The obligitory Joel Fitzgibbon post

Joel Fitzgibbon

My blogging has been a little lighter than usual lately,  mainly because I have been madly swinging the angle grinder and working the welder in my workshop. In a bit less than a week I have managed to get the new chassis more than half way there It is amazing how fast you can go when you are essentially making a copy of something that you have done before , the nutting out time that was such a big part of your first effort is just not required. In any case I have spent lots of time planing this rebuild so now all I have  to do is the actual work.
While I have been working I have been listening to good old Radio National and one recurring story has been the woes and worries of our Defence Minister. What an entertainment it has been so far;  gifts and largesse aplenty, admissions that prove to be inadequate, followed by grovelling apologies for failing to disclose “free” air travel. As scandals go this one is a beauty . Now we discover that the lady in question has connections to the Chinese military…

THE wealthy Chinese businesswoman who befriended Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and showered him with gifts is a leading member of an organisation with strong ties to the Chinese military.

Helen Liu, who was born in the northeastern Chinese province of Shandong and is now an Australian citizen, is a member of the editorial committee of Shandong Ming Jia.

The organisation, which translates as Shandong Celebrities Family, promotes the work of leading people from Shandong.

It has extensive membership within the China’s military, the Peoples Liberation Army, especially its logistics division.

Ms Liu has attracted enormous attention after allegations reported last week that Mr Fitzgibbon had been the subject of a covert spy operation by officials from his own defence department because of his relationship with her.

Ms Liu, who has had many property development interests in China and Australia, is among members of the Shandong Celebrities Family network whose activities are regularly covered by its own colour magazine.

According to the claims, departmental officials regarded Ms Liu as a possible security risk.

I just cant wait for each new revelation , each new residency of the spinmiester chair,  Julia Gillard on “Insiders” was a hoot, Brother Number One did a great “serious school mistress” impersonation. Each day I look forward to new instalment in this saga but as I can usually foresee how the plot of any drama will play out and I just have this feeling that the final act will be a minister falling on his sword.

Staying tuned Comrades

Toad Day Out

You can’t live in Queensland without being so very aware of the much hated Cane Toad. They are literally everywhere around here so I am very happy to give some very big approval to any efforts to reduce their number.

Amelia Elgar weighs a cane toad at a collection point in Cairns yesterday. Photo: AP

Toad Day Out, the brainchild of Queensland Liberal Nationals MP Shane Knuth, was staged to raise awareness of humane ways of catching and disposing of the toads.

Prizes were awarded to children for the heaviest individual toad and heaviest total weight of toads.

The project, supported by the Townsville, Burdekin, Ingham, Charters Towers and Cairns councils, was timed to match the spirit of the event, between Earth Hour on Saturday and April Fool’s Day on Wednesday.

I am however eternally amused by the instance that they will be humanely killed by freezing them because dead is dead and there are methods of killing them that requires far less energy (Hitting them with a stick is not one they are too tough for that!) That aside, this event it a good idea that deserves to be emulated all over the entire state
Cheers Comrades

Focus

One thing that I have noticed within business and bureaucratic environments is the general aversion to making decisions even about the most innocuous things which must surely be the foundation for the constant reference to focus groups by the government of Brother Number One.

With the average cost of conducting a focus group estimated at $4,000, the opposition calculates that 3,750 have been conducted by market researchers at taxpayers’ expense this financial year, Fairfax newspapers say.

Deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate, Eric Abetz, told Fairfax it was ludicrous that Labor was splashing such large amounts of taxpayer money on political focus groups and consultancies.

“What possible justification is there for spending $20,000 to see what people think of (the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts’) new logos, or $50,000 to get their views on a booklet that’s already been printed?”

It may not be much in the bigger scheme, but when the government insists on such things for the trivialities why should we expect that they will be any better at decision making on a bigger scale?

Its a worry Comrades

Go Julia!

It is not very often that I am inclined to endorse the efforts of our deputy PM but on this occasion I do. The idea that schools should not be judged on their performance, which is so beloved by the education unions, has always struck me as being completely bonkers. Parents do this informally by trying to tap into the collective experience of those who have seen the results in their children. The editorial comment from today’s OZ says it all.

Julia Gillard almost having a "wardrobe malfunction"

JULIA Gillard had bad news for education unionists and their allies in a speech last night – schools exist to serve students, parents and the community as a whole, not apparatchiks and ideologues intent on using classrooms to protect their own interests and advance their own ideas. As Justine Ferrari reports in The Weekend Australian, the Education Minister made a case for standard performance measures comparing similar schools in different communities. Without such data, Ms Gillard said, “How can we ever be confident that we are applying the right resources and learning strategies to achieve the best results for every child?”

It’s an argument everybody who believes in equality of opportunity endorses. When schools are not publicly compared, poor performers stay hidden, failing teachers keep their jobs and curricula that leave students ill-educated remain in place.

But the education establishment less dislikes than loathes the idea of publicly available tables that rank schools. Earlier this month, a collective of union and subject associations demanded Ms Gillard make them illegal. Union chiefs argue that parents would want to pull children out of poor performing schools if league tables existed. You can see their point: this would be very bad for the people in charge of bad schools. Even worse, it would mean public school parents would be able to ask hard questions. But what would be bad for education officials would be good for students and parents. If the unions want a fight over league tables, Ms Gillard should oblige – children’s rights are at stake.

There is one element of teaching that so many socialists in the Education unions seen so often to forget and that is the fact that teaching is not just a job, it is a vocation and children learn better from teachers who care more about their charges than they do about their pay packets and their pet ideologies or some theoretical methodology that just does not produce results.
Cheers Comrades

The likely result

The Liberal National Party (LNP) holds the lead in five of the six seats where the result remains undecided four days after the state election.

The electorates of Redlands and Cleveland on Brisbane’s bayside, Chatsworth on the southside, Everton in Brisbane’s north, Gaven on the Gold Coast and the central Queensland seat of Miriani are still considered too close to call as counting continues.

[...]

If the seats fall as expected, the LNP will end up with 35 seats, Labor with 50 and independents with four. The Greens failed to win a seat.

35 seats now means that next time the LNP will be far better placed to make  a very good run …

Cheers Comrades

“They have a killing problem”

Janet Albrechtsen writes a cracking piece in today’s Oz about the Jihadist problem and explains why treating them just like normal civil criminals is a very bad idea sadly far to many “progressives” just don’t seem to get it at all.

Janet Albrechtsen

It takes a sweet but rather dim-witted Pollyanna view of the world to suppose that men infused with an ideology to kill infidels and trained to do so need only spend some time in the equivalent of a detox centre to get those dirty jihadist thoughts out of their minds. These guys don’t have a drinking or drug problem. They have a killing problem.

But in a society where we think we can treat every transgression, from swearing to homophobic language, with a stint in rehab, it’s no great surprise that we now think terrorists are just miscreants of a slightly nastier kind.

This has always been the liberal mindset. Terrorists, we were told, ought to be treated and prosecuted as criminals in ordinary courts, because we can’t really be at war with a transnational group of religious nutters. The obsession with simple moral absolutes meant that denying habeas corpus rights to alleged terrorists caught on the battlefield was equally wrong. Liberal justices in the US Supreme Court agreed, leading Chief Justice John Roberts to declare, in dissent, that the American people had just lost “a bit more control over the conduct of this nation’s foreign policy to unelected, politically unaccountable judges”. Soldiers would henceforth have to collect evidence and take witness statements from the battlefield like a cop busting a drug ring. As Justice Antonin Scalia said in his dissent, “how to handle enemy prisoners in this war will ultimately lie with the branch that knows least about national security”.

Now let us just imagine a twelve step program for Jihadists…

“My name is Omar and it has been six months since I made my last bomb…“

Hmm, it just does not seem to work as a joke, perhaps that is because there is nothing to laugh about here and some very hard headed thinking is needed to tackle this issue.

Cue PKD
Cheers Comrades

Beards, and Earth Hour

Even that home of the far left opinions, the Guardian can, on occasion, come up with pieces that this conservative can agree with, and the piece that I quote below is one.

David Bellamy: admittedly not the greatest advert for wearing a beard, but at least he cares about the natural world. Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.

So said Beatrice in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and, as a long-term sporter of a full chin’s worth of facial fluff (and occasional wearer of a highly dubious “mo” for for charity), I can but agree. According to social psychologists, beards also convey a sense of authority, masculinity, strength and sincerity and once the Romans started shaving them off they quickly became associated with non-conformity.

If there is one thing that wastes both time and money it is shaving of the male face the result is rather ephemeral at best and apart from professions like fire fighting (where a good seal between breathing apparatus and the face is rather desirable) there are very few instances when the practice can be really  justified. Now If you have any pretensions about caring for the environment just think of the energy (and dare I say it? Oh what the heck ) and the amount of CO2 that will be saved by giving up the blade, I reckon that it would have to be better than supporting “Earth Hour”….
Cheers Comrades

Reclaiming a flag

For far too long the PC brigade have portrayed displaying the Saint George flag as something akin to announcing that you are a racist thug, and I am rather pleased to see that Boris Johnson is going to make a real effort to reclaim the symbol for the ordinary English men and women so that they can celebrate their heritage and culture.

Waving the flag: The Mayor will raise the Cross of St George over his London headquarters

There will be readings of Shakespeare’s sonnets at the Globe Theatre to mark the 400th anniversary of their publication, real-ale tastings and an English folk music concert in Trafalgar Square, while the Mayor will take a ceremonial tour of the capital in a London bus.

The whole city is expected to be decked in the Cross of St George – with no threat of getting into trouble with the authorities, as it will be with the full authority of the Mayor.

Mr Johnson told The Mail on Sunday: ‘St George’s Day has been ignored in London for too long but I’m truly pleased to announce some fantastic events to mark this occasion. We have much to be proud of in this great country. England has given so much to the world, politically, socially and artistically.

‘St George’s Day is a time to celebrate the very best of everything English and the Cross of St George will proudly fly outside City Hall on April 23. I look forward to hopping on a Routemaster and encouraging everyone to join in the fun and celebrate England’s great patron saint.’

You don’t have to be a Christian to celebrate something like this, you can be an Englishman of any faith who feels some pride in the achievements of the nation and its people, heck even expatiates of very long standing like myself  has many a good reason to celebrate being English.  I remember that my late father was  delighted to declare ” God is an Englishman, because  he  could chose his nationality” and who could argue with that logic?

Cheers Comrades

Sunday Morning

Of course I am feeling sad that the LNP did not win but there are a couple of things to be more cheerful about. Firstly Lawrence Springborg has vastly improved the conservative position in the parliament and he has shown the people of Queensland that a united conservative party is the way to go especially in the light of our optional preferential voting system.

For the ALP to win a fifth term here is doubly historic because it gives Australia its first woman premier elected in her own right. Anna Bligh  can be quite justly proud of that, but such things don’t count for much to anyone except the historians who like such snippets of trivia. The  real question is will her driving us  into so much debt really save this state from the worst effects of the GFC? I am still concerned that it won’t work any more than the stimulatory efforts have worked in places like Japan during its prolonged downturn  But as they say, time will tell.

A bright spot for me  has been the failure of  Ronan Lee to retain his seat because quite frankly there is still enough of the old tribal loyalty in me to believe that you don’t go into the parliament under the flag of one party and then abandon them for no good reason. Likewise I am delighted that Pauline Hanson did not win Beaudesert. As much as I think that she has been badly treated by some parts of the media I think that she is just a joke that has been told too many times to be funny any more.

So as the sun is now fully above the Horizon I think it is time for a coffee and some breakfast before I go down and install the new washing machine that I bought yesterday. I never expected to get excited about white goods but I am. Our old one died yesterday morning so after a serious discussion with my beautiful wife we settled on a new water efficient front loader and while she was in a mood to buy new appliances I finally  convinced her that a dishwasher was also something that we really need. When there was just the two us I used to say “I don’t know why people have to insist on having dishwashers“  but since our family got larger  and the daily dish pile got bigger I have come to understand just why they are such a great idea.

Cheers Comrades

Live blogging the count in the Queensland election

Don’t know if this will work out but I’m going to post a few thoughts through the evening as the count begins, It is now five minutes until the polls close so lets see what unfolds!

7pm
a swing against the ALP but will it be enough?

8.48
Sadly The socialists look to be retaining Government….
Sigh….

Triumph’s Bonneville

I have never owned a whole Triumph, being a Norton man myself, but I do think that the new Hinckley Bonneville is a handsome beast.

Triumph’s Bonneville has always been one of the more convincing retro motorcycles

It’s still no ferocious road-burner, but it’s not meant to be. This is a bike aimed at those more interested in style and an easy ride. It has modern traits such as an immediate response to the twistgrip, a mellow purr from the reverse-cone megaphone exhaust and pleasingly strong acceleration even in higher gears. A neat retro touch is the fuel-injection system designed to look like a pair of carburettors, as you can see from side-on pictures of the bike – it certainly fooled me on the launch.

Triumph claims that 90 per cent of the maximum torque is on tap from only 2,500rpm up to the red line, although there’s no rev counter on the base model so you won’t know exactly where that is. Not that it matters, the engine works well and only feels weak where you’d expect, such as passing the 90mph mark or when revving it too hard. It certainly doesn’t vibrate like an old Triumph parallel twin, its pair of balance shafts reducing the configuration’s inherent shakes to a few tingles here and there.

Cheers Comrades

Message from Lawrence Springborg to the people of Queensland…

Over to you Lawrence

Message from Lawrence Springborg
to the people of Queensland…

This election is about the health of the people and the health of the economy.

Getting Queensland back on track is my number one priority. From day one the LNP will start fixing our economy.

We will get it back on track by cutting government waste and investing in vital services like more hospital beds, doctors, nurses, police, and teachers.

Our plan is about more jobs… not more debt.

Today I’ve returned to the Royal Children’s Hospital, where I started this campaign, for one specific reason – because despite the many promises, Labor hasn’t changed and they haven’t presented a plan for the future.

This Labor Government still does not have its priorities right. It still is not listening to Queenslanders.

Everywhere I have traveled, Queenslanders have told me that they just want the problems fixed. After 11 years of Labor mismanaging the economy, the health system, education, and infrastructure, Queenslanders are saying enough is enough. It is time to change.

The only Party that can bring about a change for a better Queensland is the LNP. We have the positive solutions to fix Labor’s problems. We have the plan, we have the people and we are focused on the right priorities.

There is no greater contrast between Labor and the LNP than Labor’s announcement to borrow an additional $60million to build a football stadium. I ask every Queenslander, would you prefer a sick child having a seat at a stadium or being able to see a doctor and have a bed in hospital?

It is about fixing the problems of the last 11 years and getting the priorities right.

There has been a vacuum of leadership in this State and no-one has taken responsibility. I am ready to lead Queensland and with my team we will fix the problems our State faces.

Labor says it can’t be done. We say it MUST be done.

Tomorrow I urge Queenslanders to Vote 1 LNP to deliver change for a better Queensland.

Kind regards
Lawrence Springborg

Cheers Comrades

Good on you Steve

When I was a younger man each years federal budget seemed to have increases in the “sin Taxes” either in increase in the excises on Beer or the tax on Ciggies” the government knew that they could argue that only people who chose to drink or smoke would have to reach into their pockets. The reality is that such taxes hurt ordinary people the hardest. and government talk about modifying social behaviour is just a smokescreen.

A tax to change behaviour is still a Tax

THE price of alcopops will dive within weeks and the Government has had a $1.6 billion hole blown in its budget after Senator Steve Fielding dumped the Government’s alcopop tax.

The Government says it will hand back almost $300 million in revenue to distillers, but the Opposition claims the money collected over the past year could be quarantined for alcohol education programs.

Extraordinarily, the 70 per cent tax increase was defeated only after a second vote – the initial vote passed because a Coalition senator said he was stuck in a stairwell.

Victorian senator Steve Fielding – elected in 2004 with 1.76 per cent of the vote in the state – sided with the Opposition after the Government refused to abolish a loophole allowing alcohol advertising during sports telecasts, despite it being banned during the day for all other programming.

I have to admit that I have been highly amused by the coniptions being experienced by some of the more silly leftist bloggers out there over this vote. Now who would think that someone of the left would be for higher taxes?

I also love the way that the minions of the left are all for proportional representation and preferential voting until it results is a very conservative senator, and then they whine continually about how unfair it is that the man has a seat. Now If he was a Green  I bet they would not be singing the same tune.

Cheers Comrades

Galaxy Poll shows swing against Labor at Queensland election

PREMIER Anna Bligh is at risk of being turfed out of office, according to new poll. |

ANNA Bligh is at risk of being turfed out of office at tomorrow’s election as Brisbane voters turn on her Labor team.

A Galaxy Poll, conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail, has revealed a steep swing against Labor in Brisbane and a sizeable shift away from the party across the rest of the state.

Check out the details but it is clear that we conservatives are more likely to be celebrating tomorrow evening than our Latte sipping friends will be.

Cheers indeed Comrades

Just two sleeps to go

Writing in the Australian Mike Steketee provides a nice summary of the campaign up here in the sunshine state

Saturday will not provide a definitive answer to the effectiveness of these political messages. There are too many other ingredients in the election mix, among them an 11-year old Labor government and its poor record on health and other state services, a united Opposition to replace the shambles that has fronted up in previous elections, but also an Opposition Leader who some voters doubt is up to the job. Though the economy and jobs are at the centre of the campaign, the messages inevitably are mixed as politicians try to cover all bases. For example, Springborg is promising to fix the health system, which will require a very direct government role.

Unlike my friends from down south I have had to endure the TV advertising from both sides and I must say that, partisan feelings aside, that the LNP have managed to produce a much more positive tone in their campaign. They certainly have been hammering the government record but they have also had more than a few ads that show a calm but determined leader ready to get down to the job. By way of contrast The ALP campaign has been very negative and almost angry that the people of Queensland might possibly toss them out, they have continually played upon peoples natural fears that their jobs may be under threat while proclaiming that Anna Bligh is some sort of jobs saviour.
Well we have just two sleeps to polling day when we will find out he result.

Cheers Comrades