News Items and comments

History will judge the Prime Minister

Piers Akerman – Saturday, September 17, 11 (08:09 pm)

BOASTING of being on the right side of history is a big call, but Julia Gillard believes she owns that space on the basis of the carbon tax.

To be on the right side of history Gillard could look at her IR regulations which I pointed to in ‘07. Those regulations are modelled on Della Bosca’s NSW ones, which allowed a neglected school boy, Hamidur Rahman, to die, and to prevent a public servant from giving valid testimony to the coroner’s office. Gillard made a promise on Sunrise prior to the ‘07 election, and they still have her back. To be on the right side of history she could correct that wrong.

DD Ball of Carramar/Sydney (Reply)
Sat 17 Sep 11 (08:27pm)

PeterMax replied to DD Ball
Sun 18 Sep 11 (02:26pm)

Gillard must think history started when the Labor Party very foolishly made her PM and people do not recognise her unprecedented mess and damage,

Greatpool replied to DD Ball
Sun 18 Sep 11 (05:54pm)

Julia is up to her neck in s**t ,but she tries to tell everyone that it’s eau de cologne !

50 years from now in quiz questions thay will be asking who was Australia’s first female PM and most people will think “hmm,she was a red head and a failure as the leader of her party,the answer is Pauline Hanson”

DD Ball replied to DD Ball
Mon 19 Sep 11 (10:48am)

It used to be said of Gallipolli that it was a mistake and the bloodless retreat was brilliantly executed. Pacifists seem to like to remember it that way. Of course it could be the retreat was premature and engineered so as to prevent a win. We know history but sometimes the meme can confuse the message. I think that that is what Gillard is trying to do. She wants to retain power, but knows she cannot. So she secures a legacy through spin. Her colleagues and other useful idiots will comply because they want a smaller interregnum. It has worked before.

There is little doubt that the state of our national governance since 2007 under the ALP with Rudd and Gillard at the helm has been reduced to a sorry state after only 4 years. It is likely to get worse because there appears to be currently nothing on the political landscape which might upset the 4 Independents in their preparedness to continue supporting PM Gillard.

One wonders how can the blindingly obvious be so obscure to them, and what will it take to lift the scales from their eyes?

A famous question comes to mind, ”Where is the enemy?”

It is a question which the Independents, Greens, the mainstream media, and especially the ABC, do not want to answer in their love-is-blind affair with the ALP, let alone dare believe that a such question exists in the first place.

The infection which may open their eyes comes from Queensland and now sits in Canberra. Its revelation is found in the Rofe QC Audit of the Heiner Affair which the Clerk of the Senate looked at in recent weeks.

The Clerk gave her assessment in Advice No 47. It’s now on the public record.

She decided that the Heiner Affair was “ ...very serious.”
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/priv_ctte/clerks_advices/2007-current.htm#advice47

Piers, let’s hope that this nation can sooner, rather than later, also examine this Audit like the Clerk did.

Its cure may be just the thing this nation is desperately searching for to rid itself of an unwanted, dysfunctional Federal Government which deceived its way into office.

Natural Justice Medicine of Brisbane (Reply)
Sat 17 Sep 11 (09:28pm)

DD Ball replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sat 17 Sep 11 (10:38pm)

The government could still topple in September 2011. It is that stable. All it takes is one ALP who cares for the party’s future.

John Jay replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (12:51am)

To Natural Justice Medicene -

The Heiner Affair is very serious?

It is more than very serious.

It is Watergate scale, or bigger.

It could be argued that the complete and utter refusal of our media to examine Mr “Fixit” Rudd’s past in 2007 literally changed, and profoundly so, the history of our country.

Rudd’s election was a very, very dark day ... it set in motion a sequence of events that are an ongoing tragedy.

Were the media doing it’s job in 2007, Rudd would have come under enormous pressure and may have even eventually ended up in jail.

There are high level advisers in Federal politics who believe this is what should have happened. I have been told this personally.

Had our pretend media done it’s duty at that time we would not now be billions and billions and billions in debt, many now dead would be alive, Australia would have dignity, the Carbon fraud would be in the national dust bin, Gillard would be droning in opposition, her talons away from all levers of power ...

And much more besides.

The gorilla in the room - Heiner - could have, had we a real media, grabbed Rudd by the throat ... thus sparing us all the mess that now surrounds us.

Heiner is dynamite.

It could still explode.

John Jay.

truth replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (01:16am)

Although she said it was serious, she was unfortunately a bit dismissive of Lindeberg’s submission, wasn’t she, natural justice?

Has there been anything more on Nick Xenophon’s attitude on it?

Observer too replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (06:37am)

The puerile Indies are out for revenge and score
settling and are beset by envy and hatred of Tony Abbott ,
the Nationals and coalition...probably excepting
Turnbull...so there will be no change in the
situation as it is at the moment and will remain
so until Labor’s time is up in 2013 and the
election has to be called.

John Jay replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (06:44am)

To Truth -

Funny that ...

Few know as much as Lindeberg.

JJ.

Natural Justice Medicine replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (09:04am)

Truth

Sadly, no one knows what Lindeberg said in his submission, only the Clerk and the members of the Senate Privileges Committee.

I note that she uses the word “problematic” as to whether or not his submission fell within those particular terms of reference. In other words, it could have.

I’d like to make that judgement for myself.

And, therein lies one of the major issues now confronting the Senate. How do we know whether the Clerk’s assessment of Lindeberg’s submission is correct, or, for that matter, whether she was right in declaring the matter “...very serious.”

The Privilges Committee is a committee of the Senate which is supposed to do everything in public. So, where’s Lindeberg’s submission!

The other sting in her advice is her contention that there may be material she examined that the Senate was previously misled which may need to be addressed.

I understand that lying to the Senate is always serious.

Lindeberg has long suggested that the CJC and Queensland Government misled the Senate, on, for example, section 129 of the Criminal Code. Respected judges agree with him.

That’s pretty serious. Lindeberg’s matter has not been before the Senate since 2004. The judges gave their opinion in August 2007.

It seems to me that there is a major issue of the right to know here for all of us. Perhaps a larger article than just these blogs is required to expose this significant development?

Are we being kept in the dark again?

Mycroft replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (09:25am)

Natural Justice,

Thanks for providing the link to the Clerk’s advice.

By only quoting the final two words of her sentence and then filling in the dots with your own words you have distorted what she actually said.

The full sentence was (my emphasis) “There is no doubt that the subject matter is very serious.”

And who would argue with that?

ex-Digger replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (09:37am)

“Where is the enemy” asks NJM. To answer using a famous quote:
“We have met the enemy and he is us”.

Insider replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (11:55am)

Truth, the word is in Canberra that Xenophon is far from finished with this matter, and, nor, for that matter, is Senator Joyce.

Tony Abbott asked for an investigation in Parliament in June 2008 and referred to the Rofe QC Audit. Nothing’s changed since then. He obviously wants an inquiry because the Coaltion supported Xenophon’s move on 23 June 2011 to establish one.

We now know that the Audit has now been examined by the Clerk of the Senate. Her advice has been made public.

Advice 47 speaks about the legal argument Lindeberg mounted concerning what duty fell on the Senate in regard to holding up Australia’s international and constitutional obligations in respect of the rule of law.

But, whatever, Lindeberg argued, this matter is so serious that it seems reasonable that we ordinary folk should all be able to read what was said for ourselves.

For any of us who have followed this worsening scandal, it’s beyond dispute that what the CJC and Queensland Government told the Senate about section 129 for year after year was wrong.

Retired judges have publicly said that the misinterpretation may have been done deliberately. That’s pretty serious!

It appears that the Clerk is agreeing with that position.

Does that incorrect interpretation put to the Senate by the CJC and the Queensland ALP Governments represent a serious impact on ‘the rule of law?” Lindeberg has long argued that it does.

I recall that Piers asked the question in his last article on this matter after Senator Fielding inexplicably voted on 23 June 2011 to stop an inquiry as to whether or not the Senators were now handling the matter appropriately after such a clear warning from the Clerk.

When you look at what those highly respected judges told Premier Beattie in August 2007, and I understand Bligh too, in their public statement, there seems little doubt it has impacted on respect for the rule of law across the nation.

Here are a couple of passages:

http://www.heineraffair.info/site_pages/legal_opinions.html#judge

”This serious inconsistency in the administration of Queensland’s Criminal Code touching on the fundamental principle of respect for the administration of justice by proper preservation of evidence concerns us because this principle is found in all jurisdictions within in the Commonwealth as it sustains the rule of law generally. ”

And

“We believe that the issues at stake are too compelling to ignore.

We suggest that if the Heiner affair remains in its current unresolved state, it would give reasonable cause for ordinary citizens, especially Queenslanders, to believe that there is one law for them, and another for Executive Government and civil servants.

We find such a prospect unacceptable. ”

For my part, I find it unacceptable if those members of the Senate Privileges Committee and the Clerk know the facts about what is being alleged in this matter and, by some odd decision, we are not being told ourselves.

We are entitled to the truth, and nothing less.

Billy replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (12:05pm)

Mycroft

Where is the distortion you refer to?

I’ve just read the Clerk’s advice.

The “subject matter” is the Heiner Affair in the context of her advice because she plainly indicates that it is based on Lindeberg’s submission and the 9-volume Rofe QC Audit of the Heiner Affair.

She also specifically refers to earlier Reports by the Privileges Committee on “the subject matter” - and their commonality is “the Heiner Affair”.

John Jay replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (02:06pm)

When will the rule of law apply in Australia?

This is shameful ....

Overseas the Heiner Affair is studied by students.

In Australia a far reaching Left brotherhood strangles each and every attempt to bring Rudd to justice.

“Mr Fixit” jets around the world with his characteristic self-important smile on his face, $1,000,000 cost a year ....

Laughing at us.

JJ.

Jillian replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (03:19pm)

JJ

A slight correction…

The Heiner Affair is now in the Queensland Education syllabus for Years 11 and 12 students, and, it is a subject matter for university students in Australia and around the world wishing to qualify in archives, information management.

And, for those “knockers” - who seem to have disappeared from view, unlike Mr Rudd and others - it is taught as a corruption scandal not as some mad, crackpot, conspiracy theory!

Mycroft replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (04:53pm)

Billy,

To say that “the Heiner affair is very serious” carries an implication that a misdeed has occurred whereas to say, as the Clerk has said, “the subject matter is very serious” carries no such implication.

The AWB Investigator replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (06:00pm)

Jillian,
I look forward to the time “exporting” is also included in the university courses which lead to people becoming members of the legal profession. It might go some way towards avoiding outcomes like that of the Cole Commission, whose recommendation was that unnamed workers at AWB should face criminal charges over the so-called “Kickbacks” issue.
I wonder if the lawyers conducting the Cole Inquiry realise yet that they have been instrumental in losing Australia’s right to market it’s own wheat crop.
BTW, After proper investigation by the Australian Federal Police, no such charges were ever laid.

Confused replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (07:27pm)

Mycroft, so what is “the subject matter” in the context of the Clerk’s advice when she said: “There is no doubt that the subject matter is very serious.”

John Jay replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (08:33pm)

To Jillian -

A correction I am very glad to accept.

Thank you for passing that on.

JJ.

Lisa replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (09:46pm)

Please excuse my ignorance, but is the “her” from queensland, the Governor General (one time Governor), Quentin Bryce? Or is it the clerk? Labor has so many members from Queensland who were associated with the Heiner affair, yet to be named.

Jim Common Sense Non Progressive replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Sun 18 Sep 11 (11:09pm)

DD Ball, more likely, all it will take is one more scandal, which could be just around the corner!

truth replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (02:00am)

Insider:

I’ve been commenting at length on the Heiner matter since well before Kevin Rudd first became ALP leader---[ after I first came across Bruce Grundy’s Justice Project and Kevin Lindeberg’s story ]----to the extent that Malcolm Farr labelled me [ and others who commented HOs [ Heiner Obsessives ] as he derided and dismissed the whole thing in the face of mounting evidence and legal concern.

Piers is the only journalist in the country, as far as I know, apart from Grundy, who’s had the courage to write about it and attempt to get some investigation of it and some action .

Even Andrew Bolt, who prides himself on being willing to put himself out there on other contentious matters, won’t go near this. Piers could do with his support.

Every prominent journalist in QLD knows about it ---especially those who were the powerbrokers at the Courier-Mail and are now at the Australian, but they maintain the cover-up.

They know all about the Senate inquiry into it, headed by Bronwyn Bishop---in 2003 I think--- that concluded that a Commission of Inquiry with an Independent Prosecutor was warranted, and that her inquiry had been obstructed by some of those involved in the matter in the QLD Labor government..

They know about the corruption of the separation of powers doctrine that had to be deployed to maintain the cover-up---all of the levels of governance and law enforcement that are necessarily compromised as a result---the many submissions to the then QLD Governor, Quentin Bryce, that were never acted upon---- in abrogation of her Constitutional duty.

They know that our former GG even expressed his concerns to the Queen about the failures of the former QLD governor.

They know that a killing went uninvestigated in QLD ---- any inquiry into it would have threatened the desperate cover-up.

They know Labor tacitly admitted they broke the law, when they charged and had convicted [and appealed for a harsher sentence for ] an ordinary citizen for the same but much less serious offence.

They know that the victim of the alleged rape, after being intimidated for years, was suddenly paid a six figure sum , with a secrecy clause attached,[ by the Bligh Labor government ], more than two years after Piers and his readers here , called for the matter to be the subject of a Commission of Inquiry, as the Morris and Howard inquiry had recommended.

The journalists in question don’t even want to know apparently, what the payment of such a large sum of taxpayers’ money was for—do they feel intimidated?

There has still been no investigation ---no court proceedings----the money just paid out ----for what exactly, Anna Bligh??

If no crime occurred, why the payment?

If the crime occurred, why no investigation---and why no testing of the allegations in court, Anna Bligh??

Those journalists knew about the Rofe submissions and the letters from some of Australia’s most prominent legal people, and ignored them, instead launching a vicious campaign against Piers and his readers, for the whole of the 2007 election campaign, employing every smear and slur they could think of----anything to avoid dealing with the truth.

I emailed Senator Fielding on all of these details during the 2007 election campaign, and received a reply, and he was involved in Hetty Johnson’s campaign against child abuse, I believe, and knew all about this matter, so his behaviour on the cusp of his retirement, in voting against a Senate inquiry, is inexplicable, unless he has been a victim of a proposition he couldn’t refuse.

So the secrecy from the Clerk surrounding Lindeberg’s submission is no surprise in the light of this matter’s history.

An inquiry into the print media must not be allowed to proceed to its conclusion without a full examination of the role of the MSM journalists in this massive ongoing cover-up of a Labor government placing itself above the law, and compromising every level of governance and law enforcement to maintain their cover-up of that offence.

Any inquiry into print media that doesn’t deal in detail with the suppression of information that the Australian people were entitled to have on the Heiner destruction of evidence---- just indicts itself as a selective political witch hunt.

scotty replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (08:34am)

truth, your post… truth replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (02:00am)
Insider:

That is courage.... we learn more from what you say. Thank you.
~scotty~

John Jay replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (09:01am)

Very, very well said Truth.

JJ.

John Jay replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (09:31am)

To Truth -

Jim has highly recommended a book that may be of interest to you.

See near top of this page.

I have posted one overview of this book.

All the best,

JJ.

Disgusted replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (10:20am)

Truth, you’re on the mark again, and thank you for reminding us of much of this Affair’s sordid baggage.

It’s not a significant correction but Bronwyn Bishop was in the Lower House when she conducted her inquiry between 2003/04.

It is my understanding that she suffered considerable abuse at the hands of the ALP members on her Committee because she dared to look into the matter, but she pushed ahead - thank goodness.

Her August 2004 report should be read by everyone.

In following this scandal’s glacier-like movement through the system to where it currently stands, it appears to be at or very close to tipping point. This is because Advice 47 recognises that the Rofe QC Audit landed in Canberra and was officially read.

I think this is a first for the Federal Parliament. One of those who read the Audit (and Lindeberg’s submission), the Clerk, has recognised that the matter is undoubtedly very serious.

Now surely that ought to be sending off warning bells everywhere across this nation and wherever anyone involved in this matter now resides.

Truth, it is hard not to agree with you about any inquiry into the Australian media by the Senate being highly selectively if somewhere it does not look at its selectivity in regard its coverage of this matter. What occurred in The Australian in the lead-up to the 2007 Federal election on this scandal after Piers broke the story following the publication of a major public statement by some of our most eminent senior judges in mid-August 2007 was, in the eyes of many, one of darkest chapters in Australian current affair journalism. Piers stood like a rock.

It claimed that Lindeberg was being driven by right-wing extremists, associated with the League of Rights and anti-semitism etc. As part of that smearing exercise of “the messenger”, which included a blogger called Scott Balson who has a site called Shreddergate. Balson took a successful challenge to the Press Council, but, by then, the damage had been done.

Lindeberg’s Statutory Declaration to the Press Council ought to be an exhibit for any media Inquiry, let alone read by everyone interested in a free media and accountable government.

Far from killing Lindeberg off, the matter escalated with the PM Rudd/GG Bryce appointment/Buckingham Palace in September 2008. This appointment took place in the face of GG Bryce’s role in the affair being investigated at the time by the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee in Queensland which went no where when the ALP used their majority numbers to kill off any independent investigation.

Another public statement by senior judges and others in June 2010 has rejected that Committee’s decision has having any standing at law because it was required to be bipartisan.

Once again in 2008, Piers had the courage to call it “as it was” in “Taint Sticks to Bryce” and wisely called on her not to take up the position until her conduct had been properly resolved because we didn’t want another Hollingworth incident on our hands. His plea fell on deaf ears.

Can anyone genuinely suggest that if the roles had been reversed and it was the Coalition engaged in this type of abuse of process that they wouldn’t be howled down by the mainstream media?

Where were they when Senator Fielding killed off an inquiry into this matter moved by Senator Xenophon on 23 June 2011? By any measure, that was one of the most important votes ever cast in the history of the Senate, and he had the gall to claim that he knew nothing about the Affair as an excuse. The vote was lost 32-32.

PM Gillard and the rest of the ALP Federal caucus (including their counterparts in Qld) are desperately pretending that this stinking carcass isn’t sitting in Canberra when they all know it is, and, horror upon horror, the Clerk has now smelt it, and not liked it.

The Sunday Mail a few weeks ago said that Senator Xenophon was bringing the rape victim to Canberra to confront the Greens about an inquiry. I’d like to know where that is at.

What’s the punting? 100-1 on or against the Greens agreeing to an inquiry?

DD Ball replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (10:56am)

I feel that the Heiner issue could be addressed anytime soon. The March Qld election (it could be sooner) may make it an election issue and will probably be something any subsequent LNP government would want to address. ALP might want to address it sooner their own way. Killing witnesses is unlikely.

Hopeful replied to Natural Justice Medicine
Mon 19 Sep 11 (03:14pm)

One would hope that any incoming Newman LNP Government in Queensland have make its first item of business the establishment of a Royal Commission into the Heiner Affair.

===

The alarmist clock is still ringing

Miranda Devine – Saturday, September 17, 11 (08:12 pm)

AS if Al Gore’s last apocalyptic PowerPoint presentation wasn’t boring and deceptive enough, he had to go and do it all again - for a marathon 24 hours.

Time they started locking up these fruitcakes,,,,,,,has the human race gone completely nuts??

Barrone of vic (Reply)
Sat 17 Sep 11 (08:27pm)

DD Ball replied to Barrone
Sat 17 Sep 11 (10:34pm)

Gore has prospered since becoming a laughing stock. He is very rich, highly lauded and a fool. I don’t think his side likes him. I think they get money being with him.

Fair and Balanced replied to Barrone
Sun 18 Sep 11 (03:49pm)

....so has Mockton, Carter, Pilmer and the Bolta… DD.

Amongst many others who don’t believe in science OR economics… but driven through insatiable greed and selfishness through their conservative ideology. That brought us the GFC…

Kabul-ture Kid replied to Barrone
Sun 18 Sep 11 (09:50pm)

Barrone, after reading the rubbish spruiked by F and B I believe the answer to your question is a responding ‘YES’.

Anyone who supports the AGW lie cannot be right in the head.....and F and B fits that profile beautifully,

DD Ball replied to Barrone
Mon 19 Sep 11 (10:59am)

You read it here first folks. Fair and Balanced claims Andrew Bolt was someone who profited from Global Warming and started the GFC. He also lists Monckton and Plimer.

I am still waiting for my money from big oil. I have been spruiking the advantages of nuclear and coal over solar and wind for more than a decade. I tell people the facts. I point to carbon dioxide being plant food, and nuclear power being safer than wind or solar. Just google David Daniel Ball. I am easy to find.

DD Ball of Carramar/Sydney (Reply)
Sat 17 Sep 11 (08:31pm)

Fair and Balanced replied to DD Ball
Sun 18 Sep 11 (03:54pm)

Co2 is plant food… How enlightening....thanks for that.

Theres lot’s of Co2 and nitrogen on Venus bud… in fact it’s the dominate gases...alas NO plants there as the temperature is 467c… I bit warmish mate to sustain life.

Kabul-ture Kid replied to DD Ball
Sun 18 Sep 11 (09:44pm)

DD, maybe you could suggest that the ATO send some members to Venue, if they can implement a ETS on any local inhabitants they find there it will cause the temperature to drop................nothing surer.

Alex replied to DD Ball
Mon 19 Sep 11 (12:58pm)

FaB, has it occurred to you that Venus being a lot closer to the Sun than the Earth might have something to do with its surface temperature?

Alex, it is hard to know for sure but there has been debate about Venus. It was once thought to be a 'rogue' planet recently captured by the solar system. Temperature may be more related to tidal forces than actual radiation .. hence the heat of Earth's core more due to our moon and Jupiter than to the sun, because the Sun provides a stable orbit and the tidal forces from Jupiter are therefore stronger.

Venus could be terraformed and one issue is cooling, which could be achieved by reflecting some sunlight away from the surface, and by reducing the pressure in the atmosphere by adding hydrogen, possibly from Jupiter or Saturn. Releasing hydrogen would allow the SiO2 to mix and form water and silicates. - ed

===

Does the presidential election of 2012 matter?

by RUSS ROBERTS on SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

in POLITICS

My claim in this editorial in the Boston Globe is that who wins the presidential election matters a lot less than you think (if you’re a partisan).

===

Quotation of the Day…

by DON BOUDREAUX on SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

in PRICES, SEEN AND UNSEEN, STATE OF MACRO

… is from page 70 of the 1978 edition of the late Ludwig Lachmann‘s 1956 bookCapital and Its Structure; here, Lachmann is discussing Keynes’s cramped and inadequate understanding of the role of capital markets, including the role of stock exchanges:

Keynes not merely failed to realize the real nature of the specific problem he was facing, viz. intertemporal price inconsistency expressing itself in divergent expectations. He was probably unaware of the importance, perhaps even of the existence, of the class of problems of which this is one: problems of the transmission of knowledge. There is very little evidence that he grasped the economic function of the market as an institution through which people exchange knowledge with each other.

===

Labor vice-president quits to stop spread of poison

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (06:26 pm)

Labor is desperate to amputate:

SCANDAL-plagued Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson has resigned from two senior Labor Party posts amid allegations he received secret commissions from a union contractor.

The ALP’s national office announced the development late today, saying Mr Williamson would stand down as the party’s national vice-president and senior vice-president of its NSW branch.

(No comments for legal reasons.)

===

Abbott keeps Gillard hanging on as he considers claiming a moral victory

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (04:14 pm)

It would be rather neat for Tony Abbott to force Julia Gillard to add human right protections to her bill to rescue her Malaysian deal - and then watch her still struggle to get her Left to vote for it:

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard’s talks with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on the Government’s plan to reinstate offshore processing of asylum seekers has ended after just 15 minutes.

Mr Abbott declined to make any comments to the media as he left the Prime Minister’s office.

However, Labor revealed it had strengthened human rights protections in its proposed migration law changes in a bid to win Mr Abbott’s support.

UPDATE
More on the deal Abbott will consider:

Tony Abbott has agreed to consider the revised amendments, which would require the immigration minister of the day to be satisfied that countries where asylum-seekers were sent complied with the obligations of the UN refugee convention.

“It makes it clear in these arrangements that the minister.... would need to have regard to the national interest and specifically would need to have regard to whether or not the country that asylum-seekers were being taken to met the principle obligations under the refugee convention,” Ms Gillard told journalists after she and Mr Abbott met for 15 minutes on the issue today.

“That is, (third countries would have to meet) the obligation of non-refoulement - which means that people should not be returned to a place where they would face persecution - and secondly, that their claims would be processed.”

The changes overturn initial Labor amendments that would have removed human rights safeguards, including any right to “natural justice”.

UPDATE

Abbott snookers Gillard. He produces an opinion by former Solicitor-General David Bennett saying Gillard’s latest proposal would not necessarily pass the Supreme Court’s test. He says he wants one amendment to the Government’s proposal - that any country receiving our boat people be signatories of the Refugee Convention, which used to be a bedrock Labor demand. He says this would both help the amendment get past the Supreme Court and offer boat people more protections. The Left could hardly object.

Conservatives might, though. This does give more weight to the UN and UN declarations than would make some comfortable.

Bottom line: Abbott’s deal would rule out the deal with Malaysia, which is not a signatory to the UN declaration. It makes the even more obvious option a deal with Nauru, which is signing the declaration and which a majority of the High Court suggested had protections that the Malaysian deal lacked.

Labor should simply agree to Nauru, wear the jeering and move on. This refusal to admit to error is killing it.

===

Essential Research: Labor still bumping along the bottom

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (03:29 pm)

Labor 44, Coalition 56

===

I’d put Shaun in the naughty corner

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (02:46 pm)

In my opinion, a teacher should - more than most - demonstrate a proper respect for democracy and the rule of law, and not stack a tantrum to get attention and impose their will.

But here is Shaun Murray in April:

Murray was one of five green activists who ommed into the foyer of 1 Treasury Place - home of the Premier’s office - and chained themselves to a ladder they happened to have on them.

This was an activists’ version of a hissy fit to get what they weren’t entitled to, which in this case was an instant meeting with Energy and Resources Minister Michael O’Brien.

Hee is Shaun Murray last year:

And later, environmental activists chained themselves inside Julia Gillard’s Werribee office, causing chaos for more then two hours.

The two protestors used bike locks around their necks to attach themselves to a door.

Carey Priest, 31 and Shaun Murray, 33, both from Yarraville, said they were outraged by today’s climate change policy announcement.

Here is Murray today:

AN environmentalist has spent five hours chained to a drill rig to protest against a Victorian brown coal development.

Shaun Murray, of the Switch Off Coal group, locked himself to the rig at Bacchus Marsh this morning before being cut down and told to move on by police.

Murray seems to me to have far too little regard for the rights of others. I don’t think he’s been taught properly.

(Thanks to reader Neil.)

===

Get the Government’s hands off our newspapers

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (01:59 pm)

Reader Peter Amos is as appalled as I am by this proposal:

Michael Gawenda on The Drum last Friday:

“For what it’s worth, I believe government – taxpayers - ought to fund public interest journalism, in the same way that it funds other cultural work. I am not talking about funding newspapers directly, but a sort of Australia Council grants system that helps fund digital and even print and broadcast journalism start-ups. The Federal Government already funds a major journalism enterprise in the ABC. I see no reason in principle why the ABC should have exclusivity of funding.”

Under Mr Gawenda’s proposal, government-appointed bureaucrats or government-appointed members of a new ‘Australia Council for Newspapers’ would get to decide a) what constitutes “public interest journalism” and b) who should be funded to produce it. Presumably, one is meant to assume ‘That’s alright then because we can be confident that there will be no government interference in the process’. It’s hard to believe that ta former editor of one of the nation’s most important newspapers could be so naive.

I agree completely.

Meanwhile, Mark Day is equally scathing of the idea:

IT is not hard to identify the politics behind Stephen Conroy’s media inquiry - the government needs the support of the Greens, who have a bee in their bonnets about perceived bias…

The second reference is to “the impact of this technological change on the business model that has supported the investment by traditional media organisations in quality journalism and the production of news, and how such activities can be supported, and diversity enhanced, in the changed media environment”....

But does this reference to supporting the activities involved in quality journalism hint at the possibility of government funding? Heaven forbid. We already have a government-funded news gathering organisation called the ABC that costs us about a billion bucks a year. It has seized on technological change to get into the business of opinion websites in direct competition with its privately owned rivals.

Make no mistake, government funds mean government influence or control. Even structures operating independently or at arm’s length of government are subject to pressure and the constant threat of the withdrawal of funds if the government of the day is displeased with it.

The non-government media industry must resist to the last breath the suggestion that government rules and regulations are necessary either to control its activities or to support its future.

===

The ABC should check now, not apologise later

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (12:48 pm)

David Knox warns:

… let me just say this week’s episode of At Home with Julia has its most controversial scene so far.

Those who have accused the show of being disrespectful to the Office of the PM (and I’m not one of them) will be out in force this week, with a pretty strong argument.

Showbiz reporter Peter Ford claims the scene is of “Julia Gillard” and “Tim Mathieson” having sex, wrapped in the Australian flag. If this is so, the ABC should pull the episode now, and not slyly wait to wring its hands when it’s all too late and the audience numbers are in the can.

There is parody and then there is gratuitous and demeaning mockery, not just of the office of Prime Minister but of the Prime Minister herself, as a woman.

The ABC is there to set some standards, not trash them.

===

Greece in the gurgler

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (12:28 pm)

Europe won’t keep financing Greek indolence:

With the threat of bankruptcy looming, Greece was told in no uncertain terms over the weekend that a critical €8bn rescue loan would not be released next month unless it proved that it had bitten the bullet with reforms.

The funds would be the sixth instalment of cash Athens has received since being bailed out to the tune of €110bn in May 2010.

But reading the riot act to Greece as never before, EU finance ministers meeting in Poland insisted that without “concrete facts and figures” to show that Athens was intent on bringing its budget deficit in line, the aid would not be forthcoming.

Without the cash injection, the ruling socialists will be unable to cover state wages and pensions in October....

The budget deficit, originally expected to be around 7.4% of GDP by year’s end, is now projected to be nearer 10%.

At this rate, there’s a chance that the European Union will dissolve, not least through a cultural incompatability.

===

Vanstone delists some Opposition slackers

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (12:08 pm)

Former Howard Government Minister Amanda Vanstone reckons there are some passengers on Tony Abbott’s team:

Do all but a few of the opposition’s MPs think it is Abbott’s job to do it all for them?

There are of course some notable exceptions, but you will not go into double-digit territory counting them. Joe Hockey, Barnaby Joyce, Scott Morrison, Christopher Pyne and Malcolm Turnbull are all key players. George Brandis and Greg Hunt and a few others do their share.

But the rest need to understand how tough government nearly always is. If they can’t successfully attack the government from the luxury of opposition, how will they ever defend themselves as ministers? And if they just can’t be bothered, they should stand aside and let others with more energy have a go.

Obvious exceptions on Vanstone’s list of those pulling their weight are Julie Bishop, Peter Dutton, Andrew Robb, Ian Macfarlane, Eric Abetz, Kevin Andrews and Sophie Mirabella. I’m not sure their absence is significant in every case, or deserved. I just note it.

UPDATE

An insider notes a not-surprising coincidence:

With the exception of Barnaby, Vanstone’s list is all people from the moderates/left/wets – as variously described.

===

How China has conned Gillard

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (12:06 pm)

John Lee on China’s carbon con:

Julia Gillard, Greens leader Bob Brown and climate-change adviser Ross Garnaut have argued China’s can-do green example ought to be our inspiration. But ... its pro-green credentials are a mirage.

There is superficial evidence that China takes climate change seriously. Its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) claims China will reduce its carbon intensity (the amount of carbon emitted per unit of output) by 17 per cent in 2015 .... And 50 per cent of its energy will come from renewable sources by 2050.

Yet ... Beijing’s carefully crafted message about shifting towards a green future is primarily designed for Western markets eager for alternative energy sources and as a defence against these same governments putting greater pressure on China to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Take the issue of coal-fired power stations...While gross domestic product has been growing at about 10 per cent during the past five years, Chinese consumption of coal has been increasing at about 17 per cent each year…

The International Energy Agency estimates almost 80 per cent of China’s energy needs will be met by coal and oil in 2030...Which leads to the inescapable conclusion that a target that half the country’s energy needs will be met by renewable sources in 2050 is not achievable…

Wind power now accounts for less than 1 per cent of China’s energy needs while solar constitutes one-thousandth of 1 per cent of the country’s energy use…

The outlook for Chinese-made renewable products and technologies is much more encouraging when viewed as an export opportunity to subsidised clean-energy sectors in foreign markets. Because of low production costs and peerless export manufacturing and shipping infrastructure, a Chinese-made wind turbine is one-third the price of one made in Germany or Spain. Foreign companies based in China and state-owned enterprises in the clean-energy sectors send most of the wind turbines and almost all the solar panels to the US and Europe. Far from exercising environmental leadership, Beijing has simply identified yet another export opportunity to Western consumers.

So China gains first by having the West limit its own growth in a green daze, and then by selling the West the gadgets to do it.

UPDATE

Greens leader Christine Milne says we should follow China’s lead in solar power:

Australia is in danger of being left behind as China moves to position itself as a key player in carbon markets whilst investing heavily in renewable energy, clean technology and electrification of the vehicle fleet.

But in China, the locals protest that the solar industry is poisoning them and their land:

In a fresh indication of growing public anger over pollution, hundreds of demonstrators in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang on Sunday were camped outside a solar panel manufacturing plant that stands accused of contaminating a nearby river....

The factory is owned by JinkoSolar Holding Company … Some investment analysts described the company last year as a promising upstart in the solar-energy products business....

According to Chinese news reports, residents claimed runoff from solid waste laced with fluoride and improperly stored at the plant had been swept into the nearby river after heavy rainfall on Aug. 26. They said that a sea of dead fish rose to the surface, covering hundreds of square yards of water. Pigs whose sties had been washed with river water also were reported to have died. The state-run China News Agency reported that government inspectors later found that the water contained 10 times the acceptable amount of fluoride.

(Thanks to reader Martin.)

===

Windfarms paid to be even more useless in stopping warming

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (11:07 am)

Why is green an invitation to blow millions on utterly useless gestures? Britain’s latest example:

A wind farm has been paid £1.2 million not to produce electricity for eight-and-a-half hours....

The £1.2 million will go to a Norwegian company which owns 60 turbines in the Scottish Borders.

The National Grid asked the company, Fred Olsen Renewables, to shut down its Crystal Rig II wind farm last Saturday for a little over eight hours amid fears the electricity network would become overloaded.

The problem was caused by high winds buffeting the country in the wake of Hurricane Katia.

In total, 11 wind farms were closed down last week, receiving a total of £2.6 million… As Britain pushes for more and more wind farms, critics claim the size of the ‘constraint payments’ will grow accordingly - raising serious concern about the long-term suitability of wind power to meet Britain’s energy needs.

And by how much have these wind farms lowered the world’s temperature?

UPDATE

The US example:

(Solar power company) Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month and laid off its 1,100 employees.
The Fremont, Calif.-based company was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Obama visited the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters last year, and Vice President Joe Biden spoke by satellite at its groundbreaking.

Since then, the implosion of the company and revelations that the administration hurried Office of Management and Budget officials to finish their review of the loan in time for the September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama as he sells his new job-creation program around the country.

An Associated Press review of regulatory filings shows that Solyndra was hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars for years before the Obama administration signed off on the original $535 million loan guarantee in September 2009. The company eventually got $528 million.

And, funnily enough, Obama’s loan guarantee turned out very useful for some of his donors. Not so useful for taxpayers.

(Thanks to reader Malcolm.)

===

Light by extinguished light

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (07:15 am)

I know there’s now Amazon, but I’m not sure it’s doing much business in Dandenong, either:

THE City of Greater Dandenong has 140,000 residents, 49 schools and 117 supermarkets and grocery stores.

But it doesn’t have a bookstore.

===

Restore the rights of politicians instead, and of those who vote for them

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (07:00 am)

Professor James Allan is right, and Victoria’s Charter of Rights should go - or at least be gutted as a parliamentary committee recommends:

,,,, it recommended, by majority, that judges and courts should be taken back to the role they have in every other state in Australia and have their extra input into what is and is not rights-respecting taken away.

The souped-up “how to read other statutes” provision (s. 32) would go; the power to issue declarations claiming that some statute is inconsistent with the judges’ views about rights-respectingness (s. 36) would go; the override provision (s. 31) would go; in fact we’d be left with the list of enumerated rights but these would be operated in future by parliamentarians at the stage when bills are being introduced.

Personally, I think a complete repeal of this Charter of Rights should have been recommended and that the committee’s majority recommendation is half-hearted. That said, as half-hearted recommendations go, this was pretty good for those of us who think statutory bills of rights undermine democracy.

===

Australia - so good that people will pay to join

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (06:36 am)

What an elegant idea, and one that treats the individual, not the bureaucrat, as the best judge of his future prospects in Australia:

AUSTRALIA should capitalise on its attractiveness to migrants by auctioning off permanent migration places.

Proposing the idea, economist Stephen Kirchner says the funds raised could be spent on public infrastructure projects, generating a social benefit and greater public support for migration.

In a new paper, Hands, Mouths and Minds: Three Perspectives on Population Growth and Living Standards, to be published today, the Centre for Independent Studies research fellow argues an auction system would more efficiently fill the nation’s skills gaps, thereby eliminating the lag that occurs when it is left to bureaucrats to try to estimate future demand for specific skills.

“Occupations in high demand will automatically attract higher bids from those with relevant skills,” Dr Kirchner says.

“Under an auction scheme, migrants self-select for those who promise to be the most economically successful in Australia.”

Dr Kirchner says it doesn’t necessarily mean only the richest migrants would win places because potential employers would be prepared to augment the bids of candidates likely to offer them a good return on investment

If the Left can defend richer boat people barging to the front of the queue by paying thousands of dollars to people smugglers, it shouldn’t have much trouble in allowing other migrants the same fast-tracking by paying thousands to the government instead, for the benefit of all.

===

The Love Media just can’t let go of Gillard

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (06:22 am)

Chris Kenny says the Love Media is missing the big picture again:

Julia Gillard’s prime ministership has never really gathered momentum or authority… Labor’s prospects are hopeless…

Yet in the past two months, many in the press gallery have tied themselves in knots trying to make a case for Labor. In The Sydney Morning Herald Lenore Taylor wrote: “It’s not fast and it’s not graceful, in style it’s more Eric the Eel than Ian Thorpe, but Julia Gillard is starting to make good on her promise that 2011 would be a ‘year of decision and delivery’.” At The Australian Financial Review, Laura Tingle declared: “So the three issues on which the government had ‘lost its way’ have been dealt with but have not quite yet gone away altogether.”

In fairness, these quotes pre-date the High Court decision on the Malaysia Solution… Some progressive commentary still suggests it has all been unfair on Gillard.

The ABC’s Richard Glover defended her this month in The Sydney Morning Herald, making excuses for her broken promises, asylum-seeker mess and loyalty to Thomson. “Why is she getting so much more heat than other politicians who have made mistakes?” Glover asked....

Along with Glover-like sympathy for Gillard, the “love” media has switched to a new narrative, which amounts to “a pox on both your houses”. Stretched to find anything positive to say about Labor, they tend to deplore the parlous state of politics, in which both sides are now deemed to be letting the nation down. “Why did Canberra this week feel like a grudge match between the Visigoths and the Zombies?” Annabel Crabb asks on ABC Online’s The Drum…

ABC TV’s Insiders program yesterday spent virtually its entire hour discussing the apparently reprehensible tactics of the opposition. Four journalists and a cartoonist seemed to believe the man with the insurmountable problem in politics at present is the “negative” Opposition Leader…

Whatever your view on the merits of the policies, most voters can see Abbott is on the right side of the electoral mandate. He is abrasive but he is doing what he pledged.

Yet we see the daily absurdity of journalists who built reputations on diatribes against John Howard’s offshore processing and the electoral overreach of Work Choices now arguing passionately for the adoption of the Malaysia Solution and mocking the Coalition for opposing a carbon tax that both main parties ruled out before the election.

.... at a time when the government is exhibiting an extraordinary antipathy towards News Limited over an alleged political agenda, we need to consider whether this may have less to do with one media company shaping political events and more to do with other media missing them.

===

No Malaysian deal, and the election will be a referendum on a new tax

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (06:08 am)

The Coalition increases the pressure under Labor, which now claims that to cut taxes is to actually raise them:

THE Coalition will today sink Julia Gillard’s plan to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia and has vowed it will purge all elements of Labor’s mining and carbon taxes when it wins the next election.

In an escalation of the Coalition’s policy rhetoric, Joe Hockey has warned householders and businesses that any compensation they receive from the government over next July’s introduction of the carbon tax will be taken back by an incoming Coalition government as part of a push to improve the government’s budget position.

The opposition Treasury spokesman has also vowed to amend Labor’s industrial relations laws to deliver “worker mobility”, re-emphasised the Coalition’s promise to demolish Labor’s mineral resources rent tax and rejected the use of its proposed parliamentary budget office.

Mr Hockey’s uncompromising stance has sparked Labor criticism, with Trade Minister Craig Emerson warning that the Coalition’s plan to dump the carbon tax would mean higher taxes and lower pensions.

UPDATE

It will be a very short summit, then, and one that the Treasurer will probably wish were not held at all:

WAYNE Swan will be asked to increase the GST rate, introduce a congestion tax and limit negative gearing at his planned tax forum next month.

===

Don’t camp at Torquay unless you’re sleeping on a li-lo

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (12:09 am)

Does anybody still believe this kind of rank scaremongering from Labor?

RISING seas will inundate homes in Torquay and Anglesea and devastate the Great Ocean Road within 40 years, new forecasting suggests.

Federal Corangamite MP Darren Cheeseman yesterday delivered an early preview of a coastal vulnerability study that will foreshadow what will happen to the 55km stretch of coastline between Torquay and Lorne if seas rise 20-80cm.

I’m not surprised to read that the CSIRO is helping to peddle this, and that you can’t check precisely which homes and camping grounds will be washed away by a sea rise of a huge, er, 20cms:

However, the full report which will pinpoint homes that will be affected is yet to be completed and will not be released for months.

The report excerpts released by Mr Cheeseman yesterday showed a 20cm rise in the next 40 years would flood sailing clubs, caravan parks, surf lifesaving clubs and parks.

Meanwhile, let’s consult the recent sea level rises - especially those of the last several years - to see if they match the giddy rises long predicted by the CSIRO:

Odd. The rises don’t actually seem to be accelerating, do they? And the rises we’ve had over the past century don’t seem to have caused the destruction we’re now told to expect from yet more.

I wonder whether some people should stop running fear campaigns based on little more than self-interested hype.

Oh, and perhaps Mr Cheeseman would be so kind as to inform the terrified people of his electorate by how much his Government’s carbon dioxide tax will cut the expected sea level rise by 2050. Would 0.0000000001cm be close, Darren?

(Thanks to reader Jodie.)

===

Inexperienced person flops as president. Big surprise

Andrew Bolt – Monday, September 19, 11 (12:05 am)

There is a familiar echo to some of this analysis of Barack Obama:

As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barrack Obama’s rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since. . . . As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. . . . To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.

Take Graham Richardson’s analysis now of the woman cheered by so many in the media as our first female prime minister - a symbol whose past failures and lack of successes somehow seemed of little consequence at the time:…

...he insists Labor did not underestimate the electorate’s revulsion at the axing of Rudd. There was only a ‘‘gross overestimation of Gillard’s ability‘’.

I may have warned of just that back in March last year, when even conservatives were starry-eyed with Gillard.

Gillard, in the end, comes from the Left and I’m not sure her gut instinct isn’t there still, leaving her with a bias to disastrous big-government solutions such as her flopped Medicare Gold proposal in 2004 and now her job-strangling workplace “reforms”.

(And) while her negotiation skills are unquestioned, with even few employers prepared to say a bad word of her, it’s not clear yet that she can run a big program well.

Her $16 billion Building the Education Revolution looks to have wasted scandalous billions… Her workplace reforms have actually put people out of work. Her computers in schools program is behind schedule, wildly over budget and largely ineffectual in improving teaching.

As I said about Obama the neophyte on election morning, you can vote for a symbol but in the end you are left with someone who actually has to make decisions:

Have we mistaken characters for character? Have we forgotten that these symbolically charged cartoon characters are actually real people, with real decisions to make?

Obama, should he be the first black president, will actually be Obama, another president who must then actually decide stuff.

What’s more relevant then: that he’s the first black president or the first president in modern history to have long consorted with fringe radicals? What is his real character?

===

If we won’t use our coal, India will

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 18, 11 (08:05 pm)

We’re determined to stop using coal to “save” the planet, but giant India helps itself to a lot more of what we spurn:

Indian infrastructure giant GVK says it will pay $US1.3 billion ($A1.26 billion) for Australia’s Hancock coal and infrastructure projects as it lines up energy supplies for upcoming power plants.

The purchase of three coal mines, a railway line and port projects linking the coal projects in Queensland, involves “truly world-class coal assets in both quality and scale”, GVK group chairman GVK Reddy said on Saturday.

(Thanks to reader Dave.)

===

How about stamping out violence against taxpayers?

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 18, 11 (08:02 pm)

My word, but that Kevin Rudd spends (your) money like water:

The new diplomat for women and girls has been given the job of stamping out domestic violence among Pacific Islanders.

No, not here in Australia. In the Pacific. And she’s got a budget of nearly $100 million to do just that part of her job.

How can $100 million be so casually blown like that?

(Thanls to reader Lee.)

===

From the Bolt Report today

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, September 18, 11 (07:43 pm)

===

The price of appeasement was WW2

Must America Accept a Nuclear Iran?

Iran's leaders have concluded that America is weak because of its economic problems and that it doesn’t have the stomach for another war after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

===

It would help if the UN didn't sponsor terror

U.S., European Diplomats Scramble Ahead of Palestinian U.N. Bid

With a tense week ahead for the future of the Middle East, the United States and Europe scrambled Sunday for a strategy that would help avoid a jarring showdown over whether to admit an independent Palestine as a new United Nations member. Instead, they sought to guide Israel and the Palestinians back into the tough bargaining on a long-sought peace agreement.

===

Porn isn't real. It robs viewers of real life. It is a poor second to a relationship. Or a friendship.

Guys think we enjoy the hard-core sex acts they watch in porn films

www.thesun.co.uk

TWO teenagers reveal how unrealistic sexual expectations have affected relationships

===

Killing to give to China

Drone debris seized from Taliban

PAKISTANI soldiers battled Taliban militants to seize debris from a US drone that crashed near the Afghan border.

===

No conservative can lean far enough left to attract votes

Berlin poll another hit for Merkel

THE Social Democrats' win in Berlin's regional elections marks another blow for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

===

Socialist admits exploiting women for sex

DSK admits to moral failure

FORMER IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has said his encounter with a hotel maid was a "moral fault" but firmly denied he tried to rape her nor another woman.

===

Samoan?

Armed bandits say 'sorry' during robbery

MASKED bandits who threatened a liquor-store worker with a handgun and hatchet apologised about the hold-up before fleeing with cash and alcohol.

===

Probably should change her name to Sue

You're banned, court time-waster told

ONE of Victoria's most prolific court time-wasters has been banned from taking further legal action after launching 57 cases over seven years.

===

I don't like his friend, Trad

New Aussie Grand Mufti appointed

PROMINENT Muslim scholar and author Dr Ibrahim Abu Muhammad has been appointed Australia's new Grand Mufti.

===

Fighting fit

Grandad's fists of fury

MILD-mannered 75-year-old Ashgrove pensioner Patrick "The Punch" Kennedy has just become Australia's oldest taekwondo black belt.

===

Hair care is not renown for it's moral or intellectual excellence.

Tycoon appeals sex tape evidence

FORMER haircare tycoon Anton Starling is appealing against his conviction for sexual abuse, claiming a recording of him and his underage victim should never have been admitted as evidence against him.

===

Enough

Hefty fines dished up to food outlets

RESTAURANTS are doing the dirty on diners with at least 170 fines dished up to outlets that have failed the basic test of hygiene in the past 12 months. Among those penalised are ones which don't have...

===

Bad ALP government caused this

Under one roof as prices kill dream

THE average family home is likely to grow in size in the future as up to three generations move in under the same roof.

===

Welcome

A new reality for Transport

HE has scrubbed toilets, carried people's luggage and made beds. After going incognito on Channel 10's Undercover Boss - this man has been chosen to head up the customer service arm of Transport for N...

===

Unions need to learn from their mistakes. If they did they would be Einsteins.

Union messages 'annoy air travellers'

QANTAS customers want in-flight union announcements to take a flying leap, according to a survey commissioned by the airline.

===

Swan admits the tax is useless

Swan injects cents into carbon costs

THE weekly hit to household spending under the carbon tax would be as little as 10c for beer, 20c for takeaway food and 40c for rent, Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday.

===

We should sell uranium too

Gina Rinehart in deal to fuel India

AUSTRALIA'S richest woman is about to get even richer after reaping $1.26 billion selling a stake in her coal mines in a deal set to power India's booming economy.

===

Organ donation is the gift of life

Mia is our little miracle

MIA Cowley's tiny heart was plagued with insurmountable plumbing problems that almost require a medical degree to digest.

===

We don't want a tax on plant food

950,000 workers in danger

THE price of basics such as milk and other dairy products will rise by less than 10c a week under the carbon tax, the federal government claimed yesterday as it moved to calm fears the controversial p...

===

I've never heard of it

Formspring could cost girls a career

TEENAGE girls who belong to the controversial social website Formspring are risking their future careers, with recruitment companies putting a red line through those applicants who are members.

===

Like many of her victims, Gillard is drowning.

Asylum deal on ropes

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is facing a second humiliation over her Malaysia deal as she prepares for showdowns with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and the left faction of her own caucus today.

===

I hear there is a party going on, with alcohol. The police are having an open day and are showing their cells. Wear striped clothing.

Bloody face of teen party violence

WITH blood streaming from a gash where he was hit in the face with a bottle, this teenager represents the fears of every parent as end-of-school party season gets under way.

===

It is far more rewarding to talk with and spend time with a woman.

Peep at dark minds spying on women

IT'S a crime hard to prove and in many cases the "targets" don't even know they are being watched.

===

We did really well under Howard. We had money and were generous.

Older workers cop graveyard shift

OLDER workers are being forced to stay in their jobs past 65 because they don't have enough money saved for their retirement.

===

Everything the ALP touches

Diggers' exposure under fire

WHEN you're on the frontline of the war on terror you need to know you won't be caught with your pants down.

===

He didn't intend to kill him? Only kick him to death and steal his shoes.

Man jailed for 12 years over 1995 Fairfield murder

fairfield-advance.whereilive.com.au

A MAN who murdered a 20-year-old labourer in 1995 in Fairfield has been sentenced to at least 12 years in jail.

===

Show Gillard the same compassion she has shown those desperate ones desiring to come to Australia. Let her drown.

Labor attacks Tony Abbott over asylum seekers

www.news.com.au

THE Federal Government has accepted the prospect that parliament may vote down its plan to resurrect the asylum-seeker swap deal with Malaysia.

===

Some promises can't be kept. Faith in god, putting ones treasure in the kingdom of god, promises eternal reward

The wife of Spartacus star Andy Whitfield recalls his last words

www.news.com.au

THE wife of actor Andy Whitfield has recalled the Spartacus star's final words to his kids: "I am going to go to sleep now as my body won't work any more. I am like a butterfly with broken wings."

===

Obama has listened to what people say about cutting taxes and promoting jobs. So he has decided to spend a $billion everyday until he leaves office.

Bad News for Obama From the New York Times

Here’s President Obama's dilemma: If he tries to drum up support among his progressive base, he will lose even more independents. If he tries to win the independents, his base will become even more disillusioned.

===

Democrats trying to pressure independent testimony?

Amid LightSquared Controversy, AT&T Unwraps New Network

AT&T has fired up a new wireless data network in five cities in the last few months -- while a reports indicate a planned network from LightSquared may shut down GPS signals.

===

Creative

Hacker Makes Conan the Barbarian a College Professor

The esteemed English department at Trinity College, Dublin, recently added a frightening and powerful new professor to its ranks: Conan the Barbarian.