Retired infantry officer. Conservative by nature and politics; Happily married and father and grandfather of eight. Loves V8 powered Range Rovers, Golden Retrievers, good books and technology and think there should be open season on Greenies.
Born in the mid forties and overdue for servicing but most parts still work.
The front page of this mornings The Australian has an article about the AFP being ready for transfer unrest. It has a pic of ammo boxes supposedly for police at Christmas Island.
There, in all its glory is a box clearly stencilled “.50 cal”and whereas, from personal experience, I can vouch for .50 cal machine guns being very good for riot control I don’t think the Australian public are quite ready for the outcome. Bits of bodies all over Christmas Island chewed up by a burst would certainly grab even Julian Burnside’s attention.
I would believe 5.56mm for their Steyrs and 9mm for pistols but I think the .50 cal would be resupply for the RAN patrol boats which raises the question – why would they need resupply?
Just heard Kevin Rudd on radio commenting on the NSW ALP corruption findings.
He says; “Zero. Tolerance. Of. Corruption”.
He means; “Zero. Tolerance. Of. Corruption”.(Except in the case of Craig Thompson whose vote we need)
THE Rudd government will today announce a $34 million improvement to two military retirement benefits that have been the subject of a long campaign by veterans to bring their
annual indexation arrangements into line with the pension.
Minister for Defence Materiel Mike Kelly will today announce the Defence Forces retirement benefit and the Defence Forces retirement and death benefits will be indexed in the same way as age pensions.
The ALP plane is for recipients over 65 which fits my profile but the Coalition have included those over 55;
The Coalition has promised DFRB and DFRDB superannuants aged 55 and over will have their superannuation pensions indexed in the same way as aged and service pensions. About 57,000 military superannuants are members of these schemes.
Why are both parties undertaking to bring our annual indexation into line with pension. By way of explaination I
posted this last year;
I received a letter from the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation(DFRDB) informing me I have a CPI increase of .01% for the six months Sep 11 to Mar 12. This gives me an increase of $1.12 per fortnight. I thought of taking my Bride out to dinner to celebrate but the Power bill that is forecast to increase by up to 7.6% % is due and the rates notice is around the corner with a 4.9% increase although the Mayor had promised to keep the increase below the 3.6% inflation rise.
What’s that – 3.6% inflation? How is that related to .01% CPI rise?
I seriously doubt that the ALP undertaking will ever be called upon and even in the unlikely event that the voters are snowed by the Rudd Tsunami and actually elect him again I would expect them to reneg when they finally admit they have run the country broke and can’t afford any of their election promises; let alone a promise to the very organization that they have ignored and denigrated over my life time.
We’ll see.
BEN PACKHAM AND BRENDAN NICHOLSON think TONY Abbott is risking the ire of the nation’s defence establishment by
forcing a three-star military commander to answer directly to his immigration minister under a dramatic command and control overhaul to stop asylum boats.
Forcing! Have you pair no idea how the system works. The government of the day is empowered to give orders to the ADF who simply obey. It isn’t up for discussion….. the General concerned doesn’t get to discuss it with the media – he just obeys his orders. He isn’t forced but if he does disagree with the order he talks to the Commander ADF, his immediate superior in the chain of command, who may or may not discuss it with the relevant minister who may or may not alter the order.
No one is forced to do anything.
Bloody Journos
UPDATE:
The Libs Border policy is available here for download. If you are a rusted on ALP supporter or any other kind of Abbott hater don’t download it – you need to maintain the lie that Abbott doesn’t have any policies.
Listening to Home Affairs Minister Jason Claire on the ABC he said the issue of boat arrivals has become ‘poisoned by politics and;
‘’When people are dying the government should be given the power that it thinks it needs to stop this happening…”
As in, it’s the Coalition and the Green’s fault – not the ALPs.
The government has the power Jason. You had the power to stuff it up and now you have the power to fix it up
Gee, Rudd now thinks the UN refugee convention should be modernised to better cope with those most in need of asylum. How long will that take Kevin? Years
Plans announced to maybe build accommodation at Manis Island or maybe near Port Morseby. How long will that take Kevin? Years
People are drowning today, not in the future when the UN might or might not change things or buildings might or might not be built but until the government says things like – no papers – no visa and if you do have papers it is only temporary and if we say No then that’s it, then they will keep on coming and keep on drowning
You want to stop the boat people – then stop them.
NAVY insiders say there is “a growing and burning anger” among sailors on the frontline as they struggle to respond to the spiralling number of deaths and sinkings flowing from the government’s failed asylum-seeker policies.
There is also a “growing’ force of assetts tied up trying to manage Rudd’s stuff-up. The seven patrol boats allocated to the problem have been supplemented by a mine sweeper and a frigate, argueably more naval forces than we deployed during the Vietnam War.
Listening and watching the media it would appear Rudd is fixing some of the problems of Australia. The fact that he is fixing the problems that he himself caused doesn’t appear to be clear in the mind of a lot of commentators.
He offers sympathy for the families of the drowned boaties without mentioning the fact that he caused the circumstances whereby their lives were put in peril in the first place.
On Sunday the tabloid papers were all screaming “Carbon tax scrapped” but of course he hasn’t scrapped it, he has just brought the change over to an ETS on sooner than previously planned.
No, hang on, he is
talking about doing that. As I understand it he has to take that to the House. Correct me if I’m wrong but it will need a vote and neither the Greens or the Libs would be onside for that one.
I hear Wong on the radio touting that bringing forward the change to an ETS will take pressure off family budgets. I wonder how that can be when the ALP have been talking up how the Carbon Tax wasn’t placing pressures on family budgets. Seems you
can have it both ways if you ignore one or more truths.
As Abbott says;
Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It’s a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.
Carbon Credits is also questionable with nothing sold to someone mostly using government funds.
landowners can sell “carbon credits” if they can prove that they have reduced carbon dioxide by capturing it as humus in soil, or by planting forests, or by allowing re-growth of woody weeds, or by reducing feral animal emissions (shooting camels) or even by promising solemnly to NOT clear specified parcels of forest.
NONE of these processes are sustainable in the long run.
Viv Forbes at
Australian Conservative says the scheme has bipartisan support. That needs fixing.
So far Rudd ;
- Promised to change the way the ALP elect, or kick out their leaders but that has to go to the ALP conference which isn’t happening until after the election so he has done nothing. More words and the only reason he uttered them was to defang Abbott when he says “When you voted for Rudd, you got Gillard and when you voted for Gillard you got Rudd”
- Hasn’t said how he is going to fix his “own goal” boaties dilemma and while they are still drowning of our coast reaching for the sugar he and Gillard put on the table all he can offer is sympathy. He did go to Indonesia but in doing so handed over the security of our borders to Indonesia whilst promising another conference.
- Hasn’t said how he is going to fix the economy and the huge debt he established.
- Said he would get business on-side but immediately attacked them with more 457 visa restrictions and has left the unions in charge of the economy with the Fair Work legislation.
- Has gutted defence but in doing so promised dreamtime purchases that weren’t funded and were never going to get out of the conference process. 12 submarines for God’s sake!
So far, after three weeks, there are no answers to the myriad of Rudd caused problems – maybe next week he’ll say something we can bank on.
Maybe.
It remains to be seen whether Rudd’s bid for President for Life gets past the union power group but in the meantime the ALP must maintain their only avenue of attack.
Abbott.
Todays rostered comment is from John Black (ex ALP Senator) who writes in todays
The Australian about polls, poll bounce and a lot of other stuff and finally arrives at what he wants to really say about Abbott
Unfortunately for the Coalition, the one we dislike the most is now leading their party.
Turnbull is a Liberal Wet and whereas he is good value he is not a potential leader of the Liberals. The ALP keep up this mantra of
Turnbull should be the leader because, quite frankly, they are afraid of Abbott.
So John’s statement really should be;
Unfortuately for the ALP, the one we dislike the most is now leading the Coalition.
There, fixed it for you John.
Since Mr Rudd was restored as Prime Minister just two weeks ago, Labor’s primary vote has risen nine percentage points to 38 per cent to equal its level at the August 2010 election. In the same period, the Coalition’s primary support has fallen six points to 42 per cent, below its election level.
The bounce in the polls continues as the smiling visage of Rudd seduces the tabloid TV set but what has he done to deserve the support of 5o% of those polled?
Well first off he got rid of Gillard, then he……..umm…got rid of Gillard.
Seriously, what else has he done?
- To pay homage to their union benefactors the ALP guillotined a motion to allow just three minutes of debate in the Senate on changes to the visa program before it went to a vote. This was a day or two after Kevin said he was starting a new dialogue with Buisness and believe me the motion had nothing to do with helping business.
- He went to Indonesia and arranged a people smuggler conference coincidentally at the same time another boat load of people reaching for the sugar on the table were floundering of NW Australia. Good timing Rudd but the boat arrivals increase exponentially as Rudd confers!
- He is making moves to install himself as a virtual unsackable ‘President’ with a proposal to guarantee that a Labor leader who wins an election stays Prime Minister the whole term, even if he acts like Rudd did last time.
- Oh, and he got rid of Gillard
Abbott is forgotten for a week or two while the media enjoy their honeymoon, you know that brief period in life when everything is sweet – just before reality sets in.
Smiles and door stops wont help Rudd when the hard questions are put to him. The ALP have a tiny list of achievements to brag about as indicated by the fact that they are still attacking Abbott.
And Rudd hasn’t even been to the GG yet.
THE great experiment with foreign sporting coaches is coming to an end and the Kiwis can go back to being our arch enemies.
Just weeks after South African Mickey Arthur was replaced by Australian Darren Lehmann as the nation’s cricket coach, Victorian-born Queensland Reds boss Ewen McKenzie is poised to take over from New Zealander Robbie Deans as the Wallabies coach.
It never sat easy with me that we would have an All Black coaching the Wallabies – a bit like Ho Chi Minh teaching me how to soldier.
Brett Harris, the journo, must be young when he says ‘the Kiwis can go back to being our arch enemies’.
They always were and always will be Brett.
A TOP-SECRET map leaked by US intelligence fugitive Edward Snowden reveals four Australian sites, including Pine Gap, which are said to play a key role in US global intelligence collection
.
Cameron Stewart offers this line.
So far 21 nations have turned their back on Mr Snowden’s request for asylum, fearing reprisals if they offer sanctuary to him.
Just a thought Cameron, could these nations be of the opinion that Snowden is just a traitorous spy and doesn’t deserve sanctuary?
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