graduate’s paper, which is a regression analysis,” he said.
“It is a ridiculous basis on which to mount an attack. It’s just a working paper, it’s not even a thesis or a peer-reviewed piece of work. It’s the politics of desperation.”
Describing it as the “shonkiest piece of work” he had ever seen, Mr Robb says the paper does not take into account royalties and payroll tax, has combined Australian and New Zealand data and uses an inadequate sample.
UPDATE
Professor Sinclair Davidson checks the student’s paper on which Treasurer Wayne Swan relies in claiming the miners pay an effective tax rate of as little as 13 per cent:
Either Swan doesn’t understand what it is Treasury are telling him, or Treasury (and the Henry Review) don’t understand the underlying paper that they are quoting… The evidence does not support the argument the Henry Report, Gillard and Swan have made.Go here for Davidson’s full analysis.
Davidson also checks the real effective tax rates paid, and find they are much higher than the Rudd Government claims:
I had a look at the ATO Taxation Statistics, specifically tables 8 and 9 of the corporate tax statistics. I calculate two measures of effective tax rate. First just the Net Tax to Net Income and second Net Tax plus Royalty expense to Net Income. Results are shown below in the table. Note that Mining has the highest effective tax rate after accounting for Royalty payments.
===Test the teachers
Andrew Bolt
Let’s put the teachers union’s fight against national testing in context:
School principals are failing to do anything about poor teachers, according to a damning report which suggests the system for evaluating teachers is broken in this country.The fact is that national testing tells us more about the quality of teachers and schools than it does about individual students.
The report, which surveyed teachers and principals in 23 countries, said teacher evaluation and development in Australia is among the worst in the developed world.
Australia is ranked fourth-last for identifying teacher quality, according to the study which formed the basis of the Grattan Institute report, What Teachers Want: Better Teacher Management…
More than 90 per cent of the teachers reported their principal would not take steps to alter the salary of a persistently under-performing teacher, nor did they feel they would receive any recognition if they improved their own teaching. Almost 80 per cent of teachers in government schools said consistently bad teachers would not be sacked, and 43 per cent said they would be tolerated by the rest of the staff.
Not only did this disadvantage students, the report concluded, it demotivated other teachers.
===
A school in Melbourne
Andrew Bolt
North Balwyn primary school is in an area known for its better state schools. Our more aspirational Australians (unable or unwilling to pay private school fees) tend to move to the suburb, as you can see.===
Rudd aids poor foreign consultants
Andrew Bolt
It’s the Building the Education Revolution of foreign aid:
AUSTRALIA’S foreign aid program is under siege after revelations tens of millions of dollars are being wasted on mega-salaries for consultants and rich contracts for private firms.Even the recipients of our “aid” are complaining about the waste:
An extensive investigation revealed a lucrative foreign aid “industry”, raising questions on the Rudd Government’s decision to double funding to $8 billion-plus a year.
And a high-level review has slammed the $414 million program in Papua New Guinea, claiming that $100 million is being siphoned off to a handful of firms while little of a lasting benefit is delivered…
One highly paid executive, Gerald Gahima, a former justice in his native Rwanda, is no stranger to controversy. In February 2004 he suddenly left Rwanda, amid questions about personal debts of $US600,000. The US State Department cited allegations of misuse of office in personal bank transactions against Mr Gahima. Four years later, in February 2008, he was made “senior justice adviser” to East Timor on a two-year $757,960 tax free contract, paid by Australian taxpayers.
Consultant John Dinsdale, a former clerk of a court in Melbourne, is paid more than $500,000 a year, tax-free, as PNG Law and Justice adviser.
Nikhil Desai, whose glamour address is listed as 6850 Melrose Drive, Los Angeles, was appointed as Vanuatu Energy Adviser on a two-year contract valued at $746,730.
Around the Pacific rim, questions are being asked as to why consultants, such as Peter Kelly, who is paid $433,000 a year to supervise Vanuatu’s small road system, are paid so much… Susan Ferguson earns $293,423 tax-free a year as “Gender Integration Adviser” to PNG.
The review into the flagship PNG program is particularly embarrassing - and raises serious questions over the value of pumping billions of dollars into fragile states.
The former Howard government tightened aid to PNG in 2005 after it received secret intelligence of scams involving senior members of the then PNG administration.
AusAID will pour $415 million into PNG next year but the review - conducted by three independent experts Stephen Howes, from the Australian National University, Dr Eric Kwa from the University of PNG and Canadian Soe Lin - is scathing of the present scheme.
They found tens of millions of dollars was “wasted” on consultants and glossy reports. Money also props up bureaucracies instead of buying life saving medicines and equipment.
Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal wants an overhaul of Australia’s $414 million annual aid to PNG because he says too much is wasted on costly consultants.Those mentions of wasted aid to PNG reminds me: only two years ago Kevin Rudd signalled he was going softer on PNG’s rorting of our aid budget.
AusAID figures reveal that nearly half (46 per cent) of all Australian aid in PNG goes to advisers, contractors or experts providing “technical assistance” for “capacity building”.
That’s twice the rate of other countries’ aid programs.
As Rudd explained it at the time:
Rudd, who won power last November, met Prime Minister Michael Somare in Port Moresby, with the two leaders promising a new era of cooperation after relations between the two nations broke down under Australia’s former conservative government…The following year, Rudd decided he’d actually better crack down on the the very problem we’re now told is out of control:
Rudd and Somare signed new agreements on Australia’s approach to aid for South Pacific nations, and on climate change, which could see Australian companies in future offset carbon emissions by investing in PNG’s tropical rain forests…
Rudd said the new aid agreement with PNG and other Pacific islands nations would ensure a more cooperative approach to aid spending after complaints Australia’s former conservative government used aid to enforce its will on smaller nations.
KEVIN RUDD: Too much money has been consumed by consultants and not enough money is actually delivered to essential assistance in teaching, in infrastructure, in health services on the ground in the villages across Papua New Guinea.Another Rudd “reform”, working as beautifully as the rest.
LINDA MOTTRAM: But critics say the partnerships for development, which are being applied across the Pacific in a kind of trade-off of aid for results, risk being little more than a rewrite of past approaches.
UPDATE
And lets not forget the millions AusAID spends on its own inflated salaries and on “awareness” campaigns by pro-Labor activists.
(Thanks to readers CA and Pronto.)
===
Duchess sells her ex-husband
Andrew Bolt
We knew she was hungry for a quid, but this takes the bacon for the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson:News of the World says a reporter posing as a wealthy businessman offered her more than 500,000 pounds ($869,000) for an introduction to Prince Andrew, who is a special British trade representative.UPDATE
It says she was secretly filmed last Tuesday night taking $48,000 cash as a down payment. In return the Duchess is recorded promising to introduce the paper’s undercover reporter to Prince Andrew, claiming he will help to fix lucrative deals.
“Look after me and he’ll look after you,” she said.
“You’ll get it back tenfold. I can open any door you want.”
But News of the World says Prince Andrew was totally unaware of the deal.
Oink, oink:
UPDATE 2
What is it with these young royals, flogging their royal contacts? Nine years ago it was Sophie, wife of Prince Edward, selling access on tape to yet another News of the World reporter pretending to be a rich client:
The tapes also question Sophie’s ability to separate her business and royal interests. Admitting that it ‘does cause conflicts’, she says clients are told to treat hers like any other PR firm, but immediately stresses the appeal of hiring a princess.
Sophie: ‘For instance, in your own country when people find we’re working for you, the chances are you’ll get people interested: Oh gosh, they’ve employed the Countess of Wessex’s PR company.’
In the earlier conversation without the countess, Harkin (the Countess’s partner in their PR company) had said the countess might go to Dubai, and ‘there’s potential for Edward as well’,
===
A lecture on austerity from the actor in the castle
Andrew Bolt
Actor Jeremy Irons, whose wife is “deeply socialist”, announces he’s become a green campaigner and wants us to live “less decadently”:The increasing global population would put an intolerable strain on the world’s resources, Irons said, and the gulf between developing countries and westerners living a bountiful “pie-in-the-sky” existence must be addressed …Perhaps more orangey, actually, but decidely not green:
Irons, who owns seven houses, including a pink castle …
===Bishop is back: Richo bites Rudd
Andrew Bolt
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has gone through the fires and had her confidence scorched. But she’s sure recovered now. I thought her performance on Insiders yesterday most assured.Liked the crispness here in particular:
BARRIE CASSIDY: So where did this $300 million come from, this suggestion you’d be cutting $300 million in aid from the forward estimates?And since we’re offering character assessments, here’s Richo’s on two of his own side:
JULIE BISHOP: That’s because the Government has put a climate change policy within the aid budget. And that is not world’s best practice. You do not put climate change policy money into an aid budget…
BARRIE CASSIDY: That’s the money that was to go to some poor countries to help them adapt to climate change.
JULIE BISHOP: That’s right.
BARRIE CASSIDY: So that comes out?
JULIE BISHOP: That’s right.
BARRIE CASSIDY: So you will be saving $300 million?
JULIE BISHOP: That’s right.
LABOR warlord Graham Richardson has conceded defeat at the upcoming state election, sledging the scandal-prone NSW Government for not doing enough for voters in the state.
The influential party powerbroker and former federal minister has also taken a swing at Kevin Rudd, saying his “gloss has gone” and voters are “battling to see who’s worse” - the Prime Minister or Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
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