Australian Politics 2012. I have to say it.............

Kevin Rudd resigning as Australia’s Foreign Minister in order to challenge Julia Gillard for leadership of the Federal Labor Party and the country :-

Big Mistake

Prime Minister Julia Gillard appointing un-elected senator designate Bob Carr as Australia’s Foreign Minister:-

Even Bigger Mistake

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott telling the world that he will be Australia’s next "elected" Prime Minister:-

Huge Mistake

Gina Rinehart may yet rue the day she decided to become such as big player on the Australian political stage

When Georgina ‘Gina’ Hope Rinehart (reputedly Australia’s richest woman) decided that she didn’t want climate change mitigation addressed by any national government and also decided to buy a slice of the national media pie as well, she set herself up as a person of interest to the average voter as well the tabloid press.

So when three of her four children took her to court she attempted to suppress the details.

Unfortunately for But liddle ol’ me is really a very private person Rinehart she has been less than successful and finally may have to endure us all knowing more of the Hancock family’s soiled laundry than she might like if the High Court rejects her appeal next Friday.

Ah well, at least she can cry on the shoulder of her good friend Christopher Monckton.

Meanwhile, here is part of an intriguing judgement handed down by the NSW Supreme Court in October 2011:

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
3. An order that the Defendant as Trustee of the trust established by the Deed of Settlement made 27 December 1988 by Langley George Hancock (" The Trust ") provide to the Plaintiffs:
(a) the accounts of the Trust for the years 1992 to date;
(b) the accounts of Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited for the years 1992 to date.
4. An order pursuant to s 90 of the Trustees Act 1962 (WA) or in the Court's equitable jurisdiction varying the Trust Deed by splitting the trust into separate trusts with one trust as to Gina Hope Rinehart's 17.7% interest in the ordinary shares and the cumulative special shares, as referred to in clause 4 of the Trust Deed (" the First Trust "); and a further trust as to the residue of the trust property in favour of the children of Gina Hope Rinehart (" the Second Trust ");
5. An order in the Court's inherent equitable jurisdiction removing Gina Rinehart as trustee of the Second Trust.
6. A declaration that the Defendant has misconducted herself in the administration of the Trust within the meaning of s 77(2)(b) of the Trustees Act 1962 (WA).

Cansdellgate - up to episode 10001 and there's more to come

A correspondent to The Daily Examiner has thanked the paper for running a piece last week (Was it the ghost of Steve? 29/2/2012) about Hansard inadvertently showing the former and disgraced MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell as having voted in parliament recently, despite the former MP having hastily resigned from parliament as a consequence of failing Stat Decs 101.

FUNNY STORIES

Thanks for your funny story about how Steve Cansdell still gets to have his vote recorded in the NSW Government six months after he resigned.

Would be even funnier if it wasn't serious.

Nevertheless, I'm sure there are some other funny stories with which you can entertain readers no end, by adding a little detail.

Firstly, isn't it funny that Mr Cansdell is still driving when he supposedly lost his licence due to losing all points as a serial speeder?

Secondly, who owns the car?

Wouldn't it be funny if the NSW Government has forgotten to repossess it?

And the ultimate funny story: if a statutory declaration is made falsely under the Oaths Act, there has historically been a mandatory four-year jail term - no ifs or buts.

If Mr Cansdell has admitted to such a falsehood, isn't it funny the law is not applied and taxpayers are pacified with the old "ongoing investigation" furphy?

Is this like the "ongoing investigation" of Wollongong council's planning decisions, involving many other state members?

How funny is that?

Mike Gorrie, Grafton

Source: The Daily Examiner, 5/3/12

Read Clarencegirl's piece on the Cansdell-Gulaptis Roadshow here. 

Mormon's posthumously baptise people who when living were likely to be very unwilling converts

Organized religion rarely disappoints as in a Los Angeles Times report of 15 February 2012:

The Mormon Church apologized Tuesday for a "serious breach of protocol" after it was discovered that the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. The church also acknowledged that one of its members tried to baptize posthumously three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

The efforts, at least in Wiesenthal's case, violated the terms of an agreement that the church signed in 1995, in which it agreed to stop baptizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Wiesenthal and Wiesel gained fame for careers spent grappling with the legacy of the Holocaust, Wiesenthal by hunting down war criminals, Wiesel by writing books that became part of the canon of 20th century literature.

Coming at a time when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in the public eye as perhaps never before, the revelations could prove embarrassing — and, conceivably, influence perceptions of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's faith…..

The latest revelations came from Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who independently researches Mormon genealogy. Radkey is perhaps best known for discovering in 2009 that President Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, had been baptized after her death.