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.

Feeling secure Julia?

I’m a bit disappointed that CanDo let the ALP keep 7 seats but with a by-election in the offering, with Anna finally getting the message and resigning, it could be only six seats soon.

In my humble opinion, Labor’s problem is it’s selection of candidates. Too many are from the ALP political class. Look at Kate from Ashgrove – Arts degree…David Hammill’s office…Rob Schwarten’s office…joined Labor Unity Faction…elected!

She has been a prisoner of the Labor Party all her adult life and has little experience outside it. How do you help people in the real world when you have never been there?

On the whole, they are union officials, ministerial and parliamentary staffs and party employees leaving a dirth of ‘real world’ experience from which to draw policy. Even those from the unions are more likely to have worked as a union rep rather than in the industry the specific union represents.

Federal ALP will be shitting themselves. The ALP/Left spin machines will be flat out denying the Queensland election has any federal connections but at the very least it underlines what can happen to a largely incompetent government. I don’t see much difference between the Queensland and federal ALP.

Both ALP Leaders are guilty of saying one thing to get elected and then almost immediately do the opposite,

Both ALP governments have run the economy into the ground leaving billions in debt,

MPs from both ALP governments are largely from the political class and have little experience in business, farming or mining and it shows.

Both leaders, and most ministers, are, or in Anna’s case have been, guilty of attacking the man, Campbell and Abbott, and they badly underestimate both.

The federal ALP can deny any connections between the Queensland and federal spheres till the cows come home but if they all haven’t had their uh-uh thoughts then they are in for a big, big surprise come federal election day.

Altogether a good result and no, I don’t care that we wont have a workable opposition. The ALP deserved to be gutted for what they have done to the state.

Now to continue working towards a similar result in Canberra.

MRRT to pay Super?

As I understand it employers pay the workers superannuation so how come the MRRT is being touted by Swan as giving everyone an increase in superannuation guarantee;

“Around 8.4 million workers will enjoy a more secure retirement with the increase in superannuation guarantee.

Paul Kelly in The Australian says;

Labor keeps implying the mining tax will finances the super increase from 9 per cent to 12 per cent. It doesn’t. At present, business is meeting this cost.

Sinclair Davidson at Catallaxy says;

Strictly speaking it [Super] is paid by employers – they write the cheque – but the burden of superannuation falls on the employee. Wages are reduced to the extent of the superannuation payment. So an increase in superannuation contributions means a reduction in take-home pay.

Some of it could be presumably used to pay public servant super but otherwise I still believe it is a means for Swan to balance his budget.

And if you think, “well at least I have some money in super“, you want to remind yourself that Unions are very involved in management of superannuation funds courtesy of Keating.

Good luck!

Business will pay more super reflected in workers receiving correspondingly less in their pocket, or, business will shed labour, but overall unions will have more money to play with in their super funds.

Sounds like an ALP plan.

If they would just show some inkling of how wealth is created they might improve our situation but while their forte is wealth distribution only, there is no chance.

Anna just doesn’t get it

The LNP started the week by announcing their Better Access to Specialist Care policy.

On Monday Anna Bligh accuses CanDO of official misconduct whilst Lord Mayor

In Cairns on Tuesday, the LNP announced a Regional College for Disaster Management and their policy for Breaking the Cycle of Youth Crime, which includes boosting the number of school based police.

On Tuesday Anna Bligh accuses CanDO of official misconduct whilst Lord Mayor

On Wednesday, the LNP committed to cutting Labor’s projected public transport fare increases in half – reducing the cost of commuting for South East Queensland Commuters.

On Wednesday Anna Bligh accuses CanDO of official misconduct whilst Lord Mayor

On Thursday, the LNP announced their plan to support the agricultural industry by investing in research and development as well as training. CanDo was joined by former Prime Minister John Howard in the Ashgrove Electorate for the announcement of their Blueprint for Queensland Small Businesses

On Thursday Anna Bligh accuses CanDO of official misconduct whilst Lord Mayor

On Friday in Springwood the LNP announced their Education Policy and their goal to make Queensland one of the leading states for literacy and numeracy by 2020.

On Friday Anna Bligh received the Flood Inquiry report which could open up the state to billions in litigation and accuses CanDO of official misconduct whilst Lord Mayor.

On Saturday The CMC report on Anna’s accusations;

“In all matters, the CMC has established there is currently no evidence of official misconduct on the part of Campbell Newman in relation to the allegations raised while he was Lord Mayor of Brisbane,”
“On that basis, the CMC will not be conducting any investigation in relation to Mr Newman.”

She doesn’t even pause to accept the truth.

On Saturday Anna Bligh still accuses CanDO of official misconduct whilst Lord Mayor

She steadfastly refuses to apologise. She goes on to say it is too early to tell if Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman will be cleared of corruption claims.

What part of “there is no evidence of official misconduct” don’t you understand, Anna?

So, a week of the LNP issuing policy statements while Anna continues to accuse CanDo of misconduct in spite of the CMC saying there isn’t any evidence to support her claim.

No ALP policies, other than free swimming lessons, just baseless accusations – that’s all the ammo she has left. She knows she cannot stand on her own record, it being so abysmal, so her only hope of maintaining power is to slander the opposition and hope enough voters fall for her lies.

On all accounts it’s not working…roll on Saturday!

Ashgrove

Des Houghton writes in the Courier Mail about the two candidates for Ashgrove in the current Queensland election, ‘CanDo’ Campbell Newman and ALP’s Kate Jones

Houghton suggests it’s time to look past the cloud of bulldust and examine their records.

Jones [a Howard hater] arrived in the Queensland Parliament in 2006 aged 27. The seat was previously held for the ALP by Demetrios “Jim” Fouras, a distinguished former Speaker who opposed her candidature.

After completing an arts journalism degree at QUT, Jones worked in the office of former state treasurer David Hamill. She was 21.

From there she switched to the office of Robert Schwarten, the Works Minister, who was subsequently ousted by Bligh.

She was a member of his Labor Unity faction, which got her elected against Fouras’s wishes and later propelled her into cabinet where her achievements were scant.

Schwarten admires her greatly and won’t hear a word against her.

Nevertheless it has to be said that Jones has been a prisoner of the Labor Party all her adult life and has little experience outside it.

At 14, she worked in McDonald’s at the Myer Centre in the Brisbane CBD. Sometimes she would finish at McDonald’s and slip around to Subway in Edward St and do another shift there.

‘CanDo’ comes from a very different background

He joined the Army, gaining a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honours (later earning a Business MBA) and stayed there serving as an Engineer officer for 13 years while serving in Germany, Hawaii, the Solomon Islands and PNG. Later in the private sector, he ran the state’s massive grain handling system with 600 staff and then worked as a management consultant for blue-chip firms BHP, Australia Coal and Telstra.

Newman also had seven years in City Hall, becoming one of the most successful lord mayors in Brisbane’s history. He balanced seven budgets while building roads, tunnels, bridges and pools. His CanDo Council team also spearheaded the change to 100% use of green electricity and created the greenest local government authority in Australia. His other green credentials include planting two million trees.

During last years floods Kate Jones organized lots of photo opportunities while Newman was busy mobilising a Mud Army that cleaned up the city.

Still, it must be said in all fairness that Kate Jones did work at McDonald’s and Subways

Anna only looking after her family

The LNP are sticking to their positive approach to campaigning leaving it up to Anna to delve into the dirt. Without anything to brag about and a lot of reasons to divert voters attention elsewhere, Anna keeps hammering the fact that Newman has entrepreneurs in his extended family. It appears to me that a leader associated with enterprise where people actually earn money by their own efforts and succeed, is a good basis for a government leadership.

One personally-addressed flyer saying “Campbell is only interested in looking after one family and it’s not yours” complete with a photo of Lisa Newman smiling at her husband.

And this from the party that appoints Anna Bligh’s husband, Greg Withers, to a huge salaried sinecure in the Office of Climate Change within DERM. Thus, one could argue that it is also fair to say Anna is only interested in looking after one family and it isn’t yours.

Anna’s motivation must be her family. No one could say it’s the state, with debt spiraling out of hand, our AAA credit rating gone and the state paying $100 m a week to service ALP loans.

I note the “If Cando doesn’t win who will be the LNP leader?” campaign gained some traction last week but really, If Anna doesn’t win her seat who will be ALP leader, is also a reasonable question. All party leaders have to campaign and win their own seat and it’s no different in Queensland. True, Anna’s chances of holding her seat are better than CanDO winning Ashgrove but the question is simply a distraction.

Not long to go now!

Smith simply doesn’t respect the ADF

I started the last post with this: I’ve always maintained that the ALP do not like the ADF. Readers took to me to task and one even abused me as he raced to justify Minister Smith’s latest foray into attacking Defence.

My opinion still stands and has been confirmed by this morning’s article in The Age by MAJGEN John Cantwell.

Some extracts:

I spent long hours over many sessions briefing the then minister, Joel Fitzgibbon. It was a painful process. Fitzgibbon was out of his depth. He simply didn’t get it. Not only could he not understand what we were trying to tell him, he didn’t put in the time to try to get across his brief.
He was an auto-electrician in a suit.

But at least Fitzgibbon occasionally expressed a desire to do the right thing by the service personnel who delivered our military capability.

Not so Smith. Reflecting on Smith’s visit to Afghanistan MAJGEN Cantwell recalls;

…the abiding impression I was left with was that he merely tolerated people like me and the troops I commanded. I cast around in my mind for the element that seemed to be missing in his dealings with the men and women of the ADF who I led. Then I had it: respect. Smith had no respect for those who chose to serve in uniform for their country. It was an uncomfortable insight.

He closes with this;

I sense that the judgment I formed in 2010 was on the money. There’s no respect, and it works both ways.

Read more

ADF vs the Defence Minister and the Media

I’ve always maintained that the ALP do not like the ADF. They hate the officer system and spend most of their time in the treasury benches initiating inquiries that all seem to recommend less money while demanding the same service. As in they are currently demanding a $20 billion savings over then next decade in the defence budget.

This current mob appears to have an agenda to denigrate the military in any way they can. I heard on the ABC today that one of Defence Minister Smith’s inquisitions have identified 757 cases of sexual misconduct some of which occurred in the 1950s. The 1950s FFS! Who can remember anything sexual from that far back. I’ve got another one for them. In the 70s whilst the battalion were practicing for a parade the RSM said I looked like a kangaroo dog rooting a marble.

I think a lot of the 757 cases will be at about that level.. I did hear old mate Duncan Lewis (now Secretary of Defence), interviewed and he did say some of the cases are serious. I”m sure they are but hey, it looks like we are talking about 60 years of misconduct – that ain’t all that bad. Maybe a standard week at University’s ‘O’ weeks

Jack Waterford at the Canberra Times says Diggers need just a little slack;

WAS EVER so much nonsense spoken as when politicians, journalists and feminist and ethnic icons vie with ancient generals, clergymen and academics to condemn the latest evidences that our soldiers, sailors and air persons are profane, cynical and somewhat racist and sexist young men and women?

Read more …

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, Defence has been lumbered with Smith as Minister. His opinion of the military and procedural knowledge of same has been clearly shown to be lacking. He sacked Kafer, the Commandant of ADFA despite there being no evidence that he had acted incompetently or had made an error of judgement in the Skype/sex ADFA video.

The Smith initiated inquisition found no evidence of incompetence and yet Smith has sat on that report for three months and only now does Kafer get to sit in the Commandants chair at ADFA.

Smith doesn’t give up easy though “I remain of the view that this was an error of judgment,” he says even after reading the report that categorically said that Kafer did not make an error of judgement.

and this;

Asked if Commodore Kafer had his full confidence, Mr Smith sidestepped the question, saying he had full confidence in Australian Defence Force chief David Hurley and other defence leaders

Tosser! I can promise him that the ADF do not have any confidence in their minister.

….and Smith was mentioned as a potential PM – what is it with these people?

UPDATE:

Back of the envelope quick calculations by reader Harry Buttle indicate that;

[the ADF] sexual assault figures comes out at 5.3 per month per 80,000 persons, or to put it another way means that as a group, on this particular crime over the last 60 years, the military is in fact more than 5 x more law abiding than society in general.

No sexual assault is acceptable, but this looks like another hatchet job.

Read more

Viet Vets in trouble again

Aussie Vietnam Vets have hit the news big time. The final volume of the official history of the Australians in the Vietnam War is about to be released and the entire volume must be about Vietnam Vets and their drinking problem.

Google answered vietnam war history+alcohol abuse with 18 million hits. I had to click forward to page 12 before I found someone else other than Aussies having a drinking problem. Our alcohol abuse has been spread across the world and everyone’s talking about it.

I’m actually reasonably confident that the final volume mentions matters other than alcohol abuse but someone has obviously seen fit to underline the problem so that the people who abused us then, and still do, can add alcoholism to our sins. It fits seamlessly with shooting and killing the good guys, being US puppets, killing babies, raping women, and all the other communist propaganda inventions. Having these ‘sins’ thrown at us by Aussie uni students during breaks from collecting money for the Viet Cong ammo fund, goes partway to understanding the horrific PTSD roll from the war

Doesn’t matter – we’re used to the abuse, or at least we have learned not to take it to heart.

Considering most times I got back off patrol the first night in the boozer was effectively a wake I actually don’t care what non-vets think. Five or six cans is binge drinking? Come on…give me a break princess. Five or six cans goes nowhere near putting the black dog back in his kennel.

I definitely remember one patrol that lasted a month so there is 30 days of beer I never got. If I came back dirty,stressed and in mourning and consequently had too much to drink and someone from the 142nd Blog Comments Platoon, safe in their clean, neat, safe house finds that is cause to denigrate my service then get out of the debate.

I’m not listening anymore.

The Circle in trouble

A hate campaign is being waged against the talking head idiots from the Circle as a result of the brainless comments they made about Cpl Ben Roberts-Smith, VC.

The hate campaign comes as calls build for Stynes to quit the Ten morning show in light of the offensive remarks directed at Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith by Stynes and guest host George Negus last Tuesday.

Good!

1 49 50 51 52 53 229