Over the weekend we saw yet another awful consequence of the implimentation of The Greens' policy on asylum seekers. A refugee boat sank off the coast of Indonesia en route to Australia with the drowning of over 200 people.
The broadsheet press are trying to pin the blame onto a certain people smuggler who is being described as "a snakehead". But aren't they missing the point? The whole people smuggling industry had been closed down by the Howard government in the early 2000s with the Nauru solution and offshore processing. When Labor came to power in 2007 there was one asylum seeker in detention. Only 43% of refugees processed under the Nauru solution came to Australia, the rest were either sent back home or resettled in other countries. All that changed under Labor which dismantled the Nauru solution in 2008 and brought in what they touted as "a more compassionate approach to asylum seekers". Australia was open for business again, a new generation of people smugglers came onto the scene and Australia was swamped.
Under Labor and The Greens over 500 people have drowned trying to come to Australia. My my, what a compassionate approach to asylum seekers!
During the year we saw several silly thought bubbles by Gillard regarding possible "solutions" blurted out before anybody was ever consulted. First she said a detention centre would be built in Timor-Leste. Oh no, said the Timorese, we're not going to wear that. Then she said the Manus Island detention centre would be reopened. The Papua New Guineans quickly put the kybosh on that. Then she came up with the so-called Malaysian solution. The Greens stomped on that by deserting their coalition partners and refusing to vote for it in parliament. In a breathtaking display of failing to see the wood for the trees, she and others in the Labor party tried to blame Tony Abbott. As a consequence we now have The Greens' open door asylum seeker policy in place. Come one, come all. Disappear into the general community, live off Centrelink benefits and bring your relatives in a few months. Is it any wonder the people smugglers are now doing a roaring trade with thousands rushing to get onto the boats?
The awful immaturity and naivety of The Greens and their moronic far-left policies has been exposed by the screams of the latest asylum seekers as they disappeared under the water and their dead bodies floated away from their sunken boat. The Greens are as guilty of mass murder as if they boarded the boat themselves with semi-automatic weapons and opened fire.
The Greens are now the Martin Bryants of politics. How anybody can consider still voting for them after this outrage is totally beyond comprehension.
Monday 19 December 2011
Thursday 1 December 2011
Climate change lobby has really flipped this time
It has been a bit quiet on the climate change front in recent weeks. The hard left and their buddies in GetUp! - the Hitler Youth wing of the Australian green movement - got what they wanted, a savage new tax and a massive bureaucracy to indulge their fantasies. They've been content to sit back smugly and let Gillard divert the public's attention with her sashaying up to foreign dignitaries. All of that was shattered by the release of a new report from the Climate Commission which is nothing short of bizarre.
The report claims that climate change will cause untold medical problems - gastroenteritis, dengue fever, increased suicide rates and even post traumatic stress syndrome. When I heard all this guff I really did believe that the climate change brigade had finally flipped. More and more people are waking up to the climate change hoax so it was necessary to pump up the volume and resort to over the top scare tactics. Nobody is buying it.
The disturbing thing about this report is the reverential way it was treated by the print and television media. The newspapers carried the story and the alarmist findings in the report without critical analysis, but the treatment by the TV stations was staggering. Channel Nine pulled out all the stock footage of smoke stacks, air pollution, signs showing temperatures of 45 degrees, mosquitoes on peoples' arms and any other scary stuff they had in the vaults. Channel Seven had an interview with the government's climate change guru Tim Flannery. Yes, *that* Tim Flannery who has the beach house on the banks of the Hawkesbury River and runs off to ratbag leftist websites like Crikey! misrepresenting anybody who dares criticise him or his views. A very soft interview which even allowed Flannery to attack so-called "climate sceptics" (I prefer to call us climate realists). The ABC as usual trotted out all their typical hard left cliches and had it as the lead story in their news.
By contrast, radio presenters like Ray Hadley and Alan Jones ridiculed the report and gave it the treatment it so richly deserved. It had me thinking that there is a huge gap on TV for a nightly current affairs program similar to The Bolt Report which takes a similar approach to the so-called "shock jocks". It is disturbing that anybody who didn't listen to radio and only watched television received a totally one-sided, supportive view of the climate report and there was no criticism at all of it.
I've written before about the climate change hoax. This is a multi-million dollar, government funded industry with just one aim - the redistribution of wealth in line with socialist principles. Climate scientists are in the government's pocket, being the recipients of lavish research grants to obligingly bring out reports supporting climate change theory. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. The public servants whose salaries are paid for by the government - including the Climate Commission which brought out the latest report - have as their full-time job the promotion of apocalyptic doom caused by climate change. Whole industries have been set up to promote "the clean energy future" - these companies also receive government grants. Left wing unions and green groups - political and financial supporters of the government - are being showered with money to promote climate change and the carbon tax. This is a massive juggernaut, it isn't just concerts and solar panels anymore.
There are very powerful interests ensuring the climate change bandwagon not only stays on the rails but grows ever bigger. A few days ago we saw a very tough economic statement with massive spending cuts including the cutting of family benefits. Incredibly, "action on climate change" was quarantined from the cuts. A staggering ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS (!!) will be spent on another advertising campaign selling the carbon tax, with grants also being given to green groups to distribute supportivepropaganda. Now this is just disgraceful. A totally warped and cockeyed set of priorities.
We should all brace for more of this garbage. Billions of dollars going down the climate change plughole, and all for nothing. Meanwhile we can all reflect on the epidemic of sickness which will supposedly come our way due to "climate change". Perhaps the government might start up another new bureaucracy to advise public servants of exotic new climate change-related diseases they can put on their leave forms when they take sickies. Nothing would surprise me about this government.
The report claims that climate change will cause untold medical problems - gastroenteritis, dengue fever, increased suicide rates and even post traumatic stress syndrome. When I heard all this guff I really did believe that the climate change brigade had finally flipped. More and more people are waking up to the climate change hoax so it was necessary to pump up the volume and resort to over the top scare tactics. Nobody is buying it.
The disturbing thing about this report is the reverential way it was treated by the print and television media. The newspapers carried the story and the alarmist findings in the report without critical analysis, but the treatment by the TV stations was staggering. Channel Nine pulled out all the stock footage of smoke stacks, air pollution, signs showing temperatures of 45 degrees, mosquitoes on peoples' arms and any other scary stuff they had in the vaults. Channel Seven had an interview with the government's climate change guru Tim Flannery. Yes, *that* Tim Flannery who has the beach house on the banks of the Hawkesbury River and runs off to ratbag leftist websites like Crikey! misrepresenting anybody who dares criticise him or his views. A very soft interview which even allowed Flannery to attack so-called "climate sceptics" (I prefer to call us climate realists). The ABC as usual trotted out all their typical hard left cliches and had it as the lead story in their news.
By contrast, radio presenters like Ray Hadley and Alan Jones ridiculed the report and gave it the treatment it so richly deserved. It had me thinking that there is a huge gap on TV for a nightly current affairs program similar to The Bolt Report which takes a similar approach to the so-called "shock jocks". It is disturbing that anybody who didn't listen to radio and only watched television received a totally one-sided, supportive view of the climate report and there was no criticism at all of it.
I've written before about the climate change hoax. This is a multi-million dollar, government funded industry with just one aim - the redistribution of wealth in line with socialist principles. Climate scientists are in the government's pocket, being the recipients of lavish research grants to obligingly bring out reports supporting climate change theory. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. The public servants whose salaries are paid for by the government - including the Climate Commission which brought out the latest report - have as their full-time job the promotion of apocalyptic doom caused by climate change. Whole industries have been set up to promote "the clean energy future" - these companies also receive government grants. Left wing unions and green groups - political and financial supporters of the government - are being showered with money to promote climate change and the carbon tax. This is a massive juggernaut, it isn't just concerts and solar panels anymore.
There are very powerful interests ensuring the climate change bandwagon not only stays on the rails but grows ever bigger. A few days ago we saw a very tough economic statement with massive spending cuts including the cutting of family benefits. Incredibly, "action on climate change" was quarantined from the cuts. A staggering ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS (!!) will be spent on another advertising campaign selling the carbon tax, with grants also being given to green groups to distribute supportivepropaganda. Now this is just disgraceful. A totally warped and cockeyed set of priorities.
We should all brace for more of this garbage. Billions of dollars going down the climate change plughole, and all for nothing. Meanwhile we can all reflect on the epidemic of sickness which will supposedly come our way due to "climate change". Perhaps the government might start up another new bureaucracy to advise public servants of exotic new climate change-related diseases they can put on their leave forms when they take sickies. Nothing would surprise me about this government.
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Slipper's elevation a sign of political decay
The elevation of Peter Slipper to the position of speaker of The House is another sign of moral and political decay under the Gillard government. It is grubby politics at its worst. Here we have a Liberal with an appalling record of dirty, dishonest and shonky dealings, someone who was to have his preselection removed and who will - in all possibility - be facing serious charges in the not too distant future - being elevated to the third highest position in Australia after the Governor-General and the Prime Minister. The government's claim that Harry Jenkins resigned unexpectedly on the morning of the last sitting day of the year is laughable. Factional leader Graham Richardson said on Channel Seven that Labor had been working behind the scenes for months to bring this about. Even Harry Jenkins himself has admitted he was executed by giving a throat-cutting gesture to the cameras as he took his position on the back bench.
We all know why Gillard and Labor lobbied so hard for Slipper to get the job and why the previous Speaker Harry Jenkins was executed so ruthlessly. Gillard and Labor now have an extra vote in the House and the government has been able to step back from the abyss ever so slightly. One heart beat away from losing government is now two. As such the Gillard government will now go its full term until late 2013.
There is one bit of good news to come out of this. Andrew Wilkie and the other independents are now dead. The roosters have become feather dusters. Wilkie's poker machine reforms can now be safely dropped without any threats to the government's survival. Wilkie looked a forlorn and pathetic figure as he sobbed to the media saying the government should not burn the independents "because they might need us". No they don't. The government doesn't need them at all. Nevertheless it was disturbing to hear Gillard say that the government was committed to the poker machine reforms. She should listen to her MPs in marginal seats in NSW and Qld. The pokie reforms are electoral poison in the two biggest states and if they are implimented Labor will be annihilated at the next election in those two states alone.
The elevation of Peter Slipper is the latest in the catalog of shame for the Gillard government. We shouldn't really be surprised that it has come to this. It will be a long and hard road until we finally get our say at the ballot box.
We all know why Gillard and Labor lobbied so hard for Slipper to get the job and why the previous Speaker Harry Jenkins was executed so ruthlessly. Gillard and Labor now have an extra vote in the House and the government has been able to step back from the abyss ever so slightly. One heart beat away from losing government is now two. As such the Gillard government will now go its full term until late 2013.
There is one bit of good news to come out of this. Andrew Wilkie and the other independents are now dead. The roosters have become feather dusters. Wilkie's poker machine reforms can now be safely dropped without any threats to the government's survival. Wilkie looked a forlorn and pathetic figure as he sobbed to the media saying the government should not burn the independents "because they might need us". No they don't. The government doesn't need them at all. Nevertheless it was disturbing to hear Gillard say that the government was committed to the poker machine reforms. She should listen to her MPs in marginal seats in NSW and Qld. The pokie reforms are electoral poison in the two biggest states and if they are implimented Labor will be annihilated at the next election in those two states alone.
The elevation of Peter Slipper is the latest in the catalog of shame for the Gillard government. We shouldn't really be surprised that it has come to this. It will be a long and hard road until we finally get our say at the ballot box.
New Zealand leads the way
The conservative National Party led by John Key has won the New Zealand election with the biggest vote in 60 years. Unfortunately they will not gain an outright majority due to the MMP system of multiple member electorates. Nevertheless it is one in the eye for the Left who thought they had it in the bag due to John Key's pledge to privatise government businesses and assets.
We sometimes like to ridicule out cuzzies across the ditch, but the fact is that policies and political trends across the Tasman are inevitably adopted here in Australia shortly after their implimentation over there. New Zealand introduced the GST in 1986, we brought it in in 2000. NZ introduced an emissions trading scheme last year, we will have it next year. Similarly election victories across the Tasman are usually replicated here shortly after.
If I was Julia Gillard I would be very worried.
The latest Newspoll shows that while Gillard's personal popularity has improved due to the foreign affairs agenda of the past two months, there hasn't been any improvement in Labor's poll ratings. Tony Abbott is still on track to win the next election. There is still a yearning for change in this country as we drift further off the rails and deeper in debt.
In 1985 the Aussie bush band Bullamakanka released a song called New Zealand Leads the Way. The victory by John Key and the conservatives gives hope that Australia's agony will soon be coming to an end.
We sometimes like to ridicule out cuzzies across the ditch, but the fact is that policies and political trends across the Tasman are inevitably adopted here in Australia shortly after their implimentation over there. New Zealand introduced the GST in 1986, we brought it in in 2000. NZ introduced an emissions trading scheme last year, we will have it next year. Similarly election victories across the Tasman are usually replicated here shortly after.
If I was Julia Gillard I would be very worried.
The latest Newspoll shows that while Gillard's personal popularity has improved due to the foreign affairs agenda of the past two months, there hasn't been any improvement in Labor's poll ratings. Tony Abbott is still on track to win the next election. There is still a yearning for change in this country as we drift further off the rails and deeper in debt.
In 1985 the Aussie bush band Bullamakanka released a song called New Zealand Leads the Way. The victory by John Key and the conservatives gives hope that Australia's agony will soon be coming to an end.
Thursday 17 November 2011
Gillard's revival and the lessons of history
The Canberra Press Gallery are rejoicing over what seems to be a turnaround in the fortunes of Julia Gillard and Labor. There have been several complimentary pieces and the consensus is that the next election is not cut and dried and that Gillard and Labor may very well win. Gillard is experiencing her second wind. A week is a long time in politics, and Tony Abbott's absence from Australia has been a major political blunder with the government hitting the ground running with nobody being able to respond. It is a very different political landscape now than earlier this year when Gillard couldn't put a foot right.
Both the major opinion polls have painted a different picture of the extent of Gillard's revival. The Herald Neilsen Poll has the opposition ten points in front on a two party preferred basis, while Newspoll has them much closer. Nevertheless, it appears that the 20 point margin earlier this year has disappeared.
Observers of political history in Australia have seen this trend before. It happened with Fraser in the late 1970s, Hawke in the mid 1980s, as well as Keating and Howard. That trend is a government and prime minister experiencing a first round of unpopularity and poor opinion polls, then recovering and winning an election, sometimes more than one election. During 1979 the Fraser government's polling was diabolical but Fraser went on to win the 1980 election. The Hawke government was politically dead in 1986 but recovered during the first part of 1987 to win two more elections. The Keating government was extremely unpopular in 1992 but recovered to win the 1993 election. Similarly John Howard's government was gone in late 2000 and early 2001 due to the backlash over the introduction of the GST, but they staged a major turnaround to win two more elections. And it wasn't due to the Tampa sailing in and the so-called demonising of asylum seekers as the Left has tried to claim over the years, the shift in opinion began months before that. Now it has happened to Gillard. For some reason the public feels guilty if a government and prime minister experience poor polling the first time around and changes their opinion. It is only when the second wave of unpopularity happens that a government loses an election.
As things have transpired, Gillard has benefitted from two things which have coincided - the foreign affairs agenda currently being played out and the timing - Gillard hosting the Queen and Obama, the APEC meeting in Hawaii, Princess Mary arriving next week and the approaching Christmas/New Year break when Australia goes to the beach and politics takes a break. Gillard has been looking like an international stateswoman with domestic politics (including the carbon tax) being put on the back burner. At the same time the opposition has been left floundering with their leader far from home and receiving almost zero coverage. It is alarming how the opposition has been left virtually mute whilst Abbott has been overseas. Even the coverage of Abbott in Afghanistan hasn't boosted his stocks as he has been seen as simply following in Gillard's footsteps - Gillard visited the troops a week earlier. He needs to come home, get back into the Budgy Smugglers and get back on TV again.
In this environment the opposition should be riding high. The Qantas dispute and the Spanish Inquisition CEO Allan Joyce was subjected to by former union thugs at the Senate hearing should have been devastating for the government. Instead it seems to have had the opposite effect. Similarly the carbon tax seems to have run out of steam, despite the issue still dominating talkback radio.
All of this has been manna from Heaven for Gillard. The challenge to her leadership has been put on hold indefinitely and Labor has been able to regroup and recover. People are now talking about Labor ditching The Greens and being able to go it alone again. The only thing that might harm Labor in the next month or so is the national conference in December, but there are signs that the expected tanties might not happen and secret deals are being done behind the scenes to ensure a smooth event. Gillard will get her way on selling uranium to India, and the gay marriage issue will go nowhere even if the party changes its policy to supporting it. The opposition opposes gay marriage and Labor members will be given a conscience vote with the Catholic Right ensuring the Marriage Act won't be changed when it comes to a vote in the parliament. Like euthanasia, gay marriage will remain illegal in this country despite widespread public support.
All in all it appears that politics has been transformed, and next year will be a whole new ball game. The challenge for the opposition is whether they will be able to get on top again in time for the next election. The Gillard/Brown government isn't a total write-off yet - they still have an outside chance of winning - and whether we have a fresh start or continue the political and economic malaise under Labor is now in the lap of the gods.
Both the major opinion polls have painted a different picture of the extent of Gillard's revival. The Herald Neilsen Poll has the opposition ten points in front on a two party preferred basis, while Newspoll has them much closer. Nevertheless, it appears that the 20 point margin earlier this year has disappeared.
Observers of political history in Australia have seen this trend before. It happened with Fraser in the late 1970s, Hawke in the mid 1980s, as well as Keating and Howard. That trend is a government and prime minister experiencing a first round of unpopularity and poor opinion polls, then recovering and winning an election, sometimes more than one election. During 1979 the Fraser government's polling was diabolical but Fraser went on to win the 1980 election. The Hawke government was politically dead in 1986 but recovered during the first part of 1987 to win two more elections. The Keating government was extremely unpopular in 1992 but recovered to win the 1993 election. Similarly John Howard's government was gone in late 2000 and early 2001 due to the backlash over the introduction of the GST, but they staged a major turnaround to win two more elections. And it wasn't due to the Tampa sailing in and the so-called demonising of asylum seekers as the Left has tried to claim over the years, the shift in opinion began months before that. Now it has happened to Gillard. For some reason the public feels guilty if a government and prime minister experience poor polling the first time around and changes their opinion. It is only when the second wave of unpopularity happens that a government loses an election.
As things have transpired, Gillard has benefitted from two things which have coincided - the foreign affairs agenda currently being played out and the timing - Gillard hosting the Queen and Obama, the APEC meeting in Hawaii, Princess Mary arriving next week and the approaching Christmas/New Year break when Australia goes to the beach and politics takes a break. Gillard has been looking like an international stateswoman with domestic politics (including the carbon tax) being put on the back burner. At the same time the opposition has been left floundering with their leader far from home and receiving almost zero coverage. It is alarming how the opposition has been left virtually mute whilst Abbott has been overseas. Even the coverage of Abbott in Afghanistan hasn't boosted his stocks as he has been seen as simply following in Gillard's footsteps - Gillard visited the troops a week earlier. He needs to come home, get back into the Budgy Smugglers and get back on TV again.
In this environment the opposition should be riding high. The Qantas dispute and the Spanish Inquisition CEO Allan Joyce was subjected to by former union thugs at the Senate hearing should have been devastating for the government. Instead it seems to have had the opposite effect. Similarly the carbon tax seems to have run out of steam, despite the issue still dominating talkback radio.
All of this has been manna from Heaven for Gillard. The challenge to her leadership has been put on hold indefinitely and Labor has been able to regroup and recover. People are now talking about Labor ditching The Greens and being able to go it alone again. The only thing that might harm Labor in the next month or so is the national conference in December, but there are signs that the expected tanties might not happen and secret deals are being done behind the scenes to ensure a smooth event. Gillard will get her way on selling uranium to India, and the gay marriage issue will go nowhere even if the party changes its policy to supporting it. The opposition opposes gay marriage and Labor members will be given a conscience vote with the Catholic Right ensuring the Marriage Act won't be changed when it comes to a vote in the parliament. Like euthanasia, gay marriage will remain illegal in this country despite widespread public support.
All in all it appears that politics has been transformed, and next year will be a whole new ball game. The challenge for the opposition is whether they will be able to get on top again in time for the next election. The Gillard/Brown government isn't a total write-off yet - they still have an outside chance of winning - and whether we have a fresh start or continue the political and economic malaise under Labor is now in the lap of the gods.
Friday 11 November 2011
Carbon tax will destroy this country
Just about everything has already been said about the Brown/Gillard government's carbon tax. We all know it is the brainchild of The Greens, and Gillard has been shanghaied into bringing it in by Bobby Brown and co, but it is instructive and disillusional to see the air of defeatism surrounding the tax and how most people are already planning how they'll just have to suffer it and cut back on the necessities of life once it comes in and the bills start escalating.
The whole basis of the carbon tax is a myth, and it is a credit to the climate change brigade how they've been able to sell the idea that imposing a new tax will somehow lower the temperature and be the new panacea in the fight against climate change. It isn't of course, but the voices of rationality and cool-headed realism are being drowned out by the shrillness of The Greens and their fellow travellers on the Left who have been able to scream the loudest and ultimately set the agenda on this issue.
Already jobs are being lost as a result of the Carbon Tax. Coogee Chemicals have abandoned plans for expansion and creating new jobs (many of them in Gillard's own electorate) because of the uncertainty and increased costs of doing business in this country due to the tax. Like many other businesses they are seriously contemplating relocating lock, stock and barrel to China or other countries which have ruled out introducing a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme.
The smiles on the faces of The Greens after the Senate vote said it all. A party with just one member in the Lower House has managed to cause the biggest economic unheaval in this country's history. Labor has been delusional and whistling in the dark in the face of having their platform and policies hijacked by a dangerous minority outside the party. Penny Wong actually said during the Senate debate that "this is Labor legislation". If you believe that, I have a Harbour Bridge to sell you.
Is the carbon tax hurting the Gillard government? Well, it appears not. The latest Newspoll confirms the swing back to Labor/The Greens which began earlier this year. It states that if an election were held today, Tony Abbott and the Libs/Nats would just scrape in. If the trend continues, Gillard will be in front in just two months time. Now this is just extraordinary. Not content with wasting taxpayers' money a few months back with a propaganda campaign selling the carbon tax, more propaganda is on the way, meaning hopes of ditching Gillard and Labor are fading.
Tony Abbott disappointed many and gave ammunition to Labor by flying to London on the eve of the Senate vote for a Conservative conference. The task of responding to the passage of the tax was largely left to Barnaby Joyce. Nevertheless the message was loud and clear. Every powerpoint in Australia has become a branch of the Tax Office. We are facing a cost of living holocaust. And all for nothing.
The fight against the carbon tax isn't over. The bills haven't started coming in yet, and when they do the impact will be horrendous. We will all suffer in order to pander to Green fantasies and perpetuate a philosophy which is now being rejected all over the world. Hopefully Australians will come to their senses by the time of the next election and we can set about wiping out all trace of this temporary aberration in our country's history.
The whole basis of the carbon tax is a myth, and it is a credit to the climate change brigade how they've been able to sell the idea that imposing a new tax will somehow lower the temperature and be the new panacea in the fight against climate change. It isn't of course, but the voices of rationality and cool-headed realism are being drowned out by the shrillness of The Greens and their fellow travellers on the Left who have been able to scream the loudest and ultimately set the agenda on this issue.
Already jobs are being lost as a result of the Carbon Tax. Coogee Chemicals have abandoned plans for expansion and creating new jobs (many of them in Gillard's own electorate) because of the uncertainty and increased costs of doing business in this country due to the tax. Like many other businesses they are seriously contemplating relocating lock, stock and barrel to China or other countries which have ruled out introducing a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme.
The smiles on the faces of The Greens after the Senate vote said it all. A party with just one member in the Lower House has managed to cause the biggest economic unheaval in this country's history. Labor has been delusional and whistling in the dark in the face of having their platform and policies hijacked by a dangerous minority outside the party. Penny Wong actually said during the Senate debate that "this is Labor legislation". If you believe that, I have a Harbour Bridge to sell you.
Is the carbon tax hurting the Gillard government? Well, it appears not. The latest Newspoll confirms the swing back to Labor/The Greens which began earlier this year. It states that if an election were held today, Tony Abbott and the Libs/Nats would just scrape in. If the trend continues, Gillard will be in front in just two months time. Now this is just extraordinary. Not content with wasting taxpayers' money a few months back with a propaganda campaign selling the carbon tax, more propaganda is on the way, meaning hopes of ditching Gillard and Labor are fading.
Tony Abbott disappointed many and gave ammunition to Labor by flying to London on the eve of the Senate vote for a Conservative conference. The task of responding to the passage of the tax was largely left to Barnaby Joyce. Nevertheless the message was loud and clear. Every powerpoint in Australia has become a branch of the Tax Office. We are facing a cost of living holocaust. And all for nothing.
The fight against the carbon tax isn't over. The bills haven't started coming in yet, and when they do the impact will be horrendous. We will all suffer in order to pander to Green fantasies and perpetuate a philosophy which is now being rejected all over the world. Hopefully Australians will come to their senses by the time of the next election and we can set about wiping out all trace of this temporary aberration in our country's history.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Can't take criticism? Shoot the messenger!
The Daily Telegraph this morning reports the latest moves in dumping Gillard as prime minister and reinstalling Kevin Rudd as Labor leader. It's on, and Gillard is not expected to see the month out.
Oh, it's been delicious watching various Labor luminaries squirming today, lashing out and confirming all our worst impressions of the party. They've been manufacturing excuses, denying everything and throwing up smokescreens. The only thing they haven't done is fall back to their default position of trying to blame Tony Abbott.
It's been great theatre, but of main concern are the attempts to blame the News Ltd papers for daring to report the truth. "Da Mair-doch Prairse as er disgrairse!" moaned glorified pommy shop steward Senator Doug Cameron in that tortured, grating, whining accent of his. Well, the only one who is a "disgrairse" is Cameron himself, coming from a militant union, crawling up to Labor faction leaders, getting the numbers and being given a lifetime sinecure in the Senate where he can just sit on his arse doing nothing and pocketing millions in salary and superannuation.
The Murdoch newspapers are the great satan according to the Labor party because they have dared to scrutinise the Labor government, unlike the unquestioning cheer squad in the Fairfax broadsheets which are undoubtedly the worst newspapers in the western world. Labor ministers and The Greens pounced with glee on the News of the World phone hacking scandal, trying to link News Ltd papers here with the problems in the UK despite the fact that News Australia is virtually autonomous with its own directors and senior management.
The hypocrisy of the Labor party concerning News is breathtaking. They conveniently forget that the reason why News controls 70% of newspapers in this country is because of the Labor party itself. Paul Keating in 1986 changed the media ownership laws to enable News to take over the Herald and Weekly Times because HWT's papers had always been arch conservative. "At least Rupert's flexible. His papers have occasionally supported us" said one Labor member at the time. Similarly, Bob Brown from The Greens was happy when The Australian opposed the Franklin River dam project in 1982/83, but as soon as they put The Greens under scrutiny they are "the hate media" and Brown forces the government to set up a media enquiry with the ultimate aim of breaking up News Ltd and forcing them to sell their newspapers.
Meanwhile we can all ponder just how low the Labor party has sunk. A disunited rabble unfit for government at any level, rancid and rotting in the midday sun. Putting Kevin Rudd in charge again will be an act of desperation. The only good thing to come from it will be the smashing of the alliance with The Greens and the hope that at the next election Labor will join the Libs and Nats in refusing to give their preferences to The Greens.
Gillard is now dead meat and Rudd will be an interim leader handling the transition to the opposition benches. Hopefully the voters will have finally learned their lesson and will keep Labor out of government for at least a generation.
Oh, it's been delicious watching various Labor luminaries squirming today, lashing out and confirming all our worst impressions of the party. They've been manufacturing excuses, denying everything and throwing up smokescreens. The only thing they haven't done is fall back to their default position of trying to blame Tony Abbott.
It's been great theatre, but of main concern are the attempts to blame the News Ltd papers for daring to report the truth. "Da Mair-doch Prairse as er disgrairse!" moaned glorified pommy shop steward Senator Doug Cameron in that tortured, grating, whining accent of his. Well, the only one who is a "disgrairse" is Cameron himself, coming from a militant union, crawling up to Labor faction leaders, getting the numbers and being given a lifetime sinecure in the Senate where he can just sit on his arse doing nothing and pocketing millions in salary and superannuation.
The Murdoch newspapers are the great satan according to the Labor party because they have dared to scrutinise the Labor government, unlike the unquestioning cheer squad in the Fairfax broadsheets which are undoubtedly the worst newspapers in the western world. Labor ministers and The Greens pounced with glee on the News of the World phone hacking scandal, trying to link News Ltd papers here with the problems in the UK despite the fact that News Australia is virtually autonomous with its own directors and senior management.
The hypocrisy of the Labor party concerning News is breathtaking. They conveniently forget that the reason why News controls 70% of newspapers in this country is because of the Labor party itself. Paul Keating in 1986 changed the media ownership laws to enable News to take over the Herald and Weekly Times because HWT's papers had always been arch conservative. "At least Rupert's flexible. His papers have occasionally supported us" said one Labor member at the time. Similarly, Bob Brown from The Greens was happy when The Australian opposed the Franklin River dam project in 1982/83, but as soon as they put The Greens under scrutiny they are "the hate media" and Brown forces the government to set up a media enquiry with the ultimate aim of breaking up News Ltd and forcing them to sell their newspapers.
Meanwhile we can all ponder just how low the Labor party has sunk. A disunited rabble unfit for government at any level, rancid and rotting in the midday sun. Putting Kevin Rudd in charge again will be an act of desperation. The only good thing to come from it will be the smashing of the alliance with The Greens and the hope that at the next election Labor will join the Libs and Nats in refusing to give their preferences to The Greens.
Gillard is now dead meat and Rudd will be an interim leader handling the transition to the opposition benches. Hopefully the voters will have finally learned their lesson and will keep Labor out of government for at least a generation.
Tuesday 1 November 2011
Gillard's foreign foray falls in a heap
Julia Gillard is licking her wounds after a disastrous few days where she was brought back to earth with a thud following her disastrous handling of the Qantas dispute. She swanned around at the CHOGM meeting in Perth trying to reinvent herself as an international statesman, wagging her finger at Europe and having her ego massaged by foreign leaders. It was all going well, the puppy dog reporters were all going along with it heaping praise on her, filing acres of coverage about nothing in particular, then reality intervened. You can't keep up a facade forever.
Biased Labor supporter Laurie Oakes writes a column in the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph which really should be headlined "Labor Party advertisement". In this column, the head of the Canberra cheer squad for Gillard usually puts forward the current strategy the Press Gallery will be using to boost Gillard and Labor/The Greens. On Saturday he said that CHOGM would be a circuit breaker and revive Gillard's fortunes. The vuvuzela had sounded, the call went out.
The reporters were dutifully following the directive from His Master's Voice, heaping praise on Gillard, saying nice things about her and CHOGM, pushing the new foreign Julia and going along with her desire to divert attention away from her domestic political failings by swanning around with foreign dignitaries. Everything else was put on hold, Canberra and the rest of the country was a world away. Then Alan Joyce grounded the Qantas fleet.
The Gillard government had stuck its head in the sand over the Qantas dispute. Too gutless to intervene, scared stiff of their union mates, letting it just roll on and do untold damage to Qantas and the reputation of Australia, it dragged on for months. All along the government had the power under the Fair Work Act to intervene and bring it to an end, but they refused. Tony Sheldon from the Transport Workers Union is in line to be the next ALP president, and Gillard and the rest didn't want to do anything that might offend the new boss. While Gillard was in CHOGM fantasy land over the weekend - supping champagne, eating lobster, dressing up in silly clothes and watching Foxtel in luxury hotel rooms - Alan Joyce grounded the entire Qantas fleet. He had no choice. It was the only way he could get action from the federal government, and he forced their hand to send the dispute to Fair Work Australia. Despite being top-heavy with union officials, Fair Work Australia brought the strike action to an end and gave the parties 21 days to come to a resolution. Something that should have been done right from the start.
Watching the scenes in parliament, and listening to the pathetic performances from Gillard, Combet and the other Labor/union stooges, you cannot help but shake your head in bewilderment. Despite this being a political disaster and an embarrassment of unprecedented proportions, Gillard and the rest actually tried to blame Tony Abbott - yet again. Gillard put on her typical mad harridan, shrew-like performance in parliament screaming that Abbott was "Mr WorkChoices". It was comical, a stunning exposition of a leader woefully out of touch with reality and flailing about like a beached whale. Further embarrassment was caused by Gillard's revelation on TV that she refused to impliment section 371 of the Fair Work Act to bring the dispute to an end because "it had never been used before and might create legal problems". So there you have it. Gillard refused to bring in a law she helped draft - the replacement for WorkChoices - because she was too scared it might not stand up if challenged in the courts. So why did she bring it in in the first place? This is absolutely comical, but oh so typical of Labor and their amateurism and incompetence.
This whole disaster should be a salutory lesson to Gillard and the Press Gallery about the futility of trying to create silly diversions to try and cover up Gillard and the government's failings. You can't get away with it forever, over the barbecues in the western suburbs the punters don't give a fig about African dictators or any other nonsense. They just want an end of it. Gillard is now on borrowed time, and the sooner this failed farce of a government is swept from office the better off we will all be.
Biased Labor supporter Laurie Oakes writes a column in the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph which really should be headlined "Labor Party advertisement". In this column, the head of the Canberra cheer squad for Gillard usually puts forward the current strategy the Press Gallery will be using to boost Gillard and Labor/The Greens. On Saturday he said that CHOGM would be a circuit breaker and revive Gillard's fortunes. The vuvuzela had sounded, the call went out.
The reporters were dutifully following the directive from His Master's Voice, heaping praise on Gillard, saying nice things about her and CHOGM, pushing the new foreign Julia and going along with her desire to divert attention away from her domestic political failings by swanning around with foreign dignitaries. Everything else was put on hold, Canberra and the rest of the country was a world away. Then Alan Joyce grounded the Qantas fleet.
The Gillard government had stuck its head in the sand over the Qantas dispute. Too gutless to intervene, scared stiff of their union mates, letting it just roll on and do untold damage to Qantas and the reputation of Australia, it dragged on for months. All along the government had the power under the Fair Work Act to intervene and bring it to an end, but they refused. Tony Sheldon from the Transport Workers Union is in line to be the next ALP president, and Gillard and the rest didn't want to do anything that might offend the new boss. While Gillard was in CHOGM fantasy land over the weekend - supping champagne, eating lobster, dressing up in silly clothes and watching Foxtel in luxury hotel rooms - Alan Joyce grounded the entire Qantas fleet. He had no choice. It was the only way he could get action from the federal government, and he forced their hand to send the dispute to Fair Work Australia. Despite being top-heavy with union officials, Fair Work Australia brought the strike action to an end and gave the parties 21 days to come to a resolution. Something that should have been done right from the start.
Watching the scenes in parliament, and listening to the pathetic performances from Gillard, Combet and the other Labor/union stooges, you cannot help but shake your head in bewilderment. Despite this being a political disaster and an embarrassment of unprecedented proportions, Gillard and the rest actually tried to blame Tony Abbott - yet again. Gillard put on her typical mad harridan, shrew-like performance in parliament screaming that Abbott was "Mr WorkChoices". It was comical, a stunning exposition of a leader woefully out of touch with reality and flailing about like a beached whale. Further embarrassment was caused by Gillard's revelation on TV that she refused to impliment section 371 of the Fair Work Act to bring the dispute to an end because "it had never been used before and might create legal problems". So there you have it. Gillard refused to bring in a law she helped draft - the replacement for WorkChoices - because she was too scared it might not stand up if challenged in the courts. So why did she bring it in in the first place? This is absolutely comical, but oh so typical of Labor and their amateurism and incompetence.
This whole disaster should be a salutory lesson to Gillard and the Press Gallery about the futility of trying to create silly diversions to try and cover up Gillard and the government's failings. You can't get away with it forever, over the barbecues in the western suburbs the punters don't give a fig about African dictators or any other nonsense. They just want an end of it. Gillard is now on borrowed time, and the sooner this failed farce of a government is swept from office the better off we will all be.
Saturday 29 October 2011
Wilkie left stranded like a shag on a rock
Sometimes you have to feel sorry for do-gooders like Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie. Thrust into a key position of power despite gaining one of the lowest votes in history, blackmailing Julia Gillard by threatening to bring down the government unless his mandatory pre-commitment poker machine reforms are implimented, huffing and puffing, preening his pneumatic ego and being egged on by extreme leftist activists in GetUp!, now it's all fallen down in a heap. Tony Abbott has pledged to rescind any "reform" if it is brought in, Jamie Packer - one of the richest men in Australia - has slammed the idea, and the voters in NSW and Qld are up in arms and on their porches swinging the baseball bats.
At first Wilkie looked all-powerful. Gillard agreed to his demands in order to achieve and cling to the prime ministership, Tony Abbott was reluctant to criticise pre-commitment because he thought he might need Wilkie's support to become PM and call an election, Packer and the other casino operators remained mute and the heavy lifting opposing the reforms was left to Clubs Australia. Extreme left lobby group GetUp! wheeled out gambling addicts supporting the reforms and it looked like a fait accompli. They even had an opinion poll saying that over 70% of the public supported the reforms. But it all came crashing down once it was realised that the reforms were pie-in-the-sky nonsense and would cause untold damage to the social fabric and lifestyles of communities up and down the east coast of Australia and in country towns in NSW and Qld.
Let's look at that opinion poll. Taken when Gillard first became PM, the 70% figure is largely an illusion. A new opinion poll taken last week shows that support for the reforms has now fallen to 53%. Voters in NSW and Qld are dead against pre-commitment and support is confined to the smaller states where poker machines are either banned, relatively new or confined to casinos. In NSW and Qld, clubs are an essential part of the lives of almost everybody. Many are employed by clubs, they have huge memberships, pensioners get cheap meals from clubs, they run well-equipped gyms with subsidised fees, they are a social hub for pensioners, kids and families participate in junior sport financed by clubs, charities get grants from poker machine revenue, clubs hold Christmas lunches and functions, it just goes on. To have all this put at risk just because of some do-gooder crank from the backwaters of Tasmania is outrageous.
The opposition from James Packer is significant. According to Press reports, Gillard met with James Packer because she hoped he would come out and support pre-commitment. Instead Packer realised he was being played for a mug and has broken his long-standing policy of not commenting on political matters by slamming the reforms. Gillard has had her fingers severely singed. Tony Abbott has pledged to rescind any reform that might be implimented so Wilkie now has nowhere to turn. Gillard can now safely drop the reforms, Wilkie is now isolated and has been neutered.
Mandatory pre-commitment has been a lemon because it is a classic left wing example of social engineering. An attempt by government to regulate the behaviour of the public. Very similar to anti discrimination laws, it presupposes that there is a problem with individual behaviour so the government has to step in to whip people into line. But sooner or later we have to take responsibility for our actions. We have a free will and self control, we are big enough and ugly enough to make our own decisions. That is why these reforms have been resisted so heavily, and why they now lie in ruins. It wasn't a good idea to start with, it was just an attempt to meddle in the free market and regulate private behaviour purely for political expediency and survival.
Gillard should formally announce that mandatory pre-commitment will not be going ahead and that Andrew Wilkie can go to buggery.
At first Wilkie looked all-powerful. Gillard agreed to his demands in order to achieve and cling to the prime ministership, Tony Abbott was reluctant to criticise pre-commitment because he thought he might need Wilkie's support to become PM and call an election, Packer and the other casino operators remained mute and the heavy lifting opposing the reforms was left to Clubs Australia. Extreme left lobby group GetUp! wheeled out gambling addicts supporting the reforms and it looked like a fait accompli. They even had an opinion poll saying that over 70% of the public supported the reforms. But it all came crashing down once it was realised that the reforms were pie-in-the-sky nonsense and would cause untold damage to the social fabric and lifestyles of communities up and down the east coast of Australia and in country towns in NSW and Qld.
Let's look at that opinion poll. Taken when Gillard first became PM, the 70% figure is largely an illusion. A new opinion poll taken last week shows that support for the reforms has now fallen to 53%. Voters in NSW and Qld are dead against pre-commitment and support is confined to the smaller states where poker machines are either banned, relatively new or confined to casinos. In NSW and Qld, clubs are an essential part of the lives of almost everybody. Many are employed by clubs, they have huge memberships, pensioners get cheap meals from clubs, they run well-equipped gyms with subsidised fees, they are a social hub for pensioners, kids and families participate in junior sport financed by clubs, charities get grants from poker machine revenue, clubs hold Christmas lunches and functions, it just goes on. To have all this put at risk just because of some do-gooder crank from the backwaters of Tasmania is outrageous.
The opposition from James Packer is significant. According to Press reports, Gillard met with James Packer because she hoped he would come out and support pre-commitment. Instead Packer realised he was being played for a mug and has broken his long-standing policy of not commenting on political matters by slamming the reforms. Gillard has had her fingers severely singed. Tony Abbott has pledged to rescind any reform that might be implimented so Wilkie now has nowhere to turn. Gillard can now safely drop the reforms, Wilkie is now isolated and has been neutered.
Mandatory pre-commitment has been a lemon because it is a classic left wing example of social engineering. An attempt by government to regulate the behaviour of the public. Very similar to anti discrimination laws, it presupposes that there is a problem with individual behaviour so the government has to step in to whip people into line. But sooner or later we have to take responsibility for our actions. We have a free will and self control, we are big enough and ugly enough to make our own decisions. That is why these reforms have been resisted so heavily, and why they now lie in ruins. It wasn't a good idea to start with, it was just an attempt to meddle in the free market and regulate private behaviour purely for political expediency and survival.
Gillard should formally announce that mandatory pre-commitment will not be going ahead and that Andrew Wilkie can go to buggery.
Friday 28 October 2011
Spare us the Cup cliches
The Melbourne Cup is coming up, and this is a plea to the media to try and avoid all those cheesy cliches they usually roll out when the big event is held each year. I don't want to be a wet blanket here, but I can't see the attraction in stopping the country for a horse race and a lot of people who really can't afford it losing a lot of money in betting.
Having said that, I acknowledge that The Cup is an Aussie institution, and in a country where such home-grown national events are rare we should make the most of it.
Coincidentally the Reserve Bank is to make its decision on interest rates an hour or so before the big race, and all the pundits are saying that rates will be cut. So please, can we have no newspapers printing cornball headlines like "The rate that stops a nation"? And kindly refrain from the inevitable bank bashing if the banks don't decide to pass on the rate cut.
That way we can get through the event without cringing in embarrassment or groaning to death.
Having said that, I acknowledge that The Cup is an Aussie institution, and in a country where such home-grown national events are rare we should make the most of it.
Coincidentally the Reserve Bank is to make its decision on interest rates an hour or so before the big race, and all the pundits are saying that rates will be cut. So please, can we have no newspapers printing cornball headlines like "The rate that stops a nation"? And kindly refrain from the inevitable bank bashing if the banks don't decide to pass on the rate cut.
That way we can get through the event without cringing in embarrassment or groaning to death.
Monday 24 October 2011
It's all someone else's fault
The Gillard government's latest tactic of blaming Tony Abbott for all their woes is getting quite tedious, and just demonstrates how bereft of ideas and political smarts they really are. Do they really think the public is swallowing this crap? It just won't wash and they are kidding themselves if they think the public is buying it.
To hear the Gillard government rolling out this silly nonsense - that Tony Abbott is somehow responsible for the influx of boat people and any price rises caused by the carbon tax - you would think they were the opposition party and Tony Abbott is prime minister. Is this a strategy of Gillard's new pommy spin doctor? If so, it appears that Gillard has done her dough (our dough) by employing him. It is just bizarre.
For a start, it isn't Tony Abbott's fault that the amendments to the Migration Act couldn't go ahead. The blame for that can be put fairly and squarely on Labor's alliance partners The Greens. Labor sold their soul to The Greens for political expediency and have been double-crossed. Not surprising in the least. When you hop into bed with a bunch of rattlesnakes you are bound to get bitten. Gillard turned to Abbott in an attempt to circumvent The Greens and - surprise, surprise - Abbott and the opposition would have no part of a policy to send refugees to Malaysia where they would be routinely whipped and tortured.
The attempts by Gillard's employees - most notably the head of the Immigration Department and the head of Navy - to pour scorn on Abbott's policies of reopening Nauru and turning back the boats are absolutely pathetic and demonstrates just how the public service and military have been politicised and compromised under this government. Tony Abbott should take note and dismiss both of them on the first day he becomes prime minister.
Penny Wong's criticism of The Greens is also disingenuous. Wong was happy to sing the praises of The Greens when they obligingly helped pass the carbon tax but they are suddenly the devil incarnate when they arc up over the Migration Act amendments. You can't have your cake and eat it too, Penny.
The public can see right through this BS and can see that the king (or queen) has no clothes. Sooner or later they will have to take responsibility for their own actions rather than trying to blame the opposition leader all the time. The public aren't buying it, and Gillard can be thankful that The Queen is in town to provide a diversion.
As soon as The Queen and Obama are out of the country, the Labor party should move to decapitate Gillard and go to Plan C. By any measure Gillard has been a total failure as prime minister, and has led the Labor party into an unprecedented political quagmire. It isn't a government, it is a dysfunctional rabble under Gillard and the time for decisive action is fast approaching.
To hear the Gillard government rolling out this silly nonsense - that Tony Abbott is somehow responsible for the influx of boat people and any price rises caused by the carbon tax - you would think they were the opposition party and Tony Abbott is prime minister. Is this a strategy of Gillard's new pommy spin doctor? If so, it appears that Gillard has done her dough (our dough) by employing him. It is just bizarre.
For a start, it isn't Tony Abbott's fault that the amendments to the Migration Act couldn't go ahead. The blame for that can be put fairly and squarely on Labor's alliance partners The Greens. Labor sold their soul to The Greens for political expediency and have been double-crossed. Not surprising in the least. When you hop into bed with a bunch of rattlesnakes you are bound to get bitten. Gillard turned to Abbott in an attempt to circumvent The Greens and - surprise, surprise - Abbott and the opposition would have no part of a policy to send refugees to Malaysia where they would be routinely whipped and tortured.
The attempts by Gillard's employees - most notably the head of the Immigration Department and the head of Navy - to pour scorn on Abbott's policies of reopening Nauru and turning back the boats are absolutely pathetic and demonstrates just how the public service and military have been politicised and compromised under this government. Tony Abbott should take note and dismiss both of them on the first day he becomes prime minister.
Penny Wong's criticism of The Greens is also disingenuous. Wong was happy to sing the praises of The Greens when they obligingly helped pass the carbon tax but they are suddenly the devil incarnate when they arc up over the Migration Act amendments. You can't have your cake and eat it too, Penny.
The public can see right through this BS and can see that the king (or queen) has no clothes. Sooner or later they will have to take responsibility for their own actions rather than trying to blame the opposition leader all the time. The public aren't buying it, and Gillard can be thankful that The Queen is in town to provide a diversion.
As soon as The Queen and Obama are out of the country, the Labor party should move to decapitate Gillard and go to Plan C. By any measure Gillard has been a total failure as prime minister, and has led the Labor party into an unprecedented political quagmire. It isn't a government, it is a dysfunctional rabble under Gillard and the time for decisive action is fast approaching.
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Queen's visit highlights trend away from republicanism
The Queen is currently in Australia on her sixteenth visit since her ascention to the throne in 1952. It has been a proud record of maintaining royal ties with this country, especially when you consider that before she visited for the first time in 1954, no British monarch had ever visited this country.
Looking at the political and social landscape in this country, you would have to say that support for the monarchy is probably at an all-time high. Princess Diana, Prince Harry as well as Prince William and Katherine have provided a huge boost, especially among young people. Republicanism in Australia is dead.
There was a time in the 1980s and early '90s under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments when support for a republic in Australia was quite high. Indeed, polls at the time showed that a majority of Australians actually wanted Australia to be a republic. The debate back then was about which model should be adopted. Momentum was so strong that John Howard in 1996 and 1998 promised a constitutional convention and a referendum on becoming a republic. The referendum was held in November 1999 and was soundly defeated despite every newspaper in the country advocating a Yes vote.
The republican movement did not take defeat very well at all. Malcolm Turnbull appeared on TV saying that John Howard was the man who "broke Australia's heart". When Turnbull smelt the opportunity to gain a high paying job with Goldman Sachs buying and selling carbon credits he joined the Liberal party, became Minister for the Environment under "the man who broke Australia's heart" and almost succeeded in having Howard introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme and gaining his lucrative job for life after politics.
This might surprise people outside Canberra, but there is actually a group called the Australian Republican Movement. Granted, they would be able to hold their meetings in a phone booth but they get a great deal of publicity in the media, especially in Canberra. The head of the ARM, ANU academic John Warhurst actually has a weekly column in The Canberra Times. This just shows how irrelevant and out of touch that newspaper really is.
The present system of constitutional monarchy in Australia is so popular because it works, and it works well. Every political or constitutional crisis we have had in this country has been resolved under the present system, and the country has been able to continue along its merry way. Contrast this with the United States, the model so often held up by republicans as the one we should follow.
In 1995, after the Republicans gained control of congress Newt Gingrich decided to shut down the Clinton administration. The government's money was cut off, civil servants and defense personnel were not paid, welfare benefits were cut off and the whole country ground to a halt. When Gingrich was asked why he did it, he replied "because I can". This dragged on for months, there was no way of resolving it. No governor-general to intervene, no way of having the president sacked and no way of calling an election to let the people decide. It was only resolved when opinion polls showed such a backlash against Gingrich and the Republicans that they were forced to back down. When an election was finally held the following year, Clinton won in a landslide.
The fact that republicanism in Australia is now passe has not stopped much of the media mentioning the subject in news reports leading up to the Queen's visit. It's been quite pathetic hearing this crap from the leftist, wannabe luvvies but it is entirely predictable. They have this cockeyed notion that they are somehow injecting "balance" into their reports by mentioning republicanism, but like the relentless cheerleading for Gillard and Green causes it is not going down at all well out in the 'burbs and over the Sunday barbecue.
There has been speculation that this might be the last visit by the Queen, this time around her age is being invoked. This marks a change from previous visits when the media has said that it would be the last visit "before Australia becomes a republic". Of course, neither scenario has very much to do with reality. The Queen is likely to be around for several more years.
So we should all welcome Her Majesty to this country for the symbolism she provides as to our stabilty and way of life. It hasn't come about by accident, it has happened because of our system of government and the role the monarchy plays in keeping the country ticking over at an even keel. We know the monarchy, we know it works, we know the role it has played in this country's development. And we all know there is no credible alternative.
Looking at the political and social landscape in this country, you would have to say that support for the monarchy is probably at an all-time high. Princess Diana, Prince Harry as well as Prince William and Katherine have provided a huge boost, especially among young people. Republicanism in Australia is dead.
There was a time in the 1980s and early '90s under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments when support for a republic in Australia was quite high. Indeed, polls at the time showed that a majority of Australians actually wanted Australia to be a republic. The debate back then was about which model should be adopted. Momentum was so strong that John Howard in 1996 and 1998 promised a constitutional convention and a referendum on becoming a republic. The referendum was held in November 1999 and was soundly defeated despite every newspaper in the country advocating a Yes vote.
The republican movement did not take defeat very well at all. Malcolm Turnbull appeared on TV saying that John Howard was the man who "broke Australia's heart". When Turnbull smelt the opportunity to gain a high paying job with Goldman Sachs buying and selling carbon credits he joined the Liberal party, became Minister for the Environment under "the man who broke Australia's heart" and almost succeeded in having Howard introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme and gaining his lucrative job for life after politics.
This might surprise people outside Canberra, but there is actually a group called the Australian Republican Movement. Granted, they would be able to hold their meetings in a phone booth but they get a great deal of publicity in the media, especially in Canberra. The head of the ARM, ANU academic John Warhurst actually has a weekly column in The Canberra Times. This just shows how irrelevant and out of touch that newspaper really is.
The present system of constitutional monarchy in Australia is so popular because it works, and it works well. Every political or constitutional crisis we have had in this country has been resolved under the present system, and the country has been able to continue along its merry way. Contrast this with the United States, the model so often held up by republicans as the one we should follow.
In 1995, after the Republicans gained control of congress Newt Gingrich decided to shut down the Clinton administration. The government's money was cut off, civil servants and defense personnel were not paid, welfare benefits were cut off and the whole country ground to a halt. When Gingrich was asked why he did it, he replied "because I can". This dragged on for months, there was no way of resolving it. No governor-general to intervene, no way of having the president sacked and no way of calling an election to let the people decide. It was only resolved when opinion polls showed such a backlash against Gingrich and the Republicans that they were forced to back down. When an election was finally held the following year, Clinton won in a landslide.
The fact that republicanism in Australia is now passe has not stopped much of the media mentioning the subject in news reports leading up to the Queen's visit. It's been quite pathetic hearing this crap from the leftist, wannabe luvvies but it is entirely predictable. They have this cockeyed notion that they are somehow injecting "balance" into their reports by mentioning republicanism, but like the relentless cheerleading for Gillard and Green causes it is not going down at all well out in the 'burbs and over the Sunday barbecue.
There has been speculation that this might be the last visit by the Queen, this time around her age is being invoked. This marks a change from previous visits when the media has said that it would be the last visit "before Australia becomes a republic". Of course, neither scenario has very much to do with reality. The Queen is likely to be around for several more years.
So we should all welcome Her Majesty to this country for the symbolism she provides as to our stabilty and way of life. It hasn't come about by accident, it has happened because of our system of government and the role the monarchy plays in keeping the country ticking over at an even keel. We know the monarchy, we know it works, we know the role it has played in this country's development. And we all know there is no credible alternative.
Monday 17 October 2011
Pointless protests an exercise in futility
Has anybody ever seen a more stupid and ridiculous series of protests than the Occupy Wall Street series in New York and around the world? When I saw this idiocy, my first thought was that the feral Left had finally flipped.
When you stage a protest, you aim to change something. Either a government policy needs to be changed or scrapped (the anti carbon tax protests), or else something new needs to be adopted. But these protests don't aim to do anything. They are an exercise in futility staged by a bunch of simple-minded luvvies who spend too much time on Facebook and Twitter.
From what I've been able to make out, the protests are against "corporate greed". Something about one percent controlling the wealth, with a sidebar being bank bashing. Again. It's all pretty pathetic because there simply isn't any workable alternative to the current system. Different systems have been tried all over the world - communism, socialism, feudalism, collectivism, ad infinitum. All have failed except the model of corporate capitalism currently in place in the vast majority of countries.
Are the protesters communists? Sure looks like it. They should stop bandying around cute slogans and come straight out and tell us their aims and beliefs. Of course they won't because they don't have any aims and their beliefs are, well . . .. They cannot suggest a workable alternative to the present system because there isn't one.
Occasionally we see silly protests like this which are more like a social occasion than a call to arms. Over Easter holidays during the early 2000s we saw the refugee action demos where detention centres were picketed. They were more like Schoolies Week where old friends from the left could meet each other, exchange recipes and go for a bit of a holiday waving a few placards. The occupy Wall Street protests are very much in the same vein.
It is hoped that these rather silly protests are put down as quickly as possible and the participants get a life. They are only succeeding in making themselves look very silly and it only reinforces the perception that the Left are totally irrelevant and lacking any credibility whatsoever.
Move on folks, nothing to see here.
When you stage a protest, you aim to change something. Either a government policy needs to be changed or scrapped (the anti carbon tax protests), or else something new needs to be adopted. But these protests don't aim to do anything. They are an exercise in futility staged by a bunch of simple-minded luvvies who spend too much time on Facebook and Twitter.
From what I've been able to make out, the protests are against "corporate greed". Something about one percent controlling the wealth, with a sidebar being bank bashing. Again. It's all pretty pathetic because there simply isn't any workable alternative to the current system. Different systems have been tried all over the world - communism, socialism, feudalism, collectivism, ad infinitum. All have failed except the model of corporate capitalism currently in place in the vast majority of countries.
Are the protesters communists? Sure looks like it. They should stop bandying around cute slogans and come straight out and tell us their aims and beliefs. Of course they won't because they don't have any aims and their beliefs are, well . . .. They cannot suggest a workable alternative to the present system because there isn't one.
Occasionally we see silly protests like this which are more like a social occasion than a call to arms. Over Easter holidays during the early 2000s we saw the refugee action demos where detention centres were picketed. They were more like Schoolies Week where old friends from the left could meet each other, exchange recipes and go for a bit of a holiday waving a few placards. The occupy Wall Street protests are very much in the same vein.
It is hoped that these rather silly protests are put down as quickly as possible and the participants get a life. They are only succeeding in making themselves look very silly and it only reinforces the perception that the Left are totally irrelevant and lacking any credibility whatsoever.
Move on folks, nothing to see here.
Sunday 16 October 2011
Leftist scum hailing the carbon tax
The passage of the Brown government's carbon tax has elicited a predictable response from the usual suspects. The extreme Left and environmental lobby are cock-a-hoop and believe they have scored a famous victory over ordinary, mainstream Aussies. It isn't very often a minority fringe gets their agenda adopted by government - especially a policy which has almost zero support out in the 'burbs - but it has happened and the gloating is quite over the top. They are squealing with delight.
To get an idea how the hard Left are celebrating, you only have to pick up The Canberra Times. I knew that once I pointed out the paper's even handed coverage of the passage of the tax, they would then shift the paper back to the hard left and print letters and commentary hailing the tax. It has been quite sickening.
One of the reasons why The Canberra Times has always pandered to a hard left fringe element is the presence of editor at large Jack Waterford who has been with the paper since the 1970s. He is constantly writing pieces promoting radical aboriginal activism, criticising "shock jocks" and the Murdoch newspapers, and sundry other nutty causes. But an article he wrote on Wednesday must surely take the cake for being one of the most slanted and bizarre ever printed.
In the article, Waterford writes that the passage of the carbon tax marks the turning point in the government's fortunes, that Gillard is a leader with the right stuff, that she is a reformer with substance and criticism of the carbon tax is "nonsense", that Abbott is on the back foot, and that there will be a popular rethink over the tax once people realise "something" is being done about "climate change". It was just pro-Gillard cheerleading, it is just staggering and shows just how out of touch Waterford and the rest of the flunkies at The Canberra Times really are.
The Labor party must surely be deeply worried about all the articles and letters in The Canberra Times supporting them and the carbon tax because The Canberra Times and its readers are almost always totally at odds with mainstream opinion beyond the borders of the ACT. Politicians read the paper with alarm if it supports them because they know that it means that back home people are not happy and that their seats might be at risk.
The Canberra Times has even admitted that they have been slanting their publication of letters in favour of the carbon tax. That miserable cunt the letters editor - who has me and other conservatives on a black list and refuses to publish our letters - has either been sacked (yay!) or is on extended leave, because the acting letters editor has published a piece saying that they received "a torrent of letters from interstate" about the carbon tax but none of them were printed. All of those letters would have opposed the tax. Instead they have printed letters supporting the tax from the same tired old left wingers who are constantly getting their drivel into the paper, including that bitch Rosemary Walters from Palmerston (ACT) who nearly always gets a letter printed at least once a week.
By contrast, every other newspaper has carried outrage from mainstream Aussies over the carbon tax. I have little doubt that, as the political and social climate in this country continues to move back to the mainstream Right, The Canberra Times will move further and further to the hard left. The paper acts as a barometer on the national sentiment. Whatever they support, you can bet your bottom dollar that Aussies are dead against it.
To get an idea how the hard Left are celebrating, you only have to pick up The Canberra Times. I knew that once I pointed out the paper's even handed coverage of the passage of the tax, they would then shift the paper back to the hard left and print letters and commentary hailing the tax. It has been quite sickening.
One of the reasons why The Canberra Times has always pandered to a hard left fringe element is the presence of editor at large Jack Waterford who has been with the paper since the 1970s. He is constantly writing pieces promoting radical aboriginal activism, criticising "shock jocks" and the Murdoch newspapers, and sundry other nutty causes. But an article he wrote on Wednesday must surely take the cake for being one of the most slanted and bizarre ever printed.
In the article, Waterford writes that the passage of the carbon tax marks the turning point in the government's fortunes, that Gillard is a leader with the right stuff, that she is a reformer with substance and criticism of the carbon tax is "nonsense", that Abbott is on the back foot, and that there will be a popular rethink over the tax once people realise "something" is being done about "climate change". It was just pro-Gillard cheerleading, it is just staggering and shows just how out of touch Waterford and the rest of the flunkies at The Canberra Times really are.
The Labor party must surely be deeply worried about all the articles and letters in The Canberra Times supporting them and the carbon tax because The Canberra Times and its readers are almost always totally at odds with mainstream opinion beyond the borders of the ACT. Politicians read the paper with alarm if it supports them because they know that it means that back home people are not happy and that their seats might be at risk.
The Canberra Times has even admitted that they have been slanting their publication of letters in favour of the carbon tax. That miserable cunt the letters editor - who has me and other conservatives on a black list and refuses to publish our letters - has either been sacked (yay!) or is on extended leave, because the acting letters editor has published a piece saying that they received "a torrent of letters from interstate" about the carbon tax but none of them were printed. All of those letters would have opposed the tax. Instead they have printed letters supporting the tax from the same tired old left wingers who are constantly getting their drivel into the paper, including that bitch Rosemary Walters from Palmerston (ACT) who nearly always gets a letter printed at least once a week.
By contrast, every other newspaper has carried outrage from mainstream Aussies over the carbon tax. I have little doubt that, as the political and social climate in this country continues to move back to the mainstream Right, The Canberra Times will move further and further to the hard left. The paper acts as a barometer on the national sentiment. Whatever they support, you can bet your bottom dollar that Aussies are dead against it.
Thursday 13 October 2011
It's all over bar the shouting
The House of Representatives in Canberra has passed the carbon tax and the bills will now be sent to the Senate to be rubber stamped by The Greens. The new tax slug will then commence on July 1 next year.
Looking at the scenes in the chamber yesterday after the bills passed, you could be forgiven for believing that Labor/Greens/independent politicians were within a little bubble adrift in another universe. It was staggering, most observers just shook their heads in disbelief. Labor MPs kissing each other, whoops of joy, the independents slapping government ministers on the back, Gillard ruffling the hair of other MPs, it just went on and on. And they were celebrating the fact that they had just introduced a new tax! Self indulgent and vainglorious to say the least. What on earth were they thinking?
After the tax had been passed, I resigned myself to the fact that the usual suspects would be crowing at their "victory". The ABC and Fairfax press would be hailing it with celebratory headlines and displays of triumphalism. But I was completely taken aback this morning by the universally poisonous reaction from the media and the massive wave of protest resonating right across the country.
This morning's Canberra Times is a case in point. Relentlessly pushing the carbon tax and "action on climate change" for several years now, the paper today has instead led with Tony Abbott's promise to repeal the tax. The stories inside are also less than complimentary. The ABC this morning has also run negative stories about the passing of the tax and its effect on business and the lives of battlers. When not even the ABC and Fairfax press will support you anymore, I'd say Labor and their fellow travellers have a problem. A big one.
The question of who will win the next election is now academic. It isn't a matter of who will win anymore, the only thing up for conjecture is whether Tony Abbott will achieve a massive majority or a record majority. Either way, Labor and the Independents are stuffed. Well and truly. By laying down meekly and selling their souls to The Greens and independents, Labor MPs have signed their own death warrants.
Gillard's performance during question time was absolutely pathetic. Her reference to Tony Abbott being marooned by the tide of history just goes to show how woefully out of touch she really is. Who the hell is advising her?
Abbott will find it difficult to roll back the carbon tax. Labor MPs have freely admitted that they framed the legislation in such a way that would make it almost impossible to repeal, it is so far-reaching into almost all corners of government. Not only that, there is the thorny question of the Senate to consider. The undemocratic preferential voting system has put The Greens in control and they will stay in that position for six more years. Even after Abbott wins the next election and tries to repeal the carbon tax, it will be blocked by Labor and The Greens in the Senate. The only hope is that it will be rejected twice, a double dissolution election will be held and if it is rejected again a joint sitting will then take place. Abbott's huge majority in the lower house will completely swamp The Greens and Labor and the carbon tax will be no more. So there is still hope.
All in all, we can mark October 12 as a truly black day in our history. Not only the date of the Bali bombing where 88 Australians were wantonly murdered, but the day democracy died in this country. A terrible and tragic day which will be remembered in infamy in coming years as the job queues lengthen, families are sent to the wall unable to pay their bills and business pulls up stumps from this country never to return.
Looking at the scenes in the chamber yesterday after the bills passed, you could be forgiven for believing that Labor/Greens/independent politicians were within a little bubble adrift in another universe. It was staggering, most observers just shook their heads in disbelief. Labor MPs kissing each other, whoops of joy, the independents slapping government ministers on the back, Gillard ruffling the hair of other MPs, it just went on and on. And they were celebrating the fact that they had just introduced a new tax! Self indulgent and vainglorious to say the least. What on earth were they thinking?
After the tax had been passed, I resigned myself to the fact that the usual suspects would be crowing at their "victory". The ABC and Fairfax press would be hailing it with celebratory headlines and displays of triumphalism. But I was completely taken aback this morning by the universally poisonous reaction from the media and the massive wave of protest resonating right across the country.
This morning's Canberra Times is a case in point. Relentlessly pushing the carbon tax and "action on climate change" for several years now, the paper today has instead led with Tony Abbott's promise to repeal the tax. The stories inside are also less than complimentary. The ABC this morning has also run negative stories about the passing of the tax and its effect on business and the lives of battlers. When not even the ABC and Fairfax press will support you anymore, I'd say Labor and their fellow travellers have a problem. A big one.
The question of who will win the next election is now academic. It isn't a matter of who will win anymore, the only thing up for conjecture is whether Tony Abbott will achieve a massive majority or a record majority. Either way, Labor and the Independents are stuffed. Well and truly. By laying down meekly and selling their souls to The Greens and independents, Labor MPs have signed their own death warrants.
Gillard's performance during question time was absolutely pathetic. Her reference to Tony Abbott being marooned by the tide of history just goes to show how woefully out of touch she really is. Who the hell is advising her?
Abbott will find it difficult to roll back the carbon tax. Labor MPs have freely admitted that they framed the legislation in such a way that would make it almost impossible to repeal, it is so far-reaching into almost all corners of government. Not only that, there is the thorny question of the Senate to consider. The undemocratic preferential voting system has put The Greens in control and they will stay in that position for six more years. Even after Abbott wins the next election and tries to repeal the carbon tax, it will be blocked by Labor and The Greens in the Senate. The only hope is that it will be rejected twice, a double dissolution election will be held and if it is rejected again a joint sitting will then take place. Abbott's huge majority in the lower house will completely swamp The Greens and Labor and the carbon tax will be no more. So there is still hope.
All in all, we can mark October 12 as a truly black day in our history. Not only the date of the Bali bombing where 88 Australians were wantonly murdered, but the day democracy died in this country. A terrible and tragic day which will be remembered in infamy in coming years as the job queues lengthen, families are sent to the wall unable to pay their bills and business pulls up stumps from this country never to return.
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Climate change hoax being cranked up again
The carbon tax is being debated in Federal parliament tomorrow (Wednesday) and the planted stories are starting to appear again in the Fairfax newspapers. Yesterday The Canberra Times and others carried a story about a government-funded report titled Caring For Our Australian Alps Catchments which predicts that the Alps will be free of snow by 2050 due to climate change raising the temperature by 2.9 degrees and rainfall will diminish considerably.
This sort of thing is really very silly and just demonstrates that the multi-million dollar, government funded climate change bandwagon continues to roll on. It isn't based on facts or science, it is a conspiracy to create an industry whereby academia backs up left wing policy by gaining government research grants. The scientists have been duchessed by the government and are compliantly compiling these reports in order to keep their research grants rolling in.
This whole "climate change" thing is the biggest con that has ever been perpetrated.
The empirical evidence compiled over the past 30 years shows that the temperature is, in fact, cooling - not warming as the following graph illustrates:
This is the graph climate scientists and the left wing media don't want you to see.
It is a tragedy that the federal government is so hell-bent on kowtowing to The Greens that we will soon have the inflationary, job-destroying carbon tax at a time when the rest of the world is moving away from similar measures and has realised that sending the country to the poorhouse will not lower the temperature one iota. British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said that passing the Climate Change Act in 2008 was the biggest mistake the parliament ever made, and that Britain was not going to save the planet by putting itself out of business.
The Canberra Times's performance on this issue has been shameful. Earlier this year they splashed with a front page beatup saying that climate scientists at the Australian National University were receiving death threats, and that they had been moved to a secure area as a result. This story was intended to imply that climate realists are all thugs and psychopaths. Of course, the truth - as reported by the Daily Telegraph - was quite different. One threat had been made and was received three years earlier, and the climate change scientists had simply moved location and gained admission to their offices by a swipe card as part of a general upgrade of security throughout the ANU campus.
Until a few months ago The Canberra Times actually ran a weekly page called Green Scene - written by a staff journalist - which actively pushed Green politics. The paper campaigned in the 2010 election for the Liberal senator in the ACT to be replaced by a Green, and that campaign almost succeeded.
Back onto the subject of "global warming" or "climate change" as it was rebranded a few years ago, we all know it is not happening. The temperature in Canberra yesterday only reached 15 degrees. We have had over a month of similar cold weather. Normally by this time in October we are experiencing 25 or 26 degrees. We had the best ski season in many years in the snowfields - plenty of snow, and - to contradict the ridiculous report referred to earlier - rainfalls have been so plentiful that the gates of the dam on the Snowy River had to be opened over the weekend as there was simply too much water. Remember the government's climate change guru Tim Flannery saying a few years back that we would never have normal rainfalls again, dams would always be empty and climate change meant we would have a permanent drought?
To broaden our horizons a bit, the northern hemisphere experienced the coldest weather they'd ever received a few months back with record snow falls. Don't forget London being snowbound and traffic being brought to a standstill by six inch snow falls. Global warming, eh?
Politically in this country, things are looking grim. So comprehensive has the climate change brainwashing by the media been, a majority of Australians still believe in the conspiracy so Tony Abbott is unwilling to commit to halting all action on climate change. Hopefully when he takes office he will look at the books, realise how badly the system is being rorted, bring all the green schemes and "renewable energy targets" to a shuddering halt and derail the entire climate change bandwagon.
I've written before about just how powerful the Left really are in this country. I've received an email from GetUp! - the left wing extremist group funded by the trade unions - saying that a demonstration will be held at Parliament House in support of the carbon tax when the bills are debated and passed. No doubt the media will give them full coverage, suggesting that they represent public opinion. In fact the opposite is the case. More people than ever before oppose the carbon tax and are itching to turf this government and their fellow travellers from The Greens and the independents out on their ears at the earliest opportunity.
Julia Gillard can be thankful that The Queen, the US president and other dignitaries will be visiting over the next month or so. It has stayed her execution by a few weeks. The carbon tax will be the final blow for this government, and the only good thing to come out of it will be the fact that the Liberals and Nationals will win power by a record majority and stay in office for at least ten years while the public ensures they never make the mistake of electing a left wing government ever again.
This sort of thing is really very silly and just demonstrates that the multi-million dollar, government funded climate change bandwagon continues to roll on. It isn't based on facts or science, it is a conspiracy to create an industry whereby academia backs up left wing policy by gaining government research grants. The scientists have been duchessed by the government and are compliantly compiling these reports in order to keep their research grants rolling in.
This whole "climate change" thing is the biggest con that has ever been perpetrated.
The empirical evidence compiled over the past 30 years shows that the temperature is, in fact, cooling - not warming as the following graph illustrates:
This is the graph climate scientists and the left wing media don't want you to see.
It is a tragedy that the federal government is so hell-bent on kowtowing to The Greens that we will soon have the inflationary, job-destroying carbon tax at a time when the rest of the world is moving away from similar measures and has realised that sending the country to the poorhouse will not lower the temperature one iota. British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said that passing the Climate Change Act in 2008 was the biggest mistake the parliament ever made, and that Britain was not going to save the planet by putting itself out of business.
The Canberra Times's performance on this issue has been shameful. Earlier this year they splashed with a front page beatup saying that climate scientists at the Australian National University were receiving death threats, and that they had been moved to a secure area as a result. This story was intended to imply that climate realists are all thugs and psychopaths. Of course, the truth - as reported by the Daily Telegraph - was quite different. One threat had been made and was received three years earlier, and the climate change scientists had simply moved location and gained admission to their offices by a swipe card as part of a general upgrade of security throughout the ANU campus.
Until a few months ago The Canberra Times actually ran a weekly page called Green Scene - written by a staff journalist - which actively pushed Green politics. The paper campaigned in the 2010 election for the Liberal senator in the ACT to be replaced by a Green, and that campaign almost succeeded.
Back onto the subject of "global warming" or "climate change" as it was rebranded a few years ago, we all know it is not happening. The temperature in Canberra yesterday only reached 15 degrees. We have had over a month of similar cold weather. Normally by this time in October we are experiencing 25 or 26 degrees. We had the best ski season in many years in the snowfields - plenty of snow, and - to contradict the ridiculous report referred to earlier - rainfalls have been so plentiful that the gates of the dam on the Snowy River had to be opened over the weekend as there was simply too much water. Remember the government's climate change guru Tim Flannery saying a few years back that we would never have normal rainfalls again, dams would always be empty and climate change meant we would have a permanent drought?
To broaden our horizons a bit, the northern hemisphere experienced the coldest weather they'd ever received a few months back with record snow falls. Don't forget London being snowbound and traffic being brought to a standstill by six inch snow falls. Global warming, eh?
Politically in this country, things are looking grim. So comprehensive has the climate change brainwashing by the media been, a majority of Australians still believe in the conspiracy so Tony Abbott is unwilling to commit to halting all action on climate change. Hopefully when he takes office he will look at the books, realise how badly the system is being rorted, bring all the green schemes and "renewable energy targets" to a shuddering halt and derail the entire climate change bandwagon.
I've written before about just how powerful the Left really are in this country. I've received an email from GetUp! - the left wing extremist group funded by the trade unions - saying that a demonstration will be held at Parliament House in support of the carbon tax when the bills are debated and passed. No doubt the media will give them full coverage, suggesting that they represent public opinion. In fact the opposite is the case. More people than ever before oppose the carbon tax and are itching to turf this government and their fellow travellers from The Greens and the independents out on their ears at the earliest opportunity.
Julia Gillard can be thankful that The Queen, the US president and other dignitaries will be visiting over the next month or so. It has stayed her execution by a few weeks. The carbon tax will be the final blow for this government, and the only good thing to come out of it will be the fact that the Liberals and Nationals will win power by a record majority and stay in office for at least ten years while the public ensures they never make the mistake of electing a left wing government ever again.
Monday 10 October 2011
Another day off in the manana society
If you are thinking of doing business with anybody in Canberra today (Monday Oct 10) then you'd better forget it. Today is a public holiday, something called Family and Community Day, one of two extra holidays Canberra fat cats get over and above everybody else.
Normally there is a valid reason for a holiday, whether it be tradition or religion. But this Canberra holiday was created for none of those reasons, it was instituted by the ACT Labor government in order to hit back at the Howard government in 2006. They wanted to make a political point.
Prior to the introduction of WorkChoices, the ACT had the trade union picnic day. Only members of unions could have the day off and an outdoor event was held on the day which fell in March. WorkChoices abolished the union picnic day, something which pleased business and anybody who wanted to get things done in the city. So rather than cop it sweet and acknowledge that the union picnic day was a discriminatory anachronism from another era, the ACT government responded by creating a whole new public holiday. For everybody. I call it The Holiday of Spite. Created to please Labor's union mates. The ACT government minister who created the holiday has even admitted that it was named Family and Community Day to make it as hard as possible for the Howard government to oppose it.
Originally the Family and Community Day holiday was held on Melbourne Cup Day. The ACT government wasted taxpayers' money holding a big event in a park by Lake Burley Griffin. Business hated it. Because Melbourne Cup day was a Tuesday, most people also took the Monday off, thus having a four day weekend. Workers didn't like it either because Melbourne Cup day was always a big event at work where bosses and staff could hold parties and celebrate whilst watching the big race. The hospitality industry had one of their biggest days taken off them, restaurant and function bookings disappeared.
After a few years of this madness, the ACT government called for public submissions into the holiday. Typical for a city of bludging public servants, only four percent of the submissions called for the abolition of the holiday altogether. It was moved to either the Monday before or after the October long weekend.
Very few people outside the public service are happy about this. Business still hates it and WorkChoices has since been abolished. There is little point still holding the holiday anymore, a union picnic day can be reinstituted. But once you give people a day off work it is almost impossible to take it off them again. So we have to tolerate it through gritted teeth.
So the best of luck to anybody trying to do business in Canberra today. I wouldn't be surprised if many interstate and overseas people decide that with the extra public holidays in the city, it is just not worth it and they take their business elsewhere.
Normally there is a valid reason for a holiday, whether it be tradition or religion. But this Canberra holiday was created for none of those reasons, it was instituted by the ACT Labor government in order to hit back at the Howard government in 2006. They wanted to make a political point.
Prior to the introduction of WorkChoices, the ACT had the trade union picnic day. Only members of unions could have the day off and an outdoor event was held on the day which fell in March. WorkChoices abolished the union picnic day, something which pleased business and anybody who wanted to get things done in the city. So rather than cop it sweet and acknowledge that the union picnic day was a discriminatory anachronism from another era, the ACT government responded by creating a whole new public holiday. For everybody. I call it The Holiday of Spite. Created to please Labor's union mates. The ACT government minister who created the holiday has even admitted that it was named Family and Community Day to make it as hard as possible for the Howard government to oppose it.
Originally the Family and Community Day holiday was held on Melbourne Cup Day. The ACT government wasted taxpayers' money holding a big event in a park by Lake Burley Griffin. Business hated it. Because Melbourne Cup day was a Tuesday, most people also took the Monday off, thus having a four day weekend. Workers didn't like it either because Melbourne Cup day was always a big event at work where bosses and staff could hold parties and celebrate whilst watching the big race. The hospitality industry had one of their biggest days taken off them, restaurant and function bookings disappeared.
After a few years of this madness, the ACT government called for public submissions into the holiday. Typical for a city of bludging public servants, only four percent of the submissions called for the abolition of the holiday altogether. It was moved to either the Monday before or after the October long weekend.
Very few people outside the public service are happy about this. Business still hates it and WorkChoices has since been abolished. There is little point still holding the holiday anymore, a union picnic day can be reinstituted. But once you give people a day off work it is almost impossible to take it off them again. So we have to tolerate it through gritted teeth.
So the best of luck to anybody trying to do business in Canberra today. I wouldn't be surprised if many interstate and overseas people decide that with the extra public holidays in the city, it is just not worth it and they take their business elsewhere.
Saturday 8 October 2011
Cool heads needed in Bali case
There has been quite a bit of comment about the 14 year old boy currently up on drug charges in Bali. Much of it nonsense, a lot of it emotional dribble and quite a lot of it straight out lies.
Before we continue, let me say straight out that I have never taken narcotic drugs intentionally. The only drugs I have ever taken was the partial eating of a marihuana cookie in 1978. I've never understood the attraction of drugs and why people would voluntarily get involved in a lifestyle which is expensive, unhealthy and dangerous.
Having said that a few questions need to be asked about how this boy came to be in possession of the marihuana in the first place. I don't go along with the nonsensical claim that the boy is the victim of police corruption. Many thousands of Australians visit Bali each year and they manage to return without getting involved with drugs or the police or ending up in jail. And why would the police want to set somebody up like this? If the police are indeed corrupt, why has the boy ended up in jail? Surely the boy and his parents would have been able to come up with the bribe money to keep the boy out of jail and have the charges dropped? It is a nonsense argument which is being put forward by ignorant people looking for excuses.
Another thing that many people haven't considered was why the boy was in the sleazy area of Denpasar in the first place. According to media reports he was about to go for a massage. Massage? We all know what this word is a euphemism for.
We all need to step back a bit and have a cold shower. We are talking about a foreign country where the laws are very different than here. Talk that it might affect Aussie tourism to Bali are wide of the mark to say the least. This is the location where there were not one but two terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005 killing over 100 Australians. Tourism did not drop as a result of those events and it is fanciful to suggest that a 14 year old boy being caught with drugs will have the slightest effect on a multi-million dollar industry.
All too often Australians in Bali treat the place as a third world playground where they can go, do whatever they like and act as badly as they can and there will be no consequences. This attitude was examined in the 1984 Redgum song I've Been To Bali Too. The main demographic who visit the island - young men - are especially prone to risky and larrikin behaviour and the abuse of alcohol and other drugs.
We shouldn't be any more sympathetic in this instance because an underage minor is involved. Drugs are drugs and the law is the law. If anything good comes out of this case it will be that Australian tourists mind their p's and q's when travelling overseas and respect the local laws and customs. Judging by the reaction this case has generated in this country, that might be a forlorn hope.
Before we continue, let me say straight out that I have never taken narcotic drugs intentionally. The only drugs I have ever taken was the partial eating of a marihuana cookie in 1978. I've never understood the attraction of drugs and why people would voluntarily get involved in a lifestyle which is expensive, unhealthy and dangerous.
Having said that a few questions need to be asked about how this boy came to be in possession of the marihuana in the first place. I don't go along with the nonsensical claim that the boy is the victim of police corruption. Many thousands of Australians visit Bali each year and they manage to return without getting involved with drugs or the police or ending up in jail. And why would the police want to set somebody up like this? If the police are indeed corrupt, why has the boy ended up in jail? Surely the boy and his parents would have been able to come up with the bribe money to keep the boy out of jail and have the charges dropped? It is a nonsense argument which is being put forward by ignorant people looking for excuses.
Another thing that many people haven't considered was why the boy was in the sleazy area of Denpasar in the first place. According to media reports he was about to go for a massage. Massage? We all know what this word is a euphemism for.
We all need to step back a bit and have a cold shower. We are talking about a foreign country where the laws are very different than here. Talk that it might affect Aussie tourism to Bali are wide of the mark to say the least. This is the location where there were not one but two terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005 killing over 100 Australians. Tourism did not drop as a result of those events and it is fanciful to suggest that a 14 year old boy being caught with drugs will have the slightest effect on a multi-million dollar industry.
All too often Australians in Bali treat the place as a third world playground where they can go, do whatever they like and act as badly as they can and there will be no consequences. This attitude was examined in the 1984 Redgum song I've Been To Bali Too. The main demographic who visit the island - young men - are especially prone to risky and larrikin behaviour and the abuse of alcohol and other drugs.
We shouldn't be any more sympathetic in this instance because an underage minor is involved. Drugs are drugs and the law is the law. If anything good comes out of this case it will be that Australian tourists mind their p's and q's when travelling overseas and respect the local laws and customs. Judging by the reaction this case has generated in this country, that might be a forlorn hope.
Thursday 6 October 2011
Blatantly biased and lacking credibility
As readers of this blog and people who follow me on Facebook would know, one thing I dislike more than almost anything is The Canberra Times. It is by far the worst newspaper in Australia - biased, blinkered, shoddy, inaccurate - and constantly lending its support to very dubious, always left wing causes.
One thing which has provoked outrage in Canberra - and beyond - is the constant pushing of Julia Gillard and The Greens with puff pieces always being published, and the hijacking of the letters page by idiots relentlessly attacking Tony Abbott. Until now the paper has been able to hide behind the pretense that they are simply publishing the views of readers, despite myself and others who support Abbott and conservatism in general being frozen out and not being able to get our views into the paper.
All that facade of objectivity went flying out the window yesterday when The Canberra Times published the following advertisement:
Now can you believe this? Read the ad copy composed by The Canberra Times. And The Canberra Times has its logo on the ad and is sponsoring the lecture and endorsing the idiotic views of the author of this hatchet job on Abbott. Words fail me.
The Canberra Times is fond of criticising the News Ltd newspapers, saying they are biased and painting Murdoch as being some kind of monster - like the rest of the Fairfax press and the Left in general. But never once has News Ltd become involved in such a nakedly partisan promotion like this which seeks to attack an opposition leader who represents around 72% of the population according to primary votes in the latest opinion polls.
Read the ad copy more closely - "Women sense in Abbott a man who has no respect for tolerance for the social changes that they have fought so hard to achieve". Who are these women, apart from the author herself? Certainly not the people beyond her tiny little mind as the latest Newspoll shows that women have deserted Gillard and Labor and are throwing their support behind Abbott's conservatism. Gillard's support among women has disappeared. The Left wing Canberra Press Gallery used to pull out the cliche that "Abbott has a problem with women" but it is clear that the tinpot gimmick of putting in a woman as prime minister has failed for Labor, and Gillard is in fact the person who has "a problem with women".
The actual book in question is garbage, slammed by intelligent critics and bought solely by the Labor true believers who lap up anything bagging the conservative side of politics. Just looking at the title and cover is enough to send up the bright red caution flags - Tony Abbott- A Man's Man with Abbott cooking a barbecue consisting solely of sausages. Um, phallic symbolism anybody?
This is typical of the dreadful immaturity, empty-headedness and spitefulness of the Left. They aren't improving.
To have The Canberra Times sponsoring and publishing this crap is truly incredible, and just demonstrates that newspaper's blinkered, one-eyed approach and total lack of credibility. The sooner the scummy little rag closes down the better.
One thing which has provoked outrage in Canberra - and beyond - is the constant pushing of Julia Gillard and The Greens with puff pieces always being published, and the hijacking of the letters page by idiots relentlessly attacking Tony Abbott. Until now the paper has been able to hide behind the pretense that they are simply publishing the views of readers, despite myself and others who support Abbott and conservatism in general being frozen out and not being able to get our views into the paper.
All that facade of objectivity went flying out the window yesterday when The Canberra Times published the following advertisement:
The Canberra Times is fond of criticising the News Ltd newspapers, saying they are biased and painting Murdoch as being some kind of monster - like the rest of the Fairfax press and the Left in general. But never once has News Ltd become involved in such a nakedly partisan promotion like this which seeks to attack an opposition leader who represents around 72% of the population according to primary votes in the latest opinion polls.
Read the ad copy more closely - "Women sense in Abbott a man who has no respect for tolerance for the social changes that they have fought so hard to achieve". Who are these women, apart from the author herself? Certainly not the people beyond her tiny little mind as the latest Newspoll shows that women have deserted Gillard and Labor and are throwing their support behind Abbott's conservatism. Gillard's support among women has disappeared. The Left wing Canberra Press Gallery used to pull out the cliche that "Abbott has a problem with women" but it is clear that the tinpot gimmick of putting in a woman as prime minister has failed for Labor, and Gillard is in fact the person who has "a problem with women".
The actual book in question is garbage, slammed by intelligent critics and bought solely by the Labor true believers who lap up anything bagging the conservative side of politics. Just looking at the title and cover is enough to send up the bright red caution flags - Tony Abbott- A Man's Man with Abbott cooking a barbecue consisting solely of sausages. Um, phallic symbolism anybody?
This is typical of the dreadful immaturity, empty-headedness and spitefulness of the Left. They aren't improving.
To have The Canberra Times sponsoring and publishing this crap is truly incredible, and just demonstrates that newspaper's blinkered, one-eyed approach and total lack of credibility. The sooner the scummy little rag closes down the better.
Unions have no shame
Sometimes you have to shake your head at some of the antics trade unions get up to.
Australia's national airline Qantas has been suffering recently due to what can only be described as union terrorism. The Transport Workers Union and others have been holding the carrier to ransom with outrageous wage demands. Strikes have been held at the worst possible times - holiday weekends and other high volume occasions - and the CEO Alan Joyce has repeatedly pleaded with the unions to stop the garbage because it is putting the airline's survival at risk. Profits are down in a volatile market and the airline is looking at relocating overseas to try and circumvent the unions.
Now we hear that unionists have been sending death threats to Alan Joyce, and workers who refuse to join the strike action have had their cars and houses attacked.
So what is the TWU's response to all this? Have they apologised or called on their members to cool it? Have they called off the strike action and recognised that if they continue the thuggery their jobs will be at risk? Well, no.
In a breathtaking display of arrogance, the head of the TWU Tony Sheldon has accused Qantas management of fabricating the death threats. Why Qantas would want to do that is unclear but it apparently has something to do with trying to discredit the union.
Pardon me, but the TWU and other unions have done a very good job of doing that themselves.
This only goes to illustrate how unethical the unions are and how they fail to uphold the welfare of their members. Wages in this country are already among the highest in the world and that is why the cost of living is so high and those who are not getting this largesse - such as pensioners - are suffering.
I'm proud to say that in my entire working life I was never once a member of a union. In one job I had, when unions became involved I actually lost my job - a job I really liked - and I have never forgiven them for that.
The Transport Workers Union and the others should immediately drop their industrial action and apologise to Qantas for suggesting they fabricated death threats to Alan Joyce. If they don't, Qantas management will be fully justified in pulling up stumps from Australia and relocating to a country where they can operate freely without having to deal with union blackmail and thuggery.
Australia's national airline Qantas has been suffering recently due to what can only be described as union terrorism. The Transport Workers Union and others have been holding the carrier to ransom with outrageous wage demands. Strikes have been held at the worst possible times - holiday weekends and other high volume occasions - and the CEO Alan Joyce has repeatedly pleaded with the unions to stop the garbage because it is putting the airline's survival at risk. Profits are down in a volatile market and the airline is looking at relocating overseas to try and circumvent the unions.
Now we hear that unionists have been sending death threats to Alan Joyce, and workers who refuse to join the strike action have had their cars and houses attacked.
So what is the TWU's response to all this? Have they apologised or called on their members to cool it? Have they called off the strike action and recognised that if they continue the thuggery their jobs will be at risk? Well, no.
In a breathtaking display of arrogance, the head of the TWU Tony Sheldon has accused Qantas management of fabricating the death threats. Why Qantas would want to do that is unclear but it apparently has something to do with trying to discredit the union.
Pardon me, but the TWU and other unions have done a very good job of doing that themselves.
This only goes to illustrate how unethical the unions are and how they fail to uphold the welfare of their members. Wages in this country are already among the highest in the world and that is why the cost of living is so high and those who are not getting this largesse - such as pensioners - are suffering.
I'm proud to say that in my entire working life I was never once a member of a union. In one job I had, when unions became involved I actually lost my job - a job I really liked - and I have never forgiven them for that.
The Transport Workers Union and the others should immediately drop their industrial action and apologise to Qantas for suggesting they fabricated death threats to Alan Joyce. If they don't, Qantas management will be fully justified in pulling up stumps from Australia and relocating to a country where they can operate freely without having to deal with union blackmail and thuggery.
Welcome to my new home
Well, here I am on Blogger with an update of my blog.
I've moved here because of several problems I encountered on Netlog, the chief one being that none of these posts - or the blog in general - was showing up in Google. Also Netlog seemed fairly basic and I needed more flexibility.
I've moved my previous posts here and will be posting here exclusively from now on.
So sit back and enjoy the new era of blogging by yours truly.
I've moved here because of several problems I encountered on Netlog, the chief one being that none of these posts - or the blog in general - was showing up in Google. Also Netlog seemed fairly basic and I needed more flexibility.
I've moved my previous posts here and will be posting here exclusively from now on.
So sit back and enjoy the new era of blogging by yours truly.
On grand finals and fat taxes
This has been a big weekend in Australia. Not only has it been a holiday weekend, we have had the grand finals in the two major sporting codes in the country, rugby league and Aussie rules football. The Geelong Cats have won the AFL and Manly have won the NRL. Congratulations to both teams.
We like to think of ourselves as a sporting nation and in years gone by the image of Aussies was of a hardy, healthy, male-oriented society. In recent years, however, the image of the bronzed Aussie has copped a battering as the levels of obesity have skyrocketed. Australia is now second to the United States as the fattest nation on earth.
Over the weekend - as we were all hearing about the footy grand finals - we heard the news that Denmark has imposed the world's first "fat tax". This is an extra tax on fatty and unhealthy food in order to discourage consumption and finance good health initiatives. It has been talked about for several years - ever since obesity became a major problem in the early 2000s - but governments have jibbed on bringing it in until now.
Normally I'm against new taxes. The money normally ends up creating bigger government and employing more bureaucrats, plus the taxes are sometimes misguided and unnecessary as is the case with the carbon tax. But in the case of the fat tax, perhaps we should give it a go.
Governments and nutritionists have tried almost everything to curb the obesity epidemic. We've seen educational programs, ads on the TV, nutitional information on products - all to no avail. Obesity levels are still way too high as a visit to any shopping centre will attest to.
I know many people will regard a fat tax as a wowser initiative but we are really at the end of the line in trying to deal with obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. The softly softly approach has failed and we need to look at new initiatives. There is a tax summit in Canberra this week and the fat tax should be on the agenda.
The Danish fat tax should be examined closely, and if it has an effect in curbing the consumption of unhealthy foods and encouraging health and fitness then it should be introduced here.
We like to think of ourselves as a sporting nation and in years gone by the image of Aussies was of a hardy, healthy, male-oriented society. In recent years, however, the image of the bronzed Aussie has copped a battering as the levels of obesity have skyrocketed. Australia is now second to the United States as the fattest nation on earth.
Over the weekend - as we were all hearing about the footy grand finals - we heard the news that Denmark has imposed the world's first "fat tax". This is an extra tax on fatty and unhealthy food in order to discourage consumption and finance good health initiatives. It has been talked about for several years - ever since obesity became a major problem in the early 2000s - but governments have jibbed on bringing it in until now.
Normally I'm against new taxes. The money normally ends up creating bigger government and employing more bureaucrats, plus the taxes are sometimes misguided and unnecessary as is the case with the carbon tax. But in the case of the fat tax, perhaps we should give it a go.
Governments and nutritionists have tried almost everything to curb the obesity epidemic. We've seen educational programs, ads on the TV, nutitional information on products - all to no avail. Obesity levels are still way too high as a visit to any shopping centre will attest to.
I know many people will regard a fat tax as a wowser initiative but we are really at the end of the line in trying to deal with obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. The softly softly approach has failed and we need to look at new initiatives. There is a tax summit in Canberra this week and the fat tax should be on the agenda.
The Danish fat tax should be examined closely, and if it has an effect in curbing the consumption of unhealthy foods and encouraging health and fitness then it should be introduced here.
A cruel blow that will harm Aborigines
The politically correct Left are crowing about the court judgement against columnist Andrew Bolt who dared criticise the opportunists who attach the label Aborigine to themselves in order to attract a whole raft of privileges and benefits not available to whites. Resentment against these people began in the mid 1980s when "Aboriginal" activist Michael Mansell jumped up and down in the media, advocated a separate country for Aborigines and travelled to Libya to have meetings with Colonel Gaddafi.
If you recall, Bolt wrote an article in the Herald Sun headed "Hip to Be Black" which named a number of people who are involved in this rort. These people took a class action under the Racial Discrimination Act and Racial Vilification Act and had a compliant, left-wing judge hearing the case and won.
The scenes on TV last night of Aborigines celebrating were sickening. One of those people was rapist Geoff Clark who terrorised the town of Warrnambool for several years.
Watching these scenes, I was immediately taken back 16 years to the disgraceful Hindmarsh Island Aboriginal secret womens' business scandal. A group of conservationists in early 1995 wanted to stop a bridge being built from the mainland to Hindmarsh Island in SA, they enlisted a group of Aboriginal women to concoct a fabricated story about "secret womens' business", they took the owners of the holiday resort on Hindmarsh Island to the Federal and High Court in ongoing legal action - funded and supported by the Labor government at the time - and won. There were similar celebratory scenes on TV of Aborigines celebrating and cracking open champagne, and in suburban homes across Australia the anger, rage and hate was palpable. The Keating Labor government was finished. Even after the conspiracy was uncovered, the Left continued to defend the idea of "secret womens' business" and published books supporting the nonsense even after Keating had been destroyed at the polls and the Liberal government under John Howard was governing with a near record majority.
In this latest case we have a columnist detested by the Left and their followers crucified because they don't like his opinions. They want to shut him up. Well, it won't work. I know from personal experience that the application of anti-discrimination rules to muzzle free speech - rather than silencing dissent and creating a happy, harmonious society - only causes resentment and hardens any discriminatory views. The "victims" are seen as a protected species enjoying privileges over and above the ordinary, normal person simply because of genetics. I was editor of a student newspaper at uni in the 1980s and found that it was impossible to do my job due to a left-wing editor-in-chief who ruthlessly applied censorship based on a Student Media Policy which was totally over the top.
Andrew Bolt tried to address the media outside the court after the ruling and some thugs yelled out something when he referred to free speech. Typical, eh? The pathetic statements by the "Aboriginal" litigants claiming the ruling was "a victory for free speech" were nothing short of bizarre. How do they figure that? The reverse is true, of course. If they think this is somehow a "victory" they are sadly mistaken. Aussies don't like uppity Aborigines and they especially don't like them abusing the legal system to stifle criticism. They especially resent the overuse and abuse of the word "racist" whenever anybody tries to discuss the subject of Aboriginal affairs.
This ruling has set back the Aboriginal cause several years. It has severely damaged the reputation and standing of their community and has resurrected the image of a privileged race enjoying privileges not available to others. And for what? Is anybody now better off? Has anybody benefitted as a result? No, no and no.
The only winners are the lawyers who have pocketed megabucks and the redneck element who have had all their negative opinions of Aborigines reinforced. It is not healthy.
If you recall, Bolt wrote an article in the Herald Sun headed "Hip to Be Black" which named a number of people who are involved in this rort. These people took a class action under the Racial Discrimination Act and Racial Vilification Act and had a compliant, left-wing judge hearing the case and won.
The scenes on TV last night of Aborigines celebrating were sickening. One of those people was rapist Geoff Clark who terrorised the town of Warrnambool for several years.
Watching these scenes, I was immediately taken back 16 years to the disgraceful Hindmarsh Island Aboriginal secret womens' business scandal. A group of conservationists in early 1995 wanted to stop a bridge being built from the mainland to Hindmarsh Island in SA, they enlisted a group of Aboriginal women to concoct a fabricated story about "secret womens' business", they took the owners of the holiday resort on Hindmarsh Island to the Federal and High Court in ongoing legal action - funded and supported by the Labor government at the time - and won. There were similar celebratory scenes on TV of Aborigines celebrating and cracking open champagne, and in suburban homes across Australia the anger, rage and hate was palpable. The Keating Labor government was finished. Even after the conspiracy was uncovered, the Left continued to defend the idea of "secret womens' business" and published books supporting the nonsense even after Keating had been destroyed at the polls and the Liberal government under John Howard was governing with a near record majority.
In this latest case we have a columnist detested by the Left and their followers crucified because they don't like his opinions. They want to shut him up. Well, it won't work. I know from personal experience that the application of anti-discrimination rules to muzzle free speech - rather than silencing dissent and creating a happy, harmonious society - only causes resentment and hardens any discriminatory views. The "victims" are seen as a protected species enjoying privileges over and above the ordinary, normal person simply because of genetics. I was editor of a student newspaper at uni in the 1980s and found that it was impossible to do my job due to a left-wing editor-in-chief who ruthlessly applied censorship based on a Student Media Policy which was totally over the top.
Andrew Bolt tried to address the media outside the court after the ruling and some thugs yelled out something when he referred to free speech. Typical, eh? The pathetic statements by the "Aboriginal" litigants claiming the ruling was "a victory for free speech" were nothing short of bizarre. How do they figure that? The reverse is true, of course. If they think this is somehow a "victory" they are sadly mistaken. Aussies don't like uppity Aborigines and they especially don't like them abusing the legal system to stifle criticism. They especially resent the overuse and abuse of the word "racist" whenever anybody tries to discuss the subject of Aboriginal affairs.
This ruling has set back the Aboriginal cause several years. It has severely damaged the reputation and standing of their community and has resurrected the image of a privileged race enjoying privileges not available to others. And for what? Is anybody now better off? Has anybody benefitted as a result? No, no and no.
The only winners are the lawyers who have pocketed megabucks and the redneck element who have had all their negative opinions of Aborigines reinforced. It is not healthy.
A nice little diversion, that
Political cynicism and spin management is alive and well in Canberra.
On the same day The Australian had details of the latest Newspoll showing that for the first time every mainland state was showing the Libs and Nats leading Labor and Gillard trailing the personal popularity stakes the government announced in the morning that women would serve in frontline Defence combat roles.
Actually it wasn't a new policy, it was a reannouncement. They'd already announced this a few months back but, hey, Julia's copping it from the shock jocks so let's just put something out there that will excite the talkback callers and take the heat off the leadership talk.
It was pathetic and cynical, but it worked. It was straight out of the former Labor government in NSW's manual of media management. Announce something then a few months later reannounce it, especially if it is good news.
To give credit to Gillard's new spin doctor, the announcement about women in combat roles had some juicy bits the previous announcement didn't have. The news that women would be shoehorned into the Commando regiments and the SAS. But we all figured that out anyway when the original announcement was made.
It will hardly take the heat off the government. A tax summit is on this week and the overwhelming sentiment is that it is an opportunity for the Green tail to wag the Labor dog again with The Greens throwing up thought bubbles about city congestion taxes, increasing the GST and extending the mining tax to include gold - "Canberra's screwing us again". The carbon tax will become law within the next two months and the long suffering public will be loudly screaming "Enough!"
It doesn't matter how much media management and spin this government comes up with, the fact is that the well has been poisoned by four long years of Labor mismanagement. The public is being force fed poisoned Kool-Aid in a 21st century version of the Jonestown massacre.
Gillard is performing her last act in the Labor play and the man with the hook is waiting in the wings.
On the same day The Australian had details of the latest Newspoll showing that for the first time every mainland state was showing the Libs and Nats leading Labor and Gillard trailing the personal popularity stakes the government announced in the morning that women would serve in frontline Defence combat roles.
Actually it wasn't a new policy, it was a reannouncement. They'd already announced this a few months back but, hey, Julia's copping it from the shock jocks so let's just put something out there that will excite the talkback callers and take the heat off the leadership talk.
It was pathetic and cynical, but it worked. It was straight out of the former Labor government in NSW's manual of media management. Announce something then a few months later reannounce it, especially if it is good news.
To give credit to Gillard's new spin doctor, the announcement about women in combat roles had some juicy bits the previous announcement didn't have. The news that women would be shoehorned into the Commando regiments and the SAS. But we all figured that out anyway when the original announcement was made.
It will hardly take the heat off the government. A tax summit is on this week and the overwhelming sentiment is that it is an opportunity for the Green tail to wag the Labor dog again with The Greens throwing up thought bubbles about city congestion taxes, increasing the GST and extending the mining tax to include gold - "Canberra's screwing us again". The carbon tax will become law within the next two months and the long suffering public will be loudly screaming "Enough!"
It doesn't matter how much media management and spin this government comes up with, the fact is that the well has been poisoned by four long years of Labor mismanagement. The public is being force fed poisoned Kool-Aid in a 21st century version of the Jonestown massacre.
Gillard is performing her last act in the Labor play and the man with the hook is waiting in the wings.
Worse than Chinese water torture
One of my bugbears is the ABC. I think they're nothing but a politically correct left wing propaganda organisation broadcasting material that any media group which relies on advertising and ratings for its survival steers clear from for very good reason.
Since Labor came to office the ABC has grown to gargantuan proportions sucking up more and more taxpayers' money like a giant vacuum cleaner. We've seen the introduction of fringe digital channels, magazines nobody buys and an expansion of ABC Shops stocked with overpriced goods the discerning person can buy on the Net.
But the thing which is a constant source of anger is the left wing bias of their news and current affairs.
The only things I watch on the ABC are The Gruen Transfer which is usually informative and entertaining, and Media Watch just to see what the Leftist fringe is saying about popular personalities and newspapers. Other programs such as Q&A and Four Corners are strictly persona non grata because they are garbage. Left wing bilge well and truly.
I've managed to isolate myself from the more left wing and offensive aspects of the ABC but occasionally it intrudes on my life and I have no control over whether I watch it or not. Such an occasion happened yesterday when I went to the family doctor and had to sit in the waiting room for almost one hour and thirty minutes. On the screen in front of me was ABC News 24, one of their wasteful new digital channels.
You couldn't really call it news, it was ideolgical warfare. Slanted stories, irrelevant bumph, foreign crap nobody is interested in, propaganda supporting climate change theory and the carbon tax, it was relentless. On a few occasions I couldn't put up with it anymore. I locked myself in the toilet reading The Australian, but I had to come out in case I received the call from the doctor.
One of the more offensive programs they showed during this slow torture was something called Newsline. The first story was about Pakistani terrorism. There were the usual interviews with extremists, the stock ABC shots of the female reporter facing the camera wearing a hijab and the flags flying. This was followed by a story about Palestinian recognition by the UN which featured the usual interviews with extremists, flags flying, you get the drift. Now was this crap of any relevance to anybody in this country? Who gives a stuff? Obviously nobody because ABC News 24 is by far the lowest rating TV station in Australia with a rating of less than 1% of the viewing audience. Why is it still on air?
Throughout this I couldn't help thinking about all that taxpayers' money being wasted keeping this crap on the air. Not just the propaganda pushers on screen but all the support staff - technicians, producers, sound people - a whole army of people on the public funding teat.
The time is long past to rid the taxpayer of this massive waste of public money. How can we justify having an organisation pumping out biased, blinkered left wing propaganda on multiple platforms 24 hours a day gobbling up millions of dollars. How can they justify having a digital radio station broadcasting nothing but jazz music? Or a magazine devoted to organic gardening? Or a digital TV station showing kids' programs and rating next to nothing?
One of the first things Tony Abbott should do when he wins office is do a complete audit of the ABC, savagely cut staff and prepare it for privatisation. Talks should then take place with Foxtel with a view to turning the ABC into a pay TV operation and Foxtel can decide what to do with all the baggage they'll inherit such as magazines and the ABC Shops.
If Foxtel won't take it on then the ABC should simply be closed down altogether and the tape archives donated to the National Film and Sound Archive.
We shouldn't have to put up with the taxpayer subsidising a rogue organisation broadcasting fringe left-wing propaganda offensive to the majority of Australians and repeatedly thumbing their noses at the values and attitudes we hold so dear.
Since Labor came to office the ABC has grown to gargantuan proportions sucking up more and more taxpayers' money like a giant vacuum cleaner. We've seen the introduction of fringe digital channels, magazines nobody buys and an expansion of ABC Shops stocked with overpriced goods the discerning person can buy on the Net.
But the thing which is a constant source of anger is the left wing bias of their news and current affairs.
The only things I watch on the ABC are The Gruen Transfer which is usually informative and entertaining, and Media Watch just to see what the Leftist fringe is saying about popular personalities and newspapers. Other programs such as Q&A and Four Corners are strictly persona non grata because they are garbage. Left wing bilge well and truly.
I've managed to isolate myself from the more left wing and offensive aspects of the ABC but occasionally it intrudes on my life and I have no control over whether I watch it or not. Such an occasion happened yesterday when I went to the family doctor and had to sit in the waiting room for almost one hour and thirty minutes. On the screen in front of me was ABC News 24, one of their wasteful new digital channels.
You couldn't really call it news, it was ideolgical warfare. Slanted stories, irrelevant bumph, foreign crap nobody is interested in, propaganda supporting climate change theory and the carbon tax, it was relentless. On a few occasions I couldn't put up with it anymore. I locked myself in the toilet reading The Australian, but I had to come out in case I received the call from the doctor.
One of the more offensive programs they showed during this slow torture was something called Newsline. The first story was about Pakistani terrorism. There were the usual interviews with extremists, the stock ABC shots of the female reporter facing the camera wearing a hijab and the flags flying. This was followed by a story about Palestinian recognition by the UN which featured the usual interviews with extremists, flags flying, you get the drift. Now was this crap of any relevance to anybody in this country? Who gives a stuff? Obviously nobody because ABC News 24 is by far the lowest rating TV station in Australia with a rating of less than 1% of the viewing audience. Why is it still on air?
Throughout this I couldn't help thinking about all that taxpayers' money being wasted keeping this crap on the air. Not just the propaganda pushers on screen but all the support staff - technicians, producers, sound people - a whole army of people on the public funding teat.
The time is long past to rid the taxpayer of this massive waste of public money. How can we justify having an organisation pumping out biased, blinkered left wing propaganda on multiple platforms 24 hours a day gobbling up millions of dollars. How can they justify having a digital radio station broadcasting nothing but jazz music? Or a magazine devoted to organic gardening? Or a digital TV station showing kids' programs and rating next to nothing?
One of the first things Tony Abbott should do when he wins office is do a complete audit of the ABC, savagely cut staff and prepare it for privatisation. Talks should then take place with Foxtel with a view to turning the ABC into a pay TV operation and Foxtel can decide what to do with all the baggage they'll inherit such as magazines and the ABC Shops.
If Foxtel won't take it on then the ABC should simply be closed down altogether and the tape archives donated to the National Film and Sound Archive.
We shouldn't have to put up with the taxpayer subsidising a rogue organisation broadcasting fringe left-wing propaganda offensive to the majority of Australians and repeatedly thumbing their noses at the values and attitudes we hold so dear.
Canberra moron update
It seems that hard left newspaper The Canberra Times hasn't taken notice of my name and shame campaign and is still printing idiotic, inflammatory left wing letters containing utter BS.
I have been forced to start this campaign because I cannot get any letters into the paper, and there is no other way to try and redress the utter crap being printed almost daily in the letters page. The paper has appointed a miserable c*nt as letters editor who only prints letters attacking Tony Abbott and conservative politics and causes. Like several others I have been put on a blacklist because I dare to express non-leftist views. The Canberra Times is part of the Fairfax group and they feel they have to present totally biased, one-eyed left wing views simply to go against the Murdoch papers. The Fairfax group lost $400million this financial year and their circulation figures are terminal.
Anyway, here is the latest mental pygmy who has had his idiotic, moronic crap printed by The Canberra Times. It is C. Olsen from Hackett who puts forward the rather novel and amusing idea that the ABC is not really "a biased, left-wing entity", it's everybody else who is biased! Try and read this drivel with a straight face:
RIGHT-WING MYTHS
D. Zivkovic (Letters, September 17) is
trying to pass off the long-held right-
wing myth that the ABC is really a
biased left-wing entity, despite John
Howard stacking as many Liberal faith-
ful on the board as possible.
The reason those on the right think it
is so left wing is that so much else in the
media is so blatantly right wing. I speak
mostly of the right-wing lie factory that
is the Murdoch press and the right-
wing shock jocks' deliberate misinfor-
mation and hate-mongering. They
began this war on the Greens, Labor
and other left-wing parties/groups with
endless tirades against Bob Brown. I
welcome the scrutiny of the media. It's
a shame the Government hasn't got the
guts to go after the shock jocks.
C. Olsen, Hackett
Ah, it's those horrid, bushwacking "shock jocks" again. The Left really has a paranoia about them, don't they? Recently the shock jocks have been joined by the Murdoch press as the chief villian, simply because they represent the prevailing public view on politics and society and refuse to shove trendy, leftist views down peoples' throats.
This is a final warning to the letters editor of The Canberra Times and those pea-brained idiots who think it is somehow smart or fun to write crap like this. You will pay.
Next week I am stepping up my name and shame campaign to try and stamp out this crap. In addition to the name and suburb of the letter writers, I will also be publishing their full street addresses and phone numbers if they can be obtained. I find it disgraceful that ordinary, conservative, middle of the road people like me are banned from the letters page, while every stupid little hit and giggle piece of leftist scum can get their crap printed day after day, week in week out.
Stay tuned as the war against the Left enters a new phase.
I have been forced to start this campaign because I cannot get any letters into the paper, and there is no other way to try and redress the utter crap being printed almost daily in the letters page. The paper has appointed a miserable c*nt as letters editor who only prints letters attacking Tony Abbott and conservative politics and causes. Like several others I have been put on a blacklist because I dare to express non-leftist views. The Canberra Times is part of the Fairfax group and they feel they have to present totally biased, one-eyed left wing views simply to go against the Murdoch papers. The Fairfax group lost $400million this financial year and their circulation figures are terminal.
Anyway, here is the latest mental pygmy who has had his idiotic, moronic crap printed by The Canberra Times. It is C. Olsen from Hackett who puts forward the rather novel and amusing idea that the ABC is not really "a biased, left-wing entity", it's everybody else who is biased! Try and read this drivel with a straight face:
RIGHT-WING MYTHS
D. Zivkovic (Letters, September 17) is
trying to pass off the long-held right-
wing myth that the ABC is really a
biased left-wing entity, despite John
Howard stacking as many Liberal faith-
ful on the board as possible.
The reason those on the right think it
is so left wing is that so much else in the
media is so blatantly right wing. I speak
mostly of the right-wing lie factory that
is the Murdoch press and the right-
wing shock jocks' deliberate misinfor-
mation and hate-mongering. They
began this war on the Greens, Labor
and other left-wing parties/groups with
endless tirades against Bob Brown. I
welcome the scrutiny of the media. It's
a shame the Government hasn't got the
guts to go after the shock jocks.
C. Olsen, Hackett
Ah, it's those horrid, bushwacking "shock jocks" again. The Left really has a paranoia about them, don't they? Recently the shock jocks have been joined by the Murdoch press as the chief villian, simply because they represent the prevailing public view on politics and society and refuse to shove trendy, leftist views down peoples' throats.
This is a final warning to the letters editor of The Canberra Times and those pea-brained idiots who think it is somehow smart or fun to write crap like this. You will pay.
Next week I am stepping up my name and shame campaign to try and stamp out this crap. In addition to the name and suburb of the letter writers, I will also be publishing their full street addresses and phone numbers if they can be obtained. I find it disgraceful that ordinary, conservative, middle of the road people like me are banned from the letters page, while every stupid little hit and giggle piece of leftist scum can get their crap printed day after day, week in week out.
Stay tuned as the war against the Left enters a new phase.
Rubbing our noses in it
You would think that with the votes locked in, with the Green Left crowing about how they've forced a carbon tax upon the country, and with the ferals all feeling smug and self satisfied that Tony Abbott will find it impossible to reverse the tax they would just lie back and enjoy their "victory".
But no, they've decided to rub our noses into it with a new series of self-congratulatory advertisements.
Today's Daily Telegraph is reporting that Sally Davis - who is billing herself as an "ordinary mum who wants to do her part to stop climate change" - stars in a new series of TV ads for the "Say Yes to a carbon tax" campaign. This is the same campaign which featured millionaire actress Cate Blanchett and other wealthy performers from the inner city latte set telling us all we just had to pay higher electricity and petrol bills to "save the planet".
Davis seems particularly coy about the fact that she is an actress who previously appeared in Blue Heelers and Neighbours. When the Tele reporter tried to bring up her past she said "Oh no, no, I'm just an ordinary mum". When pressed she finally admitted her inglorious past.
In the ad, Davis says "I don't like politicians and shock jocks telling us lies about the carbon price to scare us. Australia is such a lucky country and I'm glad we're finally getting on with tackling climate change".
What is this obsession the Left have with so-called "shock jocks"? Could it be they don't like the fact that the vast majority listen to - and agree - with the "shock jocks" and don't bother taking seriously the darlings of the Left on the ABC, SBS and the Fairfax press?
Perhaps the reason why we are now about to be clobbered with these ads is that they realise how deeply hated the carbon tax really is, and the fact that their pushing for "action on climate change" has almost destroyed the government and they are now trying to justify their actions. Won't work.
Every time these ads appear it will just cause more and more resentment and serve to underline just how Gillard and Labor have been hijacked by selfish, opportunist feral activists from the Green Left. It also provides frightening proof as to how powerful and influential the Left really is and the terrible danger they pose to the lifestyles and aspirations of the respectable, mainstream majority of ordinary Aussies.
But no, they've decided to rub our noses into it with a new series of self-congratulatory advertisements.
Today's Daily Telegraph is reporting that Sally Davis - who is billing herself as an "ordinary mum who wants to do her part to stop climate change" - stars in a new series of TV ads for the "Say Yes to a carbon tax" campaign. This is the same campaign which featured millionaire actress Cate Blanchett and other wealthy performers from the inner city latte set telling us all we just had to pay higher electricity and petrol bills to "save the planet".
Davis seems particularly coy about the fact that she is an actress who previously appeared in Blue Heelers and Neighbours. When the Tele reporter tried to bring up her past she said "Oh no, no, I'm just an ordinary mum". When pressed she finally admitted her inglorious past.
In the ad, Davis says "I don't like politicians and shock jocks telling us lies about the carbon price to scare us. Australia is such a lucky country and I'm glad we're finally getting on with tackling climate change".
What is this obsession the Left have with so-called "shock jocks"? Could it be they don't like the fact that the vast majority listen to - and agree - with the "shock jocks" and don't bother taking seriously the darlings of the Left on the ABC, SBS and the Fairfax press?
Perhaps the reason why we are now about to be clobbered with these ads is that they realise how deeply hated the carbon tax really is, and the fact that their pushing for "action on climate change" has almost destroyed the government and they are now trying to justify their actions. Won't work.
Every time these ads appear it will just cause more and more resentment and serve to underline just how Gillard and Labor have been hijacked by selfish, opportunist feral activists from the Green Left. It also provides frightening proof as to how powerful and influential the Left really is and the terrible danger they pose to the lifestyles and aspirations of the respectable, mainstream majority of ordinary Aussies.
Gillard all at sea on asylum seekers
If there is anything emblematic about the tragedy of the Rudd/Gillard governments, if there is anything that sums up just how the country has been firebombed by the Labor bunglers it would have to be asylum seeker policy.
Under the Howard government we had a policy - the Pacific Solution - which worked. Temporary protection visas, being housed on Nauru and offshore processing. Illegal queue-jumpers and the people smugglers had the sugar taken off the table, our lucrative welfare benefits were out of reach, the bleeding heart human rights industry and its opportunistic spiv lawyers were put out of business and the Left were nobbled. Everything was just fine.
Then along came Labor.
In August 2008 with the whole asylum seeker issue off the agenda, with no more boats coming, with just one person in detention and the issue now an asterisk in the history books, Kevin Rudd as PM put into effect the so-called "more compassionate approach to asylum seekers" formulated by Gillard and the rest of the Left. Nauru was closed down, asylum seekers were processed on the mainland, welfare handouts reinstituted and, as a result the whole people smuggler industry was cranked up again. It was like waving a red flag to a bull. Australia was open for business again and within a year or two many more boats arrived than during the entire 9/11 terrorism era.
At first the neophyte Immigration minister Chris Bowen manufactured excuses to try and explain away the sudden upsurge in boat arrivals. It was all due to the Sri Lankan war and the Tamil Tigers. The public and media treated this BS with the contempt it deserved. Pretty soon it was on for young and old. They started flooding in from Afghanistan and other muslim countries again, there were even boatloads arriving from Vietnam - now a prosperous country which hasn't seen war for 35 years.
During all of this tragedy, the government has been caught badly flat footed. They've cobbled together a motley range of makeshift arrangements to try and accommodate the invasion without success. The detention centres are now overflowing with no end in sight. The federal opposition has been negotiating with Nauru with a view to having the successful Pacific Solution reinstituted but Gillard won't have a bar of it. It was Howard's idea, you see, and Gillard can't swallow her pride and admit that she and Rudd got it wrong and Howard was right.
The most spectacular failing of the Gillard government's ramshackle asylum seeker policy was the disastrous "Malaysia solution". The word "solution" was coined by the media. In reality it wasn't a solution at all and it was quickly struck down by the High Court. The government wants to put in a legislative response which will nullify the High Court ruling but the Left and The Greens have arced up and Gillard has been forced to try and get Tony Abbott and the opposition onside to get it through parliament. Abbott has said that Malaysia is out - refugees are routinely whipped and tortured and conditions in their refugee camps are appalling. He has repeatedly offered Nauru and the reinstitution of temporary protection visas as the solution, but Gillard still won't comply so the shambles continues.
Sooner or later the government will have to get real and realise that their "compassionate approach" to asylum seekers has been a total failure. Increasingly though, that looks like a forlorn hope. Like everything else in this country that has been destroyed by Labor and The Greens it just has to stay shattered and in disrepair until the temporary aberration of Labor/Greens/independent government is over and Tony Abbott sends in the cleanup crew to get this country back on track again.
That can't happen soon enough.
Under the Howard government we had a policy - the Pacific Solution - which worked. Temporary protection visas, being housed on Nauru and offshore processing. Illegal queue-jumpers and the people smugglers had the sugar taken off the table, our lucrative welfare benefits were out of reach, the bleeding heart human rights industry and its opportunistic spiv lawyers were put out of business and the Left were nobbled. Everything was just fine.
Then along came Labor.
In August 2008 with the whole asylum seeker issue off the agenda, with no more boats coming, with just one person in detention and the issue now an asterisk in the history books, Kevin Rudd as PM put into effect the so-called "more compassionate approach to asylum seekers" formulated by Gillard and the rest of the Left. Nauru was closed down, asylum seekers were processed on the mainland, welfare handouts reinstituted and, as a result the whole people smuggler industry was cranked up again. It was like waving a red flag to a bull. Australia was open for business again and within a year or two many more boats arrived than during the entire 9/11 terrorism era.
At first the neophyte Immigration minister Chris Bowen manufactured excuses to try and explain away the sudden upsurge in boat arrivals. It was all due to the Sri Lankan war and the Tamil Tigers. The public and media treated this BS with the contempt it deserved. Pretty soon it was on for young and old. They started flooding in from Afghanistan and other muslim countries again, there were even boatloads arriving from Vietnam - now a prosperous country which hasn't seen war for 35 years.
During all of this tragedy, the government has been caught badly flat footed. They've cobbled together a motley range of makeshift arrangements to try and accommodate the invasion without success. The detention centres are now overflowing with no end in sight. The federal opposition has been negotiating with Nauru with a view to having the successful Pacific Solution reinstituted but Gillard won't have a bar of it. It was Howard's idea, you see, and Gillard can't swallow her pride and admit that she and Rudd got it wrong and Howard was right.
The most spectacular failing of the Gillard government's ramshackle asylum seeker policy was the disastrous "Malaysia solution". The word "solution" was coined by the media. In reality it wasn't a solution at all and it was quickly struck down by the High Court. The government wants to put in a legislative response which will nullify the High Court ruling but the Left and The Greens have arced up and Gillard has been forced to try and get Tony Abbott and the opposition onside to get it through parliament. Abbott has said that Malaysia is out - refugees are routinely whipped and tortured and conditions in their refugee camps are appalling. He has repeatedly offered Nauru and the reinstitution of temporary protection visas as the solution, but Gillard still won't comply so the shambles continues.
Sooner or later the government will have to get real and realise that their "compassionate approach" to asylum seekers has been a total failure. Increasingly though, that looks like a forlorn hope. Like everything else in this country that has been destroyed by Labor and The Greens it just has to stay shattered and in disrepair until the temporary aberration of Labor/Greens/independent government is over and Tony Abbott sends in the cleanup crew to get this country back on track again.
That can't happen soon enough.
Gillard boosters are getting tedious
It is very difficult living in Canberra occasionally. The public service town and home of the Labor true believers has always been sanctuary to a motley collection of left wing oddballs who keep yelling their perversions loudly and trying to belittle ordinary, mainstream Aussies who do not go along with their distorted view of the world.
On many occasions this chatter is frustrating, because if you want to access most of the local media you have to also encounter this crap. It is relentless. The only newspaper is published by Fairfax which has set itself up as the unofficial boosters for Labor and The Greens. The official boosters for the Left, the ABC are also very strong in the city. The only refuge is 2CC which provides respectable, conservative talkback radio which accurately reflects the views of the overwhelming majority beyond the borders of the ACT.
As mentioned earlier, The Canberra Times is probably the most biased, one-eyed newspaper in Australia, if not the western world. Day after day sees an avalanche of articles pouring s*** on Tony Abbott and the Liberals, the tempo and shrillness of which has been ramped up as the opinion polls move ever more towards him taking over The Lodge.
Of particular concern is the letters page, which day after day publishes some of the most outrageous personal attacks on Abbott and seek to put Gillard on a pedestal. I've complained to the editor and editor-at-large several times but the publication of the letters continues unabated. I have written several letters to the paper myself criticising their editorial policy and supporting Abbott and the local Liberal senator. Not one of those has been printed.
So today I am starting a name and shame scheme trying to embarrass the pathetic idiots who have these letters published in The Canberra Times. Today's pea-brained moron is Philip Richards from Lyons who has had the following letter published in today's edition:
STOP SCREENING DISRESPECTFUL
COMEDY ABOUT GILLARD
The disrespect and ridicule being hea-
ped on the Prime Minister appears to
be growing in intensity.
In the so-called comedy series, At
Home with Julia, on the ABC, Julia
Gillard and partner Tim Mathieson are
portrayed as basically stupid people
challenged by everyday setbacks that
the rest of us cope with quite well.
The bottom-line implication is, how
did such incompetents manage to get
to The Lodge and how on earth did
Gillard get to be Prime Minister. This
execrable offering purporting to delve
into her private life is replete with
sexual innuendo and derisive character
portrayal. The disrespect and ridicule
of our Prime Minister boosted by this
show and instigated by arguably the
worst Opposition Leader in living
memory and his shock jock and tabloid
allies should not be facilitated by the ABC.
The show should be terminated
immediately.
Philip Richards, Lyons
Now isn't this the most stupid load of utter crap you've ever read? Philip, if you dislike this show so much why don't you either switch it off or watch another channel? This is typical of the Left, if you don't like something or you're being criticised resort to censorship. We've seen that with the government's institution of a media enquiry, done at the behest of The Greens who wanted the inquiry to focus on the News Ltd media with a view to breaking it up and selling it to Fairfax-style owners who would then boost leftist causes including environmentalism and so-called "climate change".
Stay tuned for more pissant idiots and their BS courtesy of the local Canberra media.
On many occasions this chatter is frustrating, because if you want to access most of the local media you have to also encounter this crap. It is relentless. The only newspaper is published by Fairfax which has set itself up as the unofficial boosters for Labor and The Greens. The official boosters for the Left, the ABC are also very strong in the city. The only refuge is 2CC which provides respectable, conservative talkback radio which accurately reflects the views of the overwhelming majority beyond the borders of the ACT.
As mentioned earlier, The Canberra Times is probably the most biased, one-eyed newspaper in Australia, if not the western world. Day after day sees an avalanche of articles pouring s*** on Tony Abbott and the Liberals, the tempo and shrillness of which has been ramped up as the opinion polls move ever more towards him taking over The Lodge.
Of particular concern is the letters page, which day after day publishes some of the most outrageous personal attacks on Abbott and seek to put Gillard on a pedestal. I've complained to the editor and editor-at-large several times but the publication of the letters continues unabated. I have written several letters to the paper myself criticising their editorial policy and supporting Abbott and the local Liberal senator. Not one of those has been printed.
So today I am starting a name and shame scheme trying to embarrass the pathetic idiots who have these letters published in The Canberra Times. Today's pea-brained moron is Philip Richards from Lyons who has had the following letter published in today's edition:
STOP SCREENING DISRESPECTFUL
COMEDY ABOUT GILLARD
The disrespect and ridicule being hea-
ped on the Prime Minister appears to
be growing in intensity.
In the so-called comedy series, At
Home with Julia, on the ABC, Julia
Gillard and partner Tim Mathieson are
portrayed as basically stupid people
challenged by everyday setbacks that
the rest of us cope with quite well.
The bottom-line implication is, how
did such incompetents manage to get
to The Lodge and how on earth did
Gillard get to be Prime Minister. This
execrable offering purporting to delve
into her private life is replete with
sexual innuendo and derisive character
portrayal. The disrespect and ridicule
of our Prime Minister boosted by this
show and instigated by arguably the
worst Opposition Leader in living
memory and his shock jock and tabloid
allies should not be facilitated by the ABC.
The show should be terminated
immediately.
Philip Richards, Lyons
Now isn't this the most stupid load of utter crap you've ever read? Philip, if you dislike this show so much why don't you either switch it off or watch another channel? This is typical of the Left, if you don't like something or you're being criticised resort to censorship. We've seen that with the government's institution of a media enquiry, done at the behest of The Greens who wanted the inquiry to focus on the News Ltd media with a view to breaking it up and selling it to Fairfax-style owners who would then boost leftist causes including environmentalism and so-called "climate change".
Stay tuned for more pissant idiots and their BS courtesy of the local Canberra media.
A classic case of polishing a turd
There's an old tradition in politics. If you have rotten policies, if you're failing in the polls, if people have just had a gutful of you and your party, it is somehow not your fault but due to "failing to convey your message properly". In other words it is all the public's fault for being so dumb and ignorant for failing to realise how wonderful you really are. The remedy is not resigning or calling an election, but bringing in a new spin doctor to try and improve your image. It is the classic political knee-jerk reaction.
So, in that grand tradition, we now hear that Julia Gillard has brought in a new consultancy firm to try and improve her image and interviewing skills. Spin doctors, in other words. According to today's Sunday Telegraph the consultants were brought in prior to Gillard's Address to the Nation where she spruiked the carbon tax. It didn't help her much as the speech brought mixed reviews and her popularity continued to plummet.
It doesn't matter how many spin doctors, "image consultants", witchdoctors or anybody else you try to bring in, if you have a rotten product no amount of massaging the message will help. In this case the rotten product is the carbon tax. They've tried the warm and fuzzy approach, they've tried the scientific approach and they've tried abusing and ridiculing their critics. None of it has worked. The public has said over and over "We don't want this product".
The simple fact is that Gillard and this government are beyond the point of no return. The public has turned against them with such ferocity that no amount of spin doctoring and propaganda will bring them back from the abyss.
Gillard is starting to look like a sad and pathetic figure struggling on when she has completely lost the support of the public and her party. How much longer can they smile for the cameras and pretend that everything is hunky dory when everybody knows that it is a pathetic facade and that the country is badly suffering each day this farce continues.
We don't need more spin doctors, we need an election.
So, in that grand tradition, we now hear that Julia Gillard has brought in a new consultancy firm to try and improve her image and interviewing skills. Spin doctors, in other words. According to today's Sunday Telegraph the consultants were brought in prior to Gillard's Address to the Nation where she spruiked the carbon tax. It didn't help her much as the speech brought mixed reviews and her popularity continued to plummet.
It doesn't matter how many spin doctors, "image consultants", witchdoctors or anybody else you try to bring in, if you have a rotten product no amount of massaging the message will help. In this case the rotten product is the carbon tax. They've tried the warm and fuzzy approach, they've tried the scientific approach and they've tried abusing and ridiculing their critics. None of it has worked. The public has said over and over "We don't want this product".
The simple fact is that Gillard and this government are beyond the point of no return. The public has turned against them with such ferocity that no amount of spin doctoring and propaganda will bring them back from the abyss.
Gillard is starting to look like a sad and pathetic figure struggling on when she has completely lost the support of the public and her party. How much longer can they smile for the cameras and pretend that everything is hunky dory when everybody knows that it is a pathetic facade and that the country is badly suffering each day this farce continues.
We don't need more spin doctors, we need an election.
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