=== Todays Toon ===
Today in 1939 physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard wrote a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to begin development on a nuclear bomb. The two warned President Roosevelt that the Nazis were planning on developing a similar weapon, and shortly after the US Government began work on what became known as the Manhattan Project.=== Bible Quote ===
“You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.”- Psalm 119:114=== Headlines ===
Mullen Says U.S. Has Attack Plan for Iran — as an 'Option'
The U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran to prevent the country and its leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) from developing a nuclear weapon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen (left) reveals.Dems Plan Bash for Embattled Rangel
As several House Democrats press Rep. Charles Rangel to call it quits over a host of ethics charges, his New York allies reportedly have lavish 80th birthday fundraiser in the works at ritzy Manhattan hotel
Got $12M? Clinton Nuptials May Boost Bid
A historic mansion that was languishing for months on the real estate market could attract new eyes after Chelsea Clinton made it the center of the universe this weekend
Gates: WikiLeaks Is Morally 'Guilty'
Defense Secretary Robert Gates slammed whistleblower website WikiLeaks for its decision to release nearly 80,000 secret military documents pertaining to the Afghan war
Breaking News
Italy names 'Miss Chubby' beauty queenITALYy has chosen a full-figured woman as its latest beauty queen, proud of her ample body weighing in at a hefty 170kg.
US sends aid to flood-hit Pakistan
HELICOPTERS, boats, bridges, water units and other supplies rushed to Pakistan as death toll passes 1300.
US admits it has plan to attack Iran
THE top US military officer says he has a plan to attack Iran if needed to prevent it from getting nuclear weapons.
BP urged to rename US petrol stations
EMBATTLED oil giant under pressure as the backlash in America shows no sign of easing.
Verve singer storms off festival stage
RICHARD Ashcroft lashes out after drawing only a small crowd at Splendour in the Grass.
Israeli soldier in court over war deaths
SOLDIER accused of killing two women who were waving white flags during the Gaza war.
Mugabe blasts the West at sister's funeral
ZIMBABWE'S President says the death of his sister robbed him of one of his closest friends and allies in fight against the West.
Sniper sues Army over 'catastrophic error'
SNIPER claims "catastrophic error" put him and his family at risk of being kidnapped by al Qaeda.
30 dead as Russian fires spread
FIREFIGHTERS are battling fires that have killed 30 people, destroyed thousands of homes and mobilised hundreds of thousands of emergency workers.
Lads mag dubs Conroy 'dumbest MP'
STEPHEN Conroy is on the receiving end of another dishonourable award, after being dubbed Australia's dumbest politician in a magazine survey.
NSW/ACT
Fears for little girl lostA SEARCH will resume today for a young girl who vanished from her home after being tucked into bed.
Painful search for son who walked out
WHEN Bob and Sue Neville take to the road, it's not for pleasure - they're searching for their missing son.
School asbestos fear
SCHOOL students are learning in demountable classrooms riddled with asbestos dubbed "write-offs".
Smiling posers will make your blood boil
FOR them it's all a lark - striking a pose and smiling for the camera after an alleged street race.
Secrets of Sydney in war time
SYDNEY'S oldest military buildings with Harbour views will be open to the public after 200 years.
Shifting aircraft noise sparks anger
COOGEE has overtaken the Inner West as the heartland of anger over aircraft noise.
The real battle to pay the bills
THE pressure on household budgets is being drastically understated by the official measure of inflation.
Queensland
Brit star storms off Splendour stageVERVE frontman takes the huff after attracting only a small crowd at Splendour in the Grass.
Nurses lose leave in payroll fiasco
FOUR months after sick leave and holidays vanished from her payslip with the introduction of a new payroll system, this nurse is still trying to get them reinstated.
Translink safety plan slammed
TEN new transit officers with special "detain and search'' powers are being trained as critics attack Queensland Rail for failing to protect passengers.
Bligh soft on political donations
A NEW wave of integrity reforms is set to be unveiled by Anna Bligh aimed at improving the culture throughout the Queensland political system.
Regretful runaway says phone home
FORMER teenage runaway Mahlee Rose urged missing persons across the country to make contact with their families ahead of National Missing Persons week.
Man's ear bitten off during assault
TWO men have been charged after a man had part of his ear bitten off while another was assaulted in Howard, north of Maryborough, overnight.
Injuries mar Splendour in the Grass
A DOZEN Splendour in the Grass revellers have been sent to hospital with injuries as 32,000 music fans attend the three-day music festival.
Man accused of trying to kill girl
A CHARLEVILLE man is in custody after allegedly trying to strangle a baby to death. A girl allegedly had her next squeezed while being pinned to a wall.
Explosives find in abduction case
A 57-year-old man has been charged with possessing weapons and explosives following investigations to locate two missing children in Queensland.
Victoria
Victoria's winter of contentMELBOURNE was back to its wintry best yesterday, footy fans shivering through a hailstorm at the MCG.
Pub punts pokies
A MORNINGTON Peninsula pub has made history by becoming the state's first to voluntarily hand back its money-making pokies.
Giving a positive smoke signal
RESEARCH showing most smokers want to give up has prompted Quit Victoria to adopt fresh tactics in helping them to kick the habit.
Rare blood disease battle hits siblings
SIBLINGS Jacob and Alexandra Khodr have the same life-threatening blood disease.
Fire's greatest threat is to tourists
EVERY summer for the past 30 years, Roy Moriarty has been on tenterhooks when the temperature soars and the winds whip through Wye River.
Towns may go missing
SOME Victorian towns could disappear if calls to resettle people from high fire-risk areas were adopted.
Police could face charges
POLICE could face criminal charges over their handling of a prisoner who died shortly after being released from custody.
Cops told to look for jobs
POLICE crime-scene examiners are looking for jobs rather than evidence after being told they would be replaced by civilians.
Just like a natural woman
CURVY models will grace Melbourne Spring Fashion Week catwalks this year for the first time.
Firefighter disappointed by report
FIREFIGHTER Ron Philpott is "a bit disappointed" the bushfires royal commission has not cleared him of a blaze that claimed 40 lives.
Northern Territory
Nothing newSouth Australia
MacKillop still watching over PenolaPENOLA'S mini-tornado narrowly missed a home on the site of Mary MacKillop's first schoolroom, in a "miracle" that the owners are crediting to Australia's first saint.
No more secrets
JURIES would be allowed to hear the past convictions of some accused criminals under a groundbreaking State Government proposal.
Crush test for first hoon car
POLICE Commissioner Mal Hyde is considering using tough anti-hoon driver legislation for the first time to crush a seized car.
$3 tax per car to boost skills
A $3-per-car registration levy has been proposed for the coming state Budget aimed at raising millions of dollars to train skilled workers for the automotive industry.
Don't give up on overseas cycling plan
LORD Mayoral candidate and Adelaide City councillor Stephen Yarwood wants to have another go at installing Copenhagen-style bike lanes.
Victoria idle on saving water
MELBOURNE has drained 16.7 billion litres from the Murray-Darling in five months to support urban expansion - without attempting to save water.
Prepare to shell out more for oysters
OYSTER lovers will pay more for the seafood delicacy within the next year as the effects of a mysterious illness killing juvenile oysters hits the industry.
Facebook child threat
POLICE Commissioner Mal Hyde has complained that social networking sites like Facebook rarely provide police with information quickly enough to catch cyber criminals.
Plea to reverse mining of sacred site
A STATE Government decision to allow mineral exploration at Lake Torrens in the state's north has angered Aboriginal groups.
Man detained after fire threat
POLICE have detained a man at a Largs Bay address after he threatened to douse a house in a flammable liquid and rigg an explosive device.
Western Australia
Dockers demolish pathetic EaglesFREMANTLE continued its Western Derby dominance and all but sealed a finals berth with a 75-point victory over arch-rivals West Coast at Subiaco Oval.
High-speed chase hits 160km/h
A HIGH-SPEED police chase from Rockingham to Fremantle hit speeds of up to 160km/h early this morning.
Cop hurt at second Mandurah party riot
A Mandurah police officer was taken to hospital overnight after another Mandurah party spun out of control.
Tasmania
Nothing new=== Comments ===
Smashing the myths about private school fundingby Kevin Donnelly
There’s nothing new in the Australian Education Union’s campaign against the Liberal Party and it’s attack on Tony Abbott. During the Howard government years (1996-2007) the AEU donated millions of dollars and ran marginal seats campaigns at every election to destroy the conservatives and to get the ALP elected.
The AEU is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions and at the 1995 national teacher unions’ conference, the then federal Minister for Employment, Education and Training, Simon Crean, was quoted as saying: “In 1993 the support of the unions was crucial to the ALP’s return to Government”.There’s also nothing new about the union’s argument that Catholic and independent schools do not deserve funding and that only state school students deserve taxpayer support. (More at the link)
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AT LEAST THEY’RE HONEST
Tim Blair
Random security code at the ALP’s donation site tonight:
Perhaps the code – “ swindle nearer” – refers to the government’s national broadband network.
UPDATE. Emma Chalmers: “I wonder which faceless men, focus group or campaign strategists came up with the ‘real Julia’ plan?”
UPDATE II. AJG comments: “I’m not sure what to make of this."
UPDATE III. ANOTHER Labor leak – and this one could not have come from Kevin Rudd.
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GREEN THEMES
Tim Blair
A sequential study of themes prominent in the latest Greens TV ad:
• Some junkie-looking guy suddenly learns how to walk in the right direction. Puzzlingly, he does so in the prancing manner of a female fashion model. He is surprised – as are we all – to discover he owns a new pair of shoes.
• Why is everybody carrying so many bags? Was this shot in Sydney’s notorious luggage district? Maybe it’s symbolic. Or else the extras are carrying their own food so they don’t have to eat raw topsoil and moss supplied by ethical green caterers.
• Barely anybody is catching the train. Realism! The lack of traffic seems odd, but I guess you don’t really want to be on the road with all those reversing hatchbacks.
• How come we don’t see the train come to a stop and the woman with the chinchilla on her head get aboard? It’s because, if you look carefully, her toes are clearly encroaching on the “do not stand” area.
• It was a closed-casket funeral.
• A young green parent is revolted by the exuberance of his own children. Their ignorant, carefree laughter slices through him. It is the soundtrack of his ruined life.
• Now we see what made Hater Daddy so depressed. He’s just learned that Bob Brown has sentenced him to six months at home having coffee smashed out of his hands. He cheers up a little when the spawn’s birthpod takes one of them off him.
• Fake headline #1: “Greens deliver six months parental leave.” Under what possible circumstances? Fake headline #2: “Fire drama in suburbia.” That can’t be right. Surely they mean “suburbs”, because “suburbia” is only ever used as a condescending … oh, wait. Greens ad.
• Children behind wire fences! They look even more miserable than a green parent. Didn’t this stop happening after a certain government was voted out in 2007? But it doesn’t matter, because they are soon converted into students by the power of running.
• The immigration detention scene is the only one in this Greens ad to prominently feature trees. They’re evil detention trees, so they are depicted as bleak and spooky.
• How morbid is this music?
• A blonde woman is staring directly at the sun. She isn’t happy to see the kids; she’s just happy to see anything.
• Why are the kids at school on a Saturday?
• Here he comes, direct from his initial consultation at the gender re-assignment surgery: Pale Urban Lad, who represents the great white electoral hope of the Greens party – once the energy spirals of their elderly hippie supporters have rejoined the cosmos. Stride on, virgin hipster!
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LIBERALS, LABOR LEVEL
Tim Blair
As mentioned earlier, a couple of points needed to be knocked off that last Nielsen poll due to timing (it was taken on the day of the Big Labor Leak). So now Newspoll has things back to 50-50, with Labor’s primary vote down to 37 per cent:
The swing against Labor since the last election is almost 3 per cent and means the ALP would lose seats if an election were to be held now; it would desperately rely on Greens preference votes to stay in government.Labor’s reaction:
According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian between Friday and Sunday evenings, the Labor Party is now further behind the Coalition, seven percentage points, than it was the last weekend before Kevin Rudd was removed as prime minister and has lost ground on the two-party-preferred result.
Julia Gillard has stepped in to personally take charge of Labor’s disastrous campaign after one of the worst weeks for a government in recent election history.Gillard is now both the focus and the manager of Labor’s campaign. Doesn’t say much for her faith in Labor staffers. How about putting Kevin Rudd in charge?
In an exceptional break with electoral tradition, the Prime Minister has indicated she will take over the lead role in party strategy from Labor’s campaign bosses.
UPDATE. Fighting words!
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PERFECT WEEKEND
Tim Blair
• Collingwood defeats Carlton and remains at the top of the AFL ladder.
• Mark Webber wins in Hungary and reclaims the world F1 championship lead. (UPDATE. James Board reviews.)
UPDATE II. There was also the small matter of this move:
• Labor is in turmoil.
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IT’S THERE NOW. SUCK IT.
Tim Blair
The magic of greenism transforms a cheap mode of transport into something crushingly expensive. In Melbourne, a bicycle fleet is costing $215 per trip over its first year. And in Sydney:
Nichols Street Community Group spokesman Brian Noad said the Bourke St cycleway at Surry Hills was not used enough to justify the amount of money that was being spent on it.Criticism of this insanity leaves Liberal councillor (and bike booster) Shayne Mallard unmoved. His response:
“We have calculated [with] about 40 trips per day, on an outlay of $4.2 million, the Bourke St cycleway will cost $290 per trip over its first year,” he said.
“We’ve done the consultation process. It’s there now. Suck it.”What does Mallard most enjoy about Sydney? “Its tolerance and diversity.” Well, obviously. Read on for details of Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s cycle-shunning hypocrisy.
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ART IS TRUTH
Tim Blair
School inspector Bill Henson speaks, following a period of delicate silence:
‘’We should be wary of governments and interest groups who try to impose restrictions on the free exercise of the artistic imagination. Our zeal to protect innocence should not come at the cost of violating artistic experience.”Wrong, Bill. Protecting innocence – your euphemism for “children” – is more important than any intrusion on “artistic experience”. Especially when that “artistic experience” involves photographing naked kids you’ve sought out in primary schools.
’If we believe that art is a high form of education, that its basis is moral and its goal truth, then we should resist the impulse that would deny the artist the right to deal with what may sometimes be ambiguous, complex and disturbing.’’So Henson’s sexualised shots of unclothed pre-teens are “truth”. Sad for all the kids who never got to experience this. They’re living a “lie”.
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The difference is that they won’t have to ask Rudd along
Andrew Bolt
Queensland is where the battlefield is. The Coalition will hold its launch in Brisbane a week before Labor does:
The 2010 Coalition Campaign Launch will be held on Sunday 8 August in Brisbane.(No link to Liberal email.)
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Beat this for an excuse
Andrew Bolt
SOUTH Australia’s most defective bridges can finally be revealed, after the State Government tried to keep their locations a secret for more than a year claiming the information could benefit terrorists organisations such as al-Qaida.(Thanks to reader John.)
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So what will it stimulate once it gets started?
Andrew Bolt
It’s an odd way to spend money meant to save us from a recession last year:
CHILTERN Primary has delivered a scathing assessment of the federal government’s school cash splurge to a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry. The school is waiting for its new $800,000 library but more than a year after the Building the Education Revolution funding was announced, it has nothing but a messy work site.(Thanks to Observer from Wodonga.)
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Gillard can do no wrong in the eyes of the ABC’s websites
Andrew Bolt
Gavin Atkins says the extraordinary bias of the ABC’s new websites is no better this week than it was last:
For the week starting Monday 26 July and ending Saturday 31 July at the ABC’s online websites, The Drum and Unleashed, Prime Minister Gillard had 19 negative mentions and 17 positive mentions.Let’s recall the gentle reminder that ABC chairman Maurice Newman gave his deaf taxpayer-funded staff:
Over the same period, Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott had 20 negative mentions and four positive mentions. Thus, in a week where Tony Abbott placed the coalition in a winning position, comment in articles published at ABC online are running against him by five to one, while Gillard’s comments were running at about one negative comment for each positive comment.
Many critical mentions of Gillard came from the Left, but 8 of the critical mentions came from Chris Uhlmann in a single article…
However Gillard had substantially more positive mentions this week, after she eventually admitted that she had opposed the parental leave scheme in Cabinet. While last week she had two negative mentions for every positive mention, this week she had almost one positive mention for every negative mention. In other words, in what many consider to be a disastrous week for her campaign, where her hypocritical stance on a major policy issue was exposed, Gillard’s positive mentions doubled compared to Week One.
Gillard was showered in praise at times, with Fran Kelly saying: “She was also eloquent, persuasive, powerful and above all, passionate,” and Bob Ellis “She met the new Oakes ‘revelations’ with a change of tone and a crackling display of linguistic skills and theatrical depths…” Amazingly, one piece even praised Gillard’s much pilloried citizen’s climate change assembly.
(We are) required by our charter to walk both sides of the street and be balanced and all those good things. That is really the contract we have and it’s important that we fulfil that obligation.When will the ABC’s managers fulfill the charter that their own chairman is waving in their face? When will they respect the fact that half the taxpayers funding their operation are inclined to vote Liberal? When will they fulfill even their journalistic duty to make the world intelligible to its audience? After all, no one who trusted only to the ABC for its news could possibly understand why Rudd was ditched and why Labor is in such strife.
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Christian converts criminal
Andrew Bolt
===
Newspoll: It’s 50-50
Andrew Bolt
This is indeed an election that will be decided in the campaign - and so far Tony Abbott has gone from way behind to dead even, according to Newspoll:
Based on the distribution of Greens preferences at the 2007 election campaign, the two-party-preferred result is even on 50-50 for the ALP and Coalition. The week before it was Labor 52 to the Coalition’s 48 per cent…Labor will take some small comfort from being even despite a week from campaign hell.
The Coalition’s primary vote rose from 42 to 44 per cent last weekend and Labor’s fell from 40 to 37 per cent.
The Coalition’s primary vote has risen six percentage points since the election campaign began, while the ALP’s primary vote has fallen five points.
UPDATE
On the other hand, the Liberals have at last made an ad that works well - and, I presume from the scarcity of spots so far, has saved its meagre advertising for these last three weeks:
UPDATE 2
Tim Blair analyses the Greens’ latest ad, which appropriately features a dazed young man walking backwards.
UPDATE 3
Gillard unleashed should be more effective that this suddenly aloof and almost disdainful creature from Hawker Britton we’ve seen this past month:
JULIA Gillard will today unleash the “real Julia”, discarding a safe campaign approach to personally seize control of her battle for The Lodge…Gillard’s easy charm and laugh have been smothered by the scripting and the pressure. But more Gillard also means more risks. After all, is there a single decision she’s taken in this month that reveals competence? The list so far:
“I think it’s time for me to make sure that the real Julia is well and truly on display,” she said.
“So I’m going to step up and take personal charge of what we do in the campaign from this point,” Ms Gillard told the Herald Sun, in an interview aboard her VIP jet.
- the lie that the mining tax compromise sacrificed just $1.5 billion in taxes, rather than closer to $12 billion.UPDATE 4
- the collapse of her fix to stop the boats - an East Timor detention centre rejected by the East Timor Parliament.
- the proposed “cash for clunkers” scam.
- the much-ridiculed plan to leave the future of her great green tax on emissions to a 150- strong focus group of people who don’t know.
- the subdued performance in the leaders’ debate.
- the failure to buy Kevin Rudd’s silence.
- Gillard’s campaign stumbles, from not knowing the year her tax cut kicks in to promising “new” money for emergency doctors that was actually old money.
There’s an air of desperation about Labor’s latest attack on Abbott, echoed by journalists very keen to redress the balance:
TONY Abbott has been forced to apologise after the government quickly seized on a comment as offensive to handicapped people.That’s really, really trying to take offence.
The Opposition Leader, while outlining his plans for the reform of parliamentary procedure, said that he wanted question time to flow into the political debate of the day without ‘’waffly ministerial statements’’ on things such as ‘’the accessibility of cinemas’’ coming in between…
Oddly enough, though, note how Bill Shorten has himself fallen prey to the hyperbolic weakness he condemns in Abbott, and without Michelle Grattan even noticing:
Mr Abbott’s slip came during a tough Nine interview in which he was questioned about his admission earlier this year that sometimes in the heat of the moment he went further than he should…“Millions”? For “decades”? I think Shorten in the heat of the moment went further than he should.
The parliamentary secretary for disability, Bill Shorten, said Mr Abbott’s comment was ‘’an insult to the millions of Australians living with impairment … who have campaigned for decades to improve access to cinemas’’.
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What is the “real Julia”?
Andrew Bolt
So how does “the real Julia” differ from the fake?
JULIA Gillard will today unleash the “real Julia”...First, the ”real Julia” buys her own food:
Real deal. Julia Gillard buys a cheesecake from local Michel’s Patisserie in Parramatta in western Sydney this morning.Second, she tells jokes:
Apologises for the media circus trailing her and cracks a couple of nice jokes. “The people who become journalists are the people in class who talk a lot, mainly out of turn.”Third, she talks more Strine:
Evidently the real Julia has a broad Australian accent. Gillard’s normal accent made its return, in spades, during her live cross into Nine’s Today show this morning. Since her July 17 press conference announcing the election date, Gillard has been speaking in softer more mellifluous tones. Now she has reverted to her more familiar timbre.Fourth, she is seen meeting more people:
This in by text from our reporter Ariel Sharp on the Gillard bus: “First day of ‘Real Julia’. She does a walk through Parramatta staion, charming retailers and shoppers.How much any of this establishes Gillard’s ability to govern well I do not know. But on this carefully constructed image of “real” hangs the election.
UPDATE
Michelle Grattan rightly wonders at the wisdom of Gillard announcing she wasn’t real until today:
As Julia might say, “give us a break”.Gillard is already paying a price for her spin, with her press conference today - meant to announce another bribe to parents of teenage children - hijacked by questions about the “real Julia” and whether it was the real Julia who unilaterally decided on the dumb people’s committee on global warming.
The Prime Minister declares that she’s unleashing “the real Julia” and taking “personal charge” of the campaign. Which raises the questions: “Who, precisely, have we been seeing? And who has been running the campaign up to now?
Clearly Gillard has looked too confected, and her pitch in the first fortnight sounded too scripted. But the adjustment needed to be more subtle than the PM taking up a foghorn to announce she’d been acting a part in someone else’s play. “I think it’s time for me to make sure that the real Julia is well and truly on display. So I’m going to step up and take personal charge of what we do in the campaign from this point”, she told News Ltd newspapers.
It makes her sound shrill, and invites concerns about why she has apparently allowed people to persuade her to be other than herself. Gillard leaves the impression that unknown forces have had her tied up as a sort of political prisoner.
There’s an edge of hysteria to Labor’s campaign now, which has confirmed modern Labor’s must fundamental characteristic and now screaming weakness - it’s all about spin. And Gillard has just publicly announced that what she’s been presenting to voters was just part of that spin, and hasn’t worked.
So now she’ll spin another Gillard which she calls “real”.
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The better debate
Andrew Bolt
Almost as much fun as Rudd vs Gillard:
Michael Kroger and Paul Howes fight on Friday on Seven’s Sunrise:===KROGER: Rudd will be leaking against Gillard and the Labor government for years. You cannot run a country with its dysfunctionality. No- one should think it is going to stop.Fifteen hours later on ABC1’s Lateline:
Howes: People should not believe the spin from people like Michael Kroger. I want to talk about issues but Michael wants to talk about gossip.KROGER: Wake up, son: everybody in the whole country is talking about what is going on. Now I’m not gonna use tonight your relatively young and youthful inexperience against you . . .
Howes: Well, grandad. Just have a think about the first term of the Howard government.
Kroger: You weren’t born then.
Howes: I was born. Don’t be so ridiculous.
Gillard at last promises a real education revolution
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard makes her first brave and truly reformist promise of the campaign:
SCHOOL principals will be given more power to manage their own budget and to hire teachers under the next wave of Julia Gillard’s education revolution…Before hearing the details of Gillard’s plan, the funding already strikes me as on the skinny side, given what will be necessary to make this work best and to buy off the opposition to it. These conditions include not just giving principals more power to fire bad teachers (which requires state governments to agree), but also more power for councils to sack underperforming principals, or to hire better ones. This in turn means principals need to be paid more, not just to compensate them for their increased responsibilities under Gillard’s plan, but also for the increased accountability that could see them out of a job. Right now, most state school principals earn between $120,000 and $180,000, which is woefully inadequate for what we expect from them already.
The shake-up, to be announced today, will allow 1000 school principals to voluntarily sign up to the new scheme from 2012 to effectively create independent public schools.
They can choose to work with parents to form local school boards.
Schools will get up to $50,000 in start-up funding to help make the switch to an “independent” governance model and will have control over selecting and employing teachers, the budget and choosing funding priorities. Principals will have the authority to use site managers for building projects.
The scheme will cost $484 million by 2018.
But add this to Gillard’s other reform - to publish results allowing parents to compare schools on performance - and Labor may finally be on the way to delivering that education revolution it’s just wasted $16 billion on not delivering. What a difference some of those billions, lost on overpriced and often unneeded school halls, could have made to a scheme to improve teaching.
Let’s now see the details, to see how reformist this promising policy really is.
UPDATE
Gillard’s policy was even more revolutionary last year, when it was a Western Australian Liberal Government that actually thought of it:
The creation of Independent Public Schools from 2010 is an exciting new development in Western Australian public education.... These schools have more ownership of overall school direction, teacher selection, education programs, values/ethos and discipline, and behaviour management. Principals and staff have more authority and freedom from central policies, procedures and compliances.
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Another leak exposes Gillard’s spin
Andrew Bolt
Yet another Labor leak against Julia Gillard:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s plan for a citizens’ assembly on climate change was put forward without Cabinet consultation, the Australian Financial Review reports.Four implications here to concern Gillard - and voters:
A number of ministers first heard of the scheme when Ms Gillard announced it 10 days ago, the newspaper said.
The climate change policy also made no mention of involving stakeholders in talks around an interim carbon price, a subject that had been discussed and approved in cabinet, the AFR added.
First, the leaking against her is so chronic that Labor seems almost dysfunctional. The internal bitterness against the Gillard putsch seems beyond healing for a long time, and is in danger of killing the Labor election campaign. There is no sign, either, that the leaking will stop for the final three weeks.
Second, the leak suggests that Labor figures privately believe Gillard’s “citizen’s assembly” is as laughable as most commentators have said, and want it known that it’s her own dumb idea,
Third, Gillard’s claim now that she will take charge of the election campaign to show us the “real” her is just spin. This leak confirms that Gillard has indeed been running the campaign, making wild promises on her own. If she’s going to strike out even more on her own, what might she say next?
Fourth, Gillard’s excuse for assassinating Rudd was that he gone off track, and she would bring in a more consultative style, listening more to her ministers. This leak suggests she’s as go-it-alone as Rudd, despite promising this in her very first press conference as Prime Minister:
So it is my intention as Prime Minister to lead a Government that draws on the best efforts of my Cabinet and ministerial colleagues, on the best efforts of each member of our parliamentary executive and the best efforts of each member of our caucus to ensure that our Government is on track,UPDATE
Various readers below make reader Dave’s point:
Point 5. Kevin Rudd was not in the cabinet meeting that discussed the Gillard Governments approach to climate change so this leak could not possibly have come from him.UPDATE 2
If it’s not a leak, it’s dissent:
Labor’s candidate for the marginal electorate of Sturt in Adelaide has criticised Julia Gillard’s climate change policy. Rick Sarre’s view was recorded during a street corner meeting last Saturday at suburban Leabrook…UPDATE 3
“I’m disappointed at the announcement that Julia Gillard made a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
”Didn’t satisfy me that she was pushing climate change to the level on the agenda that it should be...”
Gillard rules out the retiring and nothing-to-lose Tanner:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has dismissed as “political chatter” speculation that outgoing Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner is the source of leaks against Labor.I’m sure she’s right, even if Tanner has had a gutfull of the Gillard camp. But if Tanner is leaking, he’d be saying more about Gillard privately than he’s bothered to say publicly in this campaign.
Indeed, the last news entry on his previously well-maintained blog dates from July 16, and shows little concern any more for such things as spelling:
Today I have made a Delcaration of Open Government on behalf of the Australian Government. The declaration is an important step in creating a culturue of public sector openness and transparency, and is also a key component of the Government’s gov2.0 agenda that I have been working to progress.Just where is Tanner, and why won’t he speak?
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More maternal, the less mothering they actually do
Andrew Bolt
This has the smell of self-justification, not least because the baby’s interests have been put behind the mother’s:
MUMS can return to work within a year of giving birth without harming their babies’ development, a landmark report shows.Question: how can working mothers be said to “display greater ‘maternal sensitivity’ than their stay-at-home counterparts” when they’re at work and not by the baby who’d be so grateful to have some of that “maternal sensivity” displayed to him or her, rather than to some researcher.
Overturning decades of research, the biggest-ever study into the emotionally charged topic found the positives offset the negatives for mums who head back to employment before their children turn one.
Working mums have higher income, are more likely to seek quality childcare and display greater “maternal sensitivity” than their stay-at-home counterparts.
On the downside, infants with mums who work full-time score slightly lower on intelligence tests until they start primary school…
The US report, First-Year Maternal Employment and Child Development in the First Seven Years, is the first to provide the full picture on working mums with small children because it weighs the advantages against the disadvantages. Previous reports looked only at the potential damage caused by a mother’s absence from the home.
The Washington Post report makes even clearer, unwittingly, the selfish deception behind the thesis - including the ludicrous argument that working mums could at least afford better childcare than did mums who provided much better care for their babies by doing it themselves:
Infants raised by mothers with full-time jobs scored somewhat lower on cognitive tests, deficits that persisted into first grade. But that negative effect was offset by several positives. Working mothers had higher income. They were more likely to seek high-quality child care. And they displayed greater “maternal sensitivity,” or responsiveness toward their children, than stay-at-home mothers. Those positives canceled out the negatives [Says who? - Ed.]…Let’s clarify the real finding. Sticking your baby in childcare won’t do it much good at all, but at least you’ll be richer.
The study, “First-Year Maternal Employment and Child Development in the First 7 Years,” reaffirms the now-established point that women who work full time in the first year of motherhood risk mild developmental harm to their children… The reason may be that a mother with a full-time job cannot provide an infant “the kinds of intensive interaction that babies require,” needs that diminish in the toddler years, Brooks-Gunn said. High-quality child care, too, is hard to find for an infant.
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Britain too unsafe for its soldiers
Andrew Bolt
Britain’s heroes now do not dare to be identified for fear of the enemy within:
A SNIPER in the British Army submitted a legal challenge to the Ministry of Defence over a “catastrophic error” that put him and his family at risk of being kidnapped by al Qaeda.So how’s the multiculturalism working out there?
The soldier received huge media coverage when it was reported he had shot dead several Taliban fighters at a range of 1.5 miles during his tour of Afghanistan.
The publicity, which he says he never agreed to, meant that police feared he could be the victim of a reprisal attack by British-based Islamists and he was forced to leave the country with his family.
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Bushfire commissioners get too bossy
Andrew Bolt
Victoria’s bushfires royal commission has at times seem disconnected from the way the world works. Take some of the more insanely expensive and freedom-restricting proposals in its final report:
THE cost of implementing two of the Bushfires Royal Commission’s most controversial recommendations has been put at a staggering $35 billion.That “resettlement and retreat” policy means buying out people who have settled in areas that some commissar decides is too dangerous for them. No longer are people to be free to decide an acceptable risk for themselves, and to bear the responsibility for it. A cottage deep in a gum tree forest is to be deemed illegal on the grounds that it’s bad for the homeowner’s health.
State government and industry sources have told the Herald Sun that the total cost of burying the two major types of power lines across the state is about $20 billion over 10 years.
The cost of buying out 49,000 high-risk properties under the commission’s suggested “resettlement and retreat” policy has been put at $15 billion.
And to impose this impertinent nannying on bush folk, the commissioners demand the rest of us stump up billions. Which world do they live on?
But in two areas, thank heavens, they have at last seen sense. Here’s one:
It has also been estimated the cost of fuel reduction burns across 5 per cent of public land each year, as recommended, would be $250 million.Increasing fuel reduction burns has been recommended by almost every fire inquiry since 1939, and if was disturbing that this royal commission let a fire season go past before even getting to the subject.
Second, the commission has pulled back from its potentially disastrous preference for dumping the ”stay early or go” policy for one of evacuations - which would lead only to complacency and choked roads.
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Did her bodyguard eat Gillard’s notes afterwards?
Andrew Bolt
Gillard’s excuses won’t wash:
JULIA Gillard’s decision to have her bodyguard report back from national security meetings was a breach of the Rudd government cabinet code.
Police officer turned junior adviser Andrew Stark would have breached the code by not destroying the notes he took for the then deputy prime minister before leaving the meeting room.
The Australian understands that Ms Gillard’s frequent absences from national security committee of cabinet meetings prompted a suggestion she be given formal separate briefings to ensure she was properly informed.
Defence circles were concerned that Ms Gillard, who acted as prime minister for more than three months in the first term of the Rudd government, may not have been fully aware of national security developments…
It is understood Mr Stark has no formal counter-terrorism or intelligence training and was qualified in “close personal security"…
Ms Gillard confirmed she had sent Mr Stark, an AFP officer with more than 20 years’ experience, to the meetings she didn’t attend to “take notes"… But the latest cabinet confidentiality guidelines of the Rudd government, which were revised last year, after a series of embarrassing leaks in 2008, say ministers must give priority to cabinet meetings and officials who take notes must destroy those notes after the meeting. The cabinet code also stresses that when a staff member attends instead, that person should normally be “the ministerial chief of staff”.
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How could Gillard let $50 billion slip by without protest?
Andrew Bolt
Kenneth Davidson isn’t buying Gillard’s spin:
JULIA Gillard is right. The story about her cabinet comments on parental leave and age pension increases costing some $50 billion is a beat-up. The real question is why she didn’t apply the same critical approach to the cabinet decision to approve the $50 billion (including the government payment to Telstra) rollout of the national broadband network, which went to cabinet the night before it was announced on April 7, 2009.It’s just extraordinary that so much money could be spent in such a shambolic way. Where was Gillard to protest?
It was approved without any cost-benefit analysis or even a rudimentary business case to support it.
The plan was based on conversations between the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, and the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, over a couple of days flying between Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The proposed rollout is the biggest infrastructure project in Australia’s history. Proper process requires written submissions from the initiating department to the Cabinet Office in sufficient time to have the relevant documents circulated to other ministries - especially Finance and Treasury - so their officials can provide cabinet briefings for their ministers on the worth of the proposal.
There was no urgency for the decision, no white paper setting out the pros and cons. Clearly the cabinet was dysfunctional. Even the most superficial understanding of ministerial responsibility shows that the members of cabinet weren’t doing their job, especially then deputy prime minister Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner.
(Thanks to reader Spin Baby, Spin.)
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