Kevin 747 packs his travel bag - again!

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stepped into another jet plane on the weekend and flew out of the country.
I'm beginning to lose count of how many overseas trips Our Kev has made since the federal election of November 2007.
Is this the 14th, 15th or 16th taxpayer-funded jaunt?

Here on the NSW North Coast we are struggling with high fuels costs without a real choice to use public transport, rent increases in a housing pool which is not growing to keep up with demand, spiralling grocery prices in areas with some of the lowest wages and highest unemployment in Australia, a crumbling health system with a truly laughable public dental service, inadequate pensions of all sorts which see recipients going without life's essentials and many self-funded retirees taking a big hit from the global financial crisis.

Kev old cobber, I'm not impressed - you're putting on pork and we're getting skinnier.

Somehow that just doesn't seem right in the lucky country.......

Uh oh...

I put Kev on the plane 24 hours ahead of his departure time. Sorry for the confusion.

A selection of NSW Northern Rivers art

Untitled landscape by John Turton

Untitled seascape by Spuddy

Untitled bird study by Christine Willcocks

These Northern Rivers artists displayed at

Total Travel

Sidesplitting quote from the Nationals' chief nong

The Daily Examiner in true tabloid style ran a front page yesterday on the 'war' over bats going on at Maclean.

State Nationals MP for Clarence, Steve Cansdell, drew a bellow of laughter from me at breakfast when I read that he had said: "war will be declared on this Federal Government" and "A major confrontation will occur and I will be in the centre of it - I have to be".

Trust our resident political nong.
As yet there are no bats in any number in the immediate vicinity of Maclean High School.
With the extinction of the adjoining rainforest patch in which flying foxes previously roosted, they may not come back as a highly visible presence for generations.
Yet here he is - ready to get out the batmobile and confront Canberra at the head of his 'troops'.

All this huffing and puffing because the precautionary dispersal licence applied for is apparently going through the usual channels whenever such an application concerns a listed vulnerable species.

Bucket rating awarded to APN media for giving Stevo's hysteria column inches:

Batty politics

The Clarence Valley township of Maclean has a front row seat as the Labor MP for Page and the Nationals MP for Cowper play duelling banjos to the tune of bats awa' wi ye.

On September 8th The Daily Examiner told the world:

On Thursday, The Daily Examiner reported that an application by Clarence Valley Council and the New South Wales Department of Education for a licence to disperse bats from a rainforest reserve near Maclean High School and an area known as 'the gully' had hit a stumbling block.
The applicants were advised by the Federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts that it considered disturbing bats as a 'controlled action' which required a lengthy and time-consuming environmental impact statement (EIS)....
They are concerned about delays in approval for the licence that they've had in past years to disperse the bats so they won't settle in the school area," Ms Saffin said.
"This is a matter for the state and federal environment departments and I don't see why the previous licensing arrangements can't continue.
"I have agreed to raise the issue with Environment Minister Peter Garrett on behalf of the school community and I'm aware that timing is an issue on this matter."

On September 19th ABC North Coast broadcast this:

The federal Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, has taken the issue of the bats at Maclean to the federal stage.
In a speech to the Parliament this week, Mr Hartsuyker criticised the federal Environment Department for not approving the granting of a licence to remove the bats from bush near the Maclean High School.
Mr Hartsuyker says the New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change referred the matter to the Commonwealth.
He says the federal Environment Department wants a report prepared before making a decision.
"There's no justification in stopping those bats from moving on, there is a precedent for this and the people of Maclean, the students and staff of the school are certainly demanding of a safe place to go to school and certainly a good educational environment," he said.

No-one seems to be going to bat for the vulnerable Grey-headed Flying Fox except the Federal Dept. of the Environment.
It will be interesting to see if Minister Peter Garrett listens to his department or the political banjos.

I'm almost tempted to say...

Truffles Turnbull and Co attempting to buy themselves out of trouble?

THE Supreme Court has cleared the way for a multi-million dollar settlement of a legal action involving failed insurer HIH, giving new Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull the chance to avoid a potentially legal embarrassment.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Patricia Bergin today granted an application by HIH to put preparations for the case on hold for 90 days while the parties negotiate a settlement over the $500 million claim.

A settlement would mean Mr Turnbull, the former chairman of investment bank Goldman Sachs Australia, would avoid the unwanted attention of a protracted court case involving himself and eight other defendants and 118 cross-claims.

However, if the matter cannot be settled, the court will most likely hear from witnesses such as disgraced former HIH chief executive Ray Williams and former FAI chief Rodney Adler, who is also a defendant, in what would be the lead-up to the next election.

Is Turnbull willing to risk having to personally pay out a considerable sum in an out-of-court settlement in the hope of becoming Australian prime minister in 2010?

Is he that driven? That desperate?

Did the Pope put his money where his mouth is?

ABC Radio's AM program reported that Pope Benedict who flies on the chartered Alitalia Flight commentators dubbed Shepherd One was praying for the airline which is on the brink of collapse. (Read the transcript here.)

Airline companies collapsing has become such a common occurrence that the British online betting agency Paddy Power offered punters odds on which airline company will be the next to hit terminal turbulence.

Thirty people made $30,000 when they successfully wagered on the collapse of XL, the third largest package holiday group. (Read about XL going down the gurgler here.)

Paddy Power rated Qantas a 66/1 prospect of being the next airline company to go belly up. Virgin was rated as the rank outsider at 100/1.
Alitalia was given the dubious honour of being the favourite.

Hence, the question arises. Did Benny put his money on another airline?

BTW, Paddy Power still rates Australia's George Pell a 66/1 chance of being the next Pope. Perhaps George is 'investing' the weekly plate collections on himself. (The odds of other wouldbes if they couldbes are listed here.)