=== Todays Toon ===
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB (31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824; Scottish Gaelic spelling: Lachlann MacGuaire), was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by some historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century. An inscription on his tomb in Scotland describes him as "The Father of Australia".=== Bible Quote ===
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”- Matthew 7:13-14=== Headlines ===
Court hears one of Zhang "Tina" Yu's killers blamed victim, saying "every girl knows not to jump into a stranger's car" in what's been described as a planned "thrill murder" - I am not interested in their excuse or ideology. I want them behind bars forever. And I want Tina back and free and full of life. I won't get everything I want. - ed.A $5 billion fighting fund from Barry O'Farrell
THE man almost certain to be the state's next premier will today outline his plan for NSW, announcing a $5 billion infrastructure fund to pay for big transport projects like the M4 East or M5 duplication. Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell's Budget reply speech today will throw off his "small target" tag and is the biggest policy to be announced by the Coalition in this term. Mr O'Farrell will announce an infrastructure fund of up to $5 billion for road and rail.
AP photographer Rich Matthews, after getting up close and personal with the oil spill in the Gulf, speaks to Shepard Smith about the ordeal.Will Iran Sanctions Work?
U.N. security council hits Iran with sanctions in hopes of stopping controversial nuke program
Trying to Pick a Winner? Ask Palin
Former governor saw three of the four candidates she endorsed sail to victory or move on to a runoff in primaries
Mexican Forces Threaten Border Patrol
Security forces chased away U.S. authorities investigating shooting of Mexican teen by border agent, witnesses say
China Designs a Negative-Emissions Vehicle
The Nissan Leaf electric car has nothing on this. The YeZ (a take on the Mandarin word for 'leaf') may look like something out of the next “Tinkerbell” movie, but the organic two-seater was designed by a real automaker, General Motors’ Chinese partner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). The “negative carbon emissions” vehicle features an all-electric drivetrain that draws the bulk of its power from photoelectric converter mounted on the yez…uh, roof of the vehicle. Similar to the way a plant grows towards the light, the solar crystal films that make up the system can track the movement of the sun to maximize solar energy collection. Illuminated power lines that mimic the veins of a living organism carry the electricity to the battery of the vehicle via streams of light. Additional electricity is generated by small windmills mounted on each of the wheels.Finding a 5500 year old shoe
What were the fashion-conscious cave-dweller wearing 5,500 years ago? Archaeologists may just have found out. A perfectly preserved shoe, 1,000 years older than Egypt's Great Pyramid and 400 years older than Stonehenge, has been found -- buried in sheep dung in a cave in Armenia. The 5,500 year-old shoe was discovered by a team of archaeologists in a cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia, on the Iranian and Turkish borders. The shoe is the oldest piece of leather footwear in the world, a fact that came as a shock to the discoverers. "We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were in such good condition," said Dr. Ron Pinhasi, an archaeologist with Ireland's University College Cork. "It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon laboratories in Oxford, U.K., and in California, U.S. that we realized that the shoe was older by a few hundred years than the shoes worn by Otzi, the Iceman." Otzi the Iceman was a well-preserved mummy found in an Austrian glacier in 1991, also wearing shoes. Otzi's shoes were surprisingly complex, said one Czech academic at the time. "I'm convinced that even 5,300 years ago, people had the equivalent of a cobbler who made shoes for other people," Petr Hlavacek, a footwear expert from Tomas Bata University in Zlin told The Telegraph.
School returns to traditional uniform and focus on discipline in bid to beat its bad reputation, and now even pupils say there's more respectMum lives with two kids in car
DESPERATE working mum stuck in home nightmare because landlords keep knocking her back.
Journo recalls day soldiers' luck ran out
ABC veteran Chris Masters was on the scene when two Australian soldiers tragically lost their lives.
Public servant wages 'to push up pay'
STATE employees to get healthy raises, putting pressure on businesses to also lift pay.
Premier insults our Kokoda sacrifice
A REMARK about the Kokoda Track aimed at belittling a rival backfires on Kristina Keneally.
Courtenay takes aim at 'crap' book snobs
BEST-selling author Bryce Courtenay calls prizewinner Peter Carey "crap, boring, bullshit".
Rudd offers up bonanza from mining tax
PRIME Minister dodges angry protesters as he promises to hand out billions to shore up support.
Parliament slams door on homeless
IT'S the coldest bed on a freezing Sydney night - right under Premier Kristina Keneally's window. Dozens of homeless people are bedding down on a hard path at the side of Parliament despite a fence being built nearby to keep them from sleeping in the garden. MPs are angry the 2m tall fence, just metres from an existing metal security fence, will prevent homeless people sleeping in the garden, which is safe and patrolled 24 hours by security guards. It comes as a homeless advisory council the Premier set up just three months ago is in disarray, with the last meeting cancelled because of a ministerial reshuffle and the walkout of youth advocate Father Chris Riley. Homeless people sleep just one floor below the Premier's window at Parliament and MPs are worried what will happen to them. - Meanwhile Keneally paces the city streets looking for the Kokoda trail - ed.=== Journalists Corner ===
GREAT JOB to everyone in New Jersey who called Senator Lautenberg's and Senator Menendez's offices. Thanks to the phone calls and emails from constituents like you, they listened and decided to cosponsor the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act!
Senators get very few calls of gratitude. We urge you to call Senators Lautenberg and Menendez and thank them for co-sponsoring the renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act and for their unwavering support for Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggling people of Burma. For more information about the Act, see below.
For Senator Lautenberg: Call Andrea Friedman at (202) 224-3224
For Senator Menendez: Call Mark Lopes at (202) 224-4744
Say "Thank you for cosponsoring the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act!"
Many thanks to all Burma supporters in New Jersey.
Or click here to email Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez
Keep up the good work,
Mike Haack
Background of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act
In the past, a lot of money flowed from unsuspecting U.S. consumers to Burma's regime and its corrupt cronies every year, mainly via industries dominated by the military. Much of this "blood trade," such as the trade in rubies, strongly benefited the military regime. This business was increasing rapidly, and Burma's regime increased the size of its military force from under 200,000 to over 400,000. Then, a few years ago, some leading Senators successfully passed a law -- called the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act -- that banned imports from Burma. This has prevented the military regime from receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States.
Help us raise a million plus voices in honor of Burma's freedom leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on her 65th birthday. Sign up to host an Arrest Yourself event in her honor today!
It's crunch time! Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday is only two weeks away. Seize this opportunity to show your support for the Lady of Burma and protest against her unjust detention and call for her release so that she can govern the people who elected her.
Hundreds of people are getting busy hosting Arrest Yourself parties across the US. Last weekend, an Arrest Yourself party hosted by one of our supporters, Alix Clarke, made headlines. Check it out: "Islander 'arrests' herself in solidarity with Burma's imprisoned leader".; Now we need to multiply the impact Alix has made.
Please sign up today or consider making a donation in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi to show your support for her and for our work to support her in this struggle. USCB relies on contributions from Arrest Yourself fundraising to keep us going throughout the year. Times are tough, donations are down, and your contributions could make a huge difference to our work!
As you may already know, the military regime has embarked on a sham election process that undermines democracy and gives the junta a fake veneer of legitimacy. The regime has been clinging onto power with all its might for over two decades at the expense of freedom, blood, sweat, and tears of the people of Burma. What we do for Burma, at this critical time, will be a litmus test of our attitude towards freedom, democracy, and human rights.
Malcolm X once said, "Power in defense of freedom is greater than the power in defense of tyranny and oppression." At this year's Arrest Yourself events, this is the message we will send to the regime in Naypyidaw. Pledge to host an Arrest Yourself event in tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma for inspiring us with their courage and determination.
Power to the people of Burma! Do-ay-ye! Do-ay-ye! It is our rights, our cause!
With hope,
Nadi Hlaing
=== Comments ===
Obama on Oil Spill "No we can't"By Bill O'Reilly
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll is kind of shocking. It says a whopping 69 percent of Americans believe the federal government — the Obama administration — is doing a bad job handling the oil mess.
By contrast, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, 62 percent felt the Bush administration did a poor job in that disaster.
It is the drip, drip, drip of the oil spill that is hurting President Obama's image. Katrina came and went quickly. The spill continues to cause awful damage after seven weeks.
Realizing his entire administration is at risk, Mr. Obama is out making his case:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago, I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Tough guy rhetoric aside, the American public is frustrated because no solution to the spill has been found. Everybody knows how terrible the disaster is going to be. Even if the gusher were plugged today, billions of dollars in cleanup must be forthcoming. And even then, some of the wetlands and wildlife will never come back.
The British Petroleum corporation is, of course, responsible. But the president has not even spoken with BP CEO Tony Hayward:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I have not spoken to him directly, and here's the reason, because my experience is when you talk to a guy like BP's CEO, he's going to say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
With all due respect, the president should be speaking directly with Hayward, perhaps kicking his posterior verbally.
That same ABC News poll says that 64 percent of Americans want BP to be criminally investigated. Just 28 percent do not.
There is no question that scenes like the struggling birds, sea and wildlife have greatly angered the public. Americans want action, even if that action is symbolic.
President Obama now understands that graphic oil images are staining him, but there is little he can do about it.
So it's another "Barack and a hard place" situation for the president. His cool demeanor has brought heat directly on him. He is a man used to controlling situations, but this one remains out of control.
In any honest damage assessment of the oil debacle, the White House is up there.
===
UNREST AUSTRALIA
Tim Blair
Kevin Rudd’s $38 million tax promotion campaign begins with some kind of softcore evangelist literally lecturing people – in a vague, soothing, introduction-to-Scientology manner – about the benefits of Great Big Ruddtax. Take a look, then ask yourself:
• Who would approve such a creepy ad? Who would think it persuasive?
• Why are people attending this lecture? What course are they enrolled in?
• Maybe they had no choice. They do look a little like the unwilling attendees of a court-ordered rehab program.
• How could they write down the website address or telephone number when none of them have any pens or paper?
• They’ve made it through the presentation. When does their timeshare holiday begin?
By comparison, the mining industry’s anti-tax ads are zesty and fun. Not for Rudd, of course, who seemed slightly apprehensive yesterday in Perth, where a coalition of the digging rallied in opposition:
This was one of the rarest things in Australian political history: a street protest led by people who aren’t unemployed.Those too busy to attend – Western Australia’s unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation – were able to make their feelings known when Rudd briefly strolled through the business district:
People hurled abuse from nearby buildings while others called out “you’re a dud Rudd” from across the street.They just need more advertising.
UPDATE. “If you want to change the tax, you have to change the government.” Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest on the Rudd government’s silken negotiating skills:
Part two of the interview here.
===
WE CAN DANCE IF WE WANT TO
Tim Blair
Presbyterianism meets Footloose in Sweden:
Up to 100 youths rioted for two straight nights in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm, throwing bricks, setting fires and attacking the local police station.Why, it’s those youths again!
“They set fire to a school building ... They tried to set fire to the police station and other buildings and vehicles, but mostly they have thrown rocks and bricks at police and fire fighters,” police spokesman Mats Eriksson told AFP.Why’d they do it, chief?
“The whole thing started when a group of young adults were not permitted to enter a junior high school dance. They got angry and started throwing rocks through the school windows,” Eriksson said.People were dancing then a rock show happened. Usually it’s the other way around, but we live in unpredictable times.
Up to 100 people went on a rampage, breaking 23 windows at the local police station and setting at least one car ablaze.Only one? These “youths”, “young adults” or “people” – call them what you will – have much to learn about the art of car-b-que. Get those numbers up, kids. God hates a lazy Presbyterian.
Three people were arrested late Monday, but had since been released, Eriksson said, adding that “I would say things got worse” Tuesday night, when a school and four or five cars were set on fire.Maybe they’re just being too selective about these cars. Burners can’t be choosers. It might be time to ask a noted automotive expert for some direction on this.
(Via Andy Murphy)
===
ENVIRONMENTALISM: BAD FOR PEOPLE AND BUGS
Tim Blair
Exhibit A:
The gold standard for certifying “green” buildings fails to place enough emphasis on human health and needs to be upgraded, according to a new report from an environmental health group.Exhibit B:
Solar panels might be a cornerstone of green energy, but new research shows that they may have a dark side: the panels are a mesmerizing, lethal attraction to certain aquatic insects, drawing them to the panels’ surface and trapping them there until they die.I’d wheel out those bird-eating chewbots called wind turbines as Exhibit C, but for now the prosecution rests.
UPDATE. James Delingpole:
If there’s an industry in the world that deserves to be stigmatised more than any other, it’s the despicable, reprehensible, money-grubbing, mendacious, taxpayer-fleecing, bird-mangling, landscape-ruining, economy-blighting wind farm business. At least you could argue that blood diamonds make nice jewellery and that land mine manufacturers are making a valuable contribution to infantry defence. But wind farms are not merely worthless but actively evil – and anyone involved in them deserves to be as pilloried and despised as estate agents were in the Eighties or bankers are now.
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Rudd’s mice squeak
Andrew Bolt
Barrie Cassidy marvels at the humiliation of being a minister in the spin-mad, authoritarian and flailing Rudd Government:
Before most Australians arrived at work on Monday, at least half a dozen Rudd Government ministers had already responded to the opinion poll in that day’s Fairfax newspapers; the one that had the Coalition in front 53 per cent to 47 per cent.In fact, some minister have had enough at last and are demanding to be treated as adults, according to the Financial Review (no link):
They said a lot of things, but none of them - including Kevin Rudd himself - missed the critical spin for the day: that if those polls were repeated on election day, then Tony Abbott would be prime minister. They were just about word perfect…
The coordinated attack does imply that the Labor Party now accepts there is one major hurdle for voters to overcome before all is lost. They will not, when it comes to the crunch, vote for Tony Abbott.
That is negative, narrow, and yes, uninspiring. But if it is true, then you go with what you’ve got.
The truly sad aspect of the spin that day was how some otherwise intelligent senior ministers, robot-like, took their instructions from some “junior woodchuck” in the Prime Minister’s office, and dutifully did as they were told… (T)he perception is that no humiliation is beyond the current crop of ministers who long ago abandoned any sense of personal self respect or individual authority that once came with achieving such high office.
The dominance of the Rudd government’s “kitchen cabinet” over key policy decisions is set to end and the role of the full cabinet be reasserted as Labor tries to remake itself amid polls pointing to an election loss…Briefed, note. Not consulted, let alone asked to decide. It’s unbelievable that so many ministers allowed themselves to be treaed as mushrooms by a small group that has bungled one policy after another:
The Strategic Priorities and Budget Committee (SPBC) - known as Mr Rudd’s kitchen cabinet, or the gang of four - comprises Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Treasurer Wayne Swan, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner. It has taken a series of decisions without reference to the full cabinet, including those on stimulus spending and the Henry tax review.
Its role would now change following a cabinet process review initiated by the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Terry Moran, which would result in the full cabinet being briefed on major issues, government sources said.
(The AFR recently) reported that ministers arriving at cabinet meetings were given folders that they could look at, but not take out of the room, containing decisions already taken by the SPBC that they were expected to endorse without discussion.
Adds Laura Tingle (no link):
(S)ources jaded by the mess created for the government by the Prime Minister - and by the MPs, advisers and party strategists who advise him - insist, from the highest levels of the government down, people are increasingly demanding they be heard.Cassidy says Rudd’s Cabinet ministers are putting up with what the giants under Hawke would not and needed not:
They say this has started at the very top, with Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner all increasingly contesting and trying to reshape a political strategy widely seen as driven by youthful advisers with limited political experience, and by Labor’s NSW Right machine. Other senior figures are also understood to be making more interventions in political strategy, partly driven by the knowledge the government’s problems have caused a collapse in confidence in its political judgement, which is hitting staff hard. The question now, according to some, is whether the “government by smart-arsery” clique is listening.
(It’s) not quite the way it worked when Peter Walsh, John Dawkins, John Button, Susan Ryan and Graham Richardson sat just outside the “Hawke kitchen cabinet”.And Cassidy notes that this desperate and bungle-prone Government can’t even slime Abbott properly:
One attempt involved suggestions that he had been gifted an expensive state of the art road racing bicycle, and then failed to declare it on his pecuniary interest register. It turned out, after investigation, that he owns just two bicycles. He keeps one in Sydney and one in Canberra. The third bike, the subject of the potential scandal, was given to him by a dealership in Clarence Street, Sydney, and he promptly returned it.And then there’s its clumsy attempts to dodge critical media scrutiny:
Noted Melbourne conservative columnist, Andrew Bolt, was apparently barred from interviewing Kevin Rudd.UPDATE
On Tuesday, the production team behind Steve Price at the new talk station, MTR, was given five minutes notice that the Prime Minister was available for interview. The call came during the 40-minute segment when Bolt joins Price and routinely takes part in all of the interviews..
Bolt says: “At the request of his office, I’m out the door while he chats to Steve alone.
“Rudd is entitled to chose who to talk to, and the station is entitled to decide that it is well worth having a professional like Steve interview him, even if I can’t.
“But I’m entitled to draw conclusions when Rudd won’t talk to me, and so are you.”
Curious if the Prime Minister’s office specifically barred a particular journalist; even more curious that MTR would not insist that they decide who stays in their studio and the circumstances in which they stay. The new station, at the very least, may have missed a valuable publicity opportunity; and at best an interview that would have warranted far more than five minutes notice.
Rudd is so desperate that he’s offering a $2 billion bribe to WA to quell fury there at his “super profits” tax:
The Government expects to raise about $12billion over the forward estimates by imposing a 40 per cent tax on ‘’super profits’’ from the mining industry.But wasn’t this tax meant to “spread the wealth”? So why is a great chunk of it now going right back to the booming mining areas?
Mr Rudd tried yesterday to promote the benefits for Western Australia.. Western Australia would receive about $2 billion from the new $6 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund to invest in rail, roads, ports and other crucial projects in big mining regions.
Terry McCrann is scathing:
KEVIN Rudd’s trek to Perth with his bizarre bribe, and trailing his cabinet caravan behind him, was not a good idea and an even worse look. The assorted cabinet members looked all-too like stunned and rather meek turkeys voting for an early Christmas.Notes McCrann:
The bribe was crude and unconvincing enough… More substantively, here was the prime minister proposing to cripple the WA economy, and seeming to think that throwing a few baubles across the Nullarbor would both mute the realisation of and offset the very real disaster.
Since the announcement of the tax at the start of May, our dollar has fallen significantly further than other major ‘resources currencies’—of countries such as Canada, Chile, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia.
===
Teele: a tax to kill us
Andrew Bolt
Bruce Teele is chairman of the the country’s biggest investment company - and Kevin Rudd has him scared:
Australian Foundation Investment Company chairman, Bruce Teele likens the current government’s proposed resource super profits tax to Rex Connor’s economic nationalism in the 1970s, except that where as Connor and the Whitlam Government planned to nationalise resources with debt, the Rudd Government wants to do it through the tax system.Stephen Bartholomeusz adds:
At a media lunch in Melbourne today Teele, the former chairman of JB Were, made constant references to the sovereign risk created by the RSPT and the government’s treatment of Telstra. A veteran of half a century in the Australian sharemarket, Teele said he had never seen overseas investors turn against Australia so quickly.
He referred to the ‘’strong-arm’’ and ‘’non-consultative’’ approach of the government and his perception of its philosophical preference for the public sector to be a bigger proportion of the economy.
Teele’s comments, like the rather more cautious intervention of the Business Council, the warning of the threat to Whyalla’s existence provided by the chairman of One Steel, Peter Smedley, criticisms of the process under which the RSPT was sprung on the sector by Infrastructure Australia chairman Sir Rod Eddington and Future Fund chairman David Murray’s view that the retrospective nature of the tax creates sovereign risk, point to a widening of the support base for the miners among the broader business community.
The government is already under real pressure to significantly amend or abandon the tax. The difficulty it has is that it has already spent the $12 billion it expects to raise from the tax in its first two years. It can’t meaningfully reform the tax – and in particular it can’t excise the retrospectivity which is its most objectionable feature and the element that has driven the perceptions of heightened sovereign risk – without putting a $12 billion hole in its budget.(Thanks to reader Rudderless of Canterbury.)
It wouldn’t be able to go into the election with the swag of RSPT-funded promises it has already made and still be able to meet its promise that the budget would be returned to surplus in 2012-13.
===
Prince of Veils
Andrew Bolt
Does this explain why Muslim nations tend to be so poor? Or why the next head of the Church of England is a goose?
Prince Charles yesterday urged the world to follow Islamic ‘spiritual principles’ in order to protect the environment.Here’s the world biggest Islamic country, just to our north, showing this deep Islamic reverence for nature with one of its routine forest burns:
In an hour-long speech, the heir to the throne argued that man’s destruction of the world was contrary to the scriptures of all religions - but particularly those of Islam…
Charles, who is a practising Christian and will become the head of the Church of England when he succeeds to the throne, spoke in depth about his own study of the Koran which, he said, tells its followers that there is ‘no separation between man and nature’ and says we must always live within our environment’s limits.
UPDATEGavin Atkins wonders why the prizes for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Climate Reality Week Competition include a travel voucher and tickets to a bush festival that will take an awful lot of emissions to reach.
Maybe that realisation explains why, after pause for thought, the warming extremists of the AYCC have now hidden the results of the competition from prying eyes.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
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Shock finding: the Left doesn’t get economics
Andrew Bolt
Who knew?
Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey that I write about in the May issue of Econ Journal Watch, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101.(Thanks to reader John Comnenus.)
How did the six ideological groups do overall? Here they are, best to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8: Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67; Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.26.
Americans in the first three categories do reasonably well. But the left has trouble squaring economic thinking with their political psychology, morals and aesthetics.
===
Foiled again
Andrew Bolt
The shonks got paid smartly, but those sent to fix the havoc get only a broken promise:
ELECTRICIANS who have inspected 23,000 homes with foil insulation for potentially deadly problems have not been paid by the Rudd government.They say Kevin Rudd has broken an election promise for the government to settle all small business bills in 30 days.In October 2008, the Prime Minister said if any contract worth less than $1m was not paid within that time, businesses could charge the government penalty interest rates.(Thanks to reader CA.)
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Overland’s excuse won’t wash
Andrew Bolt
I think Victoria’s overly sensitive Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland, is in deeper trouble than the Brumby Government admits:
Overland is accused of compromising a secret police investigation into a murder thought to be linked to serving officers.Linnell deduced the obvious - that the information about the planned rumour came from phone taps - and later faced criminal charges for passing on that information to Ashby, who himself faced criminal charges for warning his friend Mullett.
It’s claimed phone taps unearthed intentions to leak to the 3AW Rumour File plans for Overland to attend a publicly financed course in France - a junket.
(Then Police Association boss Paul) Mullett admits (in a bugged conversation with a sergeant) to the planned leak and Overland admits to being told about it through the phone taps. He also admits to telling his media officer, Stephen Linnell, so he could “manage” it.
That same day, in what Overland describes as “panic”, Linnell warned (then assistant commissioner Noel) Ashby that his telephone might have been tapped.
What matters now is whether Overland used the information to protect himself, something he denies.
That’s the key. If the information was passed on for a “permitted purpose” there is no issue. If it was passed on for personal spin doctoring, the Telecommunications (Interception) Act may have been breached.
Overland’s answer to that was unconvincing. He said he was under “collateral attack” and it was crucial his reputation be protected.
But Overland, curiously, was never grilled, let alone charged, for the original release of information. So was his own release really for a “permitted purpose” involving legitimate police operations, rather than some personal sensitivity?
Here’s Overland’s excuse, as he gave it yesterday:
But he insisted that gossip about the trip - which he believed Mr Mullett was about to leak to Radio 3AW’s “Rumour File’’ - was part of “a campaign to discredit the investigation, to discredit me.’’To attack Overland with some silly rumour, then, was to attack the whole police force and discredit, even impeil, some unrelated police investigation. That sounds far-fetched, and even grandiose. I am the State; the State is me.
”It is part of what was an orchestrated campaign, a continuing orchestrated campaign, aimed at frustrating the Operation Briars investigation,’’ Mr Overland told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.
“It is the way these people work Neil, they’re masters at it.’’
But it’s also not the reason he gave in his initial affadavit to the Office of Public Integrity for leaking the information. Then it was excused purely on the grounds of his “sensitivity” to criticism:
I don’t know if Overland is guilty of an offence in leaking the information to Linnel. That’s a technicality - albeit an important one - that I don’t think is central to this debate.The question is really this: is Overland now a credible leader? His sensitivity and his extraordinary indiscretion suggest he isn’t.
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Govenment advises miners to topple it
Andrew Bolt
Twiggy Forrest says the Rudd Government’s claim that it’s negotiating with miners over its super profits tax is a “fraud” and “charade”. He says the first thing he was told by the Government in the negotiations was:
If you want to change the tax, you have to change the government.Oh. OK.
But the Rudd Government has blinked. Made nervous by the outcry over its decision to effectively embezzle $38 million of taxpayers’ money to pay for ads to sell its tax idea, it’s toned down the political content of the commercials to remove, for instance, the bogus claims of how little tax miners paid. Check the ad for yourself.
The result is an ad that’s bizarrely ineffective and frankly spooky. Indeed, Tim Blair has some questions, including:
• Who would approve such a creepy ad? Who would think it persuasive?I don’t think the ads are working in Western Australia, to be hit hardest by Rudd’s tax, to judge from Rudd’s visit yesterday:
• Why are people attending this lecture? What course are they enrolled in?
• Maybe they had no choice. They do look a little like the unwilling attendees of a court-ordered rehab program.
• How could they write down the website address or telephone number when none of them have any pens or paper?
People hurled abuse from nearby buildings while others called out “you’re a dud Rudd” from across the street.UPDATE
This may explain it:
DID Kevin Rudd write the Government’s latest mining tax television advertisement? That’s the question being asked around Australian advertising agencies and lounge rooms, three days after the latest ad hit our screens…(Thanks to reader Sandi.)
Marketing consultant Toby Ralph, who has worked on numerous Liberal campaigns, pulled no punches in his critique of the ad.
“If this ad were a dog you’d put it down,” he said. “If it was a movie you’d walk out and if it was a car you’d shove it over a cliff; it’s woeful.”
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Another government rush to waste billions
Andrew Bolt
More waste in the bungling of Melbourne’s water supplies:
THE Brumby government’s signature water saving projects were implemented without proper costings and without evidence that they were feasible, the Auditor-General has found.And an excuse familiar to those who’ve heard it all already about the Building the Educatuon Revolution and the free pink batts fiascos:
In a damning critique of the $2 billion ‘’food bowl’’ modernisation and the $750 million north-south pipeline, the auditor found Labor had failed to demonstrate the need for the expenditure and to properly explore alternatives.
Water Minister Tim Holding agreed that the schemes needed better planning and said the government would note the report’s lessons for future major projects.Rush, rush, rush. That’s not an excuse but an indictment. The Labor Government for years refused to concede Melbourne’s water supplies were in trouble (and refused to even contemplate building a new dam). The rush to build a pipleline to steal water from the farmers was the panicky consequence of this inexcusable delay. And then there’s the equally rushed decision to build a $3.5 billion desalination plant, the will give a third of the water for three times the price of a new dam.
But he said he would not apologise for rushing the irrigation upgrades. ‘’If we’d not rushed to make sure we completed these projects as quickly as possible we would have been at real risk of the state running out of water.’’
(Thanks to reader CA,)
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Flannery vs Bolt transcript
Andrew Bolt
Here’s the transcript from my confrontation yesterday with alarmist Tim Flannery on MTR 1377. (Listen here.)It was extraordinary to have Flannery deny what I had before me in black and white - his wilder predictions, his previous support for nuclear power - and even stranger to have him claim that non-existent desalination plants save cities such as Brisbane from avoiding the warming-caused dry he predicted.
I’m sorry I ran out of time to ask him about the $90 million his geothermal investment received from the Rudd Government last year, his conflicts of interest, his concession that there had been an inexplicable pause in global warming, his frequent-flying hypocrisy, his baseless scare about Antarctic melting, his involvement in Sir Richard Brazen’s joy-flights in space and more. But enjoy:
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