If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
The Prime Minister went to work for Mr Brumby, then the state opposition leader, after leaving Slater & Gordon in 1996. Mr Brumby said today he spoke to principal lawyer Peter Gordon about Ms Gillard and it was a “10 out of 10 reference”.Oh, well that clears that up. Hmm…on second thoughts just a hint Brumby, when people want to get rid of troublesome partners a glowing reference always helps. Not to be outdone in the confusing picture JULIA Gillard’s former law firm Slater & Gordon says its representation of AWU official Bruce Wilson, who Julia Gillard personally acted for, gave rise to a conflict of interest that forced it to jettison both Mr Wilson and the union as clients. Conflict of interest! Amazing isn’t it – just because she was the clients mistress and implicated in rorting funds from AWU members. They didn’t mention they had to jettison Gillard as well, I suppose we are expected to take that as a given It ain’t buried yet
…..she was advised on the cases by two of the nation’s most senior barristers, Robert French QC, now the Chief Justice of the High Court, and David Malcolm QC, who is a former chief justice of the West Australian Supreme Court.The ALP’s raising questions on Julie Bishop finally give the ABC and in to discuss the performance of ex-lawyer politicians. For some reason they couldn’t bring themselves to discuss the matter until a conservative politician was called into question. Problem is, there is no evidence or even a believable suggestion of malpractice on Bishop’s part. Not quiet the case with Gillard. Abbott is quiet happy for the ALP to question Julie Bishop’s actions as a lawyer and even encourages it. While the ALP raise Bishop in their defence of Gillard’s behaviour at Slater & Gordon then why wouldn’t he. It gives the Coalition open season on pursuing Gillard for some answers to a litany of allegations that seriously reflect on her ethics and values. The problem for the ALP will not go away until Gillard fronts up and actually answers questions. Doug Cameron wants everyone to stop being personal – good advice Doug but you need to get that message through to your boss. The baseless ‘Misogyny’ speech gives the Coalition open licence to attack Gillard on her questionable legal career when she was shacked up with AWU thief Bruce Wilson . And talking about that, it would appear that files are disappearing all over the country . Whatever the truth of the matter, it smacks of clean-up gangs going from state to state searching for incriminating evidence and ‘losing’ it. The debate continues…..
I am concerned about Gillard’s Federal Royal Commission into institutional sex abuse. The media have concentrated on the Catholic Church and whereas they have a lot to answer for and should be a part of the RC they are not the only perpetrators and, evidence might suggest, they are not even the largest perpetrators.
Reading The Drum, the enclave of Leftist debate, it’s all about the Catholics, yet in my experience, and I have some, the Church does a huge amount of good works with tens of thousands of Teachers, school kids, Priest, parents and laymen all contributing to the community in positive ways. What we are getting from the media, understandably I guess given that the anti-religious Left hold sway, is an emphasis on the minority who besmirch the Catholic name. If the Commission names and shames these people and they eventually go to court and are convicted then well and good but we need to keep in mind that the target is institutional sex abuse and not just the Catholic Church. State run orphanages, schools, youth groups such as Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and other religious institutions need to get a run as do the Indigenous community. Which raises the question – are the Indigenous communities an institution – will they be included in the TOR. If not, and I suggest that will be the case, then in my opinion the Commission will not be broad enough. Mal Brough, a previous Howard Government Minister reports on sex abuse within the Indigenous communities;“And those who have not read the report, Little Children are Sacred, its two authors visited 45 communities in the Northern Territory. They didn’t find sexual abuse in some of those communities, they didn’t find it in most of those communities, they found it in every single community; 45 out of 45. Think about that, the enormity of that for a moment. “Let me take you to Kalumburu. Kalumburu is up in the East Kimberleys. It is a town of about 300. There are only 90 males in Kalumburu. It’s isolated by the wet for a good part of every year. The wet will set in some time this month. “Of those 90 men, in the last two months 15 have been charged with child sex offences. Fifteen out of 90 men. These are the charge sheets. Not one page, not two pages, not three pages, four pages. “They’re all an offence against a child, predominantly penetrating a girl or a boy under the age of 13. Who were these 15 men? They were the mayor, the deputy mayor, two other councillors, the police liaison officer, a truancy officer, two wardens. “What does that tell you? These are people of authority. These are the people that white fellas like me and bureaucrats turn to, who go to consult with about answers to their communities, who we give money and more empowerment to and we walk away saying, haven’t we done a good thing.”Scott Prasser, in today’s Australian has a well written piece on what Royal Commissions can and can’t do and recommends that;
The Gillard government must avoid any perception that there is any political advantage being derived from appointing this royal commission.But I’m and old skeptic – I’m afraid it will turn into a witch hunt and I don’t believe the ALP do anything for altruistic reasons. I suspect they will drip feed ‘leaks’ over the course of the Commission whenever they need distraction from their own incompetence and if Tony Abbott ever walked past a Catholic Church or went to Mass where there is or was or might have been a questionable Priest who might have, or might not have abused children, then rest assured we will hear about it. I truly hope it works as there are a lot of damaged people out in the community but I guess only time will tell. Disclaimer: I am not a Catholic but was born a Methodist. I became non religious but subscribe to the ethics and moral compasses espoused by the religious bodies.
I attended the memorial service at the Bribie Island RSL yesterday to remember all those who have gone before me and was a little put out by the ceremony. The local school choir got up and gave us a rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine and the Priest thought it reasonable to mention Bob Dylan as well. When the time came to sing the National Anthem, didgeridoos came across the speakers with the anthem tempo increased from the standard 4/4 to something like 6/8. No one could sing to it and the words were lost as people tried to keep up. There is proscribed music for the anthem and that definitely wasn’t it.
Lennon’s Imagine directly quotes the communist manifesto as he himself comments:
‘Imagine’, which says: ‘Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,’ is virtually the Communist manifesto, even though I’m not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement.”[5] He told NME: “There is no real Communist state in the world; you must realize that. The Socialism I speak about … [is] not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we should have a nice …British Socialism.Dillon just wrote and sang anti-war songs and become one of the main leaders on the Vietnam War protests and moratorium marches. I have his music on my IPhone list and enjoy some of it but he is what he is and never supported the soldier, rather he denigrated them. There’s a place for anti-war sentiment in the public debate, I just don’t think a November Memorial service in an RSL is it. No one there would’ve been pro-war but to take the stand they did questions the service and sacrifice of many men and women who we were remembering on this holy of days. While we were dying in South Vietnam Lennon and Dylan were a focus for the protesters and the only people to benefit from that were the Communists. In essence the Sub Branch politicised the service with an emphasis on the anti war movement and indigenous recognition. It made me think a young naive teacher with leftist leanings had grabbed hold of the ceremony and turned it into some sort of litany of protest of the evils of war and our treatment of our indigenous mates. Not good. Notwithstanding my sentiments on the conduct of the memorial service I managed to get back on subject and remembered my fallen mates and all those who remain forever young from the Boer War through to Afghanistan. When I say ‘Lest we forget” I would caution certain Sub Branches that they don’t forget why they exist and not to confuse politics with sacrifice.
“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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