=== Todays Toon ===
General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB (4 May 1777 – 13 August 1855) was Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, Australia between 1831 and 1837.=== Bible Quote ===
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”- Philippians 3:20=== Headlines ===
Obama pushes for 'fair' and 'prompt' claims for people and businesses affected by BP oil disasterIsrael to Ease Gaza Blockade?
Top Mideast mediator Tony Blair says Israel to shorten restricted goods list, possibly reopen border crossings - is this a deal to allow Israel to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran? -ed
Reid's Risky New Slogan
As lawmakers try to distance themselves from D.C., Senate Majority Leader Reid is doing the opposite - he may not be competent, but he is definitely an insider - ed.
Catholics Push Hyundai to Cancel Ad
Critics say ad that ran during U.S.-U.K. soccer game was blasphemous, made 'mockery' of church's core teachings - as hamfisted and ridiculous as those who rise in protest against Mohammed being depicted in cartoons. We don't need organizations fighting over who is more precious or insane. - ed.
A light plane has caught fire on impact after hitting a power pole and crashing in a park close to a primary school, with reports suggesting two people were killed in the crash - down the street .. in Canley Vale - ed.UPDATE
A pilot desperately searched for a safe place to land before his plane hit a power pole and burst into flames, killing him.Parents need to parent: Coroner
NO one cared where a drunk girl was or who she was with when she hung herself from a tree.Taser fight at Cup for rival TV networks
CHANNEL 9 guard "Tasered" by Seven counterpart as TV crews battle over World Cup access.
House price growth 'set to slow on rates'
RISING rates and less first-timers entering the market will cool house prices, forecaster says.
Rich wife must pay ex-hubby $4000 a week
DIVORCEE ordered to pay waiter husband spouse maintenance so he can keep luxury lifestyle.
Kevin Rudd holding the line on tax reform
KEVIN Rudd has vowed to hold his nerve over his planned 40 per cent mining tax, rejecting tumbling popularity ratings and intense political pressure as part of the cost of delivering "reformist government". The Prime Minister likened the proposed resource super-profits tax to historic economic reforms delivered by former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, insisting it would benefit Australians and the economy for years to come. Mr Rudd will today face caucus ahead of the return of parliament for another two-week sitting before going into recess for eight weeks. Saturday, August 28 is shaping up as the most likely election day, betting agency Centrebet says. A Nielsen poll published last week showed the Coalition with an election-winning lead of 53 per cent to 47 per cent in two-party-preferred terms. With Mr Rudd's opinion poll ratings in freefall, MPs in marginal seats are hoping their boss' address to the Labor caucus has a plan to revive the government's flagging fortunes. Tension over Labor's position exploded at the weekend when Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced to rule out a leadership challenge after former Queensland Labor treasurer Keith De Lacy publicly called for the caucus to dump Mr Rudd over the RSPT proposal. Mr Rudd dismissed leadership speculation, saying criticism about his prospects was not coming from within his cabinet or caucus but admitting there had been "anxiety in the wider Labor Party". While admitting he and the government had sometimes "fallen short of the mark", he lauded its "solid record of achievement" including economic management that had saved Australia from a recession caused by the global financial crisis. - simply not true. Rudd is hoping no one points out the emperor has no clothes. - ed.Kristina Keneally's flat plague
A CONCESSION changing the rules on public transport could open the way for strips of high-rise flats, councils have warned.
3D skin is the holy grail in burns treatment
IT IS considered the holy grail in burns treatment - living, fully functioning skin grown in a lab that will transform the lives of burns victims. Known as 3D skin, it is made of synthetic material and implanted with a person's stem cells to take on the natural properties of skin. The discovery has been led by a team of scientists at the newly established Sydney Burns Foundation, a collaboration between Sydney University and Concord Hospital. The new skin grows up to 1.5cm thick, deeper than grafts doctors can currently use on burns victims and it is hoped it will stretch and breathe better than grafted skin. "Until now all we have been able to do is replace the outer layer or epidermis - about 1mm," Concord Hospital burns surgeon Associate Professor Peter Haertsch said. "What we have not been able to do is replace the dermis which is responsible for other functions such as temperature control, perspiration, senses and touch, pleasure and pain as well as durability."
Obama likens Gulf spill to September 11
PRESIDENT makes fourth visit to Gulf and likens disaster to the September 11 terror attacks which will shape America for years.
Guard steals $288,000 from parking meters
SECURITY guard jailed for pinching parking meter coins for gambling, cars and holidays.
TV producers 'were relying on Abby dying'
Dad cut ties with reality show he felt assumed she would die.
Scared matador runs away from bullring
THE bull charged and matador Christian Hernandez took off - across the ring, and over the wall.
Former Knox Grammar School teacher Craig Treloar jailed over sex abuse
A FORMER teacher at an exclusive Sydney boy's school has been jailed for at least two years for sexually abusing young students more than two decades ago. In the NSW District Court today, Judge Colin Charteris set a maximum of four-and-a-half years in sentencing Craig Treloar. The 50-year-old had pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault and one of inciting a boy to an act of indecency.
Asylum seekers 'tasered' during detention
ASYLUM seekers on hunger strike over conditions in Australian funded detention centre in Indonesia.
Dad jailed for beating and having sex with his 11-year-old daughter
A 33-year-old single father of four has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment for having sex with his 11-year-old daughter. The man, who cannot be named, committed the offences between December 2008 and June 2009, the Victorian County Court heard today. The judge said the sexual assaults only came to light after the man had hit his four children with a belt trying to find out who had stolen $3 from a change bowl. The children had gone to school that morning upset over the beatings and a teacher had reported it to police who then discovered through interviewing the girl that she was an incest victim. The judge said the man had only pleaded guilty halfway through the trial after his daughter had gone through the trauma of giving evidence and where it had been alleged she had made the whole thing up.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Will you sign up to host an Arrest Yourself event in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi? If you are unable to host an event, please consider making a donation in her honor.It is less than a week away from Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday on June 19th. She will spend yet another birthday under house arrest, as a political prisoner of Burma's dictator Than Shwe -- simply because her courage and her vision for a democratic and free Burma frighten the regime and threaten its hold on power.
With upcoming sham elections and undemocratic election laws in Burma, the military regime is trying to silence Aung San Suu Kyi and keep her away from the people of Burma. Together with Burmese activists across the US and around the world, we have been working hard to make sure that Aung San Suu Kyi remains in the spotlight. We must show that Aung San Suu Kyi cannot and will not be forgotten - not by her people, not by us.
If you are too busy to host an event before her birthday on June 19th, please consider making a donation in her honor. The Arrest Yourself campaign is one of two major fundraisers that USCB carries out annually and we rely on your contributions to continue our advocacy efforts throughout the year.
You can also find out about Arrest Yourself events happening near you. That way, you can co-host or attend events together and raise awareness about Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma.Please help us amplify our efforts for Aung San Suu Kyi by signing up today or making a special contribution to the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Thank you for standing up for human rights and freedom in Burma.
With hope,
Nadi Hlaing
On the Record with Greta Van SusterenGreta sits down with the family of Stephany Flores, the young girl Joran van der Sloot savagely murdered. Now, they demand justice for their slain daughter! Don't miss this must-see interview.
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The O'Reilly Factor
A new spotlight on Sarah! We look at how Palin is taking a leading role for women on America's right and how the mainstream media is reacting!
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Hannity
Sean talks to Sharron Angle, the GOP candidate taking on Harry Reid for his Senate seat. What's her plan?
=== Comments ===
Obama Fuels AngerBy Bill O'Reilly
So now we're told that the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico is double — double — what BP and the government had said it was.
It is very apparent this whole disaster is totally out of control, and Americans are furious about it.
In addition, the economy remains a mess. Unemployment is almost 10 percent, and the stock market has lost nine percent in the last few weeks.
And then there is ideology. Conservatives are angry because the Obama administration is spending like crazy and expanding government. Liberals are seething because the president is not far-left enough.
Last week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made the mistake of attending a far-left conference in Washington, where she was grossly insulted:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, D-CALIF.: OK. Right. That's OK. That's OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if we can stop it. There's too many of them.
PELOSI: Wait, just a moment. OK, you have made your point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, they're throwing stuff. We need to leave.
PELOSI: Look, I am going to — excuse me, excuse me. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. You have made your point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
On the other side, the Tea Party people are absolutely outraged, as you know:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GROUP: Kill the bill. Kill the bill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, whenever you get angry, your judgment is affected. But sometimes anger produces positive action, so it can be a good thing.
However, as we all know, anger can also become irrational, destructive and hateful.
The United States is the most powerful country the world has ever seen, and now it is an angry nation. The fuse has been lit. President Obama has become even more polarizing than President Bush was, and almost every elected politician is in danger of losing his or her job.
Simply put: Americans are fed up. They believe they can no longer control their own lives.
Nobody knows how all this will play out, but I do know that this oil spill disaster is changing everything in this country. It's almost like a message written in the sky: Big government cannot solve all problems. The feds have no idea how to control this atrocity in the Gulf.
At this point, "Talking Points" believes we should all take it down a notch. It's OK to want change, and change will come. But we all have to keep our anger in check.
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WATCH AFL INSTEAD
Tim Blair
In Somalia, Presbyterians take action against World Cup viewers:
The arrests were made when heavily armed militants from the Hezbal radical group raided a house where the fans were watching the match between Germany and Australia.They’re a notably cruel bunch. Maybe they’ll make them watch it again.
“Thirty one viewers including older men but mostly youths were jailed by the Islamist administration in Afgoye. My friends and I were watching in a house nearby but we switched off the TV when we heard sounds of gunshots. When we went outside we saw our villagers and neighbours being escorted by masked militants on their way to prison,” one of the city’s residents said in a telephone conversation early in Monday.
Sheik Yuusuf Abuu Hamza. an official from the city’s Islamist administration confirmed the arrest of world cup fans, accusing them of being guilty against Islam. “They have made a big mistake; they didn’t obey the orders not to watch the un-Islamic event of football so they will face punishment,” the militant official said …
It remains unclear what the future of those arrested will be and what kind of punishment they will face …
(Via Goldie)
UPDATE. It gets worse:
Somali militants killed two soccer fans whom they caught watching a 2010 FIFA World Cup game, the International Sports Press Association said on its website.
In 2006 the Islamic Courts Union which controlled most of Somalia prohibited the World Cup and other soccer competitions on the grounds that it was a “satanic act.”
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NO ALTERNATIVE
Tim Blair
A friend was recently diagnosed with bowel cancer. He’s a hardy type, so our chat about his illness and what to expect following surgery – I’d been similarly diagnosed a couple of years ago – was direct and clear. No need to dance around the issues with this boy.
Moreover, he’s still strong enough to punch my lights out if I told him to avoid surgery and try alternative healing remedies instead:
The wife of a prominent Perth author and toxicologist would have died “in excruciating pain” after refusing to have surgery for bowel cancer, a coronial inquest has been told.No disagreement here. The pain is ridiculous, even at earlier stages. So imagine what this woman endured:
“It’s one of the most painful diseases you could possibly get, particularly when it gets to the advanced stages,” colorectal surgeon Professor Cameron Platell told the inquest on Monday.
“It’s like torturing someone.”
Dr Platell was giving evidence into the death of Penelope Dingle, who died of her disease in 2005 after opting for alternative therapies over more traditional surgery and chemotherapy.So do I. So does my doctor. Although the crystal and chakra community might have other ideas:
Ms Dingle, 40, was the wife of Murdoch University Professor Peter Dingle, a leading toxicologist, author, self-described media personality and guest presenter on the ABC’s Can We Help? program.
The inquest into her death is being held to determine what role her homeopath, Francine Scrayen, and husband played in her treatment, and whether greater regulation of alternative medicines is needed …
When asked to comment on a paper written by Dr Dingle suggesting that surgery and chemotherapy were ineffective in treating cancer, Dr Platell replied: “I completely disagree with Dr Dingle’s statement”.
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A PERIOD OF LOSS
Tim Blair
“What a difference a year makes,” notes Stephen Murgatroyd:
This time last year the environmental movement was gearing up for a major breakthrough at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. With a combination of “doom and gloom” soothsayers — Ban ki Moon, Al Gore, Prince Charles, James Hansen, David Suzuki — and optimistic negotiators, it was clear that Copenhagen was being positioned as “the last chance” we had to save the planet …Climate scientists are getting desperate. So too might be politicians who rode warming panic into office, as Andrew Orlowski writes:
Since then the environmental movement has been going through a period of loss …
Although the political elite is almost entirely signed up to mitigation policies, the reality is that they can’t introduce them, because it means electoral suicide. Mitigation entails a world of pain – with jobs lost, higher energy costs and a lower standard of living. This appeals to a few puritans – the kind of people who mourned the end of rationing, perhaps – but not the general public.Kevin Rudd is learning all about it. He can’t say he wasn’t warned: “Climate change has turned out to be a helpful device to change governments – stitch up the middle-class Prius vote, grab Green preferences, impress stupid university students – but a bitch of a thing to deal with once in government.” And the fun isn’t over:
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change misled the press and public into believing that thousands of scientists backed its claims on manmade global warming, according to Mike Hulme, a prominent climate scientist and IPCC insider.Hulme is Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.
The actual number of scientists who backed that claim was ”only a few dozen experts,” he states in a paper for Progress in Physical Geography …
(Via Climate Depot)
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ONLY TRUST REGISTERED CLOWNS
Tim Blair
Imposter clowns attack in El Salvador:
About 100 professional clowns who make money by performing on public buses marched through the Salvadoran capital Thursday to protest the killing of a passenger by two imposter clowns …It’s probably safer to detain all clowns for the time being. They can fit them in one little car.
The protesters – wearing oversized bow ties, tiny hats and big yellow pants – marched down San Salvador’s main street in an effort to both entertain and educate passersby. Several held signs insisting that real clowns are not criminals.Real clowns, above, haven’t killed anybody. Yet.
“We are protesting so that people know we are not killers,” said professional clown Ana Noelia Ramirez. “The people who did this are not clowns. They unfortunately used our costume and our makeup to commit a monstrous act.”
Clown-union leader Carlos Vasquez says he plans to issue IDs to all real clowns and urge police to detain those who do not have them.
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SUPPORT THE GREAT POLEY HARVEST
Tim Blair
It’s traditional and cultural:
A joint commission is recommending lifting the ban on harvesting polar bears for traditional and cultural purposes in Russia.No word on the bag limit for sky bears, however – the most prized poleys of them all.
The U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission met this week in Anchorage to determine the potential for a coordinated and sustainable subsistence harvest of polar bears by Native peoples of Alaska and Chukotka in Russia. The commission determined that the harvest should be limited to up to 58 polar bears a year, with no more than 19 being females.
(Via MM)
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SHUN THOSE WHO SPEAK OF FOX
Tim Blair
Canadian broadcaster Don Newman fears a certain cable network:
The first time I met Kory Teneycke, he told me that Canada needed a Fox News channel of its own.So much for diversity of opinion; this bloke doesn’t even want to hear about the possibility of Fox News. Newman continues:
I impolitely told him what he could do with the idea and we didn’t speak again for four years.
In the U.S., Fox News has been hugely polarizing.Has it now? Let’s check some recent ratings:
On another primary election night, Fox News had a higher primetime viewership average than CNN, MSNBC, and HLN combined.It’s the polarising effect of large audiences. Lefties hate it when their consensus bubble is threatened.
(Via Mark Steyn)
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The battle for one Australia
Andrew Bolt
Paul Sheehan on an appeal by Islamist apologist Keysar Trad that confirms some of my deepest suspicions of him personally - and of the agenda of those like him:
After delivering a hostile tirade against Sydney’s top-rated radio station, 2GB, during a ‘’peace’’ rally in 2005, Trad was himself criticised the next day by a 2GB presenter, Jason Morrison, though not in the same language Trad had used at the rally where he claimed to speak on behalf of Muslims in Australia.I very much fear that Trad’s view is not as isolated as would be healthy.
Trad sued for defamation.. The senior judge, Justice Peter McClellan, the chief judge of common law in the NSW Supreme Court, found against Trad, and found him to be a witness of little credibility, a man of extreme views and, in summary, ‘’a disgraceful individual’’....
His appeal (to the NSW Supreme Court) was based on several major grounds but the most prominent and contentious, made repeatedly in oral and written submissions, was that Justice McClellan had erred fundamentally by taking Trad’s provocative comments over the years out of the context of the Muslim community. To quote (Trad’s counsel, Clive) Evatt: ‘’His honour did not take into account that Australia is a multicultural society and the viewpoints of ethnic groups are recognised by the Australian community even though not all members of the community agree with them.’’
And this: ‘’His honour did not refer to or even consider the likelihood the average citizen would recognise that the views expressed by [Trad] were similar to beliefs shared by Muslims throughout the world including Muslims in Australia.’’ And this: ‘’His honour appears to have given no weight to the fact that the speech was made to Muslims in a mosque and not in an address to the general community.’’…
This is an explosive argument.... This appeal was an attempt, (defence counsel Richard) McHugh argued, to turn the case into one about ‘’freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and that the appellant has been unfairly branded as a racist, homophobic, terrorist-supporting, woman-hating bigot when all he was doing was expressing views consistent with his Islamic faith and his role as a prominent Australian Lebanese community spokesman … The most extraordinary claim is that his extreme views are [a] ‘Muslim view’. This ought not to be accepted.’’
If Trad does prevail in his appeal, this case, Trad v Harbour Radio, will be corrosive to the idea of mainstream Muslim moderation, and to the ideal that most Muslims are naturally part of a cohesive element in the weave of Australia’s culture rather than functioning under de facto Islamic law while giving mere lip service to the Australian legal system and the values it upholds.
(Thanks to many readers.)
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Japan’s bribes bad, Rudd’s bribes good
Andrew Bolt
This kind of aid-for-votes bribery is bad:
Japan bribing small nations with aid: reportsThe Rudd Government protests:
A British newspaper says Japan has been bribing small nations to help it overturn a moratorium on commercial whaling.
THE Rudd government has used new claims of Japanese vote-rigging in the International Whaling Commission to call for sweeping reforms to the peak whaling body just a week out from a meeting to decide the future of whaling.But this kind of aid-for-votes bribery is good:
AUSTRALIA will pump more than $400 million in foreign aid into Africa by 2015, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd chases a seat on the United Nations Security Council.And so is this, another half a billion to buy Third World support for a global warming deal:
Aid funding for Africa will more than double - from $163 million this year - despite Australia having few historical ties with the continent…
Rich and poor nations alike criticized a new blueprint for a U.N. climate treaty on Friday as two weeks of talks among 185 countries ended with small steps towards an elusive deal…(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
The new draft text keeps some elements of the Copenhagen Accord, including a plan for aid to developing nations of $10 billion a year from 2010 to 2012, rising to more than $100 billion from 2020.
Australian delegate Robert Owen-Jones announced in Bonn that Canberra was contributing 559 million Australian dollars ($469 million) to the 2010-12 funds.
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Hamas gives health tips
Andrew Bolt
A useful public education campaign from Hamas, which advises citizens of Gaza on ways to avoid premature death.
(Thanks to reader Paul.)
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Rudd’s team: more boy than wonders
Andrew Bolt
Peter van Onselen on the boys behind Rudd’s throne:
THE upper echelons of the Labor Party are coming to the view that the triumvirate of young bucks with whom Kevin Rudd has surrounded himself are a big factor in his waning popularity, largely because they don’t have the experience or the means to steer him in the right direction when under pressure.Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie:
Chief of staff Alister Jordan, 30, press secretary Lachlan Harris, 30, and senior economics adviser Andrew Charlton, 31, are three of the most powerful players in the Rudd government because they are listened to and trusted by the Prime Minister in a way cabinet is not. But they are all relative political novices with no experience in the labour movement and next to none in industry or business.
When Rudd was riding high in the polls, they were hailed as trailblazers in a new era of political communication, ensuring Rudd had the policies and approach to engage with a new generation of less interested voters.
However, now that Rudd appears out of his depth, caught up in poorly constructed defences of policy positions and backdowns over challenges he had previously described as too important to walk away from (think emissions trading), the trio is being blamed for bad advice that could culminate in Rudd becoming the first Prime Minister in nearly 80 years to lose office after one term…
“At just 30 years of age, Alister just isn’t experienced enough to run the PM’s office,” one Labor frontbencher notes…
Psychologists would almost certainly have something to say about a leader who surrounds himself with young, inexperienced operators to the exclusion of more mature people who could constructively challenge his policies and arguments…
The contrast between Rudd’s inner circle and that surrounding Howard when he was prime minister could not be greater.
The three most trusted advisers in Howard’s office, all of whom stayed with him for most of his time in power, were chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos, principal private secretary Tony Nutt and press secretary Tony O’Leary. They were wiser and more experienced than Rudd’s entourage: at the beginning of Howard’s first term, they were all more than a decade older than Rudd’s inner circle in 2007. They told Howard what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear…
Senior Labor sources believe arrogance is a key reason Rudd and his entourage don’t seem able to turn around their fortunes. Says one: “The advisers around him work on the idea that ‘we are smart; the punters are dumb; they won’t recognise that we are running a scam’.”
Once the election date is decided the Prime Minister will need a Bishop. I had one, he needs one.But speaking of Faulkner, here’s van Onselen again:
By Bishop I mean a Steve Bishop. For over 12 years from when I was health minister, Steve Bishop was on my staff. He came to join me in health on one condition and that was he could, in private, speak his mind and give me the “ugly” truth about what I was planning or doing, if he felt it necessary. It didn’t happen daily, but it happened regularly enough to keep my ego in check with a good dose of common sense. If I hadn’t properly consulted on a matter he would tell me: if I made a mistake he would tell me. He refused to be a yes-man…
Being receptive to frank and fearless advice is the hallmark of a leader: either of the senior senators, Robert Ray or John Faulkner would be ideally suited for the role of Bishop.
Ministers with experience from the Hawke-Keating years, such as John Faulkner and Simon Crean, are not being consulted by Rudd and his staff.I wonder who told van Onselen that? And when did Crean’s name last bob up? Oh, yes:
LABOR was forced into damage control yesterday after Trade Minister Simon Crean undermined Kevin Rudd’s handling of the proposed mining tax by explicitly criticising government consultations with resource companies.
In the first public sign of disunity within the Rudd cabinet over the resource super-profits tax, Mr Crean said late on Wednesday the government should have consulted business before announcing its scheme and was now acting to “fix” its error.
Mr Crean’s status as one of Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s closest political allies meant his comments sparked questions over whether he was attempting to destabilise the Prime Minister…
By mid-afternoon, government sources said Mr Crean would release a statement clarifying his comments. But when that statement came Mr Crean did not recant his criticism of the lack of early consultation before the RSPT was announced on May 2.
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Mark Knight says goodbye to Miss Dina
Andrew Bolt
===Rudd dithers before an inevitable surrender
Andrew Bolt
Terry McCrann explains why Kevin Rudd can’t back down on his “super profits” tax - yet has no option but a humiliating surrender:
The diabolical problem he faces is that changing (the tax) is quite simply impossible. That’s to say, without making it a bigger mess. It really does have to be ditched....
Start with the retrospectivity issue, something that seems to have been ‘overlooked’ by the genius that designed the ‘perfect’ tax.
But if you exclude existing projects from the tax, on the not unreasonable basis that taxing them now would be a disastrous exercise in effectively confiscating some of the project, you lose almost all the revenue…
But further, you’d well and truly manage to kill two birds with the same stone; as making the tax only prospective would also ice future projects given the heavy load they would now have to carry…
This is just the first insurmountable hurdle. The ‘easy’ - the only easy - part would be to lift the threshold at which the tax kicked in from the ridiculously low long-term bond rate around 6 per cent to at least the 11 per cent that applies with the petroleum super tax.
But 11 per cent of what?
The market value of the project or its written down value? So any project if it’s been going long enough would end up deep in ‘super profits territory’, simply as a function of time.
The government also intends to levy the tax at the mine gate, so all the money spent on the necessary infrastructure to actually get the minerals to somewhere useful would be treated as not a cost to the project. So ludicrously, the tax would actually tax spending on infrastructure as if was profit!..
As a consequence of this combination he now has two choices. To keep blundering and ‘consulting’ on, or to dump the tax and start again.
===
They’d rather pity the poor than praise their new freedom - and wealth
Andrew Bolt
Nine years after the liberation of Afghanistan, deposits of minerals worth up to $1 trillion are discovered that could turn a beggared nation into one that may at last lift its people out of poverty.
So how does the Left welcome this news? Well, yes, you guessed it, I’m afraid.
Bush’s fault, of course, and probably a conspiracy by plutocrats. And won’t this be a crime against Gaia?
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The searing price of this fashionable unreason
Andrew Bolt
Meet the modern media-friendly eco-scientist, the face of the new unreason:
Dr D (or Prof Pete) has spent the past twenty years as a researcher, educator and communicator…Never mind your home killing you. What of one’s irrational eco-ideas?
Dr D is an Associate Professor and leading researcher in Health and the Environment at Murdoch University… Dr D was a co founder in the award winning Living Smart Program which won the WA adult education award in 2003 and the Eureka Award with $10000 prize money in 2004. In 2004 he was recognised with special commendation in the WA Environmental Awards and won the best education program…
Dr D has appeared on the Media for the last 20 years as expert in health and environmental issues and recently presented in the award winning 7 week TV series shown on SBS and now around the world “Is your home killing you”.
The wife of a prominent Perth author and toxicologist would have died “in excruciating pain” after refusing to have surgery for bowel cancer, a coronial inquest has been told.In these tragic circumstances, this interview is chilling:
“It’s one of the most painful diseases you could possibly get, particularly when it gets to the advanced stages,” colorectal surgeon Professor Cameron Platell told the inquest on Monday."It’s like torturing someone.”
Dr Platell was giving evidence into the death of Penelope Dingle, who died of her disease in 2005 after opting for alternative therapies over more traditional surgery and chemotherapy.
Ms Dingle, 40, was the wife of Murdoch University Professor Peter Dingle, a leading toxicologist, author, self-described media personality and guest presenter on the ABC’s Can We Help? program.
The inquest into her death is being held to determine what role her homeopath, Francine Scrayen, and husband played in her treatment, and whether greater regulation of alternative medicines is needed…
When asked to comment on a paper written by Dr Dingle suggesting that surgery and chemotherapy were ineffective in treating cancer, Dr Platell replied: “I completely disagree with Dr Dingle’s statement”.
Dr Platell said he became “anxious” after Ms Dingle kept putting off surgery after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in early 2003… Dr Platell said she would have had a “good chance of survival” had she elected to have surgery soon after she was diagnosed.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
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One more unwanted Rudd building - in Afghanistan
Andrew Bolt
Must be another Building the Education Revolution scandal:
A FLAGSHIP Australian housing project for refugees forced back to Afghanistan is at risk of failing - despite its near $10 million price tag - because the houses don’t have running water and the Afghan government’s land grab has sparked a turf war with a neighbouring village.UPDATE
The project has foundered because of a poor location too far from work in Kabul, culturally inappropriate house designs that mean women can’t go outside during the day because they will be seen and, most critically, a failure to secure running water.
Despite the Australian input and the $US7.5m ($8.8m) cost to Australian taxpayers so far, no failed asylum-seekers from Australia live in AliceGhan.
The project started under the Howard Government.
(Thanks to reader Sandi.)
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Gillard backs off Rudd, who counts his chickens
Andrew Bolt
I said a month ago that you’d know Gillard was preparing to challenge when she’d start blaming Rudd for foisting the Building the Education Revolution turkey on her.
But this is a start:
SENIOR Labor figures are distancing themselves from the government’s problematic mining tax proposal, with confirmation the Prime Minister and Wayne Swan were largely responsible for developing the policy.With business in revolt at the tax, our competitors gloating and polls plummeting, it seems Rudd is refusing to budge for this one reason alone - this spin-mad man sees an opportunity to seem as tough as his critics say he’s not:
Sources have confirmed that Mr Rudd’s potential leadership rivals, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, were largely kept out of the policy development process of the mining tax…
According to one senior source, by the time Ms Gillard and Mr Tanner were brought into the loop, around the time of the budget last month, “the locomotive was going too fast”.
KEVIN Rudd has vowed to hold his nerve over his planned 40 per cent mining tax, rejecting tumbling popularity ratings and intense political pressure as part of the cost of delivering “reformist government"…And Rudd lists what he says are his key achievements:
“This is a reformist government,” he said. “Reformist governments hold their nerve....”
These included protecting Australian jobs from the effects of the global recession; his remake of the health system; the education revolution; increasing the mandatory renewable energy target to 20 per cent; and beginning the process towards reconciliation with indigenous people by apologising to the Stolen Generations and crafting long-term policiesIn order, he boasts of what was a subsidiary role in staving off a recession he predicted would be much worse than it was, a “remake” of a health system that has not yet been agreed to by Western Australia and criticised by health experts as overly bureaucratic, an “education revolution” that’s essentially little more than the building of grossly over-expensive structures and the tardy handout of extra computers, the setting of some manana target that will just make power prices much higher and an apology to people no one can find.
Fantastic. And on the other hand:
Mr Rudd said he believed he had delivered on 90 per cent of his 2007 election promises and voters understood that governments made mistakes.Very, very big mistakes.
UPDATE
Phillip Coorey says Rudd will soon announce minor concessions (as Terry McCrann predicted on the weekend), but this is unlikely to placate the big miners or voters, who Labor MPs concede are “angry”. But meanwhile the backers of Gillard are bickering with the backers of Rudd - or other rivals:
One source close to the Deputy Prime Minister said that even though she had more numbers in the caucus than Mr Rudd when they defeated Kim Beazley and Jenny Macklin in December 2006, she would not have majority support today.UPDATE 2
A minister countered, saying if Ms Gillard put up her hand, it would be resounding. ‘’She wouldn’t need powerbrokers,’’ the minister said.
Another said Ms Gillard was not interested. ‘’No way she’s going to do that,’’ he said. ‘’It’s not happening, mate.’’
More dissension:
A GROUP of key federal Labor MPs have privately revealed they would back Julia Gillard to take over the leadership...More signs that Rudd is trashing the Labor brand:
MPs were asked by The Daily Telegraph over the past week if they would support Ms Gillard in a leadership bid before the election. The majority, which appears to now represent a growing sentiment in the caucus, said they would, claiming they could see no way up from the Government’s poor standing in the electorate…
But adding fuel to the fire was a growing perception that one of Mr Rudd’s key backers, the right-wing NSW power- broker Mark Arbib, was now being frozen out of the PM’s office because of his close relationship with Ms Gillard.
KEVIN Rudd’s unpopularity is set to bite even in this Saturday’s state by-election of Penrith, with complaints about the Prime Minister emerging in campaigning.UPDATE 3
The NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said yesterday that his time in the electorate had shown him that “Rudd’s completely and utterly on the nose”.
“I have felt I have been going out there as the state and the federal opposition leader,” Mr O’Farrell said… Mr O’Farrell said he had heard from voters about federal issues, just as much as state ones…
A senior Labor source revealed internal Labor polling had shown many voters were now fed up with the Labor brand generally, both at a federal and state level, which could have serious implications for the Federal Government in NSW when it goes to the polls later this year.
And more dissension:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the row with the mining companies could take months to resolve, but Labor MPs who are back in Canberra today say they do not want to walk away with the issue still hanging over them…UPDATE 4
West Australian MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia, Gary Gray, has told AM the debate over the mining tax must be resolved by August to end uncertainty for all concerned.
“I do think it is important to get the debate settled in the course of the next few weeks,” he said.
Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says Rudd won’t be replaced, but he needs an adult to tell him hard truths and he needs more than a fear campaign against Abbott:
The ALP cannot simply rely on Tony Abbott imploding during the campaign and handing Rudd a victory despite public angst about the mining tax.
I am not convinced Abbott will self-destruct; I watched him closely as John Howard’s health minister and, whatever his shortcomings, he has staying power. Whether he implodes politically or not, it is too risky to heavily rely on a negative campaign.
The reality is the Prime Minister has to try harder to reach an agreement with the mining companies on the super tax. There is no doubt the government should have consulted the industry on the tax.
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