What Keneally's promise to help with electricity charges means to the average worker, pensioner or independent retiree on the NSW North Coast

This is what the NSW Government Industry and Investment website had to say about the Energy Rebate on 5 February 2011:

The Energy Rebate was increased from $130 a year to $145 per year on 1 July 2010. The Rebate will be further increased to $161 from 1 July 2011. These increases reflect the average rise in regulated electricity prices. Also from 1 July 2010, eligibility for the Energy Rebate was expanded to include all customers who hold Health Care Cards.

Am I eligible for the Energy Rebate?

The Energy Rebate is now available to all electricity account holders who hold either a:

· Pensioner Concession Card issued by either Centrelink or the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA)

· Gold Card issued by the Department of Veterans' Affairs marked with either:
-War Widow or War Widower Pension
-Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI)
-Disability Pension

· Health care card issued by Centrelink as a result of receiving one of a number of income support payments from the Commonwealth.

If you hold an eligible card and have not yet registered for the Energy Rebate you should contact your retailer.

Any customer receiving the Energy Rebate prior to 1 July 2010 will continue to receive the Rebate and will automatically receive the increased amount, if they continue to hold a valid and eligible card.

How do I obtain the rebate?

If you think you are eligible for the rebate or would like to ask some more questions, contact your electricity supplier or your local electricity distributor. Contact phone numbers can be found on your electricity bill.

This is what the Keneally Government announced on 6 February 2011 as part of an opening salvo in its re-election campaign:

The Energy Rebate will be increased from $161 to $250 from July 1, while eligibility for the rebate will be extended to households with a combined income of under $150,000.

What this means is that if you have a Health Care Card or equivalent and your quarterly electricity charges came to a frugal $200 in any energy bill received after 1 July 2011, then the new Energy Rebate would reduce your actual payment (with GST added) to around $153 instead of the $181 or so you would pay now.

Families without the Heath Care Card but with a combined income of under $150,000 will be eligible for the Energy Rebate on 1 July 2012.

The worrying issue is the NSW Labor statement that this new scale will mean that families save $1000 in electricity bills over the life of the plan - which indicates that the annual $250 rebate may only be guaranteed for the next four financial years.

Keneally's launch of Fairness for Families can be found here.

"mendacious, ugly, disgraceful and cringeworthy" - and that's just his good points!

I must confess myself astounded that Tony Abbott could be so foolish as to shake people down for a donation to his private cause at the same time as he is attempting to further that cause by threatening to deny funding to repair the damage from the Queensland floods. That he should do so while the most ferocious cyclone in recorded history bore down on the coastline of the same state, well, it was just … words fail me. We waited for the cataclysm to rake over the north of state like the blast front from a gigantic, slow moving nuclear bomb. An eerie, suspended interlude. Until Abbott punctured the moment with his ham-fisted partisan foolishness. [John Birmingham, National Times,3 February 2011]

LaurieOakes

Lib fundraising on back of Qld flood disaster as a devastating cyclone bears down will not earn Tony Abbott any credit. Deeply embarrassing. 11:02 PM Feb 1st via web

Mr Abbott's Odious Opportunism ……Tony's attempt to distance himself from the crass e-mail appeal doesn't impress either. [Sardonic Detachment Therapy,3 February 2011]

And this is what he has to say.
Observe the precision of his judgement, and the exquisite subtlety of his timing. [Still Life With Cat,2 February 2011]

No wonder Tony Abbott's percentages continue to look like this:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is still preferred as Prime Minister (49%, up 3% since December 8-12, 2010) over Opposition Leader Tony Abbott (36%, down 3%) according to a special telephone Morgan Poll conducted over the last three days (February 1-3, 2011).
More electors approve of the way Julia Gillard is handling her job as Prime Minister (46%, down 3% since December 8-12, 2010) than approve of the way Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is handling his job (39%, down 11%).

Cartoon found at Nicholson Cartoons

The air is clear in relation to Lionel Murphy and Malawi's take on flatulence

Today's Sun Herald reveals once more that attempts to sully the good name of Lionel Murphy were baseless.

Peter FitzSimons has a piece that demonstrates quite clearly Murphy cannot be associated in any way, shape or form with a bill in Malawi that would outlaw breaking wind in public.

Read more about flatulence in Malawi in a BBC report here.

Here's FitzSimon's piece:

Source: Sun Herald, 6/2/11

Image credits: Sun Herald, 6/2/11 and http://www.rhinocarhire.com/Car-Hire-News/February-2011/Farting-Ban-for-Malawi-6119.aspx

North Coast Voices - the feral edition

Independent MP for New England Tony Windsor calls Clarence Valley residents 'feral' and Windsor labels Valley ‘feral' ran headlines in both the mainstream media and blogosphere.

This was the swift response.....................

The Daily Examiner, 4 February 2011

Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin:“Well, too right we go feral because my view is they should just stop talking about an idea that's so stupid anyway; and it's not going to go anywhere. But we do go feral because everybody agrees that we cannot divert or dam the Clarence River.

NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell: ..as far as damning and diverting the Clarence, I am happy to be classed as a 'feral'. I will always be against any such proposal.

Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson: We do, and we will, go absolutely feral because a majority is clearly against the diversion or the damming of the Clarence River. We as a community are definitely against any damming of the Clarence River.

The Daily Examiner,4 February 2011
Click on image to enlarge

Boy the Wonder Cat: Tony Windsor doesn't know the meaning of 'feral' yet. If he keeps this dam nonsense up, one fine morning he will wake to find I've peed on his verandah posts, crapped on the front door mat, scared his hens eggless and bonked his dog so thoroughly that it won't come out from under the house for the next ten years.

True words tweeted in jest?

FakeeEtiquette Fake e-Etiquette

It is polite to continue acting as though internet arguments have winners or conclusions.

Chicken boots and the spectacles thief

Most of the hens on the farm are of an Indian game type and are mainly bred as table birds. They are not the best egg layers.

There are large sections of the year where they don't produce eggs and then at the start of spring and summer the eggs are in abundance.

So I decided that I would start on a breeding program that would yield chooks that would lay eggs over most of the year, yet still retain most of the qualities that make excellent eating birds.

I obtained a couple of roosters that were mainly Isa Brown types, and one pure breed Isa Brown. The two older roosters were ready to breed this season so I set two hens, this yielded 16 chickens.

The chickens are the quietest birds I have ever seen, walking around the yard has been reduced to a shuffle since the chicks are always under foot.

I have even had to retrieve them out of gumboots, which would not be much of a problem except that I was wearing these boots at the time.

During this gumboot invasion the last thing I was thinking about was the fact that I had mistakenly left my reading glasses in my shirt pocket. As I bent down to get the chicken out of the gumboot the glasses fell out and landed on one of the chickens in the maul happening around my feet. They scattered to the wind taking the glasses with them.

I was stuck, I still had a chook in my gumboot.

There I was in the middle of a muddy yard, balancing on one slipping gumboot gently trying to remove the other and retrieve the protesting chicken. I was very lucky to get the chicken out of the boot without falling in the mud.

Then the search for my glasses began along with the rain. The chickens(being helpful little mites) all followed me for the entire search. Emitting calls that sounded something like - hot, hotter, no colder, cool.

After about half an hour I found the glasses and they were intact if a bit muddy.

The chickens looked quite pleased with themselves; after all they do try their best.

In America 2011 zealous wingnuts are on the march and no woman is safe

 

In America in 2011 there were thirteen females amongst the around sixty members of the US Congress who sponsored a bill called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act  which seeks to deny Medicare-funded abortion to girls and women who were raped without some form of physical restraint or violence.