Who’s the misogynist?

So Slipper can compare female genitalia to a “shell-less mussels” and it only rates a mention in The Australian The ABC missed it, or at least it hasn’t devoted hundreds of hours of debate and vilification to this most vile of men. Abbott, on the other hand is subject to spurious innuendos, snide remarks, uncorroborated statements and he is the misogynist? Go figure. But Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said Mr Abbott’s relationship with women remained “fair game” for government MPs to scrutinise. Based on what Roxon? The fact that John McTernan, the Brit import says it is a good attack policy. It worked in Britain – it must work here. Just invent incidences, ramp them up in the compliant media and repeat as often as possible and people will start to believe that Abbott is a misogynist. Obviously McTernan looked at the ALP’s track record and advised Gillard that her only chance of re-election was to get the voters to believe that Abbott isn’t PM material. Simple really! Dishonest, but simple.

Boat people still coming

Paying lip service to a problem doesn’t make it go away as I opined in mid September;
The difference? (between Howard’s solution and Gillard’s) Despite the obvious lack of TPVs the boat people realized Howard really meant to stop the boats while they have clearly interpreted Gillard’s plan as having no teeth. As I have said previously, she only did something to get the boat people off the front page. It’ll simply get worse as the ALP move onto new innovative and previously unheard of ways of stuffing the economy.
Two weeks later, with Labors non-threat in play the boats haven’t even paused. In fact we are heading for another record season. From The Australian;
THE Gillard government’s offshore processing regime is running behind schedule with just 150 asylum-seekers sent to Nauru, despite expectations 500 boatpeople would be housed on the island by the end of September. The threat of being sent to Nauru does not appear to be working as a deterrent, as 1107 people are thought to have arrived in Australian waters on 17 boats since the first planeload of transfers touched down on the tiny Pacific island on September 14. Customs and Border Protection yesterday confirmed the interception of the fifth vessel in less than 48 hours carrying 146 asylum-seekers and three crew.
Do the ALP really think that the voters aren’t noticing? My statement that it’ll simply get worse
…as the ALP move onto new innovative and previously unheard of ways of stuffing the economy.
is also proving correct as Wayne Swan tells us the that economically matters are on the improve with the nation’s debt now standing at $43.7 billion rather that $44.4 billion previously noted. This encouraging revelation is backed up by Penny Wong saving $200 odd million by making public servants fly cattle class. Wayne says “Well done Penny”! I say WTF, the debt is 43.7 billion leaving Penny a long way to go before she gets a “Well done” from me, or I suspect, from the voters

Queensland happy with Newman

The Courier Mail, the ABC and Federal Labour must be devastated. After weeks of Newman bashing the polls are still in favour of the LNP
Tellingly, Mr Newman’s personal approval with voters remains rock solid on 47 per cent — the same as it was going into the state poll on March 24. Dissatisfaction with his performance has actually eased slightly since he took office, from 40 per cent immediately before the election to 38 per cent over the three-month polling period from July to September. When preferences are factored in, the LNP is 20 points clear of state Labor, 60-40 per cent, two-party-preferred. This is broadly in line with the election result that delivered 78 of the 89 state seats in Queensland to the LNP on a two-party-preferred vote of 62.8 per cent, against Labor’s 37.2 per cent.
Queenslanders realize that the state is broke and the public service bloated so they will cut Newman slack as he slashes and burns years of ALP maladministration. I do feel he needs to explain what he is doing in a more proactive manner. It is not good enough to just rely on TV interviews and press reports to get his message across considering the ABC and the Courier Mail will present whatever he says negatively. The ABC is almost begging unions to line up for air time to can him. I’d like to see a weekly time slot devoted to what has been achieved over the last week and why it has been done to remedy the ALP’s stuff-ups. Judith Sloan in the Australian quantifies the bloated public service as she hears Newman is going to cut 1500 jobs in Health;
Gosh, I thought, 1500 jobs sounds quite a lot. So I decided to find out how many people are employed in Queensland Health. The answer is more than 80,000. Annual natural attrition would account for more than double the proposed job cuts of 1500, which represent a mere 1.9 per cent of total employment. But here’s the rub. A decade ago, employment in Queensland Health stood at 49,000. So in 10 years there has been an increase of more than 32,000 employees – an increase of two-thirds. But here’s a further rub. Whereas the number of nurses in effective full-time terms increased by 65 per cent over the decade, the number of managerial and clerical staff rose by 103 per cent during the same period. There are now nearly 15,000 managers and clerical staff in Queensland Health, a fair proportion of whom hang out in the head office in Brisbane.
Federal ALP, unable to campaign on their record of achievements, there being none, only have personal attacks in their magazine. It shouldn’t work and it’s good to see it isn’t. The voters aren’t stupid.

Cranks and Crazies of the ALP

The headlines say the budget has shown a slight improvement. Shouldn’t it be BUDGET DEFICIT $43.7 BILLION!
THE final outcome of the 2011-12 budget has shown a slight improvement on what was forecast in May, with the deficit coming in $661 million smaller than expected. The final underlying cash deficit for 2011/12 was $43.7 billion, compared to the $44.4 billion forecast in the May budget.
Oh, well that’s all right then – I feel a lot better. Swan stands up at a press conference and actually says its a good outcome. He brags about record low inflation, jobs and investment and still turns in a multi billion dollar deficit. What’s going to happen when the remaining wheels fall off the economy and the full effect of the carbon tax, the MRT, the Fair Work Act misdirection of all power to the unions and the fact that mining and business are just waiting for the government to fall rather than risk forking out more money to the socialist aspirations of the ALP. Does anyone really think players in the cattle game are going to invest money while Ludwig and Burke have power, or fishing for that matter? Mining ventures are held ransom to green tape and after years of jumping through hoops and meeting ridiculous preconditions they then have to face the pond life that tie themselves to trees or block traffic to development sites. The Greens run around desperately looking for an endangered species, or inventing one, or, salting the area with stone age pieces of flint they have picked up from elsewhere. Anything to stop the steady march of capitalism with its by-products of wealth for the local and national economy. These low-lives are friends of the government, the Greens, and often are actually Senators and Members and the risk is – the government will suddenly decide that a few green votes are more important than the economy. They have done it twice recently with Ludwig’s killing the live cattle export business and Ludwig and Burke’s brain snap over the super fishing trawler. It’s not just a risk – they actually destroy industries and mining investment. And Swan says it’s a good result!

Burke makes it harder

In the face of Mining companies claiming the ALP are making it to hard to invest in projects Tony Burke has an answer. Make it harder! MINING companies could be forced to invest directly in protecting seagrass meadows thousands of kilometres from their own export facilities as a condition of future port developments. The radical plan to extend seagrass protection will be floated by federal Environment Minister Tony Burke in a landmark speech to the Coast to Coast Conference in Brisbane today. In a speech prepared for the conference, Mr Burke said seagrass covering 95,000sq km, or 1.5 times the size of Tasmania, was under threat and the missing link in coastal protection.

Boats still coming

Gee, the ALP Nauru plan isn’t working! The linked article points out that under the Howard plan the boats stopped while under Gilllard’s plan it’s business as usual. The difference? Despite the obvious lack of TPVs the boat people realized Howard really meant to stop the boats while they have clearly interpreted Gillard’s plan as having no teeth. As I have said previously, she only did something to get the boat people off the front page. It’ll simply get worse as the ALP move onto new innovative and previously unheard of ways of stuffing the economy.

Twitter Based Policy

Policy by Twitter seams to be Joe Ludwig’s forte as he ruins another business based on activists from Greenpeace and Getup! running an email and Twitter campaign. Worked well when Joe shattered the live animal export business and sent hundreds of businesses to the wall so why not run it again.
POLITICAL strategists and social media experts have warned governments not to make policy on the run while MPs are under pressure from co-ordinated online campaigns, saying decisions should not be made on the back of “what someone says on Twitter”. The caution comes in the wake of yesterday’s last-minute decision by the Gillard government to stop a super-trawler fishing in Australian waters on the back of a Labor caucus revolt that was influenced by Get Up! and Greenpeace.
Burke and Ludwig looked at the law as it stood and OK’d the enterprise until the Greenpeace/Getup! campaign frightened them. The company involved with the super trawler project had ticked all the boxes but that didn’t worry these pair. They plan to table a new law in the house today just to break the business plan. If you listen carefully you can hear tens of thousands of business plans with associated infrastructure dollars and jobs being put back in the drawers, not to see the sun again until these idiots are well and truly gone. Greenpeace and Getup! running the country – frightening.

Oh my God – she wants to pay $2 an hr

Shorten blames Coalition governments for union unrest, Swan thinks the economy is going gangbusters and Gillard lectures the mining community on education. Elsewhere, the Left claim Gina Reinhart wants to pay Australian workers $2 a day. If ever a quantum leap in logic has been presented to the Australian public it is Shorten’s spin on union unrest. The Fair Work Act, based on the premise that unions deserve payback for getting the Rudd/Gillard government onto the treasury benches has started to impact badly on the economy as all of us long time ALP observers expected. Man-hours lost on the increase and industry reluctant to invest let alone employ people – overall, a standard ALP/unions in power result.
WORKING days lost due to industrial disputes have hit an eight-year high, with 101,700 working days lost in the June quarter. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said it was the highest level of working days lost in one three-month period since June 2004.
Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, claims the CFMEU should pay damages – I agree.
THE nation’s most militant building union should be made to pay for the damage to business and the economy caused by its actions, according to Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu. “Australians have been appalled to see the CFMEU’s behaviour. Thuggish behaviour, unruly behaviour, unlawful behaviour,” he said. “If they’re going to trash the furniture they’re going to pay the bill. “I also suggest that others who seem to regard unlawful and violent union practices as just part of the so-called industrial ballgame must also start showing proper respect for the law”.
Gina Rinehart’s comment’s drove everyone from the PM down to attack her over “paying people $2 an hour” statement like she was advocating we import African workers and pay them $2 an hour. They so missed the point, or they saw her point and felt they had to distract from the message in case voters also see the sense in her statement. ADAM CREIGHTON in today’s Australian addresses the point;
Far from being loopy, Rinehart’s remarks reflect standard, even boring, economic theory, entwined with a classically liberal philosophy that unwieldy government undermines national and individual prosperity. Rinehart’s observation that Australian wages are high compared with Africa’s prompted fury, but logic points out higher minimum wages and laws hampering businesses hiring and firing decisions bolster unemployment. The Prime Minister’s response that paying people $2 an hour “is not the Australian way” not only grossly misrepresents Rinehart but is pompous, suggesting Africans pay each other miserly sums by choice, and ignorant, implying the costs of goods and services in Africa are similar to here.
Just another day under a reeling, incompetent government.

Floor price lowered

LABOR has moved to assuage business fears about the impact of the carbon tax by dumping the scheme’s controversial floor price, a change that could slash hundreds of millions of dollars from annual company costs. Stage two of the ALP’s attempts to claw back in the polls and to neuter Abbott – their nemesis; not surprisingly, they still don’t get it. Stage 1, off-shore processing, only comes with some of the expert panel’s recommendations and thus has been set up to fail. That will become apparent soon, if it isn’t already. This latest attempt isn’t going to help either. They have cut the floor price to calm down business who are not taken in by the government’s promises of limited disadvantage. Now some are happy, Combet is spinning like a top and I presume Wayne Swan is sitting in the dark somewhere wondering what has happened to his much touted ‘surplus’. He will be working on the spin he needs to make a deficit sound like a surplus – just like he did with the last budget. We know, by precedence, that he won’t be working on fixing the problem. It’s gone Wayne, on on the Political Expediency bus via Unintended Circumstances – a trade mark clearly owned by the ALP Tony Abbott’s comment;
“If you can’t take the price for granted, you can’t take the revenue for granted,” the Opposition Leader said. “If you can’t take the revenue for granted you can’t rely on the compensation. No one can count on the compensation this government has promised them.”
No one can can count on any promises this government make

Unions must be auditable

A letter in Last Post in The Australian this morning underlines what is wrong with the debate on Gillard and the unions misappropriation of members funds. Until Unions are subject to the same public scrutiny as Company Directors then we are getting no where.
I wonder what those who regularly call for Labor to distance itself from union slush funds and unions in general, think about the Liberal Party’s close ties with big business and lobbyists seeking special treatment? D. J. Fraser, Mudgeeraba, Qld
I left this reply in comments
Would that be close ties with big business where the Directors are audited and present open books on expenditure and income to public scrutiny? Your point is irrelevant until Unions are also publicly accountable for expenditure of their member’s money. Both sides use lobbyists but only the ALP and their union mates misdirect funds without telling their members.
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