There is only one solution - Labor must go
Piers Akerman – Thursday, September 15, 11 (07:53 pm)
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott is being urged by misguided souls to help Prime Minister Julia Gillard amend the Migration Act to breathe life into the dead Malaysian Solution.
I was amazed to hear Gillard, on the news today, appealing to Liberal politicians to support her crazy ideas.
JJ.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (08:09pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:06pm)
She has to to maintain the fiction that she is trying things for her true believers. Only the willing believers would buy it. But if it is acceptable to spread it then the fiction might take hold, like the one about the GST being implemented by broken promise, or the lie about SIEV X. She has consistently said black is equal to white and that has worked for her in the past, and is essential for the future of the ALP after they get trashed at the next election .. the future leadership might be able to construct a fiction which endorses their past, our present.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (10:06pm)
Any woman that would contemplate sending an unaccompanued child to Malaysia is a ..... She has no humanity and should resign immediately !!!!!! 
Thu 15 Sep 11 (10:20pm)
Further -
What a bizarre woman Gillard is. Labor strategy has always been to convince the electorate they are the humane ones .. to paint the Liberals as less “compassionate” .. to always differentiate between they and the Liberals in such a way .. they depend on this to draw the unsuspecting hearts of good, decent Australians ...
Labor “Compassion” is central to Labor strategy ...
Yet she would dump “boat people” into Malaysia?
Compassionate?
440 dead ...
Compassionate?
Not to mention those lost at sea who are not recorded - there are many.
Had John Howard filled the seas with corpses what would the Greens have said? Labor? The Canberra Press Gallery?
The double standards of these people ...
The screaming at the “Children overboard” and the silence at 440 corpses.
There is something so unreal about Gillard. Watching her is like watching some strange figure in a science fiction movie.
The bizarre, dead, strangled voice .. the motionless, lifeless eyes .. the freak hairstyle .. the talon hands clawing the air in front of her as she delivers her fantasy of her ability ..
Australians can’t relate to this person. They never will.
Reality can’t relate to her either.
John Jay.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (10:24pm)
I was amazed to see Juliar appeal to anyone ???
She makes me (and 15 million others) sick !!!
She is a liar, fake, fabian, inept leader.
She is a negative to our great country.
She needs to suffer all she can. We do not need her Malaysian Solution. We do not need anything from her....
Make her squirm, STICK IT UP HER TONY !!!
Fri 16 Sep 11 (07:24am)
Juliar is hilarious. This pathetic excuse for a human being actually believes the BS she comes out with. Juliar is so stupid and out of touch with reality she doesn’t realize most Australians are laughing at her but sadly this very bad joke is on all of us.
Fri 16 Sep 11 (08:28am)
Further -
Western culture is unbalanced - it is too orientated to science at the expense of spirituality.
Science, a system of logic, has a place but has limits.
Can science measure love?
Good or evil?
The spirit of music?
Soul?
Beauty?
No it cannot.
Science will never tie these things down - they are beyond it’s reach.
These things exist - few would dispute this - but are of a realm that is beyond the formula.
Western culture needs to broaden. If it does not it will only see out of one eye.
There is such a thing as evil.
All cultures throughout history have understood this. They cannot all be wrong, and they are not.
Science - the West’s dominant mindset - is blind to evil.
This makes it easier for evil people.
If your thought processes are sanitized of the concept of evil, is it not easier then for an evil leader to wreck havoc on a nation?
JJ.
Fri 16 Sep 11 (10:21am)
Gillard deludely expecting Tony Abbott and the Liberals to
join her in shooting Australia in the foot ?
Is she serious?
What about acting in Australias best interests for once
PM /Labor and either open Nauru / Pacific solution or call
the election the nation wants , expects and demands
thus bringing an end to this escualting and damaging farce.
Tony Abbot would be foolish indeed to allow himself to be put in the position of saving face for this incompetent, untruthful and devious government. It was interesting to note the silence from the Greens on the Malaysia issue. They are gung ho for onshore processing but said nothing about the Malaysian deal. Hypocrites, the lot of them.
The whole mess is of Julia Gillard’s making and she should wear the consequences. It was she who announced the shelving of the Nauru processing and all it accomplished. All her other schemes have gone the way of every policy Labor has inflicted on the nation for the past four years. Kevin Rudd may have covered mileage in his role of Foreign Minister but he has accomplished exactly nothing in doing the country’s business overseas.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (08:16pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:08pm)
Piers is right, Abbott doesn’t have to support Gillard. Nauru works now and worked before. Gillard needs to eat humble pie before more are shown to have died from her abysmal policy .
Reply: Labor has worked hard to destroy Nauru, it has to be part of the answer. Not the whole.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:11pm)
SPOT ON mags of Queensland.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:31pm)
And Labor wonders why it’s on the nose with the electorate
DD Ball.
If Gillard and her government don;’t know they are dumber than we already think, nay make that know, they are.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (11:05pm)
Aye Piers, that is true. It isn’t only Nauru but the approach the Coalition took including TPV’s etc. ALP could choose Nauru and mess up implementation.
Fri 16 Sep 11 (07:11am)
Juliar has made a mess into a huge mess, we must not forget that Rudd was the PM when the Pacific Solution was abandoned, both of them and their senior cabinet ministers all share the blame.
How can the former Independents maintain support for this government?
Fri 16 Sep 11 (05:31pm)
Pericles. They are so dumb they do not know how evil the Australian
electorate regards them.
The Liberals must stand firm and not support them in anything. Our country is in peril from this incompetent Communistic load of ex Trade Unionists. How could the electorate have voted for them I don’t know.
Mags you are so right.
Turbine hype is a costly myth
Miranda Devine – Wednesday, September 14, 11 (06:44 pm)
THE architecture show Grand Designs on ABC-TV never laughs at the people it features embarking on ambitious home building projects.
Before we invest in wind farms I want the case to be made against coal. I haven’t heard one yet. I am aware Carbon Dioxide is plant food. I am also aware the Earth’s temperature is not related to the Sun as AGW suggests, and as is evidenced by the heat of the core of the Earth.
Wed 14 Sep 11 (07:18pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (07:19am)
A case against NOT burning coal.... are you serious..?? Burning coal is GOOD for the atmosphere is ...??
What about a case against carbon monoxide, you know the black stuff coming out of those round pipes out the back of cars...?? The cars that have emmision control systems that are mandatory and have been for decades..
Ever heard of greenhouse gases and the the science that shows that if you alter the atmosphere with excessive carbon it will line the stratosphere with gases not allowing heat to escape the earth...??
You know what a hothouse is don’t you ...DD..?? All that education minus intellect… what a waste.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (02:55pm)
the Earth’s climate and temperature are driven by solar cycles, cosmic rays and celestial alignments of planets ..... that’s why its now predicted we might fall into a mini ice age as solar activity is going into hibernation.
Fri 16 Sep 11 (09:22am)
@F&B;Carbon Monoxide (CO) is also an odourless, colourless gas. Pretty leathal in small quantities too (around 100ppm, or 0.001%).
Catalytic converters in your car converts this to Carbon Dioxide (C02) which is an odourless, colourless gas, that’s basically plant food and won’t kill you until it’s about 10% of the air you breathe.
That black stuff on your exhaut pipe is probably Carbon and other ‘soot’.
You are wasting your time trying to explain to a greeny that you could cover the entire country with windmills and solar panels and you will still require a base load power source which would have to be coal, gas or nuclear, because the wind is unreliable and solar panels dont work after sunset. As simple as this sounds ( even a four year old would understand ) a greeny is simply too starry eyed and basically stupid to understand the abovementioned FACTS.
Wed 14 Sep 11 (07:45pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:10am)
Except it may not be stupidity at the leadership end, but corruption. The money is eaten up, but some gets siphoned off
Well said, Mirand. How the hell am I expected to
run the BMW, the Range Rover Vogue and the
runaround on damn wind power? As I was saying
to the tennis girls the other day over a latte,
Julia has made slaves of us all. Slaves!
Wed 14 Sep 11 (08:07pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (01:44am)
How the hell am I expected to
run the BMW, the Range Rover Vogue and the
runaround on damn wind power?
Don’t distress, Amanda. It can be a nice little earner for underprivelaged types:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100103077/sir-reginald-sheffield-bt-an-apology/
Good old Sir Reg, hey. A well-earned reward indeed.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (08:27am)
Triple Bay… You made my day.
Proving less is more.....
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:12am)
The unemployed and the working poor are probably interested too.
Barry is my local State member. Whilst I am a Liberal I knew that he was not the man for the job and therefore I could not vote for him. Nor did I vote for Labor.... of course.
Wed 14 Sep 11 (08:22pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:14am)
Is this a riddle? You meant to vote Green but voted informal instead because you spilled your latte?
Clean/Green energy is a myth.
Wind turbines require magnets. In order to produce said magnets, you will need to travel to Mongolia and mine approx 2000kg of neodymium, then move it to China for processing. You will then need to refine the neodymium using acid and other chemicals before sending it through a furnace.
Of course you will have to dispose of the tailing, but hey, as long as it’s not on our doorstep. But it is on the doorstep of a city called Boutou - all the toxic waste from 7 million tons of neodymium every year lands on their doorstep. Boutou’s population wear masks but are still suffering serious illness - children are being born with soft bones.
Article - Quadrant - Doomed Planet
And as if they’re not trouble enough with to much wind or not enough wind, what do you do with them when they break? The blades are not recyclable, you can’t burn them due to the toxic smoke they create.
Article - Broken Wind Turbine Blades Create Mountainous Waste Problem
Each turbine needs approx 1500 ton of concrete for the pad and access roads plus miles of cabling to attach it to the existing power grid given they are located in remote area’s to population centers.
Clean? Green? Renewable?
Wed 14 Sep 11 (10:00pm)
Thu 15 Sep 11 (01:29am)
Why not compare true cost of renewables with the true cost of fossil fuels? Ever stopped and thought how much a gallon of petrol actually costs you? Real costs include:
- exploration
- drilling (ever deeper over time)
- capture and storage
- refining
-shipping from the Middle East
- distribution by road
- wars & conflict (Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Nigeria, etc.) involving young Australians putting lives on the line
- dependency on an unstable region of the world
- supporting political corruption & social inequality
- environmental degradation (USA 2010, Exxon Valdez, etc)
- air pollution
- climate change
- damage to human heart and lungs
- lead poisoning of school children
- dependency on a FINITE resource
- etc.
One could do something similar for any fossil fuel. So if you are going to compare, be honest about it.
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:16am)
Nuclear power is better, safer
Thu 15 Sep 11 (09:29am)
It is the same with the useless electric cars:
“… study was commissioned by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, which is jointly funded by the British government and the car industry. It found that a mid-size electric car would produce 23.1 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime, compared with 24 tonnes for a similar petrol car. Emissions from manufacturing electric cars are at least 50 per cent higher because batteries are made from materials such as lithium, copper and refined silicon, which require much energy to be processed.
Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car. Disposal also produces double the emissions because of the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the battery. The study also took into account carbon emitted to generate the grid electricity consumed.” (The Australian)
The Greens and their ideas! God help us!
Thu 15 Sep 11 (10:51am)
Yes to be sure ...old basford.
Burning coal or building another coalfire station, for our increasing energy requirements, is a lesser pollutant than than renewables… Makes sense you know it does. Tell me ...how many tons of concrete does it take to build a power station.. or do they build them out of thin air...??
Thu 15 Sep 11 (03:30pm)
I am still waiting for the links that inform us that the moon landing didn’t happen, smoking doesn’t kill us-its a medical conspiracy and that the earth is only a few thousand years old.
C’mon give it up.
From the Boston Herald (HT: Drudge)
Encouraged by Michelle Obama’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity, the company that owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and four other popular restaurant chains is pledging to cut the calories and sodium in its meals and overhaul its kids’ fare.
Darden Restaurants Inc. was unveiling the changes Thursday, with the first lady on hand to lend support.
The company will pledge to reduce the calories and sodium in all its meals by 10 percent over five years, and by 20 percent over 10 years. For children, French fries and sugar-sweetened beverages will become the exception and not the rule.
It’s very easy to reduce calories by 10%–just make the portions a little bit smaller. I doubt that’s what they have in mind. And a restaurant making a 10 year pledge is a little strange. It’s not going to be very much in our consciousness ten years from now. But, fine. It was the next paragraph that made me wonder if I was reading The Onion or something out of a Monty Python sketch:
All kids’ meals will automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and eight ounces of 1 percent milk unless an adult requests a substitute, Drew Madsen, president and chief operating officer of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden, told The Associated Press.
Should be great for business. Kids at Red Lobster will love vegetables and milk with their fried fish. I’d love to know the real story here.
… is from page 14 of UCLA Econ Department Chairman Roger E. A. Farmer’s 2010 book How the Economy Works:
Keynesian economists in the Obama administration and their supporters in academia and in the media have not provided an internally consistent theory that explains why the free market fails to deliver full employment.
Keynes’s book, The General Theory, did not provide such a theory. The book is difficult to read, internally incoherent, and inconsistent with a body of economic theory that has been widely accepted for at least 200 years. More important, it is inconsistent with the existence of the stagflation that we observed in the 1970s.
Here’s a shocker from the Washington Post:
A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show.
The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies.
President Obama has made “green jobs” a showcase of his recovery plan, vowing to foster new jobs, new technologies and more competitive American industries. But the loan guarantee program came under scrutiny Wednesday from Republicans and Democrats at a House oversight committee hearing about the collapse of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker whose closure could leave taxpayers on the hook for as much as $527 million.
The GOP lawmakers accused the administration of rushing approval of a guarantee of the firm’s project and failing to adequately vet it. “My goodness. We should be reviewing every one of these loan guarantee” projects, said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
Obama’s efforts to create green jobs are lagging behind expectations at a time of persistently high unemployment. Many economists say that because alternative-energy projects are so expensive and slow to ramp up, they are not the most efficient way to stimulate the economy.
Sometimes, “many economists” are right. Here’s some wisdom from one economist:
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.
F.A. Hayek
The plan was to create (or save) 65,000 jobs. It apparently didn’t turn out that way.
The WSJ reports:
Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years that ended in June, new Labor Department data show.
The amount represents more than 10% of the $180 billion in jobless benefits paid nationwide during the period. (See a sortable chart of each states’ overpayments) The tally covers state programs, which offer benefits for up to 26 weeks, from July 2008 to June 2011. Layers of federal programs that help provide benefits for up to 99 weeks weren’t included.
Improper payments most often occur when recipients claim benefits even though they have returned to work; employers or their administrators don’t submit timely or accurate information about worker separations; or recipients don’t correctly register with a state’s employment-service organization.
Big difference between those categories. Maybe we’ll find out the ratios.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, letter-writer Rob Sobhani proposes that the high rate of black unemployment be reduced by deploying better “immigration governance” – that is, Sobhani wants to stop all those Hispanics from competing against blacks for jobs.
It’s an irony as deep as it is unintended that what is today rightly regarded as unjust, uncivilized, and economically destructive – namely, Jim Crow legislationthat protected workers of one race from having to compete for jobs with workers of another race – is offered in 2011 by this Mr. Sobhani and many others as a policy worthy of a civilized society.
Gillard says Labor must embrace the individual
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (05:40 pm)
I’m not a collectivist, but do appreciate the change of emphasis that Julia Gillard today urged on her party:
The need for collective action is with us today and it will be with us tomorrow.
But even as we still strive to achieve these great things together, our understanding of our mission needs to deepen and our aim needs to be higher again.
Understand, collective action was never simply an end in itself: we saw strength in shared endeavour in politics, we saw value in sharing risk through government, for a reason.
Because we wanted to empower “the great mass of the people”, all those the conservatives would leave behind.
And as communities, families and individuals have embraced the benefits and empowerment collective action has brought them, they have embraced new opportunities and demanded new choice.
So today our ethos of collective action must respond to individual needs and demands for choice and control....
Protecting rights at work will always be central but building skills, rewarding enterprise, encouraging the embrace of risk, helping people be their own boss, is part of the dream of working people too.
And for a long period of time, our great movement believed that one size should fit in all in service provision, that those seeking choice were undermining collective aspirations.
Now we understand that desire for choice is rightly strengthening not abating.
In this age we need to pursue our historic mission while also embracing choice and creating ways to give individuals more control.
Australians want to make their own choices and control their own lives.
But what specifically does Gillard have in mind? How does this stress on promoting individual choice marry with her reregulation of the workplace and denial of individual contracts? How does more choice fit with denying competition on the National Broadband System? Of leaving open the possibility of licensing newspapers and appointing a super-regulator for complaints against the media?
Concrete examples are needed to give these words full meaning.
Read on for Gillard’s full speech today on reforming Labor:
Corpses unshackled: HSU branch cuts itself from Labor
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (02:38 pm)
Is this a (vain) attempt to distance Labor from the ugly, ugly allegations against the union and its national president Michael Williamson, the senior vice president of the Labor Party?:
The HSU East branch of the union, which takes in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, took the decision to disaffiliate from the ALP at a meeting of the union’s council this morning.
And:
Health Services Union president Michael Williamson has refused to step down after a union meeting today after NSW Police formed a strike force to investigate alleged “inappropriate practices”.
National secretary Kathy Jackson says the HSU branch’s decision is a “joke” that compromises the police investigation. She says the branch’s “representative body” set up to liaise with the police includes “two friends and long-term colleagues of Mr Williamson, elected on his ticket”. The lawyers nominated to oversee cooperation with the police allegedly include a long-standing drinking mate of Mr Williamson”.
Jackson adds:
What does Mr Williamson have to hide from the truly independent investigation I propose?
Jackson said “Williamson refused to answer a question for councillor Kate Wilkinson whether he had received a credit card from Communigraphix or John Gillelande as alleged in the press”.
(No comments for legal reasons.)
Government won’t rule out a licence to publish
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (09:58 am)
Tell me it will never happen - that even this government would never dream of requiring newspapers to have a government licence:
Senator ABETZ (Tasmania—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (14:19): Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer the minister to his interview with Fran Kelly this morning in which he gave an answer that could be interpreted as equivocal on the issue of requiring newspapers to be licensed. Will the minister state unequivocally that the government of which he is a member will never require newspapers to be licensed?
Senator CONROY (Victoria—Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity) (14:19): Thank you for your interpretation of my interview. The inquiry and the Convergence Review are looking at what is the appropriate regulatory system in the converged media world. Traditionally we have had broadcasting and print. Today there is this new grey area online, which is a merger between these two. Increasingly they are coming together. One of the issues that I am sure will be canvassed under the terms of reference that we issued yesterday is the question of whether there should be a converged media regulator. That is certainly an issue that may—
Senator Abetz: Mr President, a point of order in relation to the requirement to be directly relevant: I was willing to give the minister the benefit of the doubt in my question. I was seeking an assurance that the government will never require newspapers to be licensed.
Senator Chris Evans: Mr President, on that point of order: I do not know whether the Liberal tactics committee have run out of questions, but clearly they are seeking to waste time. You could get no greater example of a minister directly answering the question put to him. The question went to the issue of regulation of media. Senator Conroy is directly on topic in explaining to Senator Abetz what he has already explained publicly. I have heard it a number of times but Senator Abetz clearly missed him explaining publicly what the roles of those inquiries are. It is directly relevant to the question asked and I suggest, rather than taking frivolous points of order, we allow the minister to get on with answering the question.
The PRESIDENT: The minister has 14 seconds remaining to answer the question.
Senator CONROY: As I have indicated, it could be that a possible suggestion in the converged world, where technology is running over the top of existing regulations, that a recommendation could be—I am not seeking to pre-empt it in any way—that there be a converged regulator. (Time expired)
A licence to publish? A licence to speak?
This is becoming very serious indeed.
(Thanks to reader Peter Amos.)
Global warming theory is not “incontrovertible”; this resignation is
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (09:24 am)
A Nobel laureate makes a stand against the global warming faith:
Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that “global warming is occurring.”
The official position of the American Physical Society (APS) supports the theory that man’s actions have inexorably led to the warming of the planet, through increased emissions of carbon dioxide.
Giaever does not agree…
“I resign from APS,” Giaever wrote.
Giaever was cooled to the (APS) statement on warming theory by a line claiming that “the evidence is incontrovertible.”
“In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?” he wrote in an email to Kate Kirby, executive officer of the physics society.
“The claim … is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this ‘warming’ period,” his email message said.
(Thanks to many readers.)
Should Abbott really help Gillard with a deal he doesn’t like?
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (09:04 am)
Abbott and many senior Liberals are now locked in a furious debate about the implementation of an offshore processing policy; that is, they don’t want to give Gillard a victory by rescuing her Malaysia Solution, they don’t want to be seen too complicit in sending asylum-seekers, particularly minors, to Malaysia and, finally, they want to use Nauru instead. Some of Abbott’s colleagues have told him they will be blamed if an asylum-seeker is caned in Malaysia, they will lose support on humanitarian grounds, and that Gillard should be left to fix the problem herself with her independent mates and the Greens....
(But) how can a conviction politician, who claims to represent the silent majority against the Labor-Greens alliance on a carbon tax, knowingly turn his back on a policy (on off-shore processing) that the silent majority voted for previously and show all the signs of wanting to do so again?
Abbott should also reflect on the potential for the Liberals to be blamed - with perfect justification - if the onshore immigration system collapses.
Gillard is giving Abbott all the political ammunition he needs to say Malaysia is her solution, but he will take the full blame if the immigration system is completely undermined and, if that happens, an early election won’t help him.
There’s some merit in this argument.The flaw is that the Opposition isn’t against off-shore processing, and would back whatever it took for the Gillard Government to resume the Nauru option. Which puts the onus right back on the Government.
The Malaysian solution also may not be quite the solution we’re sold. It applies to just 800 boat people, and there’s still no guarantee a legislative fix will get through the High Court.
On the other hand, where are the people to be collected on Nauru going to go?
UPDATE
Professor James Allan writes to Abbott:
Dear Tony,
I have always understood you to be a democrat at heart, someone who believes that society’s key decisions ought to be made by the elected branches of government. On this view it is the voters who ultimately choose the people who will decide; these core decisions about such things as who can come to this country are not – or should not be – made by committees of ex-lawyers sitting on top courts.
That core principle matters to me and to lots of others. It matters a lot. And on the basis of that principle you and the Coalition ought to pass Ms Gillard’s amendments to the Migration Act.
Yes, make sure that any such amendments leave open the Nauru option. And yes, make plain to the voters that you in no way endorse the Malaysia deal, you are simply acting to ensure this is a decision for the elected branches of government…
But this time the Prime Minister is correct. So help pass this legislation and do so now. By doing so you are not endorsing the Malaysia deal. You are showing that you respect democracy, which is more than Ms. Gillard with her blatant lie to the voters can say.
Yet another green scheme collapses
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (07:06 am)
“Green” also means untried, naive:
A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show.
The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies.
President Obama has made “green jobs” a showcase of his recovery plan, vowing to foster new jobs, new technologies and more competitive American industries. But the loan guarantee program came under scrutiny Wednesday from Republicans and Democrats at a House oversight committee hearing about the collapse of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker whose closure could leave taxpayers on the hook for as much as $527 million.
So it’s not just Labor who manages to waste billions on green schemes that no one seems to question.
(Thanks to reader Watty and many others.)
I don’t think Labor can keep him much longer
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (07:01 am)
Every day, the claims about Labor’s senior vice president get even more astonishing:
CONTROVERSIAL union boss Michael Williamson is facing more questions over his administration after it emerged that his son is using a building owned by the Health Services Union to run a music business.
The industrial building, at Banksmeadow, near Sydney Airport, was bought by the union in 2006 for $800,000.
Two years later Chris Williamson, the son of the HSU chief, opened Studio 19, a recording and rehearsal studio inside it. He lets out the studio space to musicians on a commercial basis.
The revelations came as the embattled HSU chief yesterday resisted growing pressure to resign from senior roles with the union and the ALP over the allegations surrounding him.
The Age reported this month that he and former HSU general secretary Craig Thomson, now a federal MP, have accepted secret commissions from one of the union’s major contractors…
There is no disclosure of the studio arrangement in the HSU’s accounts. Union sources confirmed yesterday that this was an uncommercial arrangement for the union that had neither been disclosed to it nor approved by it.
Williamson denies getting the secret commissions.
(No comments.)
First Bloke: women are so unkind
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (06:42 am)
I’m not sure Tim Mathieson advertises Julia Gillard to advantage, but he is right to notice that women are tougher on women:
But he has given the thumbs-up to ABC spoof program At Home With Julia - despite being the butt of many of its gags…
“I think me going out the back gate is pretty right. I’m in a trackie most days, going to the bank and stuff. That’s quite right. They’ve sort of got that one down pat.
“Maybe they’ve been spying on me at the back gate.”
But Mr Mathieson, who is promoting women’s health awareness campaign Liptember with his daughter Sherri, took aim at what he believes is unfair criticism of the PM…
“I think she gets targeted quite a bit by the big boys in town. I also think she gets as big a hard time from women… I just think they should probably think, would they like it to happen to them? Would they like being called some nasty names? And why? It just makes them look quite silly, I think.
“Bullying women just doesn’t work for me.”
But does Mathieson use “bullying” as a verb - or adjective? After all, Gillard can also dish it out, describing Tony Abbott as a ”hopeless joke”, ”poor petal‘’ and ”hollow, bitter man”.
But it sure works for Brynne
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (06:37 am)
There’s dressing for the style police and there’s dressing for the rapt attention of a room full of men:
The former Dancing with the Stars contestant and aspiring fashion designer was ranked No.3 in Who magazine’s worst dressed in the world list, behind Jersey Shore reality trashionista Snooki and Neon poptart Ke$ha.
Known for her flashy clothes and love of blinged-up plunging minis, adopted Aussie Edelsten has always courted controversy and headlines with her risque fashion choices.
Acid-tongued Project Runway judge Alex Perry, who helped decide Who’s list, said of the buxom blonde: “Unfortunately, money don’t buy you style”.
But it does buy you attention.
We once boasted about scrapping sex barriers
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (06:32 am)
Wasn’t the deal once to have immigrants assimmilate, and not impose divisions?
And in a surprise twist, VCAT backed the latest bans, declaring there was no discrimination and councils no longer needed to apply for exemptions.
The Darebin City Council ban will be in force for a music concert to be held in December, while another female-only event to mark the end of Ramadan was cancelled last week.
The council sought the bans because it was “culturally inappropriate for young women to participate in recreational activity with males present”.
Will these Labor MPs block the Wilkie deal, or just pretend to try?
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (06:21 am)
The questions is: are these backbenchers going to stage just a for-show rebellion in Caucus, or will they get fair dinkum and cross the floor?
A LARGE group of Labor MPs is threatening to vote in caucus against the poker machine deal that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, cut with the Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie in a bid to save their seats.
The MPs, mostly from NSW and Queensland, hardened their resolve yesterday as Clubs NSW stepped up its marginal seats campaign ... MPs report the hostility from their electorates is far greater than that caused by the carbon tax....
But about 25 backbenchers say they will vote in caucus against Mr Wilkie’s demand that clubs implement mandatory pre-commitment technology....
The parliamentary secretary, Mike Kelly, who holds the marginal NSW seat of Eden-Monaro, has implored Mr Wilkie to consider voluntary pre-commitment ... ‘’I would not support anything that would threaten the viability of my pubs and clubs,’’ Mr Kelly told the Herald....
Mr Wilkie, who is backed by the No Pokies Senator Nick Xenophon, insists on mandatory pre-commitment. He will withdraw his support for the minority government if it fails to pass legislation by May 31 next year that would force states to implement the reforms by 2014.
An attack on free speech, from a vindictive government
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (05:51 am)
Liberal MP Paul Fletcher is right - the Gillard Government’s media inquiry makes sense only as revenge:
If an inquiry is needed, why is it confined to the print media as opposed to many other forms of media including free-to-air television, pay-TV, radio and the booming online sector?
Could it be because this is as close as you can come to having an inquiry into News Limited without expressly stating that you are targeting that company?…
How will the restriction to print media (and we are told “online publications") work in practice? ...
Will the inquiry cover the sites of, for example, Sky News or the Nine Network, each of which has text news stories as well as multimedia content? Indeed, the mix of content on these sites is pretty hard to distinguish from the mix on sites run by News Limited, Fairfax and other print media…
If not, how can this inquiry be justified from a competitive neutrality point of view? Why would it make sense to have, for example, a complaints mechanism that deals with an online-only text story on the site of TheAge.com.au but would not deal with a similar story on the Sky News site?…
Labor and the Greens have complained long and loud about the coverage they receive from the News Limited papers. This inquiry is an exercise in retaliation, designed to lead to the imposition of new regulatory burdens on News Limited papers, with those operated by other companies to suffer collateral damage.
Sorry, we thought you were a Jew
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (05:45 am)
The BBC’s Thomas Dinham is worried by Egypt’s revolution and the casual bigotry in its streets:
While walking in the street someone pushed me from behind with such force that I nearly fell over.
Turning around, I found myself surrounded by five men, one of whom tried to punch me in the face. I stopped the attack by pointing out how shameful it was for a Muslim to assault a guest in his country, especially during Ramadan.
Relieved that a seemingly random assault was over, I was appalled by the apology offered by one of my assailants. “Sorry,” he said contritely, offering his hand, “we thought you were a Jew.”
What Labor does today, no government will dare fix
Andrew Bolt – Friday, September 16, 11 (05:34 am)
Henry Ergas says Labor is trying to make its tax forever, so no government can undo this mistake:
IT was Mark Dreyfus QC, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, who let the cat out of the bag.
Once the carbon change legislation is in place, he said, repeal would amount to an acquisition of property by the commonwealth, as holders of emissions permits would be deprived of a valuable asset. As a result, the commonwealth would be liable, under s.51(xxxi) of the Australian Constitution, to pay compensation, potentially in the billions of dollars. A future government would therefore find repeal prohibitively costly.
That consequence is anything but unintended. The clean energy legislation, released this week, specifically provides that “a carbon unit (its generic term for a right to emit) is personal property”.
This, the government says, is needed to give certainty to long-term trades. But that claim makes little sense, for even without such protections there are flourishing markets for fishing quotas and other tradeable entitlements.
And internationally, governments have generally ensured pollution permits are not treated as conventional property rights, precisely so as to be able to revise environmental controls as circumstances change. Rather, this provision serves one purpose only: to guarantee any attempt at repeal triggers constitutional requirements to pay compensation, shackling future governments.
I was fined for failing to vote when I wasn't a citizen back in the days of Keating's unwinnable election victory. I wasn't aware of the fine and so didn't pay it, and was given a day in court and because I wasn't aware of that didn't attend. I was sentenced to one day's jail. I wasn't aware of that until I went to report my car was stolen in '95. When I identified myself to police to report it I was told. They allowed me to explain my circumstance to electoral authority. I never heard back, but when I went to check out if the penalty was alive I was told I wasn't. I had declared my Citizenship as I was entitled to do. Years later, when I approached Centerlink they didn't have any evidence that I had declared my citizenship because Bob Carr destroyed all the records relating to electoral fines that resulted in jail sentences.
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