If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama will be invited to address a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament in March, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
I don’t suppose Bob Brown will bring the country into disrepute as he did when George Bush visited.
Most probably not.
Prof Professor Patrick McGorry, Australian of the year speaks to Monica Attard at the ABC.
In a long interview he spoke compassionately on his subject of expertise; depression amongst the youth, and I laud him for this. The Professor, is an internationally renowned expert in adolescent mental health.
However he needs to tighten up his comments in other fields, particularly Climate Change.
PATRICK MCGORRY: I just come back from Ireland and the day I arrived was about 40 degrees. It didn’t use to be like that in Victoria. Very dry. So obviously we could do more. The whole world could do more.
I can remember weeks of 38deg+ in Melbourne in the sixties. That’s not Climate Change, Professor, it’s weather.
Monica Attard didn’t ask for his take on the recent freeze in Europe, she just agreed.
It was the ABC after all.
KEVIN Rudd has warned voters there is “no guarantee” Labor will win the next election in the wake of a shock Newspoll finding that the Coalition has overtaken Labor on the primary vote.
Pretty standard motivation speech for the start of parliament in an election year but they are obviously concerned about Abbott and the poll swings. Just witness the ALP/Left hysteria when Tony mentioned advice he would give his daughters on life.
TONY Abbott’s fatherly advice for teenage girls not to give their virginity away “lightly” has cost him some support among women voters after a week of concerted attacks from government ministers and feminists.
I would suggest the ‘lost support’ is based on those who wouldn’t vote for him anyway
The navy is most probably so busy defending itself at the Darwin Coroner’s witch hunt that they missed another boatload of queue jumpers
They are the ninth boatload of asylum-seekers to be unloaded at Christmas Island this year.
Before this boatload, there were 1595 asylum-seekers in the island’s detention centre, which has a capacity of 1848..
Rudd’s lack of border security is only shoring up his left wing supporters and some of them are iffy. They want the queue jumpers to bypass Christmas Island and go straight to Centrelink, house and car The rest of the country are starting to show concern at the open door policy and think it should be a closed or at least controlled.
The voters must be thinking by now that any policy that lets a boat into our waters every three odd days is not a policy at all. It is an abrogation of responsibility.
Julia Gillard’s union friendly workplace laws have shipping company Total Marine Services caving in to union threats of further strike action and agreeing to wage and allowance increases of up to $50,000 over three years for workers servicing the lucrative oil and gas industry.
A spokesman for Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard welcomed the agreement.
All other unions, bouyed by the success of the MUA, will be starting their planning meetings to cash in on the bonanza while the ALP are in power.
Get used to it!
Penny Wong’s ETS is a loser with weekly articles throwing doubts on the IPCC report credibility but undeterred by all this she is planning to resubmit it to the parliament. Abbott has released his ideas on dealing with climate change saying he will establish a $2.5 billion emissions reduction fund if elected prime minister, forcing taxpayers to pay business and farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Abbott has told MPs he can meet the unconditional 5 per cent target proposed by Labor with the direct action approach to climate change, without and ETS.
The detail remains to be released but the important thing is, we can now have a debate over alternative measures to address the problem.
His new proposal relies heavily on planting trees and restoring soil carbon by reversing over-grazing and excessive tillage, embedding CO2 in bio-char or charcoal, tree planting, and revegetation.
The ALP are most probably heading for a majority, albeit reduced, but I live in hope that voters will start to see Rudd for what he is – a beaurocrat, not a leader, full of flowering prose, plans and inquiries but very short on delivery.
Still as I say, I live in hope.
KEVIN Rudd’s bid for a UN Security Council seat has been dealt a severe blow after a warning from the Arab League that it is less likely to succeed because of Australia’s support for Israel.
Hashem Yousseff, chief of cabinet for Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa, told The Australian Canberra kept “bad company” at the UN, where it often opposes anti-Israel resolutions in alliance with the US, Canada and small Pacific island states.
Australia’s support for Israel, he said, was “one of the elements that will be taken into consideration” by the 22-member Arab League in deciding whether to support Australia’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term.
The Arab League say we keep bad company!
The mind boggles.