ASIC Raids Moylan's Campsite

Meanwhile, over at the ABC's online website - they report on the Australian Securities & Investments Commisiion's involvement today.  However, there seems to be an absence of any mention of the "involvement" of the Greens Senators Rhiannon and Milne's public support of the criminal actions of Jonathan Moylan.  I wonder why that is?  Some facts reported.  Others concealed.  Our ABC - fair, balanced and unbiased reporting yet again!
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ASIC raids Whitehaven hoaxer's campsite
Updated 1 hour 15 minutes ago

The man at the centre of the Whitehaven coal hoax says the corporate regulator has raided his camp in northern New South Wales and taken his phone and computer.

Jonathan Moylan, from Frontline Action Coal, issued a fake ANZ media release claiming the bank had pulled a $1.2 billion loan from Whitehaven's Maules Creek project on environmental grounds.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is considering legal action after $314 million was temporarily wiped from the value of the company.

Many investors lost up to 9 per cent of the value of their shares by selling on media reports based on the fake release, before the share price recovered after Whitehaven and ANZ confirmed the release was a hoax.

Mr Moylan says ASIC raided his camp at the Maules Creek coal project near Boggabri in northern New South Wales.

"ASIC did turn up at the camp and, unfortunately I don't know exactly how much I'm allowed to say about that because there are offences for revealing details of an ASIC investigation, but I can say I've been required to attend questioning and they've seized my phone and computer," he told Radio National Breakfast.

The 24 year old environment activist says he is more concerned about the environmental impact on the local community than his own welfare.

"There may be very, very serious consequences for me that's going to affect only me," he said.

"The real on the ground impact going to be felt by the local community here is much more at the top of my mind.

"These projects are continuing to be approved and generating the biggest crisis that humanity faces."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-09/asic-raids-whitehaven-hoaxers-campsite/4457698

The Morally Bankrupt Australian Greens

Another example of the repugnant and morally bankrupt Australian Greens Party.  Not content to simply create mayhem with regard to Australia’s border control via importation of boatloads of illegal entrants (who immediately affix themselves to the public teat, form ghettos that, in many cases, become no-go zones, even for law enforcement officers and show an unwillingness to assimilate into Australian society and Australian way of life.)  The Greens are also driving Australia’s prosperity into the ground via useless and ill-conceived  CAGW schemes, they now clearly show they have no intention of upholding Australian law.

 

The Australian Greens are in coalition with Labor ensuring the Gillard Regime would have the numbers to govern along with help from several Independents.   An unspeakable three-year disaster for this Nation.

 

Sinclair Davidson is correct.  Financial arson has been committed by Jonathan Moylan.

 

Reblogged from Catallaxy Files.

Australia's leading libertarian and centre-right blog

Financial arson

5 comments

How to characterise what Jonathan Moylan did?

Well the Greens are trying to run a ‘civil disobedience‘ line.

THE Greens leader, Senator Christine Milne, has endorsed a controversial hoax by an anti-coal activist, saying his actions were ”part of a long and proud history of civil disobedience, potentially breaking the law, to highlight something wrong”.

Her comments came after a tweet by her colleague Lee Rhiannon, who publicly congratulated Jonathan Moylan, an activist under scrutiny for impersonating a bank and temporarily wiping $314 million off the value of Whitehaven Coal.
”Congrats to Jonathan Moylan, Frontline Action on Coal, for exposing ANZ investment in coalmines,” Ms Rhiannon tweeted on Tuesday night.

Okay – good luck with that. I’m not convinced myself but it does leave the Greens having to explain why destroying economic prosperity and shareholder value is for the ‘good’. Having destroyed the Tasmanian economy they are turning their sights onto the mainland.

Conversely Nikki Williams from the Australian Coal Association has an excellent op-ed in the Australian.

The deliberate and fraudulent manipulation of the stockmarket is a serious offence, which undermines confidence in Australia’s investment system.

I disagree with two sentences.

Contempt for the interests of the public is an unusual face for the activist movement.

No. Ask the Tasmanian logging industry about that.

Free speech is a right that must be protected, but with free speech must come responsibility and accountability.

This is not a free speech issue. Moylan should be free to tell us all about the evils of coal mining and how it is disgraceful that ANZ is lending them money and, if he were an ANZ shareholder, turn up at the AGM and ask tough questions etc. etc. etc. In fact, Moylan is free to do all those things already.

Moylan did not say what he liked, he did what he liked. Moylan committed an act of violence against Whitehaven’s shareholders and the integrity of the Australian financial markets – so every person in Australia who has direct investments or indirect investments like superannuation.

If he had set a forest fire we would immediately recognise the wrong – he did the financial equivalent.
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More about this disgusting saga at Michael Smith News.

Not A Good Look - ABC!

Judith Sloan at Catallaxy makes a good case with regard to our taxpayer-funded Lefty-supporting ABC.  It’s definitely a closed shop and of the opinion it is above some avenues of FOI disclosure.  We are talking about the public interest.  I think we have a right to know what the likes of Faine (who is the subject of a Complaint lodged by me recently to the ABC's Audience & Consumer Affairs arm.   Remember –  the ABC self-adjudicates, so I am expecting great results in relation to that Complaint!  
The ABC avoids extraneous inquisition and considering its activity in mainstream media on a number of levels, that’s not good enough in 2012/13. Go Judith!
 Reblogged from Catallaxy.

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Knowing the remuneration package of Tony Jones/Jon Faine, etc.

67 comments

It is quite a few years since I was on the board of the ABC – yes, I know what you are thinking.  Fat lot of good you did, Judith.  And you are probably right.

But I just love the current efforts of the ABC to resist any meaningful disclosure of the pay packages of the top earning ABC ‘talent’.  I hesistate to use the term worker or employee; certainly, in my day, quite a lot of the ‘talent’ was employed through service companies, which also employed members of their families.  Even as a board member, it was difficult to extract any real information about the remuneration arrangements and levels of the radio and television presenters.

And yes, employing these people through service companies did probably make the ABC party to a form of tax avoidance, although the presenters would declare that they didn’t have any right of tenure as most ABC employees do.  Mind you, I always thought that a number of these presenters were engaging in a high degree of hypocrisy by publicly banging on about the evils of individual contracts and WorkChoices while taking full advantage of individual contracts themselves.

THE ABC could be forced to disclose details of the pay packets of its top broadcasters and producers at programs such as Media Watch, Four Corners and Mornings with Jon Faine after it lost two appeals to block access to the information.

The national broadcaster received $1 billion in government funding in the last financial year and spent $486 million on wages and superannuation.

But the ABC does not want to provide a breakdown of who its biggest earners are.

The network lost its most recent appeal just before Christmas when the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled against it, rejecting the ABC’s arguments and saying some evidence it had put forward was not relevant and “of little assistance”.

A Freedom of Information request was lodged more than two years ago by the Herald and Weekly Times, seeking access to documents “dealing with salaries, or any payments” paid to program makers working on 13 programs, including those listed above, for the financial year ending 2010.

The ABC refused to hand over the documents, which include individual employment contracts, Australian Workplace Agreements, Individual Transitional Employment Agreements, pay slips and other “payment records”.

According to the ABC’s annual report for the 2012 financial year, 401 employees earned more than $150,000 each – an increase from 312 the previous year.

The ABC employs the equivalent of 4603 full-time employees.

You really have to laugh.  According to the ABC Annual Report:

The ABC recognises its responsibility to the Australian people as a publicly-funded broadcaster, and adopts high standards of corporate governance.

Really?  If it were to adopt high standards of corporate governance, it would not be fudging its remeration report, which is pretty much what was required of companies 15 years ago.  All that can be found out are the earnings of the top six officers within bands and note that the term ‘officers’ excludes all presenters.

And openness and transparency as part of high standards of corporate governance?  I don’t think so.  Take these statements from the Annual Report.

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (“FOI Act”) gives the public the right to access documents held by the ABC. During the past year, the ABC received 30 requests for access to documents under the FOI Act. One request was granted, four were granted in part, 20 were refused and one was withdrawn. Four requests were still being processed at the end of the financial year. Of the 20 requests which were refused, 16 were outside the scope of the FOI Act. Part IIof Schedule 2 of the FOI Act specifically excludes documents relating to the ABC’s program material from the operation of the FOI Act.

Prior to the launch of the revised ABC Editorial Policies in April 2011 (see page 85), the ABC Editorial Policies included an aim to respond to complaints within 28 days. Between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011, ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs responded directly to 17 241 audience contacts.Of these, 11 833 (68.6%) received responseswithin 28 days.

In other words, use every excuse under the sun to withhold information from FOI requests and dither away while ‘handling’ complaints.  (Recall the Finkelstein suggestion that complaints be handled within days … sure.) Note also that less than 10 per cent of complaints are ‘upheld’.

I had also forgotten what an incredibly SELF-CONGRATULATORY organisation the ABC is.  If anything, it seems worse than it was during my tenure on the board.  (Incidentally, the staff’s attitude to the board was completely dismissive, along the lines … well, you are here for a short time, we are here for ever, so we will ignore you.)

The Strategic Plan 2010 –13 commits the ABC to striving to maintain its leadership position as aninnovative and independent media organisationserving the needs of all Australians. It sets out six high-level strategic goals for the ABC:

Audience focused—to provide a range of mediaexperiences to meet the needs and expectations of diverse audiences

High quality—to consistently deliver content which reflects the ABC’s commitment to quality, independence and high editorial standards

Innovative—to pursue new ideas, opportunities and partnerships, and grow our capabilities for the future

Values based—to demonstrate ABC Values in every aspect of our work

Efficient—to maximise the efficient and effective use of resources

Responsible—to be visible and active in the community, setting high standards of social,environmental and regulatory responsibility.

But here’s the rub – WHEN THE ABC MARKS ITSELF ON THESE CRITERIA (sub-categories, included), THERE IS NOT ONE AREA IN WHICH IT DOES NOT REGARD ITS PERFORMANCE AS EITHER SATISFACTORY OR OUTSTANDING.  I am not making this up.

Where do you begin?

Another thought – gross misrepresentation by the ABC in its Annual Report.

“In real terms, the ABC’s operational revenue has declined over time.”

Actually, not since 1997-98, it has not.  And there were special reasons for the high figures in the mid 1980s.

And note the use of operational revenue.  The government is for ever kicking in extras here and there, including of coure the now uncontestible Australia Network, which are not counted as operational revenue.

 

 

 

 

Suspect Global Warming Tales: 2013 - No. 2

Like a bull camel in musk with a gob full of foam and lips-a-flapping, we have the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Programme Manager, Tony Mohr scaring the bejesus out of the chooks at the ABC’s online website, The Drum.

Tony, dear fellow – this is Australia, one of the hottest places on the Planet and not called “a sunburnt country” for nothing.  I thought we were not supposed to confuse weather with climate!  Oh!  Nevermind - I must have my wires crossed again!  We’ve lived through heatwaves before, you know and we are bound to live through them again.  Heatwaves in Australia are not a new phenomena – although I think you would like to assume your readers are a little bit stupid.  You need to do a bit of research on the influences of la Nina and el Nino weather patterns and perhaps take a bit of a look at that bloody big and hot Star we call the Sun and how it influences weather and climate on Earth.  Flares and spots – that sort of stuff.

Here’s Tony liberally spreading his foam in part.  You can click on the link below, if you are fit enough to stomach the diatribe.

Australia is in the midst of a heat wave. In and of itself, that's nothing special, but it is getting hotter. What we do today will dictate how hot we are tomorrow, writes Tony Mohr.

Chances are that as you read this, if you're not in Sydney, you're either sweating uncomfortably or sitting in an air-conditioned office.

It's probably somewhere between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius outside. More if you're in one of Australia's hotter regional areas. You probably had a fitful night's sleep.

We all know the symptoms; Australia is in the midst of a heat wave.

In and of itself, that's nothing special. We have heatwaves all the time. But it is getting hotter. Climate change is making things worse. What Australia - and the world - is seeing is weather on steroids.

No-one can point to any given hot day and say categorically that 'it is hot because of climate change'. No-one is trying to. But we know very well that as the climate heats up, it makes the chances of a day being hot greater, and it makes the likely maximum temperature even hotter.

We can't look at Lance Armstrong's career and say "that stage win on Alpe d'Huez was because of doping". But we can say "doping was absolutely a factor in him winning seven straight Tours de France". Likewise, we know climate change is a factor in the increasing number of hot days and nights we are experiencing in Australia, even if the cause of any given hot day is ambiguous.

According to the National Climate Data Centre, nine of the 10 hottest years on record have been since 2000 (the other is 1998), and of the hottest 20 years on record - that is, since 1880 - the earliest is 1987, which comes in at 20.

Last year in the US, heat records were broken with distressing regularity. In an ordinary year, the ratio of hot-weather records to cold-weather records is roughly equal. In 2012, for every cold-weather record, there were 3.5 record hot days.

The CSIRO has found Australian annual average daily maximum temperatures have steadily increased in the last hundred years, with most of the warming trend occurring since 1970. There has been an increase in the number of hot days and a decrease in the number of cold days. 2012 has been announced the ninth-hottest year on record.

Please take note at paragraph 9 of this foaming essay as it is relevant to my previous post involving the detective work undertaken by Anthony Watts and relating to records and their potential for some creative manipulation.

CSIRO, please note – we are coming out of the Little Ice Age, you know!  I would say a bit of warming is natural and to be expected.  Of course, I am blindly assuming your data is accurate.  

The CSIRO is another body attached to the public teat that requires a good looking into.

Get your umbrellas up and follow the bouncing ball here:-

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4455022.html

So - July 2012 Was NOT Hottest Month In US History

Anthony Watts (WUWT) has done a bit of detective work!  On the surface, it appears NOAA keeps two sets of books.  One book is kept by the National Climate Data Centre and the other with data fed to the press is kept by State of the Climate (SOTC) See below:

“Climate Highlights — July
The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during July was 77.6°F, 3.3°F above the 20th century average, marking the warmest July and all-time warmest month on record for the nation in a period of record that dates back to 1895. The previous warmest July for the nation was July 1936, when the average U.S. temperature was 77.4°F.”

NCDC’s record shows 76.9 deg.F for July, 2012 but the SOTC figure released to the press and an unsuspecting public was 77.6 deg.F.

Anthony Watts found not one discrepancy but many.

Surely, there has to be a simple explanation for SOTC's creative inflation of the figures.  Right?

There are accusations that the British Met Office plays loosely with the truth and we suspect BOM may very well behave in the same vein.

You would expect common decency would override fraudulent behaviour to support a cause, but then again we are dealing with group-think, snouts and deep troughs – and taxpayers footing the bills!  Not one of us should lose sight of the billions upon billions wasted propping green planet-saving schemes plus useless taxes that simply drive every product out of the reach of just about everyone.  Look at our electricity hikes, with another 10% increase due this month!  It's ridiculous.  So few having so much global influence based on absolutely suspect data spewed out of suspect computer models.

What disturbs me is this story of the hottest US July on record was reported widely across the globe with the usual hyperventilating and finger-pointing.  From memory, I think it was used by some of our own High Priests to hammer home the gospel according to the Church of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Here’s the direct link to Anthony Watts’ post as it is long, containing graphs, charts and varification links.  I hope he takes his findings to the highest level and makes good use of the US Data Quality Act.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/06/does-noaas-national-climatic-data-center-ncdc-keep-two-separate-sets-of-climate-books-for-the-usa/

Suspect Global Warming Tales: 2013 - No. 1

This year, I intend to shine the odd spotlight on planet cooking propaganda pieces written by hyperventilating, wheelbarrow-pushing journalists.  A practice currently rife in some sectors of our not-so-balanced mainstream media.

Last year, there were a number of examples of Press Release Journalism covering the subject of Global Warming, (GW) Dangerous Global Warming (DAGW) or straight-out Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW) that were drip-fed to unsuspecting viewers or readers without due diligence applied to research of the subject,  fact-checking, corrections where applicable or follow-up reports.  I believe it is the duty of responsible bloggers to open up the windows and let in some light and fresh air.  We can no longer rely on mainstream media to simply report the facts.   There’s too much spin out there.

Having opened up a Suspect Global Warming Tales File, I’ll begin 2013 with this delightful article appearing on the ABC website that is bound to scare the stuffing out of you if you are one of those people who believe the anthropogenic planet cooking spin without question because the Government tells you the science is settled, when clearly it’s not and the planet is heating up at an unprecedented rate when it’s not.   A lovely example of  journalistic engineering which is a bit similar to social engineering from our wonderful, reliably accurate, taxpayer-funded, unbiased and balanced ABC.!  MIA – a reporter interested in evidence and has experience with fact-checkers and how they work.  See below for link.

Jellyfish numbers on the rise, expert says

A marine stinger researcher says there has been a disturbing increase in jellyfish numbers around Australia.

Dr Lisa Gershwin has confirmed the deadly irukandji was responsible for several recent attacks off Fraser Island in south-east Queensland.

Two men were stung and hospitalised on Wednesday while swimming on the western side of the island.

A five-year-old boy was stung in the same area on New Year's Day.

Dr Gershwin says there have been huge, unexplained jellyfish blooms across the country.

"All over the country we were seeing unseasonably large blooms of jellyfish and we don't know exactly what is causing these blooms because we don't have enough data," she said.

She says there is a lot of good overseas research about the causes of jellyfish blooms.

"It tends to be things like over fishing, climate change pollution too much fertiliser and too much sewage in the coastal waters," she said. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-04/jellyfish-having-huge-unseasonal-blooms/4452492

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Meanwhile, a peer-reviewed study appearing in the most recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS manuscript # 2012-10920R). has been released in collaboration with the University of Southampton which appears to refute some of what Dr Lisa Gershwin had to say.

Thanks to WUWT for the heads-up with regard to this Paper.  Too bad the writer of this ABC piece didn’t bother to question our very own Marine Researcher, Dr Gershwin regarding this Paper although she admits “there is a lot of good overseas research about the causes of jellyfish blooms.”  Nope – the trusty scribe just went with the flow!   But who am I to speculate as to any perceived motives on behalf of the journalist in question?  I’m just an interested observer who is not always given the facts by the ABC and Fairfax Media.  And that annoys me!

http://www.alphagalileo.org/Organisations/ViewItem.aspx?OrganisationId=93&ItemId=127244&CultureCode=en

This paragraph from the Paper:-

The key finding of the study shows global jellyfish populations undergo concurrent fluctuations with successive decadal periods of rise and fall, including a rising phase in the 1990s and early 2000s that has contributed to the current perception of a global increase in jellyfish abundance. The previous period of high jellyfish numbers during the 1970s went unnoticed due to limited research on jellyfish at the time, less awareness of global-scale problems and a lower capacity for information sharing (e.g. no Internet).

And...

Increased speculation and discrepancies about current and future jellyfish blooms by the media and in climate and science reports formed the motivation for the study. “There are major consequences for getting the answer correct for tourism, fisheries and management decisions as they relate to climate change and changing ocean environments,” says Dr Lucas. “The important aspect about our work is that we have provided the long-term baseline backed with all data available to science, which will enable scientists to build on and eventually repeat these analyses in a decade or two from now to determine whether there has been a real increase in jellyfish.”

The Deceitful Mr Swan

The following article defies credibility.  That is, it won’t get past those of us who follow this rancid Government closely. 

Swan’s hypocrisy and sheer gutlessness to accept responsibility for Labor’s utter ineptitude is breath-taking.  The absolute gormlessness of Swan and his cohorts is reminiscent of episodes of Laurel and Hardy.  I have great fears, however, that the majority of Australia’s voting public may read reports such as this without applying a minute of scrutiny to the dishonest spin.  Worse, they may well swallow the deceit without question!

I watch Parliament Question Time the majority of the days the House of Representatives sit.  I have noted, during the 2012 Parliamentary sitting days that the vitriol Mr Swan alludes to comes from the Government, itself.   The haranguing, smearing and misrepresentation of the truth ladled out by the Gillard Government via constant assault on the Opposition, has not escaped my observation.  

Perhaps this government and indeed, some of the Lef-tard electorate and Left-leaning journalists, (see Fairfax Media and  taxpayer-funded Socialist-sympathetic ABC) have overlooked the role of the Opposition and what that entails.  A third-grader could enlighten them – but what’s the point of wasting a third-grader’s time when you are dealing with Fundamentalist Socialists who are prepared to go to any lengths to hang onto power?  And that’s where it gets dangerous.  Very dangerous, because nothing is sacred.  Just wait for the PM’s media jihadist (John McTernan on a 457 visa)  to cut loose as we approach an Election.

If you thought ex Qld Premier, Anna Bligh’s personal attacks on LNP leader Campbell Newman were repulsive during last year’s lead up to the QLD State Election, well folks – fasten your seatbelts… and I’m sure you all know the rest of that famous Bette Davis line.   With McTernan conducting the orchestra leading up to the 2013 Federal Election, we have no idea what is about to befall us.  I just hope Australian voters posses a modicum of savvy and treat the flood of lies with the contempt they will so richly deserve.

Australia has not really experienced filthy politics.  We are in for a vulgar awakening in 2013.

Swan is right in one area, voters have, indeed, been turned off by this Government’s continued blame-game.  It’s Tony Abbott’s fault;  Abbott-Abbott-Abbott.  Over and over and over again.

The fact that these hoons cannot concentrate on anything other than the Opposition leader shows how deeply Abbott has got under their skin.  Ministers, Albanese, Combet, Plibersek, Roxon, Shorten, Swan and of course, the misandrist, PM Julia Gillard herself have had a field day Abbotting rather than accepting responsibility for their abject incompetence.  Not to forget the screeching voice of Minister Macklin as she attempts vainly to kick a Government goal.  Roll out Senators Penny Wong and Stephen Conroy for their own honourable mention, too.  I don’t think I’ve heard one address from Wong that hasn’t been riddled with the Abbott word.  All of them repugnant blots on what should be a crisp and clean page.

Anyone capable of thinking for themselves and able to fact-check the spin should be rightly disgusted with and distrustful of the Gillard Government’s 2012 Parliamentary performance.

To say I am repulsed by the Gillard Government is an understatement.  How she assumed that role is simply outrageous.  As a person who has been exposed as somebody having very little moral fibre or fortitude and I refer to the AWU/Gillard gate scandal which I have covered previously, it’s insulting to this nation that she has led it for the past three years.  The fact that this woman seems to be pretty loose with the truth is deeply concerning.

Throughout 2012 everything under the sun has been Abbott’s fault, according to this Socialist regime.  They cannot and will not accept responsibility for their own sheer incompetence.  And there is plenty of that on record.  The NBN White elephant; the pink batt farce that ended up burning some homes to the ground and killed people; the school sheds project – millions of dollars frittered away whilst Australia’s education standards rating slipped to about No. 27 on a worldwide comparison chart.

 E-gad – these Socialist things think they are up to the task of running a country?  The only task they are up to is propagating deceit.  Deceit perpetrated on the Australian public.

I am counting down the weeks Australia must endure these fools.  Fools who have smashed and wasted the contents of the piggy bank former Liberal Treasurer, Peter Costello had carefully established.  They have flung and continue to fling bribes into the electorate in the hope they will win back the stupids.  You can’t get any more brazen or stupid than that with money that belongs to the Australian taxpayer.

Roll on the Election.  Australia has to rid itself of these parasites if it has any hope of survival.  We have not fought wars to hand over our democracy to wankers with a definite agenda.  The Rudd/Gillard support of the pathetically inept and I am convinced,  less than honest and sincere United Nations.  They are in the business of appointing despots to head UN committees and the like, you know.  If you want to argue in favour of the United Nations then please be my guest and present the UN’s scorecard listing their so-called peace mission successes over the past 20 years.   Then list the conflicts they have ‘allegedly’ had jurisdiction over during the same time period.  OK – I rest my case!.    The UN has their own agenda they are pushing and Australian taxpayers have significantly increased the level of sponsorship to the rogue United Nations under this band of Socialist idiots.   How surprising?   Splash!  Where did those mega-millions go?  This is not a joking matter.

Meanwhile China owns us as our massive borrowings continue to balloon and the mega-dollar debt service rises daily.

If people scoff at the suggestion Australia won’t end up like Greece then I have these words for you:   You have no idea what’s around the fiscal corner.  Trust me – it won’t be a pretty landscape watercolour.  It’s going to be very ugly and will last a number of years.

Yes, I acknowledge this could be deemed a fair rant but I cannot express my utmost revulsion as to what has happened to Australia when we had everything to gain with an unprecedented mining boom and a reasonably healthy manufacturing industry happening during most of the tenure of these morons.  To see everything pissed up against the wall by Socialist incompetents is an utter insult to a thinking Australian.  It is going to take decades to extract Australia from the absolute mire these incompetents have belly-flopped us into.

I hope to never again see a Federal Labor Government in my lifetime!

I know I’ve got off the subject of the goose, Australian Treasurer, Wayne Swan but really, what else can you do but laugh at the fool.  We know he cannot balance the country’s books to save his seat and I am sure we will be informed of the horrific mess Swan has left the country in once some adults take charge.

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Don't blame us: Swan on vitriol

December 31, 201

Jacqueline Maley

Parliamentary Sketch Writer for the Sydney Morning Herald

THE Gillard government bears no responsibility for the negative and vitriolic tone of the political debate in 2012, says Treasurer Wayne Swan.

He admits the ''scrappy'' political year turned many voters off politics but denies the government contributed to bitter partisanship that defined it.

''I don't concede that the government has been behind personal attacks,'' he said. ''We want to have a policy discussion based on the facts, not on the aggressive negativity, particularly the likes of which we've seen from Tony Abbott … to say that's a personal attack on Tony Abbott, given the events of last year, I find quite extraordinary.''

This year, Prime Minister Julia Gillard labelled Opposition Leader Mr Abbott a misogynist, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said he had an ''issue with capable women'', and Mr Swan called him a ''policy weakling'' and a ''thug when it comes to personal attacks''.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet called Mr Abbott a ''wrecker'' and said everything the Opposition Leader had told the public about carbon pricing was ''complete bullshit''.

But Mr Swan denied the government was culpable in helping to set the low tone of what has been labelled the nastiest political year in memory.

''You've got to be kidding me. The negativity in policy and personal attacks have all been from Abbott. I mean, for god's sake, these are the people who are now hung out to dry for their activities in terms of Mr Ashby and company,'' he said in reference to the Federal Court finding that the Liberal National Party-endorsed candidate, Mal Brough, conspired with James Ashby to end the political career of former speaker Peter Slipper.

Despite the finding, Mr Abbott has since expressed his full confidence in Mr Brough.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/dont-blame-us-swan-on-vitriol-20121230-2c1hw.html#ixzz2GbIGUd78