Saturday 2 June 2012

Political Quotes of the Week


The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for North Sydney does not have the call. The member for North Sydney, it is not for the opposition or the government to accept a member's vote. We need to clarify this: it is for the parliament to accept a member's vote. The member for North Sydney.” {Hansard on 30th May 2012}

"PopThirdWorld @popthirdworld                                                  30 May
Abbott fleeing from Craig Thomson in Parliament is disgraceful. Whether or not Thomson has girl germs is for the courts to decide. #auspol"

3.21pm: Question Time is finally over.
Now it's time for the recriminations.
Lots of personal explanations this afternoon.
The angry juice is draining slowly from the chamber.
Acting Speaker Anna Burke needs a cup of tea.
Can someone take care of that? And a biscuit.
3.20pm: Later Chris."

"WHOLE families lie slaughtered in Syria, rape and pillage continues in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 5.5 million have died, the world averting its face since a war began in 1998, millions are suddenly unemployed in Europe, manufacturing jobs are collapsing in Australia … and what has us riveted in our Federal Parliament?
The Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues all but fall over themselves in a risible rush to escape voting in the House of Representatives.
Was there an Australian who could still bear to watch what passes for the national political debate who did not throw up their hands in despair at the televised revelation of this unprecedented spectacle?"  {The Sydney Morning Herald on 31th May 2012}


Friday 1 June 2012

Michael Duffy, Journalist, Author - Seer


It may have taken more than a year before Tony Abbott was sent into Opposition by the Australian electorate, but all those years ago, Michael Duffy eeriely called it like it is.


Pessimism may be the ruin of us all: [2 Metro Edition] Duffy, Michael The Daily Telegraph, 24 Mar 2001, p17:

The poem is of course a gentle satire on rural pessimism, but Abbott's point is that in the past the rest of the country took this with a grain of salt (except when things were genuinely bad), whereas now Roonism is taken by the media at face value and is spreading to the cities. This is occurring in defiance of the reality that things are much better today for most Australians than they were 10 years ago.
The process is being driven, he argues by "a strange alliance between the economically vulnerable and the commentariat, which would like nothing better than the destruction of the Howard Government". The political motivation behind this theory is clear enough, and we can be sure that Abbott will become a leading Roonist himself should be find himself in opposition later this year.  [my red bolding]

Myall Creek Massacre Commemoration 10 June 2012


In memory of the Wirrayaraay people who were murdered on the slopes of this ridge in an unprovoked but premeditated act in the late afternoon of 10 June, 1838.
Erected on 10 June 2000 by a group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in an act of reconciliation, and in acknowledgement of the truth of our shared history.
[Memorial plaque at Myall Creek]


The annual memorial commemoration ceremony is for those who died in the Myall Creek massacre. This public commemoration is held at Myall Creek, the site of the massacre, west of Inverell on the Bingara-Delungra Road, commencing at 9.30 a.m. This year the meeting will be held on the Sunday, not Saturday, of the June long weekend.

9.30 Arrival and morning tea
9.45 Short AGM, with a focus on concept plans for the new educational/cultural centre
10.30 Start of ceremony
From 12.00  Lunch (can be purchased)
Brief contributions by invited guests
For further information or interviews please contact Ivan Roberts at (02) 6257 4600 or iroberts@iinet.net.au ; Sue Blacklock (02) 6723 3279, Lyall Munro (02) 6752 5792, Graeme Cordiner (02) 9817 0288

Oi, Barry O'Fibba! Keep those bloody guns out of our national parks, state conservation areas and nature reserves!


Fair dinkum – why is it that everyone who gains control of New South Wales turns into a power hungry, greedy nong of the first water?
O’Farrell, Stoner & Co. are all set to open our national parks, state conservation areas and nature reserves to recreational shooters.
Giving open slather to those very same eejits who upset the working dogs, scare the sheep, put holes in the water tank and don’t understand what line of sight is so there is a crazy crack in the kitchen window right where the wife was washing up at the time {and yes, all those things did happen}.
To make matters worse – he’s put Environment Minister Robyn Parker in charge. The minister who turns a blind eye on local illegal logging and antimony contamination of a major river.
Yes siree, these shooters are going to be well policed aren’t they?
And Mr. Gulaptis, I noticed your vote to stall debate on this big blunder.
Here’s what most people polled by Granny Herald think of that idea, Bazza.

So if you live on the NSW North Coast don’t go anywhere near at least 6 local areas marked out for shooters, including Yabbra, Richmond Range, Nightcap, Dorrigo, Gibraltar, Barrington Tops national parks, state conservation areas and nature reserves.
It won’t be bloody safe. Even if do you try using one of those useless North Coast Nats MPs as a body shield.

This is the man who heads the political party in the NSW Upper House that O'Fibba and his cronies are pandering to:
There's a good chance this elephant in the photo was a young female.