Bathurst 1000 Ford's Will Davison wins Pole Position

The Great Race 2012

Even IF you can afford Electricity in Australia Labor Green Loons Financiers are going to make sure you only get it when they say you can have it no matter the price.

Blackouts expected as NSW power workers plan to strike

Barclay Crawford
The Sunday Telegraph
October 07, 201212:00AM

MORE than 500,000 homes across NSW risk being left in the dark this month with rolling blackouts expected across the state as power workers walk off the job.

One in six homes could be hit by blackouts during the evening peak following a decision by Fair Work Australia to allow workers to take industrial action at the state's biggest power supplier, Macquarie Generation.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and eight other unions have been cleared to strike at the Liddell and Bayswater power stations in the Hunter Valley in defiance of state government action to strip them of lucrative conditions negotiated with the former NSW Labor government. 

The two plants, controlled by Macquarie Generation, produce 40 per cent of the state's energy needs. 

While the approved strike is only for 48 hours, the plants would effectively be shut for two weeks because of the time it takes to close them down and then restart them.

The blackout threat has been exacerbated by an explosion at Eraring Energy's Lake Macquarie power plant, which has forced it to shut down until November.

The plant is responsible for about 11 per cent of the state's electricity needs.

The Eraring closure and the proposed strike action come at the worst possible time for NSW, with a hot October predicted to send power demand soaring.

A source said 124 operators at Macquarie Generation earn $250,000 a year once overtime and superannuation are taken into account, with at least one operator on more than $300,000. 

Other perks include $2.2 million spent funding a half-hour shower allowance, despite the fact most operators don't raise a sweat on the job, and a lucrative superannuation scheme. But a senior union source said the government was looking to "pick a fight" with them.

The O'Farrell Government believes the power perks are unsustainable and only add to the cost of NSW power bills.

Despite their excessive conditions, workers are also pushing for a five per cent pay rise.

"The work practices in the government's energy business are unsustainable and are only adding to the power costs of consumers," a spokesman for Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said.

"Workers at these plants come under Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Fair Work regime, which has to be conscious when it approves industrial action that these work practices are placing an additional burden on electricity consumers." Peter McPherson, a Unions NSW industrial officer for the state's northern region, said negotiations were continuing and they were "looking to avoid an industrial action".

No Gold Stars for Wayne Swan

Interest Rate Cut is no Gold Star for Treasurer

Terry McCrann
Daily Telegraph
4 October 2012
Pg.57

Wayne Swan is claiming no, demanding credit for the Reserve Bank's interest rate cut. 
In quivering fear of being lashed again by the Treasurer's tongue, I'm willing to accede. Take it Wayne, take all the credit for:

• THE resources boom coming to a
screeching halt;

• IMPORTANT parts of the
economy, such as housing and retail,
operating under great stress; and

• AN overvalued Aussie dollar
shredding manufacturing and
making life tough for tourism
operators that depend on overseas
visitors.

Take the credit, please Treasurer.When a wood duck waddles but thinks it's a rooster strutting, who am I to stand in its way?

There's a surreal perception about interest rates which has taken hold in Australia, that our Treasurer in the full flowering of his unknowingness continually embraces and projects.

This is that an official interest rate cut is the Reserve Bank sticking a gold star on the economy and putting an even bigger one on the Treasurer's exercise book, as if he were still at primary school.


Well done, young Wayne!

In Wayne's World, the US and European economies and their respective finance ministers, must have gold stars stuck all over the place, awarded for cutting their
rates all the way to zero.

Does Wayne sincerely believe that the US and European economies have been delivering
gold star performances?

At its most basic, a cut in the official rate, is completely value free. It is certainly not a gold star; both it and indeed an increase in rates, is just the RBA doing its job.

That is, the RBA is adjusting rates to respond to what is happening in the economy or being done to the economy, to best deliver sustained low inflation growth in the economy.

But more specifically, a cut in rates to the levels we are now at, is tellin us two big and disturbing things:
That either the economy is grinding to a stop or we are headed for a big problem next year. Or some combination of both.

Does our Treasurer really want to take "credit" for that? Especially when the RBA's decision is completely non-judgmental. It's not blaming the Treasurer for anything. Not even irresponsible fiscal policy.

The RBA has determined that inflation is not going to rear its head in any would send the prices of imports up  sharply. But even with some fall which the Reserve Bank would like to see but which it is not going to try to trigger the inflation threat would remain minimal.

While it does not see the economy grinding to a halt, the RBA is considerably less convinced than the Treasurer that everything is coming up roses.

Some sectors of the economy could do with a boost from lower rates; and the economy overall could benefit. In short, it was able to cut, so it cut. And given all that,there was no point in waiting.

Does it also mean we are headed for a, to put it gently, "big problem"?

No, not necessarily. But the RBA can see plenty of threats out there. Europe will remain
mired in a mess at best, and could always trigger a GFC-like "event". The US is struggling to come out of stall speed.

And the most important of all,China is a riddle. A worrying riddle, if not yet a disturbing one.
None of this is the Treasurer's fault. Just as the RBA's prudence is  not his gold star either.

UPDATED Four Little Aussie Girls ordered back to Italy forcibly removed by Family Court from Mother and family Shocking Video

Mother of four girls ordered back to Italy clings to AFP car as her daughters are taken away

Kate Kyriacou, on Flight EK433 

The Courier-Mail

October 04, 2012 12:01PM

THE plane carrying the four sisters ordered back to Italy has landed in Singapore for a brief stopover.

UPDATE

The girls looked miserable but were quiet as they were escorted off the plane ahead of other passengers.

The two older girls appeared to have been separated from their younger sister ALL were travelling with minders. The children are travelling on flight EK433, which stopped at Singapore en route from Brisbane to Dubai. A second leg will then take them to Rome.

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported how the girls cried for their mother, cried for home and begged uniformed officers to let them go.

As the four sisters at the centre of an international custody ruling were last night dragged screaming onto Emirates flight EK 433 to Dubai, uniformed officers were forced to lift and drag the girls to get them to the plane.

Passengers at gate 75 watched on in alarm as up to a dozen federal officers were used to move the girls to the nearby Emirates lounge to await boarding.

"Let me go, I want my mum, I want my mum," one of the younger girls wailed, each arm held securely by a federal officer.

The girls were led out one at a time, the eldest sister escorted up an escalator restrained by four police officers.

"Let me go, I want to go home," the hysterical girl screamed.

Later, as they moved her back past waiting passengers, the screaming girl begged to be released.

"Please let go. You're hurting me. I don't want to go."

The officers holding her by the arms were forced to drag the girl when she used her feet to stop their progress.

Passengers stared as the girls were led up a nearby escalator, many murmuring the scene was "awful" and terrible.

Others, visibly distressed, made phone calls to recount the terrible scene to loved ones.

"I really would be very concerned about them and I think there might be a risk that they try to abscond" - leading child psychologist fears stressed sisters are a flight risk.  

Last night, it was reported that the mother of the four girls clung in desperation to the rear of an Australian Federal Police unmarked car as it drove away with three of the girls inside.

Just hours later, all four girls were taken straight to Brisbane International Airport and through a special high-security entrance.

Two cars arrived at the private entrance and two young girls struggled as they were pulled from a dark-coloured Ford Territory by several men in suits at 8.43pm.

The second car  its occupants unknown  pulled out of sight behind a roller door.

Earlier, their mother collapsed in the road sobbing, the end of a day of unfathomable anxiety and stress, as her children were driven away.

The Courier-Mail also witnessed one of the girls trying to escape from the rear of another car before she was restrained by one of two male officers in the vehicle.

They had just detained the girl after she tried to flee the apartment where they found her and her sisters.

She banged on the rear window of the vehicle as it drove off, tearfully crying out that she wanted to talk to the journalist.

The four girls had spent their last hours of freedom together waiting in fear at the home of an elderly family friend.

They watched the TV news as they waited for the knock on the door that would signal their deportation.

This final refuge for the girls, who spent weeks in hiding with their great-grandmother this year when the court first ordered they be returned, was a unit in a retirement village on the Sunshine Coast.

The normally tranquil surrounds were yesterday evening a scene of tears, anxiety and defiance.

The eldest girl spoke briefly to The Courier-Mail but was too fearful of the consequences for her mother, who the court has banned from talking to the media, to give any information.

"I'll get my mum in trouble, I have to go," she said.

The woman looking after them, a close friend of their great-grandmother, said all the information the girls had about their fate was coming from the media.

"All we're knowing is what's on the news," she said, her voice trembling with emotion.

"We watched the five o-clock news, the four-thirty news and the six o'clock news," she said.

She said they were expecting police to come and detain them any minute.

 "We're just waiting for the police and they haven't come and I don't know why they haven't come," she said.

She predicted police would have a fight on their hands when they arrived.

"We're not going," one of the girls said.

The woman said she had agreed to mind the girls as all of the family was at the Family Court in Brisbane.

"They're the loveliest little girls, they've been very good, but they're very anxious and they just want to see their mum, and I just want their mother to come. I don't want to give them over until their mother comes."

A close friend of the girls' mother told The Courier-Mail the looming prospect of being returned to Italy against their wishes had made the girls anxious and withdrawn in recent days.

The friend, who has been close to the family since their arrival in Australia two years ago, saw the girls on Saturday for a barbecue after they had been on a camping trip with their mother.

"They were withdrawn, clingy, very cuddly, it was Mummy this and Mummy that," she told The Courier-Mail.

"Even a holiday didn't make any difference.

"It's been emotional turmoil for the kids and for their mother. They don't know whether they're Arthur or Martha.

"What do you expect from little kids being taken away from their Mum?"

The friend said the girls loved their father but didn't want to live with him.

Their mother had "never once influenced her kids in any single way or brainwashed them against their father", she said.

"This whole thing is unfair.

"Let the Australian people know that these girls have never had a choice from the beginning, it's been all about the Hague and it's been all about everybody's wishes but theirs."

The removal of the girls would take a heavy toll on their mother, she said.

"I'm getting someone to watch my kids tonight because I need to be with (the mother)."

Initial reporting - Tuck Thompson, Mark Solomons

Judge to mum: Go to Italy with your girls

A JUDGE sending four Italian girls home against their wishes "sincerely hopes" their distraught mother will return with them after their father agreed not to lay criminal charges.

Dogs by Name, Dogs by Nature,the Canterbury Bulldogs one season forward ten backwards in one afternoon.

Bulldogs' major sponsor offers up bizarre defence of Mad Monday abuse

Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
October 04, 2012 12:00AM

FOR the past five season Todd Greenberg has spent his every waking moment trying to drag Canterbury's damaged reputation out of the gutter - but by the time his major sponsor finished an interview on Radio 2GB yesterday, the Bulldogs were back in the dark ages.

In what might go down as the most bizarre defence of bad behaviour in the history of rugby league, Gary Johnston from Jaycar Electronics came up with an outrageous attempt to justify the sexist comments that were aimed at a Channel 9 female reporter at the Bulldogs' now infamous Mad Monday celebrations.

Gary Johnston (L) from Jaycar Electronics and Bulldogs CEO Todd Greenberg (R)

"If a woman walks into some bars in Sydney, she will be ogled, she will be treated as an object and that's the way it is. She doesn't have to walk into those bars," Johnston said near the end of an interview with Ben Fordham.

This all happened shortly after Greenberg handed in his report into the investigation that followed comments directed at Channel 9's Jayne Azzopardi on Monday.

But while Greenberg was refusing to talk about the specifics of his findings, the bloke who helps pays the bills was live on air and digging himself a hole.

Now remember, the comments screamed from an unidentified person through a window at the club's Belmore HQ on Monday included:

"THERE are some ladies here to stick their heads in your pants";

"Suck me off you dumb dog"; and

"I want to go and punch you in the face."

But asked by Fordham if he was defending the comments, Johnston basically said they were only in strife because of their profiles and this was all the fault of Channel 9.

"What they are saying was disgraceful but if two private people were in a pub at a urinal talking about the barmaid's dress or something like that, this would never get reported," he started.

"It is only an outrage because these people have got some sort of celebrity status. I'm not making an excuse for what they said, what they said was terrible. But they had just went through the day before an absolutely excruciating grand final. They were given the day off to relax and let their hair down and Channel 9 did not respect that.

"They were not invited there, they parked themselves across the road like a peeping tom and used a highly-sensitive microphone to record conversations which they were not privy to."

But when Fordham explained the comments actually came through an open window and were yelled towards the female journalist, Johnston continued his defence.

"OK Ben, let's analyse this,' he said. "First of all they have no video footage of anyone doing this so they didn't stand at the window and yell at this woman." He then added: "Nobody seems to be focusing on the fact that technically Channel 9 probably broke the law."

Johnston quoted the law: "I will read it to you. This is from the attorney-general website. You cannot install, use, maintain or cause to be used a listening device to overhear, record, monitor or listen to a private conversation."

Fordham explained that wasn't the case at all: "It wasn't a private conversation. They were yelling it out a window and at this female reporter. That is here your argument disappears. It was not a private conversation, they were yelling it out to try and intimidate someone who was just there doing their job."

Eventually, Fordham attempted to end the interview but Johnston pleaded: "Ben give me one more minute."

And then he ended the interview with this: "What they said was outrageous but they are only young blokes and in every pub in Sydney you can come across that language and it doesn't make it right, it just makes it the reality of what it is.

"If a woman walks into some bar in Sydney, she will be ogled, she will be treated as an object and that's the way it is. She doesn't have to walk into those bars."

Fordham finally interjected: "What? What? Gary, are you serious? You are saying when a woman walks into a bar, so if my wife and some of her colleagues were to go out tonight and have a drink, they can expect someone to say s ... me off you dumb dog?"

 ........and in the interests of balance for what has been a pretty good year for the Dogs after the invocation some years back of the "NO Dick Heads" policy by Greenberg.


Gentlemen Bulldogs fans put players to shame

Miranda Devine
Daily Telegraph
Tuesday, October 02, 2012 (7:46pm)

UP the Storm. F*ck the Bulldogs”, taunted some gloating Storm fans to a group of dejected Bulldogs supporters on Sunday night at ANZ stadium.

The Bulldogs fans, muscular young Lebanese-Australian men in blue and white jerseys, G-Star jeans and Nike TN sneakers, with ornately shaved hair styles and some sporting Arabic chin beards, might have looked menacing. But they behaved like perfect gentleman and ignored the provocation.

There was not a hint of any unrest among the sea of blue and white, crammed into the stadium, hailing from the most multicultural, most Muslim, and most criticised section of Sydney.

Bulldogs fans would have to be the most maligned rugby league followers on planet earth. But Sunday’s Grand Final was a credit to them.

They bore their disappointing loss with grace and good humour, which defied the aggro image that has afflicted them for years.

They may have been channelling the spirit of former Bulldogs hero Hazem El MAsri, who last week was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Sydney for his service as a leader of the Arabic community.

You don’t want to overplay El Masri’s influence, but role models are important. Which is why it was such a shame that the players let themselves, and their fans down, with some disgraceful remarks to a female Channel Nine reporter during Mad Monday celebrations at Belmore Oval.

Player resentment of a “gotcha culture”, inside and outside the media, ready to destroy their careers for off field misdemeanours, is understandable. But foul sexual slurs are no answer.

When Bulldogs management deals with the offending players, they might also consider ways to ease the pressure.

Keeping them holed up away from the media in contravention of NRL regulations after the game may have been an attempt to protect them from themselves. But clearly it wasn’t enough.

Labor Green Loons standing with the Savage..... as usual.

Visa insult a betrayal of liberalism

Paul Sheehan
Sydney Morning Herald 
October 1, 2012

The Australian embassy in The Hague, at Carnegielaan 4, is a model of the functional blandness that dominates the Dutch city. An effort has been made to replicate a traditional steeped roof but it barely mitigates the sterility. On most days, a row of bicycles sits outside the front door, a very Dutch touch.

Posters carried by Labor's preferred constituency at the recent Islamic Insurgency Riots Saturday15912

What has been taking place inside the bland exterior of that embassy during the past six weeks is the opposite of Holland's famous liberalism. An unfolding act of cowardice has been cooking inside the embassy. It is a calculated insult to the Dutch government.
Six weeks ago, the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), which until recently held the balance of power in the Dutch parliament, applied for a visa to visit Australia. His name is Geert Wilders.

Members of his staff and security detail were granted visas after three days. Wilders received nothing. He is still waiting. The Dutch media are waiting for the insult the Gillard government appears to be preparing for a member of the Netherlands' parliament.

The Australian organisers of the Wilders trip are resigning themselves to being out of pocket by at least $10,000 if the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, continues to stall. The trip was going to be cancelled yesterday but the organisers have decided to hold for a few more days. After six weeks of silence, the federal government hasn't had the courage to deny Wilders a visa. It prefers the back door.
This confirms, as if any more confirmation were needed, the gutlessness that lies at the core of Australia's multibillion-dollar debacle on border security, where the thin blue line on border integrity has been turned into a wide yellow streak. While the government blusters, the people smugglers keep thriving and the cost of processing asylum seekers soars well beyond $100,000 per person.
Wilders is an elected member of parliament, has never been convicted of a crime and is an outspoken defender of pluralism, democracy, feminism and freedom of speech. He believes these bedrock liberal values are being eroded by a steady, incremental challenge from Muslims in Holland. He now lives under constant police protection. Four prominent critics of Islam in Holland have been assassinated or threatened with death in recent years.
Wilders argues that the root cause of growing ill-liberalism in Holland, and also in Belgium and France, is driven by strict adherents of Islam. He does not think the problem is confined to an extreme fringe. Rather, he sees the stresses between Muslims and non-Muslims in Holland as rooted in a general insularity among Muslims because Islam is not only a religion but a social, legal and political system that gives Islam primacy over the state.
Wilders was to have given speeches in Sydney and Melbourne in two weeks, sponsored by a private group, the Q Society, which was funding his visit via private donations and ticket sales.
The Gillard government appears intent on stopping this visit, even though it recently granted a visa to an Islamic fundamentalist, Taji Mustafa, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, the group implicated in the violent demonstration by several hundred Muslims in Sydney two weeks ago, while Mustafa was visiting the country. The Arabic script on headbands and T-shirts worn by many demonstrators were variations of the theme of jihad, such as ''We are your soldiers, Muhammad''.
An apologist for jihad was allowed into the country to speak while a member of the Dutch parliament has been stopped.

A member of Labor's preferred constituency at the recent Islamic Insurgency Riots Saturday 15912

When the Minister for Immigration was asked in Parliament on September 17 why he had a approved the granting of a visa to Mustafa, he said: ''Hizb ut-Tahrir has not been proscribed in Australia and nor has it been proscribed in the United States or the United Kingdom. This entry permit was issued in accordance with the normal procedures for British nationals … I conduct myself … in accordance with my responsibilities under the act. To do otherwise would be to open the Commonwealth to potential overturning of the decision and a potential very serious compensation case.''
The reason for the Gillard government's willingness to find a cheerleader for jihad acceptable while an elected MP and cheerleader for Western values is tacitly deemed unacceptable would lie partly in a dramatic change in demographics under Labor. This, too, is a subject about which the federal government maintains a deafening silence.
During the five years of federal Labor governments, the ramp-up of immigration and boat people arrivals has helped a historic surge in the Muslim population of Australia, from about 350,000 to 500,000. The number of Muslim permanent residents has risen 75 per cent in the past decade. Labor holds several electorates in western Sydney with significant Muslim populations.
In 1972, when Labor introduced formal multiculturalism under the then minister for immigration, Al Grassby, Muslims represented just 0.2 per cent of Australia's population. This percentage has risen more than twentyfold in the ensuing 40 years. Grassby's reputation has been disgraced by revelations about his numerous links to Italian organised crime.

Two members of Labor's preferred constituency at the recent Islamic Insurgency Riots Saturday 15912

This would not surprise Wilders, a trenchant critic of multiculturalism, whose policies are much further to the right than those of the Coalition. The PVV rose to prominence after he expressed alarm about problems associated with the rapid growth of the Muslim population, which now exceeds 1 million in a country of 16.7 million and is growing about four times faster than the non-Muslim population.
Meanwhile, back at Australia's border debacle, the Gillard government refuses to embrace policies that have proved to be effective such as temporary protection visas for asylum seekers, or to set up an advanced interception line off Sri Lanka. So the boats keep coming - another three over the weekend with 333 asylum seekers - while the government expends $1 billion a year servicing its own impotence.

Equipment trashed in outburst on Nauru

Gemma Jones - Political Reporter

Daily Telegraph

October 01, 20129:23PM

A GROUP of Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers have been involved in a disturbance at the Nauru processing camp, overturning equipment and trashing recreation areas.

The men armed themselves with kitchen utensils, but the Immigration Department has been unable to confirm reports that tents were slashed with knives during the Sunday incident.

About ten men were involved.

Wilson security guards at the Topside camp took control of the situation before Nauruan police arrived.

After assessing the situation and taking reports from staff, officers took three men to the police station, where they spent Sunday night in cells before being returned to the camp.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said he had recently heard unconfirmed reports that a knife count in the kitchen had indicated some of the utensils may have been missing.

"We received unconfirmed reports they did a count on the knives and the count didn't reconcile," he said.

"It is important that the government be very clear about what utensils were in the possession of those who created the disturbance and whether they had gained access to any knives.

"When it comes to border protection, it seems Labor just can't get anything right, including Nauru."

The government is unaware of any knives being missing.

Only a small number of Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers have been sent to Nauru, with mostly Sri Lankans at the camp because they are considered less of a security threat.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen described the disturbance as "minor."

"There was a minor disturbance at the Nauru temporary facility over the weekend," he said.

"The situation was quickly resolved by the security contractor and there were no reported injuries to staff or detainees. Local police also attended the site.

"Immigration will be investigating the matter further."

September was a record month for boat arrivals, with 2355 people and four of the biggest boat loads ever recorded with the largest carrying 198 people.

Almost 11,500 asylum seekers have arrived since the start of 2012.

Nauru can currently hold just 500 asylum seekers.

Australians ROBBED of $3 Billion by Australia's Labor Green Loon Socialist Government's UN seat of SHAME

$3b price of Labor's UN desire
Huge Security Council bid bill

Gemma Jones
Political Reporter
Daily Telegraph,
Page 6 21012

AUSTRALIAN aid spending in Africa, the Caribbean, South East Asia and the Pacific has increased by $3 billion since the government announced its bid for the UN Security Council.

 Australian Taxpayers ROBBED of $3 Billion by Australian Labor Green Loon Government to pay UN Ransom for seat of shame at UN Security Council.

Countries usually not supported by Australia, which the government believes are now backing the bid have been lavished with tens of millions of dollars.

The government claims the campaign announced by Kevin Rudd in 2008 for the seat, which will be voted on at the UN later this month, has cost $23.59 million.

However, aid and development spending in countries believed to be backing  Australia has  exploded,with taxpayers now funding everything from diplomatic training in the Caribbean to mango production practices in Cambodia and pearl culture in Tanzania.

The increase in spending has come as Australia committed to increase its aid budget to 05 per cent of GDP by 2015, up from 0.32 in   2008-09,   but   government sources said the sudden change in focus outside of Australia's region to Africa and the Caribbean was designed around the bid.

Spending in Africa, where the government has concentrated much of its effort due to the region's 50 UN votes, has included a $300,000 membership of a convention on biological diversity in Kenya.

The number of African countries receiving support doubled between 2008-10, a government aid spending  report  revealed, with  total spending in the region leaping from $101 million in 2007-08 to $354 millon this financial year. Australia is now funding services including food, shelter, health and education safe water and sanitation in Somalia,  Kenya,  Ethiopia,  South Sudan, Sudan, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Cote d'lvoire,  Chad  and  the  Central African Republic. A water safety project for Malawi, Mozambique Zambia and Zimbabwe is also being funded by Australian taxpayers

Australia has given $17.3 million to help African countries improve law and order and justice and $143,000 for an African Network of Forensic Medicine forum.

In  2011, Australia  hosted  60 African  heads  of state or delegations, while Governor-General Quentin Bryce visited nine African states in 2009. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has appointed five special envoys to Africa.

Five years ago Australia gave no aid to the Caribbean but the region along with South America, has been lavished with almost $170 million in assistance since the UN bid was announced. The government believes it has the support of 15 Caribbean countries.

A scholarship program in 2010 cost $150,000 and $210,000 was spent on a Caribbean Economic Resilience Design.

South America has also benefited with $65 million given to a giant telescope project in Chile.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr denied the aid and development splurge is linked with the bid.

"Australia's aid program is not a part of the UNSC bid budget," his spokeswoman said. She said Australian aid alleviated poverty, helped children and added, "we cannot be serious about alleviating global poverty without considering
ways to support Africa". 

Geert Wilders has postponed a visit to Australia because of delays in obtaining a visa.

Controversial Dutch MP postpones Australia visit

By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen
ABCNews


Anti-Islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders has postponed a visit to Australia because of delays in obtaining a visa, despite today's announcement that his application would be approved.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said he had decided to issue a visa to the controversial MP, declaring Australia's democracy is strong enough to withstand a visit by the "extremist commentator".

Mr Wilders was due to speak at events in Sydney and Melbourne later this month at the invitation of the Q Society, which is concerned by what it calls the "Islamisation" of Australia.

But the group says "extraordinary delays" in getting a visa have forced Mr Wilders to delay his visit until mid-February next year.

"Minister Bowen's (announcement)... is too little too late," the Q Society said in a statement.

"When Mr Wilders' visa may be issued is still uncertain; it could be tomorrow, it could be next week, it could be a week after the scheduled departure.

"Q Society asks Minister Bowen why, after lodging papers in late August, has his visa still not been issued?"

A spokesman for Mr Bowen says Mr Wilders was advised by email this morning that his visa application had been approved.

Q Society's spokesman Andrew Horwood has told the ABC that Mr Wilders' speaking tour may now be expanded to include Perth given the strong public interest.

"We've been really inundated by what I'd call the silent majority in Australia who've been looking back and concerned about what's been happening," Mr Horwood said.

Last month, the ABC's 7.30 program reported the processing of the Dutch MP's visa had stalled because it triggered a notification on the Movement Alert List - a database of people of concern to Australia.

It meant his application was held up at the Department of Immigration headquarters in Canberra while more thorough checks were done.

But Mr Bowen this morning announced that after long and careful consideration, he would not be intervening in the process to stop Mr Wilders coming to Australia.

"I've taken the view that he's a provocateur who would like nothing more than for me to reject his visa so that he could become a cause célèbre ," Mr Bowen told ABC radio's AM program.

"I'm not going to give him that opportunity to be the cause célèbre for his cause which is radical and extremist.

"I think our society's robust enough, our multicultural is strong enough, and our love of freedom of speech entrenched enough that we can withstand a visit from this fringe commentator from the other side of the world.

"We should defeat his ideas with the force of our ideas and the force of our experience, not by the blunt instrument of keeping him out of Australia."

As one of the world's most prominent anti-Islam campaigners, Mr Wilders has attracted controversy in many parts of the world.

In 2009 he was refused entry to the UK but later appealed and won.

He was also tried and acquitted in the Netherlands on hate charges over his controversial public comments.

The website for the Q Society, which invited Mr Wilders to Australia, states that: "Aggressive or stealth proselytising and brazen imposition by Islamic organisations and Islamic religious fanatics were our 'call to arms'".

And it has accused the Federal Government of "kowtowing to Islamic supremacists".

The Bolt Report Pts. 1,2 & 3 Sept 30 2012.

Enemies use broadcaster Alan Jones's stupidity to smear Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

Andrew Bolt From

Herald Sun October 

01, 2012 12:00AM

I'VE long respected broadcaster Alan Jones for his courage. Jones is also a colleague of mine on 2GB.

But telling the Sydney University Liberal Club President's dinner the Prime Minister's father had "died a few weeks ago of shame" for his daughter was cruel and shameful.

Even so, I'm also suspicious of the spin put on it by enemies of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Here's what Jones said of Ms Gillard's father, John: "The old man recently died a few weeks ago of shame. To think that he has a daughter who told lies every time she stood for Parliament."

The Young Liberals listening may well be young, but the audio shows most still had the judgment to gasp or laugh in astonishment at such a vicious remark.

Jones has now apologised and said he feels "shame". But at the dinner, he protested at the students' reaction: "No, no look, hang on, this is where we are weak. The federal party's been brainwashed by the media to 'Oh back off, she's a woman, go easy'."

If Jones knew the Opposition was under that pressure, he should also have known his attack was not just in appallingly bad taste, but also appalling politics. Mr Abbott, a friend of Jones, is already being falsely smeared by Labor as too aggressive and too nasty to women - part of a tactic to build sympathy for Ms Gillard among women voters.

Down rocky road to ruin

Never mind the many equally vicious attacks from Labor and its media mates on former prime minister John Howard and Mr Abbott, actually an acutely moral man.

Indeed, not one newspaper last month even bothered reporting that former union official Rebecca Mifsud, wife of Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, retweeted a vile attack on Jones.

"Alan Jones age 71," her retweet noted. "Average lifespan for an Australian male 79. Patience my pretties."

So I'm a little sceptical now - not about the justified anger, but the use some make of it.

Take Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull's tweet yesterday: "Alan Jones' comments about the late John Gillard were cruel and offensive. He should apologise to the PM and her family."

Mr Turnbull's attack did what I suspect may have been his intention.

The Australian's Peter van Onselen was one of many to jump to the next step, tweeting: "Well done Malcolm Turnbull for coming out quickly & condemning Alan Jones. Let's see how long others take to do the same . . . " Others meaning Mr Abbott, now under pressure to attack a staunch ally.

Oddly enough, Mr Turnbull last month pressured Mr Abbott to also attack another ally, MP Cory Bernadi, by just as quickly damning Senator Bernardi's comments on gay marriage and bestiality.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr went even further, demanding Mr Abbott "apologise to the Prime Minister" for what Jones said to Liberal students, claiming it showed Mr Abbott "associated with extremists".

Fast work, turning Jones's stupidity into a smear of Mr Abbott.

Yes, Jones's attack on Ms Gillard was shocking. Just don't take all the criticism at face value.

Yes, what Alan Jones said was shameful. No excuse for it.

But if the topic is hate speech, can the Fairfax newspapers explain why they illustrate articles on Jones with these photographs?

Vilification by carefully selected photographs of the most unflattering kind seems kind of puerile.

UPDATE

Why do so many Fairfax and ABC journalists seem to love Alan Jones being so nasty? Because it lets them be every bit as vile and return - and still feel virtuous as well. Take this tweet by an ABC presenter, retweeted by an Age journalist: 

An occasional Fairfax columnist and frequent ABC guest can even appeal to the inner homophobe and feel she’s just doing the moral thing: 

Alan Jones apologises and Their ABC enlists Sista Bergmann for an analysis.

Feminist slams "Jones's 'pathological pursuit' of Gillard"

Dr Meredith Burgmann, organiser of the 'Ernie Awards', which present mock prizes for sexist comments by public figures, has slammed comments made by Alan Jones about Julia Gillard's father at a Young Liberals dinner.

Bergmann and the Australian Labor Party, Enemies of the People

This Dickless Arse Clown Bergmann's greatest claim to fame is that  she invited and sanctioned the Communist North Vietnamese Army to march through Macquarie Street on the opening of her Socialist Labor Party's  NSW Parliament .

Bring on the Treason Trials, I would love to see her arms bound together at the elbows behind her back, blind folded head forcibly bowed and kneeling on broken glass on the steps of the Sydney Opera House as a Vietnam Veteran passes sentence upon her ,her Labor Party their co conspirators and North Vietnamese Communist Party financiers the ACTU and their legion of Media Sycophants and apologists.

Alan Jones claims PM Gillard's father died of shame.....I disagree


Alan Jones apologises as sponsors pull ads

JONATHAN MARSHALL and PETER BODKIN
The Daily Telegraph 
October 01, 2012 12:00AM

SPONSORS of the Sydney radio station part-owned by Alan Jones have been inundated with thousands of complaints about the talkback king's comments on the death of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's father.

As politicians of all persuasions condemned the 2GB star yesterday, its backers were swamped with messages of hate towards Jones. One sponsor received 2000 emails demanding they cancel their advertising contract.

The emails were triggered after The Sunday Telegraph revealed Jones told Young Liberals at a dinner that Ms Gillard's 83-year-old father, John, had died of shame. Last night more than 8000 Australians had signed an online petition calling for advertisers and sponsors to terminate their arrangements with the 2GB morning show. The radio station removed the list of sponsors from its website, in a belated bid to protect it from the fallout. Some of the vitriol was nasty, with some even tweeting they hoped Jones would "get his cancer
'Private' dinner was open to anyone
THIS was a room chockers with young opinionated sparks, many of whom one day aspire to help lead this nation.
An apology tempered by anger
WHEN I repeated a comment I had heard only hours before at a birthday party for one of my godsons, as I said yesterday, I was wrong.
JJ Metro West managing director John Megalli said the airconditioning company was considering its options for advertising with 2GB and it would boycott Alan Jones' program altogether.

"We disagree 100 per cent with what Alan Jones said and we have already contacted the station with our concerns about the comments," he said.

"We are not boycotting 2GB, but we will definitely be pulling out our advertising with Alan Jones." Lexus of Parramatta said it had pulled its sponsorship with 2GB two weeks ago following Mr Jones' comments about women "destroying the joint".

Jones held a 45-minute press conference yesterday morning at 2GB where he said he regretted making the comments about Ms Gillard.

"The comments were, in the light of everything, unacceptable," Jones said. "They merit an apology by me.

"There are days when you just have to concede, man up and say you got it wrong. And on this instance these are remarks which I shouldn't have made.

"I was taught as a young kid by my father if you're going to eat crow, you should eat it while it's hot. In this instance, these are remarks which I shouldn't have repeated.

"To repeat them was wrong, to even offer any impression that I might seek to diminish the grief a daughter would feel for her father, independently of who that daughter might be, is unacceptable."

Jones added he would contact Ms Gillard directly to apologise but the Prime Minister said she was not interested in talking to the broadcaster.

Ms Gillard's office made no comment yesterday other than to say: "The Prime Minister does not intend to talk to Mr Jones about his comments."

Liberal leader Tony Abbott said: "Alan's remarks regarding the PM were completely out of line".