Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Wed Jul 8th Todays News

At last you can revel in the joys of smaller government on this site for the Bolt Report Supporter's Group on Facebook. If something is broke, you fix it. Or not. There won't be any purges or changes because I've not the time to do much. But if you do something outrageous which I must respond to I will.
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UN says Israel should give Iron Dome to Gaza for their rockets which fall short. There is no excuse for such a demand. It diminishes the cost to Israel of facing such attacks endorsed by the UN. 

 Shorten before royal commission faces questions early which he must answer. His defence is compelling and difficult to get past. He forgot. He forgot to inform the ALP of forty thousand dollars in donations to his election campaign eight years ago. He did declare it a few days ago. What would Barry O'Farrell do? He has a deputy campaign organiser who is female whom he refuses to name. The alternative PM doesn't want the pubic to know whom it is they have employed. Or maybe he forgot? And then he forgot members of his union which he brought on board in 1997, and which in 2010 he authorised their anonymous membership paid for by their business which traded union fees for worse conditions for members. 

 Tennis player Nick Kyrgios gets in spat with sporting legend Dawn Fraser. Fraser correctly said his behaviour on court was unacceptable. The 19 year old has said the criticism is racist. Nick has Tamil ancestry and his parents are from Greece and Malaysia. He should be proud of his heritage. His talent means nothing if he can't behave himself on court. Maybe he should resign from tennis. 

 Ray Martin and the ABC inquiry are travelling along, not paying attention to those paying the bill. Or the ABC charter. Ray should step aside, because he has prejudged the situation and shown himself to be partisan. 

 In 1099, First Crusade: Fifteen thousand starving Christian soldiers marched in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders looked on. 1283, War of the Sicilian Vespers: Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese fleet defeated an Angevin fleet sent to put down a rebellion on Malta in the Battle of Malta. 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail on the first direct European voyage to India. 1579, Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, was discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.

 In 1663, Charles II of England granted John Clarke a Royal charter to Rhode Island. 1709, Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava: Peter I of Russia defeated Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava thus effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe. 1716, Great Northern War: The naval Battle of Dynekilen took place. 1730, an estimated magnitude 8.7 earthquake caused a tsunami that damaged more than 1,000 km (620 mi) of Chile's coastline. 1758, French forces held Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York. 1760, French and Indian War: Battle of Restigouche: British forces defeated French forces in last naval battle in New France. 1775, the Olive Branch Petition was signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies of North America.

 In 1808, Joseph Bonaparte approved the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain. 1822, Chippewas turned over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom. 1853, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo bay with a treaty requesting trade. 1859, King Charles XV & IV accedeed to the throne of Sweden–Norway. 1864, Ikedaya Incident: The Choshu Han shishi's planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya. 1874, The Mounties began their March West. 1876, White supremacists killed five Black Republicans in Hamburg, South Carolina. 1879, Sailing ship USS Jeannette departed San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole. 1889, the first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published. 1892, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada was devastated in the Great Fire of 1892. 1898, the death of crime boss Soapy Smith, killed in the Shootout on Juneau Wharf, released Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.

 In 1912, Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro led an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves. 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22. 1933, the first rugby union test match between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa was played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town. 1937, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan signed the Treaty of Saadabad. 1947, Reports were broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident. 1948, the United States Air Force accepted its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

 In 1960, Francis Gary Powers was charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union. 1962, Ne Win besieged and dynamited the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement. 1966, King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi was deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi. 1968, the Chrysler wildcat strike began in Detroit, Michigan. 1970, Richard Nixon delivered a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. 1982, assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Dujail. 1994, Kim Jong-il began to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung. 2011, Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program. 2014, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza amidst rising tensions following the killing of Israeli teenagers.
2014
The terrible, murderous, exploitative people smuggling trade has many victims and few upsides. It was wrong of the ALP to promote it and remove the effective policy of Mr Howard, known as the Pacific Solution. It is to Mr Abbott's credit that the new policy has been as effective as it has. The High Court may be acting correct in law in their current action, but if it derails effective policy and promotes more death, it is damning of those who  promote the lie that it is ok for people smugglers to exploit poor desperate people and drown them. 

Not all of those being exploited by people smugglers are poor and desperate. Some are craven, stupid and evil too. One Iranian, who came to Australia by boat in 2010, was in his early thirties, and so desperate to migrate he destroyed his identity papers in the customary way, and stayed on a protection visa. He found a girl who dumped him for another. Yesterday, he approached the chosen guy in a mall, argued with him over a cosmetics counter in a shopping mall full during a school holiday. He had bought a machete from a local shop, and knifed the rival with it about four times in the chest, leaving the knife there as his victim died. He then lit a cigarette and waited for the police. He taunted the police as they arrested him. The penalty for murder in Iran is death. So, clearly, he must be fleeing those who want to kill him. 

The thing about education and training is that there is a feeling that the wheel needs to be reinvented, instead of applied. The slightest change in curriculum results in people throwing up their hands screaming "It can't be done." But when it is done right, a new curriculum can be invigorating and inspiring. There was a need for change, and a naval officer who had fought in the war of 1812 and the Mexican American wars addressed it. Mathew Perry was a commodore in charge of many ships on this day in 1853, where in Edo Bay he signed an agreement in Japan. Perry had instituted a naval academy for the US. The partnership with Japan transformed Japan, and in fifty years, Japan would beat a Russian force in battle. And within a hundred years, Japan would threaten world domination through her naval force. 

It didn't happen when Rudd was elected, although he tried. The worst day in Dow Jones average history was today in 1932, with the market indicator reaching its lowest point. The New York governor would apply his full opportunistic presence to be President less than a year later, and exploit the loss and extend the depression through poor policy. In 1933, the first Rugby test between Wallabies and Springboks occurred. In 1947, a weather balloon crashed at Roswell. A Burmese socialist leader, Ne Win, attacked Rangoon University in 1962. Today is the birthday of Zeppelin (1838), Binet (1857) and Bacon (1958). 
Historical perspectives on this day
In 1099, First Crusade: Fifteen thousand starving Christian soldiers marched in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders looked on. 1283, War of the Sicilian Vespers: Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese fleet defeated an Angevin fleet sent to put down a rebellion on Malta in the Battle of Malta. 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail on the first direct European voyage to India. 1579, Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, was discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.

 In 1663, Charles II of England granted John Clarke a Royal charter to Rhode Island. 1709, Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava: Peter I of Russia defeated Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava thus effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe. 1716, Great Northern War: The naval Battle of Dynekilen took place. 1730, an estimated magnitude 8.7 earthquake caused a tsunami that damaged more than 1,000 km (620 mi) of Chile's coastline. 1758, French forces held Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York. 1760, French and Indian War: Battle of Restigouche: British forces defeated French forces in last naval battle in New France. 1775, the Olive Branch Petition was signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies of North America.

 In 1808, Joseph Bonaparte approved the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain. 1822, Chippewas turned over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom. 1853, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo bay with a treaty requesting trade. 1859, King Charles XV & IV accedeed to the throne of Sweden–Norway. 1864, Ikedaya Incident: The Choshu Han shishi's planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya. 1874, The Mounties began their March West. 1876, White supremacists killed five Black Republicans in Hamburg, South Carolina. 1879, Sailing ship USS Jeannette departed San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole. 1889, the first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published. 1892, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada was devastated in the Great Fire of 1892. 1898, the death of crime boss Soapy Smith, killed in the Shootout on Juneau Wharf, released Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.

 In 1912, Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro led an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves. 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22. 1933, the first rugby union test match between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa was played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town. 1937, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan signed the Treaty of Saadabad. 1947, Reports were broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident. 1948, the United States Air Force accepted its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

 In 1960, Francis Gary Powers was charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union. 1962, Ne Win besieged and dynamited the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement. 1966, King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi was deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi. 1968, the Chrysler wildcat strike began in Detroit, Michigan. 1970, Richard Nixon delivered a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. 1982, assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Dujail. 1994, Kim Jong-il began to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung. 2011, Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program. 2014, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza amidst rising tensions following the killing of Israeli teenagers.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more. 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR
Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Joshua Park Praest and Gaetano Mastrangelo. Born on the same day, across the years. A day in which, in 1758, French and Indian War: French forces defeated the British at Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the British Colony of New York. 1808, Joseph Bonaparte approved the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as King of Spain during the Peninsular War. 1898, American con artist and gangster Soapy Smith (pictured) was killed in Skagway, Alaska, when an argument with fellow gang members turned into an unexpected gunfight. 1994, Upon the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il became the Supreme Leader of North Korea. 2011, Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched in STS-135, the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program. Everything that has happened had a beginning and an end. Your rule is benevolent, but even so, you must take care of those sudden, erupting gunfights.
Deaths
Joseph Bonaparte
Red is my favourite colour. Sweden forever! Statute is second to a good army. Weather balloons are alien. Remember Atlantis. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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BILL SHORTEN’S MYSTERY WOMAN

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 08, 2015 (6:23pm)

What sort of politician has secret campaign staff? 
There was a bizarre moment when Mr Shorten asked that the name of his second campaign worker be kept secret.
Mr Shorten wrote down the name of the woman on a piece of paper which was then handed to the Commissioner, former High Court judge Dyson Heydon.
Mr Shorten: “Sometimes being mentioned in the commission even in passing can embarrass people even when they’re perfectly innocent.”
Mr Stoljar: “I’ll merely refer to this person as the mystery person for now. You had a mystery person working in your office.”
When Mr Shorten said he was uncomfortable with this description, Mr Stoljar answered: “What pseudonym do you want me to use Mr Shorten?”
Mr Shorten: “The second campaign worker.” 
As John Lyons asks: “How can Mr Shorten – the alternative Prime Minister – expect that the identity of his deputy campaign director be kept secret?”
Hmmm. Maybe it’s a frightbat. 
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MASSIVE AUDIENCE ALL MINE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 08, 2015 (2:57pm)

A note from Elle Hardy, lately romping through Central Asia: 
Your blog is accessible in Turkmenistan, ranked only ahead of North Korea in world press freedom, but Bolt’s is blocked along with most other News sites. 
Greetings to Merv.
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BILL OVERDUE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 08, 2015 (1:07pm)

An interesting moment during Bill Shorten’s appearance at the unions royal commission: 
11.33am: Mr Shorten and his lawyers had notice of what was coming, which precipitated the last minute filing this week of AEC documents. Mr Shorten told the Commission he sought legal advice and decided to file the returns “once I’d seen all the Royal Commission documents”.
11.32am: Mr Stoljar told the commission the total amount paid by Unibilt came to $40,000 with a further $12,000 written off by the AWU. Things aren’t looking any better for Shorten, who concedes the “donation” – $40,000-odd that Unibilt supplied to the AWU to acquire Lance Wilson’s services – was declared to the AEC only days ago. 
This revelation relates to Shorten’s 2007 federal election campaign. Here’s the Labor leader’s signature on a 2008 AEC declaration:

image
image
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ANYONE FOR DESSERT? NO?

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 08, 2015 (12:59pm)

A post-fast meal in Islamic State-held Mosul turns deadly: 
According to Saeed Mamozeny, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party, 145 ISIS fighters took part in the iftar meal, the traditional evening meal when Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset. Shortly afterwards, 45 members were reported dead. The spokesman also said that they have not determined if the cause was food poisoning or deliberate poisoning. 
Should’ve stuck with McDonald’s.
(Via Adam I.)
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TALES FROM THE CRYPT

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 08, 2015 (12:48pm)

Reader Andrew R. discovers hidden treasure following ceiling repairs in North Carlton:

image

Those magazines date from 1937, but their message is timeless: nothing ruins the mood on a first date quite like a zombie mummy.
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Shorten at the royal commission - #2 - the Cleanevent donation

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (12:36pm)

The royal commission now turns to the 2006 deal with Cleanevent, approved by Bill Shorten as national secretary.
Cleanevent also gave the AWU Victorian branch up to $25,000 a year after the union traded off higher wages and casuals’ penalty rates, saving the company about $2 million.
Counsel assisting the commission asks Shorten about an email he was copied in on that was sent by AWU negotiator John-Paul Blandthorn to Ivan Dalla Costa from Cleanevent on October 20 2006 which noted: “I have spoken to the hierarchy of the AWU and they can’t afford to trade core award conditions at the moment, because we can’t afford other unions attacking us.”
Counsel: “Did you say that to Blandthorn?”
Shorten: “No, I wouldn’t have put it that way and I wouldn’t have thought that either.”
Shorten was the organiser responsible for Cleanevent from 1996. Says he does not know of Cleanevent workers were given forms allowing them to opt out of union membership.
UPDATE
Shorten says he was only aware in very recent times of the 2010 side-deal under which Cleanevent paid $25,000 a year to the union. Says had no discussions of similar deals in his time. 
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Shorten at the royal commission - #1 - Shorten failed to declare big donation from bosses

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (12:15pm)

Labor leader Bill Shorten wades straight into strife at the royal commission into union corruption.
He is asked about a deal with the labor-hire company Unibuilt which had it employ an alleged “research officer”, Lance Wilson, a Young Labor campaigner who was picked by Shorten and in fact worked as manager of Shorten’s 2007 campaign to win the seat of Maribyrnong. The deal lasted from February to the election in November. Wilson then worked as Shorten’s electorate officer and then in his ministerial office.
Wilson’s services were donated to Shorten when he was national secretary of the Australian Workers Union. Meanwhile Unibuilt was negotiating a workplace deal with Shorten’s successor as Victorian AWU secretary, Cesar Melham. Shorten says he was not involved in those negotiations, even though the deal notionally covered more than one state and therefore needed Shorten’s approval as national secretary.
Shorten says once he picked Wilson he took him to meeting Unibuilt boss Ted Lockyer to employ Wilson for the benefit of Shorten. And he got the union to draw up a contract which (falsely) claimed Wilson would work as a research officer for Unibuilt.
Now, why would a boss want to donate a staffer - at $50,000 a year - for the personal advancement of a union head?
UPDATE
Shorten says a second person - who he does not want to name - worked on his election campaign and was paid for by the union. From “time to time” union officials would donate their help with letter-box drops. Another paid union official also helped at times.
Shorten denies having direct say on how the contract to hire Wilson was drawn up and dodges questions on why the contract described the job as a “research officer” for Unibuilt when he was actually a campaign director for Shorten, which Shorten concedes. “I cannot explain why the term was used.”
Shorten says he would have asked Unibuilt for the donation. Says he would not have been involved in the negotiation between the AWU Victorian branch and Unibuilt later in 2007 of an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. Says he does not recall Unibuilt asking for a favour in return. Notes the Unibuilt EBA had a 12 per cent pay rise over two and a half years.
Question: what is the national secretary of the union doing discussing a donation - an “advantage for yourself”?
Shorten arcs up: “I completely disagree with what you’ve said.”
UPDATE
Shorten concedes that Cat Sullivan, a national AWU staffer who worked on media, worked from “time to time” on Shorten’s campaign.
Shorten is taken through a list of people on the campaign - three campaign workers were AWU staffers and one was paid for by Unibuilt.
UPDATE
The Wilson arrangement was changed at some stage so that Wilson became an AWU Victorian branch employee, with the AWU invoicing Unibuilt for his wages. Shorten says Cesar Melham should asked about this change. Wilson, though, remained as Shorten’s campaign director.
Unibuilt later went broke. There is also a Unibilt, the same owner, which negotiated the EBA with the Victorian AWU.
UPDATE
Shorten denies that taking a donation from Unibuilt weakened the negotiating position of the AWU when it was negotiating a new EBA. The deal was good, he insists. “I don’t think there is any evidence this was a bad agreement.”
UPDATE
By September Shorten says he was campaigning “pretty much full time” for the election. As the AWU national secretary?
UPDATE
Unibuilt did not pay the AWU’s last invoice for $12,700 for Shorten’s campaign director. Shorten assumes the AWU wore it. “The AWU was very supportive ... of my campaign.”
UPDATE
Counsel assisting the commission, Jeremy Stoljar, adds up the donation from Unibuilt for his campaign director was about $40,000 (plus the $12,700 worn by the AWU when Unibuilt did not pay). Did he declare this donation to the Australian Electoral Commission?
Shorten says this has been brought to his attention “in the last few days”. The donation is missing from his signed declaration at the time. “There was an incomplete form sent to the ALP office.... and we have now updated it… within the last 144 hours.”
Ouch - Shorten is hurt:
Counsel: “Your proposition as I understand it, from your evidence this morning is that the $40,000-odd that Unibilt supplied to acquire Lance Wilson’s services was some form of donation. Did you declare that to the AEC, for example?”
Shorten: “Well, it’s come to my attention that the declaration hasn’t been made until very recently.”
Counsel: “Well, when you say very recently, what do you mean by that?”
Shorten: “In the last few days.”
UPDATE
In fact, Shorten asked Labor only on Monday to amend the return to the Australian Electoral Commission to include the Unibuilt donation for his campaign manager, plus another $12,000 from the AWU for a campaign worker.
UPDATE
Another tricky moment for Shorten. He admits he knew for “many months” that he had failed to declare the donation of Wilson’s salary. He says he did not declare then but waited until he received the full information from group certificates and other information before sending a letter to Labor asking it to correct his declaration.
The counsel assisting asks if it was a coincidence that Shorten sent his letter to Labor only on the day that evidence about this gift surfaced in the commission. Had he delayed until it was clear the royal commission had discovered this gift? Shorten denies it.
UPDATE
Shorten trying hard to distance himself from the appearance of breaking the law, saying it was common for politicians - he mentions Tony Abbott several times - to declare “nil return” when disclosing donations to the Australian Electoral Commission, while leaving it to the party to file an “omnibus” declaration for donations to all candidates. His failing was to misinform Labor, Shorten suggests (which isn’t breaking the law).
Well, that’s his argument and he’s sticking to it. 
===

What is it with unions and the law?

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (10:32am)

How many bad apples must there be in this barrel before the union movement admits it’s got a real problem?
The construction union and 21 of its representatives allegedly broke the law 822 times during an industrial campaign that shut down two Queensland building sites for a combined 97 days.
The national building watchdog wants penalties imposed on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and a host of officials over action taken on the $60 million Queensland University of Technology project and the Enoggera army barracks site in 2013.
In documents filed in the Federal Court, the Fair Work Building and Construction inspectorate claimed the union and its officers shut down the sites in a bid to force the projects’ main contractors to agree to a workplace agreement…
CFMEU representatives allegedly led workers to down tools at various times, despite a Fair Work Commission order in October 2013, preventing the CFMEU from organising industrial action at the sites…
The maximum penalties available to the court in this case are $10,200 for an individual, and $51,000 for a union per breach.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

What has race got to do with art?

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (9:41am)

Any form of art which involves having to flash your racial credentials before participating or commenting is an art that diminishes us as human beings.
That this new form of racism is state sponsored is chilling.
From the pages of the taxpayer-funded Overland magazine, this exchange:
By Leuli Eshraghi…

In March, the Shifting Gear car design exhibition opened on the ground floor of the National Gallery of Victoria’s NGV Australia space in the Ian Potter Centre, Federation Square. Since 2001, the purpose-built ground floor galleries have been home to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and ceremonial practices. After Shifting Gear opened, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection was rehung as Indigenous Art: Moving Backwards into the Future and relocated to the third floor of the building. ... a genuine cultural blow…
I would imagine the move from the ground floor spaces, to the jam-packed level three gallery is less than ideal for the NGV’s two non-Aboriginal curators of Indigenous art. But it is also unacceptable for the NGV to move the works and gallery spaces without observing cultural protocols and adhering to the wishes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples…
There are more changes ahead for Federation Square. Victorian Aboriginal organisation the Koorie Heritage Trust opens its feted new premises there today. The new KHT spaces at Federation Square represent a dream realised, but only if Aboriginal curators and artists come to visibility. Where is the Aboriginal voice in exhibitions at the NGV and KHT when no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander curator is in a leadership or supporting curatorial role at either the largest public art museum or the community-run organisation?…

Decolonisation in the Australian context can be defined as the end of intersecting forms of colonial oppression such as patriarchy, heterosexism, capitalism, and race-based hierarchy. Genuine Indigenous presence and agency at the centre of our public institutions will be transformative....
Without Indigenous curators who articulate uniquely Indigenous perspectives, both the NGV and KHT are symptomatic of the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander presence and agency more broadly.
Credentials flashed:

Léuli Eshraghi is a Narrm Melbourne-based artist, curator and PhD candidate at MADA. His practice is centred on indigeneity, language, body sovereignty, and queer possibility. Léuli holds qualifications in Indigenous Arts Management and Cultural Studies.
Then this reply, with flashing of racial credentials:
From Tom Mosby…
I wish to correct a very important error, which I will assume is unintentional, in this article by Leuli Eshraghi’s. I am the CEO of the Koorie Heritage Trust and working with the Trust’s Board of Management, led the Trust in its relocation from the fringes of Melbourne CBD at King Street to a central meeting place for all peoples here at Federation Square.
Giving Mr Eshraghi the benefit of the doubt, but he may not have known that I am in fact an Indigenous Australian from the Torres Strait, a proud descendent of Central and Eastern Islanders (Iama, Meriam and Erub with extended family connections to nearly all of the island of the Torres Strait). Co-incidentally, acknowledging the Pacific ancestry of Mr Ashraghi [sic] (admittedly an assumption on my part), I also trace my family tree to the Pacific islands of New Caledonia (Lifu) and Rotuma…
As an Indigenous person with over 20 years in art curatorial and museum management experience and practice nationally and internationally, and working with my exhibitions coordinator and manager here at the Koorie Heritage Trust, I am without doubt able to articulate and bring to my role the unique Indigenous perspective that Mr Eshraghi assumes is missing from the KHT as well as the Indigenous voice that Ms Moulton refers to and which Mr Eshraghi quotes to justify his argument.
I agree with Mr Eshraghi that our new Federation Square spaces represent a dream realised. I do not understand however what he means by “if Aboriginal curators and artists come to visibility”. As an Aboriginal arts and cultural organisation, our exhibitions program revolves around supporting and promoting Aboriginal artists particularly our Koorie artists, and this is evidence by our exhibitions program...
Mosby now asks Eshraghi to flash his own racial qualifications:

Finally, I would be very interested to hear of Mr Eshraghi’s Indigenous Australian heritage given his critique.
Racial qualifications flashed:
From Léuli Eshraghi ...
T’lofa lava Tom,
Thank you for your considered response. I wish to clarify that I am not criticising or speaking about your leadership of the Koorie Heritage Trust in this article, and fully respect your Zenadh-Kes cultural practices, career and perspective. I’m lending my voice to emphasise the long advocacy by Aboriginal elders, artists, curators and community members for Victorian Aboriginal curators to be agents of change and representation within the National Gallery of Victoria, and the present Koorie Heritage Trust. The NGV has not employed an Aboriginal or Zenadh-Kes/Torres Strait Islander Australian curator for 5 years… Where are the southeastern Australian First Peoples’ curatorial voices at the NGV and at the current KHT?…
At no point do I question Tony Ellwood’s or your cultural competency or deep understanding of First Nations cultural practices across contemporary colonial Australia. I’m simply reiterating southeastern Aboriginal communities’ calls for decolonisation of the largest collecting and exhibiting art museum in Australia…
I do not claim to be Indigenous Australian in this piece. I am Indigenous S?moan (S? Seumanutafa) and Persian (Najaf?b?di), not that my global indigeneity is relevant as I have discussed this issues for years with peers in the arts sector here, including the three curatorial leaders I reference in the article. All of my writing, art and curatorial work is situated within S?moan, Persian and neighbouring visual cultural and intellectual practices. Living as a guest in Bunjil’s country, in unceded Wurundjeri biik, the realisation of Aboriginal agency and presence in art and political institutions alike is more than important to me, it is part of the respectful customary protocols and practices of my ancestors. I look forward to further discussions about how the NGV will implement a decolonised, share future that is responsive to Aboriginal, Zenadh-Kes/Torres Strait Islander and diasporic Indigenous Moananui / Pacific communities’ stated wishes.
Ia manuia le soifua,
Léuli
A reader then flashes racial qualifications:
From Paola Balla…
I believe the NGV is negligent in its’ responsibility to the support of, promotion of & participation with a broad range of First Peoples artists within the state it represents & in de-colonising their practice in systemic, structural & cultural & social approaches… The most senior Indigenous curatorial position in the state is held by & has been held by for over what, twenty years? By Judith Ryan, who is a white woman, her identity is important in this dialogue as her continued position results in an Indigenous curator not having the opportunity to be appointed. This is not an attack on Judith, I would love to have this conversation with her, or anyone from the NGV.
Why hasn’t there been another Indigenous curator appointed since the departure of Stephan Gilchrist five years ago? Why is this acceptable? When will the changes that are being activated for in the black arts community be reflected in the NGV?…
Leuli does not need to be a Victorian Indigenous person to ask these questions, they just need to be asked. I am asking them as a Wemba Wemba & Gunditjmara woman, a Victorian Aboriginal practising artist, curator, producer, writer and educator of over 15 years experience.
How much of this is about the art? How much about power?
(Thanks to reader Patrick.) 
===

Has Ray Martin resigned yet from this farcical ABC “inquiry”?

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (9:05am)

Ray Martin, asked by the ABC to review Q&A’s bias, has a bias towards forgiving what he’s yet to check:

We’re looking back at the last 22 programmes. I would like to see what happened last year, as well – the year before, rather, when there was a Labor Government. I suspect Tony Jones was just as tough on the Labor Government as he has been on the Coalition right now.
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill:

Martin might find the 1 July 2013 episode of Q&A;instructive: not sure if five Leftists - including Jones - ganging up on one conservative following Rudd’s resurrection qualifies as being particularly ‘tough on Labor’.
Liberal Senator James McGrath is right, of course:

McGrath has accused veteran reporter Ray Martin of bias in favour of the ABC and called on him to quit his role investigating Q&A…
His comments came after Martin described a boycott of Q&A by ministers as “silly” and suggested the Government was attacking the program as part of a focus on terrorism.
Senator McGrath said Martin was “clearly biased” and called on him to “stand aside from the review”.
“He is supposed to be conducting an independent review into the last 22 episodes of Q&A. Well, following his comments today, he is anything but independent. He is an apologist for Q&A, rather than a reviewer of Q&A.”
What a joke:
An ABC spokesman said Martin was chosen to conduct the audit because “he is independent and the public perceive him to be”. 
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Turnbull dials down the urgency of Abbott and Bishop

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (8:53am)

Malcolm Turnbull decides to strike a discordant tone to what’s been said before.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop:
Over the past two years we have seen the emergence of a terrorist organisation backed by an ideology the likes of which we have not seen since World War II.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott:
This illustrates yet again that as far as the Daesh death cult is concerned, it’s coming after us. We may not always feel that we are at war with them, but they certainly think that they are at war with us.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull:
Now, just as it’s important not to underestimate or be complacent about the national security threat from Daesh, it is equally important not to overestimate that threat.... Daesh is not Hitler’s Germany, Tojo’s Japan or Stalin’s Russia. Its leaders dream that they, like the Arab armies of the seventh and eighth century, will sweep across Middle East into Europe itself. They predict that before long they will be stabling their horses in the Vatican. Well, Idi Amin wasn’t the king of Scotland either. We should be careful not to say or do things which can be seen to add credibility to these delusions.
Mind you, while the tone Turnbull strikes is different, in what way do his words actually contradict Abbott or Bishop’s?
Yet it’s very odd that Turnbull feels it useful to create this distraction outside his portfolio. 
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Obama’s war is going so well he suggests we fight harder

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (8:46am)

Barack Obama says the war against the Islamic State is going pretty well:
Altogether, ISIL has lost more than a quarter of the populated areas that it had seized in Iraq. In Syria, ISIL lost at Kobani.... In short, ISIL’s recent losses in both Syria and Iraq prove that ISIL can and will be defeated.

In fact, it’s going so damn well that we have to fight even harder than first thought - Australia, too:
Indeed, we’re intensifying our efforts against ISIL’s base in Syria… This continues to be a challenge, and, working together, all our nations are going to need to do more...
And Obama has finally dropped that nothing-to-do-with-Islam patter, and is sounding an awful lot like Tony Abbott now - the Abbott attacked by the media Left:
But around the world, we’re also going to insist on partnering with Muslim communities as they seek security, prosperity and the dignity that they deserve. And we’re going to expect those communities to step up in terms of pushing back as hard as they can, in conjunction with other people of goodwill, against these hateful ideologies in order to discredit them more effectively, particularly when it comes to what we’re teaching young people. And this larger battle for hearts and minds is going to be a generational struggle ...  It’s going to be up to Muslim communities, including scholars and clerics, to keep rejecting warped interpretations of Islam, and to protect their sons and daughters from recruitment.
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The great reform of the Abbott Government has stalled

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (7:51am)

Paul Kelly says the Abbott Government is reverting to old and bad habits - and I agree with many of his points:
Abbott is not engaging with the public or much of the media. On issue after issue he has positions but does not make arguments. It is a sign of weakness and a sign of his difference with John Howard. It is the reason his apparent unilaterally imposed boycott of the ABC’s Q&A program is a dangerous omen.
It makes no sense. It is arrogant. It treats his ministers as children…
This is relevant because the outstanding feature of the government is its feeble effort to offer persuasive arguments for its positions…
The government wants tax reform yet lacks any effective argument for this stance. It believes in industrial relations reform yet seems intimidated about venturing into this area.
Abbott is passionate about an indigenous recognition referendum yet his absence from the debate has seen the agenda completely hijacked in a way that is unacceptable to the Coalition.
The Liberal Party has a policy of opposition to same-sex marriage yet seems struck dumb on mounting a tenable case…
Politics is about persuasion. A government that cannot persuade lives on borrowed time. Abbott is good at taking popular positions but this does not equate with persuasion…
Abbott needs to beware becoming too dependent on national security issues. His rhetoric, notably that Islamic State is “coming after us”, invites cynicism from a suspicious yet legitimately worried public.
Abbott is successful in looking more authoritative. Big tick. But he is starting to look as aloof as ever.
And what happened to the much-promised addition of Tony Nutt to the team - either the Prime Minister’s staff or the Liberal HQ? Have I been misled? 
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The Berlin Wall fell faster than Labor’s platform

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (7:37am)

Nearly 26 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Labor debates changing its own professed ideology to match:
NSW Labor leader Luke Foley has urged the party to abolish its historic commitment to socialism and its attachment to state ownership and embrace competitive markets alongside individual freedom and opportunity, and will move this formally at the party’s national conference.
It says something about the Labor membership that this should still be controversial. And it is a warning against giving members much more say in the party. 
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What’s this deal, then, Bill?

Andrew Bolt July 08 2015 (7:34am)

This will be hard to explain:

The royal commission into union corruption has been contacting key executives connected to ­controversial cleaning company Cleanevent to give evidence ahead of today’s appearance of Bill ­Shorten.
The Australian can also reveal that the reduction of employee conditions under a 1998 enterprise agreement signed by Mr Shorten’s AWU Victoria and Cleanevent cost 5000-odd workers as much as $400 million, substantially more than previously thought.
The royal commission has in recent weeks contacted former Cleanevent senior executive Steve Hunter to provide evidence, following reports in The Australian detailing serious concerns he had about the relationship between the union and the cleaning group.
Mr Hunter has said the 1998 sweetheart enterprise bargaining agreement left workers far worse off and had been denied to Cleanevent’s rivals, placing them at a disadvantage. He said AWU ­Victoria had good reason to be friendly with Cleanevent, given Cleanevent ... staff were automatically signed up as AWU members on employment, unless they actively ticked a box to opt out. That arrangement meant “up to 90 per cent” of Cleanevent’s workers were union members at the time…
Mr Hunter became particularly aggrieved with the sweetheart Cleanevent deal after leaving the firm in 2003 .... Mr Hunter set up his own cleaning business at that time but despite several years of negotiations, AWU Victoria refused to provide his company an enterprise bargaining agreement similar to Cleanevent’s. 
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Posted by Filomena Cautela on Sunday, 5 July 2015

The Brick with Eyes
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14-time best seller Claire Cook shares 4 positive ways self-publishing changed her career: http://bit.ly/1CmNcKA
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

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Why are the Arab countries not progressing like European countries? Kuwaiti Imam
Posted by Takmeel-e-Pakistan on Friday, 14 November 2014

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Siblings = love-hate relationship.
Posted by Mumbership on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

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Write the next 2 sentences that come after this: It didn’t take long to realize that when she went missing, I was going to be suspect number one.
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

DRACONIAN MEASURES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 08, 2014 (4:12pm)

An accused murderer emerges from our peaceful refugee community: 
The girlfriend of an Iranian refugee accused of murdering another man in front of hundreds of shoppers at Westfield Parramatta sobbed uncontrollably as her partner appeared in court over the killing.

image

Kazem Mohammadi Payam, 35, who came to Australia after being granted a protection visa in 2010, appeared before Parramatta Local Court today. 
Meanwhile, the New York Times gets all bossy with us: 
Australia is pursuing draconian measures to deter people without visas from entering the country by boat. In doing so, it is failing in its obligation under international accords to protect refugees fleeing persecution …
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said recently that “something strange happens” in the minds of Australians when it comes to asylum seekers who arrive by boat without a visa. 
This is absurdly disingenuous. Economic opportunists commonly discard their visas in order to make background checks more difficult, thereby improving their chances of gaining residency as genuine refugees. It isn’t strange at all that Australians reject this. Does the New York Times allow unknown and unidentified strangers to enter its building and stroll around on its editorial floors? If someone attempted to do so, would “something strange” happen, such as security or police throwing the intruder out? 
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HELLO CALIPHATE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 08, 2014 (2:54pm)

Middle East correspondent David Kenner reports:

image
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Sri Lankan “asylum seekers” confess

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (5:56pm)

The Sri Lankan “asylum seekers” sent back this week tell a Fairfax reporter of their terrible mistreatment by the Abbott regime:

One of the asylum seekers, Anthony Fernando, 38, told Fairfax Media that he had had been “mistreated” by Australian authorities and given food that was past its expiry date.

Such cruelty.  This is a job for our High Court.
And then the people the Greens claim fleeing persecution confess:
Anthony Fernando, 38, told Fairfax Media .... “I went [to] Australia to find employment and then settle and bring my wife and family… 
Another man, Punchi Banda Podinilame, said he had one son, two sons-in-law and seven other relatives on the boat.
He said they had all gone to Australia to find employment. 
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Bruce Wilson wins court battle over documents. But only for now

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (11:31am)

Bruce Wilson has a court win - for now:
A Supreme Court judge has upheld an appeal by former union official Bruce Wilson - Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend - against a magistrate’s decision to allow Victorian fraud squad detectives access to hundreds of documents over an alleged union slush fund. 
Justice Terry Forrest on Tuesday agreed to set aside a ruling handed down by Chief Magistrate Peter Lauritsen in December that Victoria Police could inspect 363 documents seized under warrant on May 13 last year from the law firm Slater & Gordon.
Justice Forrest ordered the case be sent back to the magistrates’ court to be re-heard by Mr Lauritsen…
The notice of appeal documents filed with the Supreme Court claimed questions of law in dispute included whether Mr Lauritsen erred by admitting into evidence three statements from [former Wilson bagman Ralph] Blewitt made on November 23, 2012, and if the magistrate mistakenly relied for his reasons on the transcript of an interview between Mr Wilson and the ABC’s 7.30 Report.
Mr Blewitt ...  has admitted involvement in an alleged union fraud… In the ABC interview, Mr Wilson admitted the association’s purpose was to fund election campaigns and that he had used some of the money to buy the Fitzroy house in 1993.
Justice Forrest said on Tuesday the magistrate had erred when he decided not to call Mr Blewitt to give evidence because it would involve undue expense and delay.
The judge said Mr Blewitt’s statements tendered to the court were hearsay and should not have been admitted. The magistrate however did not err when he admitted the ABC interview into evidence, the judge ruled.
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The (mis)reporting of Peter Hannam

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (8:47am)

Peter Hannam, Environment Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, is once again in full alarmist mode: 

Tony Abbott’s plan to axe the carbon price this week has come in for some withering criticism from his own side of politics, with a former head of the UK’s Conservative Party declaring it to be an “appalling” move that “recklessly” endangers the future. 
Lord Deben, who served in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet and is now chairman of the independent UK Committee on Climate Change, said the Abbott government “appears to be more concerned with advancing its own short-term political interests” than dealing with global warming.
Wow. Lord Deben said that? Er, who the hell is he? A global warming scientist? A leading intellect? Or just some bloke who shares Hannam’s brand of catastrophism?
Turns out Lord Deben is a green carpet-bagger, making a living from global warming and green business - not that Hannam mentions that: 

Chairman, Sancroft International Ltd (consultants in corporate responsibility and environmental, social, ethical and planning issues; payments made for certain work done by the Member in category 2 are made to Sancroft International Ltd)… 
Chairman, Association of Professional Financial Advisers (formerly Association of Independent Financial Advisers)…
Chairman, Climate Change Committee
Chairman, Vision 2020 (informal group considering food waste, reduction and recycling)
Chairman, Advisory Board, 2 Degrees (aids sustainable efficiency and growth for members and corporations by enabling fully-linked collaboration (on and offline))

Then Hannam adds this: 

As UK prime minister, Mrs Thatcher was one of the first global leaders to identify climate change as a threat. 
She told a 1988 meeting of the Royal Society the increase of greenhouse gases had led some “to fear that we are creating a global heat trap which could lead to climatic instability. We are told that a warming effect of 1 degree per decade would greatly exceed the capacity of our natural habitat to cope”.
What Hannam fails to add is that Thatcher later saw the light:
It is not widely appreciated, however, that there was a dramatic twist to her story. In 2003, towards the end of her last book, Statecraft, in a passage headed “Hot Air and Global Warming”, she issued what amounts to an almost complete recantation of her earlier views. 
She voiced precisely the fundamental doubts about the warming scare that have since become familiar to us. Pouring scorn on the “doomsters”, she questioned the main scientific assumptions used to drive the scare, from the conviction that the chief force shaping world climate is CO2, rather than natural factors such as solar activity, to exaggerated claims about rising sea levels. She mocked Al Gore and the futility of “costly and economically damaging” schemes to reduce CO2 emissions. She cited the 2.5C rise in temperatures during the Medieval Warm Period as having had almost entirely beneficial effects. She pointed out that the dangers of a world getting colder are far worse than those of a CO2-enriched world growing warmer. She recognised how distortions of the science had been used to mask an anti-capitalist, Left-wing political agenda which posed a serious threat to the progress and prosperity of mankind. In other words, long before it became fashionable, Lady Thatcher was converted to the view of those who, on both scientific and political grounds, are profoundly sceptical of the climate change ideology. 
Hannam’s omissions make his article deceptive. This is not reporting but propagandising. 
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Another evening of the ABC preaching Leftist politics

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (7:53am)

Record sea ice around Antarctica this year:

image
As for ice on Antarctica itself, even if you believe the calculations of the warmist US National Climate Assessment the loss is actually minimal:

Antarctica is losing about 0.0045% of its ice per decade—about 4.5/10,000ths of a percent per year. 
But here is how the ABC’s Lateline last night reported on Antarctica, omitting both the above critical facts: 

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: There’s more research tonight pointing to dramatic changes underway in Antarctica. Australian researchers have identified how warm water is increasingly pushing out cold water around the white continent, prompting more ice to melt and further sea level rises.  
Reader Lachie spent last night watching an ABC entirely captured by the Left:

It started with The Drum full of glee at Palmer blocking $8 Billion of savings of the budget and had refugee advocate Allan on arguing how Australia was in all manner of human rights breaches over the Tamil return, ably assisted by the host.
The news was full of the same, making the Abbott Government look terrible and Clive Palmer look powerful. More condemnation of the Australian government over human rights abuses and the High Court decision to prevent the Sri Lankan handover. Showed Jenny Macklin demanding that they keep the schoolkids bonus.

The 7:30 programme went into full inner city latte mode with the following: 
- Sabra Lane highlighting Abbott’s difficulties and the fawning over the PUP party power in the new Senate 

- An interview with lawyer David Manne over Australia’s terrible human rights abuses of the current Sri Lankan boat people. 

- A pro-Palestinian piece focussing mostly on the dead Palestinian youth and how the Israeli settlers are occupying more land in the settlements. (Just your typical left wing bias glossing over the barbaric Palestinian behaviours.)
Four Corners then had a Steven Long piece only interviewing global warming alarmists and solar/wind carpet baggers [plus Environment Minister Greg Hunt] about how Australia was being completely left behind by not rushing out to pour even more borrowed billions to throw at renewable energy. There was no contrary viewpoint put about their inefficiency or the huge cost to power consumers.

Media Watch‘s Paul Barry had a huge whinge about the two new appointments to the panel appointing ABC board members, attacking their lack of impartiality and their inability to not be biased. The great irony is that Barry asked for impartial appointees, without observing the total Left wing bias of the whole ABC organisation.

Q&A was the usual four-against-one panel with poor Judith Sloan battling against a panel and an audience just wanting full-on spend-spend Keynesian economics and saying there was absolutely no budget emergency. The banner along the bottom was meanwhile running the headline with excited glee about the High Court stopping the refugee transfers. Q&A tonight was supposed to be only about economics but unsurprisingly a questioner still managed to ask a question about our refugee policy and whether Australians should be ashamed of our government and ridiculously likened it to late 1930s sending Jews back to Nazi Germany.
Lateline ran with glee the lead story of how the High Court has halted the Sri Lankan transfer and their guest for the evening was - surprise surprise - a refugee advocate.  The political headlines were again about Clive Palmer’s success at punching an $8 Billion hole in Tony Abbott’s budget.  Next was an global warming alarmist piece about how Antarctica is warming much quicker because they have now found warmer water is melting the ice at a much faster rate and will lead to tenths of metre rise increases over the next century (as in cm’s but it sounds much scarier said in tenths of metres). 

How the ABC can continue to serve up this blatant leftist bias whilst violating their charter constantly? They must be feeling they are under no pressure to comply. For this to just be an average night’s viewing on this public behemoth is quite scary and I hope someone in the government takes up this issue - starting with the replacement of Malcolm Turnbull who is absolutely useless on the issue.  
The ABC is out of control.  
UPDATE
The Daily Telegraph reports:
Iranian man, 35, charged with murder of man at Westfield Parramatta after allegedly plunging knife into victim over and over
Guess which detail the ABC omitted?
(Thanks to reader Peter.) 
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The CFMEU’s hands on super fund members’ tax file numbers

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (7:48am)

Would this have happened if the CFMEU weren’t linked to the super fund? Don’t the superannuation laws give enormous clout to unions, including the lawless?
THE confidential tax-file numbers of members of the major superannuation fund Cbus were emailed to union officials, potentially breaching federal taxation laws. 

The royal commission into trade union governance yesterday heard that the personal information of Cbus members was sent from fund email accounts on 68 occasions over a 16-month period… 
The commission heard that the [Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union’s] NSW secretary, Brian Parker, contacted Cbus chief executive David Atkin in July last year expressing concern that construction company Lis-Con had not paid a substantial amount in superannuation entitlements to workers. Cbus senior adviser Lisa Zanatta, who was asked to provide information to assist Mr Parker, told the commission that she informed Mr Parker the company was four months in arrears, but denied she had passed on the personal information. 
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Trust the public to punish racists

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (7:18am)

 Nick Cater on another case that shows we can punish racists without draconian laws against free speech: 

Karen ... Bailey’s crass behaviour should remind us “how virulent racism is in this country,” suggests The Sydney Morning Herald’s Sam de Brito… 
If we were to follow de Brito’s logic we would further conclude that the planet is being overrun by biped cats and dancing dogs, since these too appear on YouTube. Yet real-life experience suggests otherwise; the behaviour of most pets is wholly unremarkable.
We know too — if we can stop wringing our hands for a moment and think about it — that few people go bonkers on public transport. Fewer still are prepared to put their bigotry on display as unselfconsciously as Bailey…
The footage shows that Bailey’s fellow passengers are embarrassed. If anyone in the carriage shared her unreconstructed views they did [not] stand up to say so.
Some, however, objected strongly to her outburst. Indeed one chivalrous Caucasian makes a point of offering his seat to the woman of East Asian heritage who caught the brunt of Bailey’s abuse…
If Bailey’s behaviour were normal, no one would bother swiping on their phone camera. If her fellow passengers were indifferent to racism they wouldn’t try to interfere.
It seems perverse, therefore, that the incident should be cited by the defenders of clause 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act as an argument for heavy-handed regulation. As with the racist heckling of Adam Goodes, the Bailey incident exemplifies the self-governing society… The collective abhorrence towards her behaviour is in itself a statement that we as a society will not accept racist conduct. 
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A Senate that cannot save

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (6:09am)

We have a Greens/Labor/Palmer Senate seemingly determined to drive us broke, with another $9 billion of saving set to be rejected: 

CHRIS RICHARDSON, DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS: My guess is it’s a bridge too far for the Government, that the Government has a budget problem and it’s trying to fix it, but you’re seeing various elements of the Senate be populist, basically, say yes to spending increases, no to tax increases.
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Respect the science, insist warmists who believe in a virgin birth

Andrew Bolt July 08 2014 (5:57am)

Tim Blair:
It isn’t often that a Fairfax environment writer comes up with the funniest line of the week. Congratulations are due to Tom Arup for composing this gem: 

The Anglican Church has told the Abbott government to change its approach to climate change, urging it to respect and base its policy on scientific evidence. 
The comic power in that paragraph is equal to several kilotons of the finest plutonium. Here we have an organisation founded on belief and faith now demanding that selected scientific opinions inform government policy. These same people think they can talk to the planet’s inventor just by putting their hands together. 
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High Court stops transfer of Sri Lankans

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (8:37pm)

Boat people policy

Here we go again - more encouragement to people smugglers, with all that entails from dead bodies in the seas to billions wasted: 

The High Court has granted an interim injunction to stop more than 150 asylum seekers being returned to Sri Lanka by the Australian Navy… 
Refugee advocates seeking to protect those asylum seekers made an application to the High Court, which granted the injunction after an urgent hearing. The interim injunction will be in place until tomorrow afternoon, when the matter is set to be heard in the High Court. 
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The age of global warming is over. I refer, not to any warming of the planet that may or may not be occurring, but to the world’s apparently serious and broadly shared belief in dangerous, man-made global warming and of equally serious attempts to implement policies of enforced decarbonisation to deal with it.
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LEADING KIWI SCIENTIST THOROUGHLY DEBUNKS CLIMATE SCARE 

July 6, 2013: "GLOBAL WARMING, alias CLIMATECHANGE [the NON-EXISTENT, incredibly expensive, THREAT TO US ALL, including to our grandchildren]", by David Kear, PhD, FRSNZ, CMG, Whakatane, New Zealand. Dr. Kear is a South Pacific geologist, United Nations consultant and former Director-General of NZ Dept. of Scientific & Industrial Research, Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

"The widespread obsession with Global-Warming-Climate-Change, in opposition to all factual evidence, is quite incredible. It leads to unfair treatment of some citizens, and a massive bill for all, for nothing useful."

Read the whole document:

http://nzclimatescience.net/images/PDFs/keargw2.pdf
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 Pre-Wedding ( Fadi + Karmeen ) Nohadra - North Iraq. from Diamond Films on Vimeo.
 cultural progress. Do these people look like they would have been happier under the economic sanctions, which were an alternative to war? So poorly managed by the UN and it's notorious 'oil for food' program? There is light at the end of the tunnel. I wish this couple a happy wedding day and a wonderful life together.>
Plus it must be nicer to live in a nation where the price for a woman of being pretty is no longer facing rape by the leader or their sons .. and where a man may not be killed for being inconvenient. - ed
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LABOR’S GRUBBY LIES & HYPOCRISY EXPOSED.

Last night we had Kevin Rudd on TV claiming Australians “are sick and tired of negative politics” and “I believe people want all of us to raise the standard.” 

Meanwhile Labor are down in the gutter, sending out a postcard (authorised by Bob Carr) full of blatant lies and negative politics, asking people to sign a letter saying they “Oppose Tony Abbott’sand the Liberal’s Plan to increase the GST” - this is despite the fact that there are NO plans to increase the GST whatsoever, and rate of the GST can only be changed by agreement with the all the states.

A bit rich coming from the party that promised faithfully before the last election there would be NO carbon tax, then gave us a Carbon Tax, and have just increased the rate of the Carbon Tax, and plan to increase the Carbon Tax again it next year.

This is just further proof of the complete hypocrisy of Kevin Rudd.
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Our Lady of Kazan
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“As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.”Psalm 18:30 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Brethren, pray for us."
1 Thessalonians 5:25
This one morning in the year we reserved to refresh the reader's memory upon the subject of prayer for ministers, and we do most earnestly implore every Christian household to grant the fervent request of the text first uttered by an apostle and now repeated by us. Brethren, our work is solemnly momentous, involving weal or woe to thousands; we treat with souls for God on eternal business, and our word is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men. As officers in Christ's army, we are the especial mark of the enmity of men and devils; they watch for our halting, and labour to take us by the heels. Our sacred calling involves us in temptations from which you are exempt, above all it too often draws us away from our personal enjoyment of truth into a ministerial and official consideration of it. We meet with many knotty cases, and our wits are at a non plus; we observe very sad backslidings, and our hearts are wounded; we see millions perishing, and our spirits sink. We wish to profit you by our preaching; we desire to be blest to your children; we long to be useful both to saints and sinners; therefore, dear friends, intercede for us with our God. Miserable men are we if we miss the aid of your prayers, but happy are we if we live in your supplications. You do not look to us but to our Master for spiritual blessings, and yet how many times has He given those blessings through His ministers; ask then, again and again, that we may be the earthen vessels into which the Lord may put the treasure of the gospel. We, the whole company of missionaries, ministers, city missionaries, and students, do in the name of Jesus beseech you
"Brethren, pray for us."

Evening

"When I passed by thee, I said unto thee, Live."
Ezekiel 16:6
Saved one, consider gratefully this mandate of mercy. Note that this fiat of God is majestic. In our text, we perceive a sinner with nothing in him but sin, expecting nothing but wrath; but the eternal Lord passes by in his glory; he looks, he pauses, and he pronounces the solitary but royal word, "Live." There speaks a God. Who but he could venture thus to deal with life and dispense it with a single syllable? Again, this fiat is manifold. When he saith "Live," it includes many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is ready to be condemned, but the mighty One saith, "Live," and he rises pardoned and absolved. It is spiritual life. We knew not Jesus--our eyes could not see Christ, our ears could not hear his voice--Jehovah said "Live," and we were quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Moreover, it includes glory-life, which is the perfection of spiritual life. "I said unto thee, Live:" and that word rolls on through all the years of time till death comes, and in the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord's voice is still heard, "Live!" In the morning of the resurrection it is that self-same voice which is echoed by the arch-angel, "Live," and as holy spirits rise to heaven to be blest forever in the glory of their God, it is in the power of this same word, "Live." Note again, that it is an irresistible mandate. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A voice is heard from heaven and a light is seen above the brightness of the sun, and Saul is crying out, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" This mandate is a mandate of free grace. When sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do it to magnify his free, unpurchased, unsought grace. Christians, see your position, debtors to grace; show your gratitude by earnest, Christlike lives, and as God has bidden you live, see to it that you live in earnest.
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Andrew

[Ăn'drew] - manliness. Brother of Simon Peter, and one of the twelve apostles (Matt. 4:18; 10:2).

The Man Who was the First Missionary

Because he brought his own brother to the newly found Messiah, Andrew earned the distinction of being the first missionary of the cause of Christ (John 1:41 ). Andrew belonged to Bethsaida of Galilee - was a disciple of John the Baptist - attached himself to Christ with whom he enjoyed a special friendship (Mark 13:3; John 1:35-37). He was ever prompt to help (John 6:8, 9; 12:21, 22). After Christ's ascension, Andrew preached in Jerusalem. Tradition has it that he was crucified because of his rebuke of Aegeas for obstinate adherence to idolatry. He was nailed to a cross in the form of an X, hence the name St. Andrew's Cross. Lessons to be learned from Andrew are:
I. It is only in true discipleship that rest can be found.
II. If we cannot perform more conspicuous service we can yet serve the Lord. Although Peter was the spiritual father of the Pentecost converts, Andrew was their spiritual grandfather.
III. We must discover our own gift and the gift in others and guide such into right channels of service.
IV. If we are Christ's ours will be the passion to lead others to Him.
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Today's reading: Job 34-35, Acts 15:1-21 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Job 34-35

1 Then Elihu said:
2 "Hear my words, you wise men;
listen to me, you men of learning.
3 For the ear tests words
as the tongue tastes food.
4 Let us discern for ourselves what is right;
let us learn together what is good.
5 "Job says, 'I am innocent,
but God denies me justice.
6 Although I am right,
I am considered a liar;
although I am guiltless,
his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.'
7 Is there anyone like Job,
who drinks scorn like water?
8 He keeps company with evildoers;
he associates with the wicked.
9 For he says, 'There is no profit
in trying to please God.'

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 15:1-21

The Council at Jerusalem
1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them....
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