2010 Election Campaign Day 28 - Abbott puts government savings ahead of jobs

ABC TV "7.30 Report" 10th August 2010:

KERRY O'BRIEN: But you're talking about the big bang spending sprees; the big bang spending spree would have been $20 billion more than your big bang spending spree that Joe Hockey has already acknowledge a Coalition government would have spent. And in fact, if you're fair you would acknowledged that before the global crisis came along, the Rudd Government also delivered a budget that was more than $20 billion in surplus.

TONY ABBOTT: Which they did not deliver a budget. They did not deliver a budget outcome. Sure they told us ...

KERRY O'BRIEN: Because the Global Financial Crisis came along.

TONY ABBOTT: And they started spending like drunken sailors.

KERRY O'BRIEN: As you would have done.

TONY ABBOTT: And the point I make, Kerry, is that $20 billion is a very, very significant outcome.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But when you talk ...

TONY ABBOTT: And getting $20 billion off the bottom line is surely worth doing.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But when you talk about the massive amount of money overall that this country would have been in deficit - or the Government would have been in deficit - $110 billion in revenue that would have happened to you if you'd been in government, plus the $25 to $30 billion that you would have committed to a stimulus program - I mean, is that spending like a drunken - is $25 to $30 billion not spending like a drunken sailor, but $50 billion is

TONY ABBOTT: Well $25 billion! That's quite a lotta money, Kerry!

KERRY O'BRIEN: But at what point do you become a drunken sailor, is what I'm asking?

TONY ABBOTT: What I'm saying is you don't waste money, and this mob wasted ...

KERRY O'BRIEN: 200,000 unemployed.

TONY ABBOTT: ... - they wasted money. It's never right to waste money, and one of the extraordinary things is a prime minister who says a bit of waste is neither here nor there. It is always important to treat the taxpayer dollar with respect.

The YouTube political ad they couldn't kill

News of this ACTU political advert's demise was greatly exaggerated in The Australian today: "AN ACTU animated video showing two budgies flying into Tony Abbott's bathers has been suspended by YouTube for violating the site's terms of use. The peak union body uploaded the viral ad earlier today, calling it a humorous attack on Mr Abbott's workplace relations stance."
Because it was still displaying on YouTube this evening:

Nationals Kevin Hogan: Is he a political idiot or a political rogue?

Kevin Hogan pictured left

In 2006-07 the Howard Coalition Government had a water policy which included investigating diverting freshwater from Australian east coast rivers and transferring it across the Great Dividing Range and into the Murray Darling Basin river system.

The early 2007 Snowy Mountains Energy Corporation commissioned desktop study and subsequent Senate investigation of Clarence River catchment water diversion proposals confirmed just how wedded Howard, Turnbull and Vail were to the idea of harvesting water from environmentally sensitive coastal rivers.
Rivers to which local communities were culturally attached and on which regional economies were sometimes highly dependent.

Losing government in late 2007 did not result in any serious reconsideration of this policy by the Coalition and, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott recently stated his intention to fully implement the former Howard Government's water policy if elected on 21 August.

Yet in spite of this a spokesperson for the present Nationals candidate in Page Kevin Hogan felt able to make this somewhat curious statement; "If there was river diversion in any of the schemes it would be strongly opposed by not just the Nationals, but the Coalition as a whole.” [The Daily Examiner, 10 August 2010] and Kevin himself said; "There is no plan by anyone within the Nationals or anyone within the Coalition to dam anywhere or anything on the Clarence River" [ABC News,11 August 2010].

It appears as if the first-time Nationals candidate is rather blindly following his leader, as Warren Truss rejects as "absolute nonsense" any thought of a Clarence dam in the future.

Does Mr. Hogan have no understanding of Coalition history? Is he truly ignorant of continued calls within the Liberal and National parties for coastal river water diversion?

In 2008 the Nationals NSW State Conference resolved to "support greater efforts to reduce the amount of eastern water lost to the ocean and campaign for more in-depth investigations into finding ways to turn this water inland" [Tweed Daily News,16 June 2008] and Barnaby Joyce was still telling the media "You can't create water with money. That means you have to think about bringing it from somewhere else, like the Gulf or the Clarence" [The North Queensland Register,13 August 2008].

In 2009 Victorian Nationals MP Peter Crisp called for the Clarence River to be dammed and diverted [ABC News,25 May 2009].
Again in 2009, both National Party member Ian Causley [The Daily Examiner,27 May 2009] and Federal Liberal MP Sussan Ley [The Border Mail, 26 June 2009] wrote in support of diverting water inland with particular mention of a Clarence River dam by Causley.

While on 29 March this year Nationals Federal MP John Forrest described Bradfield and his water diversion schemes as "visionary" [www.nationals.org.au].

Perhaps like his leader, what Kevin Hogan really thinks is that Northern Rivers residents can be told any old version of the truth - that they are merely a flock of foolish sheep prime for fleecing.

2010 Election Campaign Day 27 - There's only one question

Can Australians afford the luxury

of a protest vote

on Saturday 21st August?

GetUp! calls Abbott a welcher and throws down the gauntlet

Excerpt from today's email from the lobby group GetUp!:

Yesterday Tony Abbott sent a campaign email entitled, "We will stop the boats." Ahead in the polls, he's announced that the Pacific Solution will return on day one of an Abbott Government. It seems Tony Abbott has a lot to say on refugees, except to those he promised to meet in June after GetUp members won a charity auction.

GetUp members chipped in more than $16,000 to help secure the winning bid in a charity auction for a surfing lesson and meeting with Tony Abbott. We gave the prize to a group of refugees because we know how powerful human stories are. But his office, having suggested the meeting would occur before the election, have now stopped returning our calls. They are refusing to hold up their end of the deal.

If Tony Abbott won't come to meet us, we've got to go and meet him. That's why today, with your help, we'll begin rolling out (literally - they're mobile!) massive billboards to follow him around on the campaign trail and remind him of his broken promise to go surfing for charity with a group of refugees............

We know it is only fair that Tony Abbott meet with Riz Wakil. After all, he promised to do so. When Mr Abbott's Press Secretary told us that Mr Abbott would like to have the meeting before the election, and that he would ring back to confirm a date, we took him at his word. But after repeated phone calls from us - that his office have now stopped returning - its time for us to up the ante.

With a week and a half left there's still time for Mr Abbott to meet his commitment before the election. That's why with your help we'll take a message to him that he can't miss: massive mobile billboards asking him to honour his commitment and meet with Riz.

You've stood behind Riz before - can you stand up for him again?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/HonourYourCommitment

Political candidate plays pocket billiards

Letter in The Daily Examiner (11 August 2010)

Because he's so easy to despise.......

...and because I always liked the original song - the now about to go viral YouTube clip:

Political death by coffee bean?

The Bean Poll is back! After successfully predicting the 2007 election, Muffin Break is bringing the poll back for the 2010 election to help sort out the TOPBEANS from the HASBEANS and the WANNABEANS from the COULDABEANS. From Saturday July 31, every Muffin Break store across Australia will be encouraging customers to cast their bean vote in a display unit with cylinders for the Labor Party, Coalition (Liberal/Nationals), Greens or Other.

Serge Infanti, Managing Director of Muffin Break says, We had a fantastic response to our Unofficial Election Bean Poll in Australian in 2007 and in the New Zealand 2002 and 2005 federal elections. Each election, the Muffin Break Unofficial Bean Poll has accurately predicted the outcome.

We may not be as scientific or complicated as other polls, but we think we can get the biggest response and we certainly have fun doing it.

At the end of the first week the national poll was running :

Coalition 38%

Labor 33%

Greens 16%

Other 13%

However yesterday The Coffs Coast Advocate reported that the local store is bucking the trend and Labor is now ahead of the Coalition which does not bode well for Nationals incumbent Luke Hartsuyker.

2010 Election Campaign Day 26 - And then Hughie sent locusts

For all those wondering how Hughie might react to an Abbott victory:

"As early as mid-August, eastern Australia may be hit with the biggest locust plague in more than 30 years."

Fowl business on the campaign trail

On the weekend I cleaned out the chook pen and as usual I lined the nesting boxes with all our old newspapers.

The hens were unusually quiet for two days afterwards, but this morning they were in fine form with loud cackling, squawking and general hubbub.

The chooks it seems had developed a new conspiracy theory. If you don’t have hens you might not know that all fowls are major players in developing most conspiracy theories since they nearly always think the sky is falling.

They were all talking at once and at high volume so I could only make out some parts of the general conversation.

The bit about Tony Abbot being the main people smuggler in Australia did confuse me until I collected the eggs and there in plain sight was a photo of Tony in his budgie smugglers. The hens had misread the paper, but then again budgies are just another race of bird people to the hens so perhaps they were not all that wrong.

There was a lot of confusing talk about chicks overboard, core and non-core promises, Malcolm Turnbull’s emails (the hens had always liked Malcolm - they thought he was a fine cock), Cabinet leaks, no GST and latest polling figures.

I couldn’t make head nor tail of it, so I went off to find Arnold the calf since he had been spending a lot of time grazing around the chook pen and he may have been able to sort the chooks latest theory out.

I found him under a tree chewing cud and he told me that the general thrust of the hens' argument was this; there is a history of the Liberal Party not telling the whole truth to the electorate.

The comments about chicks overboard, core and non-core promises and no GST suddenly made sense.

The feathered theory continued.....

Malcolm Turnbull was brought undone by a false email leaked to him by a civil servant. Who benefited out of that? Tony Abbott since he got to become the Leader of the Opposition.
When the national security committee started leaking the chooks asked themselves; who attends these meetings? The answer was government ministers and civil servants. Who is benefiting from these leaks? Why, Tony Abbott. Or so the polling figures are indicating.

Therefore the chooks reasoned; if a strategy works you are more likely to try it again. So their clucklusion is that Tony Abbott is somehow getting civil servants to leak information to damage the government during the election campaign.

They have already condemned Tony for Malcolm’s downfall and now they don’t like the thought of him as PM - not enough room in his policy package for smuggled budgies perhaps?

Picture from The Ark In Space Image Credit Flickr User Skittzitilby

2010 Election Campaign Day 25 - Abbott & Co finally upset Teh Christians

Knew it was only a matter of time before the Oz Opposition led by the very Catholic Tony Abbott upset the other side of the Christian coin during this federal election campaign.
Here is The Australian Christian Lobby hitting back over at Christian Today Australia:
"The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) described as incomprehensible Joe Hockey's announcement that the Coalition would do away with ISP level filtering of the internet.
"This announcement is incomprehensible on a number of levels", said Mr Wallace. "Firstly to say it doesn't work is to deny the trials that show it does. Secondly to have a system that orders takedown notices for Australian sites carrying Refused Classification (RC) material, but allow it to come in unhindered from overseas sites is simply illogical. And finally to imply that parents rather than the ISPs are best equipped to manage the technology by presumably introducing the discredited Net Nanny system, again simply defies technological reality."
Mr Wallace said the anti-filter proponents have run a well funded scare campaign on the issue, beginning with claims it would slow down the internet by up to 87%, only to be proven it was less than 1/70th of the blink of an eye, and conspiracy theories that saw us all becoming like China and North Korea."

Has Abbott joined the coastal river water raiders?

This is Tony Abbott speaking at the Official Coalition Election Campaign Launch on 8 August 2010:

The Coalition will end Labor's procrastination and fully and finally implement the Howard/Turnbull/Anderson plan for the Murray Darling basin.

NSW North Coast residents will no doubt recall that in 2006-07 the Howard Government (with Malcolm Turnbull as Water Minister) was actively exploring the possibility of damming and diverting fresh water from the Clarence River catchment and then piping this water into either the lower part of the Queensland section or the upper part of the New South Wales section of the Murray Darling Basin river system, with a view to providing water to inland irrigators, mines, power stations and, as an afterthought, to increase environmental flow.

Other North Coast rivers were also being considered by Howard, Turnbull and Anderson.

A brief history of proposals to raid the Clarence River catchment:
Clarence Valley Council Mayoral Minute CLARENCE RIVER DIVERSION, April 2007
Dam the Clarence? No Way? June 2007
Dam the neighbours, April 2007
Clarence River dam proposal slammed as deceptive, August 2009

Now I've heard it all! Transcript of Tony Abbott's official election campaign launch 8 August 2010

When an official Federal Coalition election campaign launch includes the following lines delivered by its Brave Leader then one knows the rhetoric can only go downhill from there:

So today, my fellow Liberals and Nationals, we face a historic challenge. Not since 1975 has there been such a time in Australian politics. Our task is nothing less than to save Australia from the worst government in its history.

Full transcript here.

Abbott & stripping the young of their dignity

It's always easy to look at teh yoof of today and think that their dress and behaviour leaves them with little dignity to loose - until you cast your mind back to your own green days and recall the depth of feeling hidden beneath that mess of hair and suede shoes.
So 'Phoney Tony' Abbott's latest talk of visionary ideas about breaking "the youth welfare subculture" by supposedly supplying yoof with jobs in exchange for their voluntarily giving up welfare sounds a bit suss from a man who only months ago wanted to ship young people holus bolus across a continent to barren mining camps run by his free market mates.
Fer gawd's sake! The latest ABS figures show that total unemployment is still trending down, full-time and part-time employment is increasing and labour force participation has increased slightly.
When is comes to the Oz youngsters - the employment to population ratio of all 15 to 19 year olds in June 2010 was 47%.
Around 693,000 teens were in a job last month. A big slice of the rest are either still full-time students (over 1 million), overseas on their gap year, or actively looking for full-time work in this country (about 69,000).
Fact is that the percentage of unemployed yoof is less in June 2010 than it was in May 2009 and last year 84% of Oz teenagers 15 and over were either studying full-time or working full-time, according to the Foundation for Young Australians.
Doesn't sound like much of a welfare subculture to me.

Tones track record on respecting the young.

2010 Election Campaign Day 24 - And the media thinks he's joking?

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Nauru President Marcus Stephen:

"Sometimes I think we need a guided democracy," Mr Abbott joked as they wrapped up discussions, noting that the media in some other countries were "much less disruptive than they are here."

Graphic from Still Life With Cat

Juxtaposition - who said it was a lost art?

The Tweed Daily News website provided a wonderful example of how not to advertise a product in its reporting.

Tweed Daily News, along with other APN publications, is conducting a competition for its readers with 26 BlackBerry Smart Phones to be won. The phones have a recommended retail price $649.

Someone should have told TDN that running an item about security fears over the smartphones on the same page as the competition isn't a good look.

All is revealed: Grafton's Red Herring is a closet socialist

A correspondent in the letters column of The Daily Examiner deserves an award for outing a serial pest who makes far too many appearances on the paper's letters page.

The serial pest, known in some circles as Red Herring, should be given his marching orders by the paper's editor - in the courts such a person is deemed to be a vexatious litigant and, like scamsters associated with horse racing, is warned off and not allowed to expose themselves and their false and fraudulent activities.

A few coping strategies in the event Tony Abbott becomes prime minister

For your consideration. A few coping strategies in the event Tony Abbott becomes Australia's next prime minister on 21 August and you find yourself in the unhappy position of not being a White, Anglo-Saxon Christian Male with a profession or independent income:

1. Unilaterally declare civil war
2. Buy advanced survival gear and head for the hills until 2013
3. Empty your bank account and bribe your way onto the first small boat heading to New Zealand
4. Apply for refugee status with the United Nations
5. Join a protest movement and live underground until the Liberal Party decapitates Abbott or the next election comes around (whichever comes first)
6. Wear RM Williams from top to toe, stuff a pair of footy socks down your pants and loudly thump a bible in order to pass yourself off as a White Anglo-Saxon Christian Male

7. Go on a three-year bender

8. If you are female throw way your shoes and stay pregnant, or if you are a male start bullying your significant other, to show that you're with the Agnus Dei New Order
9. Revert to the superstitious and boil wax effigies of The Great Leader, set fire to his image and generally call upon the dark forces to take their spawn back from whence it came
10. Pretend to be invisible and watch silently from a barricaded house as the country marches backwards into the Middle Ages..........

Cartoon from Google Images

2010 Election Campaign Day 23 - I declare National Mark Latham Day!

The Australian : Shades of that aggressive Latham-Howard handshake

I always knew Mark Latham was a rabbit and this piece in Saturday's Granny Herald only confirms it:

"Mr Latham, who is producing a segment for the Nine Network's 60 Minutes program, approached Ms Gillard and asked why Labor had complained to the network about his presence.

A smiling Ms Gillard responded: "I don't know anything about that, Mark.

"If you want to work for Channel Nine, that's a matter for you."

Mr Latham then suggested his one-time Labor ally speak out against former prime minister Kevin Rudd for trying to sabotage her campaign.

"Have a dig at him," he told her.

But Ms Gillard merely laughed and wished him well with his journalistic endeavours.

An ALP spokesman later denied the party had made any complaint to the Nine Network.

The Nine Network had not responded to inquiries as to whether a complaint was made."

And like the bunny that he is, Latham (whose real beef was that Gillard had refused his interview request) deserves to find himself in the nation's stewpot garnished with onions and a fistful of parsley.

A few steel traps along the campaign trail should do the trick!

Wondering if you may now be able to vote on 21 August? See this Statement from the Australian Electoral Commission on High Court Decision

Wondering if yesterday's High Court of Australia judgment means that you can now vote even if you missed the 19 July close of rolls deadline?

This 6 August 2010 AEC media release explains the position:

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) acknowledges today's High Court decision that allows additional eligible voters to now be entitled to vote in the 2010 federal election. Voters affected are those who submitted correctly completed claims for enrolment after 8pm on Monday 19 July but before 8pm on Monday 26 July.
The AEC will process these additional enrolment claims in coming days and attempt to contact all electors concerned to advise they are entitled to vote and how to obtain further assistance if needed.
The voter lists, used in polling places to mark off those who have voted, for the 2010 election have already been printed and distributed, so it is too late to include these voters on these lists.
This means that voters affected by today's decision who attend a polling place on election day (or early voting centre) will have to cast a declaration vote and provide an accepted form of evidence of identity. The AEC therefore urges those electors to carry their driver's licence or other accepted form of identity with them when voting to easily meet these requirements (list below).
The AEC will provide further advice once it has studied the full detail of the High Court's decision.

Acceptable documents
01 Australian driver licence
02 Birth Certificate, or an extract (must be Australian and issued at least 5 years ago)
03 Certificate of Australian citizenship
04 Concession Card from Centrelink (must be current)
05 Concession Card from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (must be current)
06 Credit or bank account card (must be current)
07 Defence force, Australian discharge document
08 Divorce documents from the Family Court of Australia
09 Employee identification card (must be current with a photograph and signature)
10 Firearm's licence (must be current with a photograph and signature)
11 Justice of the Peace appointment document (must be Australian)
12 Marriage Certificate (must be registered in Australia)
13 Medicare card
14 Passport (must be Australian and current)
15 Proof of age card issued by, or under the authority of, a state or territory government
16 Security guard/crowd control licence (must be current)
17 Student identification card (must be current with a photograph)
Note: Provisional New Citizens must provide their Certificate of Australian citizenship.

Media contact
Phil Diak
Director, Media and Communication Strategy
Canberra
02 6271 4415 0413 452 539

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

A terrible cruelty musing: Snowy, a 19-month-old domestic longhair from Bankstown NSW was restrained with tape and set alight in July 2010 by a person or persons unknown. The RSPCA is calling for anyone with information to come forward - contact the RSPCA on 02 9770-7555 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

A tartan musing: Congrats to Super Sally the Blue Heeler for winning the best dressed dog competition at Maclean's International Tartan Day celebrations on 3 July 2010. Only a brave mutt can wear that much tartan!

A Bananabending Moggies musing: While handsome felines like myself can get lifetime registration in this state for a standard fee ($15 if your hoomin slave is a pensioner), my poor cousins living in Queensland are at the mercy of each local council and no-one's mentioning a lifetime rego fee - just incredible annual charges which come into effect by the end of 2010. Queensland moggies unite - picket your council office until lifetime registration is the norm!

A Rex's pleased musing: Rex's rebarked that although he knows most of Yamba's walls, telegraph posts and similar spots he is (for different reasons) tickled pink about this new site: iGo2 Yamba which gave him a mention.

A Rexie Rulz! musing: Rex the German Shepherd is till beating his hoomins when it comes to Bill's clues about who's hitting the shebert instead of the ball at Yamba Golf Club. Rex reckons Bill only gets one 'starr' for his latest effort.

A not so cryptic musing: Bill was trying a little Poirot-style clue when he laid this down in a local golfing gossip column in early June 2010 - "Let's be frank, if you try to outfox the fuzz it could well be all over for you." Sorry Bill. Rex the German Shepherd had nailed the buggy driver before his master had even finished reading Putts & Pars. Even if he suffers from the disadvantage of not being a moggy, Rex is a very smart dog!

A Margaret McKenna musing: My little canine friend Veronica Lake tells me that one of the furry kids she plays with was looking over her papa's shoulder and read this bit of a letter from the Grafton accountant currently passing herself off as a shire councillor - I represent US and am insulted you think I may represent McDonalds. (and that is US not U.S.) Still laffing....

A Million Paws musing: The 16th Annual RSPCA Million Paws Walk is being held across Australia today Sunday 16 May 2010 and is THE big day out for animal lovers. Well done to my many furry friends as they try for a new Australian record!

A way too much information musing: Word round the catsnip patch is that a certain NSW North Coast councillor used a local government committee meeting to not-so-subtly brag about his sexual prowess - eeewww!

2010 Election Campaign Day 22 - A Nobel Laureate trumps a Rhodes Scholar

 

Nobel Laureate and respected economist Joseph Stiglitz reckons the Rudd Labor Government got it right with its fast-acting economic stimulus policy during the Global Financial Crisis according to Aunty ABC:

 

"One of the world's top economists says the fiscal stimulus package delivered in Australia during the global financial crisis was among the best designed in the world.

A report today found there are some valid concerns about the poor value for money on the school spending part of the package.

However, Nobel Prize laureate and Professor at New York's Columbia University Joseph Stiglitz says there will always be some waste with such programs.

He says that is preferable to the waste of human and capital resources that would have resulted if there was no stimulus.

"You were lucky to have, probably, the best designed stimulus package of any of the countries, advanced industrial countries, both in size and in design, timing and how it was spent - and I think it served Australia well," he said."

A hand which definitely beats a Rhodes Scholar who probably hasn't opened a book on economics in half a lifetime.

High Court judgment bitchslaps Abbott

In 2006 an arrogant John Winston Howard and an increasingly despotic Coalition Government passed legislation limiting an Australian citizen's right to vote by closing the Commonwealth electoral roll on the same day election writs were issued.

This was Tony Abbott (then a Howard Goverment minister and Leader of the House) back in 2006 on the subject:
Another of the accusations hurled at us by the Leader of the Opposition was the ludicrous suggestion that we are in some way stripping young people of their right to vote.

In June 2010 the Rudd-Gillard Government attempted to introduce legislation which would rollback sections of electoral law to a pre-Howard era when citizens' rights were intact.

In that same June Tony Abbott's Coalition voted against the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other Measures) Bill 2010 in the Lower House and seems to have sent the bill to limbo in the Upper House.

This is what Liberal MP and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey had to say concerning the Labor Government's 2010 bill:

The amendments in this bill that relate to the closing of rolls seven days after the writs are issued will be opposed by the coalition. The previous government, in line with longstanding policy, moved to protect the integrity of the roll and prevent fraudulent enrolments by reducing the time period between the calling of an election and the closing of rolls. The closure of the rolls seven days after the issue of a writ is a significant threat to the integrity of the electoral roll.

This is what Liberal MP Andrew Robb later parroted:
On the close of rolls, the fundamental point is this: the closure of the rolls seven days after the issue of a writ is a significant threat to the integrity of the electoral roll. The previous coalition government, in line with longstanding policy, moved to protect the integrity of the roll and prevent fraudulent enrolments by reducing the time period between the calling of an election and the close of the rolls.

While Liberal MP Cory Bernardi chimed in with:
I consider the closure of the rolls seven days after the issue of a writ to be a threat to the very integrity of the electoral roll.

However, many ordinary Australians did not agree with that neo-con bloc and today the GetUp! challenge of those Howard electoral law amendments was successful and Abbott received the considered rebuff he deserved from the full bench of the High Court.

Media Release - Manager, Public Information, High Court of Australia:

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

6 August 2010

ROWE & ANOR v ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER & ANOR

On 26 July 2010, proceedings were commenced in the Melbourne Registry of the Court seeking a declaration that certain provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) effecting cut-off dates for consideration of applications for enrolment and transfers of enrolment as an elector are invalid. One of those provisions, s 102(4), prevents the Electoral Commissioner from considering claims for enrolment lodged after 8 pm on the date of the issue of writs for an election for the House of Representatives or the Senate until after the close of polling. Another provision, s 102( 4AA), prevents consideration of claims for transfer of enrolment from one divisional roll to another from 8 pm on the date of the close of the rolls for an election until after the close of polling. A third provision, s 155, provides that the rolls close on the third working day after the date of the writs.

The challenged provisions had been introduced into the Commonwealth Electoral Act by the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 (Cth) ("the Amendment Act").

The application for the declaration and for writs of mandamus was referred to the Full Court by Justice Hayne on 29 July 2010 and argument on the application was heard by the Full Court on 4 and 5 August 2010. The application was amended at the hearing so that the declaration sought related to the validity of some other provisions of the Amendment Act.

Today the Court by majority declared that provisions of the Amendment Act which introduced the challenged provisions into the Commonwealth Electoral Act are invalid. The declaration also covered certain consequential amendments made by the Amendment Act including other provisions effecting cut-off dates relating to the enrolment of persons living outside Australia (s 94A(4)(a» and itinerant electors (s 96(4», and the eligibility of spouses, de facto partners or children of eligible overseas electors for enrolment (s 95(4».

The orders of the Court were:

1. Declare that Items 20, 24, 28, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 and 52 of Sched 1 to the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 (Cth) are invalid.

2. The second defendant to pay the plaintiffs' costs of the Further Amended Application for an Order to Show Cause.

The Court will publish its reasons for decision at a later date.

• This statement is not intended to be a substitute for the reasons of the High Court or to be used in any later consideration of the Court's reasons.

* Bitchslap: To slap someone (particularly but not necessarily female) who is being rude or nasty, perhaps screaming a lot (i.e., being a bitch). The idea is to get them to calm down and behave. It doesn't necessarily mean you really hit the person; there is such a thing as a verbal bitchslap OR The literal and/or metaphoric slapping or whacking someone in order to knock some sense into them.

Abbott and his Amazing Technicolour PLP Coat

First the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott announced that, if elected to government on 21 August, he would introduce a paid parental leave scheme which was very different from the Gillard Government scheme which commences next January.

His scheme would provide mothers with 26 weeks paid parental leave, at full replacement wage (up to a maximum salary of $150,000 per annum) or the Federal Minimum Wage, whichever is greater and, include superannuation contributions.
All of this to be paid by a 1.7 per cent levy on business with annual taxable incomes in excess of $5 million.

Well, the scheme entrenches income inequality (because not every woman will have $1,500 to $2,000 or so in the weekly take-home pay packet) but it probably passed muster with many voters because the taxpayer was not paying these wages. But wait.......

Now we find out that the scheme will be funded by a 1.5 per cent levy on business (offset by a 1.5 per cent company tax cut) and, an estimated $100 million annually from taxpayers will supplement public service 26 week paid parental leave - all starting on 1 July 2012.

Still, what's a hundred million between friends. Think of the dear babies. But wait there's more......

The levy on business is designed to cut out and all paid parental leave under his scheme will be funded from the Budget by 1 July 2013 according to Abbott.

Er, now doesn't that look suspiciously like Abbott's paid parental leave scheme will always be fully funded by the taxpayer after that first year?

How do you feel about paying some women over a thousand dollars a week (plus super contributions) to stay home with their babies, while your own children or grandchildren do without essential services/infrastructure in rural and regional Australia?

They are passionate about their politics in regional Australia [Part Two]

From The Daily Examiner letters to the editor on 2 August 2010:

Roll on, poll

LIKE many other Australians, August 21, can't come soon enough for mine; not only because watching the election campaign play out is like following a perverse, B-grade comedy of errors, but also because we will finally see an end to Fred Perring's daily banal bleatings on the minutiae of the subject.

As if vague interpretation of Julia Gillard's body language and last week's bizarre comparison of Gillard to an ageing bovine weren't enough, his inane commentary plunged to all-new depths of absurdity in his letter of Thursday, July 29 in which he draws the reader's attention to the 'seeds' of Marxist socialism somehow lodged in Ms Gillard's DNA (I remain unsure whether this is a mixed metaphor or an actual scientific claim).

By definition, protecting the rights of the worker underpins the ideology of the Labor Party, so it stands to reason that its representatives would cite successful historical figures from the international labour movement, Nye Bevan for example, as inspiration.

To use the parlance of our times: D'oh!

Based on his repeated warnings, Mr Perring seems to think that we need to be vigilant against reds under the bed, despite the fact that communism was pretty much discredited decades ago, if not before, then certainly by the time of the epic and spectacular failure of the USSR, a fact of which Ms Gillard is no doubt aware.

Judging by her performance as a Member of Parliament and Prime Minister so far, perhaps a more accurate reflection of her views, she appears to be somewhat pragmatic and realistic about the practicality of establishing a new Communist paradise for the 21st century, even for a former student socialist.

It's a pity that Mr Perring is allowing quantity to take precedence over quality; perhaps if he saved the most insightful of his observations for a weekly tirade they would be of more interest and amusement, not to mention equally at home in the editorial pages of Quadrant.


FELICITY WATSON
South Grafton

2010 Election Campaign Day 21 - Kev comes out fighting for his team this week

Former Oz PM KEVIN RUDD speaking in a 4th August 2010 ABC Late Night Live radio interview comes out fighting for his Labor team:

"Well, the bottom line is I can't just stand idly by at the prospect of Mr Abbott sliding into office by default. I mean elections are really important things Phillip. They're about who governs the country affects the lives, in a very direct way of every one of your listeners, every family in the country, every business in the country, every community, every school, every hospital . I mean we've got too much at stake here, we spent a long time keeping the economy strong despite the global financial crisis, we've come through that. Mr Abbott opposed those measures. We spent a long time getting a deal for the future funding of our hospitals in place - Mr Abbott opposed that. We spent a long time negotiating a national broadband network in place and Mr Abbott says he's going to tear that down. And I think we do know where he stands on the reintroduction of Workchoices. So there's big stuff at stake for the country and I suppose my message more broadly is, the future of KM Rudd is one thing, the future of the country is actually much bigger because it affects 22 million of us, not just one........

Look I think it's pretty important that the team comes, ah comes first. I'm always concerned about being some sort of side show to the main event because the main even tis what's important. The main event is the country's future and that will be what the Prime Minister has to say. But look, what's my predisposition? I will be there but on the condition that I don't have a major relapse before then and secondly, that I'm not a distraction from what I think is a pretty serious debate about what sort of future we want for our country and I don't think it's a debate which we can allow - with only two and half weeks to go before D Day, that we can't allow to be trivialised. It's too important.....

No government's perfect, no Prime Minister's perfect, I wasn't, Keating wasn't, Hawke wasn't, Gillard's not. But you know something? When it comes to the fundamentals of economic policy settings, general policy settings, the country's heading in the right direction and if anyone doubts that just for one moment, think about what's going on the moment throughout Europe and North America. And what I do know for a fact is that it's hard to build things up, it's very easy for people like Mr Abbott to tear things down."

With some justification Janelle Saffin beats her own drum in the Page electorate

Federal Labor MP Janelle Saffin is known locally as one politician who has managed to attract money to the NSW North Coast and, she has recently sent out a campaign leaflet which outlines funding she has secured for the Page electorate over the last three years totalling almost $783 million - for everything from health and community infrastructure/services to roads and flood mitigation. That is in addition to the cash payments received by individuals/families and the school building program that came into the region courtesy of the Federal Government's GFC economic stimulus policy.

Here is a breakdown by area:

Alstonville/Woollongbar - $91 million

Ballina - $532.3 million

Casino - $5.9 million

Evans Head - $3.8 million

Grafton/South Grafton - $43.4 million

Iluka/Woombah - $291,897

Kyogle - $6.1 million

Lismore - $97.3 million

Yamba - $2.7 million

Bonalbo/Tabulam/Urbenville/Woodenbong - $450,225

Have you seen Chloe the Staffy?

In The Daily Examiner yesterday.

LAST Thursday night there were a series of loud explosions somewhere in the Grafton area.
I vaguely remember hearing something but didn't pay too much attention.
On Saturday night while our family was away it happened again.
Apparently though, it went on for sometime and rumour was that it continued until around 1am.
Our six-year-old staffy dog is very sensitive to these sounds and so would be many other dogs.
Since Saturday night our dog has been missing.
I hope she has been found and kept safe, as a search on Sunday morning failed to find her.
She is a loving dog and would not hurt anyone.
Her name is Chloe and she is black and dark brown.
To the senseless idiots (there is no other word) that created this disturbance, that's all you are - idiots.

TONY FOULSTONE Grafton NSW

2010 Election campaign Day 20 - Remember it was the Libs & Nats who wanted to steal Northern Rivers water!

Everyone living on the NSW North Coast can remember the Howard Government's intention to dam and divert coastal rivers in order to supply water to the big mines, power companies and irrigators in south-east Queensland and north-west New South Wales.
The 2007 federal election stopped this raid cold in its tracks.
Howard may be gone, but most of those greedy b#stards still remain on the 21st August 2010 ballot paper and some even continue to refer to massive water theft as visionary or call for the Clarence River to be dammed and diverted.

Some history:
Council vows to fight Clarence River dam proposal
Dam the neighbours
A Clarence Valley Protest

2010 Election Campaign Day 19 - I can't believe he said that!

I can't believe a bloke who thrusts his lycra-clad family jewels in front of any camera he can find would have the hide to say: "I find the Burqa a particularly confronting form of attire. I would very much wish that fewer Australians would choose it."

Not impressed with Abbott's aged care promises

The policy has also come under fire from the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
AMA president Dr Andrew Pesce says while incentives to provide more aged care beds are a welcome move, they should not come at the cost of GP services.
"Not only is there no new funding for the provision of medical care to older Australians, the Coalition has committed to cut the $98.4 million promised by Labor in the May Budget to provide incentive payments for GPs to provide services in aged care homes," he said in a statement.
"This is a missed opportunity for the Coalition that has been compounded by taking away the only new funding that was available to improve access to medical care for older Australians, at a time of their life when their medical care needs are very high." [ABC News 2 August 2010]

The NSW North Coast is a prime destination for Australian east coast seachangers, treechangers and retirees. Which means that this region is starting to experience what will be an continuous extended aging band in its overall population demographics.

So it is more than a little disappointing that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is placing aging issues at the back of the funding queue once again:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has warned the coalition's aged care policy will be limited by how much money is left in government coffers.....
"I want to caution people against expecting enormous dollars," Mr Abbott told reporters in Adelaide.

This disappointment is somewhat personal for North Coast Voices as most of our regular contributors are over sixty years of age and, quite frankly, in regional and rural areas the glue which often holds communities together is the commitment of now aging volunteers and community stalwarts.

Abbott's plan to bribe nursing home operators to use all their current bed allocations does not engender confidence and, in the face of a longstanding regional aged care services shortfall, promising $14 million for nursing home 'pets as therapy' is an ill-conceived pledge.

While his plan to shuffle older patients in stressed public hospitals to post-hospital care in stressed nursing homes is rendered risible by the fact that in regional areas any empty nursing home bed is a rare commodity.

His announced $935 million aged care package has no roll-out details and, is pitifully inadequate when the Aged Care Association is warning that Australia will need on average $2.5 billion each year for the next twenty years just to keep up with demand.

Given Abbott's stated intention to roll back the Labor Government's new mining tax while still reducing company tax and the fact that he is tossing around what seem to be unfunded promises in so many ministerial portfolios, this aged care election promise of 1 August 2009 does not appear to be achievable - until one realises that he intends to simply take money from other areas of the overstretched public heath system to fund this particular election 'sweetener'.

They are passionate about their politics in regional Australia

From the Clarence Valley Review classifieds on Wednesday 28 July 2010.
















Clarrie suggests that this short announcement contains a typo and the last word should be GOLD.
On the other hand.............

William Cooper, a righteous man (ATSIC readers please note this post contains image of deceased person)

AN Aboriginal elder is about to make history by becoming the first indigenous Australian to be honoured with his own memorial and garden at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem....

"'You Australians should know that a group of Aboriginal people led by William Cooper held in your country the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht'."

[The Australian 2 August 2010]

Another NSW North Coast council disappoints

On 27 July 2010 The Bellingen Shire Courier Sun reported on the failure of Bellingen Shire Council to support Uranga residents and the Urunga Storm and Flood Mitigation Committee formed in July 2009 after widespread regional flooding in the first half of that year:

"Cr Mark Troy announced they were going to approach the State Government for funding. He said the Council couldn't afford to fund this work but they would be immediately making that application. For the next few months I regularly rang the Mayor to be told they hadn't had any response from the State," said Mr Boatfield.

"Mike Edsall (former Director of Engineering) rang me at 11am on November 12, (6 months after the flood). Mike apologised for taking so long to respond on behalf of Mark Troy in relation to my constant requests for an update on Councils progress. He then said "the Council needed to apologise for misleading the Committee as there had virtually been no progress to this stage and no funding had been applied for but they were now applying for funding of $45,000 from the Floodplain Assistance Committee, to advertise for quotes to do a feasibility study on option 2. "This was to see if the last study conducted in 1999 with recommendations that scheme No.2 be adopted and the works to be completed by 2001 would still be the best outcome (Option 2 is an open drain across Urunga to a drain under Morgo Street) this would reduce the flood level by 1.5 meters and could mean virtually no houses would be inundated with floodwater. This new study was subject to a State grant. To date this has not been achieved.

"Councillor Bruce Cronin, who was involved in the original Public Meeting and who totally agrees with our continued efforts and our above statements, regrets that he sees little or no light at the end of the tunnel for our cause. All we are getting are words of agreement from every source, but no money & therefore no action," Mr Boatfield said.

"It is now time for Council to come clean on their course of actions and stop hiding behind the inactivity of Government and get for Urunga what the rate payers need and make it a priority for Urunga. If Council is so ineffective in looking after us please tell us who to approach," he concluded.

Bellingen flooding photographs

Intoduction to Journalism 101 or What not to do as a regional journalist

There are over 100 million Facebook accounts around the world and anyone who has an account can in theory read everyone of these pages.
These particular Facebook snapshots was passed on to me with the comment that it was not a good look for any jounalist working on a regional paper with a circulation of less than 9,000 covering a population of around 150,000.

In fact - not a good look when working in any relatively small community where you may already have a higher profile than the fella next door because you work in teh meeja.
On checking I tend to agree.

Going onto a pollie's Facebook page and publically mocking the Federal Treasurer, sniggering about the NSW Premier, bagging local Labor or egging on a candidate is definitely not a good look if you want to be seen as an even-handed journalist.

The journo in question is Josh McMahon and the Facebook sites belong to the NSW North Coast's Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin, NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell and Nationals federal candidate for Page at the 21st August election, Kevin Hogan.

2010 Election Campaign Day 18 - @rsehole alert!

"PERTH Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has suggested Julia Gillard's atheism could cost her votes. But he says Tony Abbott's "strong Christian faith" could benefit him.
The provocative comments triggered heated debate on Perth talkback radio yesterday as a string of callers objected to the apparent leap into partisan politics.

The archbishop told The Australian he had not meant to imply people should not vote for the Prime Minister - a self-professed atheist - and was simply "sounding a caution" about the rise of secularism in politics." {Perth Now 30th July 2010}

"Gillard told the ABC’s Madonna King this week that she was not “a big time, you know, fashionista, in that sense. I, you know, view myself as someone who works and I wear the clothes that are appropriate to the work that I do, so I took that perspective”.
Which might have stunned readers of the Vive article for which she wore a Giorgio Armani black suit valued at $3000, an Emporio Armani white shirt ($440), Chloe black suede stilettos ($745) and a pair of Monteperla golden pearl earrings ($11,000).
That’s a total of about $15,185 worth of clobber - the equivalent of 43 1/2 weeks’ pension. Not bad for a small-time fashionista." {Piers Akerman in The Daily Telegraph on 29th July 2010, misrepresenting the obviously borrowed clobber used in an Australian Women's Weekly photo shoot}

Essential Report: yet another tight opinion poll for the main contenders in 2010 Australian federal election

From the Essential Report (2 August 2010) survey conducted online from 27th July to 1st August 2010:

Q. The Federal Election will be held on 21 August – to which party will you probably give your first preference in the House of Representatives? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

Q. If don’t know – Well which party are you currently leaning to for the House of Representatives?

Click image to enlarge

2,418 sample size

NB. The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived the first preference/leaning to voting questions. Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results. The two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2007 election.
* Sample is the aggregation of two weeks’ polling data.

The questions in this week’s report include:

Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister?

Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?

Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott?

Q. What is the main reason you intend to vote for the Labor Party/Liberal or National Party/Greens?

Q. Tony Abbott has proposed to cut immigration from around 300,000 a year to 170,000? Do you approve or disapprove of this cut to immigration?

Q. Which leader and party do you trust most to handle immigration issues?

If my animals could vote in 2010?

If my animals could vote in 2010?

The dogs Blair and Tom would definitely be voting for Julia Gillard. She's a fine alpha bitch who got rid of the top dog and obviously knows were all the bones are buried.

The bathroom cat Venus would vote for Tony Abbott. He, like cats, knows that the world is divided into masters and slaves and how quickly he assured the big miners that his government would not tax them shows he respects the masters.

The goldfish think that the Greens have the best policies for them. The Greens are for a good environmental flow for all waterways and they have the kindest immigration policies - both these points are very important for foreign fish.

All the birds have agreed that they will put the Shooters Party at the bottom of their ticket.

Most of the geese will be voting for Family First since it pretends to be the moral majority. This falls in line with the unmated geese’s habit of attempting to disrupt the mating of any partnered birds.

The chooks are definitely swinging voters, they are keeping their cards and feathers close to their wishbones.

Arnold the poddy calf is still undecided; I think he's been talking to the chooks.

Original goose graphic

The Liberals descend to what looks suspiciously like defamtion...

Journalist Andrew Bolt and former Howard Government foreign minister, Alexander Downer plumb the depths with this comment by Downer repeated by The Bolter:

"I don't use the c-word, but I do use the f-word pretty freely, and I can tell you that Kevin Rudd is a f****** awful person."

Original 1 August 2010 article here.

Nats Kevin Hogan sets the record straight

 

Nationals candidate for Page Kevin Hogan appears to think that the Australian Rudd-Gillard Government has not delivered worthwhile funding to the NSW North Coast.

"Despite being one of the highest spending governments in our history, Labor hasn't managed to fund the projects that would have really improved our lives here on the North Coast."  he states.

 

Silly me! How could I be so wrong? Here I was thinking that the North Coast was doing rather well out of that Labor Government in Canberra.

 

Particularly in the Page electorate with this federal funding: $2.6M for a Grafton sports complex; "$597,000 for eight ready-to-go community infrastructure projects in the Clarence Valley"; $149,727 to help address local teenage binge drinking; "$19.7M upgrade to Grafton Base Hospital operating theatres and emergency department" currently underway; $1.3M in new housing completed and "more than $1 million for repairs and maintenance to 336 social housing units"; $105,000 for Clarence Valley Council tourism project and at least $9.4M for local infrastructure [The Daily Examiner 19.06.10, 27.02.10, 20.02.10, 29.01.10, 11.12.09, 17.10.09, 01.09.09].

 

After reading other local newspapers, I was also under the impression that the North Coast Area Health Service has received federal funding for public hospital and community health programs/projects right across the region and school halls and classrooms were going up in many a primary or highschool in the five shires courtesy of federal stimulus money.

 

I'm only sorry that the library has no local newspaper records from January 2008 to July 2009 so that I could further explore my complete lack of understanding.

 

Here in the Northern Rivers we are all so lucky to have someone like Kevin to set us straight by giving the 'real' facts of the matter and, reminding us that life is not "really improved" by the type and scale of funding I've listed here.

 

Will he next set us straight about Federal Labor's increase in fortnightly pension payments for single pensioners and state that this was really bad for their general wellbeing?