Time to boot Palmer

Clive Palmer has for months carried on with this ridiculous and absurd stunt that he was going to run for Parliament. First he was going to run for Wayne Swan's seat of Lilley. He even made banners saying 'Lilley election 2013. Swan's song' He then dodged a contest with Swan. He then suggested he'd take on Bob Katter in Kennedy or run for LNP preselection in Fisher. Today, he confirmed after months of speculation and shallow promises of 'exciting things', he would not run for LNP preselection anywhere. He claimed he could not run partly because of the Coalition's policy on illegal boatpeople. He stated 'I cannot allow children, women and men to die needlessly when the government or the opposition has the means to simply solve the problem by issuing a simple administrative direction'. Guess what Clive, with your open door policy, boatpeople will die at sea trying to get here. How is that compassionate?

Prof Palmer has undermined the Coaliton for months with this stunt, and this combined with his refusal to support mainstream Coaltion (and Labor) policies is grounds for his expulsion from the party, regardless of his cash.

Mining boom over: now watch the economy go bust

Australia avoided the global recession because of the large surplus left by the Howard Government, and because of the mining boom. Today, confirmation if we needed any: the mining boom is over, thanks to Labor. BHP Billiton, Australia's largest miner has been forced to scrap plans for further expansion and investment in South Australia (and Queensland), thanks to spiralling and world-record high labour costs and the carbon dioxide and mining taxes. In addittion, the 100+ regulations and conditions imposed by the SA Labor Government didn't help. More than 8,000 would have been created by this project. This comes just weeks after other major companies like Shell and Woodside delayed or cancelled planned investment.
More bad news in the economy today:

• BHP's profit down 35%
• BHP to freeze new investment spending in 2013
• Insurance Australia Group profit down by 17%
• QANTAS loses $244 million, first loss in 20 years - company blames high costs and unions
• The company also cancels $9 billion investment in 35 new airliners
• Fairfax Media posts a massive $2.7 billion loss
• Rail freight company QR National confirms 900 jobs to go
• Sales slump continues at David Jones

UPDATE: This is what the BHP Chairman warned the government a few months ago  ''While governments have the right to make tax and royalty decisions, those decisions have repercussions.”
“Attacking individuals and specific industries doesn’t build confidence in our country – nothing good comes from this. It is particularly troubling when these attacks are directed at the resources sector, a part of the economy that has the potential to continue growing, creating jobs for many more Australian''

The Nanny State strikes again: smoking BAN proposed

The Tasmanian Legislative Council has unanimously passed a motion calling for the ban of tobacco sales to anyone born after the year 2000. This shocking and astounding invasion of civil liberties was supported by all members. Apparently, that means the sole Liberal Vanessa Goodwin supported the motion.

No country in the entire world bans smoking. Finland and Iceland are said to be 'considering' such a proposal.

Apart from being a terrible invasion of human rights and civil liberties, this would create a huge black market. A quick Google search reveals 11, 700, 000 pages related to 'buy cigarettes online'. They are promoted as 'Tax and duty free', 'Free shipping' and '80% off'. Any smoker would simply go online or travel interstate, the government would lose revenue and the problem would go underground.

UPDATE: Liberal Shadow Health Minister in Tasmania has fortunately rejected this extraordinary plan. He said 'What's next, 50 lashes for people who break the rules?'. What a excellent way to put it. The plan was supported by Quit Tasmania, Tasmanian Cancer Council and the Asthma Foundation.