Now is the time for the party to sack Iemma and Costa

Enough is enough. When both Morris Iemma and Michael Costa publicly stated that they will proceed with their plan to privatise NSW electricity supplies, they not only went against the vote of Labor's state conference and undertakings to relevant unions they also went against the majority opinion of voters.

If the Australian Labor Party wants to see votes in the ballot box in March 2011 it needs to expel both of these arrogant men from the party.

If Sussex Street does not move swiftly to do so it will only encourage Kevin Rudd (who unforgivably supports Iemma in this) to walk all over the states next time he gets a similar stupid idea. 

Nelson discovers infant equality but ignores the obvious tag line

It's hard to take a bloke seriously when his idea of tonsured elegance runs to a limp ferret prone on the pate.

Brendan Nelson made it even harder on Friday when he fronted the cameras to support non-means testing of the $5,000 baby bonus and repeatedly told us that "all babies are [created] equal".

Didn't he stop to think that in front of thousands of tellies people would be roaring with laughter and chanting back at him; "but some parents are more equal than others".

The poor man obviously forgot that during high school Animal Farm was required reading for the tail-end of baby boomer generation.

Premier Iemma is orpheus rocker!

Contemptuous of Labor Party policy, ignoring public opinion, along with his attack dog Costa reported to have threatened ministerial staffers with the sack if they voted against power industry privatisation at this weekend's state conference, defying the 702-strong conference vote against his policy and saying he will privatise anyway - Morris Iemma is showing himself to be less and less a Labor Premier of New South Wales and more and more an arrogant dictator supported by big business and the multinationals.
Orpheus rocker? You bet mate!


NSW Planning Minister Sartor - fair dinkum or fraud?

The Daily Telegraph yesterday reported yet another political donation made to the NSW Planning Minister during the years development proposals by the donors were under consideration.

"The Mariner donation is among contributions of $106,097 that 26 donors say they gave Mr Sartor, on forms where they are asked to name the recipient in their official declarations to the NSW Election Funding Authority.
This does not match Mr Sartor's individual candidate return to the authority, in which he said he received $1800 for the 2007 election from four donors, none of them named companies."

Frank Sartor denies any of the money went to him or his election campaign. [Porcine aerobatics were observed in the skies over Sydney]

NSW North Coast braces itself for another hit as food prices continue to rise

According to FN Arena yesterday food prices rose by 1.7% in March, which was the biggest monthly rise in almost five years.

With the slowdown in consumer spending barely holding inflation in check and with that election promise millstone, tax cuts, just a few months away and likely to keep the inflation genie from ever getting back in the bottle this year; NSW North Coast fixed-income retirees and pensioners are beginning to worry that the second half of 2008 will see food poverty established in many households.

Memories of the Great Depression are still strong amongst the older folk and some are asking what went so wrong that a prosperous country like Australia should have again developed such a divide between the haves and havenots over the last 12 years.

Stories are also being told of less than a dozen ordinary unprocessed food items costing more than $50 at local supermarkets, and weekly shopping bills being 40-50% higher than three years ago.

Fifty dollars is around one-fifth of the total weekly income of many living in the Northern Rivers region.