The Western Lines

Richard Sulik

2011-10-10T20:58:00.000+11:00

Image by Bratislavsky kraj via FlickrI may have a new hero, Richard Sulik a politician from Slovakia. He is the leader of the classical liberal Freedom and Solidarity Party and is holding up the current Euro Bailout Fund. He seems to talk common sense. Here's a few extracts from a recent interview:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Slovakia has yet to approve the expansion of the euro backstop fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), because your Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is blocking the reform. If a majority of Slovak parliamentarians don't support the EFSF expansion, it could ultimately mean the end of the common currency.

Sulik: The opposite is actually the case. The greatest threat to the euro is the bailout fund itself.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How so?

Sulik: It's an attempt to use fresh debt to solve the debt crisis. That will never work. But, for me, the main issue is protecting the money of Slovak taxpayers. We're supposed to contribute the largest share of the bailout fund measured in terms of economic strength. That's unacceptable.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That sounds almost nationalist. But, at the same time, you've had what might be considered an ideal European career. When you were 12, you came to Germany and attended school and university here. After the Cold War ended, you returned home to help build up your homeland. Do you care nothing about European solidarity?

Sulik: If we now choose to follow our own path, the solidarity of the others will also crumble. And that would be for the best. Once that happens, we would finally stop with all this debt nonsense. Continuously taking on more debts hurts the euro. Every country has to help itself. That's very easy; one just has to make it happen.

Liberals getting ready

2011-10-10T20:05:00.000+11:00

Image via WikipediaGood to see the Liberal Party of Australia is getting an early start to fighting the next election:

Federal Liberal Party fast-tracks preselections in eight key seats

Those seats include Parramatta, Greenway and Lindsay. I expect their will be a good field of potential candidates for those seats.

Also fund raising has well and truly started. Only there's nothing new about asking for small donations, Barry had a similar scheme prior to the NSW election.

Liberal Party prepares war chest for snap poll

Peter Costello on Tax and Debt

2011-10-08T16:43:00.000+11:00

Image via WikipediaI usually don't listen to Alan Jones but here is a great interview he did with Peter Costello. its so good to hear such clear common sense.

Woman in Military Combat Roles

2011-10-01T16:14:00.002+10:00

Greg Sheridan is 100% right. When I see women playing first grade Rugby in any number is when I'll believe they should be in Army combat roles. They just don't have the physical strength. Its a attempt to weaken our military.

Saying standards will be maintained and only woman who meet those standards will be accepted is nonsense. If that happens only a very small percentage will make the grade and you can bet for political reasons those standards will be lowered. Also it will be interesting to see how many women will injure themselves trying to keep up with the men.

The army is pitched at the average Australian male. The idea is in time of war you can drag an ordinary bloke out of the pub and make a solider out of him. The average woman is just not as strong as the average man. End of story.

Women have no place in combat

BY:GREG SHERIDAN, FOREIGN EDITOR

From:The Australian

September 29, 2011 12:00AM

A NATION that sends its women into front-line combat, into close infantry, hand-to-hand fighting and killing, is a nation that either doesn't take combat seriously or doesn't take respect for women seriously. This wretched decision to make all combat roles in the Australian military available to women moves Australia closer to both outcomes. It will make our military less effective, and less respected, and it will make women less respected as well.

It is a decision born of a postmodern fantasy, a kind of derangement of nature contrived by ideology against reason, common sense, military professionalism and all human experience. It is almost certainly a sign that the Gillard government has more or less stopped taking defence seriously.......

Trader from Hell

2011-09-29T22:26:00.000+10:00

This fellow has been getting lots of bad press recently, why I'm not sure. That he sees opportunities in the coming collapse is to be expected. People like Peter Schiff have been telling anyone who wants to listen the same thing for years. Traders know how to make money when the market is going up and when its going down. Personally I have been dreaming about another major crash for three years too, but my dreams have been more like nightmares. Unlike Mr Rastani I'm not a skilled trader.

Goldman Sachs and the coming collapse

2011-09-03T08:57:00.000+10:00

Interesting article, the bankers at Goldman Sachs who were bailed out by President Obama, think the US economy is going to sink like a stone . Thats despite telling the general public the opposite. They told institutional investors how to benefit from the coming collapse. They also happen to be one of President Obama's largest campaign contributors. Would be interested to know if they are contributing to any of the Republican challenger's campaigns .

By SUSAN PULLIAM And LIZ RAPPAPORT

A top Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategist has provided the firm's hedge-fund clients with a particularly gloomy economic outlook and suggestions for how these traders can take advantage of the financial crisis in Europe.

WSJ's Shira Ovide has details of a report issued by Goldman Sachs that paints a bleak picture of the global economy. Chris Hondros/Getty Images

In a 54-page report sent to hundreds of Goldman's institutional clients dated Aug. 16, Alan Brazil—a Goldman strategist who sits on the firm's trading desk—argued that as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China's growth may not be sustainable.

Desperation

2011-09-01T21:05:00.000+10:00

Image via Wikipedia

Just how desperate is Labor? They are now considering recycling former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie as a future Prime Minister. He hasn't been in politics for years and what seat would they give him? On current polls Labor would lose all but Rudd's. Perhaps they intend to Rudd with Beattie. that would be fun to see.

Publis Servants planning "Day of Chaos"

2011-08-21T19:01:00.000+10:00

They are going on strike because they will only be getting a 2.5% pay rise. Why should they have an automatic pay rise at all? I don't. Any pay rise I get depends on my performance. That's standard in the private sector. I hope Barry uses this as an opportunity to outsource as many public service jobs to the private sector as he can.

Public sector workers protest against Barry O'Farrell's controversial wages bill outside the NSW parliament. Another, much larger action is planned. Picture: Alan Pryke. Source: The Australian

NURSES, police, firefighters, teachers, bus drivers and thousands of other public servants are secretly planning a statewide "day of chaos" in protest against Barry O'Farrell.
Outraged at being depicted as "fat-cat bludgers" by the NSW government, state workers are organising the massive revolt for September 8 - two days after the O'Farrell government's first Budget.
Union leaders yesterday admitted they were plotting the strike against the state government after The Sunday Telegraph learnt of a series of secret planning meetings over the past few days among unionists and workers.
"The rally is a direct consequence of the state government's attack on public sector workers' rights, job losses and cuts to services which are all due to a fictional budget black hole which has been shown not to exist," Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon said. He predicted a massive turnout.

So angry are workers that some have told The Sunday Telegraph they would be prepared to defy any court orders against a walkout.
The industrial action against the government comes in response to new laws restricting public sector wage rises to 2.5 per cent - unless productivity savings can be demonstrated.

The laws also strip the Industrial Relations Commission of its powers by forcing it to abide by the policy and employment conditions ordered by the Finance Minister.

Barry welds the axe

2011-08-11T20:01:00.000+10:00

Image via WikipediaWell thats the story in today's Telegraph:

THOUSANDS of public servants face the axe in a slash-and-burn state budget made even tighter by the global share meltdown.

Barry O'Farrell's money men Mike Baird and Greg Pearce flagged cuts of up to 25 per cent in the Coalition government's first budget on September 6, as they grapple with drastic revenue reductions since global stocks plummeted.

But an internal war has broken out, with the National Party fighting to stop cuts in Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner's 8000-strong Department of Trade and Investment.

It is understood Primary Industries is facing cuts to its budget of up to 25 per cent, with several grants programs to be axed.

One in three jobs in NSW Health's head office - up to 400 positions - are on the chopping block in a $30 million budget pruning, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Elements of the Department of Community Services budget will be outsourced at a lower cost to the private sector and many other public service jobs are set to be contracted out.The only area to be spared the axe will be transport infrastructure, in a sign the government wants to send a message it is serious on transport.

Mr Baird would not comment on the cuts but has confirmed that property tax revenues, GST receipts and general tax receipts are being drastically revised downwards in the wake of the new global financial troubles.

Despite this, the government still intends to deliver surpluses but is having to slash and burn to do so.....

Hope its true.. I have been saying for years most Public Service administration jobs should be competitively outsourced. That's what companies do to much of their non core business such as share registry administration. Remember one of the great reforms of the Howard government was the privatisation of the old CES.

Peter Sciff and Social Security

2011-08-01T22:31:00.000+10:00

As I understand it, Mr Schiff is proposing the USA means tests the American pension scheme, Social Security. Australia has been doing that for years. How much, if any Age pension you get depends on your income and assets. I hasn't lead to poor people being thrown on the street but the opposite. it allows more money to be spent on those who need it. We also have the Superannuation Guarantee, a type of privatized pension which allows works to retire with very large sums. Schiff talks sense.

Apollo's Children

2011-07-20T21:53:00.000+10:00

I still remember.... 20 July 1969.

Gillard on the way out

2011-07-18T22:24:00.000+10:00

Image by MystifyMe Concert Photography™ via FlickrLatest polls have the Labor support down to 26% and that's after her address to the nation and tax cuts. I doubt those new ads will work people have stopped listening.

THE government has flatlined, personal support for Julia Gillard has plunged and Tony Abbott is by far the nation's favoured leader, according to the first comprehensive national poll taken since the release of the carbon price policy.

After a week of fevered campaigning by both leaders, the Herald/Nielsen poll shows Labor's primary vote has hit a new record low of 26 per cent while Mr Abbott has opened up an 11-percentage point lead on Ms Gillard as the preferred prime minister.

And despite the generous compensation package accompanying the carbon price, 53 per cent of voters feel they will be worse off
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillard-down-for-count-20110717-1hkak.html#ixzz1SYNj2aex

Peter Costello on the carbon tax

2011-07-17T17:38:00.000+10:00

Here's Peter Costello on the carbon tax. I do wish he had stayed in parliament, but he does look relaxed.

The Carbon tax CAN be repealed

2011-07-17T16:10:00.001+10:00

If Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister he will be able to repeal the CO2 tax.

Changing the education for the better

2011-07-17T10:46:00.000+10:00

How technology is changing education. Not just more laptops either but real revolutionary improvements. One thing I always hated about school was the requirement for homework. Adults can expect to end their daily work when they leave their job, not to have to take work home with them.

How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education

By Clive Thompson
July 15, 2011 |
9:17 pm |
Wired August 2011

Matthew Carpenter, age 10, has completed 642 inverse trigonometry problems at KhanAcademy.org.
Photo: Joe Pugliese

“This,” says Matthew Carpenter, “is my favorite exercise.” I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math problem the fifth grader is pondering. It’s an inverse trigonometric function: cos^-1(1) = ?
Carpenter, a serious-faced 10-year-old wearing a gray T-shirt and an impressive black digital watch, pauses for a second, fidgets, then clicks on “0 degrees.” Presto: The computer tells him that he’s correct. The software then generates another problem, followed by another, and yet another, until he’s nailed 10 in a row in just a few minutes. All told, he’s done an insane 642 inverse trig problems. “It took a while for me to get it,” he admits sheepishly.

Carpenter, who attends Santa Rita Elementary, a public school in Los Altos, California, shouldn’t be doing work anywhere near this advanced. In fact, when I visited his class this spring—in a sun-drenched room festooned with a papercraft X-wing fighter and student paintings of trees—the kids were supposed to be learning basic fractions, decimals, and percentages. As his teacher, Kami Thordarson, explains, students don’t normally tackle inverse trig until high school, and sometimes not even then.

But last November, Thordarson began using Khan Academy in her class. Khan Academy is an educational website that, as its tagline puts it, aims to let anyone “learn almost anything—for free.” Students, or anyone interested enough to surf by, can watch some 2,400 videos in which the site’s founder, Salman Khan, chattily discusses principles of math, science, and economics (with a smattering of social science topics thrown in). The videos are decidedly lo-fi, even crude: Generally seven to 14 minutes long, they consist of a voice-over by Khan describing a mathematical concept or explaining how to solve a problem while his hand-scribbled formulas and diagrams appear onscreen. Like the Wizard of Oz, Khan never steps from behind the curtain to appear in a video himself; it’s just Khan’s voice and some scrawly equations. In addition to these videos, the website offers software that generates practice problems and rewards good performance with videogame-like badges—for answering a “streak” of questions correctly, say, or mastering a series of algebra levels. (Carpenter has acquired 52 Earth badges in math, which require hours of toil to attain and at which his classmates gaze with envy and awe.)

I think she's running

2011-07-11T22:17:00.001+10:00

A while ago some commentator , think it was Kathleen Parker, called Sarah Palin a tease for not declaring if she's running or not. Well, after her recent post I think she taken the boy to her home and reached the "I'm going to slip into something more comfortable" stage.

Newsweek also have her on this week's cover and gave her positive coverage too.

I think she will answer her country's call.

Here's the Face Book post. Looks like the preamble to her campaign to me
.

The Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar; Now We Need New Leaders

by Sarah Palin on Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 8:22am

Barack Obama’s big government policies continue to fail. He should put a link to the national debt clock on his BlackBerry. The gears on that clock have nearly exploded during his administration. Yesterday’s terrible job numbers should not be a surprise because it all goes back to our debt. Our dangerously unsustainable debt is wiping out our jobs, crippling our economic growth, and jeopardizing our position in the global economy as the leader of the free world.

As a governor, I had to deal with facts, even unpleasant ones. I dealt with the world as it is, not as I wished it to be. The “elite” political class in this country with their heads in the sand had better face some unpleasant facts about the world as it is. They’ve run out of money and no amount of accounting gimmicks or happy talk will change this reality. Those of us who live in the real world could see this day coming.

Back in January 2009, as governor of Alaska, I announced: “We also have to be mindful about the effect of the stimulus package on the national debt and the future economic health of the country. We won’t achieve long-term stability if we continue borrowing massive sums from foreign countries and remain dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas.” Then I urged President Obama to veto the stimulus bill because it was loaded with absolutely useless pork and unfunded mandates. Everyone knows my early and vocal opposition to that mother of all unfunded mandates known as Obamacare starting back in August 2009, and many recall my objections to the Federal Reserves’ inflationary games with our currency known as QE2 from November 2010. It’s a matter of public record that I did not go to Harvard Law School, but I can add.

The same “experts” who got us into this mess are now telling us that the only way out of our debt crisis is to “increase revenue,” but not by creating more jobs and therefore a larger tax base; no, they want to “increase revenue” by raising taxes on job creators who are taxed enough already! As Margaret Thatcher said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That’s where we are now. Hard working taxpayers have been big government’s Sugar Daddy for far too long, and now we’re out of sugar. We don’t want big government, we can’t afford it, and we are unwilling to pay for it.

This debt ceiling debate is the perfect time to do what must be done. We must cut. Yes, I’m for a balanced budget amendment and for enforceable spending caps. But first and foremost we must cut spending, not “strike a deal” that allows politicians to raise more debt! See, Washington is addicted to OPM – Other People’s Money. And like any junkie, they will lie, steal, and cheat to fund their addiction. We must cut them off and cut government down to size.

To paraphrase Hemingway, people go broke slowly and then all at once. We’ve been slowly going broke for years, but now it’s happening all at once as the world’s capital markets are demanding action from us, yet Obama assumes we'll just go borrow another cup of sugar from some increasingly impatient neighbor. We cannot knock on anyone’s door anymore. And we don’t have any time to wait for Washington to start behaving responsibly. We’ll be Greece before these D.C. politicians’ false promises are over. We must force government to live within its means, just as every business and household does.

We can’t close our $1.5 trillion deficit overnight, but we must get as close as we can as soon as we can. Little nibbles here and there over 10 years (spun to sound like they’re huge budget cuts) aren’t anywhere near enough. I know from experience that cutting government spending isn’t easy. As governor, I made the largest veto cuts in my state’s history, and I didn’t make many friends doing it. But we will never recover, we will never get free of devastating debt, unless we make tough choices now. We don’t hear talk like this from leaders in D.C. or from those running for office because they say what they think we want to hear rather than what must be said.

We are in desperate need of real leadership, but President Obama’s solution to everything is to grow government by borrowing more money, spending more money, printing more money, and taxing our job creators. He once said that he “believes in American Exceptionalism…just as the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism.” Well, the path he has us on will make us just as “exceptional” as Greece – debt crisis, stagnation, permanent high unemployment, and all.

As we approach 2012, there are important lessons we can learn from all of this. First, we should never entrust the White House to a far-left ideologue who has no appreciation or even understanding of the free market and limited government principles that made this country economically strong. Second, the office of the presidency is too important for on-the-job training. It requires a strong chief executive who has been entrusted with real authority in the past and has achieved a proven track record of positive measurable accomplishments. Leaders are expected to give good speeches, but leadership is so much more than oratory. Real leadership requires deeds even more than words. It means taking on the problems no one else wants to tackle. It means providing vision and guidance, inspiring people to action, bringing everyone to the table, and with a servant's heart dedicating oneself to striking agreements that keep faith with our Constitution and with the ordinary citizens who entrusted you with power. It means bucking the status quo, fighting the corrupt powers that be, serving the common good, and leaving the country better than you found it. Most of us don’t see a lot of that real leadership in D.C., and it’s profoundly disappointing.

But let me tell you where real hope lies. It’s not the hopey-changey stuff we heard about in 2008. Real hope comes from realizing how God has blessed our exceptional nation, and then doing something about it. We have been blessed with natural resources, hardworking entrepreneurs, and a Constitution that preserves the greatest form of government ever devised by man. If we develop those natural resources, allow our entrepreneurs to keep and invest more of what they earn, and adhere to the time-tested truths of our Constitution, we will prosper and endure.

But first and foremost we must tackle our debt. We don’t have the luxury of playing politics as usual. We need real leaders who will put aside their own political self-interest to do what is right for the nation. And if they don’t emerge… well, America has a do-over in November 2012.

- Sarah Palin

Sinclair Davidson on the Carbon Tax

2011-07-11T21:53:00.000+10:00

A policy failure on three fronts ... and counting

Sinclair Davidson

The details of the Government's carbon tax have been released. Now the debate will move onto dissection of the gory details. For all the talk about compensation and the like, the Government has left itself very little wiggle room.
We're told, on average, that household costs will increase by $9.90 per week and average compensation will be $10.10 per week. That's 20 cents before average households will be worse off as a consequence of the tax.
When evaluating policy, there are three important questions to consider. Will the policy work? Will there be perverse outcomes? Will it benefit consumers? All up the carbon tax fails all three tests.

The policy objective is to reduce emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. The Treasury modelling released yesterday suggests that the 2020 target cannot be achieved. Even with a carbon tax emissions will increase from 578 megatons of CO2 in 2009-10 to 621 megatons of CO2 in 2020.
As the Productivity Commission recently reported, no other country has an economy-wide emission trading scheme. As yet no global market for emission permits exists. In all of its modelling Treasury assumes that market exists and Australian business can buy international permits to offset their emissions. That drives the cheapest form of abatement – but when the market doesn't exist local carbon prices must be much higher than Treasury estimates and the domestic cost of carbon tax much higher too.
Treasury also relies very heavily on assumptions about technology. Electricity generation is expected to move from being predominately coal-generated to renewable energy with some coal being used in combination with carbon capture and storage technology. Right now that technology is not viable; Treasury assumes it will be viable after 2021. Renewables are expensive and unreliable. Treasury imagines the greatest growth will be in geothermal energy – again a technology that is unproven.
Of course technological improvements occur all the time and these technologies may well be viable in future. Yet the Government is betting our economic prosperity on these technologies becoming viable in the very near future. If those assumptions do not work out, electricity prices will be very high and very likely Australians will experience rolling black-outs. This is a policy that undermines our domestic energy certainty.
All up it is very likely that the Treasury estimate of a $3.30 per week increase for electricity is far too low.
The Treasury modelling is strangely quiet about the employment consequences of the carbon tax. When modelling the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme the Treasury admitted that they couldn't actually model the employment consequences of the policy and had to assume full employment in the long-run while admitting 'temporary unemployment' of up to 10 years.
This time Treasury simply argues that labour will move across industries due to the structural change to the economy but that this will be low compared to normal employment churn that normally occurs in any given year. Here Treasury is saying that the number of people involuntarily losing their jobs is unimportant given the number of people who voluntarily change jobs each year. But people choosing to change jobs usually go to a better job, people being retrenched usually don't. It also ignores the fact that people being retrenched as a result of the carbon tax will be over-represented in some regions of the country and in particular industries. Will the 20-cent differential compensate households for lost employment?
On a regional basis the early loser from the carbon tax is Victoria. By 2050, however, the biggest losers will be Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.
The tax cuts that the Government proposes are poor policy too. Increasing the tax-free threshold is a good idea and should be implemented anyway. But the Government is increasing the tax rates on low-income earners. True in the early years they gain from the increased tax-free rate but over time those gains will be eroded by bracket creep.
Before becoming Treasurer, Wayne Swan used to talk a lot about effective marginal tax rates (EMTR) and the poverty traps they create. This policy increases the EMTR for taxpayers earning between $68,000 and $80,000. That is just above average full-time earnings.
All up this is a complex policy that doesn't deliver on its primary objective of cutting emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels. It is very likely to be more expensive than Treasury has estimated. It relies heavily on technology that doesn't exist and global permit markets that don't exist. Finally it increases the disincentives for average income earners in the labour market, while avoiding any careful and rigorous discussion of the labour market impact of the policy.
For 20c a week more, on average, there are a lot risks in this policy.

Sinclair Davidson is a professor in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University and a senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.

DWTS knocks out the Prime Minister

2011-07-05T20:35:00.001+10:00

Dancing With The Stars is more important then the Prime Minister's address to the nation.. hmmm.... sounds about right.

TV networks knock back PM's request for air time to detail carbon tax on Sunday night

By Ben Packham and James Chessell
From: The Australian
July 05, 2011 5:49PM

Carbon price is coming

The Prime Minister will let us know just how much a carbon tax will cost on Sunday.

AT least two networks have turned down an offer of a special prime ministerial broadcast for an address to the nation on her proposed carbon tax.

The government has not finalised the details of its plan to price carbon, ahead of its Sunday reveal.

5 July 2011Sky News

So far, Nine and Seven have declined to provide airtime for the broadcast, and it's unclear whether the Ten Network would or not, The Australian reports. Sunday night's primetime programming on the commercial networks includes the Dancing With The Stars grand final, MasterChef, 60 Minutes and The Mentalist.

Mark Steyn on political correctness

2011-06-22T22:01:00.000+10:00

Mark Steyn on Free Speech at the IPA from Institute of Public Affairs on Vimeo.

Greek collapse

2011-06-20T06:40:00.003+10:00

What happens when economic reality hits.

Ray Stevens Sings

2011-06-20T06:36:00.001+10:00

GPS trackers for paedophiles

2011-06-06T22:10:00.002+10:00

I think the idea has considerable merit. Sooner or latter the offenders will need to intergrated back into the community. There will always be people who will object to having them in their area. If it helps to allay their fears good.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has promised to introduce satellite tracking of sex offenders, overturning a long-standing reluctance within the state's Labor Government.

Electronic bracelets are currently used to check whether released sex offenders meet their curfews but they cannot be tracked.

Ms Bligh and a succession of corrective services ministers have previously said the tracking technology was prone to blind spots and was too expensive.

But on Monday she vowed to introduce the technology at her routine post-cabinet media conference.

Barry grabs the money first

2011-06-06T21:32:00.004+10:00

Sounds like a good idea to me:

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell ... playing hardball with the federal government. Picture: Brad Hunter Source: The Australian

PREMIER Barry O'Farrell has threatened to punish the federal government by increasing state mining royalties if it fails to help fund the North West Rail Link and other infrastructure.

Increasing royalties would hurt the federal Budget because, under the super profits mining tax deal, any increase in state tax on mining leads to the federal government taking an equal amount less in royalties.

A similar move by West Australian Premier Colin Barnett stripped $2 billion from the federal Budget.

Any increase in NSW royalties would put Treasurer Wayne Swan's $3.5 billion surplus for 2012-13 at risk.

"We reserve the right to consider all measures in the budget," State Treasurer Mike Baird said yesterday.

"Our desire is to have a constructive relationship with the federal government but, we will make no apologies for standing up for NSW.".....

Taxing Homes

2011-06-03T21:47:00.003+10:00

This is just silly. Large houses are more expensive anyway and energy inefficient houses have more expensive upkeep. The market is more then able to efficiently allocate resources , we sue don't need some academic to tell us what to do.

PEOPLE who want to build energy-guzzling McMansion-style homes should pay more taxes, an academic says.

And taxes should also be used to make owning multiple plasma TVs prohibitive, says Melbourne University construction expert Dr Robert Crawford.

Rapidly increasing suburban house sizes, more reliance on cars and a rise in demand for consumer goods had wiped out many of the benefits of building energy-efficient homes, he said yesterday.

"The most dominant characteristic of the new houses in these estates is their size ... new residences are well over 200sq m, more than double the average of the 1950s," he said.

Releasing a faculty of architecture, building and planning study on the impact of housing on greenhouse emissions, Dr Crawford said one option was to penalise those who built big houses.

Millionaire film star promotes Carbon tax

2011-05-29T11:58:00.003+10:00

Some how I don't think these ads are going to be very effective:

CATE Blanchett has sparked outrage in the community with her decision to front an advertising campaign promoting the Federal Government's controversial carbon tax.

The millionaire Hollywood actor has been accused of being out of touch by spruiking the benefits of the tax that she can afford to pay, unlike many already hard-up Australians.

The 42-year-old has teamed with Packed to the Rafters actor Michael Caton to be the faces of a series of TV ads branded "Say Yes", which will screen nationally from tonight.

The ads are aimed at convincing the average Australian that a carbon tax is a good idea, even if it is tipped to raise the cost of living.

But then there are more than 50 million reasons why Blanchett has different concerns to the average Australian.

In 2009, BRW estimated the Oscar winner's wealth at $53 million, putting creature comforts like a $10 million mansion in Hunters Hill on Sydney's North Shore well within the budget.

And it is why critics have lashed the film star for fronting the campaign while battlers do the sums to figure out how they will pay the bills when the tax is imposed.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.news.com.au/1957193705/Blanchett-Caton-in-new-climate-ads"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;VIDEO: Blanchett, Caton in new climate ads&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

UPDATE. The youtube response:

Confused

2011-05-25T22:11:00.001+10:00

Heres' one way to completely confuse children.

Are these the most PC parents in the world? The couple raising a 'genderless baby'... to protect his (or her) right to choice

By Daily Mail Reporter

Meet Storm. With those big blue eyes, fair hair and chubby cheeks, the four-month-old is certainly adorable.
But whether this baby is a bruising boy or a blushing girl is, the parents say, a secret. In fact, they’re leaving the decision up to him – or her.
The bizarre move has led to Kathy Witterick, 38, and husband David Stocker, 39, being labelled the most politically correct family in the world.

Boy or girl? Storm, in red, gets a cuddle from his - or her - older brother Jazz

There's nothing ambiguous about the baby's sex. The parents know - as do brothers Jazz, five, and Kio, two, who somehow are apparently keeping their mouths shut.
One close family friend also knows, as do the two midwives who helped deliver the baby in a birthing pool in the couple's Toronto home on New Year's Day.
That, however, is it. When Storm was born, the couple sent an email to the rest of their friends and family that stated: 'We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...).'
Their announcement, they told the Toronto Star, was at first met with silence. Then came the deluge.
Storm's grandparents were supportive - but resented having to explain a gender-free baby to friends and co-workers.
Friends cleverly accused the couple of taking away the newborn's right to choice by imposing their own ideology on the tiny baby.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389593/Kathy-Witterick-David-Stocker-raising-genderless-baby.html#ixzz1NSZMCk3A

2011-05-22T15:09:00.002+10:00

I agree that MP should not serve on local councils at the same time. There is a clear potential of a conflict of interest. However do remember if the councilor resigns there would have to be another election to fill that vacancy. Perhaps they should be told they would not be allowed to stand for the following council election.

ALMOST a third of Barry O'Farrell's Liberal MPs are moonlighting in second jobs as mayors and councillors.

Despite earning at least $136,000 a year- with cars, offices, phones and staff paid for by the taxpayer - the state Liberal partyroom is stacked with MPs who refuse to give up their paid jobs on local councils.

The loophole that allows MPs to serve on local councils - supplementing their income by up to $100,000 a year -- even after they are elected to state parliament means thousands of Sydneysiders are paying twice for double-dipping politicians.

It also exposes the Government MPs to accusations of conflict of interest and has led to demands that they quit their local jobs.

The Premier - who enjoys one of the largest margins in state political history - has refused to confront the issue, and declined to comment on the conflict of interest claims.

However, one of his new MPs - Camden Mayor Chris Patterson - admitted representing ratepayers and taxpayers at the local and state level was too much.
"I'm personally finding that doing both roles is a lot of work and I will be giving it up for someone else to do," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

A day earlier, Mr Patterson said being a local mayor and state MP was great, as he could attend functions in both capacities."I've been very busy but it seems to be working so far," he said.
Mr Patterson didn't explain his change of heart, but the Premier's office was aware of the move to resign as mayor on June 14.

Political experts insist the MPs must give up the second job. Institute of Public Affairs spokesman Ted Lapkin - a former Liberal adviser - said the MPs should have resigned from council as soon as they were elected to parliament on March 26.

"There is a clear potential for conflict of interest. It smacks of impropriety," he said. "Are they going to excuse themselves from every vote in the parliament if it concerns the business of the local council?

Tony Abbott and his Vision

2011-05-16T21:56:00.001+10:00

In today's Daily Telegraph Simon Benson tells us Mr Abbott needs to show us his "Vision" . Apparently bad things are going to happen to Tony if he doesn't clean his spectacles and " need to start articulating a fiscal policy setting to manage the mining boom and associated inflationary pressures, as well as a responsible plan of tax and welfare reform to deal with the expanding wealth gap it will bring."

I'm unimpressed. Much the same thing was said about Barry O'Farrell for the four years he was Opposition Leader. Yet he went on to win an election with a record majority.

John Howard also lacked Vision according to the pundits. When asked about his Vision in 1996 Mr Howard said he thought Australians wanted to be relaxed and comfortable. Thats no Vision said the pundits. He was contrasted with Mr Paul Keating who apparently had lots of Vision. Well, John Howard went on to win that election and became Australia's second longest serving Prime Minister.

Grand Visions are not the conservative way. It implies that we have to follow some politicians view of what our future should be. My own vision for an Australian government is very simple. Get the budget back to surplus, pay off the debt then give tax cuts every year which was what Howard did. Let Australian keep the money they earned so they can follow their own vision.

the Bolt Report

2011-05-15T22:06:00.000+10:00

Watched it for the first time today. Worth seeing if you are interested in politics. The expected Bolt hits and even amusing. Heres a taste.

God help us!

2011-05-15T20:47:00.000+10:00

Remember this bloke is the head of the International Monetary Fund!

Top French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn dragged off flight at JFK, accused of assaulting maid

BY Michael Daly, Alison Gendar, Joe Kemp and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Originally Published:Saturday, May 14th 2011, 7:15 PM
Updated: Saturday, May 14th 2011, 11:56 PM

Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in hot water with American authorities.

A top French politician nicknamed "the great seducer" was dragged off a flight at Kennedy Airport Saturday after he was accused of sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid.

Port Authority cops grabbed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and a presidential hopeful in France, moments before his Air France plane took off about 4:45 p.m.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, allegedly crept up behind a maid after she entered his room and forced her to perform oral sex on him, sources said.

The woman broke free and ran out of the room. Strauss-Kahn quickly headed for the airport, sources said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/05/14/2011-05-14_top_french_politician_dominique_strausskahn_dragged_of_flight_at_jfk_accused_of_.html#ixzz1MVlDs3Zn

Dubai in the Pilbara

2011-05-14T10:14:00.002+10:00

This is excellent. Free crown land for developers. Wish we could do something like it in NSW.

Pilbara dreams of being Little Dubai

Finbar project manager Peter McDowell and Gerry Hanssen of construction company Hanssen examine plans for Karratha's first high-rise project. Picture: Courtney Bertling Source: The Australian

A LITTLE Dubai is to bloom in the Pilbara, with crown land to be given away free to property developers to build luxury high-rise apartments in the remote region as Western Australia gears up for a massive expansion of its mining boom.

Government Landcorp chief Ross Holt said yesterday the radical plan could be a catalyst for ending the chronic housing shortage and lack of amenities that have plagued the Pilbara and deterred people from living there.
"The government sees the land it owns there as part of the currency it has to bring about revitalisation and start turning these places into cities," Mr Holt told The Weekend Australian.
"You could argue that crown land up there is worth a lot of money because there's such a high demand for accommodation, but the government is saying that it's not looking at maximising its commercial return on land - it's much more interested in achieving high-quality development outcomes.".................

Geoff Lee MP for Parramatta

2011-05-11T21:48:00.003+10:00

Geoff made his first speech today. He is a man who understands what Parramatta is about.

Inaugural Speech, Geoff Lee, MP for Parramatta, 11 May 2011
Madam Speaker
I rise in the right of reply to Her Excellency, the Governor Marie Bashir's opening address of the 55th Parliament of NSW.
It is an honour and privilege to address the chamber today as the Member for Parramatta.
The first people of Parramatta were the Burramattagal people, a clan of the Darug. They lived along the upper-reaches of the Parramatta River and can be traced back some 60,000 years. The river was focus of daily life as it was during colonisation for food, fresh water and transport. Anyone who has visited the seat of Parramatta knows of its beauty and bounty.
However, today, I am not going to talk about the beauty and bounty of Parramatta.
Instead, today, I want to talk about the conundrum that is Parramatta. Perhaps the title of my first speech should be “What to do with Parramatta?”

To address this question, I will talk about Parramatta as the future powerhouse of the NSW. Sydney CBD is almost full and future growth will be in Sydney's Western Suburbs. There is the need to integrate the Parramatta CBD with that of the Sydney's CBD, which will entail decentralising business activities and services.
The talk will answer 3 questions

The importance of Parramatta as an integrated part of the Sydney's CBD
My motivation to lead the electorate of Parramatta
What I am going to do

They say "The more things change the more they stay the same"
Sydney doesn't know what to do with Parramatta. I say this as from the first days of colonisation, Parramatta was set up as the capital. However, it became obvious that Sydney Cove was the hub of commercial activity. The conundrum still exists.

What will be the relationship between Parramatta and Sydney?
How can the tensions be resolved for the betterment of all NSW?

In 1788, the British Colony arrived in Sydney Cove and soon faced starvation. Governor Arthur Phillip selected Parramatta to grow food to feed the colony. Without Parramatta, the colony would certainly have starved and failed.
Arthur Phillip was instrumental in establishing Parramatta's first hospital, barracks to maintain law and order, he laid out the town plan and built the first Government House in Parramatta Park. It is of note that until the 1850s many governors chose to rule from Parramatta rather than Sydney.
Arthur Phillip began the city, and today, whilst it has changed from agriculture to industry, the legacy of health, law and order and the focus on productivity remains.

- The LGA has grown to 170,000 residents and 90,000 jobs
- It has vibrant retail, entertainment and leisure, education and business service precincts
- It's an economic zone estimated to be worth $10 billion per annum to the state's economy
- Is home to the mighty Parramatta Eels

To test the hypothesis that Parramatta will become integrated to the Sydney CBD, just look at NY. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northwards and then, between 1874 and 1898, incorporated land from surrounding counties. When Central Park was built, it was seen as a remote parkland in the middle of nowhere. Now it is central.
The unified whole of Manhattan is now a major commercial, financial, and cultural centre of both the United States and the world.
The CDB is just one part of the Parramatta electorate. The electorate is made up of the suburbs of Wentworthville, Westmead, North Parramatta, Oatlands, Telopea, Dundas, Ermington, Rydalmere, Harris Park, Rosehill and where I live Parramatta.
These suburbs offer the choice of city living or leafy green suburban streets, ideal for singles, bring-up-a-family or retiring to enjoy life.
With such opportunity, it no wonder why people from around the world choose to make Parramatta their home. In fact, 44 percent of Parramatta residents were born overseas, and two thirds of the have at least one parent born overseas. We are home to large and active communities from nations in North-East Asia, Middle-East, as well as having the largest South-Asian community in NSW.
As a community and as a society, we are richer for the presence of such a diverse mix of cultures and the contribution that they make to modern, multi-cultural Australia.
People seeking opportunity come to Parramatta – just as my ancestors came from the United Kingdom with some arriving on the second fleet and from Southern China up to 140 years ago. They contributed to the growth of Parramatta where they worked as carpenters and bricklayers in the early days, and later in the building of the railway to the west. My Chinese great-grandfather had a market garden on the banks of Duck Creek at Guildford, where he provided food for many of his neighbours during the Great Depression.
People often ask me "Why I entered politics?"
Having built a successful small business and a senior role at the University of Western Sydney, I wanted the opportunity to put skills and experience to realise the potential that is Parramatta.

Parramatta is NOT just the second CBD…it’s the capital of Western Sydney
We have
- An established finance, insurance and business service sectors
- the second largest legal precinct in NSW
- the largest health precinct in Australia, Westmead
And Parramatta has the opportunity to service the whole of Western Sydney, the future growth areas of Sydney

Parramatta has yet to realise its full-potential and I'll be its LEADER of CHANGE
Clearly, I'm not the first to recognise Parramatta's potential. The Durug clan recognised it, Arthur Phillip recognised it and in 1991, I recognised it.
In 1991, I sold everything I had, borrowed money from my mum and dad to start a garden centre and landscaping business. A business that would grow over the next 10 years to employ many locals, serve the community and along the way, we were fortunate to win some awards.
For those of you who have been involved in small business, you'll know that having a business is rewarding as you build it and tough at times when things go wrong.
Working 7 days a week for 10 years and being responsible for the livelihood of staff gives you an appreciation for pressures of small business.
Today, NSW relies on its 640,000 small businesses as employers, innovators and for their significant economic contribution. A business community that must be encouraged to prosper, enterprise fuels our economy…Small business in my DNA as it is in the Liberal DNA.
Whilst working for myself, I studied part-time for an MBA and started my doctorate. I have always been passionate about life-long learning – education - and after selling my business was fortunate to join the University of Western Sydney. Working at UWS allowed me to contribute to thousands of students' advancement.
It is clear that the economic prosperity of a nation is closely linked to educational attainment. In other words, the more educated people are, the more wealth is created. Increased education equals increased GDP.
As a government, our imperative is to ensure NSW has the best education system with the best schools, VET providers and universities.
People also ask me "What I'm going to do?"
As Parramatta's LEADER of CHANGE, my vision for Parramatta is a place where we can work and live in a safe environment. Parramatta must seize the opportunity to become the engine-room of the NSW economy, to become the economic 'food-bowl' for NSW as the centre for commerce and employment for Western Sydney.
To do this, we must:

Plan for the unification of Sydney's CBD and Parramatta's CBD – it is inevitable with the growth of Sydney's Western Suburbs. We have started decentralisation of some government departments, such as the law courts, police and Sydney Water. We are already are a hub for financial services, accounting firms and business services but we need to do more.
Maintain the balance between sustainable development and preservation of our suburbs
Create local jobs by removing barriers to private and public investment
Preserve our historic buildings and sites
And celebrate diverse cultural heritages

As Parramatta's MLA I am going to enlist the support of the people of the Seat. They are the ones who understand, there are the ones that are at the coal face, and know how best to deal with the issues. I will work with those people who are just as passionate as I am, that is, the people of Parramatta to meet the challenges of building a city.
Great cities:

Provide an integrated, accessible and convenient public transport systems
Develop a vibrant arts, food, and theatre cultural precincts
Have great universities where students are part of the town and the university is an integral part of the local community

Such vision needs a plan, a road-map for the next 20 years and I will be listening to and working with people from all sections of the community to inform on that plan.
As Parramatta's LEADER of CHANGE

I'll fight for a greater share of resources for Parramatta, greater because Parramatta is not just a suburb, it’s a metropolis that services the whole of Western Sydney.
Western Sydney is already home 1.8m people, that close to 1 in 10 people in Australia live in Western Sydney, it's an $80 billion economy
And it is predicted that Western Sydney will grow by another 2 million people over the next 50 years – it is inevitable that Sydney's expansion will be West of Parramatta

I need to acknowledge and say thank you to many people

Premier Barry O'Farrell, for his constant support of Parramatta and for holding the election night out event in Parramatta and choosing to be Minister for Western Sydney.
For the many then-shadow ministers who made the trip to Parramatta to support my campaign: Jillian Skinner, Adrian Piccoli, Mike Gallacher, Brad Hazzard, Chris Hartcher, Gladys Berejiklian, Mike Baird, Greg Pearce, Andrew Constance, Greg Smith, Pru Goward and Anthony Roberts. The fact that so many of you were so willing to take the trip speaks volumes about the new government's commitment to Parramatta and Greater Western Sydney
The Liberal Party for its unwavering assistance through some difficult campaign moments

I would like to acknowledge previous member Tanya Gadiel's work in the Seat of Parramatta . I don't think any new MP could have been treated as well in the handover of what used to be her electorate office. I wish her well in her new role with Parramatta Mission.
I am indebted to Charles Camenzul, Campaign Director and team Camenzuli. Charles and his family put their lives on hold to dedicate themselves to a Liberal win in Parramatta. Likewise the campaign volunteers did a massive job, day and night and, of course, on the day.
Thanks go also to the rest of the Parramatta campaign team: James Wallace, Mitchell Potts, Kevin Costello and Darren Klower as well as the many local party members who lent their support: Chris With, Andrew Bide, Mary Mackman, Therese Camenzuli, Colin Robinson, Kate Geddes, Stuart Mead, Lorraine Doyle, Linda Durrant, Vale Sloane, Amanda Rose and so many others. I'd also like to acknowledge the support of Damien Jones and the Wakehurst conference, who went above and beyond in providing carloads of willing campaign workers weekend after weekend.
And of course, there's my Mum and dad, who have always supported my endeavours and continue to be an important part of my life.
And finally to the people of Parramatta, those people that have entrusted me to represent them.
I will listen to them and make decisions based upon common sense, fairness and equity.
In conclusion
They say "the more things change the more they stay the same".
Today, we face similar challenges to those of Arthur Phillip over 200 years ago; law and order, health, planning and governance.
I first started this address by asking the question
'What to do with Parramatta?'
The conundrum exists, Parramatta has been treated as the little brother of Sydney's CBD, and sibling rivalry has been rife. How can we take advantage of the opportunities that Parramatta affords?
Sydney has only one way to grow and that is West. I want to see Parramatta akin to Manhattan and NY City's Central Park. I want to see Parramatta as the western centre of tomorrow’s Sydney City.
Sydney CBD is virtually full. Expansion of jobs will come from the west, new homes will be developed in the north-west and south-west sectors of Sydney. The inevitable expansion will be west of Parramatta.
When I think about Parramatta, I think of opportunity. Arthur Phillip recognised that opportunity. Thousands of residents and businesses have recognised that opportunity…
I'll be knocking on Minister's doors…

To get our share of resources and infrastructure
to provide Sydney with a powerhouse to drive NSW growth to be the Number 1 State in Australia.

I'll be knocking on the Ministers doors and asking for more.

And these bozos are getting nukes ?

2011-05-08T08:13:00.000+10:00

Ahmadinejad allies charged with sorcery

Iranian power struggle between president and supreme leader sees arrests and claims of undue influence of chief of staff

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is described as 'the actual president of Iran' by allies of the country's supreme leader.

Close allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Peter Phelps Maiden Speech

2011-05-05T20:06:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Parliment House to watch new NSW MLC Peter Phelps give his maiden speech. Loved every minute of it. Peter is a true friend of liberty and self admitted libertarian. I present here the speech in full.

*********

I second the motion for adoption of the address in reply to the Governor's opening Speech. Mr President, may I first congratulate you on your election. It is a most deserved honour and my joy is tempered only by your refusal to don full regalia. Let me state also that I am delighted to be in this place. For many years now it is all that I have wanted to be. It was this place that in 1984 launched my political career. It was a Wednesday—it must have been a Wednesday, because that was the sports day and the Fort Street High School under 16 Rugby team had a bye.

Being mildly interested in politics, I hopped on the bus and went into town to see Parliament for the first time. I was so appalled by what I saw that when I left this place I walked down Bridge Street to Anchor House, met a nice lady called Mrs Macauley, got out my wallet and joined the Liberal Party on the spot. However, I did find it strange that Mrs Mac put me into a branch nowhere near where I lived. I was to discover only in later years the significance of such occurrences. But that was the start of my journey to this place. Here I am, almost 27 years later, as a member of Parliament. Immediately after my election the Hon. Matthew Mason-Cox said to me "Mate, mate, it's great to have you coming into the House. You can be our Luke Foley." I am not sure whether to be honoured or whether I should be contacting my solicitors. I certainly hope it means that I get three questions in a row in future in question time.

Many new members arrive in Parliament hopeful and idealistic, only to leave some years later bitter and cynical. I have cut out the middle man—I arrived here bitter and cynical! I am bitter about the poverty of political debate in Australia and I am cynical about any prospect that it will improve in the near future. We have a shallow, simplistic media that encourages that cynicism, where every political contest is treated like a horse race and where even the most legitimate of public debate becomes dissent, or splits, or crises. Members of the media weep crocodile tears about the lack of authenticity in our politicians, but when one comes along he or she is treated as a freak to be mocked and derided.

One of my colleagues suggested that my cynicism was due to the unnaturally close exposure to the worst elements of the Federal Parliament, which is true so far as it goes. For the better part of the past decade I spent my working days trying to clear up the legal and media messes made by members of all parties; by the stupid and venal—by people who seemed to think that their job as parliamentary representatives entitled them to snuffle in the trough and break the rules. Perhaps it was just the Federal Parliament that disappointed me. After all, the Federal Parliament does not have a code of conduct for its members of Parliament and this place does, and what a mighty tome it is. After all, has this code of conduct not made New South Wales the byword for virtue, the pantheon of ethics across the nation?

When people in other States think of the New South Wales Parliament, the first thing that springs to mind is the ethical and incorruptible behaviour from its politicians, and all because we have a code of conduct. Some people might miss the irony so let me spell it out clearly. The ethical do not need a written code of conduct and the dishonest will ignore it anyway. It is part of what I call the Democrat disease—named after the incessant desire of that now defunct party to legislate for morality, as if human nature could be so easily changed. It has not worked since Moses brought down the Ten Commandments, so why should it work now? Laws can punish the wicked but they cannot, in and of themselves, make men good. This flimsy code of conduct is just part of a wider problem in New South Wales. As I said at my preselection, for those of you who were there, we are overtaxed, overregulated and overridden.

How many Acts of Parliament are there? If we think about it there might be 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 or 600. As at December 2010 there were 1,089 separate Acts of Parliament, 300 of which are just useless. However vital they may have been in 1930 I am not sure anyone, not even Mr Barralaro in the Legislative Assembly, thinks we really need a Bungendore to Captains Flat Railway Act. Do we really need a Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Act? What about the Sydney Female School of Industry (Dissolution) Act 1926? Who knows? Perhaps we need these vital instruments. But it strikes me that there are a large number of Acts, especially archaic private Acts, which could be culled from the statute books with no apparent loss to our rights and freedoms.

Similarly, there appear to be about another 400 Acts that could be usefully consolidated. Should employers be required to deal with nine different Acts on workers compensation? Are farmers happy about having 13 different Acts involving National Parks and Wildlife? Does it help the Department of Community Services to have 15 different Acts relating directly to children's welfare, or the police with 18 different Acts relating to crime and criminals? All the various universities and colleges Acts could be amalgamated into one. How about this for a title—the Universities and Colleges Act? It is my fervent wish that this Government will get rid of as much unnecessary law and regulation as it can during the next four years. We should set ourselves a target for the repeal of laws and regulations, and we should meet them.

The code of conduct states we must acknowledge that our principal responsibility as serving members is to serve the people of New South Wales. But what is New South Wales? This is New South Wales. Find the mouth of a river, go to its headwaters, go across on a particular latitude until you reach an arbitrary longitude, south until you hit another river, follow it to its headwater and then draw a chord to an arbitrary point on the coast—the work of an imperial draughtsman, dividing up the empire into neat and manageable chunks. But what about the community of interest? Is there a community of interest between Annandale and Armidale, Bourke and Ballina, and Dubbo and Denistone? People from Broken Hill go on holiday to Glenelg in South Australia, not Bondi. Deniliquin residents who want to go shopping in the big smoke go to Melbourne. People in the Tweed are more likely to visit a medical specialist in Brisbane rather than Sydney.

Perhaps instead there are valid cultural differences for the retention of the States. If so, then what are they? It is not as though Queensland has only 24 letters in its alphabet, or Victoria uses a hexadecimal number system. I live in Queanbeyan, across the border from Canberra. I support the Raiders, the Brumbies and the Canberra Cavalry—it has been a sad year for me! But to me the Australian Capital Territory border is an invisible and entirely artificial barrier. I can easily understand the mild parochialism of those from geographically distant areas like Western Australia, Tasmania, far north Queensland or the Northern Territory, but for New South Wales is the person in Wodonga really that different from the person in Albury? Is the person in Coolangatta really that different from the person in Tweed Heads? Is the person in Murrumbateman really that different from the person in Hall? Of course not.

When it comes to cultural differences, all that can be mustered these days is what I call a fake state-of-origin parochialism. As Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote, "You've got to be taught to hate", and so New South Welshmen become cockroaches and Queenslanders become cane toads. But it is all just a fabrication. Any decent Australian historian knows that the real historical nicknames are, respectively, "cornstalks" and "banana benders". We are cornstalks in New South Wales, but of course, we cannot hate those names, can we? So we just create a new nomenclature based on whatever horrid fauna can be appropriated to fabricate a bit of mindless parochialism.

What relevance do the States then have? Not much by any assessment. They are too small to encompass the cultural and too large to encompass genuine communities of interest. To that end, Alex Hawke, who is in the public gallery today, kindly faxed me a copy of Jack Lang's 1930 Abolition Bill, with the suggestion that it would be an excellent first private member's bill for me to introduce. I doubt whether I will be taking him up on that offer at this time. But if we are just going to be a way station for the Federal Government and its dictat, then why not? Why not abolish the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. Why not abolish the State Government entirely? What purpose do we serve if we are straight-jacketed within federally mandated systems of education, water, land use, fishing, and environmentalism? Since the engineers case, the High Court has permitted a gradual accretion of power and interference in State matters. Harmonisation has become a euphemism for subjugation. What is the use of this? Are we simply an imperial bauble perched atop a colonial anachronism, the errand boys of the Federal Government? If States are to remain relevant we must fight for real competitive federalism—not cooperative federalism—with genuine competition between the States, not this collectivist begging bowl approach. If you want to be a pot smoking Mullumbimby hippie, fine—but do not expect me to subsidise your lifestyle. Similarly, if a State has resources that are left unused, why should it expect us to subsidise a lifestyle for which it is unwilling to pay? If the distribution of revenue to the States was done on the basis of direct parity with its collection, then fine. It is not perfect but at least it would be a just outcome. But at this time horizontal fiscal equalisation, as it is called, is just an excuse to rob the productive to pay the lazy.

If the people of any State—and I am looking in particular at Tasmania—vote for left-wing governments that seek to return to a pre-industrial utopia, then let them do so on their own coin. If they want to lock up productive resources so that middle-class bushwalkers can go on day trips from their inner city pads, fine—but do not ask me for money. Even here in New South Wales, Labor was locking up river red gums, which could have provided real income and real jobs in rural communities; locking up national parks rather than opening them up to legitimate recreation, as if they had forgotten that humans created national parks for our enjoyment, not the other way around. The problem is compounded only by vertical fiscal imbalance or, to put it in the language of humans rather than economists, the States have the attitude of teenagers:

Are we prepared to accept the responsibilities of taxation? It has been only 70 years since we temporarily transferred the income tax powers to the Federal Government as an emergency wartime measure. The High Court has consistently struck down the right of States to levy volumetric taxes. So we have no sustainable direct taxation and no sustainable indirect taxation. We are beggars. Are we prepared to act like adults? I think we are—I certainly hope we are—and we had better be, because for as long as the Federal Government holds the purse strings, New South Wales will get a raw deal.

What then should be the nature of our contribution to this new competitive federalism? What do we, as the Liberal Party, stand for? Some have said that we must abandon ideology for pragmatism. I have difficulty with that concept. If critical legal theory teaches us anything—and I think the jury is still out on that—then everything is political. And where there is politics there is ideology. Even an unrecognised ideology is an ideology, because the way we respond to situations is dependent on the paradigms that we use to interpret the world around us. But let us assume for a moment that we could be purely and utterly pragmatic. What does that mean? What direction do you take if you cannot reference core values by which to guide your policies? If the only claim we can make is that we will be better managers and planners, in the worst Hayekian sense of the word, than the Australian Labor Party, what was the last election about?

We cannot simply be Labor lite. We must believe in something or else we fall into the ideological bunga-bunga party that Labor has become. And look at what Labor has become: It is all "comrades this" and "comrades that" and "forward the revolution bruvvers", up until it is time to leave Parliament and off they toddle with a healthy six-figure government relations job at Macquarie Bank. When I told my colleague the Hon. Matthew Mason-Cox that I thought we should sit more than three days a week and that starting at 11 o'clock was somewhat indulgent, he replied:

Perhaps not but, in the words of Paul Keating, if I want a friend, I will buy a dog. For years in Federal politics I sat through the thoroughly emetic spectacle of valedictory speeches from political opponents, which went something like this: "Oh, old Johnno, he was a tough fighter for the other side, but he was a good bloke and we became good friends." Well, not me. I do not want to be friends with people in my own party, let alone with people in other parties! I would prefer it if Labor members were to say in eight years time, "Good riddance to the son of a bitch; he was nothing but a thorn in our side." If people are for socialism then I am irrevocably against them. Let me just remind members of what each and every one of those sitting opposite has signed up for—the so-called socialist objective. They support:

That is what everyone on the other side of the Chamber has signed up for. Now the Labor Right, always with one eye to the future of a corporate gig, says, "Oh, that's just words, just a sop to the Left of our party". But words mean what they mean. The Labor Right says:

But words matter. Which commissar will be determining what is the necessary extent? As William Pitt the Younger observed:

Certainly the Labor Left has no doubt about what it means. Let us look at what Tristan Ewins, a self-described long-time ALP member in the socialist Left faction, wrote in an article for the Australian Fabian Society. I want to digress for a moment. What is it with Trots? They are all called Tristan, Isolde, Oscar, or Lucinda. What is it about the socialist Left that has these lisping, bourgeois, private school socialists? You can see them now: Archibald Worthington-Smythe, the prefect at Cranbrook or Kings, essentially despising the working class and their boorish ways, and always looking to correct them, to improve them, to turn them presumably into "new Soviet man". Oh, if only the benighted proletariat would just listen to their betters! As H. L. Mencken wrote, the urge to save humanity is, almost always, a false front for the urge to rule it. Anyway, back to Tristan and the Fabians:

However, even he has to throw in:

As my younger friends are wont to say, WTF? Being a little bit socialist is like being a little bit pregnant. When you start expropriating, where do you stop? Indeed, why should you stop? If a little bit of government intervention is okay, then why not a lot? Certainly other Labor writers are not so enamoured of the "to the extent necessary" weasel words. Gonzalo Puig, writing on the Evatt Foundation website, makes the point clearly:

So we have to ask of members opposite: What is it that you have signed up for—nationalisation, collectivism, or confiscatory tax rates? The irony is that the Labor Left does not want to say and the Labor Right does not believe it in the first place. I am not a pragmatist, I am an ideologue. As for my ideology, it can be described very simply:

What magnificent words these are. "All men are created equal". That does not mean everyone is the same or that everyone has the same outcome, but there is no inherent moral superiority between any two classes of people. We are endowed with inalienable rights; they cannot be taken from us. Life is the most fundamental right of all. You can take anything from me and I can be recompensed for it, but if you take my life I cannot. "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness"—I will not go into the pursuit of happiness because there is quite an historical discussion on whether Francis Hutcheson or John Locke was behind the development of those words. It would take me three hours to deal with it, and I will save that for a day when the Leader of the Government is negotiating with the crossbenches and has three hours to fill. It goes on to say, "That to secure these rights"—in other words, these rights cannot be abrogated; government's role is to secure these rights—"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers". When governments act to secure those rights they are acting justly. When they move to violate those rights they are acting unjustly. They derive that from the consent of the governed—places like this.

Those are Jefferson's words and although many here will think of them as being peculiarly "American" words, these values in fact lay at the heart of the Scottish enlightenment. It is hard to imagine that a country that could produce former Senator George Campbell and Senator Dougie Cameron could also produce such visionary philosophy, but there it is. Wonders will never cease! We have that great Lockean trinity—of life, liberty and property—and there is only one system that can give effect to these rights, capitalism. Capitalism is the only system that addresses the human condition, whether you are a fundamentalist Christian who believes that we are inherently fallen due to original sin, or a militant atheist who, like Richard Dawkins, believes we are inherently self-centred because of "the selfish gene". Capitalism does not seek to create a utopia on earth. Indeed, the road to utopias is often paved with gulags, with show trials, with death chambers and with killing fields.

We must seek to limit the role of government as much as possible. After working for many years in Canberra, let me tell you that there are many bureaucrats who say, "Oh, if only we had a few more dollars. If only we had a bit more power, what wonders we could work." But, as Reagan said, the truth is that, beyond a few legitimate functions, government never does anything as well or as efficiently as the private sector. If we want a maxim to live by in government, let it be from Henry Thoreau: The best government is that which governs least. We must always be willing to take a light touch, to de-legislate, to deregulate wherever possible. People need to be able to choose, to coin a phrase, to be free to choose, for good or for ill. Indeed, the Liberal Party derives its name from the Latin "libertas", meaning freedom. So it makes perfect sense to me to describe my views as libertarian. Yet I have always been troubled by this divide—a divide that I now realise is quite artificial—between my libertarian ideals and my social conservatism. Some of my younger friends in the Liberal Party seem obsessed with that. They seem to think it is an unconquerable and incompatible ideological divide. I would urge them to think again. Between the extremes of paternalism and devil-takes-the-hindmost there lies a happy medium.

It was a friend of mine, Tim Andrews of the online site Menzies House, who pointed out that not only are libertarianism and social conservatism not incompatible, but there is a contemporary school of political philosophy that happily marries the two streams of thought. Its chief theoretician is the late Frank Meyer, and it is called "fusionism". Mr President, knowing my fondness for George Houston Reid, you will certainly appreciate the happy serendipity of that name. We can seek the maximum of freedom of action in society and we can still be social conservatives. The two are not incompatible. Indeed, both are necessary to maintain a civil society. And while I am in this Parliament I hope to be able to promote policies that accord with such views.

As an aficionado of the Village People, Mr President, you, like me, will no doubt recall that they sang, "No man does it all by himself". I would like to pay tribute to some remarkable people. First and foremost is my father, the late police superintendent Robert Phelps. My father, who was well known to both the Leader of the Government and the new member for Campbelltown in their earlier lives, was a lifetime policeman. He was old school—some would say a dinosaur—more interested in practical policing than theoreticians and intra-force politics. He had a Manichean world view: there is good and there is bad, and we should fight for the good and oppose the bad. He was the Polaris by which I set my moral compass, and I miss him dearly. Like many of his generation he had the opportunity to obtain only an Intermediate Certificate before having to go to work, but—or perhaps because of that—he always valued education very highly. If I may digress, I should point out that I am the product of a public school education, from Bradbury Infants, Camperdown Demonstration School, Summer Hill opportunity classes, the redoubtable Fort Street High School, and Sydney university, and St Paul's College therein. I am quite happy with that. I am a very proud product of public education and I am always happy to support it. I do not doubt that even as we speak the New South Wales Teachers Federation is preparing giant billboards with my photo on them, exclaiming, "This is what can happen when you send your children to a public school!" as an exemplar to all.

My dad was a single father who devoted his life to his children's betterment. He always said that he did not mind what my brother, Andrew, and I did in life, as long as we tried our best. It is my greatest sadness that my father could not be here today to see this in person. The second person I would like to acknowledge is my old and dear friend Colin Jones. I was a working class brat who thought that the height of culture was watching Larry Corowa streak down the sidelines for the Balmain Tigers. Colin introduced me to the world of opera, which I have come to love, and ballet, which I still find to be a taste I have not yet acquired. He is a great friend—better than I have been to him—always with a cheerful word, and always there on my shoulder to remind me to keep a perspective on life.

The third person is Professor Neville Meaney, formerly of the University of Sydney. As you know, Mr President, I love history and in Neville I found a magnificent scholar, a diligent mentor and a boon companion. Neville might not be widely known, but he is certainly one of the most influential historians and, in my view, the greatest living historian in Australia today. Neville was always one to temper my enthusiasm and keep me focused on the job at hand. He abhorred the cant and obscurata that makes up so much of the academic world these days, and sought that most elusive game, historical truth. Unlike many of today's academics, when the facts disagreed with his theories he changed his mind. And, as a good union man, he gave me some sound advice: irrespective of how much you love your job, never settle for being paid less than you are worth.
The fourth person is Tony Nutt. Tony is the finest political operative in Australia today, bar none. I first met Tony when, as the New South Wales State director, he called me into his office in Riley Street and berated me for half an hour over some right-wing mudlark that I had engaged in. But, and I say this quite immodestly, Tony had an eye for talent! When Paul Zammit quit the Liberal Party in a hissy fit, Tony was kind enough to take me under his wing and find me a job in Canberra. Indeed, without Tony, I would never have gone to Canberra—and I would not have met my beautiful wife, Ann, and had four wonderful children, Thomas, Victoria, Jane and Olivia. Over the next 10 years, I worked closely with Tony and I loved it. Watching Tony and Petro Georgiou go to town on the Ministerial Committee on Government Communication—well, there are no words to describe it! Tony is a truly great political operative. I would love to read his memoirs, except that Tony is far too honourable a man ever to write them in the first place.

Finally, I thank Nicholas Campbell. Before historical revisionism starts too quickly, we need to remember that in the 30 years following the dumping of Ted St John, the conservative wing of the New South Wales Liberal Party could point only to the most occasional and transitory of victories. In those 30 years, the conservatives were locked out of the Women's Council, locked out of the Young Liberal Council, except for Scott Heathwood's brief presidency, locked out of State Executive and the party presidency, except for Bronwyn Bishop, and locked out of upper House preselections. Yet within 10 years of Nick's arrival on the scene, the ancient regime fell. No longer guerrillas in the mountains, the conservatives were in the presidential palace! Nick Campbell was the brains, the master strategist and the tactical opportunist. He wanted nothing for himself—to the constant frustrations of his friends—except to see the success of conservative values. Nick and, indeed, Kathy have been very supportive of me over the years. I would not be in this place without his invaluable assistance.

I also thank some other very special people, who have been particularly supportive of me. First, I thank the keepers of the flame. Nick may have been our Montgomery, but it is nonetheless still appropriate to praise the victories of the Wavells and Auchinlecks who preceded him. Leading that group is, of course, the old Central Committee led by the Hon. David Clarke. Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, my fellow aviation enthusiast Malcolm Brooks, Graham Abel, Peter Truelove, the late Judith Barton and the late Les Wallace have all been great supporters of mine and loyal compatriots. Next is the team—the Young Liberals who decided in the mid-1990s that if change was needed, we were the ones who would have to lead it: people like Joe Francis, now a Liberal member of Parliament in Western Australia, Hamish Stitt, Stuart McNeilly, Irfan Yusuf and the inimitable John "Banjo" Ruddick. Then came the next wave, the Haberfield contingent, which arose to fill the ranks: the now Hon. Anthony Roberts, David Miles, Simone Holzapfel, Steve Galillee, Tim James, Alex Hawke, Noel McCoy, Scott Farlow, my colleague in this place the Hon Natasha Maclaren-Jones, and my colleagues in the other place Mr Dominic Perottet and Mr Jai Rowell.

Last, but by no means least, I thank the ALSF-ers—the Australian Liberal Students Federation members—who were, and still are, fighting the Left on the barricades: the late great Mark Heyward, Jason Groves, Justin Owen, Dallas and Wade McInerney, Kyle Kutasi, Andy Heath, Sasha Uher, Chad Sidler, and the irrepressible Tim Andrews. To my former bosses, the Hon. Bronwyn Bishop, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson—both of whom are kindly in attendance today—the Hon. Gary Nairn, Senator the Hon. Eric Abetz and Senator the Hon. Chris Ellison, I thank them all for tolerating my excesses, my opinionated views and my bluntness. You were all different and were all great to work for. I loved every minute of it—well, except the bits that I did not, but at least those were instructive! Perhaps unusually, I also thank three Labor Senators: Robert Ray, John Faulkner and Joe Ludwig—honourable, in the true sense of the word, gentlemen all but especially Senator Ray. Members on all sides of politics could do worse than follow the sort of example that he set.

I love politics. I am so thankful that every day for the best part of a decade and a half, people have paid me to do what I love in that big ugly modernist building with crappy artworks in Canberra. All those 27 years ago, did I think I would be here? I do not know; I cannot remember. Perhaps I was just conceited enough to think that I would be. But I do know this: I did not come here to get a job; I came here to do a job. The Liberal Party and the people of New South Wales have given me a bully pulpit, and I intend to use it. I have been given a brain, and I intend to use it. I have been given a voice—and, by God, I intend to use it.
Peter Phelps is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and is a former long-term staffer in the Howard Government. He has a PhD in Australian History.

Why I am a Monarchist

2011-04-30T16:30:00.000+10:00

I had a great time watching the Royal Wedding yesterday. As a monarchist I was delighted, the whole event reaffirmed my faith in the Monarchy. As to why I'm a monarchist well, its a direct link to a thousand years of history and anchors the nation to the Anglosphere. It reminds us all that Shakespeare, Chaucer, the Magna Carter, Westminister democracy , the Common Law and the legends or Arthur and the Ring are as much a part of our heritage as that of the British people. Having the Queen, having the Union Jack in our flag is such a great in your face reminder of our links it should get through the thickest numbskulls' head.

Barry suspends solar energy scam

2011-04-29T21:19:00.000+10:00

An excellent decision by the O'Farrell government. All that the solar scheme did was benefit the well off who could afford solar panels at the expense of those who couldn't.

Solar bonus scheme suspended after blow out

April 29, 2011 - 2:28PM

The NSW government has suspended the Solar Bonus Scheme due to cost blowouts.

No new applications will be considered while the future viability of the program is considered next week, Energy Minister Chris Hartcher announced today.

Mr Hartcher said the scheme would add an estimated $651 million to the budget deficit over the four years to 2014-15.
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The scheme pays householders for all energy generated by residential solar panels, including what they use themselves as well as what they feed into the grid.

But it ran into trouble last year when the government was forced to slash the feed-in tariff.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/solar-bonus-scheme-suspended-after-blow-out-20110429-1e02j.html#ixzz1L0KnTf3u

Can politicians be trusted?

2011-04-27T21:40:00.000+10:00

Australians don't seem to think so but interestingly they believe the Liberals have more integrity. I think men like Abbott and O'Farrell have something to do with that.

Labor or Liberal? We don't want either latest polling shows

Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard may be all smiles, but latest polling reveals voters don't really trust either party. Picture: AP

Voters believe Labor, Libs will do anything to win
Poll shows voters looking more favourably on Libs
Rudd's removal, minority government not popular
VOTERS are re-appraising the Liberals and growing more hostile towards Labor after a year of dramatic changes in the way we view our two major political parties.
A majority of voters still believe both parties will do anything to win, and that both have lost touch with ordinary people.
However, an Essential Report survey released today also found voters are looking significantly more favourably on the Liberals, as they intensify their criticisms of the ALP.
And the cause of the switch appear to be the brutal removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister in June last year, and the actions of the minority Government after the inconclusive election of last August.
There has been a collapse in the regard for Labor's leadership and unity over the past 12 months, and an increasing number of voters are losing faith in Labor's integrity, the polling shows.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

The proportion of voters who thought Labor had a good team of leaders fell from 52 per cent in March last year to 34 per cent today.

The rating of the Liberal leadership had a modest improvement from 34 per cent to 40 per cent.
A year ago, 63 per cent said Labor would promise to do anything to win a vote. Today, that has jumped to 72 per cent of voters.

The Liberal rating on this question went in the other direction, falling from 72 per cent last year to 65 per cent today.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/labor-or-liberal-we-dont-want-either-latest-polling-shows/story-e6frfkw9-1226045725700#ixzz1KoiNXAVW

No Republic

2011-04-25T08:22:00.002+10:00

Looks like we won't be having a republic any time soon. good to hear!

Support for Australian republic at lowest level in 17 years

By Ben Packham and Matthew Franklin
From: The Australian
April 25, 2011 12:00AM

The Queen and Prince Philip have the public on side but same can't be said for their son or grandson. Picture:AP Source: AP

SUPPORT for an Australian republic is at its lowest level since the mid-1990s as growing ambivalence on the need for a home-grown head of state saps the nation's will for constitutional change.

With renewed interest in the monarchy as the royal wedding approaches, a special Newspoll puts support for a republic at just 41 per cent, with only 25 per cent strongly in favour.
According to the poll, conducted exclusively for The Australian this month, overall support for a republic is now 10 points below a pre-referendum peak of 51 per cent, and at its lowest for 17 years since hitting 39 per cent in March 1994.
The latest poll reveals 39 per cent of Australians are against a republic, while one in five have no opinion either way.

Elon Musk wants to go to Mars

2011-04-24T21:18:00.000+10:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeBillionaire Elon Musk (the man behind Paypal) wants to send astronauts to Mars. Considering his success with SpaceX, if any man can that man is Elon Musk.

SpaceX hopes to put an astronaut on Mars within 10 to 20 years, Elon Musk says
From: AFP
April 24, 2011
US company SpaceX hopes to put an astronaut on Mars within 10 to 20 years, the head of the firm says.

"We'll probably put a first man in space in about three years," Elon Musk told the Wall Street Journal.

"We're going all the way to Mars, I think ... best case 10 years, worst case 15 to 20 years.''

SpaceX is one of the two leading private space companies in the US and has won $75 million from the US space agency NASA to help its pursuit of developing a spacecraft to replace the space shuttle.

The California-based company last year completed its first successful test of an unmanned space capsule into orbit and back.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/deadline-10-years-destination-mars/story-fn5fsgyc-1226044123413#ixzz1KX14u3Pc

Certainly the hardware is becoming available. Multiple launches of the Falcon Heavy could be used to assemble the spaceship. Bigelow inflatables could serve as the habitat. Dragon capsules could land astronauts on the surface. However the human factors are another issue. Until the problems of microgravity and space radiation are solved human Mars missions are not going to happen.

Afghanistan

2011-04-23T23:43:00.000+10:00

Lets remember why we are in Afghanistan. The United States was attacked by Islamist terrorists in 2001 leading to the death of thousands of people, including 11 Australians. Afghanistan was the terrorist base of operation. The government of Afghanistan and the terrorists were effectively one. If the Taliban are not defeated or at least brought under control, it would again become a source terrorist attacks against the West including Australia.

Diggers must prepare for Taliban offensive, suicide bombers: Stephen Smith

Brendan Nicholson
From: The Australian
April 23, 2011 12:00AM

S

ource: The Australian

AUSTRALIAN commanders in Afghanistan are steeling themselves for major Taliban attacks to recapture areas previously held by insurgents.

And they expect a bombing campaign in Afghan cities to try to break the will of coalition nations to continue the decade-long war.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith told The Weekend Australian that in the past 12 months, considerable ground had been won from the insurgents in Oruzgan province, where the main Australian force is concentrated, and in Afghanistan overall.

"We are expecting strong efforts to reclaim that ground, so we're steeling ourselves for a difficult fighting season," Mr Smith said. "We know the Taliban is under pressure and will fight back."

He warned that the insurgents would mount more high-profile attacks, including suicide bombings, in an attempt to influence public opinion. The Taliban fighters have stepped up suicide attacks on police and army targets in the past month.

Since the Afghanistan campaign began in 2001, 23 Australian soldiers have been killed and 160 wounded. Ten of the fatalities have occurred since Anzac Day last year, a toll that Mr Smith said reflected the intensity of the fighting.

Australia is the 10th-biggest contributor to the Afghan coalition, and the largest outside NATO, with 1550 army, RAAF and navy personnel out of about 140,000 coalition personnel.

At a recent NATO meeting in Berlin, foreign ministers including Kevin Rudd were warned that as the summer fighting season in Afghanistan began, they should expect a big Taliban push to recapture territory. The commander of Australia's forces in the Middle East, Major General Angus Campbell, told The Weekend Australian the coalition had made substantial gains through the northern winter as Afghan troops and police, backed by mentors from Australia and allied forces, pushed into key areas of Afghanistan such as the Deh Rawood Valley, the Baluchi-Chora Valley and the Mirabad Valley.

But he warned that the insurgents were expected to fight back hard, and said those gains could be lost if care were not taken to consolidate the areas.

Just what is wrong with Labor?

2011-04-22T09:01:00.002+10:00

At the end of 2007 the Labor party held all the States and the Commonwealth government. Now the Liberals hold Victoria, NSW and Western Australia. Labor only holds Tasmania with the support of the Greens and the Gillard government would be thrown out in a land slide. They might still be able to hold Queensland but in South Australia they now have this:

MP child porn charges shatter South Australian Labor Party

Premier Mike Rann flew into Adelaide and straight into a media storm yesterday. Picture: Mark Brake Source: The Advertiser

South Australian Labor rocked by child porn charges
Shock allegations against MP add to party's woes
Poll shows Labor's primary vote stands at 24 per cent
THE Labor Party in South Australia is reeling from a sex scandal involving a Labor MP.
Poor poll results, party infighting and calls for a leadership change add to its woes.
Party MPs were in shock yesterday, after police seized laptop computers, computer discs and a mobile phone from the accused MP's home.
In a statement, Premier Mike Rann said: "Like others, I was shocked by reports I read in the newspaper this morning".
"For legal reasons, no person, including me as Premier, is at liberty to reveal the identity of the person, the subject of the allegations, or to disclose any information through which others may infer the identity of the person."
"It would be against the law for me to comment on the allegations, as the matter is now before the courts," the Premier said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/mp-sex-charges-shatter-labor/story-e6frfkvr-1226043161422#ixzz1KIP5cK73

Their poll numbers are even lower then NSW Labor which says a lot.

Villawood burns

2011-04-21T21:49:00.001+10:00

This is not going to help them stay her:

Flames erupt at Villawood Detention Centre as detainees protest

Paul Kent, Clementine Cuneo and AAP
From: The Daily Telegraph
April 21, 2011 12:29PM

A PROTEST at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre is expected to last one more night but there will be no more violence, detainees say.

Several detainees were still on the roof of Villawood Detention Centre this afternoon, where they erected banners pleading for help.

Staff were still trying to regain control of the facility after a night of rioting which saw nine demountable buildings destroyed by fire, and other buildings severely vandalised.

One of the roof-top protesters vowed not to come down until he was given a visa and freedom.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Telegraph, Majid Tarhizkar, an Iranian refugee who has been in detention for 20 months, said he had no regrets about taking part in the protest.

“Give me a Visa, give me the freedom”, he said.

“We need help for freedom ... we have had two years in detention and we need to get out.”

A spokesmen for the refugees said they are willing to come down if someone from the Department of Immigration talked to them.

However, Tarhizkar rejected this, saying: “if they want to talk to me they have to come on to the roof”.

“I am not going down until my lawyer gets a visa," he said.

"I promised everybody I would not go down so the answer is to keep myself on the roof”.

“Give me a visa and then I’ll come down, don’t give me a visa I’ll never come down”.

The remaining protesters have laid out several banners, one of which read "We Need Help".

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned the rioters that their claims could be affected.

"Violence doesn't get anyone, anywhere," she said.

Arnie President of EU ??!!

2011-04-20T20:44:00.000+10:00

Right, the man who helped stuff up California now wants to be president of the EU. Good luck with that.

Governator' may have sights on EU presidency

Updated Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:41am AEST

Schwarzenegger ended two terms as California's governor in January. (Reuters: Mario Anzuoni, file photo)

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who made a seamless transition from Hollywood film stardom to California governor, could have his sights set on a new job as next head of the European Union, US media reports.

The Austrian-born former body builder, 63, at loose ends as he tries to figure out what his next act should be, is reportedly being advised by aides to return to his native Europe to run for the EU presidency, Newsweek reports.

"In the next few years, the EU will be looking for a much more high-profile president - somebody who can unify Europe," Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Terry Tamminen, told the magazine.

"The French won't want a German, and the Germans won't want an Italian. How about a European-born person who went off to America and - could return to be the Washington or Jefferson of a new unified Europe?" said Tamminen, all but nominating his former boss for the job.

Welfare Reform

2011-04-20T20:26:00.001+10:00

Good article from my old Centrelink manager Patrick McClure. Unless we have radical welfare reform we are not going to get radical tax reform. Welfare is the main source of government expenditure. I support privatising much of the welfare state through personal savings and investments but we still need a safety net. Equalising payments would be a good step.

Equalise pension benefits

Patrick McClure
From: The Australian
April 20, 2011 12:00AM

THE objectives of welfare reform are to provide opportunities for people to participate in the economy through education, training and jobs, and to cut unemployment and a reliance on income support.
Real reform is always a balancing act between carrots (investment in training and incentives for individuals and employers) and sticks (obligations on individuals). The present income support system is complex, with many anomalies and disincentives to work. One of the hurdles to participation is the difference in payment levels between pensions and allowances.
For example, an individual on disability support pension receives $364 a week (including a pension supplement) compared with an unemployed person on Newstart allowance who receives $237.
This is a difference of about $130 and a real disincentive for an individual to move from a pension into work. If the job fails, the individual goes back on to an allowance and is $130 a week worse off.

At present there are 800,000 people on the disability support pension. Of this group about 30 per cent have a muscular-skeletal impairment and possibly could still do part-time work.
The welfare-to-work initiative under the Howard government in 2005 tightened up eligibility criteria for the disability pension.
Individuals are now assessed as having severe physical, intellectual or physical impairments, based on an impairment table where they need to score 20 points or more; as well as being unable to work for 15 hours a week for the next two years........

Texas University buys gold

2011-04-18T21:14:00.001+10:00

What do they know that we don't?

Texas University Endowment Storing About $1 Billion in Gold Bars
April 16, 2011, 5:50 AM EDT

By David Mildenberg and Pham-Duy Nguyen

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.

The fund, whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake last year, said Bruce Zimmerman, the endowment’s chief executive officer. The holdings are worth about $987 million, based on yesterday’s closing price of $1,486 an ounce for Comex futures.

The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”

Police raid book shop

2011-04-18T21:06:00.000+10:00

Surly the police have better things to do with their time:

Military police seize old training manuals from book shop
April 18, 2011 - 4:58PM

Military Police have raided a Canberra bookstore to confiscate what they described as classified material, even though the books they took were old training manuals that are easily bought on the internet or found in the Australian War Memorial library.

Some of the books date back to 1937, rendering them obsolete.

The Beyond Q Bookshop and cafe lost about $700 worth of its second-hand book stock last week when someone employed by the Australian Defence Force alerted Military Police to the existence of what Defence calls ''pams'' military doctrine training pamphlets.
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Twenty-one books were taken on Thursday, with the store's proprietors being told they were classified documents.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/military-police-seize-old-training-manuals-from-book-shop-20110418-1dlcn.html#ixzz1JxxezX1z

Its good to see such adult behavior in our hospitals

2011-04-17T10:38:00.001+10:00

A GRUDGE turned into an all-out brawl when a female doctor punched and struck a colleague in the head with a tray at one of Sydney's major hospitals.

athologist Dr Ushma Samaraweera was sacked over the fight at Prince of Wales Hospital during which she called fellow doctor Sue Fredericks a "f ... ing bitch".
The punch-up was detailed in the Industrial Relations Commission where Dr Samaraweera alleged she was unfairly dismissed. She failed to win her job back.
Tensions between the two women had been simmering for more than a year over work loads and they were not on speaking terms when they bumped into each other in the pathology unit.
Despite her 17cm height disadvantage, Dr Samaraweera used a "cricket bowl action" as she broke a document tray while trying to hit Dr Fredericks in the head, the commission heard.

The People's Republc of Marrickville

2011-04-15T21:05:00.000+10:00

Image via Wikipedia

Barry O'Farrell is dead right in demanding Marrickville Council drops it anti Israel ban. The Gaza Strip is not in Marrickville . The Councilors should have enough to do looking after streets and parks. The real problem is that the councilors have too much spare time on their hands. Marrickville has a population of about 78,000 with 12 councilors. Compare that with Parramatta which has about 167,000 people with 15 councilors. Parramatta is a real city too. In my view such small councils should be amalgamated away or at the very least have their councilors reduced from 12 to say, 7.

Bill Clinton remembers the Good old days...

2011-04-15T06:26:00.001+10:00

Bill Clinton Recalls "Romantic" Days of Prostitutes in Times Square

Thursday, Apr 14, 2011 | Updated 8:49 AM EDT

Getty Images

Former President Bill Clinton fondly remembers a "romantic" time when you could still get a prostitute in Times Square.

Clinton was at a news conference in Times Square with Mayor Bloomberg on Wednesday when a reporter asked him about the formerly seedy neighborhood.

Clinton said he first visited Times Square in 1964 when he was a freshman at Georgetown University. He said he saw "a hooker approach a man in a gray flannel suit." He said it was "pretty heavy stuff for a guy from Arkansas."

Clinton said the area is cleaner and safer now — and that's good.

Carbon tax compensation means higher taxes

2011-04-13T20:55:00.000+10:00

Can we all please all understand that using the Carbon Tax as a source of revenue for compensation means higher overall taxes? The whole point of the Carbon Tax is to reduce CO2. Which means if it work, the revenue base will shrink. However the demand for compensation will still remain. So were do you think the money is going to come from?

Image via Wikipedia

Mr Combet said China, the world's biggest polluter, was also the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels and wind turbines, and was investigating carbon pricing schemes in six regions.

The minister confirmed that under the scheme now being put together, pensioners, low and middle income earners would get more than 50 per cent of the revenue from carbon pricing to cover price increases

And some would be better off once the rebates were made.

The Greens carbon price negotiator, Christine Milne, said she supported "half the revenue from pricing pollution to help householders.''

"The Multi-Party Climate Committee is still working on the details of how this assistance will be delivered to householders, but there is complete agreement that it will be generous,'' said Senator Milne.

"There is also tremendous potential for householders and businesses to save more money and cut more pollution through upgrading their energy efficiency.''

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/were-not-alone-in-fight-to-cut-carbon-emissions-says-greg-combet/story-e6frfkw9-1226038562179#ixzz1JUfnVykb

Burqa ban

2011-04-11T20:01:00.000+10:00

Image via Wikipedia

I don't support a general government ban, but I do support property owners, including the government , having the right to set dress standards. The Burqa is a sign of female oppression and is anti Australian. It should be banned from all government property . Owners of shopping centers etc should have the right to ban it too.:

From today French police have the power to stop Muslim women wearing full-face veils and to threaten them with fines or prison if they refuse to expose their faces.
All over France posters have been put up reminding veil-clad women that “the Republic lives with its face uncovered”.
Last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed through a controversial law banning Muslim women from wearing burqas or niqabs in public. He said the law was to increase security but claimed it would liberate Muslim women from the oppression of their veil.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/for-life-liberty-and-the-burqa-muslim-women-defy-frances-ban-on-full-face-veils/story-e6frfkyi-1226037202428#ixzz1JIllaumF

United States government averts shutdown

2011-04-10T12:18:00.000+10:00

Faced with a huge 1.5 trillion dollar deficit American politicians have been trying to come up with budget cuts and avert a government shut down. After much huffing and puffing they agreed to a $38 billion cut. Theres's much discussion in the blogosphere on the worth of these reductions. In my view theres only one real important question to ask_ Will the cuts return the budget to surplus in a reasonable period, say five years? If the answer is no , then its a failure. Certainly Peter Schiff is not very happy. Might be a good time to buy precious metals.

She who must not be named (on facebook anyway)

2011-04-09T17:41:00.001+10:00

A few days ago an American politician, Lindsay Graham ,suggested burning Korans should banned as it could incite attacks against US troops in Afghanistan. Well, Ann Barnhardt didn't like that at all so she did a little video where she basically tore Senator Graham to shreds. You can see her vigorous defense of freedom of speech below. However Facebook doesn't like Ann . Every time I tried to link to the Youtube video it would be deleted. Even her name was deleted.I don't know about Mr Graham, but Facebook is certainly no friend of freedom of speech.

Renewable energy rorts

2011-04-09T15:57:00.001+10:00

Those solar roof panels are no more then a subsidy to the rich: (h/t Catallaxy Files) I hope Barry O'Farrell buts a stop to this nonsense.

Meanwhile another Gillard cabinet minister (not Ferguson) told me: "Large sections of Australia's rich are engaged in a conspiracy to screw the poor in the name of saving the planet."

He was talking about feed-in tariffs, a classic rort. They are applied to a better or worse (usually worse) extent in most states and function as a regressive tax. Under this policy high income earners are subsidised to supply renewable energy to the grid from their installed solar panels.

Where is the rort worse?

Exactly where you would expect: in the Australian Capital Territory, home of income re-distribution towards the better-off in the name of clean energy. Indeed, it is calculated that wealthy Canberrans will receive a 900 per cent subsidy for every kilowatt hour of electricity they supply to the grid. Yes, this is the socially progressive Labor Party in action.

Disgusting!

2011-04-08T22:28:00.000+10:00

This is just too disgusting for words:

PDATE 3pm: QUEENSLAND police are investigating the callous bashing of a Toowoomba boy who has been in the limelight for surviving January's devastating flash flood that killed his brother and mother.

Blake Rice was allegedly brutalised by a mob of teenage boys, who used sticks to break his collarbone before gloating about their actions on Facebook.

The boy received national media attention in January when he was saved from the raging waters by his 13-year-old brother, Jordan, who heroically told rescuers: "Take my brother first."

The thugs reportedly attacked the boy because they had recognised him from news reports.

Lifeline Darling Downs chief executive Derek Tuffield said Blake's father John Tyson told him up to six youths assaulted Blake.

"I met with Blake and his father on Tuesday at a function when the prime minister was in Toowoomba,'' Mr Tuffield said.

Carbon credit scam

2011-04-08T21:56:00.000+10:00

I'm not surprised by this story. If anything an ETS would be worse then a carbon tax as it would create more opportunities for scammers.

SYDNEY carbon credits company thought to have been running some of the world's biggest offsets deals appears to be a fake, shifting paper certificates instead of saving forests and cutting greenhouse emissions.

Shift2neutral says it has made high-profile events such as the Australian PGA golf championship and the Sydney Turf Club's world-first ''green race day'' carbon neutral.

But deals to generate more than $1 billion worth of carbon credits by saving jungles from logging in the Philippines, the Congo and across south-east Asia do not seem to exist.

The global network of investors and carbon offset certifiers supposed to be brokering deals with foreign presidents and the World Bank can be traced to a modest office in a shopping village in Westleigh, staffed by shift2neutral's founder, Brett Goldsworthy.

Awesome!

2011-04-07T21:09:00.000+10:00

Iron Man Mark V Transforming Briefcase Suit

Govt to make cigarette packs olive green

2011-04-07T20:57:00.001+10:00

Image via WikipediaI really do think it time the government left smokers alone.

Govt to make cigarette packs olive green: "The government wants all cigarette packs to be olive green, the least attractive colour for smokers."

It gets worse

2011-04-07T20:35:00.000+10:00

The ADFA sex webcam scandal is bringing out even more disturbing allegations. Now its allegations of rape and cover up:

On Thursday, new claims of rape and sexual misconduct at the college came to light.
A former divisional officer who worked at the academy in 2006 says he quickly left because of the culture of covering up misbehaviour and misconduct.
"I had a cadet in my actual division who was actually stalking and harassing another first-year female," Mark told AAP on Thursday.
"He blatantly lied to me and my divisional sergeant.
"I asked for action to be taken against him in the way of formal charges; they wouldn't do it."
A woman in Brisbane said her niece was raped while training at the academy.
"She was told by her commanding officer to suck it up," the woman told ABC radio in Brisbane on Thursday.
"The defence force did absolutely nothing."

Now lets be clear, these are allegations not proven facts. But if I was the Minister I would want a full independent investigation of the ADFA. I find it hard to believe that the web cam scandal is some one off. I suspect a misogynist culture that turns a blind eye to such activities.

Who pays tax

2011-04-06T20:30:00.000+10:00

Sinclair Davidson over at Catallaxy files has been doing the numbers. As can be seen its the rich who pay most of the income tax in Australia.

Unexceptable

2011-04-06T19:58:00.002+10:00

It is utterly unacceptable that cadets would humiliate a fellow cadet this way. In a few years time they will be officers literally making life and death decisions . They have to be man and women of the highest integrity and honor. The cadet who set up the webcam should be thrown out of the academy pronto. The others who were watching the video should be severely disciplined. And she was told to apologise!? For what? I think the ADFA may need a new Commandant.

The woman at the centre of a Defence sex scandal reportedly was told to apologise to her fellow cadets after she went public with her story.

The 18-year-old student at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) unknowingly was filmed by webcam while having sex with another student.

Six other students were watching on in an adjacent room.

Following a meeting on Tuesday with senior staff, including ADFA head Commandant Bruce Kafer, the woman was told she would have to apologise for embarrassing fellow students at the elite academy by going public, Network Ten reported.

Julia slipping

2011-04-05T21:35:00.000+10:00

Image via WikipediaTony Abbott's attacks on the Government's carbon tax are having an effect. The Liberals now have a 10 point lead over Labor and Julia Gillard.:

After a fortnight that has seen Labor decimated in the New South Wales state election and Prime Minister Julia Gillard intensifying her criticism of the Greens, the Coalition has seized a two-party preferred lead of 55 to 45 per cent.

It's a sharp turnaround from Labor's 51-49 per cent lead a fortnight ago but almost the same as the Coalition lead of 54-46 a month ago.

It suggests either voters are highly volatile or the Newspoll a fortnight ago may have been a rogue poll.

In primary vote terms, today's Newspoll says Labor is at 32 per cent, down 4 points in a fortnight. A month ago Labor hit a record low 30 per cent.

If this keeps up we could have a new Prime Minister in a few months.

Why I'm not paying much attention to media reports of the Japanese Nuclear disaster

2011-04-05T21:16:00.000+10:00

On March 13th I posted the article below on my Facebook page. As of today no member of the public has been killed by the nuclear disaster. However 20,000 have been killed by the tsunami and earth quake.

**************************

I think this is very much the case when all mass media reports on the problems at Fukushima Daiichi reactors need to be treated with caution. Remember:

1) The area has been through a massive natural disasters. The normal lines of communication are no longer there.

2) Few of the English speaking reporters know Japanese, thats going to be a big handicap

3) Few have the necessary technical training to understand the issues

4) The people who actually know whats going on will be working flat out to get the reactors under control not talking to journalists.

So its not surprising we had one TV reporter who was sent there admitting she had no idea whats going on. But they are over there and are paid to get the Story. So a Story we will get, how factual that Story will be is another matter.

Personally, I'm paying little attention to news reports. What I am following are specialist sites like

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Battle_to_stabilise_earthquake_reactors_1203111.html

And blogs by people with years of hand on experience in the nuclear industry including the operation of reactors.
like:

http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/

Muslim resistance

2011-04-05T21:03:00.000+10:00

This Pakistani entertainer sure gave it to the Mufti!

School bans Easter at Easter Hat Parade

2011-04-05T20:52:00.000+10:00

This is just ridiculous. There's a large Jewish community in Bondi, did the school react to some pressure from that group?

A SCHOOL ditched the word Easter from its Easter Hat Parade to try to teach students about religious "tolerance".

Bondi Public School principal Michael Jones wrote to parents about the decision, saying Easter was just one of many religious celebrations at this time of year.

"As we are an inclusive community which celebrates our diverse range of cultures and beliefs, I have not called it an Easter Hat parade," Mr Jones wrote in the school's latest newsletter.

"Many religious celebrations occur at this time of year but we want to include all students in any celebration at school. Teachers will talk to students about the different celebrations and the emphasis will be on tolerance and understanding."

However the ruling on Friday's fundraising event was overturned yesterday, after parents from the school in Sydney's east expressed anger.

I'm back!

2011-04-05T20:21:00.002+10:00

For the last few months I have been away from blogging. I was very busy helping Liberal Kirsty Lloyd try to unseat Nathan Rees , a former Premier, from the state seat of Toongabbie. It was a tough fight which unfortunately we lost but only by a couple of hundred votes. We had limited resources but now Toongabbie is Labor's most marginal seat. Congratulations for Kirsty Lloyd and her team for a magnificent effort !

Sweet Mickey becomes President

2011-04-05T20:09:00.001+10:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeHaiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. They have just elected an entertainer Michel Martelly , also known as "Sweet Mickey" as their new President.I really do hope they know what they are doing.

Merchants push for internet taxation

2010-12-19T19:59:00.000+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

Right. So Soloman Lew from Premier Invest wants to tax online sales. God knows how much he has made over the years from importing merchandise. But apparrently we can't have ordinary people benefiting like that can we:

SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Retail magnate Solomon Lew slammed the Australian government's inquiry into online shopping Sunday, saying the move doesn't constitute "decisive policy action" and that there is an "urgent need" to address taxation on online purchases of less than A$1,000.

The recent strength of the Australian dollar, the rise in international outlets shipping to Australia and a mixed start to the holiday shopping season has prompted retailers to call on the government for action on the issue of taxing online shopping. The government responded by announcing a Productivity Commission review this weekend, but Lew said Sunday that is an insufficient response.

Hope the Productivity Commision tells him to f*** off.

Privitise Australia Post

2010-12-19T18:41:00.000+11:00

Image by Gerard's World via Flickr

According to the Sunday Telegraph Australia Post's profits are declining and, unless it closes some offices, will soon be losing money:

The organisation, which only a few years ago boasted $500 million in profits saw its earnings drop to $100 million last year and letter volumes fell by 5.5 per cent.

"If we do not take action now to reform our business model, Australia Post will lose money in the next few years. This is not an option," the company said in a blunt warning in its annual report. The federal government is Australia Post's sole shareholder and has benefited from hefty dividends over the years.

But if the company cannot remain profitable it will require government funds to keep operating. Australia Post currently has $500 million in cash reserves to bolster its operations and has embarked on a restructure that will include spending $150 million on redundancies.

I can hear the complaints already, but it makes no sense to keep uneconomic outlets going. If Australia Posts ends up in the red it will need to be subsidised by the taxpayer or the consumer through higher postage charges. The battlers of Blacktown will be subsidising the toffs of Woolahra

Here's a better suggestion, privatize Australia Post. It would then be able to raise private capital and reorganize itself into a modern organisation . They have the most extensive face to face public contact network in the country. Theres no reason why they shouldn't be able to compete with government organisations like Centrelink, Medicare, RTA etc as well as additional private business.

Why Australia is the best country in the world

2010-12-16T17:11:00.000+11:00

Australia has the smallest government and one of the most equal societies in the world. So says David Alexander in the current CIS Policy. Anyone interested in social policy should read the article. The reason seems to be our targeted welfare system and relatively minimal handouts to the rich. Note, we seem to have become a more equal society under Prime Minister Howard the Great.

NSW privatizes electricity

2010-12-14T13:22:00.000+11:00

Kristina Keneally (OH-D) is set to announce the sale of electricity assets today for 5 billion dollars. Remember when Bob Carr wanted to sell the power stations? He was expecting to get $30 billion for them. The give away price says all that needs to be said about Labor competence but I do support the sale, afterall does anyone really believe we would ever get any more from them? The good news is that it will be a Barry O'Farrell government who gets to spend the money. Hopefully it will be for needed infrastructure projects not more public servants.

Condi Rice slaps down Katie Couric over Iraq

2010-12-13T20:28:00.000+11:00

Condoleeza Rice wastes no time correcting some lefty journo over Iraq. Hope to see her serve in the upcoming Palin administration.

Craig Emerson supports unilateral free trade

2010-12-12T20:45:00.000+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

I said a while back that Craig Emerson is on of the Labor governments' better ministers so I'm glad to see he is proposing tariff reductions. Its good to see the Liberals supporting him too.:

In a speech to the Lowy Institute yesterday, Dr Emerson said Australian trade policy had become intertwined with its international political agenda when it should be conducted purely on the basis of Australia's economic interests. Dr Emerson, as reported in The Australian, said he wanted to return the policy focus to that of former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, by recommitting to unilateral liberalisation based on the central principle that trade liberalisation was central to productivity growth.

Kristina Keneally (OH-D) wants a US style election

2010-12-12T09:05:00.003+11:00

Image via WikipediaApparently our Premier Kristina Keneally (OH-D) thinks she can win the next election by turning it into a US style competition between her and Barry O'Farrell.

KRISTINA KENEALLY wants to force a presidential-style election, focusing the minds of voters on a choice between two leaders.

Drastically behind in the polls and with a scandal-prone team lacking credibility, Labor strategists have urged the Premier to try to frame the election as ''brand Kristina'' against ''brand Barry''...

Animosity between the pair has intensified markedly since the final question time of Parliament, when Mr O'Farrell presented her with a copy of The Little Aussie Fact Book, suggesting she still had much to learn about her adopted country.

''It was a juvenile joke that had no context and seemed to have no intent other than to make the point that I wasn't born in Australia,'' Ms Keneally told The Sun-Herald.

''I think it's hypocritical to address multicultural groups weekend after weekend, saying he values the contribution of migrants to this country but then to allow his backbench and himself to act in another way in the Parliament.

So you complain that Barry is drawing attention to your lack of understanding of Australian culture yet you want to run some sort of US governor race. I don't think that is going to work

Retiring Labor MP slams Lebanese Muslim Association

2010-12-12T08:16:00.000+11:00

The Member for Bankstown, Labors' Tony Stewart, has been criticizing Muslim groups in his electorate:

Mr Stewart used his final speech to State Parliament to slam the Lakemba-based LMA and its chairman Samier Dandan, claiming Dandan wanted Muslims to be "recognised and treated differently" to other Australians because of their faith.

"To use religious background as a political focus is a backward and medieval approach," he said.

Mr Stewart said he was responding to reports Mr Dandan had told more than 5000 Muslims at its November Eid al-Adha festival Muslim people should have their say, and the LMA planned to run candidates in a number of seats, including Bankstown, at the March election.

"If there is any marginalisation of Australian Muslims, it is occurring because of people who seem to be suffering from a siege mentality syndrome," he told parliament. Mr Stewart said government in Australia had always represented the community rather than religious faiths.

It might have been more useful for him to attack the MLA while he was still a minister but I suppose he was too busy hanging around with strippers. The Labor Party is far to dependent on these ethnic groups.

Glad I'm not a Qantas shareholder

2010-12-04T15:12:00.000+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

What a stuff up. A plane that was supposed to carry 450 people can only carry 80:

QANTAS is alleging in a multi-million-dollar damages claim againstRolls-Royce that it could now carry only 80 passengers across the Pacific in its Airbus 380s, under new operating rules for their troubled engines.

But the new rules imposed by Rolls-Royce since one of its Trent 900 engines exploded on a Qantas A380 near Singapore last month mean that the world's biggest passenger jet is not a commercial proposition on the airline's Australia-US route.

Qantas, which has suspended the route, has asked for damages and costs.

The national carrier is also seeking a declaration from the court ordering the UK engine maker to fund a $1 million credit note relating to a guarantee against "uncontained engine failure" - to stop engine parts perforating the outer shield of an engine.

Rolls-Royce is accused of negligence and breach of contract.

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Labor begins to consider nuclear power

2010-12-01T20:16:00.001+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

Some good news, a few prominent Labor politicians are calling for their party to begin debating nuclear power for Australia:

Report author Dr John Burgess said nuclear power had two key benefits - it produced continuous output and had no carbon emissions.

"So compared to some of the other technologies it looks quite favourable financially at that time when the carbon price is climbing up to $80 a tonne in about 2030," Dr Burgess told ABC radio.

A number of Labor MPs and senators have seized on the report and want the ALP's national conference to overturn the ban.

Ms Gillard said she remained opposed to nuclear power, adding anyone who would argue to scrap Labor's longstanding policy "is setting themselves up for a pretty tough argument".

"In this country ... nuclear power doesn't stack up as an economically efficient source of power for our nation," she said.

NSW Labor powerbroker Steve Hutchins said the party should keep an open mind on the issue.

"I would think people would ask us to consider all forms of alternative energy to make sure that we can continue to turn on our lights and make sure we have industry to work at," he said.

The only way we will have nuclear power in Australia is for both major parties to support it so the sooner there's a mature discussion the better.

Nukes are the way to go

2010-11-29T21:49:00.000+11:00

Image via WikipediaIf you believe in anthropomorphic global warming and don't support nuclear power you are just not fair dinkum:

Nuclear is the least-cost, low-carbon, baseload power source
Climate change professor supports nuclear in newly published analysis
When a carbon price that is high enough to drive a technology switch eventually kicks in, only nuclear power will keep the lights on, keep electricity costs down, and meet long-term emission reduction targets, say three Australian authors in a paper published this week in international peer-reviewed journal Energy*.
Introducing a carbon price changes relative technology power costs because rates of carbon emissions differ between technologies.
“In order to understand where our future electricity will come from” says lead author Martin Nicholson, “we need the best possible insights into generating technologies, their costs and their carbon emissions”
.

After analysing a wealth of peer-reviewed studies on market needs, technology performance, life-cycle emissions and electricity costs, the researchers conclude that only five technologies currently qualify for low-emission baseload generation. Of these, nuclear power is the standout solution. Nuclear is the cheapest option at all carbon prices and the only one able to meet the stringent greenhouse gas emission targets envisaged for 2050.
Only one of these five qualifiers comes from the renewable energy category – solar thermal in combination with heat storage and gas backup. However, on a cost basis, it is uncompetitive, as are the carbon capture and storage technologies.
Professor Barry Brook, director of climate science at the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute says: “I am committed to the environment, personally and professionally. The evidence is compelling that nuclear energy must play a central role in future electricity generation. No other technology can meet our demand for power while reducing carbon emissions to meet global targets”.
Martin Nicholson says: “Researching for my book Energy in a Changing Climate made me appreciate the central issues in producing low-emission electrical energy. This new paper supports my view that Australia must prepare immediately for a future where most of its electricity will eventually come from nuclear energy”.
The researchers also note that, given the importance of reducing electricity generator emissions, the need to keep electricity costs down, and the expansion of nuclear power globally, it seems essential that the Australian government rethink its nuclear energy policy.

Say no to raising drinking age

2010-11-28T20:55:00.001+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Nile wants to raise the drinking age to 21 and our American Premier, Kristina Keneally, wants to have a debate on the subject. The only reason I can see is to divert peoples attention from the self destruction of her own party. If 18 year olds can be expected to vote the can be expected to drink responsibly. Bad behavior caused by public drunkenness are a policing issue. Fortunately Barry O'Farrell has rejected the proposal.

Liberals shaft the Greens

2010-11-28T16:09:00.003+11:00

Image by mugley via FlickrThe Victorian Liberals had the good sense not to preference the Greens. The result was the Greens didn't get the seats they were hoping for:

FEDERAL Greens leader Bob Brown tried to put a brave face on his party's poor showing in the Victorian election.

Dr Brown said today that the Greens had increased their vote across Victoria, but the Liberal Party's decision to preference Labor ahead of the Greens had cost his party three inner city seats.

"Had the Greens picked up those three seats the Liberals would be in a much stronger position to claim a moral authority at least to government," he said.

I hope other states follow the Victorians Liberals. The Labor Party are our fellow Australians who we disagree with. Te Greens are the Spawn Of Satan.

Sarah Palin knocks out leftest nincompoops

2010-11-26T20:01:00.002+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

I can't get enough of Sarah. Yesterday leftest nincompoops made a big thing of Palin's minor slip of the tongue. Anyone who bothered to listen to the interview would know she meant South Korea and she corrected herself a few seconds latter.

Today she delivered the knock out punch:

My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate – fromthe FBI’s 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. And let’s face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, a breathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don’t know what the term is in Austrian for that…

Of course, the paragraph above is based on a series of misstatements and verbal gaffes made by Barack Obama (I didn’t have enough time to do one for Joe Biden). YouTube links are provided just in case you doubt the accuracy of these all too human slips-of-the-tongue. If you can’t remember hearing about them, that’s because for the most part the media didn’t consider them newsworthy. I have no complaint about that. Everybody makes the occasional verbal gaffe – even news anchors.

Obviously, I would have been even more impressed if the media showed some consistency on this issue. Unfortunately, it seems they couldn’t resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline. The one word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us.

If the media had bothered to actually listen to all of my remarks on Glenn Beck’s radio show, they would have noticed that I refer to South Korea as our ally throughout, that I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and that I made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime. The media could even have done due diligence and checked my previous statements on the subject, which have always been consistent, and in fact even ahead of the curve. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? (And for that matter, why not just make up stories out of thin air – like the totally false hard news story which has run for three days now reporting that I lobbied the producers of “Dancing with the Stars” to cast a former Senate candidate on their show. That lie is further clear proof that the media completely makes things up without doing even rudimentary fact-checking.)

“Hope springs eternal” as the poet says. Let’s hope that perhaps, just maybe, they might get it right next time. When we the people are effective in holding America’s free press accountable for responsible and truthful reporting, then we shall all have even more to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

- Sarah Palin

Freedom wins one in Parramatta

2010-11-25T21:49:00.000+11:00

A few months ago the nannies , lead by Big Nanny Clr Michael McDermott, managed to ban smoking from out door dinning in Parramatta. Fortunately thanks to a campaign by the restaurateurs, the ban has been overturned.

The council’s turnaround of its July decision came after a restaurant advocate addressed councillors on Monday night before a 8000-signature petition against the ban was presented by Cr Lorraine Wearne.

The restaurant advocate, Michael Rihma, made an impassioned plea that restaurants would lose business if the smoking ban was imposed.

“This is not an issue about supporting smoking - this is a fundamental issue of our democratic right,” Mr Rihma said in the council’s public forum.

“The council made a decision without due diligence. Not one business out of over 100 in the Parramatta region I have spoken to was consulted about this decision before it was made.”

Cr Wearne, supported by Liberal councillors and former lord mayor Paul Garrard - who reversed his earlier position - voted to overturn its July 25 resolution.

They voted to have “broad consultation” with diners and restaurateurs over the next 12 months before deciding which stance to take.

A shaken deputy mayor Cr Michael McDermott, who drove the smoking ban, was caught unawares by the motion, which was not on the business paper.

He told the Advertiser that he “feels betrayed” by the Liberal councillors, led by Cr John Chedid, who gave him no indication that the issue was to be debated on Monday night.

McDermott feels betrayed? Clr McDermott should know all about betrayal . He was a member of the Liberal Party who left to stand against Liberals as an independent. Apparently he will be standing in the up coming state election as an independent too.

Please Julia, dress up!

2010-11-23T20:34:00.000+11:00

Our Prime Minister's dress sense is a disgrace. She is representing the country surely she can do better. Have a look at this:

Its getting to the stage were I'm willing to pay extra taxes so she can afford a good dressmaker. Have a look what the Governor General can do:

The beginning of the second GFC?

2010-11-23T20:10:00.000+11:00

The Irish government has collapsed due to the debt crisis. Spain and Portugal also have severe debt problems, and of course there the big one, the USA.

The impending collapse of the Irish government after an expensive bailout seemed only to reconfirm fears that the financial crisis was far from contained.

Analysts warned that deeply indebted countries like Portugal and Spain that are pushing through unpopular budget cuts may soon face an uncomfortable choice: punishment by financial markets that will hammer any laxity in deficit-cutting with exorbitant interest rates, or by an angry electorate annoyed by prolonged economic hardship.

“It will be the same story with all these countries — Ireland is just ahead of the game,” said Desmond Lachman, a former policy executive from the International Monetary Fund who is now with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “They all have a fixed exchange rate and have to make these massive adjustments, so people are asking whether they are on the right path.”

Obama achieves Reagan's dream

2010-11-21T15:41:00.001+11:00

Back in the 1980's one of President Reagan's great hopes was for the USA and the Soviet Union to jointly build a missile defense shield. Well, it looks like it may finally happen thanks to President Obama:

LISBON - Russia agreed Saturday to cooperate with NATO on building a U.S.-planned anti-missile network in Europe as part of what was described as a new era in security relations between the former Cold War enemies.

The accord, announced at a NATO summit in Lisbon, symbolized a conclusion by the United States and its main European allies that Russia is not a threat to be protected from but a potential ally in girding the continent against possible ballistic missile attacks from Iran or elsewhere.

I hope he follows the Gipper more often.

Ethanol from coal not foodstuff

2010-11-21T15:29:00.000+11:00

I have been saying for some time that alcohol fuels are a viable alternative to oil based fuels. However on of the problems with ethanol is that making it from wheat or corn makes dubious sense. Its only survives in the US with government subsidies. However there is an alternative make it from coal and other hydrocarbons:

DALLAS (Nov. 9, 2010) -- Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global technology and specialty materials company, today announced its intention to construct manufacturing facilities in China and the U.S. to utilize recently-developed advanced technology for the production of ethanol for chemical applications and other industrial uses. Celanese’s innovative process technology builds on the company’s industry-leading acetyl platform and integrates new technologies to produce ethanol using basic hydrocarbon feedstocks.

“We are very excited about our technology advancement as it allows us to address growing global demand for ethanol in industrial applications,” said Dave Weidman, chairman and chief executive officer. “The company has successfully integrated newly developed technologies with elements of our proprietary advanced acetyl platform to provide an economically-advantaged solution for global ethanol needs.”

Of course there is another alternative, use methanol instead of ethanol. Converting hydrocarbons and organic matter to methanol is old tech and methanol works fine flex fuel cars.

Quantitative Easing Explained

2010-11-13T21:20:00.000+11:00

Why the world's economy is facing collapse:

$1.1 Billion wasted on solar power

2010-11-11T23:39:00.000+11:00

This should not be a surprise to anyone:

MORE than $1 billion of taxpayers' money was wasted on subsidies for household solar roof panels that favoured the rich and did little to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, a scathing review has found.

The review of the now scrapped federal government solar rebate scheme, conducted by ANU researchers Andrew Macintosh and Deb Wilkinson, also found the rebates did little to generate a solar manufacturing industry in Australia, instead sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars offshore.

Mr Macintosh, deputy head of ANU's Centre for Climate Law and Policy, told The Age yesterday the rebate had been ''beautiful politics, terrible policy''.

''I can't see there is anything to be gained continuing to subsidise rooftop solar PV [photovoltaics] in areas where households have easy access to the energy grid,'' he said.

Reform Taxation and Reform the States

2010-09-13T22:23:00.001+10:00

I had another article published at Menzies House:

Let’s face it, our state governments are a disgrace. Problems such as lack of public transport, poor roads and failing hospitals are primary the responsibility of the states but they seem incapable of doing much about them. So poor have state governments become at doing their job that there are increasing requests for the Commonwealth government to take over various responsibilities such as hospitals and even calls to abolish the states altogether.

It was not always so. Not all that long ago we had Premiers like Wran, Bolte and of course, Sir Joh, men who understood they were leaders and were willing to use the economic tools they had to maximize the economic development of their state. Increasingly our Premiers are degenerating into managers who at best do the bidding of the bureaucracy.

One of the reasons for the current state of affairs is that the States are losing control of their finances. The more dependent they become on Commonwealth grants the less responsibility they have and they can always blame Canberra for their woes. Say what you want about the pre-GST state taxes, but at least they were under the direct control of the State governments. The GST on the other hand is dished out accordingly to a formula without their direct control.

Recently there have been suggestions the GST rate be increased in order to cut federal taxes. The big problem with that is that the GST taxes are all allocated to the states. Merging it into a Commonwealth tax as well would just confuse the matter further.

Here's a better idea. The GST raises about $45 billion, income tax about $137 billion. So give the GST completely to the Commonwealth. At the same time transfer a percentage of the income tax base to the States. While we are at it transfer other federal grants the same way. It would be a tax collected by the feds but under the control of the states. The percentage would differ from state to state but that’s OK as the swap would be revenue neutral. However, if they want to cut or increase the tax they could do so. No longer would they need to beg the feds for funds. States would have an incentive to cut taxes to increase economic growth in their states. The Commonwealth government could increase the GST rate to cut other taxes. Premiers would again be in control of their financial destiny and hopefully we would get better government.

We have a Prime Minister

2010-09-07T16:26:00.000+10:00

Image by MystifyMe Concert Photography™ via FlickrWell, Julia Gillard is our Prime Minister. I think she deserves the Green Marxist and Agrarian Socialists. Let her try to govern with them. I' glad Tony Abbott didn't sell out to that lot. They're all yours now honey.

Home truths

2010-09-05T07:26:00.000+10:00

In the post war years housing prices were about 3 times median household incomes and we managed to house millions of new families. Now they are now about 6 times the price . Maybe if we returned to the same level of regulation we had pre 1970 we would be far better off. See Bob Day's essay.

Overdose

2010-09-05T07:22:00.001+10:00

This Swedish documentary goes for 45 minutes but is well worth watching. Think "stimulus packages " are a good thing? Think again.

Renewable energy is going to cost us

2010-08-30T07:02:00.000+10:00

Image via Wikipedia
We are going to pay to the roof for the windmill scam:

THE chief executive of one of the country's biggest energy retailers has warned that power prices are set to increase dramatically.

Origin Energy boss Grant King said that complying with the mandatory renewable energy target (RET) and network spending would put upward pressure on energy prices.

"That's not of our making, or anybody other than policymakers," Mr King told The Australian.

"That's just the inevitable and logical consequences of the policies" that governments are implementing.

Australians like the Queen

2010-08-29T17:39:00.000+10:00

Image via Wikipedia

As a firm monarchist I'm heartened by this poll:

SYDNEY — Support for Australia becoming a republic has slumped to a 16-year-low, according to the results of a poll released Sunday which found that one-in-three people never want to break ties with Britain.

Asked whether Australia should become a republic, 48 percent of the 1,400 polled said they wanted to keep things as they are for now -- with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

While 44 percent said they supported a constitutional change at some point, the Nielsen poll published in The Sun-Herald found that this figure had dropped some eight percent since a 2008 survey.

Thirty-one percent said Australia should never become a republic while 34 percent said Australia should become a republic after the reign of the Queen, for whom Australians have an enduring affection, and 29 percent said they wanted a republic as soon as possible.

This is ridiculous

2010-08-29T07:28:00.001+10:00

Rob Oakeshott, one of the Three Amigos, or should I say the Three Stooges, does not like people telling him to hurry up and make up his mind. Tough, I and I'm sure lot of other Australians are getting sick of tall three of them. Oakshott seems to think he may blackmail Tony Abbott by declaring he will force another election. Well, what would the result of another election be? There can only be three alternatives., A clear Labor win, a clear liberal win or another hung parliament. If the Liberals or Labor win, the most likely option, he would lose any political leverage he has. If another hung parliament happens he would be in the same position.

I'm beginning to think the best outcome would be for them to support Julia Gillard. Lets have a government Labor, Green and Independents government. Let Australia see what that means. I have no doubt the following election would have a far clearer result.

Abbott hold out

2010-08-26T21:10:00.001+10:00

Image by MystifyMe Concert Photography™ via Flickr

Tony Abbott has the sense not to let the Three Amigos black mail him. Abbott fought the election with the promise to cut the waste, stop new taxes and stop the boats. Hung parliament or no hung parliament that's what he has to deliver if he becomes Prime Minister. If the independents or he Greens try to stop his agenda he should always have the option of calling an election.

Why I'm glad Malcolm Turnbull is still in Parliament

2010-08-17T15:30:00.000+10:00

Malcolm Turnbull takes apart Labor's National Broadband Network in seven easy steps. To long for me to quote but worth reading.

A brief hiatus

2010-07-31T19:34:00.001+10:00

As you may be aware Australia will be either Standing Up or Moving Forward on 21 August. I'm busy trying to ensure we can take Real Action so there's unlikely to be many posts from me until after the election. In the meantime I'll leave you with this little video.

Conroy shelves internet censorship

2010-07-09T21:12:00.000+10:00

Some good news Communication Minister has shelved plans to censor the internet.

THE Federal Government's controversial plan to censor the internet has been shelved until a review can be conducted into what sort of material should be banned.

Under the plan, internet providers like Telstra and Optus would be forced to block access to web pages containing RC material.

RC stands for "refused classification".

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today admitted Australians were concerned about what kind of material could fall into that category, and said he would push for a review of the classification guidelines.

"Some sections of the community have expressed concern about whether the range of material included in the RC category, under the National Classification Scheme, correctly reflects current community standards," Senator Conroy said

However I wouldn't relax just yet. All he has done is to remove the issue for the upcoming election. Expect internet censorship to be reintroduced afterwards.

Gillard stuffs it

2010-07-08T20:29:00.001+10:00

Oh dear I was hoping for more sense from her but I should have known better:

DEPUTY East Timor PM Jose Luis Guterres yesterday indicated his country would be unable to accept Australia's plan to build an asylum-seeker processing centre.

Amid increasing signs of opposition to the plan in East Timor, Ms Gillard yesterday held discussions with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and pledged $25 million to fund a crackdown on people-smuggling across the region, including patrol boats and surveillance planes to help Jakarta's efforts.

East Timor leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta will meet this morning to debate the Australian government's plan, but Mr Guterres yesterday said his country had previously rejected a similar request from former foreign minister Alexander Downer and was still "not in a condition to accept a detention centre".

It might have been an idea to clear it up with the East Timores leaders first don't you think?