Opposition shadow spokesperson for water makes a Laughing Jackass of himself

It's been a long saga and like many other Aussies I have been crossing my fingers and hoping that this nation will finally come to grips with those huge environmental problems in the Murray-Darling river system which have been generations in the making.
However, Opposition spokesperson for environment and water Greg Hunt continues the Liberal's new tradition of counting kookaburras whenever it is brought face-to-face with another instance of cooperative endeavour between the Commonwealth and the States under the Rudd Labor Government.
Yesterday when a real breakthough was announced on management of water within the Murray-Darling Basin, I swear I heard Hunt on the teev repeating a version of his February line about the Murray-Darling being an "defining failure" of the Rudd Government.
Only this time he was calling it "an abiding failure".
After the complete, utter, total, abiding failure of the John Howard-Malcolm Turnbull attempt to bully the states into a collective formal agreement over this dying river system, all Hunt could do yesterday was accuse Rudd of a similar failure.
He has definitely taken to imitating the Laughing Jackass. A real Koo-koo-koo-waa-aah-aah-ah!
This new agreement may not be perfect, but at least it's a fair dinkum attempt.
You remember what fair dinkum means don't you, Greg?
Here is the Murray Darling Basin Reform Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Prime Minister and every Premier and State Minister with territory within the Murray-Darling Basin.

The 2008 Olympiad as a graphic

Telling graphic from Club Troppo's Missing Link.

Don't do it, Nicola!

This week The Age reported that the Federal Minister for Health Nicola Roxon was inviting Liberal opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott to have coffee and smooth things over between them.
Apparently Abbott has been complaining about a lack of bipartisanship in government decision making in areas covered by his Indigenous Affairs shadow portfolio.

That was on Monday. By the next day that ever changeable far-right media tart was saying something different according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott has criticised plans for a bipartisan approach to indigenous issues, saying it could lead to "sanctimonious" and unsuccessful policies.

---Mr Abbott, writing in The Australian newspaper, said bipartisanship could make "wrong-headed" policies harder to change."

So don't do it, Nicola. Don't try to smooth things over with Abbott. The man will only see this as a sign of weakness and continue to harass rather than help, because he truly believes the Opposition is the real federal government.

Give Mac Bank the flick & bring back bonds says Motorists Action Group

This turned up in the Inbox yesterday.

It seems that the Motorists Action Group has joined those sending Morris Iemma a message about his planned privatisation of NSW electricity supplies.

 

Draft Media Release

 

Government Bonds Not Selling-off Assets To Fund New Infrastructure

 

The NSW Government has been asked to re-issue once popular government bonds to fund new road, rail and services infrastructure projects instead of selling-off publicly owned infrastructure such as the electricity generation network to pay for such works.

 

Richard Talbot, President of the Motorists Action Group (MAG) & long serving NRMA Director said: "A once off sell-off of publicly owned assets to pay for new infrastructure is not the way to go. Nor is handing over new infrastructure projects to merchant bankers who create debt ridden financial models to hoping they can on-sell these financial basket cases and exit the scene to make a short term profit.

 

"Good government is about providing long term, sustainable and user affordable solutions to this countries growing and changing needs. Government bonds were a traditional way previous generations have funded many road, rail, water & electricity projects. They were very popular with mums & dads investors as a safe way of saving for their retirement as they were government guaranteed. Importantly they were a relatively cheap way of the government gaining access to a large pool of funds without having to go through a middleman.

Government bonds were phased out of existence when the economic rationalists took the helm of successive state governments and conga lines of private sector lobbyists became regular fixtures at expensive political party fundraisers.

 

"We should learn from the mistakes of the past with a number of infrastructure funding failures such as the Cross City Tunnel, Lane Cove Tunnel and the Airport Rail Link. The new transport initiatives such as the North West Rail Link and M7 Extension (from Blacktown to Kariong) can all be funded by giving the public and superannuation funds to directly invest in the projects. Additionally other already built projects can be bought back through such an investment method.

 

"Selling-off the silver wear then handing it over to privateers to extract short term profits is not in the best interests of residents and taxpayers. Gaining the support of the people who'll be using the final product by giving mums & dads a chance to invest in their own infrastructure is in the best long term interests of both governments and consumers".

 

Richard Talbot has written to the NSW Government urging the re-introduction of State Government Bonds.

Dinner with Barack anyone?

One can only admire the relentless drive for campaign funds by the Obama for America team.
They are now bringing out the family silver and holding a lottery. With first prize being an intimate dinner for three.

Will Barack finally talk detailed policy then?

Today's email.
Some of Barack's favorite moments of the campaign have been opportunities to meet and talk with the most important donors to this campaign: ordinary Americans just like you.
You've heard about all of these political fundraising dinners, hosted by Washington lobbyists and filled with representatives of special interests.
Contributions like these are at the root of what's wrong with politics. And John McCain and Hillary Clinton have built campaigns fueled by them.
But our campaign is different.
In February alone, more than 94% of our donors gave in amounts of $200 or less. Meanwhile, campaign finance reports show that donations of $200 or less make up just 13% of Senator McCain's total campaign funds, and only 26% of Senator Clinton's.
Our funding comes from a movement of more than one million people giving whatever they can afford.
And in the next week, four supporters will be selected for a new kind of fundraising dinner.
Make a donation in any amount between now and 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, March 31st, and you could join Barack and three other supporters for an intimate dinner for five.
We're reserving two of those seats for new donors like you. If you've ever thought about making a donation to join our campaign, now is the time:
https://donate.barackobama.com/dinner
This movement is changing the way campaigns are funded.
More than one million individual donors have demonstrated that this election is about more than a candidate -- it's about each of us having a personal stake in the future of American politics.
Meanwhile, Senator McCain has raised more than 70% of his total campaign funds from high-dollar donors giving $1,000 or more. Senator Clinton has raised 60% of her funds from $1,000-and-up donors. And both Senator McCain and Senator Clinton have accepted millions of dollars from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs.
Refusing to accept donations from lobbyists and special interests has allowed this campaign to answer only to ordinary Americans like you. And this dinner will be an opportunity for you to sit down with Barack and your fellow supporters and talk about the issues that matter in your life and in your community.
Get the kind of treatment that John McCain and Hillary Clinton reserve for special interests -- make a donation in the next week, and you could share your story and your ideas with Barack in person:
https://donate.barackobama.com/dinner
With every single donation, we're building a movement to change American politics. Help the movement grow, and own a piece of this campaign today.
Thanks for your support,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

No doctors available for some North Coast medical rescue flights

Sometimes it's hard to keep a positive outlook on life in regional New South Wales.

Beautiful surroundings but often woeful levels of services the big metropolitan centres take for granted.

 

This week The Northern Star drew attention to the fact that the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue helicopter based at Lismore continues to experience difficulties in finding suitably qualified doctors to man its medical retrieval flights.

 

"THE future of Lismore's rescue helicopter is in peril because the city's hospital hasn't enough physicians qualified to work with the service, doctors have warned.

A leaked memo from Lismore Base Hospital emergency department director Dr Martin Chase warns the hospital no longer had enough doctors qualified to perform retrievals with the helicopter.

As a result 'there may be occasions over the next few months when the Lismore-based medical retrieval service will be unable to provide an urgent medical retrieval service', Dr Chase says in the memo, which was sent out last month."

 

Two little words for the Iemma Government and the North Coast Area Health Service - fix it!

Broke Libs call on politically bankrupt Howard to fill the party kitty in NSW

It's now four months since the Liberal and National parties were frogmarched out of government.

Plenty of time for the parties to regroup and find a common direction.

However the apparently cash-strapped NSW Liberals are determined to keep reminding voters of their past folly - they have invited John Howard to speak at a fundraiser this May.

At least they appear to have had the grace to hide this 'tribute' dinner away in the suburbs and not charge thousands of dollars for a seat.

In fact tickets are rumoured to be on the cheap side. Probably because Howard's recent US speaking tour showed that he has nothing left to offer except reworkings of his 2007 election set pieces.

I suspect that, besides being in need of a metaphorical group hug from those guests attending, Howard is using this event to keep his profile up just in case a publisher does actually decide to purchase his autobiography.

It surely can't be because this former PM wants to meddle in domestic politics - he was always so vocal in his condemnation of other prime ministerial relics who refused to fade away.