Showing posts with label Climate Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Climate Change. Show all posts

Thursday, 25 May 2017

Becoming Dumber and Dumber.


Fading into Dumb
Fading into Dumb
G'day Possums,
Paul Keating once said that when in power your policy framework changes the culture of the nation.
Assuming then that the aforesaid is true let's reflect on some of the more significant utterances of the past fortnight and determine by the language sentiment and intent what sort of country Australia is presenting, not only to the wider world but more importantly, to itself.

Anti-Immigration minister Dodo Dutton has said the 7,500 refugees who have not applied for visas are "fake refugees" and that for them the "the game is up" for costing the taxpayer $250,000,000.00 PA.....  oddly enough, the same amount Dodo wants the taxpayer to spend on his new Border Farce and Anti-Immigration fiefdom.
After denuding legal and language services to refugees Dodo has set an October deadline for these people to fill out the 180 question, comprising 45-60 page questionnaire and statement some of which information is impossible for these people to access.
At the same time Asbestos Bishop was misleading the United Nations as to what a nice place we are in our treatment of refugees.
Are we dumb enough to silently accept this hypocrisy?
 
The Highway to Hell
The Highway to Hell
Closer to home in what was the Tardis State (Where-All-Went-Backward) Victoria, Matty What's-a-Green-wedge Guy, chief opposition clown had one of his troupe (Brad Battin) pratfall in his union-bashing workout by erroneously telling parliament that it took 51/2 hours for professional firey's to attend the Black Saturday bushfires. This attempt to further politicize the volunteer fire services and to "scotch" the latest reforms in modernizing state fire services only serves to remind that "NO" is the most frequent word you'll hear uttered by any of the ruling rabble tribe in relation to reform as opposed to destruction, which is their forte'.
Are we dumb to accept this crass politicking?
 
reflections
reflections
World climate scientists are now saying that ocean levels are going to rise faster than previously predicted because of the alarming increase in the arctic melting.  Australia's ruling rabble in its 2017 budget has axed funding to a measly $600,000.00 for the National Climate Change Research Facility a body that offers information on how best to mitigate climate change and the consequences of sea level rises; and from 2018 it will receive no funding at all.
Ruling Rabble apologist, N.Saava in a look-over-there moment decried Labor's Willy Shortsuff's budget-in-reply speech as only once mentioning climate change whilst pointedly ignoring that fact that the funding cuts were not mentioned by the ruling rabble at all.
Australia is subsidising fossil fuel production to the tune of a massive $A5.6 billion a year and also funds the industry with a further $A292 million a year in public finance, as it expands fossil fuel production on multiple fronts.
 I firmly believe we need legislation that will make criminal and enable the jailing of those who stalled, denied or halted practices trying to ameliorate climate change and its consequences
N. Saava must think we're dumb! 


The Battler's saviour from the Deep North  Poorleen, Pleez Oixploin Hanson is in more electoral strife after her chief of staff, printing guru and sometime pilot, Oily Ashby (he of Slippery Pete's demise) decided that potentially defrauding the electoral office and their own candidates was a good way of making money. Caught on tape making the suggestion and also that he would deny he had ever said it,  Oily later excused himself for a poor choice of words and said, by way of obfuscation, that it was an illegal tape anyway only made by a disgruntled member to embarrass Noe Notion. Pooleen Pleez Oixlpoin had a hard time interrupting her employee Oily at a presser, where she blamed the ABC for creating false news and upsetting candidates and that Oily really had no need of more honesty, ethics and general morality. Around this time  an "advisor" to climate denier, coal enthusiast, conspiracy theorist, the gift that keeps on giving and all round fruit cake,  Noe Notion Senator, Mr 77, Mal-addled Roberts, was arrested on multiple counts of assault! 
Please note that these people see unionists as corrupt and needing strict laws to control them.
I'm dumbstruck!

In what Prime Miniature Truffles Turdball opined was an act of love, not rape, Tax evader, self promoter and serial anti-labor activist, Twiggy Forest has "gifted" a tax deductable  $400,000,000.00 to causes of his own choice.  This crass attempt to mitigate the fact that in 2014-15 his Fortescue Metals made $9.1 Billion in sales and only paid $13.2 Millions in tax on profits of $208 Millions or 6.3%  only re-inforces Twiggy's hypocrisy and Truffles out-of-touch, Cayman Island elitism.
As a piece of right-wing anti welfare greed masked as philanthropy this sordid episode surely marks a new low point in the dismantling of a welfare system for all to be replaced by the feel-good crumbs brushed down to the peasants when seen fit by the ruling rabble.

Next time you see you are paying somewhere between 28-36 % tax on your earnings, ask yourself how dumb do you think they think you are?


And then there was that bastion of right-wing intellectualism (I know, it's an oxymoron), Quadrant!  Having never moved beyond purveying the time warp of the Melbourne Olympics, employer of Daisy the Preening-Princess-of-Putrid Prose, Cousens, and Board Member whose face was obviously the model for the "Angry" emoticon, Nick, Snarler Cater, this magazine and self espoused standard bearer of free speech and the repeal of 18C, allowed essayist (?) Roger Franklin to publish an online piece  suggesting that said it would have been preferable for the Manchester bomb to be exploded in the ABC’s Q&A studios on Monday night, blowing up host Tony Jones and the panellists. The ruling rabble's personal para-military, the AFP has been called in to investigate but as the deed was not done by a Labor person, a Green or a Muslim there'll be a nothing-to-see-there enquiry.
Taste and intelligence never seem to intersect with the ruling rabble, how dumb is that?
Then there was the writer of "The Thick of It",  Armando Iannucci who deploring the questioning style of contemporary TV journalists brought to my mind Leigh Hissy-Fit Sales whose technique fitted his description of a 30's journalist interviewing Churchill by asking the question, "Mr Churchill , you know Germany's problems are caused by the Jews as Mr Hitler says they are, don't you?"
Dumb and Dumber Petals... what choices are we to make before this country is destroyed by the right wing?
Hoo-roo,
Shane

Friday, 30 September 2016

The Continuing Insanity's of the Ruling Rabble Mk2.


Shane and Dangerous Wind Power


G'day Possums,




A severe, "Once-in-50-Year", (according to that Soviet Cell at the Bureau of Meteorology) storm and two small tornadoes swept through South Australia, felled about 23 high power transmission lines and caused the back-up to Victoria's grid to fail, leaving the whole state blacked out. 
Our faux Federal leader forever fearful of his right wing flapping, Truffles Turdball on being informed of something,  played an insane line that the real cause of the blackout was that SA had 40% of its grid powered by wind and solar!
Aided and abetted by a compliant ABC in tabloid propaganda mode, the Famous Five: Truffles, Fiction's Frydenberg, Barnyard Joyce, Exhibitionista Xenephon and Mal-Addled Roberts all decided it was time to nobble this dangerous energy source once and for all. An inquiry into the myth of human produced Carbon as a climate change agent, and cheap reliable, environmentally friendly coal is just the ticket according to Mal-Addled the One Neuron Notion Senator from The Deep North. That world weather patterns are becoming increasingly violent and the fact that we've just passed 400PPM of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere didn't phase this crusading seeker of empirical evidence as he went on to call for,"  ....all to urgently exit all climate change policies that are the direct cause of this huge mess in SA."
Now, isn't all that innovative? No? Well, agile with the facts at least!

“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.” Michel de Montaigne.
 
The inherent dangers of solving the problem of climate change without the goodness of Coal.


Burying his head further into the sand, Truffles has decided that the misleading information from the anti-equality agit-prop leaflets disseminated in Sydney by senior members of his Liarbril Party will not affect a "civil" debate prior to the now problematical plebiscite on marriage equality. This group, "Children's Future" ( "...give me a child till he is seven... etc....") apparently has links to the secretive right-wing Catlic club, Opus Dei, an organization founded by Spanish prelate Jose' Maria Escriva in 1928 which flourished after the Civil war under the fascist, General Franco.
It's nice to know that "free-speech" is alive and well and that the Inquisition isn't too far away!
"I agree that everyone has the right to peace and harmony, but the gays and lesbians are now wanting to change my way of thinking, who I am," said the Red Menace from Ipswich.
"I come from a time when there was no discussion about gay marriage. That's my background, that's what I've grown up with." "If you feel so strongly about it, I'm sure you can move to that country and then you can have that marriage," she said."
The Red Menace would probably feel more at home in Pyongyang.
Descending into a theatrical quagmire of irrelevancy and proving Orwell as prophet, Kafka as role model, Ayn Rand as scriptwriter and Dali as producer The Red Menace re-iterates the putridly low level of intelligent discourse the ethically and morally bereft "right" of Australia now  proselytise to a  dumbed-down nation.
Just like Mandy Il Patrone,  Vanstone  (QandA 26-9-16) who extolled the virtues of those waiting patiently for 12-15 years before the skerrick of humanity left in this mongrel rabble kicks in and they deign to allow them entry as refugees. A truly Panglossian sentiment more suited to the C15th than the C21st. To much applause from the rooly noice audience, Il Patrone presented a reassuringly and patronizingly mythical confection of how to control others futures without the guilt. I wonder if Vivian Solon and Cornelia Rau were as accepting and appreciative of Il Patrone's "humanity."
“We should tend our freedom wisely.” M.de M.
Reflections
Reflections
Finally, Australia’s education department paid Bjørn Lomborg’s climate skeptic Copenhagen Consensus Centre $640,000 to help produce a report that claimed limiting world temperature increases to 2C was a “poor” use of money.
Bjorn has left the country. He richer.... us, none the wiser!

Faux Freedom Fighter and ex Boy Wonder, Wyatt Roy has popped up in Iraq (illegally it seems) allegedly seeking motivation and meaning from the Peshmerga but in reality garnering support for his next tilt at pre-selection for the seat he lost at the last election. In a 10 minute advertisement on ABC's 7.30 hosted by what looked and sounded to me like Leigh Sales in drag, Wyatt's "what-I-did-on-my-holiday" exuded all the boyish charm of a young unemployed Liarbril taking himself too seriously as a wonderful plastic humanitarian.
I think it would be a very good idea if we could crowd-fund his return and give ISIS another crack at him.

“We are all blockheads.”  M. de M.
Guthrie's Gotta Go
Guthrie's Gotta Go

There was a deja-vu revelation of sorts in the American presidential debate between a loopy far right-winger and a standard right-winger. The LFRW tried to excite the audience with calls for Jobson Growth, Tax cuts for the wealthy, Laura 'n Order, Innovation, and I think I heard "agility" get a guernsey, too. Only to be told by the SRW that trickle-down economics doesn't really work. Having heard all the former from Truffles as if it was something original a few months ago I can only assume that this is what is meant by Globalisation.
If it is, I have an ominous feeling as to the path we are being lead down by the ruling rabble Mk2's application of the IPA's imported theoretical mumbo-jumbo.

Hoor-roo, petals

Shane

Monday, 24 November 2014

With Galahs, Ning-Nongs and the Fascist Poltroons

With Galahs, Ning-Nongs and the Fascist Poltroons all running amok it might be time to gird for the forthcoming havoc.

Shane at John Curtin Hotel
Shane at John Curtin Hotel




G’day, you three…

Been for a bit of a wander around the  town...  and today it's all Wombat Droppings (or the chronicle of a  once Egalitarian nation sliding inexorably into Fascism).







We’ve had the G20…..  all $500,000,000.00 of it.
Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spiked “Rabid the-Hun’s,” We-will-not-mention-the-Weather” cannon by announcing a climate change deal and Australia announcing that that our territorial sovereignty is up for sale particularly for Chinese workers. 
Andrew “Reboxetine” Robb, Minister for Trading Off the Nation, denied that paying Chinese wages to Australians was also part of the deal and that Chinese investment in industry probably would not override O H and S, and environmental standards. “Look how we are caring for the Barrier Reef “ he said, “Besides you can’t make Popiah and not break eggs….I think.”
Rabid–the-Hun then enthralled the assembled 36 of the G20 (gate-crashers?) by bemoaning just how recalcitrant we all were in not wanting to fund private medical research out of our own pockets, or wanting to retire at 95, or not  turning the ABC into another Media psychological Basket Case like Foxtel or let his Pretend Education Minister Chwissie “The Whyne and Perfect-Prat-of-a-Prefect” Pyne charge $100,000.00 for a degree in barista-ology.
Busker with Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
Busker with Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
Which shows about as much sense as this picture.... 
How do you get a Busking Licence to have a bird spread it's wings?
I mean, that's all it did.
The mural is by Mirka Mora: born in France she arrived in Australia as a young woman and the French Romanesque influence is very apparent in her work.
 Lordy... if this government were a horse you'd have to put it down.... but at least “Rabid-the-Hun” came close for the first time, to admitting to the "free-market" agenda they never want to discuss publicly...and was forestalled in repeating that ”…. Climate-Change is crap.” 

"The Ugly American," Murdoch and his minions, “The-Coots-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe” at the IPA must be apoplectic at his incompetence in "selling" their message and instead, exposing it to the full glare of public ridicule for the selfish anti-social medievalism it is. They even went to the ludicrous extent of allowing Rabid's business advisor and trenchant climate-change denier Maurice "Addled" Newman to quote some wacky American Senator called Inhofe who thinks that the bible refutes climate change.... all together now: Place finger on lips, wobble up and down quickly and blow!
John Curtin
John Curtin

This is John Curtin a Labor Prime Minister who led Australia through WW2.
He took over from the founder of the present day Liarbril Party, R.G.Menzies, one of whose claims to fame were his nick-names: "Pig-Iron-Bob" and "Ming."
The first was because as PM he was trading Iron to the Japanese at the beginning of WW2. Which apocryphal legend has it came back to us as bullets and shells! The second was based on the Flash Gordon Cartoon character "Ming-the Merciless."
See the similarity with the present Liarbril rabble? 
Curtin was born just up the paddock from the Wombat's burrow.

Two mares from “The Ugly American’s” stables, Janet Albrechtson and Amanda Devine were showing an unusual lack of confidence in their ability to stir an audience by refusing to be panellists on Q and A. which was a pity.  Granted, it may only inspire people to throwing rotten eggs, tomatoes, cow-pats and such like but it still is a genuine response. Perhaps if these women could only come across as intelligently civilised as Ms Wong or Ms Plibersek do and of whom, they feel they can’t compete, things might be different. But then, spitting vitriol from the Murdoch Bunkers and paddling in the bile of those who share their one-dimensional view of the world like Andrew ”Blot-on-the-Landscape” Bolt is far safer. 
In their opinion anything other than their view is “left,” and wrong. And like “The-Coots-With-Queer-Ideas-From-a-Parallel-Universe” at the IPA who falsely espouse free-speech and libertarian views; speech is only free when it agrees with them. Everything else is biased … and bias is wrong unless it’s their bias. These Neanderthal thinkers from the IPA have yet to discover the value of a pluralist society. 
8 Hour Day monument
Memorial to a notion that is sooooo C19th.
Although pluralism and fairness is what Senators Jackie “Bogan” Lambie and Ricky “Diff” Muir have been practising. 
 With other cross bench Senators they voted to repeal legislation thought up by the partially disgraced Arfur ”Da Spiv” Sinodinas and Matty “Atwerp-Horse-Shite” Coormann.
 It was bad legislation made for corrupt people but at least there are some in Parliament who are thinking of “The People!”
People assisting refugee kids in Oz Concentration Camps
People assisting refugee kids in Oz Concentration Camps
This is another interesting read as the ABC’s budget is being cut to ribbons and comes under quite furious attack from many sides for being impartial and pluralist thinking.  
One of the funniest criticisms was one bloke on radio bemoaning how the ABC wasn’t “…lateral thinking enough” and …“we should all listen to Macca!”  
For you three overseas readers, Macca is a quite Right–Wing Bumpkin who travels by phone to rural areas to let them vent their hatred of anything smelling vaguely socialist. 
Except of course for Farm subsidies, Fuel Subsidies, and other agrarian socialisms. I’m not sure the caller had any real idea of what lateral thinking really means… perhaps he could ring Foxtel  or" Le Jongleur" Roskam and ask them for a definition.
 "Le Jongleur"  doesn't think the Government should fund the ABC  as not all use its considerable services.  But when a caller suggested reimbursement for the "Tax" he pays in advertising fees on the products he buys which fund commercial stations he doesn't use ... "Le Jongleur" went a bit quiet for once.
David Wilson Sculptures
David Wilson Sculptures
These are sculpture by David Wilson in the grounds of the old Melbourne Jail. (DW was my tutor at Art School)
His "Romantic Brut"works look rather good in this setting.




Bar, Curtin Hotel
Bar, Curtin Hotel

And this is the bar at the John Curtin Hotel, now known as just "The Curtin" and not really a place for Unionists from Trades Hall, opposite, any more but a live music venue...



seagull

Hoo-Roo Possums,
Shane.

PS, before we go one more graphic to put our conservative, right-wing government in its real perspective...

Australian

Thursday, 5 July 2012

...reflecting on Sophie M.


…..reflecting on Sophie M



Hello Possums,
Recent events here in the Tardis State (where all goes backwards) led me to remember again our visit to Musee Rodin last May.

Les Invalides behind Contemporary Sculpture, Musee Rodin

Iris, Messanger of the gods... still so modern.

I have already mentioned a delightful experience there in a previous post, “…on a tangent”.
On the day we visited, Musee Rodin was quite crowded with tourists, a couple of groups of school children, a film documentary crew and seemingly littered with bits of Rodin’s work:  maquettes, plaster casts of limbs, bronzes, marble, waxes and some really quite weird work by Rodin’s tragic mistress, Camille Claudel. 

Narrator and Film Crew, Musee` Rodin

The complexity of visual stimulation and the cultural contexts in this place can be seen in the shot of the narrator and film crew. To the left is the early masterpiece, The Age of Bronze its front reflected in the mirror, then La Defense, a work for a competition Rodin didn’t win but later bought by the Dutch Government as a memorial to those who died at the battle of Verdun. Near the narrators hand, a bronze portrait bust of Jean Paul Laurens, (painter and sculptor) behind the narrator a marble bust of a female, possibly English beauty, Miss Eve Fairfax and between the camera-men a bronze portrait of the painter Jules Dalou. And then there is the chandelier, the reflections, parquetry, panelling and Rococco paintings above the doors of this C18th house. We moved outside to wander amongst the works in the garden…. a visual sorbet if you like….

Young Woman in Hat, Terra-Cotta, Garden

…and  found The Burghers of Calais, The Three Shades and the Gates of Hell…and there….

Burghers of Calais


…fell into conversation with a French woman. We were both looking very intently at some “putti-like” figures on the extreme right of the “Gates” and began to discuss their possible meaning, the turmoil of death and the intensity of humanity being expressed in this tumultuous work and perhaps prosaically, why actual ropes were cast into the edges as well….?

Gates of Hell, Musee Rodin
Gates of Hel,l Rodin. Musee` Rodin,Paris


Three Shades, Musee` Rodin

Wandering further into the garden our conversations with this lovely urbane French woman led to what the Wombats’ did and where they came from etc. The French woman told us she had been doing studies into refugee immigration to France. 

Seems the French allocate places for 80,000 a year but double that actually arrive.
(Italy has 2-3 times that number)

She made no comments like “TURNBACKTHEBOATS” but expressed concern at the refugees plight, future and the stretching of the French economy that was happening in providing services to the refugees.

“But”, she said “…..we have to look after these people …it’s our responsibility”.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Wombat Droppings

Fast forward to Q and A t’other night…. Sophie (Pit-Bull) Mirabella honestly expressed her true worth when Simon Sheikh, director of “Get-Up” collapsed on-camera ….she seemed to be the last to be aware of his state sitting next to him...  and then later, Graeme Morris, Liarbril "strategist " expressed sincere belief that gloabal warming is a myth and possibly in a flat earth, too!

Carbon Pricing has been set in place and to Mr Rabbit’s Henny-Penny surprise, the sky didn’t fall in but Brumby’s Bakery boss sent an email to franchisee's suggesting they “up” their prices anyway and blame the Carbon Price.

Professor Ross Garnautt shakes his head in dis-belief at the “trivialisation of the debate on climate change.”

Shock-Jock from Sydney with a loose grasp on facts and allegedly a penchant for London Toilets, Alan (Bondi) Jones, came to Melbourne to ginger-up the angry masses with his queer views on carbon pricing. 99.96% of Victorians stayed away.

Compensation for price increases is being given to all except those on $90,000 p.a. or more… so there were a flurry of talk-back calls by people on more than 90,000 complaining as to how unfair it all is “After all” said one, “I try to do the right thing and send my kids to Private schools. What compensation do I get”? 
Uhhhh, perhaps a warm inner glow for thinking you doing the Nation a favour?
Aspirational, selfish, blinkered, nasty, perfect Liarbril individualism in action. 

I once had a neighbour who sat in on classes in three schools to see if they came up to his expectations of a good education for his daughter. They were for Grade 1 in State Primary Schools!

Queensland Liarbrils are fighting over spoils that have yet to be delivered.

sendbacktheboats ! sendbacktheboats ! sendbacktheboats ! sendbacktheboats ! sendbacktheboats !

Australia has given the Indonesians 3 or 4  C-130 transport aircraft.
Why? They already have around 520 aircraft and we….380.
To transport materials filched from occupied West Timor and West Papua?
Refugee boats can’t be sorted out by them either .. they only have 31 patrol vessels. We have 14!

This country has lost its way.

In The Tardis State (Where-All-Goes-Backward)
UnPlanning Minister, Matthew Guy is in court defending his backflip on the re-zoning of land from agricultural to residential for one Liarbril mate because other Liarbrils mates started bitching about it.
How much is this going to cost the Tardis State?
Sniff, sniff… a whiff of corruption here?
He’s also being noted for ignoring his departments’ advice and just signing off with a “ I want this!”

Man bashed by transport security people refuses $120,000 hush money… wants his day in court.
And he had a ticket…

Big Bird Baillieu (Silvertail-Incompetens) is being sneaky about extending tolls on existing roads.
FOI is not within his ken.
Noblesse Oblige is NOT  Democracy Ted

Cardinal George Pell’s comments re: abuse of children by Catholic religious makes Henry 2’s campaign in the C12th for one law for church and state look positively modern and now very, very necessary.

Seeya, petals.
Shane

Sunday, 8 April 2012

...on a big rant

 Lawrence Winder
G'day... here we are at Oscars (in Ballarat) having a drink and a bit of a feed with some compatriots from the Ballarat Foto Biennale...
 Lawrence Winder
....Mrs Wombat left, Lucy, a new committee member, Elizabeth, Kieran, Aldona and Dave....apart from the meetings to discuss businees for the 2013 Biennale we or rather Elizabeth, has instigated these social gatherings to discuss business for the 2013 Biennale. Which is good fun. There is going to be an interim show in September/October this year and some other activities, details of which have to be finalised so more of that at a later date.  
On a personal note, I'm having a show as well in September October. And I shouldn't forget Kathleen (Mr & Mrs Wombat's youngest), her exhibition at Queensland Centre for Photography kicks off June 9th - July 5th... so if you happen to be in Brissie... pop in.

But this post is more about the dire state of politics in the land of Aus and specifically the return of Victioria to a truly "Victorian" approach to government. 
 Lawrence Winder
At the recent Ballan Autumn Arts Festival these brave souls were protesting that this......Bacchus Marsh Maddingly Brown Coal
 Lawrence Winder
was about to be extended into this.........
 Lawrence Winder
with the subsequent possible loss of this and other of the very best fruit and vegetable soils in Victoria that are reasonably close to Melbourne.
 Lawrence Winder
The Baillieu (Liarbril) Government has recently indicated that exploration and development for the highly polluting brown coal is to get fast tracking. (Hazelwood Power Station in the Latrobe Valley by itself alone, contributes a full 15% to Victoria's pollution and greenhouse gases with its brown coal.) This, allied with their draconian restrictions on the siting of wind farms which are so severe that there is almost no place in Victoria with suitable wind where they can be approved for siting indicates where their policy is at.
At the Ballan festival I quipped to a fellow with a petition against the coal mine "Is this the place where you sign to get a coal mine?" He laughed and as he handed over the form for signing a young man, early - middle 20's standing near-by said, "I'd certainly sign to get a coal mine!" Noting he was wearing a "Tee" with some logo which said Global Warming is a Myth or some such.. he proceeded to tell us that solar was no good, nuclear was better: wind generators had killed more people than nuclear accidents (apparentley people fall off them) and were more polluting than brown coal generated electricity... (it seems they have gas turbine engines which have to be switched on if they can't generate their quota of power) and trotted out some figures (completely wrong) on the German Solar and re-newable targets and job creation from new technologies.
He had all the dead-pan fervour and certainty of a fundamentalist religious zealot.. and it seemed, during the following week that he had set a worrying tone in this re-newable energy area.
Bailleau's Liarbrils announced the cutting of 350 State jobs in the climate change and conservation/ environment areas. The Minister, one Ryan Smith interviewed by Josie Taylor on ABC's Stateline program http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-31/environment-jobs-slashed/3924840  was all at sea. I'm not sure whether he was nervous by being talked to by a attractive woman (possibly a rare thing) but his frightened eyes rolled about like two raisins in a pudding bowl and when asked what IS the govt. doing for the environment he said that they were changing the light globes in traffic lights!
I'll repeat that  ".... we're changing the globes in traffic lights".
It would be funny in a film.
This government has gone on the nose very quickly.... The Deputy Premier Peter Ryan had a "minder" who was up to his neck in the demise (resignation) of the reformist Police Commissioner, Simon Overland.  Ryan's line of "I know Nuffin' Mister..." beggars belief particularly as the police then get huge pay rises easily whilst the nurses get protracted 12 month of fighting, threats, bullying; and from Bailleau's Uncle... plain bad manners.
Ambo's are going through same, as are Teachers.
But Bailleau still commits to $40 - $50 million subsidy to the Grand Prix so petrol heads can watch cars going in fast circles... and let's not talk about the nanny-state insanity of his upping the fines for sayng "G.. F.....d!"
Although it was Brumby who brought that one in
Planning Minster Matthew Guy was looking like being sued by a woman he apparently mislead about land re-zoning... don't know what happened there ...all gone quiet.
Lorraine Wreford, Liarbril member for Mordiallic waited a week to (formally) tell  police that the gunshots that hit her home were due to her eldest son owing a drug dealer $5000.... nice.
Defendents all plead guilty so the Wrefords don't have to appear in court. Really nice.
When Kennett became Premier he said the State was broke ... proceeded to rip up the foundations for the new museum so his mates could have a casino there..$8,000,000... closed down the SEC's research into re-newables before selling it all off .... don't ask what's happened to maintenance and consistency of equipment across the privatised power suppliers  ... sacked all the language teachers in primary schools and put sattelite dishes in their place so that 100 children could learn on-line all together....never did see the figures on that system which lasted all of 3 months before quietly disappearing....
There's a myth that they (Liarbrils) are good economic managers... they're not: they show no imagination or innovation and instead rely on the fear of change in a ill educated and basically selfish population: they're not conservative, they're dead.... and we'll end up paying for their lack of imagination. I rather suspect Kennett is the primary advisor now.... I hope it doesn't take the state 10 more years to wake to this next con.

Sorry Petals...  that all got a bit serious but Aus has some decisions it has to wake up to... and quickly
and below is the person who will not be able to.



  And let's forget about promoting all those stories about suffering maladies from the turbines... I want to hear from those who get paid from them and seem to suffer no malady... please note the sheep in the photo suffering migraines .. cows look suitably distressed under them, too.  (Wind Turbines, Waubra, Victoria)

Cheers,
Shane.