Crisis management

And he’s not even good at that. 240,000 homes are at risk from Garrett’s incompetence and the PM tells us that 92% of homes are safe. That’s great Rudd, but until you identify the remaining 8% it’s meaningless. Let’s throw 40 million at the problem and it will go away. No it won’t. That is only bandaiding the problem and of course the government have a plan to stop any of the 40 mil going to shonky operators, hasn’t it? Dennis Shanahan says;

The problem spread out of the government’s control while it looked for political solutions. There seemed to be almost a paralysis pervading the government, which failed to recognise the full extent of concern and the frustration and fear people were feeling. Various announcements and disclosures by Mr Garrett served only to feed the sense of a growing crisis at the same time the media reported stories of accidents, fires and fraud.

Rudd’s plan to whip the Japanese with a feather is also coming off the rails. The deadline he announced for legal action to stop the Japs whaling was obviously set so that he could say ad nauseum during the election that we are doing something about whaling and thus tie up the whale hugger vote. From todays OZ

THE Japanese government has accepted in principle a plan for Antarctic whaling to continue at reduced levels under International Whaling Commission supervision. Japan’s Antarctic whaling operations could be legitimised by the IWC by late June, unless Australia can rally enough support from other members to block the controversial compromise plan.

The biggest moral challenge facing our generation, and if you believe the members of the Church of the Later Day Alarmist, the biggest moral challenge facing all generations past and future, has disappeared off the radar screen. With the IPCC being forced to rewrite it’s Doomsday script; with scientists being accused of, and investigated for, misrepresentation of data to satisfy the UN’s campaign on Global Warming and support for the theory plummeting, it’s no wonder Rudd has down graded the biggest moral challenge to the biggest politically inexpedient issue of this election campaign. Penelope (Penny) Ying Yen, aka Penny Wong, is left to carry the Global Waming Climate Change torch, now burning down to her fingers and threatening third degree burns. Give her credit though, she is still threatening that if we don’t join the congregation we wont be able to swim at Bondi or visit the Great Barrier Reef! Should I be worried about my pool flooding my house, I wonder. Meanwhile the back door to Australia remains open or, seemingly off its hinges, as illegal boats, line astern, queue up for berthing at Christmas Island. Michael Evans from Sydney reasonably asks;

IF so many of the people arriving by boat on our north-western coast are genuine asylum seekers, as the federal government would have us believe judging from the number who are being granted residency, why is Kevin Rudd unleashing his spy agencies and police forces on those who facilitate their arrival (“Rudd sets spy agencies on boats”, 24/2)? Surely these so-called “people smugglers” are simply performing acts of great charity and compassion, are they not? Or is it really the case that the people arriving on our shores are mainly economic migrants seeking to obtain resident status in Australia through a back door aided and abetted by criminal gangs?

All of which is a verbose way of saying “Two Whitlam’s in one lifetime is a bit much” to quote reader HRT in comments.