cutting fuel tax is economically irresponsible

Just my thoughts on the Liberal party proposing a reduction in the fuel tax by 5c per litre. (I know I am behind with this but better late than never in commenting)

The Liberal party was always against this policy when it was in power always claiming that it would be economically irresponsible. Now that they are in opposition they seem to be able to make so called promises knowing full well they dont have to committ to them.

My reasons why I believe reducing the fuel tax is not good.

1) The extra money given to people from this will only be spent on other necessecities which could have a negative impact on inflation, thus helping to increase interest rates.

2) It would put a huge dint in the surplus of the government which will result in further cuts needed to be made in the budget just to sustain it.

3) It is actually a very minimal amount in the pocket of consumers. On an average 60 litres of petrol this will only result in $3.00 being in the pocket of consumers.

4) Whats to say that petrol companies wont just raise prices anyway to swallow up the difference?

Fuelwatch could be unconstitutional

It seems that the Liberal Party has tried to get free legal advice from Malcom Turnbull's father in law, Tom Hughes QC, that the Fuelwatch legislation might be unconstitutional.

This has been reported by Glenn Milne in The Australian. Glenn Milne however has generalised and broadened the legal advice to make a broader statement about "independent retailers"

I quote Glenn's article

In other words, Hughes does not believe the Government has the power to force independent petrol retailers to participate in FuelWatch. That spells big political trouble.

Glenn does not go into further detail in describing what he believes an "independent retailer" to be. Three questions immediately spring to mind.

1) What is Glenn's definition of Independent Retailer?

2) How many of these independent retailers are in fact set up as partnerships or sole traders? Most would be set up as a company to limit the liabilities of the owners anyway.

3) How many of these independent retailers actually exist across the country that are not branded as a big petrol band? Even the most smallest town would have a "Shell" or BP sign at the front thus most probably making them fall under the definition of a sales agent.

Tom Hughes advice was very specific to business's that are not constitutional corporations, not "independent retailers of petrol".

Why can't journalists stop generalising legal advice to suit their commentary and purpose?

Melton Council to consider Webcasting of Council Chambers

Melton Council is considering a proposal to web cast proceedings of chambers at council meetings on the Internet.

Personally I think this is a great idea. Federal Parliament Question time is televised and all discussion in Parliament is in Hansard as well. State Governments also have a Hansard (I think) of everything that happens in the State Governments.

Would be good to have a permanent record of everything that happens at councils. Some local councillors would be concerned about this permanent record however.

The potential candidates list for the Kororoit by-election for example could be completely different if there was a permanent record of the many councillors that have aspirations for further political careers.

Imagine being able to bring up on the internet everything that has been said by both Natalie Suleyman and Marlene Kairouz in there council meetings to assist people in choosing a candidate and ultimately a member for the seat of Kororoit. Personally I think this would be interesting viewing.

Anything to make councillors in all local councils more accountable and transparent must be a good thing if you ask me.

Opposition Climate Change spokesman burns heaps of carbon to make a point

Greg Hunt, opposition spokesman on Climate Change, jumped out of a plane skydiving to make a point.

Does anyone see the hypocrisy with the opposition Climate Change spokesman unnecessarily jumping on a plane and in the process burning heaps of carbon to make a point about solar panels?

I wonder if he actually bought carbon credits to offset the plane ride that was not necessary to achieve his job? I also wonder if this stunt will show up somehow as a taxpayer funded expense or whether it has come out of his own pocket?

Hope out tax payer dollars aren't paying for our members of parliament to go skydiving. I would also assume that a climate change spokesman would not make unnecessary plane travel.

Typical liberal hypocrisy at its best.

Why the constant links to Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden in Australia?

First John Howard stated a few months back that a win for Obama will be a win for Al Qaeda.
Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop won't distance themselves from this.

Now the Sydney Morning Herald (thanks Larvatus Prodeo for the scan) has called Obama Osama in its headlines. Sydney Morning Herald cant seriously argue that its just a typo can they?

S is located on the second row (2nd from left) of letters on a qwerty keyboard, b is located on the bottom of the three rows of letters (5th from left). If they were located right below each other can understand a typo but touch typing has you usually using your other hand to type the letter b.

The Liberals are still trying to justify the Iraq war. Dr Nelson by not distancing himself from John Howard (AC if you dont mind) they are in fact endorsing John McCain without saying it directly. Only reason for this is to help out Johnny's (AC) best buddy's party.

Johnny (AC) cant help but put his two bob in, even in retirement, on the disbelief that Australia has withdrawn combat troops from Iraq. He can easily say these comments while posing with a Bentleigh in Yorkshire far away from the troops who are glad to be back home with there families.

Is the SMH still supporting Johnny and the Libs with the "typo" in the headline on Obama?

All the leaders that made the decision to invade are out of politics (the last only has a few months remaining). Hopefully Obama will bring in the change in the USA as well.

Anyone notice a common theme ? Fresh Thinking and Change?

ALP Candidate decided for Kororoit

UPDATE: I HAVE LEFT THIS POST ON HERE FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY NOW. IT IS NOW UNSURE WHO THE CANDIDATE WILL BE DUE TO NATIONAL EXECUTIVE OVERRIDING THE STATE EXECUTIVE.

MORE TO COME ON WHETHER MARLENE IS SUCCESSFULL AFTER THE LOCAL MEMBERS VOTE

Marlene Kairouz, former Mayor of Darebin and strongly supported by the SDA Union has been declared the candidate for the State seat of Kororoit. The administrative committee of the Victorian ALP has met tonight and chosen to refer to the national executive to have her declared the candidate without a local vote.

Apparently local factions were unable to agree between themselves on a quality candidate.


Further comment: My previous posts have suggested that it would be ideal to have a local person declared the candidate. However the infighting currently occurring within certain groups of the western suburbs ALP needs to stop, so this could be the start of the long overdue change needed.

It is suggested that some will appeal the decision for their own political gain.
Certain people should think they were not selected as a candidate because despite having "numbers" and supporters they seem to have forgotten about the many others they have gotten offside.
It seems that National Executive approval is merely a formality. Why not accept the decision and support the decisions of their executive? They MIGHT slowly start to regain some respect that they have worked so hard to lose over the years. Some might argue that these potential candidates never gained respect in the first place.
Hopefully they might look at themselves before starting to blame others and get behind their party in a unified matter. If they dont it will just prove the concerns of their dejectors.

Is Hillary Clintons office going to look like Johnny's soon?

This photo is taken from larvatus prodeo who took it from someone else!

Is Hillary's office going to look like Johnny's soon? A picture tells a thousand words.

Just one thought came to mind about the US Democratic Nomination Campaign.

Is Hillary Clinton similar to John Howard in not knowing when the time is right to call it quits?

Like good old Johnny did, despite all the writing on the wall and the actual sealing of the candidature for Barack O'Bama who will most probably become the first African American President, Hillary still has not called it quits.

Is this showing desperation on her part, or is it just a case of denial?
Maybe she needs to visit some episodes of the West Wing when the candidates were fighting for pre-selection. For the sake of your political party stop trying to keep attracting the publicity and let O'Bama get on with the job of attacking The Republicans.

Kororoit By Election update

The Liberal Party has decided to actually contest one of the safest labor seats in Victoria. Will be interesting whom they chose knowing full well they will not win the seat.

This is the first test for the Victorian ALP since John Brumby took over as leader.

Regarding the ALP Preselection numerous press reports have Natalie Sulleyman as a firm favourite to becoming the candidate for the seat.

However there are obviously a larger number of people that are interested in the seat at the moment. These include former upper house MP Sang Nguyen .

The SDA Union is also throwing their support behind Darebin councillor and former mayor Marlene Kairouz.

Surprisingly another former Mayor in Justin Mammarrella (This time from Melton Shire Council) could be considering a move according to The Other Cheek .

Obviously some other names are being thrown out especially with the good old fashioned policy of being promised things for doing something or other in the past by people that probably know they cannot deliver on their promises.

Rather quiet in the newspapers but surely very active behind the scenes is George Seitz whom is believed to have a rather large block of votes and influence in the area. Either way the next week should give some insight into who the powerbrokers of the west are.

No matter who the candidate is hopefully a LOCAL is chosen that lives somewhere in the electorate that covers a number of different suburbs and spans two different councils. Or will the executive try to parachute in a foreigner whom will have everyone in the west offside from the beginning?

What concerns me is all the talk seems to be about who is aligned with whom and typical factional alliances. Not one mention is being made into the actual depth and qualifications (if any) of the prospective candidates.

Are these candidates the best the ALP has to offer in the seat of Kororoit ?
Andre Haermeyer mentioned to the media wanting to give "new blood" a chance in the area as to one of the reasons in resigning.
Are people that have been working with and heavily influenced in their thinking and actions by the old guard in the west really "new blood" or just the same old mentality with a younger face?

Only time will tell.
Once the candidates are chosen expect to see John Brumby and Ted Baillieu making numerous visits to the electorate. In the end the candidates will just be a sideshow to the John V Ted Show that is about to hit the electorate of Kororoit

Finally a comment about Fuelwatch

I have been wanting to steer clear of this debate as I think the press it is receiving is absolutely unbelievable.

The Coalition is now claiming that Fuelwatch might be breaching the constitution.

I quote from the article

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says the Opposition has different advice and there is a big hole in the Government's plan.
"Basically the Commonwealth doesn't have control over prices, they have no constitutional basis to control prices and FuelWatch seeks to control prices for 24 hours," he said

Firstly Christopher Pyne should realise that it is against the spirit of the ACCC and in fact against the Trade Practices Act for anyone to control prices. When has the government ever said that Fuelwatch will control prices?

Since when does wanting to give consumers transparency and the ability to make better choices in purchasing equate to trying to control prices?

Liberal's as usual want to support big business over the rights of consumers.

Regarding the constitutional issue it is funny how the liberals are now using the can of worm's they opened up with Workchoices and its implications on the constiution. They were happy to take over jurisdiction to a federal level when it suited them but now are opposed to the ALP using the same powers?

John Howard reported to International Criminal Court

As originally noted on Not A Hedgehog article entitled The Price of Victory

It seems a group of legal think tanks led by John Valder AO has sent a 55 page page brief that builds a case of John Howard having committed war crimes has been sent to The Hague's International Criminal Court's (ICC) Chief Prosecutor on 30 May 2008.

John Valder is a former Liberal Party National President.

More informaiton is available here on ICCAction.com. Reading further down the page it seems that the former PM Howard was given legal advice that invading Iraq would breach international war crime laws.

Dont think anything will come of this but still an eye opening read. If anyone actually gets round to reading the 55 page document would love to hear there thoughts.