Iemma and Costa miscalculate and the state suffers

With less than half the projected 'pilgrim numbers now likely to turn up, the Iemma Government's decision to go all the way with il papa and Cardinal Pell is likely to see New South Wales further in debt after the Catholic Church World Youth Day held in Sydney over 5 days of official events in July.

The only question seems to be; will the debt be larger than the reported $24 million that Toronto, Canada was left holding after it hosted this event in 2002.

 

The Daily Telegraph 

THE State Government was forced last night to introduce legislation to appropriate an extra $400 million after finding itself short on cash to pay the bills.

Treasurer Michael Costa has asked Parliament to approve a transfer of funds to pay for "unforeseen" expenses over the past year.

They included horse flu, drought, new hospital beds, allowances for foster carers and $140 million to pay off rail debt.

Mr Costa claimed it was nothing out of the ordinary, calling it a "top up".

 

The Sydney Morning Herald

THE arrival of Pope Benedict in Sydney for World Youth Day is looming as an unholy disaster for the luxury hotels of Sydney.

Top-end hotels and businesses are reeling from the huge shortfall in predicted numbers. Domestic tourists are also reluctant to take holidays in Sydney because of the expected disruption to roads. One five-star hotel set aside 1000 beds and has not received one booking.

 

The Age

The NSW government has defended its decision to spend $86 million on World Youth Day, saying it would bring international attention to Sydney at a fraction of the cost of the Olympics.

The NSW government's spokeswoman for World Youth Day, Kristina Keneally, said the government would spend $86 million to support the event, compared to the $390 million it provided for the Olympics.

 

The Sydney Morning Herald

This figure [$86 million] does not include taxpayers' $42 million compensation payment - shared between federal and state governments - to the racing industry for use of Randwick racecourse as the venue for the closing papal Mass.

 

ABC News

Sydney's deputy Lord Mayor says parts of Hyde Park will be closed for three months after World Youth Day to repair the damage caused by thousands of pilgrims using the area.

Tony Pooley says the northern part of the park will be affected by the heavy pedestrian traffic during World Youth Day events in mid-July.

Councillor Pooley says the rehabilitation cost of $100,000 is minimal when considering how much money the event will inject into the state's economy.---

"The Catholic Church has asked us to pay for those costs," he said.

 

World Youth Day 2008 official website

Welcome to the World Youth Day 2008 HomeStay program.

This is your chance to play an important and rewarding role in Sydney's hosting of the world's biggest youth event.

We are asking Homestay Hosts to volunteer to host pilgrims from overseas - or from outside Sydney - from 14 July to 21 July 2008.

Pilgrims will be 18 years or older. Homestay Hosts are asked to provide bed and breakfast (cold or hot) on a complimentary basis.

That second Sunday each May from a male perspective

From xkcd.com

Premier Costa? 2

Comparison displayed at Machine Gun Keyboard.

In The Northern Star.

"Treasurer Michael Costa is the driving force behind the privatisation plan and Mr Smith said the blame for the situation the ALP finds itself in over this issue can be 'laid at the feet' of Mr Costa who has not been prepared to negotiate. "I was there representing people from the Northern Rivers and we don't want electricity privatised," Mr Smith said."

How about this? Clotheslines banned in much of the USA

News from the home of prohibition, the USA, confirms the view that global warming doesn't rate too highly there.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that electric clothes dryers in the US represent about 6 per cent of domestic power consumption and this doesn't account for commercial laundromats or the 17 million homes with gas-powered dryers.

Very few US citizens buck the system by having backyard clothes lines that dry clothes using wind and solar power.

However, civil disobedience is practised by some US citizens, including Sharon Vocke, who routinely breaches regulations when she hangs her laundry on her line, homemade of course - there is little joy for Hills hoist retailers here.

Mrs Vocke's line is rigged with a pulley system and slung from her porch to the garage in this affluent pocket of sweeping, unfenced gardens and sprawling homes.

"It takes me about six minutes to violate my neighbourhood covenant and it's worth every second to have my clothes smell nice and to know I am not harming the air we breathe," the 46-year-old said recently in a submission to Connecticut's General Assembly Energy and Technology Committee.

The committee was considering a law giving homeowners the right to use clotheslines despite neighbourhood fears that displays of underwear would undermine property values. But as with similar proposals in Vermont and New Hampshire, the reformers failed and bans stay in place.

The town of Poughkeepsie in New York State has a "laundry law" and imposes $US100 ($106) fines on anyone caught drying on front porches.

Bans on clotheslines seem to be based on the opinion they are unsightly and a mark of poverty.

Premier Costa?

Privatisation of NSW electricity in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.

"The joke in state political circles this week was that Morris Iemma finally found a backbone: the trouble was, it was Michael Costa's."

"Costa didn't care whether he destroyed the party, the factions or the Government as long as he got the result. For Costa, it was total war."

Would you like a little Horst Wessel with your gruel, Oliver?

'Jackboot Jenny' Macklin is goosestepping across the welfare arena again.
This apologist for the reich is suggesting that it will not just be parents with young children who may be issued with a Centrelink debit card instead of cash into bank account welfare payments - in future old-age pensioners may possibly be open to having their pensions quarantined and she is also not ruling out instances where 100% of a pension, benefit or allowance may be quarantined.

What the Minister for Community Services is signalling is that this Federal Government intends to follow the wishes of neo-con think tanks and the big retail chain stores/supermarkets and, turn as many Centrelink payment categories as possible into versions of 'food stamp' welfare.
It won't matter if you have no young children or don't drink, drug, smoke or gamble.
What the minister is progressing here is a move to a universal quarantine.

Just so that everyone who is now receiving any form of government pension, benefit, allowance or concession feels that all is well as their liberty is being crippled by Neu Labor, I have included a link to the Horst Wessel here.
Feel free to sing along as Rudd and Macklin turned us all into Australian untermenschen.

A little Northern Rivers art to brighten the weekend

The Valley
Artist Steven Giese

Rock pools at Minnie Waters

Artist Christine Denham Kempnich

Untitled

Artist Lyn Hope