Something for certain Clarence Valley shire councillors past and present to remember....

Certain Clarence Valley shire councillors past and present were almost fawningly eager to have this reverend lead prayers before council meetings:

At all relevant times the Anglican Diocese of Grafton had responsibility for the children in the North Coast Children’s Home....

By 26 September 2006 Reverend Comben and Peter Roland knew of at least 20 instances of sexual abuse against former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home...

From September 2006 Reverend Comben failed to take steps to refer all allegations of criminal conduct against children formerly resident at the North Coast Children’s Home to the NSW Police...

The Diocese of Grafton comprehensively failed to treat former residents of the North Coast Children’s Home who had been sexually and physically abused in a way which was sympathetic to their needs, fair and provided appropriate redress. Many of the former residents who informed the Diocese of Grafton of the abuse they had suffered at an Anglican Home for which the Diocese had responsibility were treated so poorly that the effect of what should have been a redress scheme, in fact, did more damage to them.

[Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse, Public Inquiry Into The Response Of The Diocese Of Grafton Of The Anglican Church To Claims Of Child Sexual Abuse At The North Coast Children’s Home, Submissions Of Counsel Assisting The Royal Commission, 31 January 2014]

Quote of the Week * WARNING: Potential for abrupt blood pressure rise *

I am an indigenous Australian

[Andrew Bolt writing in the Herald Sun, 29 January 2014]

Advice to young buskers from the far off past.....

Guthrie, he says, taught him how to busk. "He'd say put the banjo on your back, go into a bar and buy a nickel beer and sip it as slow as you can. Sooner or later, someone will say, 'Kid, can you play that thing?' Don't be too eager, just say, 'Maybe, a little.' Keep on sipping beer. Sooner or later, someone will say, 'Kid, I've got a quarter for you if you pick us a tune.' Then you play your best song." With that advice, Seeger supported himself on his travels. [The Guardian,1 February 2007]

American political activist and folksinger Peter Seeger died at the age of 94 on Monday 27 January 2014.

Seeger at a 1963 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Rally in Mississippi

www.rogerebert.com

I'd laugh if the Abbott-Hockey ploy didn't presume Australian voters were idiots

To date the Abbott Government has run up at least an additional $29.3 billion dollars in national debt over the last 135 days.

This means as of today the nation owes in excess of $189,422.8 billion in gross public debt.

Having mapped out this level of rising debt some months ago, the Abbott Government abolished the legislated debt ceiling late last year.

On 22 January the Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey made this nonsense announcement:

"I direct that the maximum total face value of stock and securities that may be on issue is $500 billion"

The directive apparently expires rather appropriately on April Fool’s Day 2024, as at the rate it is currently borrowing this $500 billion debt cap (now unsupported in law and therefore meaningless) will be exceeded by Abbott, Hockey and Co in under three years.

After all, Abbott still hasn’t said how the nation will fund his proposed personal $250 million VIP aircraft and other little prime ministerial luxuries or compensate for the reduced revenue his industry level taxation cuts will produce before the next federal election in 2016.

In which Australian PM Tony Abbott realises how many times he embarrassed himself and prepares excuses for non-attendance at future Davos forums

AFTER a flying three-day visit to the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps, Tony Abbott believes the Prime Minister of Australia should attend such conferences but not all of them and not every year. As the chair of the G20 this year, the world leaders' premier economic forum, the Prime Minister attended the World Economic Forum for three days with 2500 delegates, 40 world leaders and scores of chief executives for the world's biggest corporations. [The Australian, Dennis Shanahan In Davos, 25 January 2014]

Abbott reveals his grasp of international affairs

Video evidence of Abbott's poor sense of geography: http://youtu.be/o5QWqmrh47E

Australian Prime Minister hangs on for dear life as cameras click

Obviously determined to make the most of any photo opportunity with world leaders or their representatives, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has taken to employing a stick-like-glue handshake.

Using both his hands to either clasp the other's hand or sometimes the hand and arm, until enough cameras have clicked enough times to satisfy his ego.

Photographs found on Google Images

Recalling yet another taxpayer-funded hotel bill run up by a Federal Liberal MP

As Federal Liberal MP for the Gold Coast and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Steve Ciobo, has been busy this month announcing the closure of more government agency offices in regional areas such as the Northern Rivers in order to reduce government expenditure, I was reminded of his own record of spending at taxpayers’ expense.

News.com.au 13 July 2012:

Liberal MP Steve Ciobo and wife Astra's luxury lodgings in New York at the Bristal Plaza. 

Source: The Daily Telegraph

FEARING a diplomatic incident, Australian consular officials in New York have had to step in and settle an outstanding $8000 hotel bill for a Liberal MP who is still refusing to pay.

Federal politician Steve Ciobo has vowed to fight the federal government in court over the account for a three-month stay at New York's ritzy Bristol Plaza late last year while he was on a US exchange program.

An email obtained by The Daily Telegraph revealed the incident reached the highest diplomatic levels in New York, after the hotel issued a letter of demand for the bill to be paid.

"The lack of payment is causing irreparable damage to the relationship (consulate) Post has enjoyed with the Bristol Plaza dating back more than 10 years," said the email to the Department of Finance from the Australian Consulate-General in New York City, dated May this year.

"Furthermore we fear it may negatively affect the reputation of the Australian Government more broadly throughout the network of hotels and agencies in New York."

The consulate warned that the hotel was threatening to take the Australian government to court to recover the money which had been in arrears for six months.

The outstanding amount of $7486 was finally paid by the Australian mission in New York to prevent a diplomatic controversy.

But the Department of Finance in Canberra is refusing to reimburse the mission and has issued several letters of demand to Mr Ciobo to pay up......

In 2011 the Dept. of Finance recorded total overseas travel expenses of $93,828.49 by Mr. Ciobo -  $23,041.53 from January to June and $70,786.96 from July to December.

A total of $65,696.90 is listed as expenses incurred in the U.S. between 10 September and 16 December 2011, with $41,471.33 of that being costs of accommodation and meals.

It is uncertain as to whether Mr. Ciobo ever repaid the debt he incurred in New York in 2011 while reportedly on a United Nations exchange program funded by the Australian government.

In 2012 an apparently chastened Member for the Gold Coast was recorded as only spending $7,522.45 on overseas travel during a six-day ‘study’  trip to Israel over the end-of-year parliamentary break and, in the first half of 2013 he spent nothing at all.