My 90 year old mother in law received a cheque today for $250.00 from Julia - and in the same mail, a second letter informing her that because of the extra money she was now receiving from a beneficent government, that same government was authorising the care facility in which she lives to take an extra 1% of her pension.

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Re the really large new fishery protection zones announced today: does the Navy have enough ships and manpower to police such large areas and prevent Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean (and who knows who else?) trawlers from taking fish from these protected areas? 'Protected' - from Australian fisherMEN only. (Did anyone else notice the news articles today? We no longer have 'fisherman', but Politically Correct 'fishers'(!) ) God give me strength!

Of course not.
Australia - Sea Shepherd
Lunatics? Absolutely, complete nutters.
Integrity? Have you seen any of them stand for politics? :E

Andu, I think it's spelled "fissures", and it's what all politicians talk out of. This is a global truth. :rolleyes:

bob johns
 

ay andu --I am senior to you --my Mum will be 97 in Jan 2013

Don't be silly, fishies aren't such an emotional or high profile subject as whales and the evil Japanese.

Say that the dolphins are gonna get it, however..........

Shouldn't Roxon be stepping aside from any comments about the Slipper afair, conflict of interest and all that?:confused:

True. Save The Cute Animal Syndrome is alive and well, unlike a lot of endangered lizards, frogs and similar that the average animal 'lover' doesn't give a toss about. :ouch: It's noticeable that several turtle and frog lobbies have been talking up the cute factor of those animals in an attempt to build donations. Good luck to them, too.

Conversely the cat, dog and horse lobbies all get very angsty about any attmept to control the massive feral populations of these introduced pests despite the damage they cause, because they're 'cute'. Guess Cane Toads wish they were cute too. :}

To be fair Sea Shepherd do their best with campaings about tuna, sharks and other not-cute but endangered marine animals, but they never generate as much attention as the cetation campaings.

My point was that, just like the Southern Ocean at whaling time, there will probably be no government resources actually enforcing this or stopping other countries from coming along and helping themselves to the fish.

For sure. Unless they substantially increase the size of the DAFF fisheries inspector contingent it's all huggy and no substance.
All too familiar, in other words. :rolleyes:
Patagonian Tooth Fish fillet, anyone? :}

To divert from fish for a moment:

From a letter to the editor, The Australian, this weekend:

"When Gillard was employment minister, she instituted many reforms to workplace laws. According to the foreman in charge of electricity line upgrades where I live, the amount of red tape and workplace safety requirements now obliges him to employ twice as many people to do the same job as five years ago.

Also, the new requirements now cause each job to take around three times as long as it took five years ago. The decreased productivity among electrical linesmen is a further reason for the 150 per cent increase in my electricity costs that have occurred since Labor took office in 2007."

If that is true, you have to wonder how Gillard maintains her position. When you consider her lousy political judgment even years ago - remember Medicare Gold? Gillard's backing of Mark Latham? - it seems that most things Gillard touches turn to shite. Surely, from any reasonable political perspective, she will be judged harshly.

Yet she endures - not so much through the force of her convictions, but it seems by an ability to ignore what goes on around her. Amid disaster, most of it Gillard's own work, she sails serenely on, disparaging everyone else and smiling at the cameras.

Gillard's apparent obliviousness reminds me of Capt Philip Queeg of the USS Caine (without the balls of course). In the book The Caine Mutiny, Queeg is more or less exonerated at the end, even praised for doing his duty as he saw it.

Let's hope that history is a bit kinder to the Australian electorate than that.

"SIEV Charter Services wishes to announce the arrival of its daily charter boat. Passengers may pick up their Australian passports and welfare cheques - AS PROMISED - as soon as their initial processing and travel on to the Australian mainland is completed."

An article in today's Australian (Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian) describes the promises people smugglers are making to Tamils willing to pay their way to get to Australia. "On arrival, they will get citizenship and R100,000 a month."

Have the accident/injury rates gone down though? Electricity is very unforgiving of errors. :eek:

Talking last night with some past and present construction industry participants (over rather a lot of drinks :\) I didn't realize that in the 1980s major projects used to budget for fatalities. They used to assume that a certain number of guys would get killed on the job and factored it into the planning, like bad weather. :(

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I think that's awful.

Have you ever tried getting dog shite of the bottom of your shoe RJM?

bob johns
 

When I was an electricians apprentice1960--64 we did a lot of work for a medical professional who had been on two study trips to Russia.Many conversations with this gent got me in the shit with my boss as I was supposed to be crawling around in his ceiling getting covered in ,cob webs bird lice and dead rats/.and shit and stuff . This gent told me then (1960--3) that THEY WOULD COME IN BOATS --AND KEEP COMING !!! Wernt wrong ,was he ? And all we need is a gutless ,polically correct government and a blind, hedonistic ,Hollywood and sport obsessed electorate to sit back and get shafted and then squeal --Well it might be too bloody late The Department for the Destruction of Australia would appear to be in full swing And lets not forget -the Colt from Cooyong our own Andrew Peacock who signed us into the Lima Agreement I have eneough ancestors that gave their all for this country and I have tried to do what I could but the hatred I have got for this excrement that pretend to be my leaders cannot be described.

Another 1900 to become unemployed in Victoria & NSW from Fairfax - yup, we have never had it so good!:{

Suddenly I can visualise the Sea Shepherd cruising up and down the reef with all on board vigilantly looking out to the horizon for hapless fishermen, while their own bow mows down all the whales, dugongs and turtles in their path. The prop completes the devastation by mincing all and sundry to fertilise and feed the already abundant bottom dwellers. ;)

A bit like our very own 'far-sighted' Guvmint?

A rather jet lagged looking Julia Gillard currently on 'Lateline' ('Ladeline'?) telling us that productividee is vidal to her Labor Pardy's plans.

Apparently susdainabiledee will be an important message she will be delivering in Rio.

And Rome will continue to burn whilst Julius:ugh: and the rest of the G10 keep fiddling the figures

The woman is delusional, if not bordering upon deranged. "Follow our economic lead"? Would that be the 'economic lead' characterised by starting with billions in the bank, (left by her political opponents), and five years later, having accrued a debt so large it will take generatiosns to repay it?

The really scary thing is that 30% of Australian voters apparently still think this woman has some political credibility.

I find myself hoping that someone, perhaps Angela Merkel, will take the "opportunidee" to, in no uncertain terms, set Our Julia staright in Rio.