Snap, crackle and 'alcopop'

Spooner cartoon in The Age yesterday.

"All the same, from a political and an economic viewpoint, what Nelson had to say stank. His about-face on the increase in the tax on premixed alcoholic drinks could well turn out to be the decision that cruelled his leadership once and for all.
Here's the fundamental truth of it: you can't say on April 27 that you support a tax increase on alcopops and then declare in a nationally televised prime-time parliamentary speech 18 days later that you're utterly opposed to it and will block it in the Senate, and retain your political credibility.
This is what the Opposition Leader said only a little over two weeks ago, after Labor announced its decision to lift the tax on alcopops by 70%. "While we're not normally supporters of tax increases, increasing the tax on these alcopops, these mixers, that young people are in many cases abusing, if that is going to reduce the abuse of these alcoholic mixers then it's something that we certainly are prepared to support."
How can you go from accepting something as a reasonable preventive health measure to seeing it as a blatant tax grab? When you're desperate, you have no genuine new ideas, your political mortality is so strong you can taste it, and you're still not fully accepting that you've lost power, you'll do it."

Are Costa and Meagher trying to stiff sick and needy in the Clarence Valley?

The Clarence Valley has been waiting for the promised upgrade to Grafton Base Hospital for over a decade now.
The NSW Government had told us on more than one occasion that the money was there and that work was starting soon - then returned to ignoring the health needs of Valley residents.

It took Labor's Janelle Saffin and the 2007 federal election to see another health funding pledge of $18 million.
But the NSW Minister for Health, who has had a departmental master plan before her ever since she took over this portfolio, is yet to supply the Commonwealth with a timetable and schedule of works.

Many in the Valley are beginning to wonder if the Iemma Government is trying to obtain the offered funding without it being tied specifically to a Grafton Hospital upgrade, so that it can plug the gap elsewhere.
Or if it is procrastinating in the hope it will not have to come up with its upgrade funding share for another decade.
Are we to be diddled again?

Journalist and Deputy-Editor of The Daily Examiner, David Bancroft, ran this frontpage comment on Thursday.

WE asked NSW Health Minister Reba Meagher a simple question yesterday: when will work start on the upgrade of the promised operating theatres and emergency department at Grafton Base Hospital?
Her answer was waffle.
She told us that that the Federal Government's announced funding was welcome. Obviously.
She told us that planning had already started. That started more than a decade ago.
She told us that Grafton Base Hospital played an important role in delivering health services. Again, obviuously.
And she told us admissions to the emergency department had increased. Exactly.
What she did not tell us was when work would start and if the State Government would provide additional money needed for the projects to proceed.
We need answers, Ms. Meagher, not platitiudes, and we need them now.

Portraits of a drowning man

Cartoon comments found at:
http://www.nma.gov.au/
http://www.leahy.com.au/
http://www.inkcinct.com.au
http://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/

No wonder John Howard and George Dubbya got along so well

Rumours have never completely died down that former Prime Minister, John Winston Howard's grandfather and father were probably members of a 1930s Australian fascist group which supported Hitler in the early days of his rise to power.

In 2004 The Guardian reported on how US President George W. Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power.
"George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy."

All of which goes some way to explaining the image above (which has been doing the email rounds for years) and why Bush was so eager to create another ethnic bogeyman teh Muslim.

Pity Bush didn't recall the talk about his family when he whaled into Barak Obama this week for his supposed willingness to talk with Islamic nations.
Of course this is another thing he has in common with John Winnie - this skewed view of Obama which Howard also displayed last year.

I wonder what sort of WWII memorabilia Howard and Bush would be swapping if they were so inclined?

Japan's whalers accused of taking whale meat to sell on the black market

According to Asahi Shimbun yesterday.

Greenpeace Japan said Thursday it will seek a criminal investigation against 12 crew members of a research whaling ship over allegations they embezzled a ton of meat from whales caught in the Antarctic Ocean.
The group says the crew members aboard the research vessel Nisshin Maru sent cardboard boxes believed to have contained whale meat to their homes.
At a news conference Thursday in Tokyo, Greenpeace Japan members displayed whale meat they said had been intercepted on route to the home of a crew member. The box contained 23.5 kilograms of coveted whale meat used in bacon.
The estimated value of the meat is between 110,000 yen and 350,000 yen ($1,048 and $3,334), according to Greenpeace Japan. ----
Greenpeace Japan noted that if the 47 boxes sent from the Nisshin Maru contained whale meat, the total would have exceeded 1 ton.

Greenpeace stated yesterday.

Our activists delivered the evidence, including the whale meat, to the Public Prosecutor's office in Tokyo, calling on it to make a full public enquiry into how deep the corruption runs with the whaling programme. We're also calling for an end to the USD$4.7 million taxpayer subsidies for the programme, and for the license of the company operating the whale hunt, Kyodo Senpaku, to be withdrawn.

Photo: Greenpeace Japan whale campaign coordinator Junichi Sato weighs 23.5 kilograms of whale meat stolen by crewmembers of the Nisshin Maru whaling ship. The contents of the box were listed as "cardboard."

Budget Reply '08: I'm big, I'm bad, I'm Brendan Nelson

It was obvious that the Budget Reply by the Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, was going to be something else when, before proceedings formally began, the cameras sprang the Coalition acknowledging a rent-a-crowd in had positioned in the public gallery.

Nelson's speech was different to the Federal Treasurer's 13 April budget speech on many levels.

The first was that, unlike Wayne Swan's speech, Nelson's monologue was heard out in polite silence by those on the other side.
The Coalition heckling during Swan's speech was a pitiful and petty effort and, it was a relief that Labor MPs were capable of more restraint last night.

The second difference was an amusing phenomenon.
The Coalition frontbench seated behind Nelson were a constant visual distraction as their heads bobbed in agreement like so many car rear-window animal ornaments.
Indeed Julie Bishop appeared almost frenetic at times.
The Labor frontbench behind Swan on Tuesday night were thankfully only occasionally afflicted with this peculiar tic.

However, it was the third difference which had the real impact.
The sheer hypocrisy which saturated Brendan Nelson's speech was almost beyond belief (Wayne Swan may have had a rather boring delivery but at least he sounded believable).

Suddenly Nelson was against policy, procedure and practices which were unchanged from the days of the former Howard Government in which he was first an ordinary MP and then a minister.

The Howard Government never locked in old age pension and carer bonus payments beyond one budget year, but suddenly the Rudd Government was mean and tricky to do the same.

He also decided that taxing 'alcopops' as spirits was unfair and would be resisted, although initially agreeing with the increased taxation proposal and way back in 1996 getting to his feet in the House of Representatives to complain that this type of alcoholic drink was too cheap.

Nelson repeatedly accused the Rudd Government of delivering a high taxing budget and then went on to say that he would oppose the removal of one tax - the Medicare levy for workers earning less than $150,000.

After years of Coalition neglect Nelson also decided to find that education and universities were important and chivvied the Rudd Government for its education policies which actually appear to reverse some of that neglect.

He was scathing about the current government's planned inquiries and reviews. Yet in a 2005 Sydney Morning Herald interview he cheerfully admitted; In the four years since he took over the $23 billion Education, Science and Training portfolio he's unleashed an unremitting stream of inquiries, reviews, reforms and initiatives, and says he has no intention of slowing down.

Brendan Nelson sketchily outlined his 'grand' economic plans for the future (which sounded very like old Howard policy) and his 5 cent solution to rising global petrol prices. Knowing full well that he will never survive as leader long enough to influence Coalition policy in the months leading up to the next federal election.

My favourite line in all this posturing occurred when Nelson accused Labor of the Coalition's biggest sin under the prime ministership of John Howard; punishing those it does not like.

Somewhere in the middle of his spin and unsupported accusations, the Leader of the Opposition decided to continue Howard's culture wars by denigrating university lecturers as social engineers and, somewhere towards the end of his delivery, resolved that Australia should become reconciled with our indigenous history (something that his national apology speech demonstrated that he was incapable of doing himself).

The Leader of the Opposition tried at times to whip himself into sincerity but failed. He declared himself angry with all the emotion of a limp lettuce leaf.

At one point Nelson stated;The government has perpetrated a fraud on the Australian public.
From my perspective this is exactly what Nelson himself was attempting last night.

Brendan Nelson's budget reply here.

Little Brennie Nelson indulges in pots and kettles

Did anyone else notice that during last night's budget reply the politician who was fond of sporting a large, flashy diamond earring had a dig at the Prime Minister's "expensive suits"?
Talk about foolish!

Federal Budget 2008-09: Janelle Saffin delivers for Page

While those on a full disability support pension are reeling from Wayne Swan's slap in the face (which saw them excluded from any cost-of-living mitigation bonus), those who have spent years on the public dental service waiting list are in flat despair and many others on the NSW North Coast are wondering about the Rudd Government's commitment to tackle climate change in light of the poor funding spread contained in this year's budget papers.

However, what cannot be gainsayed is the commitment of the Labor MP for Page, Janelle Saffin.
Ms. Saffin made sure that all funding promises (scattered like confetti across the Northern Rivers during the 2007 federal election campaign) were remembered.

The Northern Rivers Echo yesterday.

Southern Cross University has received a one-off grant of $5.2 million as part of the Australian Government’s $500 commitment to universities announced in the federal budget.
SCU vice-chancellor Professor Paul Clark said the grant came at a time when the university needed to expand facilities at its Lismore campus. He said the funding would provide support for high quality education, student amenities such as childcare, and boost SCU’s research capacity.
Other grants announced in Tuesday night’s budget include $7 million over two years to fast track radiotherapy services at Lismore Base Hospital. This is on top of $8 million already committed to the project.
There’s also $250,000 in recurrent funding for the Lismore-based Northern Rivers Business Enterprise Centre, $200,000 for the proposed Lismore Homeless Shelter, and $140,000 to upgrade the Browns Creek pumping station and flood levee as part of the Lismore Flood Management Plan.
The grants comes on top of $2.22 million in family support programs announced for Lismore in April.
In other areas $13.6 million has been allocated to begin work on the $90 million Alstonville bypass, while $100 million will be brought forward in 2008/09 for the Pacific Highway bypass at Ballina.
Casino will receive $3 million for development of the town’s community centre, and a further $2 million for the revitalisation of the town centre.

In The Daily Examiner on the same day.

The district's biggest win comes with an $18-million injection into upgrading the Grafton Base Hospital over the next 12 months.
The funding will be used to build a new accident and emergency department as well as establishing three new operating theatres.
This funding will no longer be tied to a hospital board being established at Grafton Base Hospital.
Grafton will also get its GP super clinic as part of a $275.2 million fund which will establish 31 clinics of its type throughout Australia.........
"We have also kept our promise of a $2 million grant for the Yamba Indoor Centre even though the local council has downgraded this project from $7.8 million to $4 million."
The good news for South Grafton residents is Skinner Street will receive a $1-million revitalisation package.
The fourth big pre-election promise was money for an upgrade of the Grafton saleyards and once again the Government has delivered with a $125,000 grant.

Rudd and his ministers may disappoint, but so far Janelle Saffin is showing she is good value.

There will be blood on the Liberal Party brand if....

There will blood all over the Liberal Party brand if it goes ahead with the rumoured threat to use Coalition Senate numbers to block any legislation needed to create a means test for the $5,000 'baby bonus'.

Liberal MPs will find the lower income half of their electorates at the front door ready to rip their bl**dy arms off, for wanting to give this increased bonus to the wealthy.
The wealthier half of their electorates will be waiting by the car with a noosed rope ready to string them high, because not means testing this increased bonus will result in the expectant parents among them falling within the Rudd Government net of managed cash transfers.

After all it's introducing periodic 'baby bonus' payments over 13 weeks to avoid paying out the $5,000 upfront, and even the rich couldn't be trusted not to splurge any lump sum on a new plasma TV or trip to the snow (the excuse for removing the lump sum from less wealthy parents).
And you can bet your last bob that these staged payments will require that a lot more information be supplied to Centrelink.

Either way Labor wins. It either gets to make the Libs look stupid or beat-up on the poor without much opposition.

There is also likely to be further blood splattered across the party brand when Liberal MPs realise that neither Nelson or Turnbull are going to come out of the budget debate looking credible - constantly repeating the phrase "high taxing budget" is not going to cut it in an electorate with tax cuts in its pocket and when the bulk of Labor's election promises are being met.

Graphic found at The Age.

A very personal kneejerk reaction to the Rudd-Swan 2008-09 Federal Budget

Belonging to a recognised category of poor that contains less than half a million souls and has little political clout, it has been so long since a Federal Budget gave me anything that I now treat budget night as a matter for hilarity.
Wayne Swan's first budget did not disappoint in that regard.
I am again one of those that government expects to make and scrape, in the face of rising costs and reduced options.

Swan's lullaby for the majority can be found here.
Turnbull's shrill trill can be read here.

When political image and actions clash

Images from Crikey

Kevin Rudd has worked hard to portray himself as one of the people. However, there are disturbing signs emerging that the Prime Minister is a bit of a bully boy.

Why else would he be condoning such incredibly intrusive security checks on Labor staffers.

There are 334 ministerial staffers - men and women - working for the Rudd Government. That is, 30 ministers and 12 parliamentary secretaries share 334 personal staff. These 42 politicians, from the Prime Minister down, each employ another four staff in his or her electorate office. In all, 502 ministerial and electorate staff. All are paid from the public purse. However, no matter how senior or junior their position, most of these staffers must first "obtain and maintain" a "Top Secret" security clearance.
And to be cleared by security can - and does - involve staffers having to answer hugely intrusive questions about the most intimate details of their private lives concerning their family background, their assets, their partners' assets, their bank accounts, mortgages, discretionary spending, overseas travel, drinking habits, drug use and, most odiously, his or her sexual preference and the names of their sexual partners, past and present.
Know, at the outset, that MPs are not subject to security clearance. Neither ministers nor backbenchers have to undergo such a process, no matter how lecherous, libertine, homosexual, drugged, debauched or alcoholic he or she might be. Only staffers of members of the government executive of the day. Politicians are immune.