=== Todays Toon ===
Rush Limbaugh, along with Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore and Sonia Sotomayor, are being immortalized in their own biography comic books.=== Bible Quote ===
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 4:6-7=== Headlines ===
Times Square terror suspect told authorities he was upset over U.S. drone attacks, official tells Fox News, as Pakistani officials say he met with key Taliban leader.Can Containment Box Save the Day?
Ship carrying 100-ton containment box is heading to oil leak site in Gulf to try to cover flow of crude
Prosecution Rests in Navy SEAL Case
Twenty-four-year-old Matthew McCabe is accused of assaulting a suspected terrorist he helped capture in Iraq
Jeb Bush Endorses Rubio in Fla. Senate Race
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is endorsing Marco Rubio's campaign for U.S. Senate. Bush, still popular and influential with Florida Republicans, has long been rumored to be a Rubio backer, but his endorsement comes less than a week after Gov. Charlie Crist decided to run as an independent rather than face Rubio in the GOP primary.
For fashion insiders the difference between the first and second row is like night and day. Alison Stephenson reports on the heirarchy of the front row.Rio raises stakes in super-tax fight
RIO Tinto has shelved its $11 billion expansion plans in Western Australia in fresh blow to the PM.
Aussie developer 'murdered by rivals'
A HIGH-PROFILE businessman and colleague have been shot dead execution style, police say.
'White-out' of legendary sniper attacked
FURORE erupts over a white actor playing Chinese-Australian Gallipoli sniper Billy Sing.
Google search results get more complex
FIRST major makeover in years will give web-savvy users more control, but risks baffling others.
Men's mag told reader to cut ex's face
UK ZOO says "production error" to blame for offensive reply that appeared in agony column.
'We'll die before paying for ambulance'
ONE in five people would hesitate calling an ambulance if they had a heart attack because of the cost.
Barber uses the 'spray-slay' defence
BARBER "spraying" bullets randomly didn't intend to hurt any of the four people he shot, lawyer says.
Final polls point to hung UK parliament
BRITAIN is heading for a hung parliament according to the final opinion polls before the country's general election. The surveys give the Conservative Party a lead of between eight and nine points ahead of tomorrow's vote but none hand outright victory to its leader David Cameron, Sky News reported today. The Populus survey for the Times puts the Tories up one point to 37 per cent with Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour down one point to 28 per cent and the Liberal Democrats also down a point to 27 per cent.
Government's schools program has its flaws
WHILE principals have given the Government's controversial school construction program an overwhelming endorsement, a special review has found procedural problems. And the Government is yet to face the key question of whether the program is value for money, to be decided by a special taskforce inquiry. The Auditor-General found only 78 per cent of projects started on time under the $14 billion Building the Education Revolution program. And only 15 per cent of round one projects and 8 per cent of those in round two were on schedule, the report released yesterday said. The rush to spend the money, part of the $42 billion economic stimulus strategy during the global economic slump, meant there were unwanted designs imposed on some schools. This robbed locals of the chance to shape their work "to achieve the intended objectives".
=== Journalists Corner ===
We are thrilled to announce the U.S. book release of Undaunted by Zoya Phan, a prominent Karen leader and Burma activist, and International Coordinator of the Burma Campaign UK.Released in the U.S. on May 4, 2010, Zoya Phan's new book, Undaunted, chronicles her full life story from her harrowing childhood in remote jungles of Eastern Burma home to the Karen ethnic group, to her frustrating years at a Thai refugee camp, to her escape and emergence as an iconic Burma activist after agents of the Burmese regime assassinated her freedom-fighter father in 2008.
This book comes at an opportune time to shed light on Burma. As the regime plans to hold upcoming sham elections that will institutionalize impunity and prolong military control of the country, dictator Than Shwe is attempting to forcibly bring all ethnic minorities under his iron grip, even if it means burning down hundreds of villages, killing innocent people and driving tens of thousands of civilians out of their homes and into hiding.Undaunted paints a vivid picture of the long-overlooked plight of Burma's Karen people and their inspiring struggle against injustice and oppression. It offers a very personal perspective on the longest running civil war in the world, telling of individual courage and the capacity to overcome and triumph. But much more than, it tells the story of Zoya, a person well worth reading about.
Undaunted is now available. Click here to purchase it.
Sincerely,
Nadi Hlaing
Development Assistant, the U.S. Campaign for Burma
Laura Bush Exclusive!Inside her new tell-all book ... from her tragic teenage car accident to the shocking suggestion the president was poisoned!
Guest: Sen. Joe LiebermanHe's under fire for saying the U.S. should take away citizenship rights for people involved with terrorism. Now Sen. Joe Lieberman reacts!
===
"Comic In Chief"
How funny was the president's performance at the correspondents' dinner? SNL alum Dennis Miller reacts!
===
Total Immigration Overhaul?
Will Arizona's new law spark a change of policy across the country? Newt Gingrich speaks out!
=== Comments ===
Inside Story of Attempted Terror Bombing in Times SquareBy Bill O'Reilly
It was all very dramatic. An Emirates airliner about to take off from New York's JFK Airport is called back from the tarmac and three men are removed from the plane by federal officials.
One of those men, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, has been arrested in connection with the attempted bombing in Times Square over the weekend. Shahzad was trying to flee to Dubai. He is an American citizen, but recently spent five months in Pakistan. He told interrogators he was training to make bombs.
The Justice Department has Shahzad right now, obviously trying to find out exactly who was involved with the terror plot. The other two men removed from the plane have been released.
At this point, there are many questions surrounding the case, but it's similar to the Christmas bomber in Detroit. That is, a rather clumsy attempt to kill Americans.
But a bomb is a bomb, and there is already controversy about who should be questioning Shahzad.
The reason the New York City Police and federal authorities were able to catch this guy so quickly is partly because of surveillance cameras all over Times Square. Somebody call the ACLU and point that out.
Also, Shahzad was on the no-fly list, and the feds acted quickly after he was flagged.
So security tracking and electronic surveillance were the keys to apprehending this accused terrorist, and both of those methods are largely opposed by the left.
"Talking Points" is not big on politicizing terrorism, but these points need to be made.
A disturbing aspect to this case is that a terror group in Pakistan apparently made a tape discussing upcoming attacks on America before the Times Square incident.
As for the suspect Shahzad, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan is handling the prosecution. The FBI has been questioning the man, and politicians are grandstanding:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK: I want to make clear that we will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers. All of us live in this city, and among any group, there's always a few bad apples.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Maybe somebody should remind the mayor that Muslim fanatics have been threatening New York City and the entire country for almost 20 years. That's a lot of apples there, sir.
Finally, President Obama again avoided mentioning Islam or the terror war in his statements on the case. We understand the president does not want to inflame the Muslim world, but the issue should be dealt with straight-up.
Muslim jihadists want to kill us. Once again, we were lucky in Times Square.
===
A Muslim Condemns Those Who Have 'Hijacked the Faith of Islam'
By Naseem Mahdi
It is high time that Muslims living in the U.S. wake up to their responsibilities and declare openly and repeatedly and loudly that they stand for peace and loyalty and are proud of it.
Editor's note: On Tuesday, May 4, Naseem Mahdi, the national vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community condemned radical Muslim fanatics in a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Below is a brief interview with Mr. Mahdi and the transcript of his remarks at Tuesday's press conference.FOX FORUM: What made you decide to speak out on Tuesday at the National Press Club?
It was painful for me but I had to say what I said yesterday. You see, for a very long time, a small minority of Muslim clerics, they have hijacked the faith of Islam. It's not a problem of Muslims, it's universal, it's an international problem. I consider Islam the most beautiful religion because it teaches us to live in harmony with Christians and Jews. And when I see these people promoting hatred, I feel pain in my heart. That is painful to me. And what I said was not a pleasure to say because, a vast majority of Muslims are moderate, peace loving and abiding by the laws of the countries they live in. And they are being labeled as if they are all fanatics.
The second point I highlighted in my talk on Tuesday is loyalty to homeland. And this is not, I repeat, a political statement of mine. This is my religious duty. This is my faith. That we should be loyal to the country we live in. The Prophet Mohammed has said love of homeland is part of faith. So how could I think otherwise. If I live in the United States this is my religious duty. This is painful to me -- that people are living in the most beautiful country in the world, getting all of its benefits and then they are saying they are not loyal to this country? That's not only against religion, it's against common courtesy.
But some of those people I'm talking about, their loyalties lie somewhere else. Is this not hypocrisy? If you read the Koran, you find again and again that you should be grateful. You cannot be grateful to God, if you're not grateful to people. The most important thing is, that in the United States, and I consider it of great value, we have Freedom of Religion. There's not only that but freedom of conscience and freedom of choice. I am a Pakistani. But I cannot practice the faith of Islam, the way I see it, the moderate the Ahmadiyya interpretation of Islam, I cannot practice it in Pakistan. Jews cannot even enter Pakistan! And here, the United States and in Canada (I lived in Canada for 25 years), I have delivered speeches in an inter-faith setting with a rabbi on my right side and a Christian pastor on my left.
FOX FORUM: What has the reaction been to your press conference yesterday?
You can see some of the reaction on WashingtonPost.com. Some people say, "he's crazy. He's not giving the real Islam." They say that I am politicizing this. That I want to get something out of it. And this is the freedom I'm talking about. That's fine. We can have a debate on this but we don't fight. I've also gotten a lot phone calls and e-mails praising what I said yesterday and saying that we need to hear more on this from Muslim leaders.
Transcript of Naseem Mahdi's May 4 at a press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
We live in an expanding universe but the world is shrinking daily and it is so highly important for us all to discover and follow the paths that lead to peace.
I am going to make a few brief comments prompted by the recent attempted bombing in NY but necessitated by much broader considerations.
Islam condemns terrorism unreservedly and totally.
The Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, India, had declared over 120 years ago that there is no place or justification found in Islam for violence whatsoever.
He said that Islam requires all Muslims to live in peace and harmony wherever they may be.
It is thus the duty and responsibility of all Muslims living in the US to be loyal to the flag and to be law abiding citizens.
It is clear from the events happening all around that a small, fanatic, extremist minority of Muslims has hijacked the faith and continues to mislead and misguide the Muslims and ruin their total life.
In my considered opinion, such fanatics present a distorted view of Islam based on false and misguided interpretations.
For example such people say that it is not necessary for a Muslim to follow any non-Islamic government…This is utterly false..
If the vast majority of reasonable, peace-loving and law-abiding population of Muslims living in the US do not speak out and speak out loudly this will continue and ultimately ruin the lives, economic and social, of all Muslims and the community at large.
I am calling today on ALL MUSLIMS IN THE US to join me in condemning all actions of violence and terror caused or carried out by anyone whoever he or she may be.
I call on all of them to boldly claim and express with their tongue and action that they are loyal and law-abiding and obedient citizens of the United States of America.
This is fully in accord with the teachings of Muhammad, peace be on him, the Holy Founder of Islam, who said that hubbul watanay minal eeman..
Love of one’s homeland, one’s place of residence, is a part of the Muslim’s faith..
It is high time that Muslims living in the U.S. wake up to their responsibilities and declare openly and repeatedly and loudly that they stand for peace and loyalty and are proud of it and that this is in fact what Islam itself requires of them.
Let me end by being totally forthright.
I say to those among Muslims living in the US who are not loyal or who do not want to be loyal that they are benefiting and enjoying all that this open, free, country has to offer and yet they say that their loyalties are to another country or government.
I want to say to such people that they are not only living a false and hypocritical life but that they are thus also ungrateful and my advice to them is to be bold and leave and go and live in the lands where their loyalties belong.
===
What didn’t Emerson know, and when didn’t he know it?
Andrew Bolt
Last Sunday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced he’d slug miners with a new $9 billion tax on their “super profits”
Just three days earlier, Small Business Minister Craig Emerson - apparently in total oblivion - called for fewer constraints on mining, not this crippling more:
Slowing down the development of Australia’s mining and energy resource industries would be a scandalous wasted opportunity to lock in future prosperity and achieve social and environmental goals such as supporting school students in disadvantaged communities, Australians with disabilities, those with mental illnesses and others who are too sick to work, and preserving Australia’s unique biological diversity.
Easing the constraints on our mining and energy resource industries is by far the better way to go.
===
CSIRO suddenly feels a chill wind
Andrew Bolt
There’s a whole division on climate change that’s probably now surplus to Rudd’s needs:
THE nation’s top scientists are bracing for up to 500 job cuts as speculation mounts about changes at the CSIRO. Information from a meeting of senior CSIRO executives indicates there are plans for widespread redundancies at the national science agency.
Meanwhile, Dr Roy Spencer’s satellite data says it was a little cooler in April:
===
Ban the burqa?
Andrew Bolt
I think the initial argument given by Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi is a bit silly, but his concern over the role of the burqa here is one that some of the Left now share, too:Ban the BurqaMeanwhile in Italy:
The burqa is no longer simply the symbol of female repression and Islamic culture, it is now emerging as the preferred disguise of bandits and n’er do wells.
In Sydney this morning a man was robbed by a burqa wearing bandit who further disguised his (or her) identity by wearing sunglasses. The bandit was described by police as being of “Middle Eastern appearance”.
Well of course he was (assuming it was a he) because the only characteristics the victim could see were the burqa and the sunglasses. Now unless the sunglasses had ‘made in Iran’ stamped on them, it’s fair to say that the ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ line was attributed to the head to toe veiling of the Islamic burqa.
In my mind, the burqa has no place in Australian society. I would go as far as to say it is un-Australian. To me, the burqa represents the repressive domination of men over women which has no place in our society and compromises some of the most important aspects of human communication.
It also establishes a different set of rules and societal expectations in our hitherto homogenous society.
A Muslim woman queuing at a post office in Italy has been fined £430 for wearing a burka in public. Amel Marmouri was spotted by police and penalised in the first case of its kind in Italy.In Belgium:
The 26-year-old Tunisian lives in Novara – 50km (30 miles) west of Milan – where the mayor brought in laws banning clothing that ‘prevents the immediate identification of the wearer inside public buildings, schools and hospitals’.
Husband Ben Salah Braim, 36, said: ‘We knew about the law and I know that it’s not against my religion but now Amel will have to stay indoors. I can’t have other men looking at her.’
The law had two purposes, said mayor Massimo Giordano – a member of the Northern League, which wants a clampdown on immigration and the building of mosques.
‘I signed the new regulations for reasons of security but also so that people who came to live in our city are aware and respect our trad itions,’ he said.
‘”...This is the only way to stop behaviour that makes the already difficult process of integration even harder.’
Muslim groups today agreed the law must be respected.
‘We have always said we are against face veils or coverings in Italy bec ause the law of recognition has to be observed,’ said Imam Izzedin Elzir, president of the Islamic Community and Organisations Union in Italy.
The Belgian parliament’s vote to ban the burka could set the stage for similar moves across western Europe, where citizens fear that growing Muslim populations may pose a threat to liberal and secular values.
Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, who has repeatedly said the burka is “not welcome” in his country, has ordered a bill that would forbid its appearance in public places. Politicians in the Netherlands and Italy have pushed for such measures.
===
Feel you’re being spun?
Andrew Bolt
But what does the phrase mean, anyway?
(Thanks to reader CimateScam for the clip.)
UPDATE
Reader oPapaya has answerED Steve Price’s request on our MTR show yesterday for a ring tone of Rudd’s “working families” spin.
For masochists, here you go: Kevin Rudd’s Working Families Ringtone.
===
Miners threaten Rudd with an investment strike
Andrew Bolt
These may as yet be merely threats, but I wouldn’t care to bank on it:
MINING giant Rio Tinto has shelved plans to spend $11 billion expanding its massive iron ore operations in Western Australia because of the wave of uncertainty sparked by the Rudd government’s proposed tax on super profits.I’ve said the Rudd Government has lied by claiming this “super-profit tax” is linked to its rise of the superannuation guarantee levy, which is actually to be paid most by employers. But in turns out the two are linked, after all, but in a very different way to what the Government claimed:
As Kevin Rudd faced down industry executives in Perth for a second day yesterday, it also emerged that fellow miner BHP Billiton was reassessing the viability of its iron ore and coal projects in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia.
And Origin Energy said yesterday the proposed 40 per cent “resource super-profit tax” would push up “retail energy prices” by making gas and coal to drive power plants more expensive.
THE government’s proposed super-profits tax on the mining industry has slashed the retirement savings of investors by up to $6 billion in just three days, undermining its parallel push into increased superannuation contributions. In an unintended consequence of the government’s plan to fund some of its super reforms with a new resources tax, super accounts have been hit by heavy selling on the local sharemarket.That said, some support for the Government in an investor survey - although some scepticism, too:
Investment experts say the benefits of the reforms might be diluted by lower profits in the resource sector in which Australian super funds have $120bn invested…
The value of Australian resources companies has plunged 5 per cent this week, although they steadied yesterday with gains to BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals, despite heavy falls in London and New York.
The latest Investor Pulse survey by market research group Colmar Brunton and BusinessDay indicates 65 per cent of investors believe the proposed reforms assume too much about China’s ongoing growth and demand for resources…UPDATE
The survey reveals a surprising result. A slim majority of 53 per cent of ASX retail investors support the super-profits tax, on the basis that the cuts to company tax would keep the economy more balanced than it might otherwise have been, and that all Australians own the minerals our miners export. Interestingly, the share price of companies including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals rose yesterday, after a two-day pummelling.
The survey also shows that 53 per cent of investors don’t buy the argument that the new resources tax will drive mining companies such as BHP and Rio to move their investments offshore.
A bold call, especially since it was made before the share prices of the miners rallied:
Tony Abbott is expected to put the Prime Minister’s resource super profits tax at the centre of the opposition’s election agenda today by announcing officially that the Coalition will oppose the $10 billion-a-year tax.
UPDATE 2
Terry McCrann sees overreach on both sides:
And while yes, BHPB and Rio have fallen more and yes, that’s clearly a consequence of the RRT announcement, their losses are not uncharacteristic and they are by no means cataclysmic. Both are off 5 per cent so far this week.UPDATE 3
A cooler, more sober assessment of the RRT proposal than we’ve seen so far has to start with two big and contradictory points.
First, it is clearly the right and arguably the duty of the Federal Government to impose an RRT. The hysterical clamour against it is another classic combination of greed and stupidity - helped in part by the government spin in opting to call it a super-profits tax.
The resources that are the source of both the profits being earned and proposed to be taxed are owned by us, the taxpayer.... What the RRT seeks to do is to tax some of the excess profit generated, over and above that required to reward the mining companies for what they are doing....
Except it would make a huge difference to mining exploration and development… If we impose the RRT and, say, Canada doesn’t, or has a less punitive version, more exploration and development will take place there.
Secondly, it is precisely the super-profits from the literal and figurative gold mines that ‘pay’ for all the dud spending, including the dud spending on projects that were supposed to make a lot of money. The critical point is that you need to have that anticipation of super-profits upfront ahead of spending any money on anything in the very dicey and volatile resources sector.
Take even just 40 per cent of those super profits, and you will seriously chill spending in the resources sector… In short, the Government has every right to impose the RRT. But equally the consequence could be if not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, to at least partially sterilise it.
Shadow minister for superannuation Luke Hartsuyker:
Since the 40 per cent super tax on mining companies first appeared in the media on April 13, the metals and mining index has dropped by 13.2 percent. With around 9.3 per cent of all superannuation assets invested in the mining sector, a one percent fall in the value of the mining index equates to a $1.1 billion loss in superannuation.(No link.)
The value of superannuation funds for mums and dads right around the country has therefore dropped by $14.5 billion. Since Kevin Rudd confirmed the tax last Sunday the value of superannuation funds has slumped by almost $6 billion.
UPDATE 4
Reader John, at a trade fair in Shenzhen, thinks the Chinese have made their judgment on our future:
UPDATE 4In the US, hedge fund manager Dennis Gartman tells subscribers of his ”Gartman Letter” that Rudd is doing a Chavez:
(Thanks to reader Ron.)===
Government’s $25 million consultants say it’s right
Andrew Bolt
Wow. Nice work if you can get it - for a $25 million fee. How grateful would the consultants be to such a generous patron?
THE Rudd government will finally release a study into the economics and implementation of the $43 billion national broadband network today, two months after it received the findings.(Thanks to reader elsie.)
The $25 million study, by business consultants McKinsey and KPMG, considers Canberra’s contentious proposal to build a high-speed fibre network to 90 per cent of Australian homes.
The study is believed to back the economic case for the NBN, with or without the involvement of Telstra, as the government requested.
===
Do it again! But with swords this time
Andrew Bolt
Modern man isn’t so very different to the ancient Romans, after all:
A NIGHT after a teen fan was Tasered after running onto a baseball field (pic above, video here) - another supporter has done exactly the same thing at the same ground.
Play had to be stopped in the ninth innings of the game against the St Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia after a Phillies fan decided to make a spectacle of himself…
As the overweight man stumbled around the outfield, the crowd responded with chants of ”Tase him! Tase him!”.
===
Henry gets it right, more than a year too late
Andrew Bolt
Treasury secretary Ken Henry has belatedy thought up a much saner way to tackle a recession than his earlier spend-spend-spend advice to a reckless Rudd Government. Says Professor Tony Makin of Henry’s now-shelved tax review:
The great irony is that many of the productivity-enhancing proposals in the review could have formed the basis of a much more beneficial fiscal response to the global financial crisis more than a year ago, especially the measures that would have cut personal and business income taxes.
Instead, driven by the same panic that spooked financial markets, fiscal policy swung into frenzied mode, delivering an unprecedented spending spree that has been credited, quite refutably, with saving the economy from the global recession in 2008-09.
If this ultra-Keynesian spending response to the GFC did play a role in the Australian economy’s soft landing, why then has a similar response failed in the US, where the preconditions were all the more relevant?
In the US, extravagant public spending was supposed to prevent unemployment rising above 8 per cent, but unemployment subsequently rose to 10 per cent.
Had some of the Henry review’s recommendations been implemented during the GFC, particularly those that would have seen a permanent flattening of the marginal tax rates on personal income and tax cuts for small business, they would have delivered longer-lasting supply side benefits. Compare this with the cash handouts, insulation batts and school buildings, the budgetary cost of which has seen billions of dollars disappear into ceilings and down the drain.
===
Killing for the right to bludge off the state
Andrew Bolt
People are being murdered by Leftists determined to protect unaffordable rorts and perks that are bankrupting Greece:A FIRE-BOMB attack on a bank in Athens left at least three people dead as police fought pitched battles with striking protesters furious at brutal spending cuts designed to avoid national bankruptcy.UPDATE
Hooded youths hurled petrol bombs at stores and businesses in the Greek capital, setting the bank and two government buildings ablaze…
Athens underground stations were shuttered and the international airport deserted as tens of thousands of union members rallied on the eve of a vote in parliament on the planned cuts and tax hikes… Hundreds of thousands of civil servants kicked off the protests and a group of about 200 communists also stormed Athens Acropolis, unfurling banners reading “Peoples of Europe, Rise Up”.
But will the pundits foam over this murderous violence as they have over often mythical reports of rudeness from America’s Tea Party movement?
Indeed, had Shahzad turned out to be an Obama hater instead, how much would we have now read of the irresponsible hatreds stirred by the political Right?
Faisal Shahzad was losing his Connecticut home to foreclosure, disliked President George W. Bush, and was an almost invisible presence at the American university where he earned two degrees.
===
Report fails to check how much of the $16.2 billion went in rorts
Andrew Bolt
Great inquiry into the Building the Education Revolution rorts. It’s actually been blocked from investigating the key problem:
AN audit of the Rudd government’s $16 billion school building program has identified major difficulties including projects being behind schedule, complaints about a “one-size-fits-all” approach and doubts over the extent of jobs the scheme has created.As the report itself put it:
The report, released this morning, was critical of the government’s planning and implementation of the scheme.
And it noted that it was unable to address widespread complaints about value for money in individual projects because of its limited terms of reference.
an examination of particular BER P21 projects was outside the scope of the auditThat’s bizarre. The main debate is precisely on this very point: on how many of our billions have been wasted.
In fact, a great many state school principals already suspect they’ve been ripped off, according this survey question from the report:
In interpreting this graphic, bear in mind that the vast majority of state school principals fall into the top category - where only some 40 per cent say the project drawn up for them seemed value for money:only 10 per cent of government school principals reported that they were responsible for commissioning the design of their project, whereas this was over 60 per cent in the case of Catholic schools and over 90 per cent in the case of independent schools.As the ABC reports, then:
Almost 30 per cent of principals surveyed by the auditor-general believe they are not getting value for money from the controversial $16.2 billion school building program. And a third of schools have complained about the scheme, contradicting claims by the Federal Government that less than 1 per cent of schools are dissatisfied.The report blames ignorance for this widespread perception among principals of waste:
In many cases, concerns from principals and community members about value-for-money relate to a misunderstanding of the building standards Education Authorities are expected to adhere to in building education infrastructure.Really? What if they don’t accept the need for these expensive standards?
Even so, the report does discuss the vast cost overruns:
The report also questioned the reasons for a decision last year to boost the funding of the projects by $1.7 billion.So when do we get to find out how much of the $16.2 billion in funding was actually wasted?
While Education Minister Julia Gillard said at the time the extra funding was being allocated because of higher-than-expected demand, the report makes clear the government had always expected a blowout.... However, the need for extra funding did not arise from any problems in the procurement process.
“Ultimately, the need for the additional funding provided by the Government in August 2009 arose from most schools having sought the maximum payments available....”
Originally forecast to cost $12 billion when announced in February 2009, the cost of the (primary schoools component of the) scheme was increased to $14 billion in August 2009.
Questions about whether the program delivered value for money were being investigated by the BER Implementation Taskforce, (Gillard) said.UPDATE
“The independent taskforce has the powers and resources at its disposal to investigate complaints, particularly with regards to value for money.”
The taskforce, headed by Brad Orgill, will deliver its first report in three months.
Phillip Coorey notes that the Auditor General has exposed yet more deceitful spinning from a Government that had actually underfunded its promise:
In August last year, the decision to take $1.7 billion from other elements of the $42 billion stimulus program and redirect it to school buildings was portrayed as a wonderful coincidence, all cloaked in a progress report on the entire program.
“As it’s turned out, so many primary schools want to be involved in this highly successful program that almost 100 per cent of primary schools have taken the opportunity to source funds through primary schools for the 21st century,’’ the Education Minister, Julia Gillard said at the time.
As it turned out yesterday, the surprise was confected because Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and Lindsay Tanner, knew from the outset the $12.4 billion program was likely to require more money.
No comments:
Post a Comment