Cecil drank the Kool-Aid while John held his nose

In what may be his one and only letter in recent years, retired local businessman Cecil Denis White regurgitates the Liberal-Nationals party line with gusto in The Daily Examiner on 16 January 2014.

The other side of the political coin was represented by another Northern Rivers resident, history buff John Drydale, who registered his disgust in the same newspaper five days later on 21 January.

Abbott on the nose

OVER the past several months I have sat down to write letters about the current Federal Government's latest atrocity: on refugees, the unemployed, the ADF, Medicare, the universities, education.

Each time my concerns have been overtaken by yet another Federal Government stuff-up.

In the cabinet reshuffle at Christmas, Tony Abbott, the country's worst prime minister since Billy McMahon, could have done the right thing and fallen on his sword. Alas, for the LNP and the nation he did not.

He continues to blunder along, promising more money for the unwinnable war in Iraq while denying the ADF a sensible pay rise; supporting the "latest" changes to Medicare the day before his recently promoted minister scraps them while local National Party members, who obviously have not been told anything, try to defend the indefensible.

They just do not understand the people they claim to represent.

The Gillard Government was a model of order and purpose compared with this rabble.

John Drysdale

Clunes

Chris Davis publicly paying Queensland Premier Newman back or telling it like it is?

Former AMA Queensland President and former Liberal National Party MP Chris Davis - who quit the Queensland parliament in May 2014 and, subsequently the party, after being sacked from the ministry by Campbell Newman - delivers a blunt message during the state election campaign.

http://youtu.be/-3FrF7z76b8

Published on Jan 16, 2015

TV Ad featuring Dr Chris Davis, former Assistant Health Minister in the Newman LNP Government, expressing a scathing assessment of the LNP on several grounds, and calls for voters to not trust the LNP in the 2015 Queensland election

BACKGROUND

No Fibs 30 July 2014:

In March of 2014 he rose to prominence when he broke ranks with his government to defend public hospital doctors when new contracts were enforced with very little consultation. Initially seeking to be a go-between, he spoke at multiple rallies at which no other LNP MP dared to attend. Even during the most devastating of times when his daughter Jessica died in a road accident, Davis continued to front up at meetings to canvass doctor’s concerns and consult with one of the groups of Queenslanders he believed he could best represent.

Meanwhile, in the Queensland parliament, Premier Campbell Newman famously labeled these resistors “rabble-rousers”…..

By May of 2014 he’d been sacked from his assistant health portfolio but was battling his own party on a new front over the raising of the political donation declaration limit from $1000 to $12,400. Throughout his battles he’d always maintained a position of “judgement and conscience in the public interest”.

And then he was gone. A resignation on a slip of paper passed late one night to the Queensland Speaker of the House initiated a by-election for his seat of Stafford.....

In which Australian House of Representatives Speaker Bronwyn Bishop appears to invent or ignore standing orders as she pleases

Federal Liberal Party MP and Speaker House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, asserts that Abbott Government ministers are not obliged to answer questions during Question Time, then decides that standing orders relating to relevance don't apply and makes a mockery of the point of order rule by not immediately addressing the point but turning instead to ask a question of the prime minister.

Australian House of Representatives Hansard 20 March 2014:

Sinodinos, Senator Arthur

Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to Senator Sinodinos's statement to the Senate in February 2013 that he played no role in the awarding of the January 2012 contract to Australian Water Holdings by Sydney Water. Was the Prime Minister aware that Senator Sinodinos had in fact arranged for a letter from Premier O'Farrell to help secure the contract? When did the Prime Minister become aware of this?

Mr ABBOTT (Warringah—Prime Minister) (14:27): These are all matters that will quite properly be canvassed by the ICAC inquiry.

Mr Burke: Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

The SPEAKER: Has the Prime Minister finished his answer?

Mr ABBOTT: Yes.

The SPEAKER: He has finished his answer. Do you have a point of order?

Mr Burke: Yes, under standing order 104(a), Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: The Prime Minister has finished his answer.

Mr Burke: Madam Speaker, it cannot be the case that the moment—

The SPEAKER: You were very quick on your feet.

Mr Burke: I am given the call, you then, instead of hearing the point of order, turn to the Prime Minister for advice.

The SPEAKER: I point out to the Manager of Opposition Business that that is coming close to a reflection.

Mr Burke: Well—

The SPEAKER: Resume your seat! The member would also know that, under the standing orders, ministers are not obliged to answer questions.

Mr Burke interjecting—

The SPEAKER: No, they are not, as you well know. Merely because you do not get the answer you wish does not make it outside the standing orders. [my red bolding]

Excerpts from House of Representatives Standing and Sessional Orders (44^th Australian Parliament) concerning questions to government ministers and points of order:

98 Questions to Ministers

(a) A Member may ask a question in writing of a Minister (but not a Parliamentary Secretary), to be placed on the Notice Paper for written reply.

(b) During Question Time, a Member may orally ask a question of a Minister (but not a Parliamentary Secretary), without notice and for immediate response.

(c) A Minister can only be questioned on the following matters, for which he or she is responsible or officially connected:

(i) public affairs;

(ii) administration; or

(iii) proceedings pending in the House.

(d) Questioners must not ask Ministers:

(i) for an expression of opinion, including a legal opinion; or

(ii) to announce government policy, but may seek an explanation about the policy and its application, and may ask the Prime Minister whether a Minister's statement in the House represents government policy. [my red bolding]

Point of order and Speaker's ruling

86 Point of order

(a) Subject to standing order 104, a Member may raise a point of order with the Speaker at any time. After the question of order has been stated to the Speaker by the Member rising to the question of order, consideration and decision of every other question shall be suspended until the matter is disposed of by the Speaker giving a ruling thereon. [my red bolding]

Excerpt from Parliamentary Library Research Paper, 22 November 2013, on the subject of relevance:

Standing Order 104 was amended on 29 September 2010 in relation to relevance as follows:

(a) An answer must be directly relevant to the question.

(b) A point of order regarding relevance may be taken only once in respect of each answer.

(c) The duration of each answer is limited to 4 minutes.

Hitherto the requirement had been for answers to be 'relevant to the question'—meaning 'relevant in some way or relevant in part, rather than directly or completely relevant', with the result that 'provided the answer is relevant and is not couched in unparliamentary language Ministers may virtually answer questions without notice in any way they choose'. [my red bolding]

The fact that the Speaker is so visibly partisan does not earn her the respect of her own party.

It is becoming increasing obvious that government ministers, from Prime Minister Abbott down, are cutting short her remarks or directions from the Chair by interrupting/over talking her whenever the mood moves them.

Another Liberal MP runs afoul of media scrutiny of parliamentary entitlements

The Telegraph 11 March 2014:

POLITICIANS have been given the green light to hide the identities of family members who spend millions of taxpayer dollars annually flying around Australia in business class.

In a case that may set a precedent, the Abbott government has hidden records of taxpayer-funded family travel for a Liberal MP Jane Prentice after her family members racked up $20,000 worth of airfares, including business class, between Brisbane and Canberra in her first term in parliament.

The ruling is a different to the disclosure regime for the government's VIP jet flights, in which family members on the publicly-funded flights are identified and reported.

It also comes after Mrs Prentice's spouse, ex-Queensland Liberal MP Ian Prentice, attempted to distance his financial woes from her 2010 election campaign, saying at the time that voters were not electing him.

In 2006, Mr Prentice was forced into bankruptcy over a $1.062 million bill alleged by the Australian Tax Office, later saying he disputed it but could only pay less than $100,000 because of his meagre assets. The couple's Brisbane home was in Mrs Prentice's name only.

Family members are allowed to travel under parliamentary entitlements to help MPs ‘‘balance their work and family responsibilities’’ but the names are not released in the six-monthly travel reports detailing the flights and costs…

The Courier Mail 18 March 2014:

A LIBERAL MP whose ­husband once failed to pay a $1 million tax bill will be forced to show what taxpayer-funded expenses she claimed for him after an embarrassing backdown by the Federal Government.

The Finance Department has backflipped on a ruling that politicians could hide the names of family members who enjoy taxpayer-funded travel after The Courier-Mail appealed the move to block expenses relating to Ryan MP Jane Prentice and her husband Ian.

The agency also admitted its initial freedom of information ruling was wrong ­because its scope was too ­narrow and will now release other travel by Mr Prentice ­beyond just airfares.

In a further embarrassment, the department has admitted it was told by the Information Commissioner that such information should not be hidden.

Mrs Prentice claimed thousands of dollars worth of family expenses during her first term in parliament but ­declined to provide the identity of family travellers in travel reports to parliament…

The 2013 Australian Federal Election may be over but the circus will continue.......

Palmer United Party Leader Clive Palmer's electoral status may still be in doubt but Mal Brough has been confirmed as elected to the Australian Parliament, so there is now a little extra sting in the tail of this court case.

Sunshine Coast Daily 5 September 2013:

CLIVE Palmer has issued a Supreme Court writ seeking more than $800,000 in damages from Fisher LNP candidate Mal Brough.

The billionaire Palmer United Party candidate for Fairfax alleges Mr Brough made statements to the Press which effectively claimed he had lied to Australian voters and that he had done so for his political gain and that of his fledgling party.

In a statement of claim issued in the Supreme Court this morning Mr Palmer stood by his own statements that Mr Brough approached him last year to fund the James Ashby sexual harassment suit against sitting Member for Fisher Peter Slipper who is standing as an independent against Mr Brough.

Mr Palmer's legal team yesterday emailed Mr Brough asking him if he had solicitors on whom the writ could be served. The email said if no response had been received by 11am today it would be taken that Mr Brough wanted the writ served personally on himself.

The writ seeks $355,500 in general compensatory damages and a further $450,000 in aggravated compensatory damages and costs.

Five days after the federal election and Prime Minister-elect Abbott was seen to have lost control of the backroom boys in Queensland

First we find that Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott couldn’t keep his party members on message three days after the 7 September 2013 federal election and now we see that he perhaps never had any strong influence on the party machine in Queensland, which extraordinarily appears to have knowingly endorsed a man for a vacant Senate position who is in the midst of a very serious Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) inquiry into an allegation/s concerning electoral bribery.

The Australian 12 September 2013:

Campbell Newman has suspended the appointment of Barry O'Sullivan to fill the senate vacancy of Barnaby Joyce in the face of a Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation involving the former Liberal National Party official.

In an extraordinary move, the Queensland premier today refused to allow parliament to formally endorse Mr O'Sullivan's party pre-selection in May to fill the senate vacancy, created by Mr Joyce's move to the lower house.

Mr O'Sullivan is facing a long-running CMC probe over his involvement in an alleged attempt to induce former Liberal leader Bruce Flegg to resign from parliament, ahead of last year's state election, to make way for Mr Newman to stand in his seat.

While an initial CMC probe cleared Mr O'Sullivan, the emergence of recordings - made by Dr Flegg on his mobile phone - sparked a new investigation with evidence....

Tensions have long existed between the LNP parliamentary team and Mr O'Sullivan, the long serving treasurer and chair of the candidate vetting community.

UPDATE

Australian Financial Review 13 September 2013:

Abbott has been ambushed by a civil war that has simmered behind the scenes in Queensland’s Liberal National Party (LNP) since early 2011. He is now forced to contemplate whether he and Queensland Premier Campbell Newman chose to back the wrong side.

The internal hostilities came to a climax in November last year, when The Australian Financial Review’s Pamela Williams revealed that LNP party executives had forwarded to Queensland police a dossier about fund-raising activity by Liberal Party federal vice-president Santo Santoro.

The dossier was the product of a wider conflict between the Nationals and Liberals after they merged to form a single party, the LNP, in 2008. But what followed next was swift and brutal.

Santoro was not only exonerated, but by the end of the month the greatest critics of Santoro and Newman – backbenchers Ray Hopper, Alex Douglas and Carl Judge, together with the LNP’s largest individual backer, Clive Palmer, for various reasons were all out of the party.

Ten months later the protest movement that this triggered, which has embraced wider issues as it expands beyond Queensland, threatens to cripple Abbott’s government. Abbott must now negotiate with the man he spurned in an angry confrontation in a room at the Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne before the Liberals’ federal conference in June last year.

Does the Australian Leader of the Opposition ever tell a political truth?

This was Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott tweeting at 5:35 PM on 30 Jun 2013:

Now how on earth was Kevin Rudd (who was not sworn in as Prime Minister until 10am on the final day before the 43^rd Parliament had adjourned in the Senate) ever going to create and put to the House of Representatives a new bill  amending the Clean Energy Act 2011 and then send it to the Senate in less than 36 hours - much less get it passed in that time period?

Because that is what would be required as the Clean Energy Act creates a fixed price for carbon between 1 April 2013 to 1 February 2016 and, as of 1 June 2013 this legislation sets that price as $24.15 until 1 April 2015 – a rise of $1.15.

The very first opportunity for Parliament to consider amending the Act would be if it sits again on 20 August 2013, which will only happen if writs for a federal general election have not been issued before then.

Abbott’s political lies are never ending.

Federal Opposition's Parliamentary Secretary For Indigenous Health demonstrates why he's unfit for this position

 

This was the Liberal Party’s Dr. Andrew Laming, Coalition spokesperson for Indigenous Health and Regional Health Services, late at night on 14 January 2013. Demonstrating just how proudly and crudely offensive he can be:

 

 

This was his 'third person' reaction to a relatively low-key response from an Australian twitterverse going to sleep for the night:

 

While his response to initial media coverage of his tweets went like this:

Quote of the Week

“if life is a game of cricket, there is some doubt over whether Mal Brough should even be allowed to carry the drinks”

{Malcolm Farr on 17^th December 2012 in The Punch}

Is this the end of Mal Brough's renewed political ambitions? ASHBY v COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA and PETER SLIPPER - 12 December 2012 judgement

Earlier this year Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had openly backed former Howard Government Minister Mal Brough’s attempt to return to Federal Parliament:

TONY Abbott has given a boost to former minister Mal Brough's campaign for Liberal National Party preselection in Fisher by declaring ''he would be a very welcome addition to our team''.

Now that Brough is linked to a political conspiracy to bring down the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, one wonders how Abbott will spin that sordid fact.

Excerpts from JAMES HUNTER ASHBY v COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA and PETER SLIPPER judgment:

132 Mr Ashby and Ms Doane had decided by 29 March 2012 that Mr Ashby would make allegations of sexual harassment in legal proceedings against Mr Slipper and would assist Mr Brough and Mr Lewis to damage Mr Slipper in the public eye and political arena with any information they could find including using the requested diary entries together with any proceedings. Mr Ashby referred to seeing or using lawyers in his texts from about this time. Accordingly, I have inferred that he, Ms Doane and Mr Brough intended that Mr Ashby would bring proceedings against Mr Slipper alleging at least sexual harassment.

133 Once they had decided on their course of action, Mr Ashby and Ms Doane did not go straight to see a lawyer to air any concerns about any legal wrongs that either may have suffered. Instead, Mr Ashby or Ms Doane contacted Mr Brough and they began working with him and Mr Lewis. That was an act of disloyalty that they both knew was antithetic to their continuing to work for Mr Slipper. But they did continue. They asked Mr Brough to help them find a lawyer. They used their positions on his staff surreptitiously to copy and provide extracts from Mr Slipper’s diaries for periods in 2009 and 2010 at the requests of both Mr Brough and Mr Lewis. There is no evidence that Mr Ashby ever provided any of Mr Slipper’s diary entries concerning the 2012 Cabcharge allegations to anyone. Mr Ashby met Mr Lewis on 4 April 2012 and Mr Ashby so enthused Mr Lewis that the latter wrote “We will get him!!” just before flying to Sydney.

138 I am also satisfied that Mr Ashby and Ms Doane by about 29 March 2012 were in a combination with Mr Brough to cause Mr Slipper as much political and public damage as they could inflict on him….

141 Mr Brough was unlikely to have been offering to assist Ms Doane and Mr Ashby in seeing Mr Russell QC for advice or looking for new careers out of pure altruism. Realistically, his preparedness to act for them was created and fed by their willingness to act against Mr Slipper’s interests and assisting Mr Brough’s and the LNP’s interests in destabilising Mr Slipper’s position as Speaker and damaging him in the eyes of his electorate….

167 …..In my opinion, Mr Ashby included the Cabcharge allegations in the originating application for the predominant purpose of injuring Mr Slipper and assisting a political attack on him to benefit Mr Brough and the LNP…

199...I am satisfied that the exceptional situation that enlivens the Court’s power to dismiss (or stay) proceedings as an abuse has been proved to the heavy standard required: Williams 174 CLR at 529. The duty and power of the Court to protect its own processes require that I give effect to the findings I have made by dismissing the proceedings under r 26.01...

Judgment transcript here.

Has Clive really decided to go for Tony's jugular or is it a political feint?

ABC Radio on the 27^th June 2012:

"If a person decides they want to be a lobbyist they shouldn't be head of a political party or on the executive of a political party which could influence government policy," he says.

He says he is raising the issue as a representative of the Queensland LNP.

"This was raised at the state council of the LNP and it was passed," says the mining boss.

Clive Palmer says he was surprised by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's reaction to the idea.

"I was puzzled that anyone could be so violently opposed to transparency in government," says Clive Palmer.

“I was shocked by it," he says.”

Anyone else catch a whiff of week-old mullet?

Just as Tones Teh Terrible comes a little closer to hard questions about the level of his own involvement in what looks more and more like a conspiracy to bring down the Independent Speaker of the House of Reps, up jumps mining magnate Clive with a private confrontation concerning paid lobbyists he's happy to talk to the media about.

Yeah, pull the other one fellas.

Oh, Carole, I am such a fool or Click send and lose your job

One can’t help feeling that this particular LNP staffer is no loss to both the Queensland and Federal political systems. Senator Ian MacDonald must have cringed when Crikey published this on 17 April 2012:

Dear Carole,
I have just read your pathetic piece in the Courier-Mail. While I generally ignore the bleatings of sourpusses like you, your piece was so depressing and negative that I was moved to find your email address and simply say: Get a life.
The world would be a better place if people like you stood for political preselection and learned the hard way that ability is not measured by chromosomes.
Question: Why don’t you have a go? Answer: Like most women, you probably don’t possess the necessary drive, determination and decisiveness that men innately possess. It’s not a personal criticism; it’s a fact of biology. Where, for example, are the great female explorers, mountaineers, warriors, inventors, chefs? Blokes dominate most areas of human endeavour because Nature equipped them with something called testosterone. That was part of Nature’s grand design to enable men to be stronger, more fearless and more determined than their sisters. Sorry, Carole, fact not fiction.
Women occupy a special but different place in the world to that of men. I’ve been married to a wonderful woman - a proud mother of four successful adult children, not a nuclear physicist - for nearly 40 years. For yeras [sic] I’ve heard women like you ask my wife at cocktail parties, functions and dinner parties: And what do you do? The clear inference in the pregnant silence that follows my wife’s answer that she is a proud home-maker makes my skin crawl. Women like my wife are the life-givers, the embodiment of sacrificial love (the purest form of love), the primary keepers of the flame of civilisation that separates us from the animal world, and yet the Sisterhood frowns on them for not joining the anti-male club that you so typefy [sic].
The anti-male world of conspiracy theories in which you and the Sisterhood inhabit is the complete antithesis of the world in which positive women thrive. Women who can’t cut it in - what did you call it?, the boys’ club - can easily cover their inadequacies by claiming bias, sexism, misogyny, chauvinism etc. etc. ad infinitum. It’s so tiring to read such twaddle.
Face reality, my dear. Smell the coffee. Try to turn your sour, negative, anti-male view of the world into something more positive and productive. Demonising men may be your life’s quest but fewer and fewer people are listening.
I repeat: GET A LIFE.
Kind regards,
Max
Max Tomlinson

Article which raised Max's ire here.

Clarence By-election: Nationals also on the nose in the northern end of the electorate

While much of the reporting about the National Party and its candidate Chris Gulaptis has concentrated on the Clarence valley where it has to be said they're on the nose for taking the electorate for granted a couple of contributors to The Northern Star have reminded readers that it's not all plain sailing for the Nationals in the north.

Nationals 'thumb nose' at democracy

My teenage daughter saw a National Party TV ad last night that shows Mr Cansdell supporting his replacement and asked if this was the same guy who was under a police investigation.

I said yep that is him.

She said that they have some real arrogance for even a politician to have him spruiking.

Seems they are just thumbing their noses at our democracy.

I agreed and thought, yes, they seem to not care that one of their number may have broken the law.

That was OK, not a big deal, just vote us in again.

I am greatly concerned about the message this is sending to our young people. What's next?

Alex Smith, Ballina

Two, by George

How can Stuart George, councillor with Richmond Valley Council, represent the people of the Richmond Valley properly and without bias when dealing with CSG issues when he is now an employee of Metgasco?

Moreover, how can Thomas George, State Member for Lismore, do likewise with family interests associated with Metgasco?

It appears that LNG now have 10% of shares in Metgasco and LNG is a majority owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.

Guess where the CSG drilled in our area will be going to?

Yep, export to China.

And this will be to the detriment of our World Heritage listed areas of the Border Ranges National Park and the Great Barrier Reef.

Please write to Janelle Saffin and Thomas George pointing out your opposition to the expansion of CSG.

John Heaton, Uralba

Source: Letters, The Northern Star, 17/11/11

Nationals' 'Magnificent Seven' to contest pre-selection battle for Clarence

When nominations for the National Party's candidate to contest the by-election in the seat of Clarence closed today there were two additions to the five names previously confirmed.

There was no real surprise when Clarence Valley mayor Richie Williamson, a one-time independent, decided to hitch his carriage to the Nats' gravy train but a nomination by relative newcomer to the valley, Maclean businessman Jason Cleary from Woodford Island, seems to be a bit of a shock to the system.

The other candidates are Karen Toms, Paul O'Connor, Fiona Leviny, Chris Gulaptis and Stuart George.

George is the sole nomination from the Nat' northern camp.

Jeremy Challacombe, a spokesperson for the Nationals, told The Daily Examiner it was originally intended that the ballot for preselection would be held this weekend, but rank and file members had convinced the party's head office to allow enough time for candidates to address branch meetings before a ballot on October 16. 

He said it would be a secret ballot and votes would be tallied using the same preferential voting system as was used in federal elections. 

Candidates would each be given about 10 minutes to speak at the preselection meeting before the ballot was held. 

About 300 financial members in the Clarence electorate are eligible to vote.


Read The Daily Examiner's report here.

Cansdellgate: one-handed applause for Scandell

Applause

I applaud Steve Cansdell for resigning due to his indiscretion with the statutory declaration.

I look forward to applauding him further when he pays for the by-election he has caused with some of the cash he will receive from his parliamentary super and his lifetime pension.

John Williams, Clarenza. 

Source: Letters, The Daily Examiner, 24/9/11

Commentary on the Nats' derby in Clarence

This comment piece appears in today's Daily Examiner.

Walk-up start to a seat

There is a distinct appearance of opportunism in the clamour of candidates seeking National Party pre-selection for the seat of the Clarence.
Things can change between now and when the election is held but, as it stands, it is almost inevitable that whoever gets the nod for the Nationals will be elected to fill the position vacated through Steve Cansdell's forced resignation.
Unless the government steps right out of line, it is difficult to see voter choosing a Labor candidate into opposition or an independent, so National Party endorsement would appear to be a walk-up start to a seat in parliament.
Not that the Nationals are saying that. Predictably, they are saying it will be a hard-fought contest where every vote will count. They don't want people thinking their candidate will be a shoo-in as that can encourage a protest vote.
As of yesterday there were six prospective candidates for the Nationals. We included Richie Williamson in that number despite his equivocation yesterday, because the Nationals listed him as a starter.
Of those, it would be hard to see them go past Mr Williamson, former Maclean mayor Chris Gulaptis or Casino's Stuart George. Although Mr Williamson has the higher profile, Mr George, the son of popular Lismore Nationals MP Thomas George, has the better credentials with the Nationals. Mr Gulaptis is a former candidate, and that will count highly.
But the three other contenders cannot be discounted entirely. Karen Toms is developing a reputation as a hard worker through her position on the Clarence Valley Council, Fiona Leviny has some powerful backers and impresses with her passion and Paul O'Connor, with his legal background, has some influential friends and will be able to argue his case well. It is a healthy position for the Nationals to be in.
We have heard little from prospective Labor candidates to date but it is unlikely they will have the same field from which to choose.

Live Cattle Export: I wondered how long it would take some fool to mention religion

One George Robert Christensen, the climate change ambivalent Liberal National Party MP for the Dawson electorate in Queensland (and a Mackay City councillor/journalist until the 2010 federal election), decided to sink his boot into Islam on the floor of the Australian House of Representatives. Clearly demonstrating just how far the Coalition has sunk under the leadership of Tony Abbott.

This is Christensen on 21 June 2011 according to the Commonwealth Hansard:

These fakers claim that they are out to protect animals, and what do they do? They vote to remove Australia from the situation, which does nothing for the cattle from other nations or from Indonesia that are going to end up at the abattoirs that are not doing the right thing.
It has occurred to me that there is something missing from this blame game. They are quick to blame Australian farmers and the industry, but they have not said anything about the religion that actually inspires the torture of the cattle there. I find that very hypocritical. We have not heard the member for Wills, the member for Fremantle or the member for Page raise that issue. But they are very quick to sink the boot into the farmers regardless of the consequences.

Intent on showing that his political bigotry is not just a passing phase, Christensen went on to tell The Age:

''There are many different culprits in the whole thing, [but] certainly the people who are doing this are not Australian farmers. The people who are doing it are Indonesian abattoir workers and their mates who, they say, are acting in accordance with their religious principles,''

Yes, that is truly an heroic effort and one which will surely assist the current negotiations between Australia and Indonesia concerning the circumstances in which live cattle export may be resumed.

Those who follow Queensland politics will remember George Christiansen was outed in 2010 as a former editor of the Central Queensland University newspaper The Student Advocate published on behalf of the Conservative Students’ Alliance:

As then editor of The Student Advocate, George Christensen had expressed concern that new versions of the Bible were, quote, "removing accusations that the Jews killed Christ". He also told homophobic jokes and stated, quote, "the truth is women are stupid and that's that".

Although Christensen is apparently comfortable with social media, I'm not sure if @GChristensenMP is actually his offical Twitter account. Nevertheless, it might be worth keeping an eye out for George in the twitterverse as he is sure to put his foot in his mouth again and again and again.

Images found at Google Images and Vex News

No wonder the Libs like Clive!

No wonder the Über Mensch of the Liberal Party like Australian mining magnate, rich listee and generous political donor Clive Palmer - he has the same take on 'truth' as Lib leader Tony Abbott.

Clive in The Bulletin on 20th May 2010:
"MINING magnate Clive Palmer will visit Central Queensland tomorrow to continue development of the Alpha coal mining project. Mr Palmer said the project will go ahead despite the Federal Government's proposal to tax the mining industry a further 40%, which he called "rubbish". He said: ''We will go ahead with that project, as finance is already approved, but any further expansion is definitely out of the question, and our other projects won't go ahead." Mr Palmer said two interstate projects, which he said could employ at least 6000 people directly, and up to 50,000 people through mining service industries, have been taken off the drawing board."

Clive in The Sydney Morning Herald on 6th June 2010:
"First out of the blocks in the race to cancel spending was Palmer, who, within days of the tax's announcement on May 2, claimed he was going to scrap exploration plans in South Australia. The problem - as Treasurer Wayne Swan quickly pointed out - was that no one in government seemed to know about the plans. ''Mr Palmer has claimed that he has scrapped a project in South Australia that neither the Federal Resources Department, nor the State Resources Department in South Australia know anything about,'' Swan said. And when it was suggested to the former staffer of Joh Bjelke Petersen that the tax might also disrupt his plans to float his privately owned empire, Palmer changed his tune. ''I don't think so....."

Clive in ABC News yesterday:
"In the heat of the public debate, Queensland billionaire and Liberal National Party (LNP) donor Clive Palmer admits he may have overstated the tax's impact on his projects in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
Mr Palmer owns one of the largest deposits of iron ore in the world, carved out in five separate projects.
The investment for the first development was secured before the super profits tax was announced.
When asked about one project Mr Palmer said was "canned", the chief geologist at Mineralogy, Mark Strizek, said the project was still going ahead.
"All approvals are done and we've also submitted the environmental approvals for the other three or four projects there, so they're all in train," he said.
Mr Palmer says he probably phrased it too strongly.
"It should have been ... slowing them down, waiting to see what happens," he said."

That Clive thinks he can tell any old tall tale is well-known, but what is not as well known is that on his personal brag page at Mineralogy he links to media articles he likes about his bankrolling of WA Lib state election campaign ads, mining expansion plans, accquistions, the sports team and anything else 'Clive' which takes his fancy. Of course what is missing from that webpage is any mention that the economy will go into free fall if the Rudd Government introduces a resources profits tax or that company expansion plans are in anyway on hold - he leaves that nonsense he spouts elsewhere well alone.

LNP `poster-boy' Peter Dutton is a dud

170 LNP preselectors have told Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull his front bencher Peter Dutton is not up to scratch.

Senior Liberal frontbencher Peter Dutton suffered a shock defeat in the preselection battle for the safe Gold Coast federal seat of McPherson.

Despite the strong backing of former prime minister John Howard and current Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Dutton was rejected in favour of local Karen Andrews.

Dutton, the Opposition health spokesman, now faces an uncertain future, having abandoned his own seat of Dickson when a redistribution made it unwinnable.

Read The Courier Mail's report here.

pic credit: smh.com.au

Turnbull and Joyce: exactly who holds the reins?

Ever since John Howard stirred the possum in a classic piece of political mischief, by encouraging the Queensland Liberal National Party's Senator Barnaby Joyce to consider moving from the federal upper house to the lower house, it has been interesting to watch the bull ants scurry about the disturbed nest.

According to The Australian:
"SENIOR Nationals have hatched a plan to breach the constitution of Queensland's Liberal National Party to ensure that a National takes the Senate spot of Barnaby Joyce if he shifts to the House of Representatives.
The move has shaken the Liberal Party, which is guaranteed the spot under the LNP constitution if it is vacated, and threatens to split the recently formed LNP in the run-up to a state election.
Liberal sources said federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull had told the LNP leadership through intermediaries that the plan was unacceptable to him and to the Liberal Party.
Mr Turnbull declined to comment yesterday."

It's all rather amusing when you consider that Joyce and other Queensland LNP pollies are now members of the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party of Australia and up to six of these MPs have a right to sit in the Liberal Party Room according to Senator Mitch Fifield in his recent Finding Our Way Back speech to the Young Liberals.

Indeed Fifield was quite blunt about the type of dilemma that Turnbull now finds himself in:
"The simple fact is if we are not in Coalition, we can’t win. We won’t win. If we are not in Coalition at the next election we may as well not bother turning up. 1987 is a case in point, where the coalition split caused by the Joh for PM push cost John Howard any chance of victory."

Yep, a divorce at this stage will cost the Libs any chance at either gaining power at this year's Queensland election or the 2010 federal election.
Mal needs to take it like a man, because the Nats appear to have the upper hand for now and they know it.