Friday 17 December 2010
Now which drongo said that? Abbott?
Granny Herald tattled on this week about a November 2009 US diplomatic cable:
"A cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald says an unnamed "key Liberal Party strategist'' told US diplomats in November last year that the issue of asylum seekers was ''fantastic'' for the Coalition and ''the more boats that come the better''.
Methinks this member of the diplomatic service was being a bit coy in the description of his informant.
Notice how often the current Leader of the Opposition Tony Mad Monk Abbott uses the word "fantastic"?
Hmmmm...........
"Yep, again, I accept that but what we, what we do here has got to be affordable and I might want a really fantastic car, but I’ve got to buy the car that I can afford, not necessarily the car that in a perfect world I would like…"
"Oh, okay. Oh fantastic. Oh great. Okay."
"He might be a fantastic author of children's books. The fact is he is my opponent so I am not in the business of looking at his good personal qualities. I am in the business of exposing his poor political qualities."
"Do they now? Fantastic."
"Well that's, that's fantastic and look it's very important for our democracy that we have a good contest and I think it is a good contest but it's now coming down to the wire. This is decision time."
"She’s smiling in response to that and look, Lou Lou, our eldest daughter has been with us for the least couple of days as well and it’s been fantastic to have her on the campaign trail."
Thursday 16 December 2010
Is there an annual award for foot-in-mouth journalism?
Mr Whale also advised the inquiry the Clarence catchment area was responsible for approximately 20 per cent of the state’s agricultural produce – the value of which exceeded $70 million per annum – and the commercial fishing fleets of Yamba and Iluka were the largest in New South Wales. [The Daily Examiner, 14 December 2010,Clarence groups fight river plan]
Nothing in life is certain, but there is one thing which can almost be guaranteed – any article by one particular regional journalist is highly likely to use language which leaves the reader open to doubt about what the person allegedly quoted actually said.
This time it is a spokesperson for a Clarence Valley community group who found himself the subject of outright misquotation, as an exchange in online comments below the relevant story in The Daily Examiner highlights:
Posted by indefatigable from Maclean, New South Wales
14 December 2010 11:13 a.m.
In my books this is just an inflated fairy tale, a norm amongst the greenie. As a point, the Clarence 20% of the states agri production, who the heck pulled this one out of la la land. The building of the Jackadgery Dam was mooted about the time the elder of this mob was born, and had the government of the day woken up to the hype and carried on we would now have a complete dam able to help people in the south, north AND the west and our river would be intact. This is a very serious and extremely selfish attitude of Brown's Bunch.
Posted by bertson from Yamba, New South Wales
15 December 2010 10:22 a.m.
You'll be pleased to know, indefatigable of maclean, that the Valley Watch submission does not make the claim attributed to it by the journalist Graham Orams.
What it actually said was “most of the Clarence catchment falls within the 100 km wide coastal strip of New South Wales, an area which supplies approximately 20% of the state’s agricultural produce”. This can be checked online, with all the other submissions, at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee...
In response to Sensible from Tenterfield, the Valley Watch submission also challenges the idea that water is ‘wasted’ if it flows out to sea. The river’s natural rise and fall is never wasteful.
Their submission includes the statement "Floods rejuvenate ecosystems, especially the floodplains and wetlands, ‘freshes’ expand habitat and provide food sources vital for breeding, and the low flows are needed to prevent those species which do best in stable conditions from dominating and creating an imbalance".
Let's get some clear thinking into this debate instead of name-calling and sloganeering.
The Queen B#tch and her court of balfastards
From Nine MSN Money:
"Origin Energy Ltd and Hong Kong-owned TRUenergy have emerged as the winning bidders in the NSW government's $5.3 billion power sell-off......
Origin says it paid a "fair price" for its $3.25 billion share of the state's electricity assets......
More scorn was heaped on the privatisation on Wednesday after directors of state-owned electricity generators quit in protest at the sale.
Investors clearly favoured Origin Energy as the overall winner, with shares rising 30cents, or 1.79 per cent, to $17.10......
Under the deal, signed at midnight on Tuesday, Origin will spend $2.3 billion to acquire the retail arms of Integral Energy and Country Energy.
Origin will pay a further $950 million to secure the output from Eraring Energy, which operates a coal-fired power station near Newcastle, and the Shoalhaven hydro-electric power scheme south of Sydney.
TRUenergy is spending $2.035 billion to pick up EnergyAustralia's retail business, electricity trading rights from Delta Electricity and three power station development sites.
Several Delta and Eraring board members quit in protest overnight, forcing NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to hastily replace them so the transaction could proceed.
One departing director, Tony Maher, from the Eraring board, told ABC Radio the $5.3 billion sale was a "dud deal" and a "mad dash for cash"...."
Antony Green does the sums on NSW MPs
Antony Green’s calculations show that this avalanche of political ‘retirements’ is getting to the point of being ridiculous.
The next NSW Government will be run on training wheels.......
“2011 NSW election is set to see a record number of MPs retire from the Legislative Assembly, and depending on the result, could also see a record number of new MPs.
So far 24 MPs have announced they will not re-contest their seats at the 2011 election, 17 Labor MPs, 5 Liberals and 2 Nationals. There are also 3 Upper House Labor's MPs retiring, and a 25th lower house MP seems certain to pull the plug. Labor has announced it will not re-endorse the sitting Labor MP for Drummoyne, Angela D'Amore, who has recently had an adverse finding made against her by the ICAC. More than a third of Labor's lower house MPs will not be contesting the election.
This is the highest rate of retirement since 1901, when 25 MPs also did not re-contest election. The high rate in 1901 was due to 18 MPs having been elected to the first Commonwealth Parliament earlier in the year.
There were 125 members of the Legislative Assembly in 1901 compared to 93 today, so proportionally the rate of retiring MPs is much higher at the 2011 election.”
Graphic from Funky Motors