Tony's best friend increased her wealth by a reported $804 million in 2013

News.com.au 30 January 2014:

The who's who of Aussie wealth (in 2013)

Gina Rinehart (mining), $20.3 billion

Anthony Pratt (manufacturing), $8 billion

James Packer (gaming), $7.58 billion

Ivan Glasenberg (mining), $7.2 billion

Andrew Forrest (mining), $5.74 billion

Frank Lowy (shopping centres), $5.3 billion

Harry Triguboff (property) $4.9 billion

John Gandel (shopping centres), $3.7 billion

Paul Ramsay (health care), $3.5 billion

Kerr Neilson (investment), $3.33 billion

Lindsay Fox (transport) $2.5 billion

Kerry Stokes (media/mining) $1.8 billion

Gerry Harvey (retail) $1.4 billion

Solomon Lew (retail) $1.2 billion

Robert Ingham (agribusiness) $1.11 billion

Clive Palmer (mining) $631.8 million

*Source: Forbes Asia; all figures converted to $A

 * My red bolding

Australian Electoral Commission 2012-13 financial year annual returns by political parties, donors and others

The Australian Electoral Commission’s has released the 2012-13 financial year annual returns by political parties, donors and peak industry bodies/unions/political lobbyists.

Some interesting snippets.....

Universities Australia spent $4.75 million on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment.

GetUp! spent $3.03 million on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment

Phillip Morris Ltd spent $30,382 on public expression of views on a political party, candidate in an election or member of the Federal Parliament by any means and a further $19,359 on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment. This company also donated $82,040 to the Liberal Party and $25,000 to the National Party.

Roslyn Packer (widow of Clive Packer) donated $580,400 to the Liberal Party, with the bulk of this money going to the Liberal Party national body and only $400 going to the NSW division. However, the national body only appears to have recorded a donation of $570,000. This would leave a discrepancy of $10,000 between these annual returns.

Lachlan Murdoch donated $22,000 to the Liberal Party.

Gina Rinehart through Hancock Coal Pty Ltd donated $44,880 to the National Party and $55,000 to the Labor Party. While Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd donated $55,000 to the National Party and $8,250 to the Liberal National Party of Queensland. The national body also listed under "Other" an additional $22,000 received from Hancock Coal Pty Ltd (GVK).

International Motors Pty Ltd of Coleshill U.K. donated $76,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia and Impellam Group PLC of Luton U.K. has a little over $12,000 listed under "Other" by the party.

The Sydney Small Business Club (The Warringah Club) - Tony Abbott’s support group – declared $14,000 in gross cash/non-cash benefits received.

.

Associated entities submitting annual returns totalled 185.

Donors declaring numbered 787.

According to The Age on 3 January 2014; the Liberal Party's total revenue was $73.1 million last financial year, compared with $54.7 million for Labor. The Nationals further bolstered the Coalition's haul with $8.3 million. The Greens recorded $8.1 million in revenue.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 5 February 2014 reported; New Liberal MP Angus Taylor has been described as an asset to his party. News reports after his pre-selection for a country NSW seat in 2012 described the then candidate as ''smart'' and ''charming''. Financial disclosure documents reveal Mr Taylor is also an uncommonly valuable – perhaps uniquely valuable – financial asset to his party. The Liberal Party's annual dump of political revenue and donations, records a man named Angus Taylor, at an address in Sydney's Woollahra, who gave the Liberals $155,000 in five separate tranches in 2012-13. A call to Mr Taylor's office revealed the generous giver was the same man. The Woollahra address was an investment property, Mr Taylor said, adding that he had lived in his electorate, near Goulburn, and had been there for a long time. Mr Taylor, who won the safe Coalition seat of Hume at the September election by a margin of 11.5 per cent, concedes much of what he contributed to the party went towards his campaign including a car and petrol to get around the electorate, which is one of the largest in the country....

Talk about un-Australian!

Putting the heat on

It is not just the ABC that needs to have a long hard look at its inherent anti-government bias. Recently, another taxpayer-funded agency, also with a three-letter acronym, has been guilty of politically motivated bias. You can tell just by its name that "the BOM" (the Bureau of Meteorology) is a doubtful organisation with anti-establishment tendencies. Its preoccupation with storms and freak weather events is unbalanced. For example, how often do you hear talk of "an unusually pleasant string of Sunday afternoons"? This may well have happened, but oh no, you won't see that on the BOM website.

The BOM finally went too far this January. Allegedly the temperature in Melbourne was 41, 42, 44, and 45 degrees on four consecutive days. This is so biased it is laughable. For example, in my airconditioned living room it was under 30 the whole time, until the power failed, and even then it only reached 39 degrees. It is time the BOM was broken up and privatised, so instead of just one narrow view that serves only the anti-economic interests of greens and other looney-tunes, mainstream voices can be heard. We need choice, not depressing and frankly un-Australian weather "facts".

Paul Johnson, Clifton Hill

Source: The Age, 10/2/14

Coal Seam Gas: Leave It In The Ground

http://youtu.be/gsQvtfo_Qh0

Published on Apr 2, 2012

'The Mighty Dollar' Ep available from

http://lukevassella.bandcamp.com/
http://www.lukevassella.com/

TOP 10 RESULTS, AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITING CONTEST 2013

AUSTRALIA

1 The Mighty Dollar Luke Vassella
2 Ankle Deep Dani Karis
3 The Gold Luke Vassella
4 Wattarka Aubrey Beggs
5 Eleven Long Years Eden Parris
6 Rose Matilda Matt Zarb
7 River Luke Vassella
8 Speargrass Loren Steenkamp
9 Casino Luke Vassella
10 If I Were A Swagman Matt Zarb

Australian Parliament: Draft Legislation Programme For The House Of Representatives & Senate, 11-13 February 2014

For all the political tragics..........

House of Representatives

Click on images to enlarge

Senate timetable can be found here.

Time for Joe Hockey to put his money where his mouth is

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey has declared that; the age of entitlement is over, and the age of personal responsibility has begun.

Joe Hockey and his wife reportedly have a property portfolio which includes a 200ha cattle farm in North Queensland, a six bedroom heritage-listed family home in Hunters Hill that cost $3.5million in 2004, a home in Canberra and some properties worth more than $750,000 at Stanwell Tops.

Both he and his wife are reported to be millionaires in their own right, with the Treasurer thought to be personally worth at least $4.4 million and his wife considerably more.

So perhaps in this new age of personal responsibility, Mr. Hockey should abandon at least one of his own taxpayer-funded entitlements – those thousands of dollars he has taken to claiming in recent years from the Dept. of Finance and Deregulation for family travel.