'Typhoid Mary' Fielding goes too far

Struth, there's yet another idiot pollie fronting the teev this week!
Family First's leader and one and only member of the Australian parliament Senator Steve Fielding apparently not only thinks man-made global warming doesn't exist, he thinks the principles of viral transmission don't apply to his august person.
The obviously lobotomised senator has someone in his household he says has been diagnosed with swine flu, but is determined that even if he might be infectious himself he "doesn't want to take a sickie".
Yeah, nice one Stevo - go trotting through an air-conditioned workplace (open to the general public) dominated by older, sedentary men who would probably be more vulnerable to swine flu.
Look! See how quickly Steve can bring Parliament to its knees!
See how powerful Family First is!
Did we really vote this drongo in?

Q: What's a 2830?

A: A dubbo, of course.

As reported yesterday, a couple of Dubbo Zoo inmates, oops that should read Dubbo City Councillors, who previously resided in the Clarence Valley, are making big impressions in the local government arena in central western NSW.

Richard Mutton (left) and Peter Bartley (right), who are councillors on Dubbo City Council, have done their level best to demonstrate how effectively the National Party performs.

At Monday night's meeting of council a motion, moved by Mutton, that Bartley had breached the council's code of conduct, should be counselled and should apologise to the council was carried.

So who are Mutton and Bartley?

1. Mutton

When Gerry Peacocke retired as the State National Member for Dubbo in 1999 a swing of 19.4% was required if the Nationals were to lose the safest seat in NSW. With its remarkable collective wisdom the Nationals saw fit to preselect Mutton as their candidate. The rest is history ... Mutton suffered a humiliating defeat and lost the seat to the independent Tony McGrane.

2. Bartley

Bartley is chairperson of the Nationals Dubbo electorate council.

Gee, the Nationals are a weird breed of cattle.

Pics from Dubbo City Council

Godwin Grech, celebrity and other political trivia this week

I suppose it was inevitable - Federal Treasury Principal Advisor, Financial Systems Division, Godwin Grech, now has a FaceBook fan club and a Wikipedia entry.

Godwin is being widely discussed in the mainstream media and the blogosphere because of his testimony before a Senate inquiry last week.

However, the author of the FaceBook entry remains a bit of a mystery.

I'm rather inclined to suspect a Liberal party staffer organised the creation of this entry, after hearing Liberal Party MP and parliamentary attack dog Joe Hockey admit on ABC News Radio yesterday that he tried to contact Mr. Grech on Saturday to offer moral support.

Meanwhile according to the Commonwealth Hansard for the House of Representatives (using a quick word count) on the day that email was revealed as a fake, honourable members rose to use the word lie 9 times, lies 2 times, lied 22 times and liars 1 time.

At last the mystery is solved - the Nationals MP for Cowper can't read

It has been puzzling me as to why Federal Nationals MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker (as late as his appearance on Channel 10 State Focus on Sunday 21 June 2009) insists on repeating a false assertion that the Prime Minister had promised that individuals affected by northern NSW flooding in March 2009 would be eligible for a particular one-off Centrelink cash payment. 

The mystery appears to have a really banal explanation. 

It seems that Mr. Hartsuyker is in urgent need of a remedial reading course, because on 26 May 2009 he had incorrectly stated to The Belligen Shire Courier-Sun that these payments had been extended to families affected by March flooding:

Meanwhile, Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker yesterday welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement of one-off cash grants to assist those individuals, small businesses and primary producers affected by recent flooding. The Prime Minister announced in Parliament ton Monday that one-off cash payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child would be provided to eligible families affected by the floods. These grants would also be extended to those families affected by flooding on March 31. "I welcome this additional assistance which is being provided to these flood affected victims. "I also thank the Prime Minister for belatedly acknowledging the impact the March 31 floods had on the Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Nambucca and Clarence Valley local government areas. "It is nearly eight weeks since those floods and although the Government originally rejected a request for one-off cash payments, I know there are many families out there who will welcome this assistance. I understand this assistance will be administered by Centrelink. "

In the world according to Hartsuyker - he personally makes a big blunder but it is really Kevin Rudd's fault.

See: Piers Akerman proves why both he and The Daily Telegraph have such lowly reputations

A bit of cheek from North Coast Nationals Luke Hartsuyker concerning local flooding

Has Big Mal finally lost his mojo?

As of yesterday arvo Big Mal Turnbull last posted a two year-old video on YouTube 4 days ago, hasn't uttered a tweet on Twitter since the 18th June, not really updated news on his personal website since the day before that, hasn't uploaded to Flickr since the 15th June, last posted a note on Facebook on the 25th May and last logged in to MySpace on 14th of May 2009.
Now caught in media headlights like some bemused marsupial, Mal can only bleat that it would be improper to reveal his sources when he has apparently been caught out in what looks suspiciously like a political plot to bring down the Prime Minister with the collusion of at least one public service mole sympathetic to the Liberal Party.
The Great Communicator is no more......

Pic: Australian Jewish News

Dubbo City Council's emailgate - shades of Canberra?

Two former Clarence Valley residents, Peter Bartley (left) and Richard Mutton (right), have been players in Dubbo City Council's emailgate.

Bartley and Mutton are councillors on Dubbo City Council.

Dubbo’s Daily Liberal reported that Dubbo City Council voted to take action against Bartley for a breach of the council’s code of conduct and demand the councillor apologise.

Bartley was found in breach of the council’s Code of Conduct in a matter of confidentiality by a conduct review committee.

The conduct review committee was called in by Mayor Greg Matthews to investigate an email leaked to the Daily Liberal in January.

Cr Matthews was the author of the email about medical consulting rooms in North Street, Dubbo, at the height of the drama at the departure of doctors George Albert and Baghat Gerges from Dubbo.

Dubbo City Council and the conduct review committee asked the Daily Liberal to divulge its source, but it refused to do so.

The result of the conduct review committee went before councillors in a meeting that was originally intended to be a closed meeting, but went to a public hearing.

Cr Mutton moved that Cr Bartley had breached the code of conduct, should be counselled and should apologise to the council.

Cr Mutton said he did not appreciate having to move the motion but had been “extremely upset” when he heard of the leak and wrote to the mayor because he felt it was a code of conduct breach.

The motion also said that the council would not pursue legal advice on the potential breach of a section of the Local Government Act.

Bartley is a partner in a firm of Dubbo solicitors while Mutton is a psychologist. When they resided in the Clarence Valley Bartley had a legal practice in Maclean while Mutton was a school counsellor. Mutton was also an announcer on Grafton's radio station 2GF. In an even earlier life, "Swinging Dick" Mutton was station manager for Radio UNE in Armidale.

pics from Dubbo City Council

Faaaarck! It's raining again on the North Coast

The local paper carried this photo of Gulmarrad.
No one's using the flood word yet, but we're thinking it!

Digger
Maclean