why Asia?

After reading this story on mysterious tourist deaths in Thailand see here it just helps to reinforce why I NEVER holiday in Asia. People ask me all the time, "why do you go to Greece every year?" and "what have you got against Asia?". Well I guess that there's a chance that they'll feed you rat poison is a disincentive for a start!
I'm sure I don't need to highlight the attractions of Europe here, but all I can say is that Asia just offers no incentive for me. The fact that its a poor region with high corruption and unforgiving law enforcement does not endear me it at all. Or perhaps it was Paul Keating's (alleged) remark back in 1990 that "Asia is the arse end of the world" and "somewhere you fly over on your way to Europe" that struck a cord?
In the meantime, you all can continue getting drunk in Bali, or visiting sex shows in Bangkok, but if you're looking for me, I'll be on a sandy beach somewhere in the southern Peloponnese.

State funerals for pedophiles?

Back in December I commented about awarding State funerals to celebrities see here , and it appears not much has changed since? Lionel Rose was recently awarded a taxpayer funded State funeral, and included in the mourners paying public tribute were none other than Premier Ted Baillieu.....as well as notorious thugs like Mick Gatto and Jeff Fenech.
While my views on  awarding State funerals to celebrities are well known, what is not so well known is that the current recipient had a terrible cloud hanging over him. In October 2004 he was alleged to have sexually abused an 11 year old girl read it here , his conduct was allegedly so bad that even the Herald-Sun chose not to publish the details.
While this matter never went to court, it surely was a big enough cloud over Rose's reputation that a Premier of the State would want nothing to do with him? It's a question of judgement (not guilt or innocence), and the Premier failed miserably on this occasion.
So no doubt we'll continue to memorialise celebrities and sports people, completely white washing their past evils. No doubt then that when one very famous ex footballer dies, no one will remember that he (for all intents and purposes) killed a girl in his hotel room, while I didn't see anyone mentioning the late Bob Davis' criminal activities either?
And I don't expect things to change anytime soon either?

Baillieu going down a dangerous path

I was bewildered recently when I read of the Transport Accident Commission's (TAC) plan to sponsor low alcohol beer from brewers see here . Not by the scheme itself, but by Premier Baillieu's extraordinary intervention to kill it as an issue, just because (shock horror) the Herald-Sun was going to run a front page story on the plan.
The Baillieu Government has been very slow in making decisions (on anything) since coming to power, in fact verging on paralysis on occasion, but this little saga is a dangerous precedent that Baillieu is setting for himself. You have to govern by conviction, not just kill off every out of the box idea because the News Ltd tabloids are going to write a beat up on it. Instead Baillieu should've praised it as an "innovative idea" that's worth trying in the road toll battle etc etc.
You know it just never ceases to amaze me that despite all the evidence to contrary, politicians keep thinking that pleasing the tabloids will bring electoral success. Well it won't, the electorate will reward conviction every time (assuming arrogance is kept in check?).

Gillard (finally) fires up

From the reported remarks at the Victorian ALP Conference today see here it appears that PM Gillard has finally found the right way to attack her conservative opponent. Instead of bland sloganeering and focus group tested catchphrases we finally saw here a Keatingesque line of attack, which was exactly what was required to deal with a political animal like Abbott.
I think she was channeling Keating when she came out with phrases like "acting like the love child of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump", and "the fight was not between right and left, but between right and wrong", while getting stuck into the self-important "shock jocks", and devastatingly, praising up Conservative Prime Ministers Cameron and Key. This is a key point for me, she's clearly showing that climate change is not some trendy lefty cause, but a REAL issue that needs REAL answers from serious people. And the recently released Australian Election Study see here clearly highlights that Abbott is generally reviled by the electorate, in fact rating lower than Keating at the disastrous 1996 election landslide.
So the lesson in all this is that it's all in Gillard's hands; she has to sell this tax, stand firm on her beliefs (assuming she has any?), and stare down and ridicule the Opposition's obstructionism.
The Australian electorate will usually reward conviction politics; they don't like Abbott, and they're scared of the Carbon Tax, so it's up to Gillard to explain to us why we need it....and why we don't need Abbott!

Australian women politicians

While sitting around and musing about the performance of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, I got to thinking about the standard of senior women politicians in recent political history, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a pretty embarrassing state of affairs.
I won't add any new polemics about Gillard, other than to repeat that she's not up to the job. But what of the others? Unfortunately the only word that readily comes to mind is failure!
So lets have a look at who else has made a name for themselves in the not too distant past;

• Ros Kelly....of the famous whiteboard incident......enough said
• Carmen Lawrence....the former WA Premier (allegedly) perjured herself on the stand, not to mention having the death of Penny Easton on her conscience for the rest of her life Easton affair
• Bronwyn Bishop...the Minister for "kerosene baths" and other assorted embarrassments
• Julie Bishop...the current Deputy Leader of the Federal Liberal Party, who seemingly can't be sacked from that position regardless of how many times she embarrasses herself, due to her power base in WA
• Joan Kirner...the much ridiculed former Victorian Premier, who's probably better remembered for this performance on The Late Show
• Cheryl Kernot...former Leader of the Democrats, who had delusions of grandeur of becoming PM and switched to the Labor Party, where she humiliated herself on a daily basis.....but at least she had the loving arms of the married Gareth Evans to help sooth the pain
• Anna Bligh...the current QLD Premier....showed some leadership during the floods crisis, which did no more than disguise her other failings. But the polls are now back on track to show an humiliating defeat for Labor at the next election

So have I overlooked anyone? Unfortunately there is just not alot to show for 100 years of the suffrage movement in Australian politics. Other western democracies can seem to produce quality female politicians, so what's wrong with Australia?

Abbott's (quiet) embarrassment

A funny thing happened today when I opened up the News Ltd tabloid - The Herald-Sun - I flicked through pages of waffle before hitting page 10, where I saw what I would've thought was a hugely embarrassing headline of Malcolm Turnbull rubbishing and (essentially) ridiculing his leader's "direct action" climate change plan read the follow up here .
Make no mistake, to have a senior front bencher of substance come out and make those remarks is devastating for Abbott....or at least it should be? And what page of the newspaper do you think a similar contradiction by Labor would've ended up on?
Unfortunately this incompetent Prime Minister doesn't have the ability to take full advantage of the opportunity presented, and once again it's been left to Greg Combet to do the heavy lifting on behalf of the Government.
And perhaps Combet's star will really get a chance to shine when Gillard (eventually) gets around to actually releasing the Carbox Tax detail? Combet may even in fact be in the position to almost single handedly save the Government from defeat, getting the detail (and sales pitch) right are THAT important.

more public transport shambles

I was interested to read about the rail chaos caused last Friday when an "unprecedented" amount of train drivers allegedly went off sick read it here .
My sources in the rail industry tell me however that while there were "sickies" on the Friday night, it was nothing far different from any other miserable cold winter's night. The issue is one of competent management (sadly lacking apparently?), like I've stated previously this antiquated rail system relies on the goodwill of it's staff to operate at a respectable level. For example, if train drivers choose to not work on their rostered day off, then that immediately increases the chances of a driver shortage on any given day.
And as has been explained to me, the way the rosters and pay structure works, if drivers have already had an additional shift during the pay fortnight, then many consider it not worth their while to work on the last Friday of the pay fortnight.
So it should be highlighted once again that it's not the drivers that create the roster scenarios, but management, which as I've stated, does not appear to be the greatest?

more Combet, less Gillard?

After reading this defence of the Carbon Tax see here by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, it left me wondering, what the hell is PM Gillard doing? Granted every time she opens her mouth you just want to cringe, but as the PM she should be articulating the arguments that Combet is making. Why isn't she out there saying things like;

•  Australia risked long-term economic damage if the proposed reform was abandoned
• If we let this chance pass us by, climate change policy will become the poisoned chalice of Australian politics for the next decade
• The consequences of this would be profound for all Australians, especially for those businesses that are now so reluctant to take responsibility for their actions and refuse to see beyond next year's prospectus
• The eventual cost of economic transformation would also become more expensive as Australia struggled to catch up with the rest of the world
• We would not learn how to live in, let alone how to prosper in a carbon-constrained world, while our trading partners would increasingly see us as industrial dinosaurs

But instead of this type of reasoned argument, all we get out of Gillard are comments about her favourite football team, and speculation about marrying the First Bum....what's his name?
We do live in barbaric times I think.

promoting torture

As I predicted see here following the death of bin Laden, the sadistic neo-con torture supporters have been out in force sickeningly trying to claim credit for bin Laden's entrapment. However The Nation magazine has written an excellent debunking of this sick notion of promoting torture, you can read the article here .

Murdoch's anti Aborigine bashing

I came across this opinion piece today read it here by one of my favourite rabble rousers, John Pilger, which pretty much negates the need for me to take another shot at News Ltd this week, Pilger has written a beautiful little polemic.
He makes some interesting claims, including that;

• Murdoch controls 70 per cent of the capital city press
• the first Australians have the shortest life expectancy of any of the world’s 90 indigenous peoples
• Australia imprisons Aborigines at five times the rate South Africa during the apartheid years
• Murdoch’s London tabloid, the Sun, once described Aborigines as “treacherous and brutal”
• Out of 7,433 Aboriginal children examined by doctors, four possible cases of child abuse were identified, about the same rate of child abuse in white Australia

I don't know how accurate Pilger's figures are, but if true, they're a damning condemnation of Rupert Murdoch and his war on Aborigines.