Category: Politics

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence has urged the Rudd Government to ease restrictions on unions entering workplaces after unionists were allegedly forced to hold a meeting sandwiched between two cars in a factory loading dock.

Union officials claimed the Brisbane factory meeting was held under a surveillance camera and garbage trucks drove in and out of the car park during the proceedings.

Terrible, rotten management. However it appears only four of the 30 staff were union members so I wouldn’t let him in the staff lunch room either and in the long term only two union members turned up. Jeff, I really think you have wasted your 15 minutes of fame with this little article. I’m sure Kevin would like to help you but there will be little sympathy raised by this little beat-up.

KEVIN Rudd has launched a stinging attack on his predecessor, branding John Howard “an absolute failure” in preparing Australia for the end of the international economic boom. Howard tried to stop you gaining power and ending the boom, or at least Australia’s part of it, but the voters didn’t see it that way – blame them Kevin. Of course, all Kevin’s doing is talking up his Carbon Trading scheme and in doing so he must mention Howard’s supposed poor form on climate change as the ALP’s plan moves closer and closer to the original Coalition scheme. Given time and ample spin the punters will believe that Howard did nothing and that Rudd is the man.

(Rudd) said Australia had been left behind in education, had ignored the damage of climate change and had failed to respond to changes in the region and the world, including the rise of China and India as economic superpowers.

Unmitigated crap but tell the lie often enough and people will believe that spin is substance. They did in November last year, they’ll do it again.

PETER Costello has been hailed as the “Don Bradman” of Liberal politics during a 300-strong dinner in Melbourne, at which he was urged not to quit politics.

But his closest supporters believe he will walk away from parliament at the end of the year to pursue job offers overseas, after he completes a tell-all book on the Howard years and his youngest daughter finishes school.

If he does walk away, I for one will be disappointed. He is one of the few players we have that can serve it up to the government. God knows we need someone and we do have a lot of ammo but no one’s firing, or if they are, they aren’t hitting the target.

FORMER prime minister Gough Whitlam has been in hospital in Sydney since last week but a spokesman will not reveal what illness he has. Does one get hospitalized for megalomania? Just asking.

With Della Bosca stood down and his weird wife undergoing counselling the ALP would like to think that is the end of it. No way. The NSW opposition are after some blood and I wish them well. From everything I’ve read about Belinda Neal she needs to be dis empowered not counselled. Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner today said the counselling referral should be the end of the matter.

“Belinda’s having some counselling, that should be the end of it,” Mr Tanner told the Nine Network. “Nobody’s died here, nobody’s lost their life savings.“

What a strange thing to say – it’s either stupid or arrogant and neither make him look good. We aren’t talking about death or dollars we are talking about abuse of power. Counselling doesn’t excuse her behaviour; it just might, and it’s a big might, slow down future incidences of her weird behaviour but in the meantime she needs to be called to order and I trust this happens in the house this week. The ‘She said…he said’ situation with stat decs made and then withdrawn needs to be resolved and the truth needs to come out.

Fuel Watch currently operating in WA is obviously working as West Australians watch their fuel price go up to the second highest of all the capital cities. Not that will worry Rudd as he will still try and bring it in nationally. Last week Rudd told OPEC to release more fuel to fix the problem while financial commentators think it has something to do with trading and this week he is telling our poorer Asian neighbours that they should lower their subsidies so us rich Aussies can have cheaper fuel. What is he on?

So says Brisbane’s Courier Mail

EVERY 10cm of the Ipswich Motorway will cost taxpayers more than $17,000 to upgrade but the Rudd Government denies ever committing to fix the entire route.

The link is only a one paragraph article but there’s more and it’s all on the front page in huge font and says a lot about the papers changing attitude to the spin and empty promises of the Rudd government. As Rudd lectures about whales and focuses on meaningless gestures the Japanese worry about the Chinese and Rudd’s sinocentric, mandarin speaking personae. As Hugh White says in the Australian Rudd flubs Tokyo chance;

…. his visit focused on two strangely meaningless Big Initiatives: his idea of an EU for Asia, and the new crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons. No one could disagree with these noble objectives, but no one seriously believes that such ill-considered and under-prepared announcements offer any hope of achieving them. They simply confirm that Australia’s Government has not yet found its feet in foreign policy, and still fails to understand the difference between a real policy and a press release.

If anyone believes there will be an outcome from these ‘big initiatives’ then sometime down the track they too will fell dudded. I wonder if the voters in NSW central coast seat of Robertson feel dudded yet? Belinda Neal, a former Labor senator and staff member who had fought bitter preselection ballots in the NSW central coast seat of Robertson, was endorsed with the backing of the NSW Right but not expected to win. Unfortunately for the electorate and the ALP she did win. Since the election it transpires she is a foul mouthed, temper raging loose canon. As Denis Shanahan reports in a ‘Cautionary Tale;

She is caught up in a swirl of allegations and reports of having misled parliament over telling pregnant Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella her baby would turn into a demon, of police being called to the family home because of loud domestic disputes and the contested content of sworn statements being investigated by police.

The contested contents of sworn statements relate to an incident at a restaurant where she went ballistic over staff wanting to move her and her husband so diners could dance. She was accused of threating the livelihood of the staff and the establishments licence using language that most would find inappropriate in public The staff submitted sworn statements and then withdrew them under, and I’m guessing here, pressure from above. She denies the incident and the language but Rudd, after trying to laugh it off, has gone into damage control and demands she seek counseling. Voters of Robertson, you too have been dudded. Who else one wonders?