Lift the burqa on cowardly extremism
Miranda Devine – Wednesday, June 22, 11 (06:42 pm)
THE preposterous excuses and Pythonesque theatrics of Carnita Matthews and her thuggish supporters outside the Downing Centre Courts this week would be comic, if they weren’t so threatening.
FIX JULIA
Tim Blair – Thursday, June 23, 11 (09:29 am)
Julia Gillard loves Canadian commies, as Miranda Devine reports:
The extraordinary endorsement by Julia Gillard of a hard left socialist party in Canada is another bombshell to the government’s credibility.
What was she thinking?
Dressed in red, and against the backdrop of Parliament House, the Prime Minister wishes the New Democratic Party a happy 50th birthday “on behalf of your friends in the Australian Labor Party and indeed all Australians”.
My personal favourite NDP policy: Fix Ottawa!
378 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S FALSELY DIVISIVE TAX
Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 22, 11 (10:51 am)
Ross Garnaut wishes for less debate:
DAVID MARK: He notes the division in Australian politics but says it needn’t exist, calling it a “false divide”.
ROSS GARNAUT: There is no reason why carbon pricing should be a matter of partisan political division in Australia and it wasn’t only a few years ago.
Which is why the Liberal Party, led by a grassroots campaign by members, booted carbon wimp Malcolm Turnbull out of the leadership. It is a divisive issue. Garnaut thinks that by shutting down voters, it shuts down the argument.
DAVID MARK: With that statement in mind AM asked Professor Garnaut to discuss whether he thought the current political debate was harming the process of achieving a price on carbon.
ROSS GARNAUT: Well I’m not a political commentator though, but we do have a bitter public discussion of this matter at the moment with a rancour that’s unusual, in fact unprecedented in my experience in Australian public policy discussion …
But I haven’t changed my position from the one that was supported by both political parties four years ago and three years ago.?
There’s more to politics than party positions, mate. Meanwhile, here’s Ian Chubb – as Vice-Chancellor of the ANU – on the largely bogus stunt that was ThreatGate:
These hurtful attacks are intended to intimidate scientists, to scare them off and stop them from participating in public discussions on climate change. They are the antithesis of democratic debate.
And Ian Chubb – as the Labor Party’s chief scientist – speaking at the Press Club yesterday:
Professor Ian Chubb said climate science deniers should not be given an equal platform with mainstream scientists, and he criticised the media for giving sceptics the space to make their arguments.
In other words, to stop them from participating in public discussions. You are a funny person, Mr Chubb.
(Via CL)
Opining in today’s New York Times, history professor Nelson Lichtenstein asserts that Wal-Mart uses an “authoritarian style, by which executives pressure store-level management to squeeze more and more from millions of clerks, stockers and lower-tier managers.” Then he scolds Wal-Mart for being so bigoted that it erects “obstacles to women’s advancement.”
This tale is highly improbable.
A company that squeezes maximum possible profits from its workers does not refuse to promote women simply because of their sex. Such refusals would leave money on the table by keeping many employees in lower-rank positions even though those employees would add more to the company’s bottom line by being promoted to higher-rank positions. Conversely, a company that indulges its taste for bigotry is not a company intent on squeezing as much profit as possible from its employees.
If Ms. Jones can add thousands of dollars to Wal-Mart’s annual profits by working as a manager, rather than hundreds of dollars by working as a cashier, squeezing “more and more” from her requires that Wal-Mart promote her to manager.
It’s simply unbelievable that a company with Wal-Mart’s record of consistently wringing profits from razor-thin retail margins intentionally – or even negligently – wastes the talents of large numbers of its employees by using them in ways that do not add maximum value to Wal-Mart’s bottom line.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Russ explains that another name for the phenomenon that some people call “structural issues” is “progress.” Here are key paragraphs:
But should we call this progress? In a sense it sounds like a deal with the devil. Replace workers with machines in the name of lower costs. Profits rise. Repeat. It’s a wonder unemployment is only 9.1%. Shouldn’t the economy put people ahead of profits?
Well, it does. The savings from higher productivity don’t just go to the owners of the textile factory or the mega hen house who now have lower costs of doing business. Lower costs don’t always mean higher profits. Or not for long. Those lower costs lead to lower prices as businesses compete with each other to appeal to consumers.
The result is a higher standard of living for consumers. The average worker has to work fewer and fewer hours to earn enough money to buy a dozen eggs or a pair of shoes or a flat-screen TV or a new car that’s safer and gets better mileage than the cars of yesteryear. That higher standard of living comes from technology. It isn’t just the rich who get cheaper TVs and cars, plus the convenience of using an ATM at midnight.
Somehow, new jobs get created to replace the old ones. Despite losing millions of jobs to technology and to trade, even in a recession we have more total jobs than we did when the steel and auto and telephone and food industries had a lot more workers and a lot fewer machines.
Why do new jobs get created? When it gets cheaper to make food and clothing, there are more resources and people available to create new products that didn’t exist before. Fifty years ago, the computer industry was tiny. It was able to expand because we no longer had to have so many workers connecting telephone calls. So many job descriptions exist today that didn’t even exist 15 or 20 years ago. That’s only possible when technology makes workers more productive.
Here’s a letter to Washington, DC, news radio station WTOP:
Programming Director, WTOP Radio
Dear Sir or Madam:
Driving from the gym during today’s 1pm hour I caught your report onSunday’s Washington Post article about income inequality. Your reporter presumes that income differences necessarily reflect something amiss.
That presumption is mistaken.
I spend about six hours weekly (and weakly) lifting weights at the gym. The modesty of my effort combines with my age (early 50s) to ensure that I’ll never be as buff as younger guys who spend more time at the gym than I do. The result is muscle inequality! And I’m tempted to feel envious. I want to be as bulging-biceped, broad-shouldered, and chiseled as are my young gym-rat friends.
Really, though, how seriously do I want this outcome? I could build more muscle if I spent not six hours weekly at the gym but, rather, six hours daily. But I choose not to do so. Spending more time at the gym means spending less time working (that is, earning income), less time with family and friends, and less time doing other things that I judge to be worthwhile. The fact that I’d be more buff if being more buff were costless is irrelevant. It’s not costless; therefore, the size of my muscles is largely the result of the way I choose to make trade-offs.
So I resist the temptation to envy men with bigger muscles (men whose muscles, do note, were not built with fiber taken from my muscles). And if muscle redistribution by government were possible, I’d oppose it. Not only would the result be less muscle bulk to ‘redistribute’ (Would you pump weights for hours each day knowing that a large chunk of what you build will be stripped away and given to someone else?) but, more importantly, I’m not entitled to the confiscated fruits of other people’s efforts.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
… is from page 27 of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics, 3rd ed. (2007):
Knowledge is one of the scarcest of all resources and a pricing system economizes on its use by forcing those with the most knowledge of their own particular situation to make bids for goods and resources based on that knowledge, rather than on their ability to influence other people in planning commissions, legislatures, or royal palaces.
Surrendering the moral high ground
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (06:08 am)
Lord Monckton has embarrassed himself and damaged his cause by this offensive attack:
Footage has been posted on the internet of a speech Lord Christopher Monckton gave to a conference in Los Angeles earlier this month.
In it he displayed a Nazi swastika next to a quote from Professor Garnaut.
Lord Monckton compared statements made by Adolf Hitler to Professor Garnaut’s suggestion that people should accept the mainstream science of climate change.
“That again is a fascist point of view, that you merely accept authority without question. Heil Hitler, on we go,” he said.
Monckton is right to warn against the surrender to argument-by-authority. He is right to warn against the surrender of sovereignty to international bodies claiming to work for “the planet”.
But he’s gone too far in this deeply pesonal attack and an apology is in order. Without one, it will be unwise for other sceptics to associate themselves with him on his Australian tour.
Scott wins an argument while others are not free to disagree
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (05:50 am)
For legal reasons, I am not free to join the public debate about this award and the views of the author:
FREMANTLE-BASED author Kim Scott has become the first indigenous writer to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award twice…
Scott, however, sees it as an optimistic book because it highlights the possibility of accord with indigenous people. “Our story isn’t over yet,” he said.
Australia “still had a way to go” to reconcile indigenous literature and “Australian literature”.
To be safe, I must ban your comments, too. If you think this absurd, you must demand politicians repeal the Racial Discrimination Act’s provisions impinging on free speech.
Save the planet! Say no to babies
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (05:38 am)
So who is Al Gore trying to save the planet for? Others wonder about that bottled water.
Not much empathy in drowned boat people and full camps
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (05:30 am)
Paul Sheehan on the SBS reality show Go Back To Where You Came From, much praised by journalists for making selected Australians more empathic with boat people:
The participants are lied to. The audience is lied to. This is an empathy forced march...The empathy argument is easily turned on its head, something the producers carefully avoid doing. Far from lacking empathy, the decision to send a punitive signal to the people smugglers and their clients has been proven to stop the people-smuggling trade. Detention centres, instead of being opened all over the country, would empty out. Lives would not be lost at sea. Hundreds of millions of dollars would be spent on people instead of policing. More refugees could come to Australia under less stress and for less cost.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
Getting it said
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (05:27 am)
James Delingpole enjoys the most embarassing week for warmists since Climategate:
The Man Made Global Warming industry is a crock, a scam on an epic scale, fed by the world’s biggest outbreak of mass hysteria, stoked by politicians dying for an excuse to impose more tax and regulation on us while being seen to “care” about an issue of pressing urgency, fuelled by the shrill lies and tear-jerking propaganda of activists possessed of no understanding of the real world other than a chippy instinctive hatred of capitalism, given a veneer of scientific respectability by post-normal scientists who believe their job is to behave like politicians rather than dispassionate seekers-after-truth, cheered on by rent-seeking businesses, financed by the EU, the UN and the charitable foundations of the guilt-ridden rich, and promoted at every turn by schoolteachers, college lecturers, organic muesli packets, Walkers crisps, the BBC, CNBC, Al Gore, the Prince Of Wales, David Suzuki, the British Antarctic Survey, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Knut – the late, dyslexic-challenging, baby polar bear, formerly of Berlin Zoo.
(Thanks to reder Terry and observa.)
Beware of Greeks bearing away German gifts
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (05:25 am)
Culture counts, and this cultural clash between European Union countries also demonstrates the limits of multiculturalism within nations:
WHAT would you do this morning if you were a Greek? Would you agree to your government cutting public sector jobs, pay and pensions, and increasing taxes? Or would you do what thousands of Greeks are doing and take to the streets, calling the bluff of Germans and French and making them dig deeper into their pockets?
I would not hesitate. I would take to the streets. Euro zone bankers have been lending the Greeks loads of money for years, knowing they could not repay and assuming Europe’s taxpayers would come to the rescue. The rescue is now costing $US155 billion ($A146 billion) and rising. This is not to save Greece’s economy but merely to service loans it already has. Why should Greeks accept the anguish of austerity when they know their extravagance will be financed from across Hamlet’s ‘’bourn from which no traveller returns’’, from foreign taxpayers beyond the grave?
Closer European union, so called, was a bad idea for precisely the reason now seen on the streets of Athens. It was an attempt by a supranational economic authority to supersede national democracy. Bluntly, it assumed the commercial culture of ‘’greater Germany’’ could be imposed on a wide variety of cultures by virtue of geographical propinquity. Countries with a high propensity to work and save would discipline those with a lower one.
Now imagine not a clash of cultures between nations, but between national groups within a country, each with their own dominant values.
Labor research: Gillard seems cold, dishonest and no leader
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (05:23 am)
Who in Labor would have leaked this research, and, more importantly, for what purpose?
AFTER a year as Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has failed to establish any sort of positive relationship with the Australian people, according to the Labor Party’s own research.
Gillard is seen as cold and untrustworthy, still haunted by the way she took the job by deposing the man to whom she had endlessly pledged loyalty, Kevin Rudd.
By overthrowing Rudd, she created an emotional starting point for public assessment. This was compounded by her broken promise - “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” - to entrench a dominant image of dishonesty…
These findings help explain why the government has pushed Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, into the spotlight with a series of recent media appearances. It was an effort to create a warmer and more intimate image for the Prime Minister.
But this has failed, on the evidence of the Herald/Nielsen poll published on Saturday, with Gillard’s personal approval rating down by 6 percentage points in a month to 37 per cent, the lowest prime ministerial approval rate in a decade…
And Labor’s research found that voters don’t think Gillard looks like a prime minister.
(Thanks to reader CA.)
A lecture on cutting emissions from the warmist in business class
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (12:08 am)
Warming alarmist Adam Morton, environment reporter for The Age, wins the 2011 EU-Qantas journalist award for writing “Carbon Policy: the EU’s use of emissions trading and complementary climate policies in cutting emissions and transforming the economy” - an article urging us to be inspired by Europe in the battle to slash emissions.
His prize? To take a long and gassy plane trip to Europe.
The lack of self-awareness of these people is amazing. Still, a prize of foreign travel is quite some incentive to write alarmist articles about how the rest of us should cut down on such things.
By the way, a word of warning: the last place Morton held up as an inspiration was California.
(Thanks to reader John.)
A letter to the Chief Scientist on how science works
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (12:07 am)
Liberal MP Dennis Jensen responds to Chief Scientist Ian Chubb:
Dear Ian
You have expressed your dissatisfaction with the quality of public debate on climate change, saying it ‘’borders on appalling’’ and the level of scientific literacy among politicians is ‘’not high’’.
To this point we both agree 100%.
Every interview, doorstop, press release, opinion piece and discussion I have with constituent and political colleagues I express a desire for a climate debate sole based on the facts and figures, free of rhetoric and consensus politics.
But I found your criticism of “climate deniers” as extremely unhelpful generally, and found it interesting that you kicked an own goal!
At the National Press Club, you rejected accusations of partisanship because you believe ‘’the science is in on climate change’’.
However, you have also stated that “I think the role of the scientific community is to provide all of the evidence that is available, arguing that there is climate change and there is human intervention, and something needs to be done about it.”
But you have also stated “They deserve to have their views considered if they’ve gone through the proper and scientific process and it’s ended up in the peer review literature.”
With this statement, you exclude yourself, as a neuroscientist, from legitimately entering the climate debate. You are using your imprimatur as chief scientist to lend weight to one side of the argument, despite the fact that you castigate those who disagree with your viewpoint and do not have peer reviewed papers on the subject from speaking out about it.
Yet continuing with the alarming slant on the science makes you about as bad as your predecessor.
Dr Sackett put a very alarming slant on the science, despite the fact that she was unaware of the fundamental relationship of temperature response to CO2 concentration, and the fact that the relationship is logarithmic! She asked if it was in the peer review literature...this relationship has been known for over 110 years, and indeed is in all the IPCC reports.
I had hoped for a fresh perspective from the new Chief Scientist.
Ian, as you know, science does not work by consensus, it works by analysing data. Historically, major advances have come about as a result of overturning what had previously been viewed as “settled science”.
Other science, that still advances the field, incrementally but not in a fundamental way, is research that makes up the greater bulk of all scientific work. This does not mean that consensus is the arbiter; it is not, and science ultimately does not give a damn about who said it.
As Einstein once said when asked about “Hundred authors against Einstein”, criticising Relativity; “If I were wrong, it would only have taken one”. It is the what that is important, not the who.
I am very uncomfortable with the idea that a chief scientist is stating, in effect, that science is a democracy, and that a majority vote constitutes enough to say that that view is correct.
You cannot state that only people who can be countenanced criticising climate change and its debate are those contributing peer reviewed papers, while, by implication, announce that anyone is allowed to express their opinion if it agrees with the “consensus view”.
Kind regards
Dennis
UPDATE
Chubb backs off a bit, despite the best attempts by ABC warmist Tony Jones to portray “the science” of global warming as monolithic, to include as “science” political schemes to cut emissions, and to misstate and exaggerate critical elements of the sceptics’ case:
I think that the impact of increasing concentrations of that in the atmosphere and the projections ahead of us, because that’s what you ultimately have to do, will always be subject to debate, and I think properly so...
TONY JONES: What do you say to the argument that carbon tax is it a tax on jobs and ordinary people that will destroy the economy? Which is where they lead to at the end of talking about the fact that climate change doesn’t exist.IAN CHUBB: Yeah, I don’t stay anything to that, Tony, because too many people want me to actually confuse the issue of the science that underpins a position that any government - this government or another government - would take with their responses to it. And I think what they do and their response is their business.
So it is indeed legitimate to question the real impact of carbon dioxide on temperatures, and the wisdom of government schemes to cut those emissions.
What surprises me is that Chubb seems completely unaware that the latest report of the Climate Commission admits there’s no evidence that the recent drought in the Murray Darling that was blamed on global warming was anything but natural, after all:
TONY JONES: OK. The prominent sceptic Andrew Bolt is outraged by your suggestion that the science is settled. He asks, “Is it settled that man-made emissions caused the drought that has actually ended?”
IAN CHUBB: Yes, well, I didn’t know that, but I guess that we do have to draw a distinction between climate and weather, and I know that it was a wet December in a cold Canberra. I know that we’ve had the driest couple of months that I can remember since living in Canberra. I mean, it rained three days in May. And 95 per cent of the rain came on one day, so that’s an abnormal pattern.
Let me give Chubb and Jones some background:
Remember Climate Change Minister Penny Wong swearing in 2009 - before the rains returned - that “this severe, extended drought is clearly linked with global warming.”?
Remember Professor Flannery claiming “even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems”?
Actually, the commission’s report now admits after the floods, we can’t be so sure global warming will cause more drought, or that it has already.
“Our capability to project future changes to rainfall patterns, apart from the drying trend in southwest Western Australia, remains uncertain” and “it is difficult from observations alone to unequivocally identify anything that is distinctly unusual about the post-1950 pattern”.
Mark Steyn on free speech - mine, his and yours
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (12:02 am)
Many flattering and supportive things were said by very fine speakers at the IPA function on Monday defending my right to free speech.
I thank again Michael Kroger, Professor James Allan, David Kemp, Paul Howes and IPA boss John Roskam. I also thank again John Howard, Tony Abbott, Scott Ryan and others for sending their own messages of support.
But of all that was said on the night and sent, Mark Steyn’s contribution was the one that brought down the house. I confess to being in awe of it - not just because I appreciate the compliment of having it come from probably the most brilliant columnist in the English-speaking world, but because it’s such a tremendous piece of writing.
(This post has been bumped from yesterday.)
Never mind the facts, feel the passion
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (12:02 am)
James Paterson of the IPA is quite impressive. Note the warmist’s complete certainty with her complete unknowingness. The two go together remarkably often.
Wednesday morning quarterback
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (12:02 am)
Tony Wright is the national affairs editor of The Age, which means he can have more positions in three days than a politician is forgiven in three years. Here are his positions on Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s demand for a plebisicte on the carbon dioxide tax:
On Monday:
IAN HENSCHKE MORNING PROGRAM – 891 ABC ADELAIDE
HENSCHKE: Have we ever voted in them? I can’t remember one. Has there been one in recent times?
WRIGHT:
I can’t recall off the top of my head, certainly not in recent times, but it’s a very canny political move on behalf of Tony Abbott because he’s essentially daring the Government to get the people’s point of view directly in the absence of having this put to the vote of an election, which of course it never has been, and which he’s been on about and in the knowledge that the Government is not likely to be calling an election and everyone knows it. He is out there daring the Government and of course the Government is not going to go down this track either. But it’s just one of those manoeuvres that puts him in the box seat if you like in the argument, in the debate.
On Wednesday:
IAN HENSCHKE MORNING PROGRAM – 891 ABC ADELAIDE
HENSCHKE: We could have some rumours after the shared rooms, so keep your ears and eyes open there find out who’s having coffee in the morning and sharing their croissants in Canberra. But let’s get to the plebiscite, the plebiscite well and truly killed off by Mr Fielding as his last act.
WRIGHT:
Yes, it’s gone to the bottom of the ocean. I don’t know that Tony Abbott ever really imagined that this thing would get up. If he did, there is something wrong with his judgement. And there did seem to be something wrong with his judgement all the way through this thing.
Who was that masked woman?
Andrew Bolt – Thursday, June 23, 11 (12:02 am)
The Chief Scientist is horrified that deceits are nailed
Andrew Bolt – Wednesday, June 22, 11 (04:04 pm)
The Chief Scientist is horrified that wild claims should be questioned by non-experts like ... er, himself:
AUSTRALIA’S Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, has lamented the quality of public debate on climate change, saying it ‘’ on appalling and the level of scientific literacy among politicians is ‘’ high.
Like the politicians who claim a tax on Australia’s emissions will change the climate? Wo seriously claim the Great Barrier Reef is in terrible danger? Who told us southern Australia was in a drought caused by global warming?
Those scientists, or different ones?
In his first big speech since his appointment by the Gillard government in April, Professor Chubb rejected accusations that he was partisan because he believed that ‘’ science is in on climate change.
What science precisely is “settled”? That man-made emissions caused the drought that has actually ended? Would cause an increase in cyclones that never eventuated? That would cause the disappearance of snow that still falls? That would drive up temperatures that have actually not risen for a decade? The would melt away the entire Arctic ice cap that is actually still there?
Which science is settled?
‘’I don’t think that’s partisan. I think that I can read English - as Ross Garnaut once said - and understand it. And I think that the evidence is overwhelming,’’ he said at the National Press Club.
Gosh. I can read English, too. So Chubb and I are equally equipped to make a judgement. And when a scientist tells me our emissions will cause X, and then non-X happens, I believe I have the wit to draw a conclusion. And a duty to point out that the alarmist has no clothes.
Recently, prominent climate scientists have reported receiving death threats, and actress Cate Blanchett was criticised for fronting an ad campaign in support of a carbon price.‘’I think attacking people because they’re giving a message is appalling. I think that some of the language that’s used is bordering on the hysterical,’’ Professor Chubb said.
Blanchett was not attacked for giving a message. I criticised Blanchett for fronting an ad that made false and grotesquely unscientific claims that should horrify a Chief Scientist. They included claims that Julia Gillard’s tax would remove carbon, not carbon dioxide; that it would create jobs, not kill them; and that it would turn black skies clear, when carbon dioxide is an invisible gas.
Why did none of that scientific and economic illiteracy horrify the Chief Scientist?
UPDATE
More scientific illiteracy and exaggeration to horrify the Chief Scientist, who I’m sure will speak out any second now:
Nancy did not sleep well last night after watching The Nation with David Speers on Sky News. It was just seven minutes past the 8 o’clock hour when panellist David Marr said that if Australia introduced a carbon tax this would “stop the globe frying”. For a nation which produces around 1.5 per cent of global emissions, this would be a significant achievement.
UPDATE
Tim Blair would like the Chief Scientist to reconcile this statement:
These hurtful attacks are intended to intimidate scientists, to scare them off and stop them from participating in public discussions on climate change. They are the antithesis of democratic debate.
... with this one:
Professor Ian Chubb said climate science deniers should not be given an equal platform with mainstream scientists, and he criticised the media for giving sceptics the space to make their arguments.
As it stands, it seems Chubb is all in favor of debate, as long as those he disagrees with are not heard.
If I misinterpret him, I would be very glad to publish his explanation.
Not so gassy
Andrew Bolt – Wednesday, June 22, 11 (01:35 pm)
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet:
The fact is that Australia has the highest per capita emissions of all developed countries...
Australia’s emission levels are overstated because we are a net exporter of goods that incorporate carbon dioxide. While on the basis of production, our carbon dioxide emission levels are 16 tonnes per capita, on the basis of consumption they are only 13.3 tonnes. This means that Australia’s per capita emissions are lower than those in nine of the 35 developed world countries
Rudd’s sister
Andrew Bolt – Wednesday, June 22, 11 (11:14 am)
The controls go back on:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has imposed a gag order on her ministers, insisting that all media appearances and interviews first get the nod from her office.
The directive, described inside the Government as a ‘’coordination order’’, has been loosely in place for a few months.
But The Canberra Times understands that during Monday night’s Cabinet meeting Ms Gillard laid down the law to re-enforce it.
She insisted that all radio, print and television appearances by any minister be sanctioned by her senior staff beforehand.
The order has upset a few ministers who fear a return to the days when former prime minister Kevin Rudd fiercely dictated who from his team could appear before the media and what they could say.
I wonder how many ministers are happy to be treated as children who may speak only when spoken to.
(Thanks to reader Catherine.)
I’m sure weeks more of this is just what Gillard would love
Andrew Bolt – Wednesday, June 22, 11 (11:05 am)
Gee, the Government would be thrilled:
KEY independent MP Tony Windsor has urged Australians to be patient on the details of a proposed carbon price saying a deal may not be finalised by the government’s July 1 deadline…
“It might be never, too,” he said.
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