Do nothing to p*ss this man off anymore than he is already!!

Reading the news feeds and listening to the airways for the last two days, I get the firm idea that Stephen Smith is one very p*ssed off Minister.  I certainly wouldn't want to be the one in uniform who has to deliver any more bad news to him over the next few days or weeks!!

In fact, I have the strong impression that Smith has been getting progressively more p*ssed of with Defence since he came Minister and had to deal the constant fallout stemming from their appalling culture and abysmal budgetary, cost and other management performance (not to mention their media management). 

If he plays his anger right (with the Department and Defence Chiefs and publicly), we could see the makings of a great Defence Minister and a real contender for next leader of the ALP - along with Greg Combet who's ultimate (and equally as difficult) test will be to deliver a palatable Carbon Pricing package.

Slim's Pickens: BOM V GOD and another somewhat well-known Queensland tool

In follow-up to his earlier comment, regular contributor, Slim writes:

Staying with the parliamentary performance theme could provide some revelations about the fading career of one who is far less "representative"; a line you may recall in relation to 'swill' and Keating.
John Quiggin has been amused by events during recent Senate Estimates hearings: Perhaps I am more saddened by the discovery of another parliamentary tool, but the religious tool nearly made it all worthwhile.

"The idea that the Bureau of Meteorology is part of a global conspiracy to destroy Australia’s economy impose communist world government (or in some more prosaic versions, to increase itsfunding[1]) sounds like the basis of a bad comedy sketch. But, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, this claim is put forward, in apparent seriousness, by numerous anti-science advocates in Australia (Andrew Bolt, Jennifer Marohasy, and Warwick Hughes are leading examples) and implicily accepted by many others....

Back in October last year, the Senate’s Environment and Communications Legislation Committee agreed to table a letter from Cardinal Pell which quoted heavily from Heaven and Earth to claim there were “good reasons for doubting that carbon dioxide causes warmer temperatures”.

The Director of the Bureau of Meteorology Dr Greg Ayers has now responded at an estimates hearing, demolishing Plimer’s bogus claims and pointing to numerous scathing reviews of his trashy and dishonest book. Ayers is great value, but the real fun in reading the Hansard transcript comes from the frantic attempts of Senators MacDonald and Boswell to stop him talking...

It’s great to see the Bureau taking a leading role in the defence of science. Sadly, some of those who should be speaking out, most notably the Australian Academy of Science, have been missing in action. ...

It’s also amusing to see leading figures on the political right like Pell, McDonald and Boswell expose themselves as gullible fools, along with most of the rightwing commentariat. While not everyone on the right thinks this way (as witness Turnbull’s near-victory over Abbott a year or so ago), the number willing to raise their voices in defence of science remains tiny.

Footnote1. Advocates of the conspiracy theory tend to shift between global communist and grant-grubbing theories, in a manner reminiscent of the (possibly apocryphal) Tasmanian politician who promised voters that, if they supported Federation they would build a glorious new nation under the Southern Cross and get higher prices for their apples."

Quiggin's description of Senator Ian Macdonald as a leading figure of the political right is laughable, of course. But what is hilarious is the Hansard Report between pages 104 and 109.

Cheers, Slim

See also Tim Lambert and Graham Readfearn

Ewen Jones - talking sense for Townsville

Parliament is sitting again, giving local representative, The Big Ewe, his chance to again contribute to the national debate and make his mark on the country's policy directions and priorities.

Checking OpenAustralia.org for The Ewe's contribution so far this sitting, I was particularly taken by his first entry in Hansard for 23 Feb 2011:

To be fair, The Ewe also made some more substantial contributions yesterday:  There's a nice little suck-up to one of The Ewe's major sponsors, The Townsville Bulletin, and we learn that the Federal Flood Levy will be result in the death of charity in Australia

Perhaps today he'll get to turn his mind to more mundane issues like this prediction out today that the world's reefs (including North Queensland's pre-eminent economic and natural asset, the GBR) will be dead within 40 years - that is, by the time his kids are about as old as he is today.  We'll see.

Barney Joyce is an idiot - the proof

News from the Courier Mail this morning that Barney Joyce, representative of the man on the land and all things rural and agricultural "has written off an $80,000 taxpayer-funded four-wheel-drive after trying to drive through a swollen creek before Christmas."

This of course is the same idiotic practice that resulted in the deaths of quite a number of people in the lead-up to and during the Queensland floods.

Joyce's excuse?  "There was no flood indicator, the road was not closed and there was a sign saying ''drive slowly." 

In other words, "It wasn't my fault it is the fault of whichever Government is responsible for road signs."  Clearly the man is totally reliant on the nanny state to tell him what to do and what not to do and what is safe and what is not.

Despite not being in his familiar home patch (the incident happened in Burren Creek, in northern NSW) he failed the most basic farmers' test when confronted with a swollen creek - get out, roll your pants up (only if you're gentry, not a working farmer) and wade in to check the depth and strength of the flow.

Not only is this proof of what we've long known in our hearts (that the man is an goose), it also demonstrates that, while he might be a member of the Nationals, he isn't really OF the land.  Dare I say, it also shows him to be a bad example to little children, grey nomads and young ute owners.

Given his stupidity, I wonder if he has to pay the excess on the car insurance ?

Update: Just to highlight my point further, the Murdoch News site reports that he was actually driving through country very familiar to him - making him an even bigger idiot.  They also report that "... he said he didn't feel threatened by the flooded creek which was "more like a lagoon than a raging torrent" - a bit like a 19-year old ute driver who thinks he's infallible - making him a 44-year old idiot!

Update #2: Could it be - a Queenslander who is even more of an idiot that Barney?  While I feel sorry for this guy and his family, why would you use petrol to start a fire (he clearly was never a Boy Scout) and, if you did, why exactly would you choose stand next to the fire with the petrol can by your side?  And just like Barney, this idiot's family figure it's all the fault of Government

How to be right and oh so wrong

While Barney Joyce and his sidekick the Mad Monk were predictably the first to try and exploit the devastation from the Qld floods, I was surprised to see Bob Brown having a go yesterday:

Coal miners to blame for Queensland floods, says Australian Greens leader Bob Brown

He might be right, but his timing is all wrong - a dumb move that will cost the Greens in Qld

UPDATE:  I have removed the link to the Murdoch story to deny them the few extra click-throughs they might get.  Instead check-out Pure Poison's analysis of the story.

I still reckon that Brown should have stayed quiet for a few more days (except for expressions of grief and support).  It strikes me that the floods will either finally get Queenslanders really wanting action on global warming or it will get them blaming the Greens and the environmental movement for the whole disaster. 

He needs to play it VERY carefully as the politics of this are quite delicate - which of course is why Martin Ferguson released this spray in response (a Murdoch link I'm afraid)

Of floods and politics

I started drafting this post days ago but just couldn't bring myself to blog about the politics of the Queensland floods while the disaster was unfolding.

Thankfully, politics have largely been left out of the media during the height of the disaster.  But now that the danger appears over a few observations hopefully won't offend:

• Tony Abbott and John-Paul Whatishisname must have been spitting chips for days - watching Gillard and Bligh getting seemingly endless TV, radio and press coverage (e.g. Bligh's tears this morning will be re-run time and again for days).  They sensibly didn't even try to compete but goddam they would have been fuming.

• While not competing made sense - Abbott staying on holidays throughout was stupid (although not too stupid as it turns out because the MSM left him alone on that one).  Showing up in Briz today (as I just see on the ABC he has) could be equally as stupid - if he gets time on the news tonight, everyone will be reminded that they haven't seen his mug since this started and see him turning up now as cynical politics

• In the same vein, the disaster will be a political boon particularly for Bligh but also for Gillard - look for an early bounce in the polls which I suspect will be more significant that BlueMilk ponders in this piece at Hoyden About Town.  The sad reality is that disasters and starting wars is great politics for an incumbent - if managed well politicians become leaders of a people facing a common 'enemy'.  It's one of the reasons Bush and Howard took us to Iraq and why Howard used (so successfully) the "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come" line (and all those others designed to demonise).  Religious nut-jobs have of course also know this since time immemorial.

• It will be fascinating to watch how the Qld and Federal conservatives try to find political capital out of this.  Certainly Tony Abbott's first two attempts - Let's dam Queensland and (bizarely) Let's stop the building the NBN - both seemed to have backfired or at least fallen flat.  Again, I note that the religious nut-jobs were the first to attempt to make capital

Finally, and nothing to do with politics - I hope the people operating the Wivenhoe Dam get some sort of medal after all of this is over 'cause it strikes me that it was their good management that saved Brisbane from far, far worse.

This is not funny!

I can think of a dozen funny lines I could have written about this headline but read the story.  Psychometric testing is standard practice for any business of size and should be mandatory for all aspiring politicians.

Myers-Briggs and the like are hardly "new-age" (well perhaps so in Murdoch's empire where head-kicking 101 seems to be the only criteria for promotion).  And while they would do a good job of weeding out at least the worst of the megalomaniacs, wankers, evolution-deniers, thieves and idiots, I'm not sure how such instruments could be calibrated to (safely) take account of ego - that essential ingredient in political success which is usually the last thing you look for in a good CEO or leader.

Howard deseves more...a LOT more

Peter Gray explains why he felt compelled to throw his shoes at John Howard on QandA:

Well said!  But he deserves to have a lot more than shoes thrown at him - like "the book"

Lazarus to Rise (yet) again - in Townsville

Guest contributor, Dee forwarded the following to me suggesting that we start collecting boots and shoes now!

I love the way it's tagged as a Book Launch - it must be the 50th time it's been launched in the last couple of weeks.

And I know that business is business and that they'll make a good quid out of it, but I must say that I'm surprised by Mary Who being the organisers/sponsors! (as will a lot of their regulars I suspect!!)

Alumni Association - Hon John Howard, former Prime Minister – Book Launch - Lazarus Rising

Date: Wednesday 17 November 2010

Time: Auditorium opens at 5.30pm

Location: Sir Geroge Kneipp Auditorium (Building DA026), JCU Douglas Campus, Angus Smith Drive, Douglas, TOWNSVILLE, Australia

Summary: JCU Alumni in association with Mary Who? Bookshop presents The Hon J Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia in conversation with Richard Lane and also launching his autobiography Lazarus Rising.

John Howard spent decades under media scrutiny, and while his credentials as a political leader, devoted family man and sports tragic are beyond dispute, in this autobiography he reveals much more about himself. In Lazarus Rising.

Howard traces his personal and political journey, from childhood in the post-World War II era through to the present day, painting a fascinating picture of a changing Australia.

We see the youngster who had to overcome serious deafness and who latched onto the family passion for current affairs and politics. From school debating, to a legal career, to the Liberal Party and life with Janette, it all seemed such a natural progression. Yet no one would say that Howard had it easy; not when his own colleagues sidelined him ... twice.

An economic radical and social conservative, John Howard's ideology united many Australians and divided just as many others. Lazarus Rising takes us through the life and motivations of John Howard and through the forces that have changed and shaped both him and the country he led for 11 years.

Lazarus Rising will be on sale afterwards and Mr Howard will be pleased to sign copies.
Presented by: JCU Alumni,  Mary Who? Bookshop
Cost: No charge

Registration: Please register online at http://alumni.jcu.edu.au/netcommunity/JohnHowardTnsv

Contact: Everyone welcome. For further information please contact Viv Sonntag, Email: Viv.Sonntag@jcu.edu.au, Tel: (07) 4042 1850.

And I just can wait to see how The Bully creams itself when they get the call for a 1-on-1 interview with the old war-horsemonger.  I wonder whether Editor Gleeson will keep that one for himself.......

Update: The Big Ewe's first Question

Further to Monday's post Ewen Jones' big day out, the following is the Hansard transcript (via openaustralia.org).

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party)  My question is to the Prime Minster. I refer the Prime Minister to the decision to locate onshore detention centres at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills and Northam in Western Australia. Will the Prime Minister rule out all other military facilities as onshore detention facilities?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister)  I thank the member for his question. I would refer the member to the statement and information that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and I released at the time that we announced these new detention facilities and also the arrangements for children. These are the government’s plans for detention. We wanted to be transparent about a long-term strategy to undercut the fearmongering about other sites that had been going on around Australia. If the member truly wants to inform himself about this, all of the information he requires was publicly available and transparent on the day we made the statement (my emphasis)

Set-up by Crissy Pyne I'd say!!  Or maybe the Big Ewe had been picking-up a groundswell of local fear about Lavarack Barracks being converted into a detention centre???

Ewen Jones' big day out

Listening to Question Time in the House of Reps live just now I heard Ewen Jones ask his first question! 

A big day for the big man, even though no-one other than the wife and kids were listening - although not quite as big as his maiden speech which is gig that ends up in the official history.

So what was the target of the big fella's first real test in the bear-pit?  A question on Health funding (dare I say, the bloody PET scanner)?, or the mining tax?, or the copper-string project perhaps? even the future of the goddamn Fury - no, a question about asylum seekers!!

It will be interesting to see how the Big Ewe (clearly just following orders - a bit like a big ewe), and the Bully report this momentous occasion and explain the choice of subject.

I'll post a Hansard link when it's available.

PS: Gillard batted the question away - telling the Big Ewe to read the public record!!

Peter Lindsay's final rort?

Sim writes:
Well we have all been waiting such a very long time for the swan song of the Hon. Peter Lindsay.

Here it is folks.

One more run on the public purse, but for whose benefit?

This document is clearly set out to deceive the voting public during an election campaign.

The document does not have an "authorised by" nor a "printed by" acknowledgement.

The document was personally addressed using the electronic electoral roll facilities and other taxpayer-funded office equipment available to sitting members.

The document contains the idea that the Coalition candidate has the authority to decide that for the Seat of Dawson there will be two electorate offices.

Honorable?

Hope he doesn't let the door belt him on the arse on the way out.

Cheers,
Slim

Richard Farmer puts his money on Mooney losing Herbert

I see that Richard Farmer - that warhorse of the left, noted drinker, long-time punter and PoliticalOwl has the Libs at a 69% probability to win Herbert in his Election Form Guide. 

In short The Owl's current advice is:

• Back Labor in these seats: Braddon, Brisbane, Lindsay, Dobell, Deakin, Forde, Bass, Corangamite, Hasluck, McEwen, Leichhardt, Swan, Dawson, La Trobe, Stirling and Sturt.
• Back the Coalition in: Eden Monaro, Bennelong, Longman, Macarthur, Hughes, Macquarie, Dickson, Herbert, Bowman, Canning, Paterson, Wright and Wentworth. 

More on the Mining Tax

Commenting on my earlier post regarding the Mining Super Profits Tax, Dee pointed me to this clip from the CFMEU.



'Nuf said!
(Except that Peter Martin from Fairax is still one of the few mainstream comentators writing anything sensible on this issue - check regularly here to stay up-to-date)

Hat-tip to Dee

The Government Mining Tax Adds are a response to a national emergancy

Contrary to the confected outrage being expressed by the Murdoch press and the Federal Opposition at the Government’s citing ‘national emergency” as the reason for their $38 million add campaign about Mining Super Profits Tax, I actually agree with the Government on this on. Getting a fair price for our non-renewable resources is an issue of critical national importance – at least as much so as deciding as a nation whether to go to war.

Unlike those issues however, in this instance we have some of the largest corporations in the world running a bottomless and extremely misleading media and advertising campaign against the proposition that as a nation we should must get the best possible price for our assets. Such a self-interested campaign is a threat to our national well being.

Recommended reading on the Mining Super Profits Tax:

The corporate backlash on Public Opinion

or just about anything here by Fairfax's Peter Martin and in particular this table that he discovered in the Budget Papers:

'Nuf said, I reckon

Can Tony Mooney really use a computer - Slim seems to think yes!

Hi Islander,

Another coup for the Mooney family as they have scored a spot in the NBN Co fibre optic broadband trial:

http://www.nbnco.com.au/firstreleasesites/first-release-areas-details.aspx#townsville

But only just though as the eastern border of the trial area is less than 100 metres from the back of their house in Kelly Street, Mundingburra.

Just a coincidence you think? It's a funny old boundary that eastern boundary, isn't it? It's sort of China Street, but includes the houses on the eastern side of China Street, so that makes it a bit of an odd shape when their back fences become the border. Does that matter? Why China Street anyway?

If they had of wanted a nice straight boundary, they could of run from, say Charlotte Street to Bowen Road or Thompson Street to Bowen Road or a few other combinations.

But why have a straight boundary, when you can have a bent one?

You remember how we love to speculate?

Well how about one of the outrageously overpaid bum shiners in the NBN Co being none other than Mike Kaiser, a maaaaaattttte of Tony's from the old days - branch stacking, Karen Ehrmann, paying other's branch memberships, Andy Keogh, Shane Foster, forging electoral documents, Jenny Hill, bags of AWU and SDA money, dodgey pre-selections, misuse of ratepayers' funds etc.

But no, the boundary was done to suit the Herbert hopeful - to use the terminology of your good friends at the Bully!

So we have the next greatest rort of taxpayers' funds by the Another Liberal Party - the fibre optic cable roll-out! The next great distraction from Senator Stephen Conroy (SDA).

Trying so very hard to out do all the similar schemes the other Liberal Party ran from 1996 to 2007.

Do you think it might be as bad as the insulation scheme? Or the Building the Education Revolution? Or the mining tax puffrey advertising scheme?

You can bet your house that it will be!

How many other Another Liberal Party members live in the area? Nice to know? Anyone give a stuff?

It smells real bad from the Slim View! How is it from the Island View?

Cheers,

Slim

Slim posts the first election pamphlet

Occasional contributor, Slim Cayenne, sent in this scan of Mooney's first Election pamphlet with the following comment:

Puffery and hyperbole will be commonplace from now. Well, only if it wasn't already!


The wait for these basic services is over ONLY if anyone has forgotten that these items/equipment/infrastructure will not be delivered until 2012.

Way past Rudd's, McLucas', Mooney's and Lucas' political life spans.

You're spot-on in your observation about puffery and hyperbole Slim, but I’m not so sure of your longevity diagnosis for Rudd at least

It's been a most strange week in conservative politics

Reprinted in full because it says it all really.  By Bushfire Bill in The Political Sword:

I regard myself as a pretty hard nut to crack but I have to admit it... today I'm gobsmacked.

Gobsmacked... that yesterday The Australian could introduce an article by Mirko Bagaric - the man who wrote the book on torture - in defence of the ethics of Tony Abbott's lying (they're only white lies, natch), leaving it to Tony's conscience as to whether a lie is in a good cause. I guess we, the Voters, are just supposed to accept Tony's (and The Australian's) decision on the matter.

Gobsmacked... that Joe Hockey had the temerity to front the Press Club... with no policies, no costings and no idea except to demolish anything and everything Labor has set up in the past couple of years.

Gobsmacked... that the Right thought they could get away with these pathetic excuses for participation in the National Discourse.

This is one of those occasions where I don't know how to begin to criticise the last day's worth of politics. It's not that there's nothing to criticise. It's just... where do I start?

The lies, the convolutions, the deliberate idiocies that Joe Hockey told Kerry O'Brien last night on the 7.30 Report were so monumentally galling as to be beyond rational criticism (given restricted bandwidth... which is another Coalition policy, of course... no NBN).

I can only assume that Joe has been told, 'It'll be fixed up in the morning, mate. Don't worry. Get a good night's sleep Joe.'

That he and Robb can claim that retaining 30% company tax is a saving when the very tax they are claiming to axe - Labor's reduced rate of 28% - is based on a law - the Resource Super Profits Tax - they have sworn not to enact is bad enough, but then to say that if Labor is re-elected they'll block it somehow is too much... what I mean is that if Labor is re-elected, and reduces company tax to 28%. how can getting rid of it be a Coalition government savings measure... because the Coalition won't be in government... See? I'm trying to be rational. It's a character fault I have. You can't be rational with monstrous stupidity such as this. So I won't go on trying. Red Kerry himself gave up after six minutes trying to make sense of it. Greg Jennet this morning on ABC radio told listeners, "It's a bit complicated... but please bear with me...". So perhaps I'm in good company.

Either Joe has been advised the media 'fix' is in, or he's even more stupid than even I dared to believe (and his regard for the Voter is even more cynical than I thought possible). Is politics really bunk? Do they actually expect us to believe this claptrap that passes for sober political policy-making?

Yesterday - all of it - was a monument to absolute political and social buffoonery. What can the Coalition expect us to cope with, now that we've seen the absolute worst they can dish up as rational decision making? For once (many may give thanks) I'm stumped for words.

So it seems was Dennis Shanahan, who, in place of his usual hyperbolic paean of praise for anything the Coalition does, says or implies, managed to stump up with just 333 half-hearted words on yesterday's Press Club fiasco (can I use that word... or is it reserved only for Insulation and the BER?). Michelle Grattan only managed 191 words, although six of them were "Policy vacuum a recipe for political disaster".

According to Dennis, Joe Hockey only "left the impression he didn't turn up at the National Press Club with a detailed list of budget cuts and costings for his budget-in-reply speech yesterday." He had it in his hand, didn't he? One single A4 page wasn't it? He waved it around a bit, right? What more did the hostile media crowd in attendance want? Answers to questions? The cheek!

The silence this morning in the newspapers and on the airwaves is deafening. It's as if the media have collectively sucked in their breath in shock, and no-one wants to be the first to ask 'What the hell happened?' Things are so quiet, even the birds have stopped singing in the trees outside my office window. So why do I still hear those tom-toms beating in my brain? Oooooh... my head hurts.

Does yours?

Full article including links is here

Population debates, migration debates and sustainability debates (and the race card)

Following the release of the Treasury's Intergenerational Report, there has been growing ‘debate’ (or is that hype) in the mainstream media about the prospect of Australia's population reaching 35 million by 2050.

The hype (and the effectiveness of playing the race card that he learnt so well under Howard) is what no doubt prompted the Mad Monk to hint at a policy to cut our 'out-of-control' migration intake in response.
 
The hype and the Monk’s play is also what no doubt prompted Rudd to announce the appointment of a Minister for Population and the development of a population strategy.

Neither party seem to be willing to touch the hard issues:

• The impact of the $1.4 billion annual baby bonus on the Australian birth rate
• Australia’s true migration picture.  See: Rubbery figures on migrant flood by Peter McDonald in The Age
• What is an environmentally sustainable population for the country? See Sustainable Population Australia
• Our place in the world community and what it means for our population growth and responsibilities.

As Malcolm McIntosh, Tapan Sarker and Rose Boyd argue their excellent piece Australia's population challenge in the ABC’s The Drum:

“Population is fundamentally a human rights and environmental rights issue but there seem to be few, if any, politicians willing to accept the leadership baton and step forward.”

Quite so

Well, I thought it was funny

I've long thought that Malcontent Turnbull was a novice at the game of politics and the Mad Monk similarly so. Both have egos (a necessary prerequisite to even get on the field), but beyond their capabilities. This 'toon from YourDemocracy.net.au seems to sum it up beautifully (I'm not so sure about Pinky playing the Monk tho!):