Senator Michael Ronaldson - who?

Michael Ronaldson is a Liberal Party senator from Victoria and Shadow Minister of State.

I would call him the Hon. Michael Ronaldson except that he, along with his Coalition cronies, has acted most dishonourably of late in the Senate.

On Wednesday 11 March 2009 "Ronno" (as he supposedly likes to be called) helped the Coalition and Senator Fielding vote down the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2008 [2009].

This is a bill which would fulfil the Rudd Labor Government's election promise to bring back a lower limit for the reporting of political donations and, end the farce which saw the former Howard Government allow donors to make donation of up to $9,999 without those donations being publicly disclosed.
Consequently the number of disclosed donations to political parties started to fall away and confusion reigned.

Ronaldson in a remarkable piece of verbal contortion chortles that Labor has only itself to blame for the Coalition blocking this bill.
It won't be long before he adds the bill failure to the list of alleged broken Labor promises he constantly mentions on his own website.

I think that Senator Bob Brown's reply to the nonsense put forward by Ronaldson bears quoting here:

I listened carefully to Senator Ronaldson's plea that the legislation not be supported until we get comprehensive legislation into the parliament, but that is not the example that was set by the Howard government over the previous 12 years. In fact, piecemeal legislation which increased the ability of donors to the political system to be hidden and not identifiable was the order of the day. It is a good thing that we now have legislation that is reversing that order.

We look forward to consequent legislation in this parliament, and I hope that will be this year, to clean up the electoral processes in Australia, and that means quite massive and comprehensive changes to electoral laws.

For arts sake!

Deidre and Naoise by Julie Hutchings

Element by Kerrie Spiers

A LOL on the Liberal leadership.....

How Malcolm Turnbull's Friday 13 began?

Liberal Party leadership speculation

Just how many Friday 13ths can a koala bear?

Maud up the Street pointed out to me that today is the second of three Friday 13ths this year.

She tells me that there was only one in 2008 and two in both 2007 and 2006.

Poor Maud thinks it's a conspiracy to upset her delicate superstition balance that three have turned up in the one year.

Next year sees the return to only one Friday 13th, but little does she realise that 2015 and 2026 will also have three of these (un)lucky days.

A few more common superstitions here.

Picture: Google Images

Is this bus travelling to the left or the right?

Can't make up your mind?

Look carefully at the picture again.

Still don't know?

Pre-schoolers all over Australia were shown this picture and asked the same question.

90% of the pre-schooler's gave this answer...


"The bus is travelling to the right."

The pre-schoolers were then asked, "Why do you think the bus is travelling to the right?"

They answered, "Because you can't see the door to get on the bus."


How do you feel now?

Source: Unknown

Are we rolling with the economic punches or just running scared?

While Federal Labor, Liberals and Nationals are all still arguing about what degree of gloominess is appropriate for discussing the Australian economy and the global financial crisis, it appears that average Australians may have made up their minds.

Although the Melbourne Institute announced that "The median expected inflation rate, reported in the Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations, fell to 2.3 per cent in February from 2.7 per cent in January", it also released news that the "The Westpac–Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 4.6% in February from 89.9 in January to 85.8 in February".

Seems no matter how much money the Rudd Government throws at the situation or how the Reserve Bank acts on interest rates, we're all determined to expect the worst for this year if not the next.

I suspect that many would feel a lot more cheerful if those with personal or corporate agendas didn't use a megaphone to label the current global financial crisis as the Great Recession, which is a self-fulfilling prophesy if ever I heard one.

Northern Rivers move to tackle climate change co-operatively

This month sixteen Northern Rivers organisations attempt to take the first steps in a regional response to climate change through the Northern Rivers Climate Change Collaboration (NR3C).

The aim of this group is to help create organisational and community leadership, mobilise resources to tackle this big regional issue, as well as accelerate innovation.

Draft Northern Rivers Climate Change Collaboration Agreement here.

One has to applaud an effort which will need real commitment to survive and grow, for it will often fly in the face of local business/land developer short-term interests (and in some cases local government indifference to implementing its goals on the ground).