More boats…more drownings…more excuses

Listening to Home Affairs Minister Jason Claire on the ABC he said the issue of boat arrivals has become ‘poisoned by politics and; ‘’When people are dying the government should be given the power that it thinks it needs to stop this happening…”   As in, it’s the Coalition and the Green’s fault – not the ALPs. The government has the power Jason.  You had the power to stuff it up and now you have the power to fix it up Gee, Rudd now thinks the UN refugee convention should be modernised to better cope with those most in need of asylum.  How long will that take  Kevin?  Years Plans announced to maybe build accommodation at Manis Island or maybe near Port Morseby.  How long will that take Kevin?  Years People are drowning today, not in the future when the UN  might or might not change things or buildings might or might not be built but until the government says things like – no papers – no visa and if you do have papers it is only temporary and if we say No then that’s it, then they will keep on coming and keep on drowning You want to stop the boat people – then stop them. NAVY insiders say there is “a growing and burning anger” among sailors on the frontline as they struggle to respond to the spiralling number of deaths and sinkings flowing from the government’s failed asylum-seeker policies. There is also a “growing’ force of assetts tied up trying to manage Rudd’s stuff-up.  The seven patrol boats allocated to the problem have been supplemented by a mine sweeper and a frigate, argueably more naval forces than we deployed during the Vietnam War.  

Rudd’s third week

Listening and watching the media it would appear Rudd is fixing some of the problems of Australia.  The fact that he is fixing the problems that he himself caused doesn’t appear to be clear in the mind of a lot of commentators. He offers sympathy for the families of the drowned boaties without mentioning the fact that he caused the circumstances whereby their lives were put in peril in the first place. On Sunday the tabloid papers were all screaming “Carbon tax scrapped” but of course he hasn’t scrapped it, he has just brought the change over to an ETS on sooner than previously planned. No, hang on, he is talking about doing that.  As I understand it he has to take that to the House. Correct me if I’m wrong but it will need a vote and neither the Greens or the Libs would be onside for that one. I hear Wong on the radio touting that bringing forward the change to an ETS will take pressure off family budgets.  I wonder how that can be when the ALP have been talking up how the Carbon Tax wasn’t placing pressures on family budgets.  Seems you can have it both ways if you ignore one or more truths. As Abbott says;

Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It’s a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.

Carbon Credits is also questionable with nothing sold to someone mostly using government funds.

landowners can sell “carbon credits” if they can prove that they have reduced carbon dioxide by capturing it as humus in soil, or by planting forests, or by allowing re-growth of woody weeds, or by reducing feral animal emissions (shooting camels) or even by promising solemnly to NOT clear specified parcels of forest.

NONE of these processes are sustainable in the long run.

Viv Forbes at Australian Conservative says the scheme has bipartisan support.  That needs fixing. So far Rudd ;
  • Promised to change the way the ALP elect, or kick out their leaders but that has to go to the ALP conference which isn’t happening until after the election so he has done nothing.  More words and the only reason he uttered them was to defang Abbott when he says “When you voted for Rudd, you got Gillard and when you voted for Gillard you got Rudd”
  • Hasn’t said how he is going to fix his “own goal” boaties dilemma and while they are still drowning of our coast reaching for the sugar he and Gillard put on the table all he can offer is sympathy.  He did go to Indonesia but in doing so handed over the security of our borders to Indonesia whilst promising another conference.
  • Hasn’t said how he is going to fix the economy and the huge debt he established.
  • Said he would get business on-side but  immediately attacked them with more 457 visa restrictions and has left the unions in charge of the economy with the Fair Work legislation.
  • Has gutted defence but in doing so promised dreamtime purchases that weren’t funded and were never going to get out of the conference process.  12 submarines for God’s sake!
So far, after three weeks, there are no answers to the myriad of Rudd caused problems – maybe next week he’ll say something we can bank on. Maybe.

Ewen Mackenzie replaces arch enemy

THE great experiment with foreign sporting coaches is coming to an end and the Kiwis can go back to being our arch enemies. Just weeks after South African Mickey Arthur was replaced by Australian Darren Lehmann as the nation’s cricket coach, Victorian-born Queensland Reds boss Ewen McKenzie is poised to take over from New Zealander Robbie Deans as the Wallabies coach. It never sat easy with me that we would have an All Black coaching the Wallabies – a bit like Ho Chi Minh teaching me how to soldier. Brett Harris, the journo, must be young when he says ‘the Kiwis can go back to being our arch enemies’. They always were and always will be Brett.

Jill Meagher

THE man who killed Jill Meagher was a serial rapist on parole for previous offences when he raped and murdered the young ABC employee. Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC said Bayley was a “sexual predator” who showed a modus operandi of exerting physical power over his victims and threatening to kill his victims.
The details of Bayley’s history have previously been suppressed, but can now be published after Justice Nettle today revoked his earlier suppression order. Mr Silbert said Bayley knew as he raped Meagher that he was likely to serve the maximum rape penalty of 25 years in prison if he was caught.

“Accordingly, he had no option but to kill her,” Mr Silbert said.

That’s like about 20 cases of rape – I wonder if the Parole Board members have any trouble sleeping at night?  

Swan song

Say something nice about the budget?

It is Swan’s last.                Peter Van Onselen

Swan has just handed Abbott a problem because who in Australia believes anything Swan said last night.  Most of his budget wont come to fruition as the chances are he will be unemployed come September.  Who believes his forward estimates…a surplus in 2015-16 – yeah…right!. Gillard and Swan are putting a case to set up their legacy of Gonski and Disability Care at the Coalition’s expense. Even in their last dying gasp they overspend.  If you don’t genuflect at the altar of Gonski and Disabilitycare then you are a bastard but can we pause, dry our tears and get the funding right? The Gillard/Swan modus operandi of plucking feel-good policies out of the air and announcing them without a thought to serious funding has become a trademark. Look how compassionate we are…look at me crying in the House over the poor disabled – lets all just wish it so.  After five years of throwing money out the door and spending way over income they want us to remember them as progressives with bold policy changes that change society. They are effectively demanding the Coalition pay for their legacy.  Gillard sees her time as Prime Minister being written up in history as the woman who saved the disabled and every kid in the nation. A cut-price legacy if ever there was one.

Boat people aren’t new

Interested in the boat people debate?  Do you wonder why the Left support the boat people and the Conservatives don’t? Do you remember the Vietnamese boat people and the ALP’s hatred of them? Gough Whitlam said

 I’m not having hundreds of fucking Vietnamese Balts coming into this country with their political and religious hatreds against us” 

It should be noted that the Vietnamese didn’t hate us, as in ordinary Australians but they did hate communism (for very good reasons) and that is where Whitlam and the unions were coming from.  Those that couldn’t flee the retribution in South Vietnam died in their millions as the communists did what they do best – slaughter and/or send to reeducation camps those who had the temerity to fight for freedom. The Vietnamese were fleeing a communist state and the ALP of the time and the union leaders were very clearly pro-communists or anti-US which is the same thing.   The same people today reason that Iraqis and Afghans are fleeing US influenced regions and are therefore welcome.  The left wing Tamils, inventors of the suicide bomber’s vests are likewise welcomed for the same reason – their left wing politics I lived through those days when Australia was governed by a socialist government with very clear connections with the communists of the world. Our service in South Vietnam was denigrated by the Left, Communists Generals were dined out by Jim Cairns, one-time Deputy PM and life under Whitlam reminded us every day of how the world had changed.  Communism was the new ‘way to go’ and wearing the uniform of your country was frowned upon. It was humiliating and it looked like we had lost the Cold War which I enthusiastically contributed to for 13 months of my life but within a decade reason had prevailed.  Whitlam was a nightmare memory and President Reagan correctly identified the ‘Evil Empire’ and proceeded to flog them until the collapse of the Berlin Wall. If you are interested at all in the truth then you do need to read this report by Hal G.P. Colebatch   

Rolf Harris in trouble?

AN Australian man has been arrested by officers from a taskforce investigating possible widespread abuse following the Jimmy Savile sex scandal. The 82-year-old man from Berkshire in south England was arrested on Thursday in Britain and bailed until May pending further police inquiries. This report in The Australian doesn’t name the man but according to this link it is Rolf Harris I then  Googled “Rolf Harris arrested” and got a mob of hits. I’m devastated – I grew up in West Australia when Rolf was starting out there and thought of him as a quaint old fashioned entertainer.  Now I might be forced to accept that I was wrong. I hope not but it doesn’t look good.  

Kloppers’ demise due to setting standards

News.com seem to think Kloppers’ demise is due to an authourative set of rules that the company issued 2 years ago.

Staff at BHP were outraged when the company under Mr Kloppers issued an incredible 11-page missive banning office staff from eating smelly lunches at their desks, sticking post-it notes on their monitors and keyboards and placing jackets on chairs.

Many employees were outraged by the elaborate dossier, which stated:

  • Food must not be eaten at workstations
  • No food emitting strong odours are allowed
  • Mobile phone ring tones must be kept at low volumes
  • Post-it notes are to be removed from monitors and keyboards at the end of the day
  • Workers are warned to watch the tone and volume of their voices
  • In meeting rooms, all whiteboards are to be cleaned, equipment turned off, cables put away, chairs pushed in and cups and bottles thrown away
  • iPods and MP3 players must not be brought into work
  • Small bags must be stored under work stations during the day
  • Clothes must be put in “designated storage areas”
Can’t see the problem – I’d have to agree with all those points.  Every company has rules, or should have, that allow people to work together in harmony and in the interests of the company. Outraged?  Go work for someone who doesn’t have standards. If it’s true that Kloppers’  demise is partly due to this memo then I fear for BHP Billiton.        
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