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Another White Paper

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ALP release another White Paper RESOURCES Minister Martin Ferguson has warned that Australia’s capacity to win billions of dollars in investments in LNG projects in the next 18 months will depend on its ability to remain competitive, declaring wage demands had to be based on capacity to pay. Who could disagree with that statement? The Greens, the Union movement and in reality, the ALP – that’s who. Greens leader Christine Milne, reading from her little red book, attacked the white paper’s focus on fossil fuels saying there was “still way too much on a dash for gas”.
“That clearly is Martin Ferguson with his fossilised fingers all over the past, promoting increased fossil fuel exports, saying we have to get rid of all regulatory measures so you can streamline the dash for gas,” Senator Milne said.
Get used to it Christine, fossil fuels are here for a while yet. Wouldn’t want private enterprise to make any money would we Christine. Providing jobs to Aussies and paying tax – no that would never do. And when have the Unions ever considered wage demands had to be based on capacity to pay. Ferguson’s white paper is an example of what the ALP do well – come up with great sounding White Papers. Unfortunately what they don’t do well is implement them. It’s no good talking to Australians about obvious steps to productivity and wealth – he needs to talk to Gillard, Swan and the Unions. He didn’t mention the Carbon Tax or the RET but he should have with both programs vying with each other to raise the cost of energy with no gains for anybody, let alone the climate. From Rudd’s Defence White Paper (I’m still laughing at the 12 submarine wish list) through Asian Century distractions, the ALP have developed an art form of talking big but not coming up with the money. Of course this surprises no one considering their greatest known ability is redistribution of wealth. If only they would to a bit of work on creating wealth we might see some of their grandiose statements turn into facts. Unfortunately I can’t see that happening this side of the election.
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Politics

6RAR Cpl awarded VC

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Corporal Daniel Keighran from 6RAR wins Victoria Cross for Afghanistan courage

Cpl Keighran VC pictured with the Governor General in Canberra this morning

AUSTRALIA’S newest Victoria Cross recipient is now a part-time soldier working in the mines of Western Australia. 6RAR Corporal Daniel Keighran received the nation’s highest military honour today for repeatedly drawing enemy fire during a 2010 battle in which one of his mates was killed. He said his company faced at least 100 insurgents during the battle at Derapet, in Oruzgan province, Afghanistan.
“Training took over,” Corporal Keighran said. “There was a situation and that’s the way I reacted.”
The VC citation says Corporal Keighran’s actions were instrumental in ensuring Australian and Afghan troops involved were able to withdraw without further casualties. “Corporal Keighran, with complete disregard for his own safety, broke cover on multiple occasions to draw intense and accurate enemy fire to identify enemy locations and direct return fire from Australian and Afghan fire support elements.
“During one of these occasions, when his patrol sustained a casualty, he again, on his own initiative and in an act of exceptional courage moved from his position of cover to deliberately draw fire away from the team who were treating the casualty. “Corporal Keighran remained exposed and under heavy fire in order to direct suppressing fire and then assist in the clearance of the landing zone to enable evacuation of the casualty. “These deliberate acts of exceptional courage to repeatedly expose himself to accurate and intense enemy fire, thereby placing himself in grave danger, ultimately enabled the identification and suppression of enemy firing positions.”
Well done that man.  More… 
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Defence

Gillard makes motherhood statement

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Much like my wife and I discussing what we would do if we won Lotto, Gillard announces her latest distraction from the mediocrity of her government – The Asian Century.
The white paper, unveiled in Sydney by the Prime Minister yesterday, sets a series of ambitious goals, including elevating the nation’s schools system into the world’s top five, having 10 universities in the world’s top 100 by 2025, and giving every school student the chance for continuous study of an Asian language.
Well yes, no one would argue that these aren’t worthwhile pusuits.  The trouble is, the ALP are full of lofty aspirations but very short in the funding department. Emmerson underlines this saying;
… the states would have to supply the teachers needed to embark on the Asian languages blitz. Those that refused would be denied education funding.
Like Rudd’s 2009 Defence White Paper this plan will be buried in the “when we win Lotto’ filing cabinet along with a lot of ALP plans It won’t be funded, it can’t be funded and within two weeks ABC24 will be lining up to tell us about the next ‘New Gillard Initiative’ and the rest of us will have moved on. Productivity is listed as one of the key planks but productivity is doomed while the the Fair Work Act favours the unionists and not the entrepeneur.  Every kid learning an Asian language from grades 1 thru 12 is another, but once again the Government says;  Here’s a good idea we just thought  of but we can’t finance it so the states are going to have to find the money. Gillard forgets that the Eastern seaboard states are flat out trying to pay off previous ALP government’s huge debts and have no spare cash to fund her ‘If I won Lotto” shopping list. I was once a linguist myself in the days when we were having a little war with Indonesia and I’ve often bemoaned the fact that Asian languages don’t get the priority I think they deserve.  My contacts in education tell me that the kids choose not to take them because of the weighting given languages for Uni entrance makes a language a second rate ambition Meanwhile Gillard closes down an Asian language initiative
THE federal government will let a $62 million Asian language program expire in December despite saying it wants four priority languages to be taught from primary school to high school.
 
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General Musings, Politics

The Thomson debacle continues

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The police execute a search warrant at Craig ‘Ive done nothing wrong‘ Thomson’s house and electoral office.  After years of allegations I can’t imagine Thomson would still have any incriminating evidence in his house but one never knows. He hasn’t given any indications of being smart up till now. Whatever, it does prove he is a person of interest.  The police will have had to convince a magistrate to sign the search warrant so they must have some serious questions. And. of course, it still leaves Gillard  depending on the vote of a  another very doubtful character to stay in office.    
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Politics

ACT, Neilsen and Rudd

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The good news from the ACT elections is that the Greens have suffered a swing against them of 4.6%  with some dissaffected Labor voters going back to the fold but most of this loss going to the Libs who enjoyed a 6.4% positive swing.  

Labor will govern with the help of the Greens giving us another ALP/Greens coalition.  All the better to remind people what a disaster ALP/Green governments are.

The more the Greens are in the news, the more people become aware of their attacks against our economy and their loopy policies.  I look forward to a similar, or even better swing in next years federal poll.

The ABC are all over Gillard being the preferred PM over Abbott and this morning it took an entire news broadcast before they reluctantly mentioned, as an aside, that Neilsen still had the Oppostion in a winning lead.  The prefferred PM poll is more a reflection of better ALP spin than substance so it is of little importance in the scheme of things and definitely doesn't win or lose government.

Up here in Brisbane The Australian reports Labor would win under Rudd.  The Rudd cheer squad include Sid Maher, the journalist who wrote the puff piece, a Gallop Poll commissioned by a union, and, obviously a Rudd should be PM committee chaired by Rudd himself. 

Mobbed by dozens of people wanting to have their photographs taken with him at the Chong Yeung festival, Mr Rudd refused to rule out interest in another tilt at the party leadership.He also received a rapturous welcome at a Chinese festival in Sydney, with dancers chanting "Kev-in, Kev-in"

The plot thickens, the body sickens.  Interestingly, the piece wasn't carried by the Courier Mail and I'm surprised it made the news anywhere other than a union newsheet.

I don't care if Rudd gets back in the chair.  I figure it would take about one to two months for the voters to remember why they didn't like him last time round.  Either way, one of them will have to face the music at election day where, for once, their spin machine will not be able to present the anticipated flogging as 'good news'.

They will, of course, be able to blame it on Abbott and that would represent the first occassion where their blame sheet would be accurate.

Back to Gillard –  Micheller Grattan at The Age reports;

Not surprisingly, Gillard's biggest gain on a range of attributes was in the area of foreign affairs, where the percentage saying she had a firm grasp on policy jumped from 39 per cent in August 2010 to 56 per cent – a perception that will be reinforced by Australia securing a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Michelle may not be surprised but I am astounded.  If you are a troubled rusted on ALP supporter go read the piece – it will give you heart but don't take it to the bank just yet.

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Politics

A good day for an old conservative

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Gillard is off to India to try and recover from ALP Stuff-up #435 when in the earlier days of government they reneged on uranium sales to India that had been initiated and signed off by the Howard government. At the time (Jan 2008) I wrote;
I can imagine a host of other countries waiting for us to let them down…to reneg on signed deals for ideology alone. They’ll be looking up all their agreements with us – vetting them to ensure they meet the ideological standards of the ALP loonies and looking to count their losses and resolving to never deal with us again.
Now she’s back to fix the original stuff-up. The Left and the Greens are screaming and next month’s ALP conference promises to be interesting. Abbott goes to Indonesia with some ministers and has a one-on-one with SBY. A bit embarrassing for the ALP as it would indicate the Indons see Abbott as the next PM and that they need to talk to him. Emmerson and the rest of the ALP, including the ABC, are all over the fact that Abbott didn’t mention turning the boats back but I guess they have to find something wrong with the visit as it may turn peoples attention away from the debacle that is their own open-slather border policy. Thompson, the whore monger, is being defended by the ALP as was Slipper the sexist. Craig Emerson said the Coalition had already acted as “judge and jury” on the allegations against the former Labor MP. I guess he means just like Roxon acted as judge and jury in the Ashby vs Slipper case. So long as the case put together by FWA is current during the lead up to the election and it appears it will be, then the ALP will be suffering all kinds of nightmares. A bonus would be the police charging him – surely that’s on the cards. A good day for an old conservative – and then there is this; Of more importance to me is this notice I found at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ while searching for details on my family in West Australia. Trove is a great source for info as it has digitized most Australian newspapers from the 19th century through to now. Quiet a shock really The paper was dated 1946. It’s amazing that I would get this far considering my life style and career choices.
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General Musings, Politics

Dog’s day out

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The family Labs ready for an outing that turned sour for them when it turned into a dog wash. It turned sour for me as well when I’m left holding the baby who very quickly decides I’m not Mum. She is not happy. Saturday morning is supposed to be devoted to reading The Weekend Australian. This Saturday morning was devoted to dragging up repressed memories from my young father days on how to quieten a whinging child – all I could remember was give it back to the mother! The cycle of life goes on – I have two little girls hanging around my feet again and like the first time round, I’m loving it. I’ll read the paper later.
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General Musings

Impartial Speaker?

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The new Speaker on Gillard’s rant.
“I think there is obviously some sexism and misogyny that goes on in the parliament, as it does in a lot of workplaces, tragically,” Ms Burke told ABC radio. “And I think that one of the disappointing parts about having the first female prime minister is that unfortunately that has brought out the worst in some people in the parliament and some people in the public.
The ALP are obliged to hammer the fact that all the questions on Gillard’s performance are all based on her being a woman. They aren’t – they are based on her incompetence and socialist agenda. The impartial Speaker continues;
Instead of rising and saying `isn’t this a fantastic thing’, it’s brought this tone and tenor of underlying sexism in our country. “And I think we need to be rising above it, and I think the Prime Minister’s speech this week was pretty spot on.”
While Ms Burke is a Labor MP, the speaker’s role is traditionally an impartial one. Yes, well the ALP don’t do tradition well. The ABC carry the same story but chose a different emphasis. New Speaker Burke says time to ‘move on’ and I must agree but not in the sense that she uses. Buried in the article is the ‘impartial’ comment describing Gillard’s rant as ‘spot on’ So there you have it. Any future condemnation of Gillard’s competency will be labelled sexist or misogynist.
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Politics

Pot….kettle

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The ALP are in a panic. A 'comedian' at a CFMEU dinner attended by a bevy of Labor Ministers cracked an anti Abbott joke just days after Gillard's anti Abbott rant. Labor are in damage control;

JULIA Gillard contacted the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union as Labor went into damage control after a comedian at the union's dinner told an off-colour joke about Tony Abbott and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin.

I find it interesting that we are still to hear the joke. In previous times the media would be all over an anti Abbott jibe but on this occasion we hear nothing. Everyone in Australia knew about Alan Jones and his comments on Gillard but we aren't allowed to hear the content when it's the other way around.

A spokesman for the union said the joke was facile and absurd and there had been audible groans.

I'll call bullshit on that line. If it put down on Abbott they would have laughed like drains.

Obviously, the joke is that off-colour that the ALP have applied a 'D' notice to keep it out of the press. Wouldn't look good after Julia's meltdown in the house just days ago.

Everyone is in denial – the entertainment agency has unreservedly apologised saying they didn't run it past the union leaders before delivering 'the joke' – presumably in response to a telephone call

The report says Gillard is embarrassed. I doubt she is embarrassed by the crudity of the joke rather that it's release will make a mockery of her anti Abbott rant and 'silence Alan Jones' campaign

I look forward to someone leaking 'the joke'

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Politics
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