Menzies House

Are we being fooled?

EXCLUSIVE:

Bertel Torsten in Canberra

WHEN Christine Milne of the Greens supports Abbott's Environment Minister, Greg Hunt; when Hunt is already fighting with Resources Minister, Ian Macfarlane, suspicion gathers around the head of the new Prime Minister. It's looking increasingly likely that he will get rid of the Carbon Tax and replace it with Son of Carbon Tax, and the man to do it is Greg Hunt.

Hunt has called for water studies (called the "water trigger") on 47 large coal seam gas (CSG) and coal mining projects before federal approvals are granted. Seems reasonable on the face of it. But Macfarlane just the day before said he (Macfarlane) was intervening in NSW to fast track CSG projects claiming that it had a gas crisis. Racketty times in Cabinet ahead!

It gets worse. The much-maligned Labor looked at four CSG projects - Hunt is looking at twelve times that number.

And, Labor only did it to shut up Tony Windsor of creepy memory. Labor dragged their feet even though they knew it would not please their partners in crime, the Greens.


Hunt is not only outdoing Labor he is proud about it. He tells the world about it. He boasts about it. He puffs out his chest and denounces Labor for not administering the law.

Oh, Canada! Our new PM doesn't really eat babies

James Allan in Canada exposes what Labor's propaganda machine sends beyond our shores. GC.

So Canadian newspaper readers have an image of Abbott, now Prime Minister Abbott, as some sort of hard-line Catholic, with misogynistic tendencies, who would like to crush unions wherever he sees them and who is the driest of dries when it comes to the economy.

Each of these peddled stories is a myth, pure and simple, and yet my wife and I, who are in North America for my 2013 year-long sabbatical, have seen all of them regularly regurgitated in Canada’s main newspapers.

Read full story: Via Quadrant.org.au

Carefully considered or bad decision?

EXCLUSIVE:

Jim McCrudden 

Dr Dennis Jensen, BAppSci, MSc, PhD, has worked with distinction in industry and with the CSIRO. His PhD is in Materials Science and Physics. At the CSIRO he worked as a researcher but also as an analyst at the Defence Science and Technology Organization. 

He still makes serious contributions with regards to the Joint Strike Fighter debate, climate change, nuclear energy, scientific research, National Broadband Network, and education matters. He is on the Advisory Board of the Australian Research Council (Centre of Excellence) for Anti Matter/Matter Research.

Cutting it short, he is the most highly qualified Federal MP in science—on all sides.

'On track' for a surplus? Not good enough

Temporary deficits have a tendency to become entrenched - just ask the US. If Tony Abbott fails to return the budget to surplus quickly, Australia could face the same fate, writes Chris Berg at The Drum.
Read More

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-03/berg-on-track-for-a-surplus/4931502

 

All about the illegals

Well once again this morning as we made our way here indeed, there has been the announcement of yet another arrival of yet another boat under Kevin Rudd. We have had now more people turn up under Kevin Rudd’s very brief Prime Ministership the second time around than occurred in the last six years of the Howard Government which I think just goes to demonstrate once again the scale of this problem that has occurred when Kevin Rudd rolled out the Rudd carpet all those years ago to the people smugglers that has led to the chaos, the cost and the tragedy that has followed.

Full story here: scottmorrison.com.au

K.Rudd, public enema number-one

Opinion:

You can give it a slick paint-job, put a fake foxtail on the antenna, but beneath the dazzle remains the same old oil-burning, rusted-out, un-roadworthy clunker destined to inflict cost and heartbreak. A wreck is a wreck.

We must be the silliest country in the Western World. Kevin Rudd, the worst prime minister in Australia’s political history who was ousted by his deputy Julia Gillard and more than half the cabinet having caused “Labor to lose its way” has been reinstalled by ousting the absolute worst prime minister in the nation’s political history. Isn’t there supposed to be a lesson learned? Don’t we go to school to learn what is smart and what it dumb?

This mess will occupy government all the way to the election, whenever that may be. I, like many concerned Australians, want to know who in hell is running the country while this rabble called government is totally embroiled in self destruction?

Meanwhile, illegal immigrants step up their rush, the debt mounts uncontrollably and the unions are the recipients of unprecedented legislation giving them rights to intrude into any business house, factory or private entity at will.

Too many people believe Tony Abbott is a wishy-washy leader. Now, is his chance to show himself as a forceful contender who means business. Only lefties and bludgers will whine.

Mr. Abbott, for God's sake give us a sign!

GC.Ed.@L.

MUST READ: A Health Warning For Liberals

Medicine is pressured by a radical socialist transformation. Some of this is top down. Much of it is bottom up, writes Dr Grant N Ross

For 2 years I was the Melbourne University Liberal Club’s token doctor. Turning up late, or never, I would always be out of kilter with JSM, political theories and fights of the day and somewhat under the impression that Kroger was a kind of cheese. Luckily, being a stereotype got me over the line.

I would like to redeem my standing by attempting to write about the direction of health under Labor and the alternative policy direction the Liberal Party should choose when in Government.

Labor Just Doesn’t Get Small Business

I see former union hack official Brendan O'Connor is the newly appointed 4^th Minister for Small Business.

How foolish of me to think Gillard would appoint someone who had started or managed their own small business and can empathise with small business entrepreneurs.

Finally under Labor, the Minister for Small Business will be a Cabinet member. Senator Mark Arbib was the last Minister for Small Business.

Consider these small business statistics:

(For statistical purposes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines a small business as an actively trading business with 0–19 employees.)

• There were 2,051,085 actively trading businesses in Australia as at June 2009. Around 96 per cent were small businesses (1,961,337), 4 per cent were medium-sized businesses and less than 1 per cent were large businesses.
• Small businesses provided employment for almost half of total industry employment in 2009–10, which equates to almost 4.8 million people ¹.
• Small businesses contributed around $294 billion or 35 per cent of industry value added in 2009–10.
• Small businesses account for 85.7 per cent of employment in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, compared with 47.6 per cent in the services sector, 30.2 per cent in the manufacturing sector and 13.9 per cent in the mining sector.
• As at December 2008, almost 50 per cent of business owners estimated working more than 40 hours in a typical working week. 22 per cent of business owners estimated working 41 to 50 hours, 18 per cent estimated working 51 to 70 hours, and 6 per cent estimated working over 70 hours. Of those owners (4 per cent of business owners) estimating they worked less than 40 hours per week, 17 per cent estimated working 31 to 40 hours, 17 per cent estimated working 21 to 30 hours, 11 per cent estimated working 11 to 20 hours and 8 per cent estimated working 0 to 10 hours.

At least Tony Abbott and the coalition rightly acknowledge the important role small business plays.

 

 

Key Small Business Facts and Statistics can be found here.

¹ ABS Cat. No. 8155.0.

Update: Labor has finally  just made the small-business portfolio a Cabinet post.

The ALP are yet to update their Ministers page.

My post has now been corrected to relfect the change.

 

Follow Andy on twitter