=== Todays Toon ===
George Sydenham Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe GCSI, GCIE, GCMG, GBE (4 July 1848–7 February 1933) was a British colonial administrator and British Army officer
nb I could not source an image of this former Governor of Victoria, but I note he wrote an academic work on which Britain based her defence theory involving a strong navy and cheap quickly made fortifications, a kind of opposite to the Maginot Line the French plumped for. It was a result of deficiencies faced by the Brits with Boer War tactics which lead to the new theory. - ed=== Bible Quote ===
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”- 1 John 2:15-16=== Headlines ===
DEFICIT DILEMMA: If You Build It... They Will Tax?
A proposal by the president's bipartisan deficit reduction commission to eliminate or scale back current tax deductions homeowners receive for the interest they pay on their mortgages is being panned by economists, but could raise billions.Radicals Who Have Prayed on Capitol Hill
A 'Who's Who' of controversial figures linked to radical Islam, and in some cases terror, have attended weekly prayer sessions on Capitol Hill since the 9/11 attacks, a FoxNews.com investigation reveals
Thune May Have to Get Tough for 2012 Run
'12 in 2012': South Dakota Sen. John Thune's nice side may have to go out the window to deal with the sharp elbows if he becomes a GOP presidential candidate
Possible Break in N.C. Missing Girl Case
Investigators combing a creek in rural North Carolina recover evidence that could provide "valuable information" in the case of missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker
Nursing home blaze kills 10
TEN elderly people died and 17 were injured today when a blaze swept through a nursing home in South Korea, firefighters said.
Boat stopped carrying 39 asylum seekers
AUTHORITIES have intercepted another boat carrying suspected asylum seekers off the West Australian coast.
Triple murder hunt moves to rubbish dump
SOUTH Australian police investigating the Kapunda triple murder are to search the contents of a rubbish truck today.
Stephen Fry steps in on 'bomb threat' tweet
A MAN who issued a joke bomb threat on Twitter after his local airport was closed by heavy snowfall lost an appeal against his conviction.
Promising Parkinson's drug in pipeline
A DRUG designed to treat high blood pressure also diminishes the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mice.
Police 'had no choice' when they shot man
AN officer had no choice when he shot dead a man in northwestern NSW, police say.
Man stabbed to death, body found
ONE man has been stabbed to death north of Newcastle, and the body of another was discovered on a footpath in Surry Hills this morning.
O'Farrell lobbies for Captain Dragan
BARRY O'Farrell lobbied the State Government in defence of an alleged Serbian war criminal.
I was a prisoner of RailCorp
MANY people use "food poisoning" as a reason to miss work but Mark Connelly had a better excuse. He was trapped on a train.
Robots will be running the dairy
GETTING up at the crack of dawn could be a thing of the past for dairy farmers. A new robotic rotary dairy does the job of a farmer.
Charges over schoolies drug raids
A LARGE amount of drugs woth $500,000, including speed and ecstasy destined for Schoolies Week, has been seized by police.
Fatal fire treated as arson
ARSON investigators are focusing on the kitchen area of a house which burnt to the ground killing three members of the one family.
The pothole capital of Australia
THIS is one road we've managed to get repaired in Dungog - the "pothole capital of Australia". Read more about the Fix Your Street campaign.
Sex court to ease victims' pain
A SPECIAL court to deal with sex assault cases will be created to ease the trauma that victims face when they front the legal system.
Sydney is sinking into sin
SYDNEY has more than double the number of legal brothels than Victoria and Queensland combined.
Man glued puppy's eyes shut
MAN fined $1500 for beating puppy and glueing its eyes shut got off too lightly says RSPCA.
Driver hurled from ute
DRIVER of ute killed after he is thrown from vehicle in crash on country road is sixth person to die on Queensland roads this week.
Remains found in search for Zahra
HUMAN remains have reportedly been found in the search for missing Australian girl Zahra Baker, aged 10.
Cyclist smashes into parked car
A MAN, believed to be in his 40s, taken to hospital after crashing his bicycle into the back of a parked car.
Man stabbed in stomach
A MAN was rushed to hospital in a serious condition after being stabbed in the stomach on Brisbane's northside.
Our fallen heroes honoured
THE names of the 10 Diggers killed on active service in Afghanistan this year have been added to the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour.
$120 a day to keep Watson
HONEYMOON killer Gabe Watson will cost taxpayers $120 a day in detention as he awaits assurance from the US that he will not face the death penalty.
Bikeway rapist gets 4 more years
A SERIAL bikeway rapist who terrorised southeast Queensland has been sentenced to four more years after admitting sex assaults on two little girls.
Law change to protect kids
CHANGES to the Family Law Act will offer unprecedented protection to children who have at times been treated as ''chattels'', a Queensland MP says.
Death crash driver not guilty
THE family of a couple struck and killed by an elderly driver was relieved when a jury found him not guilty of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.
Tee up for wet and wild weather
WILD winds whipping Melbourne create fresh obstacles for Australian Masters golfers and set a prelude for a weekend of torrential rain.
Locust swarms hit Melbourne
A PLAGUE of locusts that has been detected in regional Victoria and NSW has now arrived in Melbourne.
Warnie to get his own oval
PREMIER John Brumby has thrown his support behind a bid to rename the Junction Oval in St Kilda after Shane Warne.
Man beaten in road rage attack
POLICE have appealed for witnesses to an incident in which a man was pulled to the street and beaten in a road rage attack.
Man charged after body found
A MAN has been charged with murder after police discovered a body in Melbourne's southeast yesterday.
Lock thugs in a cupboard - judge
SOME youths should be "put in a dark cupboard at 16 and brought out again at 25", a judge in a case of teens terrorising Indians says.
Police won't see blitz cash - union
THE Police Association says cops are only worried about saving lives after plan for blitz on motorists was revealed.
Tiger still a drawcard
THE second coming wasn't nearly as big, but by midday Melbourne was again in the grip of Tiger mania.
Coalition costings draw heavy fire
THE Coalition's election promises are under scrutiny after Ted Baillieu was unable to outline what will be cut to pay for them.
Shameless lack of respect for Diggers
FALLEN Diggers were forgotten across the state, as disrespectful Victorians ignored the traditional minute's silence.
Nothing new
ALP 'revolt' meeting mysteriously canned
A MEETING of Labor MPs which heightened speculation about unrest in party ranks was mysteriously cancelled yesterday.
Police car rammed during pursuit
A POLICE car has been rammed twice during a high-speed chase in the northern suburbs.
New leads in Kapunda hunt
A 'PERSON of interest' has emerged in the Kapunda triple-murder case, as the investigation expands to another Mid-North town.
Cinema's epic struggle now a movie
THE FIRST trailer for a film being produced about the Chelsea Cinema and Burnside Council has been released - and a sequel to has already been announced.
Riverbank development master plan
ADELAIDE'S Riverbank precinct will undergo a master plan process, Infrastructure Minister Patrick Conlon has announced.
Whale skull washes up near Ceduna
THE ribs and jaw bone of a huge southern right whale have been found washed up on a beach on the state's West Coast.
All-time high for full-time workers
THE number of people employed full time in South Australia rose by 1400 during October to reach 555,700 - the highest since records began 30 years ago.
Blow to law and order stance
THE High Court's decision on the anti-bikie legislation is a blow to the Government's law and order campaign.
Motorcyclist killed at Streaky Bay
A MOTORCYCLIST died after losing control of his bike in Streaky Bay overnight.
72-year-old missing in Outback
A COOBER Pedy man has been reported missing after last being seen in January.
Police hunt after men bashed
POLICE are investigating two assaults in the Rockingham area that left one man with a broken jaw and another unconscious.
Woman dies as car rolls
POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding a crash in which a woman died at Waroona, 112km south of Perth, yesterday.
Illegal workers to be deported
NEARLY 30 immigrants caught working illegally as fruit-pickers on properties in rural WA have been detained by authorities.
Finks win a blueprint for WA bikie laws
THE WA government will push ahead with its own bikie laws despite a High Court ruling similar legislation in South Australia was unconstitutional.
Phone tampering prison officer sentenced
A FORMER Bandyup Prison officer who tampered with the jail's phone system to allow an inmate to contact him has been given a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
WA police look for reinforcements
POLICE reinforcements from interstate and possibly New Zealand will be brought to Perth to help bolster security at next year’s CHOGM event.
Proof onus in 'racist' music video case
A JUDGE has reserved his decision over an appeal against a Perth filmmaker who was acquitted for making a 'racist' music video removed by YouTube.
WA jobless rate rises in October
WA’S unemployment rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 4.7 per cent in October but remains the lowest rate compared to other states.
Car slams into Morley house
A WOMAN was lucky to escape unharmed after a speeding car ploughed into her Morley house last night.
Kids, 14, jailed on smuggler charges
BOYS as young as 14 are being held in WA maximum-security adult jails and tried for people-smuggling offences, Indonesia says.
Nothing new
=== Journalists Corner ===
VIDEO: Veterans Day TributeTo all our troops who serve and have served our country, THANK YOU!
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12 in 2012: John Thune
Can South Dakota's senator gain enough support to hit the campaign trail? Don't miss part six of our special series.
===
George W. Bush on 'The Factor'
From 9/11 and Iraq, to water boarding and wiretapping - Bill O'Reilly has the tough questions for the former commander in chief!
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Guest: Karl Rove
Health care, jobs, tax cuts ... How the GOP plans to keep their promise to America by passing their agenda. Karl Rove reacts!
On Fox News Insider
Huckabee: A Salute to Our VeteransSupporting Our Vets: Sears Gift Registry Helps Military Families
Behind-the-Scenes: Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade Interview President George W. Bush
Michelle Malkin: Pelosi Held a Pity Party
=== Comments ===
Headed for big tumble in high wire actPiers Akerman
AN important voice has not been heard in the debate over the Not Bloody Needed broadband scheme being rolled out by the Gillard Labor Government - that of the taxpayers. - Even if it were to be delivered and implemented tomorrow I wouldn’t use it. What I get from ADSL is sufficient for me .. and affordable to me. The NBN prices me out of the internet. But even if I accept the cost, I don’t need that speed. But I do need more flexibility, and the NBN will not provide that. It will cost me more to do what other possible services include as givens.
But the reason for the NBN needs to be examined .. and I don’t mean the faux business costing or plan that are talked about and carefully hidden from the public by virtue of their not existing. The political imperative is to replace spending pork barrels lost by the failure to implement wastage in Health or environmental reform. But then also worth noting that with the time taken for installation, by the time it is up and running it will be obsolete. - ed
===
Julia and Wayne are very angry, but what will they do?
by Tony Abbott
Prime Minister Gillard is reportedly angry over the latest bank interest rate rise but people expect action rather than emotion from their government.
Wayne Swan has been angry with the banks on more than 30 occasions over the past three years but that hasn’t stopped them from raising interest rates by more than the Reserve Bank. This almost never happened under John Howard and Peter Costello and is a sign that the current government isn’t taken seriously as an economic manager.
Seven interest rate rises in the past year have added more than $500 a month to the repayments on an average mortgage.
Then there’s all the other pressure on people’s cost of living: since the December quarter of 2007, power prices are up 42 per cent, gas is up 29 per cent, water up 46 per cent, education costs up 17 per cent, health costs up 17 per cent and rent up 18 per cent.
Rising prices and pressure on people’s standard of living are not always the government’s fault but it’s the government’s duty to not to make a bad situation worse through mismanagement and high taxes.
“Do no harm” should be the first rule of government. Unfortunately, the government’s spending spree is putting upwards pressure on interest rates and prices and the government’s wastefulness means upward pressure on taxes too.
A government that can’t tighten its own belt means that people have to tighten theirs. The Rudd/Gillard government inherited a $20 billion surplus and turned it into a $55 billion deficit last year and a projected $41 billion deficit this year, the two largest in Australia’s history.
As this week’s economic outlook statement shows, Labor’s budget position has got worse as the economy has got better. This is a government that can never make a tough decision.
The basic problem is that the government doesn’t appear to stand for anything or to believe in anything.
The carbon tax that was ruled out before the election but ruled in afterwards is just the most obvious example of a clear commitment that became negotiable as soon as the government was in trouble. It’s no way to run a country but that’s what we can expect from a government that’s, on John Faulkner’s admission, long on cunning but short on courage.
===
Desperation on the Far Left
BY BILL O'REILLY
After last week's election results, some in the Obama administration and most in the left-wing media are furious, and now desperation is setting in.
Two examples. First, Fox-o-phobia. That is the irrational fear of the Fox News Channel, which for the first time in history beat every other TV news agency on election night, a stunning turn of events.
That kind of power is frightening the far left, and last week we told you about Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, a Fox hater, who wrote that FNC hosted a Republican victory party on election night.
OF COURSE, THAT IS A BLATANT LIE, WITH MR. MILBANK WRITING: "To be fair and balanced, Fox brought in a nominal Democrat, pollster Doug Schoen. 'This is a complete repudiation of the Democratic party,' he proclaimed."
Milbank intentionally misled his readers. Fox News Channel had seven analysts on the Democratic side, and they did not marginalize their party.
So Megyn Kelly and I discussed the Milbank situation and then went on to analyze the Sharia law proposition in Oklahoma:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEGYN KELLY, "AMERICA LIVE" HOST: If Sharia law says you can rape your husband if you're a man and she's a woman because you're married, our public policy in America doesn't allow that, so we don't have to enforce that law.
O'REILLY: Does Sharia law say we can behead Dana Milbank?
KELLY: I think.
O'REILLY: That was a joke for you Media Matters people out there because, you know, "O'Reilly says we want to behead Dana."
KELLY: Why do you even pay any attention to them? Who cares about them?
O'REILLY: Here's why: because I attack corruption at all levels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILBANK IS NOW TELLING HIS READERS THAT I WANT HIM DEAD: "Bill O'Reilly wants my head -- literally. On Thursday night, the Fox News host asked, as part of a show that would be seen by 5.5 million people: 'Does Sharia law say we can behead Dana Milbank?' He then added, 'That was a joke.' Hilarious! Decapitation jokes just slay me."
Milbank is desperately trying to convince his readers that I want violence to befall him. Not true. I'd like honesty to befall Mr. Milbank.
But far more serious is what the Justice Department is doing to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, and this is the second example of desperation on the left.
As you may know, Christie is emerging as a fierce advocate of smaller government and budget cutting. So now Attorney General Eric Holder is putting out that Christie did not properly follow hotel guidelines while he was a federal prosecutor for six years. The amount in question is about $2,000.
Now you don't have to be Dana Milbank to know this is bogus. The Justice Department isn't accusing Gov. Christie; it is just pointing out his accounting was a bit lax.
But why? Doesn't Holder have anything more important to do?
This is a desperate attempt to denigrate Christie, is it not? What other explanation is there for this? The governor should write Holder a check for the two grand and send it to him. Preposterous.
===
Is Julia Gillard finished?
Andrew Bolt
I’m told she’s smart enough to recover. I’m told that she’s just waiting until the Senate changes next July to unleash. I’m told that she just needs a Christmas break to refresh after an utterly grueling year.
And yet…
- Labor under Gillard has fallen from 55 per cent in the polls at the start of the electon campaign to 48 per cent (2pp) nowIt’s true that I’ve focussed only on the negatives and that Gillard also has some positives. She’s smart and ruthless, and the Opposition has at times been ragged and undisciplined in its attacks. Many in the Labor party will also be very wary of repeating the NSW experience of churning through leaders to stave off falling polls, although some will argue that this churn is precisely what helped NSW Labor win so many elections in a row.
- Gillard’s disapproval rating now equals her approval (41 per cent) in Newspoll, close to the levels where recovery starts to become very hard.
- Her signature promises are all in diabolical strife - the emissions trading scheme (doomed), cash for clunkers (doomed), the new mining tax (so bungled that it will leave a Budget black hole yet to be revealed), the East Timor detention centre (doomed), the Epping rail line (in doubt after the state election), a balanced budget in three years (dubious), her Citizens Assembly (abandoned), her no-carbon-tax promise (almost sure to be broken) and the national broadband scheme (increasingly incredible). That is an astonishing failure rate in just four months, and reflects very poor judgment and worse leadership.
- A lack of policy ideas is creating a vacuum being filled mainly be the Greens, making Labor seem insipid and directionless.
- Leading factional figures and party heavies are publicly demanding vision, deploring the drift or criticising Gillard’s mistakes - Graham Richardson, Karl Bitar, John Faulkner, Doug Cameron, Mark Arbib.
- Gillard is unable to point to a single policy breakthrough to set aside the reverses and demonstrate her potential.
- Her one attempt to show “vision” - promising to rewrite the preamble to Constitution to acknowledge our “first peoples” - instead advertised a lack of it, being rushed, purely symbolic and shopsoiled.
- The High Court’s decision on Christmas Island will further undermine and draw attention to her already failed boat people policy, fast becoming a big political problem.
- Many of those most responsible for installing Gillard have personal reasons for not wanting to prop her up, starting with her now chief rival, Bill Shorten.
- One of the few adults in Cabinet on whom she could rely, Martin Ferguson, is now rumored to be ready to retire before or at the next election.
- One of the big weaknesses of the Rudd Government, Treasurer Wayen Swan, remains a weakness under Gillard.
- Gillard’s ability to reinvent herself is limited since she announced she was unveiling the “real Julia”, which will make any subsequent and dramatically different versions seem fakery.
- Cash is now very short for any eye-catching new agenda that requires money, and Gillard’s courage for real agenda-setting, which almost invariably attracts screams of outrage, seems missing. Would she really dare tackle what I think could actually help her and be both relatively cheap and consistent with her warmist preaching -give the green light to nuclear power and set a carbon tax just high enough to encourage it?
Yet I’d tentatively conclude that Gillard is right on the cusp. One more bad poll and the drums will really start beating. But even now the early signs are that her trajectory is downwards, and dangerously so.
===
The culture we should not offend is our own
Andrew Bolt
VICROADS isn’t dangerously dumb just because it wouldn’t mark Remembrance Day.
Plenty of Australians would have themselves overlooked the minute’s silence.
Too lazy. Too busy. Too forgetful of what they owe.
The real problem was instead the colossally stupid explanation it gave - one that brands it as yet another institution that’s led by the suicidally stupid “enlightened”.
Here it is: “VicRoads have not observed a minute’s silence for a number of years as they are conscious of possible different cultural issues and don’t wish to cause offence.”
Pardon? What are these “cultural issues”?
VicRoads is yet to spell them out, and even Roads Minister Tim Pallas - who yesterday blasted the VicRoads edict and reversed it - feigned ignorance on MTR 1377.
Perhaps VicRoads just didn’t want to offend some people with certain “views regarding war”, he suggested.
Oh, really? Isn’t the real “cultural issue” that VicRoads thought a Remembrance Day ceremony would offend those of its multicultural staff from some particular, ahem, cultures?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Pallas said. But I think the rest of us do.
My strong suspicion is that VicRoads thought honouring the sacrifices of Australian soldiers who’d fallen in battle from Gallipoli to Afghanistan might offend staff members of a certain ancestry or faith not altogether unconnected to either place.
Indeed, we’ve already had a few hints of such “cultural issues” elsewhere.
===
Experts unveil rescue plan as locusts eat Melbourne
Andrew Bolt
Thank heavens for the Australian Plague Locust Commission, whose chief, Gordon Berg, emerges from furious consultation with his taxpayer-funded experts to pass on the fruits of years of research into suppression of the pests now invading Melbourne:
Mr Berg says there is a simple and environmentally-friendly way to deal with the animals in small numbers. They can be squashed.A grateful nation extends its thanks.
(Thanks to reader John.)
===
Sponsoring the enemy
Andrew Bolt
Just where I’d like Google to put an ad for the Greens, too, right between my reminder of the bankruptcy of Leftist ideas and and a demand that Labor tackle the most radical purveyor of them:
If the ad is still there, click often. Every single click will transfer money from the Greens to Rupert Murdoch, and via his eyedropper to me.(Thanks to reader ST.)
===
Andrews on the dark heart of the Greens
Andrew Bolt
Liberal frontbencher Kevin Andrews begins his excellent analysis of the Greens’ ideology:
For many years, the Greens have been treated as a political curiosity. They could win a spot or two in the Senate, but they were absent from the real place of political power, the House of Representatives. That has now changed. Not only will they have more senators from July next year, they also have a seat in the House. More significantly, they are in a formal alliance with the minority Labor government nationally and in Tasmania.Read on for the rest.
Despite the emphasis on the environment, “the Greens are not a single issue party.” Their objective is clear: “to transform politics and bring about Green government."[ii] The Australian Greens are part of a worldwide movement that is actively engaged in the political process.[iii] As their writings state, this objective involves a radical transformation of the culture that underpins western civilization. As a political party, they should be treated like any other political party and subjected to the same scrutiny.
In order to fully comprehend the Greens’ political ideology, it is necessary to understand the historical roots and foundations of both our own western, liberal democratic culture – and that of the Greens. It this address, I propose to explain the Greens agenda, as set out in their own documents and writings.[iv] The paper has three parts: First, a brief examination of the roots of western culture and the origins of the Greens; secondly, an analysis of the Greens ideology; and thirdly, a discussion of the Greens economic, social and other policies.
The heart of the matter:
There are many descriptions that could be applied to the Greens, but none seems more accurate than Jack Mundey’s own description of “ecological Marxism.” This description sums up the two core beliefs of the Greens. First, the environment or the ecology is to be placed before all else. This is spelt out in the first principle in the Greens Global Charter: “We acknowledge that human beings are part of the natural world and we respect the specific values of all forms of life, including non-human species.” [vi]The conclusion:
Secondly, the Greens are Marxist in their philosophy, and display the same totalitarian tendencies of all previous forms of Marxism when applied as a political movement. By totalitarian, I mean the subordination of the individual and the impulse to rid society of all elements that, in the eyes of the adherent, mar its perfection.
What is at stake in the Greens ‘revolution’ is the heart and soul of western civilisation, built on the Judeo-Christian/Enlightenment synthesis that upholds the individual –with obligations and responsibilities to others, but ultimately judged on his or her own conscience and actions – as the possessor of an inherent dignity and inalienable rights. What is also at stake is the economic system that has resulted in the creation of wealth and prosperity for the most people in human history.===
Is Baillieu’s presentation really worse than Labor’s delivery?
Andrew Bolt
IT was easy to criticise Ted Baillieu after he plodded through the leaders’ forum at a Nunawading pub on Wednesday.
I did it myself on Sky News afterwards, and God knows, criticising the Opposition Leader is a blood sport even among many Liberals.
For instance, any conservative like me who watched the forum - held before 200 undecided voters - would have had yet more reason to peg Baillieu as more to the Left than even Labor Premier John Brumby.
Brumby, not Baillieu, said he was against same-sex marriage. Brumby, not Baillieu, declared openly he was against euthanasia.
Liberals would have also despaired again at Baillieu’s presentation. His nature and frame make him seem almost diffident, and Labor plays on it. Only yesterday, Deputy Premier Rob Hulls called him a “part-time” candidate, hinting that he was too rich to care much, anyway.
And on Wednesday night he indeed seemed to lack some of Brumby’s passion.
In fact, there is no doubting Baillieu’s work ethic. During the forum, there was no issue on which he did not seem informed, and a closely typed list of his policy announcements, headlines alone, stretches to almost four pages.
But how many of those hundreds of announcements can you remember? Can you even recall which leader - Brumby or Baillieu - is promising the more nurses, teachers or police?
Let me sum up the confusion: at the last election, Labor attacked the Liberals for the desalination plant it promised; now the Liberals attack Labor over the one it built.
Just as muddied have been the Liberals’ attacks, which have rarely been drawn together to tell a memorable story of, say, this Government’s green-maddened waste.
This means the Liberals rarely draw much blood, other than, belatedly, on law and order and the myki bungling.
So many reasons, then, to default to backing Labor again.
At least Brumby looks like he knows what he’ll do, and has a team that’s not invisible.
Yet, whatever Baillieu’s failures of presentation, the crowd at Wednesday’s forum was clearly impatient with Labor’s failures of delivery, and when you check Labor’s record, the pattern of cost overruns is astonishing. - any fair person would say the ALP far worse than the Libs, but Bolt is a former speech writer for the ALP, and although he is a conservative, he is a social conservative - ed
===
Maybe the ideas just aren’t good
Andrew Bolt
Union leader Paul Howes complains that conservative think tanks are leaving the Left-wing ones for dead:
We have watched ideas flowing out of places such as the Sydney Institute and the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne. The IPA, the HR Nicholls Society and the Sydney Institute may propose policies that are abhorrent to me, but they’ve created a culture of ideas to nourish conservative politics…It can’t be through lack of money. After all, Melbourne University’s Leftist Grattan Institute received $30 million from the Brumby and Rudd Labor Goverbments - 15 times more than the IPA annual budget.
There are already think tanks that are loosely associated with the progressive, social democratic, centre-left or Labor side of politics: Per Capita, the Centre for Policy Development, Catalyst, the Australia Institute, the Evatt Foundation, the Fabians. That’s a lot of shingles blowing in the wind. But, frankly, none of them is as healthy or has as much gravitas and community standing as those on the conservative side of the political fence.
I suspect the problem is that mainstream Leftist think is now weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, and poor Paul rather likes the conservative buzz more than he lets on.
===
More than even Richo can fix
Andrew Bolt
Labor fixer Graham Richardson is better at analysing the problem than diagnosing the cure when he tells Julia Gillard to start leading:
The polls taken in the first week of the campaign had Labor in front, 55 per cent to 45 per cent. A few weeks into the uncharted waters of minority government, Labor is trailing 48 per cent to 52 per cent, according to Newspoll, which is still rated best by both sides of politics, and Gillard’s own ratings are falling as well.But stop. An ETS is now a dead duck with the US abandoning it, too. The leaves imposing a carbon tax. Think that’s a big seller? Labor could only survive such a tax - which it only a few weeks ago ruled out - if it sets it so low that it’s purely symbolic. Then cue more uproar.
The attack on Labor’s vote by the Greens has to be addressed. The government (and Gillard has to take responsibility for this) has become so concerned about adopting any policy that may be unpopular and require a dialogue with the Australian people to convince them the ideas are good that a kind of policy paralysis is developing…
Climate change is the area where Labor has failed badly and has continued to fail...More than six months has passed since (Kevin Rudd put off the emissions trading scheme) and still no one knows what Labor intends to do about climate change. If Labor wants to put a tax on carbon, it should say so and get out and sell the message. If it is going to take the US route of ever so slowly creeping up on the problem, it should say so. Having no position at all just doesn’t work.
I saw an interview with Greens leader Bob Brown shortly before writing this column. He is arguably the best politician in the country. He is genuinely humble, articulate, earnest and, rarely for a politician, lacks any malice. He is the perfect moderate face to put on a party increasingly racked by internal division. The Greens are gradually being taken over by some extreme left-wing types.This much I’d agree with, although I doubt that Greens voters can yet be convinced by rational argument. In Victoria, for instance, they still think that closing Hazelwood immediately - and losing a quarter of the state’s power - is perfectly fine. I’d rather promise (or threaten) to impose Greens policies on the electorates which vote for them.
Why doesn’t the government cost all of the Greens’ policies, lift the veil on the totality of their platform and expose what a joke Australia would be if the Greens actually got to govern the country?
There is also a curious reluctance to be bold on social policy. If right-wing leaders such as Mark Arbib and Paul Howes take a positive stance on gay marriage, why doesn’t the PM show the “real Julia” and stand up on the issue.Here’s two reasons. First, Labor conservatives would go ape, and, two, Labor’s conservative voters would move to the Liberals, with few Liberal voters coming the other way to balance the losses.
During the campaign and since (Gillard) got the job there have been serious errors.
The announcement of the East Timor detention centre, which the government is clinging to despite it becoming increasingly ridiculous, springs to mind. The notorious citizens’ assembly, which was supposed to cover the lack of policy substance on climate change, was truly pathetic. The “real Julia” announcement was just politically dumb.These aren’t mere failures to pick up “signs”. These are fundamentally stupid ideas, suggested only to trick voters rather than to offer genuine solutions. They go straight to the heart of Gillard’s competence and integrity.
These errors indicate Gillard’s political antenna sometimes doesn’t pick up dangerous signs on its radar.
These thoughts are shared by many senior figures in the party and the cabinet.Then why have those senior figures left it to Richardson to be their public messenger? Is Gillard as deaf to advice as the man she replaced?
===
Yet another rort of a green scheme
Andrew Bolt
The absurd costs of green schemes to “save” a perfectly safe planet is now scaring even the Gillard Government:
HOMEOWNERS will have to pay at least $1000 towards the cost of their solar panels, under an overhaul of the Gillard government’s green subsidy scheme.===
This will end the era of installing rooftop solar systems for free or at little cost.
The solar scheme clawback comes as Industry Minister Kim Carr refuses to guarantee the future of the much criticised “cash-for-clunkers” climate change program, which is designed to reward people for upgrading to newer, less polluting cars.
You know how your power bills are already soaring? Well…
Andrew Bolt
It’s not just the threatened carbon tax that will make our industries less competitive:
THE $120 billion energy industry has warned that Julia Gillard’s mining tax compromise could drive up electricity prices.Why are we strangling our economy?
It also warned that it would distort the market for producing power.
The Energy Supply Association of Australia, which represents more than 40 electricity and gas companies, says the commonwealth’s resource taxes would drive up the costs of the fuels used to generate 93 per cent of electricity. This is likely to be passed on to users, the association warns.
As well, the federal government’s proposed expanded petroleum resource rent tax threatens to skew decisions about new power stations by taxing “greenhouse-friendly” gas at a higher rate. The PRRT will apply to all gas and coal-seam gas projects at a rate of 40 per cent, compared with the 30 per cent that will apply to coal.
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The Ridley letter, and reasons not to panic
Andrew Bolt
Matt Ridley on those predictions of runaway warming:
The climate is going to have to get a move on if it is hit 3C this century. One-tenth of the century now over and no significant warming yet. This should have been the fastest bit: since the curve is logarithmic, the first 100 ppm of CO2 should produce as much warming as the next 200 ppm.This comes in a letter Ridley’s written that’s a must read, and comes with this introduction:
Some weeks ago I wrote an article for The Times about why I no longer find persuasive the IPCC’s arguments that today’s climate change is unprecedented, fast and dangerous.(Thanks to several readers.)
I was delighted to receive a long and courteous letter from David MacKay, the chief scientific advisor to Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change…
The remarkable thing about this exchange is that far from weakening my doubts about the IPCC case, it has strengthened them. The letter explains why. Essentially, I have realised that almost the only weapons left in the alarm locker are the retreat of the Arctic sea ice and an event that happened 55m years ago and was probably not caused by CO2 at all. Everything else—the CO2-temperature correlation in the Antarctic ice core, the hockey stick, storm frequency, phenology, etc etc—no longer supports the argument that something unprecedented in magnitude or rate is happening. Remarkable.
Here is my letter:
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Gillard may need Abbott to save her from her boat people disaster
Andrew Bolt
Barrie Cassidy says the High Court’s decision yesterday to uphold claims by two alleged supporters of the paramilitary Tamil Tigers may well force Julia Gillard into the arms of Tony Abbott, and who knows how the Greens will react?
The excision system that decreed those held on (Christmas) island would not have access to the same legal rights as everybody else, is now redundant.And still Nauru says, “pick me”.
The court has found all asylum seekers must be treated the same, whether they arrive by plane or boat, and whether they arrive at Christmas Island or the mainland.
It is no longer open to the Minister for Immigration to refuse to review their cases simply on the basis that they were being held offshore… Thousands of others yet to be assessed now know they suddenly have an appeal process open to them that - like the circumstances of the two Tamils - could take them all the way to the High Court…
The Government will carefully examine every aspect of the ruling before it decides what to do about it. But if it decides the new arrangements are untenable, then they might need to go cap in hand to the Coalition for the support they will need in the Parliament.
It could be the first case of the two major parties getting together to provide the numbers against the expressed wishes of The Greens and at least one or two of the independents… But the alternative is far worse. Asylum seekers will be able to string out their claims for years. Detention centres are already full. The boats just keep coming....
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Gillard makes the case for nuclear power in Australia
Andrew Bolt
Let’s follow Julia Gillard’s sound argument to its logical conclusion:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a deal to sell uranium to Russia under strict safeguards will create jobs, as world leaders grapple with a struggling global economy.If nuclear power is good for Russia on the grounds that it will reduce the greenhouse gases caused by burning coal, then shouldn’t a good warmist adopt it in Australia, too?
Ms Gillard and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday met on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit for a ceremony to seal an agreement on nuclear energy…
“The agreement will help Russia to meet its expanding energy needs as it seeks to reduce its greenhouse emissions by diversifying its energy sources and shifting away from a reliance on fossil fuels,” the prime minister said.
(Thanks to reader Margaret.)
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Is this what they call a conscience vote?
Andrew Bolt
On Tuesday:
A BRUMBY Government minister has broken ranks with Cabinet colleagues and declared her support for same-sex marriage. Maxine Morand, who is Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, today confirmed she personally supported gay marriage.On Thursday:
THE Greens have given Labor a big leg-up in the government’s most marginal seat in the Victorian poll, awarding preferences to children’s minister Maxine Morand.(Thanks to reader Margaret.)
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