Phew! Terror Australis avoided by the narrowest of margins

Australia can now exhale.

The Labor Party has formed a minority government after the 2010 general election produced a hung parliament and, as of yesterday, Julia Gillard is now the prime minister-designate.

By the narrowest of margins Labor negotiated an agreement with The Greens and three Independents resulting in 76 aligned seats to the Coalition's 75.

The spectre of Liberal Party Leader Tony Abbott holding the office of prime minister has been banished for the time being.

As a member of the Liberal Party of Australia, federal member of parliament, former minister in the Howard Government and latterly as Leader of the Opposition, Abbott has clearly demonstrated that he acknowledges few (if any) ethical boundaries to the exercise of political power.
For this reason alone Abbott is a politician to be wary of and one who could have become a dangerous prime minister.

However, the nation is not out of the woods yet. By now Abbott will have convinced himself that the process he so recently hoped would deliver him control of the country was not legitimate and, will be seeking ways to disrupt parliament, destabilise the political process and sabotage confidence in government.

The rest of the Coalition will also soon be shouting that they were robbed of the crown and (based on past performance) no political dirty trick will be too small and no lie too large.

The nation may well be in for a few very painful years.

Truth can be stranger than fiction

From the Twitterverse:

bridgitgread

Tory MP's wife exposed as a working prostitute. Nice to see spouses in the same line of work. http://tinyurl.com/28kt82h via web Retweeted by rod3000

Please report sightings of coastal emus to NPWS

Image taken from Daily Examiner (7/9/2010)

In and around Bingara

The touring party really took to Bingara, which is a neat small town that appears to be well serviced. We drove and trekked around the township and its surrounds and engaged in numerous conversations with the locals.

A prominent building in the central part of the town is The Roxy (pic, left above). An art deco cinema built in 1936 and recently restored, it's now a multipurpose venue, cinema and performing arts centre. The 7th North West Film Festival will be held there later this month.

Breakfast at The Regent Cafe was quite an experience - our tour captain was almost overcome by an attack of nostalgia as he tucked away a bushman's brekkie that consisted of a T-bone steak and fried eggs topped off with a very liberal layering of Holbrook's Worcestershire Sauce.


Others in the party preferred the home-style scrambled eggs on toast (and, in case you're wondering, tomato sauce was readily available). Terrific vanilla milk shakes were served up in metal containers that carried scars and dents inflicted in years of yesterday.

Friday's Legacy Day fund raiser took the form of a raffle - the prize was a load of chopped fire wood. We reckoned that was an excellent prize, given the local area's climate and demographics.

While Bingara seems to cater well for the needs of locals and visitors we couldn't help but wonder what the place might be like in another 20 years. Its current population (approx 1200) has a significant skew towards those of mature and very mature ages (about 50% of the population is 55 +) - they are well catered for (pics below show the civic centre, town hall and senior citizens rest centre), but what will the town be like in 2030 when most of those citizens have moved on.