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