A recap of the Hon. Anthony John Abbott's year that was....

No no  no NO! no never no nay No nooooo  won’t no NO-NO-NO no not no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no No no no no nada no no no no no no no no no no no no Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah! no no no no no no no-go no no no no no no no no no no no no no nei no no no no no no no non no no no no no no  no no no no no nein no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no No no no no no-no no no no no not no no no no no nyet no no no no no no no no no neva eva eva eva eva eva NO.......................................................... quoth Tony

"Tony Abbott’s approval rating has fallen again over the last month. 32% (down 4%) approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader and 53% (up 1%) disapprove – a change in net rating from -16 to -21 over the last 4 weeks. This is the lowest rating recorded for Tony Abbott since he became opposition leader.
65% (down 8%) of Coalition voters approve and 22% (up 3%) disapprove.
By gender – men 36% approve/52% disapprove, women 29% approve/55% disapprove."
{Essential Research survey on 12th December 2011}

Why all the fuss about an eBay scam? Ask Australia's DoD what a real scam looks like

Is that a gun in your pocket?

The Sydney Morning Herald of 20 December 2011 made me quietly smile when Asher Moses breathlessly told readers that it was an Unhappy Christmas: $1120 for an empty box through eBay with Australian eBay customers lured by ultra-bargain priced TV sets and other electronics have shelled out thousands of dollars only to receive empty boxes in the mail.

Asher may be too young to remember that during the Viet Nam War Australian Defence Force personnel (were confidently rumoured at the time) to have opened carefully packaged boxes, which were supposed to contain an advanced weaponry component - only to find that each and every box merely contained a photocopied schematic of the very expensive item.

The Commonwealth Dept. of Defence, as procurer of these mythical components, was so embarrassed that its gullibility was hidden by creative internal accounting and never saw the light of day.

Now that was a $$$$$$$ scam!

One of the other perils of rock fishing - FEAR

A gaping Wobby at Julian Rocks, NSW

Many a keen fisherman will sympathise with The Daily Examiner’s editor over this salty experience he shared with the world last Tuesday:

“FISHING is supposed to be a relaxing activity, one where you can forget about the stresses of life, simply absorb the surroundings and be taken to another place.

It normally is for me, but not so on Sunday.

A friend and I headed to Woody Head to do a spot of bream fishing off the rocks. With not much happening on the fishing front, I decided to try another spot, but in the process managed to slip and put a small cut on the back of my leg on some oysters. There was a steady trickle of blood for the rest of the morning as the salty water stopped the wound from drying out.

As the tide rose we moved again, this time well away from the surf zone but where there was a collection of serious rocks and hazards. I lost a good deal of bait as I made my way out. I placed myself on a rock that had about half a square metre of surface above the water line and cast out. Small waves gently rose above the rock and up my calf muscles, keeping the wound wet and a drop or two of blood entering the water.

After about five minutes on the rock I looked down to see a wobbegong shark more than a metre long swimming beneath my feet, within a minute there was another, then another, then another.

I'm not sure I saw them all, but there were at least four, probably five, sharks milling around my feet.

They were so keen on what I was doing, they kept putting their heads onto the rock from which I was fishing.

This was disturbing.

I thought that in time they would pass. They didn't.

My only passage back to the mainland was by wading through the rock-filled water that was sometimes chest deep.

It wasn't a pleasant thought.

I know they are protected, but I stomped on the heads of a couple as they came onto the rocks and hit another couple with the butt of my rod. They would swim away for a few metres, then return.

I eventually decided to try to scare as many away as possible and take my chances through the rocks. I did and grabbed a few more bumps and grazes on the rocks on the way back, but thankfully the sharks left me alone.

I've seen what they can do to people when they latch onto someone.

My daughter told me last week one of the things on her bucket list was to swim with sharks. I'm going to cross that one off mine.”

'Steve' Gulaptis MP, fifth columnist?

Surfing the web I came across this little pearl from the mouth of the then Maclean Shire Mayor, now the NSW North Coast’s very own MP for Page, ‘Steve’ Gulaptis – which leads me to wonder if he joined the O’Farrell Coalition Government just so that he could help eradicate it?

ABC North Coast Radio live interview on 11th May 2002

Coal seam gas miners won't be putting any presents under the Chrissie tree

Royalties paid by coal seam gas miners in NSW are next to nothing so, as Janet Cavanaugh writes in today's Daily Examiner, don't hold your breath waiting for funds from those sources to amount to anything worth talking about.

Don't expect it any time soon
For those expecting Metgasco's royalties to fund the Pacific Highway upgrade, the second Grafton bridge or a 24-hour police station in Casino (DEX, December 17 "CSG could co-exist: Metgasco") - don't expect it any time soon.
The NSW Government's assistance to encourage the industry includes a five-year holiday on paying royalties for each and every well, and then discounted royalties for a further five years. In contrast, coal seam gas royalties in Queensland are a flat 10% each year.
Peak production of wells often occurs in the first few years of a well's life, with production dropping off significantly after that. In 2010, the total paid to the NSW Government in coal seam gas royalties was only $462,000.
Does Metgasco seriously think this can fund anything more than a fraction of the bureaucracy which is meant to regulate the industry?
Janet Cavanaugh, Whiporie

Source: Letters, The Daily Examiner, 22/12/11

Don't laugh, this is a true story

A 10-years-old sheep on a farm on the Isle of Wight has been fitted with false teeth. The plastic teeth were fitted last week and in seven days the sheep put on 20lb.

That gem appeared in today's Daily Examiner but it wasn't a recent news item. It happened 50 years ago. Regular Examiner readers appreciate the work of Chris Nield who compiles "Backward Glances: Extracts from The Daily Examiner 50 years ago today".

In other 'old' news reported in the Examiner today:

* Sir Earle Christmas Page, former Australian Prime Minister died in Sydney to-day. Lady Page and close relatives were at his bedside constantly as he fought for his life. [Well, truth be known, Sir Earle died on 20 December.]

Footnote: The Australian Dictionary of Biography states that Sir Earle's first wife, Ethel, predeceased him. Ethel died in 1958 and on 20 July 1959 Sir Earle married his secretary Jean Thomas at St Paul's Cathedral. Sir Earle fought his last election in December 1961. Suffering from cancer, he hardly appeared in the electorate and died in Sydney on 20 December, not knowing that he had lost his seat after forty-two year.

Before you get too comfortable.......

From Monash University’s Indigenous Human Rights and History Vol 1(1) [Occasional Papers Series Editors: Lynette Russell, Melissa Castan] comes Genocide in Australia: By Accident or Design? by Colin Tatz – giving us all something to think about as 2011 ends:

There was no pendulum before the 1970s. That there was no desire, let alone a need, to look was partly because Australians regard themselves as quintessential democrats and decent colonists, ‘genuinely benevolent’ as Hancock would say, convinced that Australian-ness [by birth or even by naturalisation] is a natural immunity to bad or homicidal, let alone genocidal, behaviour. When Australia reluctantly ratified the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (hereafter, Genocide Convention or GC)3 in June 1949, a bipartisan parliament was aghast that Australia should be associated with a Genocide Convention Bill. Liberal MP Archie Cameron declared that ‘no one in his right senses believes that the Commonwealth of Australia will be called before the bar of public opinion, if there is such a thing, and asked to answer for any of the things which are enumerated in this convention.’ Labor MP Leslie Haylen was adamant that ‘the horrible crime of genocide is unthinkable in Australia … that we detest all forms of genocide and desire to remove them arises from the fact that we are a moral people. The fact that we have a clean record allows us to take such an attitude...’ (Hansard 1949: 1871–6).

Their indignation and belief in an unblemished record notwithstanding, Australia’s behaviour is now before the bar of public opinion and inevitably on the international conference table; it is increasingly illustrated in museums and film documentaries; it is taught in a small but growing number of university courses and in most high school syllabuses; and published in newspapers, books, annotated bibliographies, genocide studies journals and websites abroad and at home. The Australian case now appears in anthologies like Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views.4 Genocide in Australia is now thinkable and thought about — here and abroad.

That the Aboriginal experience doesn’t look like, sound like or feel like Auschwitz is a quite proper conclusion — but genocide is not restricted to that heinous chapter of the twentieth century. Despite the many differences between the Australian and other cases, the evidence on the destruction of Aboriginal societies is strong enough to fall clearly within the scope of the crime defined in international law……..

Jaysus Wept! Are we never to have a break from the Nomadic Noman?

Apparently Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott cannot stand the thought of ordinary Aussies having a Tony-free media over the Christmas break.
Read this and weep:
"Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is still in the office. He will stop for Christmas Day in Sydney with his family, but keep working in the week leading up to New Year's Eve."
What on earth is he going to tour, open or opine over for heaven's sake - some poor sod's assessment of presents given or received?
The man's clearly unbalanced, if the only time he'll give his family is one lousy day of the most important holidays of the year just so that he can keep his bluidy name in print.

North Coast Nats trying to create a false impression they had a hand in getting federal funding?

If one undertook a vox pop on the streets of Coffs Harbour next week it would be likely that Luke Hartsuyker’s name rather than Rob Oakeshott’s name would be associated with $35 million in Gillard Government funding, after this North Coast Nationals shameless attempt to hijack the announcement.

Excerpt from Independent MP for Lyne Rob Oakeshott media release on 19 December 2011:

FOR the second time in a month, Independent Lyne MP Robert Oakeshott has announced a multi-million windfall for education on the Mid-North Coast.
The Commonwealth will invest $20 million in a health and medical education campus in Port Macquarie – the first of its kind in regional Australia.
Just two weeks ago, the MP announced $15 million towards a Port Macquarie campus for Charles Sturt University.
Today’s announcement involves a multi-partner medical education campus involving the University of New South Wales, the University of Newcastle and the North Coast Institute of TAFE.
“This has been a fantastic fortnight for higher education on the Mid-North Coast, with a record investment of $35 million in tertiary education infrastructure involving three leading universities and the North Coast Institute of TAFE,” Mr Oakeshott said.
“Even more significant than the dollars, is that this campus will be the first regional medical school in Australia where students can complete the entire six-year course, a remarkable outcome for our local students and the university and clinical specialists involved.
“I am absolutely serious about reversing the brain-drain from the Mid-North Coast, and making our region an education hub for the nation,” Mr Oakeshott said.
“The University of NSW will deliver a full six-year medical degree in Port Macquarie from 2014, which is a first for regional Australia, and an important game-changer in the way medical degrees are delivered nationally.

How The Coffs Coast Advocate reported these facts in an online article with photograph which was primarily National Party ‘spin’ on 20 December 2011:

LOCAL Federal member Luke Hartsuyker has welcomed the announcement that his parliamentary colleague Rob Oakeshott has helped to secure $20 million in funding to go toward a multi-partner medical campus in Port Macquarie.

Mr Hartsuyker said that the boost for Port Macquarie's economy should be seen as a pat on the back for all regional town centres not just the Hastings area.

"Everyone welcomes more medical facilities and more medical training in regional areas," Mr Hartsuyker said.

In the past fortnight Mr Oakeshott has announced $33 million in federal money going towards his constituents in the seat of Lyne after recently announcing $13 million that the independant MP helped to get granted to Charles Sturt University to help pay for a Regional University Centre at Port Macquarie.

The local member said that money had already been allocated to the Coffs Coast region when it became a trailblazer in rural medical training.

Overall Australians are going into the 2011 festive season still confident that the economy and home finances are faring well

From the last Essential Report for 2011:

Click on graphs to enlarge

Overall, respondents were optimistic that 2012 would be a good year for themselves overall (52%) and their workplace (45%). They tended to be less optimistic about their financial situation (33% good/27% bad) and somewhat pessimistic about the Australian economy (29%/35%).
Compared to expectations 12 months ago, respondents were much less optimistic about the Australian economy (48% good last year compared to 29% good this year) and also rather less optimistic about their own financial situation (39%/20% last year compared to 33%/27% this year).
When compared with last week’s questions on perceptions of 2011, these figures suggest that respondents expect 2012 to be better than 2011 for themselves and their family (net +36% for next year compared to net +24% for this year), a little better for their workplace (+25% next year, +20% last year) and their own financial situation (+6% next year, -2% this year). The Australian economy is expected to be a little worse in 2012 (-6% next year compared to +2% last year).

UPDATE:

Moody’s Investor Service Global Credit Research - 21 Dec 2011

New York, December 21, 2011 -- Moody's maintains the following ratings on Australia, Government of:

Long Term Issuer (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of Aaa

Senior Unsecured (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of Aaa

Senior Unsecured Shelf (foreign currency) rating of (P)Aaa

RATINGS RATIONALE

Australia's Aaa ratings are based on the country's very high economic resiliency, very high government financial strength, and very low susceptibility to event risk. Economic resiliency is demonstrated by the country's very high per capita income, large size, and economic diversity. As one of the world's most advanced economies, the country has not only a significant natural resource sector--including minerals,hydrocarbons, and agriculture--but also well developed manufacturing and service sectors. It also demonstrates strong governance indicators. In particular, the framework for fiscal policy is transparent and has, until now, consistently kept government debt at low levels.

The government's debt rating of Aaa takes into account the aim of maintaining a balanced budget, on average, over the business cycle. It is supported by the very low level of public debt and the country's strong financial system. In comparison to most other Aaa-rated countries, Australia's government financial strength is very high, with very low gross debt that is easily affordable and provides a high degree of fiscal flexibility...... [my bolding]

Hatip to Latika Bourke for tweeting this information.