Frank Devine on the Movie Australia
Australia’s official movie agency has backed 1049 projects. Only seven became movies that attracted enough ticket-buyers to turn a profit. In short, Screen Australia (its new name) has picked 1042 losers, but still hasn’t gone broke.
However, no movie company can expect to flourish here if shackled by the not-sufficiently-Australian standards that recently saw George Miller and Warner Bros abandon filming in Australia of the super-hero flick Justice League Mortal, after being refused film production tax concessions, which Australia got, reportedly after surrendering to government pressure to tack on a Stolen Generations theme.
Now I’d like to know if there is any truth to that story and if there is then we need to haul in the blatant propaganda and expose the film industry in Australia for what it is – a platform for left wing causes.
It is encouraging however that the Australian public are generally ignoring the industry even though they are paying out billions for the privilege of not watching.
I guess it keeps the lefties quiet and contained where they can’t do any damage.
Missed the ‘pay me or your website is dead’ email and it all happened while I was enroute to Perth and then tied up in Albany totally involved with my Mother’s 89th birthday and three daughters, three sisters and a wife all talking at me.
Its a wonder I could get my head together sufficiently to resolve the problem particularly as I didn’t bring passwords for domain name hosting with me.
Something is wrong with Qantas. Due to depart Brisbane airport at 1320 – got on board and buckled up to then be fed a line by the Captain…Skid brakes faulty..safety hazard and fair enough…then 20 minutes later…hand brake faulty….new problem or extension of original never said…then…you’ll have to disembark.
An hour goes by waiting in the terminal to be told engineers are now stripping wire looking for problem….another hour and …we’ve given up and are waiting for a replacement aircraft coming in from…wait for it…DARWIN!
Adjusted departure time now 1800. During the course of this debacle another Qantas plane at Brisbane goes off line.
I’ll admit its the first time it has happened to me but then I seldom fly these days so I’m less than impressed and glad I’m flying back home with Virgin.
I say that now but I bet I’ll find something to complain about on that trip with cabin staff acting like they’re being paid commission for selling Home brand muffins and John Wayne coffee.
Bloody airlines…I’m driving next time. (my wife says I’ll be doing it by myself….hard decision that one!)
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FIRST there was the cool personal reception — now Kevin Rudd has been left out of the official White House
photograph album.
Well Kevin, call a bloke an idiot and that’s what you get
The treatment received by Australia is very different to that received by former PM John Howard, whom Mr Bush dubbed his “man of steel”.
But Mr Rudd denied any diplomatic hitches. “Those other matters were not canvassed by anybody,” he said while in the US.
Of course the matters were not canvassed by anybody – the G20 leaders, Bush included, have better manners. Rudd can not possibly believe that his comments went unnoticed and he now has to deal with the fact that world leaders will now be viewing him with a jaundiced eye.
The ALP are trying to spin the “What’s G20” item as something-nothing and have actually had some success in turning the debate back to the Libs.
Both Malcom Turnbull and Julie Bishop are
being pressured by the Australian and Laurie Oaks over Howard saying al-Qa’ida would prefer Obama to win.
Two points here. The first is al-Qa’da
is on record as saying they would prefer Obama to win, and secondly, the fact that Howard said this has absolutely no bearing on what Rudd said. Howard’s comments were about a hitherto nondescript US Senator whose status at the time was Presidential Nominee.
Rudd’s statement was about the current US President, our major ally and was clearly defamatory. Rudd further exacerbated the diplomatic gaffe by ignoring it long enough for the impression to be created that Rudd was erudite and clearly more intelligent and worldly than the US President who didn’t even know who G20 were.
As Rudd simply ignores questions in the house on the matter his ignorance will fade as the media follow the next big story; President Bush will retire and go back to Texas and Rudd will dine out for years on how he got away with calling the President of the US an idiot.
Not here though; the incident will go into the overflowing basket of Rudd stuff-ups and enough will remember for it to matter later.
SHUTTING down the Navy for the summer holidays is a way of retaining sailors, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says.
It’s also a way of abrogating defence responsibilities.
I can just see the people smugglers in Indonesia frantically putting out the message that it will be open season for queue jumpers over the summer break.
Docked ships will be manned by a skeleton staff using protective alarms.
Yeah, that’ll work. I trust the protective alarms are tactically sited to give all round defence.
It rained last night.
More images
here (.pdf)
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JULIA Gillard has tried to calm down Labor MPs agitated about the Rudd Government’s planned workplace legislation by stressing
unions will have a right to sit at the bargaining table with employers if they have just one member at a worksite.
So the unions only need one stooge in a company workforce, say Rio Tinto, that must number in the thousands, to have a voice at the negotiating table.
That sounds like a plan to help our economy. Along with the ALP’s Emission Trading Scheme we should be destitute in four years.
Pause and remember.
“In September, for example, there came to the medical officer of the 9th a youngster named Gray (of Murgon, Q’land), whom he remembered having seen before. This was one of two brothers, Queenslanders of the 9th Bn., who during the voyage from Australia nearly a year before had both become ill with influenza. They had been so reduced by illness that they were suspected of being tubercular, and were consequently brought before a medical board at Mena Camp and ordered to be returned to Australia. Both were so heartbroken that they wept, and Col. B.J. Newmarch (of Sydney), who presided over the board, relented, and allowed each of them to be put temporarily off duty, in order to build themselves up by food and exercise. They were eventually declared fit, and afterwards sedulously avoided the doctor, and both landed with their battalion. At the Landing one brother (Pte. G.R. Gray) had been a member of one of the parties which penetrated farthest. It was the other who now came to the regimental doctor saying that he had received a wound at the Landing and, though he had been to hospital, it was again giving a little trouble. He had endeavoured to “carry on,” but had at last been forced to see if the doctor could advise a little treatment. The medical officer found that he had had a compound fracture of the arm, two bullets through his thigh, another through diaphragm, liver and side; and that there were adhesions to the liver and pleura. He was returned at once to Australia, where he was eventually discharged from hospital and , re-enlisting, returned to the front in the artillery. His brother eventually became quartermaster of the 9th, in which capacity he continued to serve until the last year of the war.”
Many years later I had the honour to serve as a Cadre Officer at 9th Battalion, The Royal Queensland Regiment, the new name for the old 9th, the keepers of the Battle Honours and traditions. I was at the bar in the officer’s mess drinking with two guys who had landed at Gallipolli with the 9th on the 25th of April. They argued long and loud over who was actually the first of all ANZACs to land that morning and later conversations with others confirmed these guys had the right to the argument. We were drinking schooners with rum chasers and although I was 30 something and fit, it become apparent I would fall on my face if I kept up with them.
Both these guys were pushing 80, tall six-footers and both DCM winners!
The 9th went on to suffer 1094 killed and 2422 wounded (including gassed) and it’s members were decorated into the history books being awarded;
1 VC
1 CB
1 CMG
5 DSO
1 MVO
35 MC, 2 bars, 1 2nd bars
35 DCM
152 MM ,11 bars, 1 2nd bar
4 MSM
1 Albert Medal
52 MID
5 foreign awards
35 MCs (2 bars, 1 2nd bars); 35 DCMs and 152 MM (11 bars, 1 2nd bar) for chrissakes.
Pause and remember; not at the misery or the terrible casualty rates although they are horrendous; but at their sheer toughness.
Good men; I dips me to lid to them all.
From
Digger History
AMROZI, the smiling assassin, was not so brave when faced with his own death.
I’m not a proponent of capital punishment because of the possibility of errors or miscarriage of justice but in this case I have no qualms.
Passionate murder, even cold blooded murder is one thing and generally has a limited number of victims but in the Bali case there 220 odd victims.
A crime most horrible in it’s concept; it beggars belief and there simply isn’t enough superlatives to aptly describe the event.
I’m OK with it and feel no burning desire to defend or accuse the Indonesian government of revenge or state sponsored murder Further, I don’t demand Rudd raise the point with the Indonesians; he intends to mention it at the UN and that’s a pointless exercise so let’s leave it at that and move on.
At the very least, these three will never slaughter innocents again.
Now let’s get Abu Bakar Bashir.
QUEENSLAND parliament’s Speaker Mike Reynolds will provide a character reference in a Townsville court today for
convicted Palm Island rioter Lex Wotton, who is due to be sentenced for his role in riots on Palm Island a week after Mulrunji Doomadgee died.
Wotton’s lawyer Stewart Levitt said yesterday his client would appeal against his conviction, regardless of today’s sentence.
He also said;
“
In the new age of Obama, it will be interesting to see how this trial will be viewed given the changing political landscape.”
The Messiah is here, a new millennium has dawned before it’s time!
Uh-uh!
Found this
modified Hummer at Popular Science.
This is a 2008 model and the article says;
In case fuel consumption on your Hummer wasn’t spiting Prius drivers everywhere enough, engineers have pooled their talents to add aftermarket tracked belts in place of the “nothing wrong with ’em” wheels.
I wonder if the engineers thought it was a new idea. Hope not
Around 1958, this strange looking vehicle conversion was launched by James A Cuthbertson & Sons, of Biggar, in Scotland. It was designed to go further in adverse off-road conditions than the conventional Land Rover.
A standard Series II long wheelbase Land Rover minus its wheels was dropped onto a sub-frame, and a track fixed around bogeys at each corner with a sprocket that replaces the Land Rover’s road wheels.
The front tracks are steerable in the conventional way, the tracks turn as a whole for steering – aided by substantial power steering driven from the engine crankshaft pulley.
Not to mention it would have been a lot of fun to drive.
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