Dirty laundry black eye to workers Labor represents
Piers Akerman – Saturday, August 27, 11 (06:41 pm)
The problems besetting the stinking ruin that is Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor-Independent-Green minority government all have their roots in Gillard’s personal lust for power.
Sat 27 Aug 11 (10:45pm)
I feel it is a mistake to say that she is letting others direct her. I think Gillard is doing what she wants to. It is true that it is a betrayal of ALP values among the hubris that is her style, but I would also point out that she is not an ALP chick, but a radical lefty who has used the ALP to achieve her ambition.
Craig Thomson fiasco an insult to HSU members
Miranda Devine – Saturday, August 27, 11 (06:56 pm)
Cena Krstevska is a cleaner at the Royal North Shore Hospital. She is 69 years old. Her legs ache from varicose veins brought on by a job, which has her on her feet eight hours a day. After 39 years, the Willoughby grandmother would like to retire but she can’t afford to.
Thomson is not accused of a crime in his use of Union expenses. But the cover up of it is. It extends beyond Thomson. It includes his ALP handlers.
I know many people covered by the HSU and they would be very let down. Thomson should pay the money back to them, with interest. But I suspect it doesn’t end with Thomson. And it won’t end with Thomson being booted from parliament.
Sat 27 Aug 11 (10:56pm)
The not very multicultural council
Miranda Devine – Sunday, August 28, 11 (06:26 pm)
WITH little fanfare last week Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced her new Multicultural Council. But a curious feature of an advisory body that is supposed to be a “socially inclusive” representation of multi-ethnic Australia was the fact that at least five of its 10 members are Muslims, and not one member has a Chinese or Indian background.
… is from Jim Buchanan’s 1987 essay “Keynesian Follies,” reprinted in Vol. 1 of Jim’s Collected Works (pp. 164-178):
Folly is defined as (1) lack of good sense or of normal prudence, (2) inability or refusal to accept existing reality or to foresee inevitable consequences. Both of these definitions convey something of the policy stance that I associate with the term Keynesian.
SCHULOTTO
Tim Blair – Sunday, August 28, 11 (04:16 pm)
Michael Schumacher starts from 24th and last position in tonight’s Belgian Grand Prix following the loss of a wheel during qualifying:
“Well, obviously I would have wished for a different end to today’s qualifying, but it is difficult to drive on three wheels - even if I should have the experience to do so in Spa,” said Schumacher. “Seriously, this is certainly something that should not occur, but then this is also Formula One; we are working at the highest level but still things can happen.”
How many cars will he overtake by the end of the opening lap? First correct answer wins a fresh tube of carbon credits.
FAIR AND AL BALANCED
Tim Blair – Sunday, August 28, 11 (02:31 pm)
Al Jazeera presents a reasonable and non-hysterical piece on Australia’s stupid carbon tax – featuring me and also a hippie who warns that his carbon haters are “taking the law into their own hands”.
UPDATE. In other me-related developments, Paco rounds up news and views from across the Blairosphere.
From The Bolt Report today
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (04:32 pm)
Watch Peter Reith and Paddy Crumlin duke it out over the economy and the Thomson scandal - and the waterfront.
And the answer is…?
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:54 am)
Can we have serious arguments from those who reject Ted Lapkin’s warning about legalising gay marriage?:
If restriction of marriage to male-female couples is the indefensible fruit of prejudice, isn’t it equally bigoted to impose arbitrary limits on the number of spouses one can take?
So if Adam Bandt is pushing for same-sex marriage to be legitimised by law, shouldn’t he be cheerleading for polygamy as well?
And then the next cab off the rank will surely be consensual sex between adult brothers and sisters, adult fathers and daughters or adult mothers and sons. After all, we’re told individual choice is Holy Writ in such matters. And if people over the age of 18 years freely want to indulge in incestuous pursuits, who are we to tell them they can’t do whomever they want to do?
So we should bear in mind that those guarantees about the buck stopping at same-sex marriage will, in reality, guarantee nothing. The floodgates will inevitably open to a further slide down the slippery slope of social disintegration.
Independents cling even harder to Gillard
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:40 am)
The independents, too terrified to go to the polls, justify their self-interest with mock-horror at an alleged throwaway line from Tony Abbott a year ago:
THE way Tony Windsor recalls it, Tony Abbott begged crossbench MPs to make him prime minister, joking that ‘’the only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse - but I’d have to give serious thought to it’’.
In interviews with The Sunday Age to mark the anniversary of their decision to back Julia Gillard to run the country, independent MPs have revealed startling new details of their reservations about the Opposition Leader - including that joking plea....Mr Windsor’s fellow crossbench MP Rob Oakeshott also recalls Mr Abbott begging for the job - ‘’yes he did’’ - but would not comment publicly about the gag that he would consider prostitution.
Prostitution? Are you kidding me?
Rather than hyperventilate over alleged joke a year ago, shouldn’t the independents reserve their horror for what’s unfolded since? Including allegations of the use of a union credit card by a Labor MP to engage the services of a realprostitute?
But, no, these turkeys will not vote for Christmas:
‘’The support of the four key crossbenchers is as solid as ever,’’ Mr Wilkie said. ... “I think their support for the government has strengthened, partly because they have been treated quite badly by the opposition.’’
Poor munchkins. And how has the country been treated by the Government?
UPDATE
Alan RM Jones observes a rewriting of history:
Tony Windsor as reported in the SMH today:
THE way Tony Windsor recalls it, Tony Abbott begged crossbench MPs to make him prime minister, joking ‘’the only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse - but I’d have to give serious thought to it’’.Mr Windsor recalls feeling alarm and pity when Mr Abbott revealed the depth of his personal desire to become prime minister.
‘’I remember him saying: ‘Tony, I would do anything for this job. The only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse, but I’d have to give serious thought to it,’’’ he said.
September 2010:
”I actually gained a much higher personal regard for [Tony Abbott] during that period of a fortnight…”
Charity should extend it to Gillard
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:32 am)
The charity has no idea what damage it is recklessly doing to the Prime Minister and her office by asking her to let a man with underworld connections dine at the Lodge:
A CHARITY aided by Mick Gatto’s donation to The Lodge lunch fiasco says the money would have paid for a child’s prosthetic leg.
Children First Foundation (CFF), a charity earmarked to benefit from the lunch, said it was disappointed Prime Minister Julia Gillard had pulled the pin on the money-making meal.
Julie Webber, CFF fundraising and communications manager, said: “We bring children from developing countries to Australia for surgery.. Mr Gatto’s very generous donation of $10,000 would have paid for a prosthetic leg or an airfare.’’
Mr Gatto, a colourful Carlton identity and mediator, won a lunch at The Lodge with First Bloke Tim Mathieson at a charity auction.
Mr Gatto and mediation partner John Khoury bid $10,000 for the privilege.
But the prize was swiftly withdrawn by Ms Gillard’s office amid alarm at the political fallout from Mr Gatto being at the Prime Minister’s residence.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “Mr Mathieson will seek to support the charities concerned in an alternative way.’’
But this is something Gillard does not need, not ever and especially not now. What was Mathieson thinking in offering such a prize at a low-rent event?
Up the Labor ladder it goes
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (05:20 am)
Union figures are now gunning for Michael Williamson, senior vice president of the Labor party:
SENIOR union officials are demanding a police investigation into embattled federal MP Craig Thomson be widened to include the activities of the NSW office of the Health Services Union.
Unlike the national office, which has been the centre of a two-year Fair Work Australia investigation, the cash-rich NSW-registered office, called HSU East, has never been scrutinised by investigators.
The NSW office comes under the jurisdiction of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. Senior union officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that the culture of misusing union membership fees also existed in the NSW branch, where Mr Thomson was also a member before he took on the role of national secretary in 2002.
“The NSW office is where all the money and secrets are,” a senior official said.
(No comments.)
Labor spinner rewinds
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, August 28, 11 (12:21 am)
Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog is struck by the political smarts of Lachlan Harris, former media advisor to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd:
MWD was particularly impressed by Mr Harris’ view (in last week’s Sunday Telegraph) that “bad economic news” in the Northern Hemisphere is “good for the [Gillard] government”. How come? Try this for a reason:
…any movement of the debate away from the carbon tax is good for the government. The carbon tax has come to symbolise much of the confusion and weakness that Labor has displayed in recent years. Getting it off the agenda is a good thing for Labor.Well, that’s pretty clear then. According to Lachlan Harris, getting carbon tax off the agenda would be good for Labor. But, hang on a minute. When Lachlan Harris appeared on Q&A;on 21 March 2011 – just after Julia Gillard had announced Labor’s carbon tax initiative – he said that putting the carbon tax on the agenda was good for Labor. Let’s go to the transcript:
Lachlan Harris : My view, and I’ve been arguing for a couple of weeks, is the carbon tax is the best decision Julia Gillard has made and not just for policy reasons, I think, on raw politics…. I think there’s no doubt that the early signs to me are people are listening to Gillard again and Abbott is now struggling to control the debate and the ball is back in her court.
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