It has to be a joke, Joyce

You’d think I would be used to the idiocy coming out of the Nats camp and the Coalition Gazette, but this takes the blue ribbon:

“ROCKER Angry Anderson is eyeing two federal seats in NSW as he plots a bid to represent the Nationals in Canberra.

The 63-year-old anti-carbon tax campaigner has the Labor-held seat of Throsby, based in Wollongong, in his sights, but could also make a run for the northern NSW seat of Page, at the suggestion of Tony Abbott.”

Angry Anderson representing Page? Fair dinkum – I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The eejit says he's "been reading the science" and doesn't believe it. He knows global warming doesn't exist because scientific opinions are "polluted by a wage", carbon dioxide is a natural harmless element, pollution is not new -its been around since the industrial revolution, it's all a U.N. conspiracy and he didn't design power generators so "it's not our fault".

Pic from Google Images

Water Administration Ministerial Corporation has to pay own costs after judgment in its favour

From the NSW Environmental Defender’s Office - a case of poetic justice as the the WAMC is left holding the legal bill:

With assistance from the EDO , the Snowy River Alliance (SRA) recently challenged the validity of the Snowy Hydro water access licence in the Supreme Court. The challenge was unsuccessful. The general rule is that the unsuccessful party must pay the successful party's legal costs. However, the Court can make an exception in public interest litigation so that persons seeking to represent the public interest are not deterred by the prospect of paying the other party's costs. But this exception only applies when the litigation is genuine public interest litigation, and where there is ‘something more' that justifies a departure from the general rule. In this case, Justice Hislop held that the proceedings could be characterised as public interest litigation because there is a wide public interest in the protection of the Snowy River , and because the plaintiffs were not pursuing any personal gains. There was also ‘something more' in these proceedings because they dealt with issues that were novel and important. Therefore, the Court ordered that the SRA did not need to bear the defendant's costs.

For more information, please click .

Judgment[PDF 3.08 MB]

Reading the tea leaves......

Between late March and early September 2004 the Australian Remuneration Tribunal had all but finished topping up parliamentary remunerations for that particular year. By mid-September the country was weighing up those candidates who were standing for the 9^th October 2004 federal election.

In October 2007 the Tribunal again increased Federal MPs’ wage and allowance packages and - in what could only be the wildest coincidence-  by the start of November that year a federal election campaign was in full swing.

In May 2010 federal pollies were granted a healthy pay rise to take effect just in time for the August 2010 federal election campaign to kick off in earnest.

In June 2011 those same pollies’ pay packets grew fatter yet again with a base salary of $140,910, and now we find that an MP’s wallet will probably grow positively obese sometime during the first quarter of next year.

Which makes me wonder if we will see a general election called in early August 2013.

Because if meeja speculation on the size of the 2012 pay jump is close to the mark then there is unlikely to be a further major pay rise in the following year - so going to the polls at the earliest opportunity will not be seen by Government MPs as the chance of a pay increase missed.

Clarence By-election: Nat's preselection candidate Williamson rapidly losing fans

Today's episode in the Nats' pre-selection skirmish in Clarence has been given a bit more heat, thanks to a contributor's letter to the editor of The Daily Examiner.

Be warned

Unsurprisingly, the Valley's serial claim jumper has put his name up for National Party pre-selection for the seat of Clarence.

I was more than a little surprised when I first heard of his move for the following reason.

Shortly before the March election, Mr Williamson phoned me, and the main purpose of his call seemed to be to win me over to his and his supporting team's belief that the next New South Wales government could very well be controlled by a party of independents that included himself. He assured me that he was a dedicated independent who could never be tied to a particular party's dogma. He also divulged that contact had been established with other candidates statewide and that there was growing confidence that they could pull it off. They were never going to, of course.

Anyway, be warned. There's now a cuckoo flying around looking for a spare nest. Let it settle at your peril.

Thomas Macindoe, Yamba

Source: Letters, The Daily Examiner, 3/10/11