You should treat Jamie Briggs's "The little book of big Labor waste" as a highly prejudiced, one sided view of the world! It's also mostly accurate.
I'd take issue with Jamie's assertion that the nett worth of the "government" was $70BN in 2007. I think he means a cash surplus or cash at bank in the order of $70BN.
You can download his little book right here
This is about employment law - the changes recommended by this committee would make it an offence (in some circumstances) for a boss to refuse to hire a person because they had a criminal past. Now who might benefit from that?
BOSSES who refuse to hire or promote workers with criminal records will risk discrimination suits under legislative changes recommended by a Senate inquiry.
.......the committee, chaired by dumped Labor senator Trish Crossin, concluded that "discrimination in employment on the basis of a criminal record that is clearly irrelevant should not be tolerated".
Its report says employers should not be allowed to discriminate against workers with a criminal conviction that is "not directly relevant to the situation in which the discrimination arises".
The whole story is here on The Daily Telegraph's website.
A criminal conviction is intended to carry some weight and to reflect the community's displeasure at criminal behaviour. This strikes me as one more move to water down the seriousness and the consequences of criminal actions.
It worries me that people who say they love journalism won't answer well-intentioned criticisms about their own work.
The Conversation ought to be a prestigious website. It operates with the .edu.au domain moniker and the imprimatur and financial support of many of the nation's great universities.
Janine Little teaches aspiring journalists. Andrew Jaspan is charged with overall editorial responsibility for the site.
I have no idea whether Andrew or Janine have dismissed our criticism of their work as unworthy of a return note or not. I can only say my emails to them have gone unanswered.
Today we hear of more university funding for The Conversation.
ACADEMIC research and commentary website The Conversation says it is here to stay after securing enough income from universities to keep it afloat ahead of its $6 million start up funding running out.
So far 21 universities have signed up as fee payer. The site is also looking to entice more sponsors and donors, and is now tapping into the loyalty of its readers asking for reader donations. Development director Lisa Watts said about 500 readers have so far responded with donations from as little as $5 to as much at a few thousand dollars.
You can read more at The Australian's website here.
And my correspondence with The Conversation's editor is here.
It's troubling that we can have so clear cut a case of urgent need for medical care on our doorstep in PNG - while we spend $600,000,000.00 developing climate change leaders, producing DVDs and writing policy briefs for overseas bureaucrats.
Read the story in The Daily Telegraph from March last year. I'm sure those aid dollars are flowing, it's just the priorities that are so damned wrong.
Here's Sherron Lewis with two of our conversations
You may know that Paul Howes is being sued by his adoptive former step-father Gary Howes. Paul is one of 3 defendants in the matter, along with the publishers of The Australian Women's Weekly and a journalist.
In this action Paul Howes asked the Supreme Court to give him a 12 person jury to hear the defamation allegations, rather than the usual 4 person jury. Many defendants believe it's harder for a plantiff to get 12 people to agree that an allegation is proved than just 4.
Paul Howes did not get what he was after in bringing the motion.
The reasons that Paul Howes believed he was entitled to the special treatment were set out by Paul's counsel and summarised in the judgement here.
You can read the whole of the judgement here
Download Gary howes wins defamation jury motion
These quotes come from Daniel Hurst's article published online in The Age and the SMH where he has reported on Paul Howes and his closing speech at the AWU Conference on the Gold Coast.
''We know what type of man Tony Abbott is. We know what type of man Eric Abetz is. We know what kind of joker Joe Hockey is. Hell, we even know who Barnaby Joyce is even if he doesn't know it himself.''
Mr Howes ridiculed the image of Senator Joyce as an average Australian, saying: ''He's a guy who goes on cruise ship holidays with Gina Rinehart. He's a guy who writes letters to Gina Rinehart's children begging them to stop litigation against their mother.''
Mr Howes labelled Mr Abbott as ''the most inconsistent so-called conviction politician that this nation has ever seen'', pointing to contradictory statements over climate change and WorkChoices.
He said Mr Abbott was only consistent on ''extreme social conservative'' positions on reproductive rights.
''It's hard to actually call Tony Abbott a conservative because he's so extreme; because he's so brash; because he resorts to the politics of smear and innuendo so much. That's not conservative; that's extreme. And when nations have extremist politicians and when extremists gain power it's a very, very scary thing.''
But after launching the attacks, Mr Howes bemoaned how politics had become ''so nasty, so personal''.
''I do despair sometimes at the level of political discourse in this country,'' he said.
Mr Howes later denied he was being hypocritical, saying: ''I'm not in Parliament . . . I think it's right to call a spade a spade.''
How about leaving one on a porch?Paul Howes has given his closing speech at the AWU conference on the Gold Coast.
Fairfax's Daniel Hurst reports
Key Labor figure Paul Howes has lashed out crudely at Labor MPs he says are undermining Prime Minister Julia Gillard, telling those who anonymously attack their leader to ''grow a pair''.
''Nothing upsets me more lately than opening newspapers on a daily or weekly basis and reading anonymous quotes from 'senior Labor sources' undermining our Prime Minister, undermining the leadership of our movement and this country,'' he said in his closing speech to the AWU national conference on the Gold Coast.
''What a bunch of gutless pricks they are that they can't put their names to what they are saying.''
Mr Howes told the gathering: ''I might get the odd attack for appearing once or twice too many times on television or being a bit too blunt about [former Rio Tinto chief] Tom Albanese or former prime ministers or going on shows like Lateline on that particular night and maybe that's right, but we say what we do, we have the guts to put our names to what we mean, we don't background.
''We get out on the front foot and we say it loudly and clearly.''
Mr Howes said he had a message for Labor members who were trying to undermine the cause.
''Grow a pair and put your name to what you're saying and have the fight out here publicly. Don't go slinking around the back rooms of the press gallery on a daily basis. Come out and articulate your case. Make your message. Have the discussion with the Australian people. Get out there and argue your point.''
The former AWU National Secretary Ian Cambridge maintains his call for a Royal Commission of Enquiry into the AWU. He has called on anyone who has information about the 1990s fraud to come forward and speak with police.
Gillard/Wilson/Blewitt did things together that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars moving into the personal control of Wilson. Cambridge says that money was the property of the union and was stolen. Why don't you want it investigated?
Are there any court orders that anyone pay money to the AWU as a result of Judge Madgwick's hearing into The AWU Scandal? Is the union owed money? Is there any arrangement between any union official and any person against whom Madgwick made an Order for the payment of money? Have you been in touch with Victoria Police as they investigate the scandal?
Forget commentators who analyse opinion polls. Analyse the politicians and their actions.
4 young men dead, house fires etc. Governing is too serious to be left to such as these. It was Rudd's cavalier nonchalance as to the practicalities of sending necessarily newly recruited people into the unknown roof cavities of the nation that resulted in the deaths. And Gillard's practical ineptitude is even worse.
This was Peter Garrett talking to me on the day he announced the end of the pink batts debacle.