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.

Sinclaire dodges simple questions

Nikki Sinclaire is a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands. She was elected as a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party in June 2009. Sadly, in January 2010, just months after being elected, she turned her back on the voters of the West Midlands and resigned from Europe of Freedom and Democracy, the European Parliament Party to which UKIP belongs. She claimed the group harboured 'racist' views, despite the assurances of popular UKIP leader, Nigel Farage. This was despite the fact her Parliamentary Advisor at the time, Gary Cartwright had unrenounced involvement in the far-right, having previously been a candidate and organiser for the far-right radical National Democrats. Mr Cartwright was also a regular contributor to the holocaust denialist Focal Point website. Mr Cartwright also maintanied an active association with the Springbok Club, which The Independent described as 'racist'.
She subsequently claimed 'sex discrimination' on the part of Mr Farage and the UK Independence Party. On 22 February 2012, Ms Sinclaire was arrested 'on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the European Parliament'. She now sits in the European Parliament as a 'Non-Inscrit' or 'Non-Attached'. Most Non-Inscrits are 'far-right'. Some current far-right Non-Iscrit national parties: National Front France, British National Party, National Union Attack Hungary, Greater Romania Party and Jobik. These parties have been described as Neo-Nazi, Fascist, anti-Semitic, anti-Hungarian, anti-roma, racist, sexist and homophobic.

So, several days ago I sent the MEP a Tweet.

She responded by saying I was 'sadly misinformed'.

Her claim of not being grouped with anyone is simply ridiculous. She sits with all those people I mentioned above. She then decided the best thing to do would be to simply block me. I didn't abuse her, I just asked a simple question. She is too gutless to respond with a proper answer. If she had even the slightest integrity, she would resign as a MEP and give her seat to UKIP.



Cancer Council fascists want to control what you eat

The Cancer Council Victoria may be well-meaning. But the latest 'survey' they have released makes for disturbing reading.
The study makes some rather frightening claims:

• 87% of those surveyed would support 'colour-coded packing' on food
• 83% supported a ban on advertising junk foods during popular children's programmes
• 87% supported government regulation of food companies to reduce the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods
• 89% supported restricting junk food advertising on websites
• 71% supported a 'fat tax' on 'junk' food - with the money 'used to make healthy food more affordable'

Inviting the Nanny State to regulate what we eat and how much it costs is a truly outrageous proposal. It reeks of authoritarianism and fascism. I know a charity I certainly won't be supporting in the future.

Mitt Romney causes trouble in London

US Republican Presidential hopeful visited London last week; and boy did he make a fool of himself. So much so that The Sun labelled Governor Romney 'Mitt The Twit'.
Governor Romney's gaffes:

• Appearing to forget the name of Labour Leader Ed Miliband during a joint press conference and refering to him as 'Mr Leader'
• Remarking that he had received a briefing from M16 - against protocol
• Labelling preparations surrounding the London games 'disconcerting' resulting in British PM David Cameron commenting 'Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere' apparently in reference to Governor Romney's management of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter olympics.
• Romney campaign official blasts Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson as 'eccentic, odd fellow' who's 'unbecoming attack' on Governor Romney was an 'indication of his bias towards President Obama' - absurd considering Mr Johnson is one of the most important politicians in the UK and cannot even vote in the US Presidential election

Bar a miracle, Bandt can't win seat

The Greens have suffered a serious blow after failing to win the State seat of Melbourne. Inner-city Melbourne is no doubt the most left-wing area in Australia, and the only Federal Greens MP, Adam Bandt currently represents Melbourne.
But fortunately, Greens candidate for the state by-election triggered by the resignation of Labor MP Bronwyn Pike, Cathy Oke was defeated by Labor candidate Jennifer Kanis. Notably, no Liberal candidate ran for the seat and turnout is at a record low of 67%. This result is notably bad news for Mr Bandt. He was elected at the last federal election on the back of Liberal preferences. He received 36.17% of the vote, compared with Labor's 38.09%. As Victorian Labor secretary Noah Carroll said ''The Greens Party won't concede they've lost Melbourne, they won't concede that by voting with Tony Abbott on asylum-seekers that their view of 'humanitarianism' is costing lives, and they won't concede that Adam Bandt won his seat off the back of Liberal preferences''

But the Greens have clearly panicked. In Ms Oke's concession she claimed '...if the same swings are repeated in the next federal election, we will retain the federal seat of Melbourne''. This is incorrect. Do the maths. At the Victorian state election in 2010, the Greens had a swing towards them of 4.5%, with the Libs running. At the by-election, without the Liberals running, the Greens had a swing towards them of roughly 4.6%. So, let's say Labor has a swing against it of around 6% (I'd think a generous figure, national polling has a 6% swing). Keep in mind when Bandt won his seat, Labor suffered a huge swing of 11.4%. A swing of 6% from Labor to the Greens would reduce Labor's primary vote to 32.09%. Bandt's primary vote would increase to 42.17%. The Liberals received 21.00% of the vote in 2010. This is likely to increase. Even staying the same, with Liberal and other candidate (Sex Party & Family First both preferences Labor this by-election) preferences flowing strongly to Labor, Labor should win the seat.

And a good thing too. These elitist, uncompromising, patronising eco-fascists have no place in modern Australian politics.