=== Todays Toon ===
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL (25 July 1848 – 19 March 1930) was a British Conservative politician and statesman. He authored the Perpetual Crimes Act (1887) (or Coercion Act) aimed at the prevention of boycotting, intimidation, unlawful assembly in Ireland during the Irish Land War, and was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905, a time when his party and government became divided over the issue of tariff reform. Later, as Foreign Secretary, he authored the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.=== Bible Quote ===
“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:”- Proverbs 31:10, 27-28=== Headlines ===
MPs defend Kevin Rudd's hot snap on climate on 7.30 Report
LABOR MPs have rushed to defend Kevin Rudd after he appeared to lose his temper on the ABC's 7.30 Report while justifying his decision to delay an emissions trading scheme. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner explained away the Prime Minister's reaction to host Kerry O'Brien last night, saying "we all occasionally snap and express ourselves tersely". On the 7.30 Report the Prime Minister appeared to react angrily to suggestions by O'Brien he could be labelled a political coward if he did not take his ETS to the next election. “There was no Government in the world like the Australian Government, which threw its every energy at bringing about a deal, a global deal, on climate change,” Mr Rudd replied. “Penny Wong and I sat up for three days and three nights with 20 leaders from around the world to try and frame a global agreement. “Now it might be easy for you to sit in 7.30 Report-land and say that was easy to do. Let me tell you mate, it wasn't.” The Opposition has siezed on Mr Rudd's occasionally cranky performance, comparing it to former Labor leader Mark Latham.
Parents in Illinois are outraged over a move by a local high school to scrap its girls basketball team's trip to Arizona over the Grand Canyon State's new immigration law.How Much Did BP Know?
'Significant problems' with safety device potential cause of Gulf oil spill — a malfunction that BP may have known about before blast, congressional investigators say.
Elite Interrogation Unit's Rocky Start
Fifteen months after Obama administration created a special terror-suspect interrogation unit — where are they?
Outrage at PTSD Licenses
Veterans groups blast Georgia for legislation allowing PTSD diagnosis to appear on driver's licenses
Gun Goes Off Inside Desk of Third Grader
Fox Charlotte reports that a gun went off inside the desk of a third grader in Charlotte, N.C. It is unclear how the gun went off, but luckily, the bullet missed all 20 students in the classroom and only hit a wall. Parents rushed to the school not knowing the extent of the situation after they were told, “A serious incident occurred in a University Meadows classroom this afternoon.”
The gun was a .22-caliber handgun "small enough to fit in the palm of your hand," said Sgt. David Schwob.
Victoria's Secret model found slumped on the floor of her ex's house after reportedly taking a cocktail of drugs and alcohol - and the stress of a blackmail trial may be the cause.War crimes suspect captured
BALKANS war crimes suspect Dragan Vasiljkovic arrested by the AFP after 43 days on the run.
Plane crash survivor a 'true miracle'
PHOTOS of an eight-year-old boy who survived a crash that killed 103 people have been released.
An architect known for dreaming up wild visions of how humans will one day inhabit the Earth without killing it reveals his take on the future of air travel / Vincent CallebautUnfair bank fees class action heats up
PENT-UP anger over bank fees unleashed as "thousands" call hotline to join class action.
Has Apple 'lost' its second iPhone 4G?
WEBSITE shows images of what is claimed to be an iPhone 4G "bought from US businessman".
Cougars and toy boys 'a deadly match'
HAVING a toy boy husband increases a woman’s chances of an early death, a study has found.
Dad dies after 75-minute ambulance wait
A FATHER-of-three has died waiting for an ambulance that went to the wrong address and then got lost.
Wanted over Star City bashing
THE unprovoked bashing of a man as he smoked a cigarette at Star City casino has been linked to two men captured on CCTV cameras.
School Certificate fails the test of time
THE Year 10 School Certificate will likely be scrapped from next year - 45 years after it was introduced. NSW is the last state to hold a formal exam at the end of Year 10. NAPLAN testing in Year 9 and a national curriculum have convinced the Government that a formal exam at the end of Year 10 is unnecessary.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Tax Increases? Eric Cantor says "Take A Hike"!His plan would slash spending & decrease the deficit! So, who in D.C. is standing in the way?
Guest: Tom CoburnDid pay as you go ... Get up and go? Tom reacts to the Dems' latest billion dollar spending plan.
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Welcome to the Neighborhood!
Al Gore drops $9 million on a palatial palace near Dennis' domicile. Now, Miller weighs in!
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No Soda, No Snacks, No Choice?
How the first lady's task force on childhood obesity is cutting into our diets & our rights!
=== Comments ===
Playing Politics With Illegal AliensBy Bill O'Reilly
With national health care now a reality, the next major controversy for the Obama administration is what to do with the 12 million illegal aliens currently residing in the USA.
It is clear that the American people have had enough. Seventy percent of Arizona residents support that state's tough new anti-illegal alien law, and 60 percent of all Americans support it as well.
But the opposition is very vocal, with some big names on board:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I was also to go and give a commencement speech in Arizona, but with my accent I was worried they're going to deport me back to Austria, so I cancelled that idea right away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, Governor Schwarzenegger is done as a politician, so he can say what he wants. But other Republicans are mostly on the other side of the issue.
Sen. John McCain is fighting for his political life in Arizona, and while McCain used to be a moderate on illegal immigration, he is now a warrior:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: Drug and human smuggling, home invasions, murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're outmanned. Of all the illegals in America, more than half come through Arizona.
MCCAIN: Have we got the right plan?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The plan's perfect. You bring troops, state, county and local law enforcement together.
MCCAIN: And complete the dang fence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will work this time. Senator, you're one of us.
MCCAIN: I'm John McCain, and I approve this message.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Glenn Beck, among others, is criticizing Mr. McCain for being hypocritical, but perhaps the senator just wised up. Voters will make the call.
The Obama administration could introduce a national immigration reform bill right now. They could do that, but they will not. The issue is simply too hot.
So liberal America must try to persuade independent America to support the pathway to citizenship vision. Here's how Nancy Pelosi is going about that:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops come to me and say we want you to pass immigration reform. And I said but I want you to speak about it from the pulpit. I want you to instruct your — whatever the communication is, the people, some of whom oppose immigration reform are sitting in those pews, and you have to tell them that this is a manifestation of our living the gospels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So let me get this straight: Speaker Pelosi wants a pro-immigration point of view in church? Wow. What about the wall of separation? Isn't that a great liberal tenet? Would the Speaker support preachers urging fiscal responsibility from the pulpit? Just asking.
Bottom line: Once again, the feds simply don't know what to do about illegal immigration. But the folks do know. Secure the border once and for all, and then pass an immigration law that is built on fairness, not ideology.
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JESSICATED
Tim Blair
In the manner of Kim Beazley, another Labor politician becomes confuzzled:
Addressing Parliament this afternoon to pump up the homecoming of the sailing teen, Ports Minister Paul McLeay got his Jessicas all mixed up.The girl’s name is Watson. Simpson’s knowledge of the ocean is rather more limited:
“Excitement is certainly building as Jessica Simpson makes her way around the globe,” Mr McLeay told Parliament …
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MORALLY CHALLENGED
Tim Blair
Back in January, Kevin Rudd’s hypocrisy over what he described as the “great moral challenge” of global warming was just a fringe blog issue. But now even Kerry O’Brien is hammering Rudd about it:
... but there’s one thing you can’t escape and that is this: it is still in your hands to go to the next election on the issue as you defined as ‘a great moral challenge of our time’, an issue on which you accused the Opposition of political, of absolute political cowardice …It does take a while for the ABC to catch up. But it hasn’t taken Rudd long to reverse course. Back in 2007, Rudd knew that he could win power by throwing money at global warming:
The car industry needs to make hybrid and other low-emission vehicles to stay commercially and environmentally viable, the Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, said yesterday as he promised the industry a $500 million incentive.He pursued this course during his first year or so as Prime Minister. But in 2010, Rudd knows that can only retain power by subtracting money from causes aimed at reducing global warming:
A program which took a hit was the Government’s big-ticket item from the end of 2008, its Green Car Innovation Fund, shedding $200 million ...As yesterday’s Daily Telegraph Budget editorial noted:
The Green Car Innovation Fund has taken a cut. A government’s priorities change when an election is within sight.UPDATE. Dave Carter in comments:
Was amused by Rudd’s outburst, saying no country worked harder on a Copenhagen agreement than Australia. Great boast to say the Rudd government played a leading role in a monumental failure.UPDATE II. A short history of Kevin Rudd’s big government.
UPDATE III. And by “big government”, I mean big government.
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WAITING FOR DERRO
Tim Blair
Headline of the week:
Sir Ian McKellen mistaken for a tramp while taking a break outside rehearsals of Waiting For Godot
(Via Andrew R.)
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Abbott’s fighting words: this reckless spending must stop
Andrew Bolt
Tony Abbott’s address in reply to the Budget was typically clear and well-written, but also very effective politically. The take-out line - and the election strategy, attacking both Rudd’s manic spending and broken promises:
I have one message for Mr Rudd. It’s one he should be familiar with: this reckless spending must stop.A brave analogy:
I know, as anyone who has spent time in remote indigenous townships should, that you can’t have much of a community without an economy to sustain it.And, even braver, this promise to take away some toys:
A good cause never justifies wasting money. On coming to government the Coalition would immediately restructure the school hall programme and provide further funding to school communities, not to state bureaucracies.This we already know, and, unlike the previous promise, will probably be delivered:
Likewise, the Coalition won’t go ahead with the National Broadband Network avoiding the creation of a $43 billion white elephant.Not dodging this fight, and not least because dodging it would seem weak and lacking in credibility, so why not argue back:
The former government’s workplace reforms went too far but they helped to create more than 2 million new jobs, lift real wages by 20 per cent and more than double net household wealth between 1996 and 2007. We’ll seek to take the unfair dismissal monkey off the back of small businesses which are more like families than institutions.Sadly, this mad and expensive promise hasn’t been ditched:
We’ll make Labor’s transitional employment agreements less transitional and Labor’s individual flexibility agreements more flexible. We have faith in Australian workers who are not as easily pushed around and exploited as the ACTU’s dishonest ad campaign is already making out.
For starters, there’ll be a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme which gives women six months leave at their full pay… But all benefits have to be paid for and the fairest way to have a paid parental leave scheme anytime soon is through a modest levy on companies’ taxable income over $5 million a year.A relative easy cut to promise, since it’s achieved by simply freezing Rudd’s expansion plans - a $4 billion gift to Abbott:
To rein in spending, the Coalition will introduce a two year recruitment freeze to reduce public servant numbers through natural attrition.,, This should deliver a modest reduction in public sector numbers without compromising essential services and save about $4 billion over the forward estimates.More easy savings - nearly another $1 billion over four years - that will hurt no one but green carpetbaggers and the Liberals themselves:
As well, the Coalition would not proceed with the budget increase to the renewable energy future fund and will cut government advertising by 25 per cent.Yet another saving (and Abbott says Hockey will shortly outline more):
Of course, there should be an electronic health record but hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent to make this a reality and no more should be spent until it’s certain that we’re not throwing good money after bad.But all those savings and more will be needed to make up for blocking the Government’s $9 billion a year “super profits” tax on miners, which Abbott sees as a battle-turner:
...a different great big new tax that will now be the issue on which the election turns.A credible pitch, and on economic management - which should always be the preferred battlefield for the Liberals. And hammering Labor right where it hurts.
I’d rate this speech very highly indeed.
The full speech here.
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Dissecting Wayne Swan’s stimulating proof
Andrew Bolt
In his Budget papers, Treasurer Wayne Swan include this graph to prove that his stimulus spending on all those pink batts, schools hall and cash handouts saved us from recession:
Look, the data from 11 countries show how clearly the size of their stimulus packages is closely linked to the size of their recoveries, as indicated by IMF forecasting errors. How clever our Government was to sink so much cash into its own stimulus. (That’s us, the third dot from the right, just above China and west of Korea.)
Small problem. As Professor Sinclair Davidson has found, Treasury used data from 11 countries, but excluded the data from another eight the IMF provided. Add those, and the picture changes dramatically, to indicate a very weak (albeit still positive) relationship between size of stimulus and recovery:
Davidson concludes:
In layman terms the slope coefficient is not statistically significantly different from zero and we cannot conclude that there is a relationship between the size of stimulus packages and the forecast error.I’m sorry; did you still believe a word this government said?
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Zambia says it tried Rudd’s tax - and got burned
Andrew Bolt
Zambia says it’s too smart to slug miners with a Rudd-style tax on “super profits”:
Mines minister Maxwell Mwale and Chinese state grid corporation executive vice president Shu Yinbiao exchange notes in Lusaka Government has maintained that it will not re-introduce the Windfall tax on the mining sector as it will militate against levels of mineral exploration activities in the sector.(Thanks to reader Richard.)
Mines and Minerals Minister Maxwell Mwale says explorations is the backbone of the Zambia’s future in the mining sector stressing that the introduction of super taxes of mines would lead a drop in explorations as witnessed when the windfall tax was introduced in Zambia.
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How our gate keepers went soft on boat people
Andrew Bolt
Former MP Peter Katsambanis was a member of the Refugee Review Tribunal, and tells me his former colleagues confirm it’s now under pressure to accept dodgy refugee claims:
The management of the Refugee Review Tribunal has hinted very strongly that members should start approving more refugee claims (that were otherwise not meritorious) after the change of government in 2007.UPDATE
It was made very clear by management that long term career prospects would not be enhanced by continuing to make decisions that were lawful and correct (ie rejections or affirmed cases where that was the correct decision to make).
Since I revealed this an an article in the Financial Review two weeks ago, I have been innundated with calls from people still on the RRT and have found out a lot more about the current culture of the Tribunal which I did not know before.
* one of the people deciding the next round of appointments on the RRT is John Gibson, a Melbourne lawyer who heads up the Refugee Council of Australia. He also appears in many appeal cases in the Federal Court appealing against decisions made by RRT members. The fact that this man is on a panel selecting or recommending RRT members offends every principle of independence of administrative decision making and it is reprehensible. Gibson no doubt does his job diligently, but his appointment could lead to a perception of politicisation of what should be an independent decision making body.
* The “set aside mentality” (to approve more claims) which I mentioned in the AFR article is not hearsay at all. I have been told in no uncertain terms that one of the Senior Members of the Tribunal made this exact comment at a training session of Tribunal Members in Sydney. A Senior Member has managerial powers over ordinary members of the Tribunal (including undertaking annual Performance Appraisals of members under their control) so comments made by a person in this position are taken as directives or edicts. Such a culture of a ‘set aside mentality’ is obscene and an affront to justice. Decisions need to be made fairly on the merits of each individual case applying the laws of Australia, the Refugees Convention, the facts of the case and any country information that is relevant in each case. To adopt any other mentality ("set aside” mentality or “affirm” mentality for that matter) will lead to incorrect decisions being made and is a direct attack on our justice system.
* Current members of the RRT in Melbourne and Sydney have made it very clear to me that they are currently operating under a “culture of fear” (their words not mine) because they feel they are being forced or cajoled into making decisions which they know are not correct. Some, especially those who are up for reappointment, strongly fear that if they do not toe the line they will be out of a job come the end of June.
It is sad to think that an independent Federal Tribunal is being turned into another arm of executive government, compliantly applying government policy rather than applying the law without fear or favour.
And this makes 100 boats for this financial year:
A second suspected asylum seeker boat has been intercepted off Australia in the space of a day. The boat, carrying 21 passengers and four crew, was found by HMAS Childers on Wednesday near the Ashmore Islands.UPDATE 2
And yet another:
An asylum seeker boat carrying 55 people arrived at Christmas Island this morning without being stopped and was boarded by Customs officials in Flying Fish Cove.(Thanks to reader Pat.)
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Fielding: Rudd’s super profits tax faces defeat in Senate
Andrew Bolt
Family First Senator Steve Fielding is likely to vote against Kevin Rudd’s $9 billion a year “super profits” tax - meaning it would be blocked in the Senate and blow a giant hole in Rudd’s Budget.
Fielding on MTR this morning told me he had “concerns” about the “short-sightedness” of “slugging an industry we’re going to rely on”. His vote, added to the Coalition’s, would stop the tax in the Senate and deny Rudd the $9 billion a year he’s counting on.
Fielding’s concern about the tax will only grow at the latest news:
SANTOS’S Queensland liquefied natural gas project is almost certain to be pushed back by at least a year, analysts say. Delays in locking in a buyer for the gas and uncertainty over the resource rent tax are clouding the $8 billion development.And:
Rio Tinto is to review all new capital projects in Australia in response to the government’s proposed super tax on mining companies.Here’s Rio boss Tom Albanese speaking at an investor conference in the US:
Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese criticised the Government’s new 40% tax on above normal profits, saying it was understandably being labelled a nationalisation of mining and condemned it as a danger to investment.
Mr Albanese said he had asked his managers to re-evaluate all new capital projects under “worst-case tax scenario”, the ABC reports.
Earlier this week rival BHP Billiton said a proposed uranium mine in Western Australia was under review as a result of the tax plans.
US energy firm Peabody cut its offer for Australian coal miner Macarthur and European energy firm Xstrata said it had suspended a $30 million copper exploration project in the country.
If the super tax had been in place, I think you could be assured that the Pilbara business would have been a lot smaller business now than it actually is today…UPDATE
We will continue to invest in Australia, but on different terms and under different risks. I’ve already asked our managers to re-evaluate all new capital projects under worst case tax scenarios. Unfortunately, Australian policy makers will risk de-raiding their mining industry if they’re not careful…
People are beginning to use terms like nationalisation and expropriation for this new partnership and this will not help Australia’s future investment climate.
Link to MTR fixed.
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Why feminists must cheer the banning of burqas
Andrew Bolt
Elizabeth Farrelly rightly argues that banning the burqa is a victory not (only) for the Right, but for feminists:
(A)lthough Belgium’s burqa banning is characterised as a victory for the far right, in fact, dammit, it’s a feminist issue.
Democracy pivots on the universal franchise; the presumption for each individual of a public identity, as well as a private one. To cover someone’s face in public, to reduce them to a walking tent, is to declare them lacking such identity, destroying any possibility of their meaningful public existence. It is, literally, to efface them.
To hide the face is to hide the person. As Shada Islam, Europe correspondent for the Pakistan paper Dawn, wrote last week, most European Muslim women have little patience with the burqa or its wearers, seeing it as “a sad process of self-isolation and self-imposed exile”.
And while you could see even exile as a personal right, it does directly contradict a public duty, the duty of public presence. The morality of identity-erasure may be (barely) acceptable, but the ethics are not. Brave little Belgium.
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How Rudd hid $50 billion in extra spending
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann destroys the Rudd Government’s claim that it’s being conservative in its spending:
Wayne Swan’s budget is built on two great fiddles. Appropriately, the fiddles relate to the Rudd Government’s two great stupidities - the National Broadband Network and the Emissions Trading Scheme.Former Treasurer Peter Costello says the Government has tricked us into focussing on what’s it’s promised in three years’ time - to reach a Budget surplus - instead of what it’s doing right now:
The fiddles enable the government to hide up to a massive $50 billion of new spending. So much for the claim they’ve pulled the pursestrings tight.
They also enable the government to ‘keep’ the growth in spending in the 2013-14 year to just 1.9 per cent. Without the fiddles, spending would actually have grown by at least 3.5 per cent in that year - shattering the government’s 2 per cent ceiling.
Now yes, the government’s second great stupidity, the ETS, has been ‘deferred’, while the first marches on…
Ditching the ETS enables the government to take up to $30 billion of proposed spending on it out of the budget and replace it - or most of it - by new spending. With, in an exercise of fiscal magic, no increase in the total spending number!
While separately the $26 billion-going-on-$43 billion to be spent on the NBN is just ‘disappeared’ almost completely from the budget!…
So, put the two together - the ditching of the ETS and the “no formal response” to the NBN - and the government has quite probably hidden as much as $50 billion of very real new spending out to 2013-14.
For the record, government spending will exceed revenue in the next financial year - a deficit of $40 billion - which will be financed by new debt. In dollar terms, it is the second-highest deficit on record, and in percentage terms about the level we had in the recession of 1983 and the recession of 1992. Except we’re not in recession. We are in the middle of the greatest mining boom since the gold rush…
So let us forget the distracting discussion of what will not happen in 2012-13 and ask some real questions about what is happening now. Should an economy that successfully avoided the financial contagion that came out of America in 2008, and which is undergoing a mining boom of unprecedented proportions, and after six interest rate rises in a row be running a budget deficit of 3 per cent of GDP?
Let me ask an even easier question: Should such a government be rolling out “stimulus” spending - paying over-inflated prices to build assembly halls in schools that did not ask for them and will have to generate ways to use them?
Should a government, in the middle of a mining boom, need to increase the rate of taxation given that it is already raking in record tax from the mining sector?
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The quickest way to equality is to shoot the rich
Andrew Bolt
I’ve never seen so starkly explained this crazy truth behind the Rudd Government’s decision to fix the “two speed economy” with a massive “super profits” tax on miners:
Treasury believes that if miners do make good on their threats to shut projects or expand overseas rather than in Australia, it would help address the problems of managing a two-speed economy. In particular, Treasury believes a slowdown in the resources sector would reduce the need for the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates.Which means the best way the Government’s figured to “fix” the problem of one bit of the economy performing much better than the rest is to crush the high achievers.
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Bank on the banks winning, one way or the other
Andrew Bolt
This could be interesting, but if the banks don’t get it from you one way, they will the other:
MILLIONS of Australians are being urged to join a series of class actions against the nation’s banks, seeking the return of up to $5 billion in penalty and late fees that lawyers say have been illegally taken from customers.
The actions, potentially the biggest in Australian corporate history, will target the biggest four banks - ANZ, Commonwealth, National Australia and Westpac - and eight foreign and Australian regional banks.
The organisation behind the move, litigation funder IMF, said thousands of people had signed up within hours of the class actions being revealed ...
The action is targeting billions of dollars in various types of ‘’exception fees’’, or penalty fees, charged by the banks. They include honour fees (incurred when accounts are overdrawn and banks honour the payments), dishonour fees for bouncing cheques, late payment fees for credit cards and loans, and fees for overdrawing credit cards. These fees typically range between $25 and $60…
The central legal argument behind the claims is that one party to a contract, when it seeks damages from the other party for breaking a contractual term such as a late payment, can recover only a reasonable pre-estimate of its actual costs.
Because the fees charged by the banks are many times their actual costs, IMF is expected to argue the fees were not legally enforceable and customers are therefore be entitled to refunds.
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A test for their brighter kids only
Andrew Bolt
Not the first claim of the tests being manipulated, but the best substantiated:
A PRINCIPAL has been recorded on tape questioning whether it is a good idea for a struggling student to sit the NAPLAN exam.Listen to the call here,
Leongatha Secondary College junior campus principal Leonnie McCluskey left a message for the boy’s parents on Tuesday just half an hour before the first test was due.
“I know it’s a really, really busy time for you getting the kids off to school and everything,” she said.
“I’m just not sure whether we should get (name deleted) to sit them. He may not feel comfortable sitting them.”
The call comes as authorities pledged to investigate claims some schools are manipulating the tests to get better results.
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And this time he’s promising a surplus in 2013
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd 2007:
KEVIN RUDD will take “a meat axe” to the bloated public service…Kevin Rudd 2010:
Mr Rudd said he was “dead serious” about bringing back the razor gang to trim the public service while not affecting services.
“It just strikes me as passing strange that this government that supposedly belongs to the conservative side of politics has not systematically applied the meat axe to its own administrative bloating for the better part of a decade,” he said.
Despite promises to take a “meataxe” to the public service, the bureaucracy is on track to swell by more than 10,000 under Mr Rudd’s leadership, Budget papers reveal…
Budget papers reveal the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will swell by 86, boosting its ranks to 704…
Overall, the federal bureaucracy will grow by 383 in the coming financial year. The overall head count will reach 258,704, up by 10,487 since the last election.
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Rudd spends $30 million to tell more warming lies
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd celebrates his ignorance in Parliament and jeers at truth:
Mr RUDD—I welcome any question from the Leader of the Opposition on climate change, any question whatsoever that he may wish to ask on climate change, particularly given his recent discussions in Sunday school with little children, telling them that it was hotter in Jesus’ time—and right on cue the guy up the back says, ‘It’s true.’ No credible scientist in the world believes that it was hotter in Jesus’ time than it is 2,000 years later after 250 years of the industrial revolution. You know those things called factories with smokestacks and things coming out of the top? That is what is making the world hotter. It is called climate change through global warming.No credible scientists believe it was warmer in the time of Jesus? Here’s just some of many I could name, who have put their names to a recent study in the Hydrological Sciences Journal:
DEMETRIS KOUTSOYIANNIS a; ALBERTO MONTANARI b; HARRY F. LINS c;TIMOTHY A. COHN cAnd what did these four men conclude from tree ring data?
a Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zographou, Greece b Dipartimento di Ingegneria delle Strutture, dei Trasporti, delle Acque, del Rilevamento del Territorio, Faculty of Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy c US Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA
Figure 3(a) indicates large fluctuations of temperature during the Holocene period, with prominent minima (e.g. the recent Little Ice Age) and maxima (e.g. the Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Climate Optimum and the Minoan Climate Optimum, with temperatures that were likely higher than at present).So Rudd misled Parliament this week - and maybe even lied.
If that’s not offensive enough, the Budget confirms he now plans to spend millions of your dollars to persuade you of his deceits:
... there will be $30 million over two years for a national campaign to ”educate the community in climate change”.That’s taxpayer-funded lying for purely political advantage. Utterly disgraceful.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones. UPDATE: link to study fixed.)
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I don’t think Kerry’s friendly territory any more
Andrew Bolt
I don’t think it was wise for Kevin Rudd to patronise an irritated Kerry O’Brien last night - or certainly not when his climate hypocrisy was stark naked to everyone but himself. Being painted as a fool when you’re actually right has a tendency to make a tough interviewer go in even harder.
Observe that haughtiness when asked why he said it was cowardice to wait for the world last year, but sane to wait this year:
KERRY O’BRIEN: Mr Rudd, when the Opposition tried to argue with you on holding back a vote on the ETS until after Copenhagen, that is, until after the world had made a stand, you said that was absolute political cowardice.
So why is it now not absolute political cowardice for you to show leadership on this to the rest of the world by seeking to take the Australian people with you at the next election on an ETS?
KEVIN RUDD: You know something Kerry where I think you’ve got this fundamentally wrong is um, frankly being absent from the negotiations in Copenhagen themselves.
There was no government in the world like the Australian Government which threw its every energy at bringing about a deal, a global deal, on climate change. Penny Wong and I sat up for three days and three nights with 20 leaders from around the world to try and frame a global agreement.
Now it might be easy for you to sit in 7:30 Report land and say that was easy to do. Let me tell you mate, it wasn’t.
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The pocket Windschuttle: where are those “stolen” Victorians?
Andrew Bolt
Here’s the fifth of reader Tony Thomas’s summations of the key arguments of Keith Windschuttle‘s important new book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History - Vol III: The Stolen Generations.
Today: Victoria’s embarrassing lack of stolen generations
(Previous essays in this ‘Pocket Windschuttle’ series are also collected at http://www.quadrant.org.au.)
In 2003 a Victorian Government taskforce on stolen generations, said, “…There was no formal policy for removing children.”
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