A day in the life of the new NT Government

After the Country Liberal Party victory in last months Northern Territory election, the new government has got down to work. The Deputy Liberal Leader has been dumped, despite assurances and not been offered a Ministry, after four years of loyal service. Several senior Labor-appointed public servants have been sacked.
But today, their are two stories out of Darwin that deserve comment.
Firstly, the appointment of a smoker as Minister for Health is good news. The politcal correctness surrounding smoking and the draconian regulation and invasion of civil liberties warrant someone who will be sceptical of tough new laws. But, in not so good news, new Chief Minister Terry Mills, has declared he wants a memorial to Japanese soldiers who died during battle in Darwin during World War II. This is a slap in the face to all those Australians who died at the hands of the brutal Nazi's and their allies in Japan.

What next? A memorial where Hitler died, or perhaps as one Northern Territory News reader suggested, to the hijakers who died when they crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre?

Greens support drops - their rise has peaked

The Greens have dropped to their lowest level of support since March 2009, according to the latest Newspoll survey. The Greens are now recording only 8% support. This comes after the Greens suffered swings against them at both the Queensland and Northern Territory elections this year, despite big swings against Labor. This also follows their loss of the Melbourne state by-election a district within Adam Bandt's federal seat, even though no Liberal candidate contested, and the Heffron by-election, where again, despite the absence of a Liberal they lost with a mere 4% swing.

Support for the party has clearly peaked. Without Liberal preferences, the party is also likely to lose their sole House of Representatives seat at the next election. Good riddance.

Barnaby Joyce proves he's not fit for high office

Barnaby Joyce may be a Conservative. He may sound really good when he's yelling and screaming at anti-Carbon tax rallies. But he does not perform well as a team player, and can be an absolute boofhead.
For example on May 6 this year, Senator Joyce claimed that James Ashby, who has accused Speaker Peter Slipper of sexual harassment was 'only slightly less dodgy than Slipper'. This ill-advised comment resulted in a complaint of victimisation being made against the Senator.

Now, the man who is challenging respected Nationals MP Bruce Scott for preselection with the intention of becoming Nationals Leader and future Deputy Prime Minister, has contradicted Coalition policy, despite being a Shadow Minister.

Senator Joyce declared that the sale of a 93,000 hectare Queensland cotton farm to a Chinese consortium was a 'bloody disgrace'. His most astonishing claim was that the Gillard Government, which cannot install pink batts in roofs without killing people and burning down houses, should have nationalised the farm. Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey criticised Senator Joyce for his out-of-line comments 'Frontbenchers have a responsibility to be part of the team. Backbenchers can freelance because they are on the back bench'.

Senator Joyce needs to start acting professional and like a team player, or he should be sacked.

Not the time, not the place: George Osborne booed at Paralympics

Whatever you think of British Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, it is unfair and petty to boo him when he is handing medals to heroic Paralympians. Mr Osborne, who has overseen tough budget cuts in the United Kingdom, and repeatedly backflipped on various policies from the pasty tax to fuel duty and many more is the most unpopular politician in the UK. He was also accused of hypocrisy after he cut taxes for the most wealthy, whilst increasing various other taxes, including on charities.

I am no fan of the Conservative Party - I favour the UK Independence Party (the low taxing, anti-carbon tax, Eurosceptic traditionalist party) - but the Paralympics should not be about politics, and those who booed Mr Osborne should be ashamed.

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.