The spinning top that is Tony Abbott

Almost every utterance of Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has to be taken with a grain of salt.

This was Tony Abbott during the House of Representatives’ Question Time on 30 May 2013:

My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind her that the latest IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook shows that Australia's competitiveness has slumped to its lowest ranking in 17 years….

Oh dear, poor Mr. Abbott. The 2013 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook actually showed that Australia’s ranking has risen since 2012. Which means he has been a little slow in noticing the ‘slump’.

Mr. Abbott also doesn’t mention that this year’s IMD report records Australia at rank 16 as being more competitive than the United Kingdom, Mainland China, Japan and New Zealand among others.

I wonder if he has noticed that none of the data used by the Swiss business school which produces this year book is actually sourced directly from Australia?

Just when you think the Institute for Cetacean Research cannot sink any lower, the media reports this..................

ABC News 2 June 2013:

Japan's peak whaling body has launched a new campaign to promote whale meat as a nutritious food that enhances physical strength and reduces fatigue.

With about 5,000 tonnes of whale meat sitting unwanted in freezers around Japan, the country's Institute for Cetacean Research has decided to launch a new campaign to promote the by-product of its so-called scientific whaling program.

Once popular in school lunches, younger generations of Japanese rarely, if ever, eat whale.

But the institute hopes to revive flagging interest by advertising whale meat as a great source of balenine - a substance believed to enhance energy and physical health….

Sushi made from Minke whale meat and blubber

Where Australian political parties and candidates are officially finding their funding

The Guardian's DataBlog posted these graphs covering donations to Australian political parties/candidates based on the latest publicly available information:

 

The Australian Electoral Commission:

Entitlement to election funding

A candidate or Senate group is eligible for election funding if they obtain at least 4% of the first preference vote in the division or the state or territory they contested. The amount to be paid is calculated by multiplying the number of votes obtained by the current election funding rate. The funding rate for the 2010 federal election was 231.191 cents per House of Representatives and Senate vote. This rate is indexed every six months to increases in the Consumer Price Index.

Amount paid

The amount of election funding payable is calculated by multiplying the number of first preference votes received by the rate of payment applicable at the time. The rate is indexed every six months in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index.

The current election funding rate from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2013 is 247.316 cents per eligible vote.

The Sydney Morning Herald 31 May 2013:

While the parties are cagey about campaign spending, electoral commission figures show that in 2010-11, the financial year in which the last federal election was held, the Liberal Party spent $108 million, more than three times what the party spent the year before. In 2010-11 Labor spent $88 million, more than double what it spent the previous year.

Garma’wu Buku_luŋgthurra (Getting People Together), Gulkula NT, 9-12 August 2013

The Annual Garma Festival is Australia's Leading Cultural Exchange event.  It is held annually onsite at remote Gulkula, a traditional meeting ground in Arnhem land.