Tag: ALP Stuffups

Defence is in the gun again over emails denigrating women. General  Morrison, Chief of Army is cranky and  told reporters that a broader group of about 90 Defence personnel – overwhelmingly from the Army – may be on the periphery of the group involved in the email exchange.

…. he said the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service (ADFIS) told ADF chief David Hurley about the matter on April 10.

General Morrison was overseas at the time but was told when he returned soon after. Defence Minister Stephen Smith was also informed at the time.

I presume we have been sitting on this for two months waiting for an ideal time to announce the torrid details and today was definitely an ideal time to change the subject after yesterday’s ALP embarrassment over a derogatory menu. Based on Tweets from a lib hater who would “rather be raped by a pitbull with aids than live in Abbott’s Australia”  it all went pear-shape after the author stated the menu never left the kitchen and it was a joke between himself and his son.  This became known last night but fully ninety minutes later the ABC were still on the case reveling in Pilbersec going on and on about that terrible Abbott and his team. She had to know by that time so she was simply lying and the ABC, who also would have known there was nothing in the story, encouraged her. I still haven’t heard any apologies or withdrawal from the ALP desparates or the ABC and I don’t expect any. Catallaxy Files has a pretty good coverage of the affair – be sure to read the comments if you haven’t seen them yet. You can just see them at ALP HQ…. “quickly we need a distraction – Defence Minister isn’t there a report you have been sitting on for two months? – let’s announce that! And  Defence saves the day again. It makes sense, doesn’t it?

AUSTRALIAN security authorities will independently reassess the veracity of Egypt’s 1999 case against a convicted jihadist terrorist who was held in a minimum security detention centre for eight months. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he would not pre-empt the case against the man, identified as Maksoud Abdel Latif, and the evidence brought against him in Egypt would be examined.

“There is no evidence that he has committed any offence here in Australia and the circumstances of what happened in Egypt in 1998-1999, they’ll all be examined, as is absolutely appropriate, in the course of examining claims that he is making and deciding what is to be his future,” Mr Dreyfus told Sky News.

“We have the rule of law in our country. We have proper investigative practices in our country.”

Publicly accusing another nation of not having the rule of law nor proper investigating practices is not a good look for an Attorney General of a first world country even if he is a member of a third rate government.   Dreyfus is only trying  to deflect attention away from the debacle occasioned by the ALP’s open border policy and budget restraints on Customs, ASIO and the AFP. Anyone with skin in the game or an interest in Australia’s security have been warning all and sundry that to let people into the country when they come via boats, having destroyed identity papers en route,  is dangerous.  These boat people are not all they make themselves out to be. Afganis fleeing military service while Diggers are dying in Afghanistan;  Tamils (who invented the suicide bomber) looking for a better life on our social security, and, as is apparent in this case, terrorists escaping justice, are all among the mix. And, do you really think there is only one terrorist among the tens of thousands of illegal arrivals since Rudd opened the borders? Unlikely. There are hundreds of questions to be asked about the ALP’s handling of the illegal entries.  With authorities swamped and budgets tightened it must be almost impossible to vet each arrival.  With the government overwhelmed by their own incompetence they have folded and have released thousands of unknown people into the community. There isn’t even a semblance of control. Julia Gillard announcement of a probe of the case is tantamount to offering a bandaid to double amputee.  It wont help and by the time the results are out we will most probably have another government.  Still, considering all she wants to do is get the matter off the front page then it will likely work for her in the winter of her political life. One hundred days to go – what else can go wrong?

JULIA Gillard has been warned that the government’s strategy to win votes through its big-picture education and disability policies is being swamped by community anger over asylum-seekers, as senior Labor figures all but write off enough seats in three states to guarantee Tony Abbott a comfortable victory. If NDIS is ever funded then it will be a plus for the country but if it is,  it will be by the Libs and I still believe Gonski is a sop to the Teachers Union. To me, it typifies Labor’s propensity to just throw borrowed money at  problems.  There is a lot more to education than more dollars. With the exception of left wingers, the human rights push, the ABC and a good proportion of their viewers, the country is outraged over the asylum seekers.  This represents a huge majority and I would suggest that even a good proportion of rusted on ALP voters are angry as well. Now her own people are telling her and that is being reported in the press – not a good look.  Why on earth should she need to be told it is a problem?   The ALP heavyweights must be rolling their eyes at her lack of political acumen.   Doesn’t someone brief her every morning on what the people are saying or thinking? Maybe she only gets her news from the ABC. If you just watch the ABC you would be largely unaware of the extent of the boat arrivals.  After the election, and presuming Abbott wins, you will know of every boat that comes near our coastline under the byline of “Abbott fails to stop the boats”

Wong on Abbott;

“Tony Abbott needs to demonstrate how he would pay for a number of commitments and what he would cut to fund them,” she said in a statement.

As different from the ALP that is actually in government and keeps on thinking up wonderful plans that  it can’t pay for.   Pickering says it better……

You have to give the ALP credit – they worked hard for this deficit, the worse ever recorded. Their work and dedication in implementing the Carbon Tax has worked a treat. Companies looking to secure their bottom line are shedding workers and future investments to try and stay solvent; the Live Cattle Export industry mostly closed down until adults are in charge due to Ludwigs brilliant response to an unbalanced TV program has suffered an 86% drop in trade and Fair Work Australia has the government governing for maybe 18% of the population. (that part of the population that doesn’t invest billions and pay large taxes on their profits) The Porous Border policy has added billions to the deficit just so Gillard can be different to Howard only to turn around and try and implement most of his answers. Being Gillard, of course she repeatedly stuffed it up costing hundreds of millions for every failure. Laden with a huge deficit they are still talking about Gonski, National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the NBN powers on, still without any published business plan.

MAJOR contractors handling the rollout of the National Broadband Network are charging the federal government up to 2 1/2 times the amount they are passing on to subcontractors who perform the work.

I don’t know about you but this statement from the Financial Times doesn’t fill me with confidence With education the only point Gillard can still hang her hat on, she is adamant that Gonski goes ahead so she can have the word on her political epithat. Money is not the only answer to education problems – there is more to teaching than interactive whiteboards and quite frankly if the left wing Teachers Union support Gonski then I would look to question exactly how our kids will be better off with it’s implementation. The NDIS, the only insurance scheme I’ve heard of without premiums, is certainly a feel-good idea and lends itself to guaranteed abuse if you don’t wholeheartedly support it. However it is tainted with the same problems as Gonski, NBN and a host of other programs – where’s the money, honey? Henry Ergas in the Australian

Deconstructing Swan’s arguments is as challenging as picking a dead man’s wallet. Shop-worn tropes go round and round, like unclaimed bags on an airport carousel: Labor is the party of opportunity, a sentiment to which Eddie Obeid, Ian Macdonald and John Maitland are presumably living testimony; Tony Abbott, accused of every possible malfeasance short of starting a leprosy pandemic, would destroy what this country retains of good and true; and only Swan and his colleagues stand between Tony Abbott’s Visigoths and the “fair go”.

and just in case you don’t get the point;

As for Swan, he has become the Cheshire cat of Australian treasurers: his predecessors’ smirks linger, but their competence has vanished. Touchy, testy and tetchy, he scratches on; when he rises Tuesday fortnight, however, it will not be to grasp the future, but as the last gasp of the past.

The prize for missing the point has to go to Windsor who, in the middle of a biblical proportioned economic disaster demands a referendum to pacify the Rainbow activists. Tony, you have under 140 days to make your mark on the world that might compensate your electorate for your treachery – think it through man.