PoliticalConcern.com

Malcolm Turnbull has finally conceded attacks on Kevin Rudd cannot be sustained. This has not, however, stopped him from going on the attack.

Of course there was another lively session in Federal Parliament today with calls from both sides of the house for the relevant parties to resign. Despite Malcolm Turnbull’s concession that attacks on Kevin Rudd couldn’t continue in regard to the Utegate affair, he tried a different line of attack. Turnbull’s attacks on Kevin Rudd today centered on a Bennelong car dealer.

The car dealer approach Rudd “at a small business function” that he “attended with the member for Bennelong.”

So what is the point that the Leader of the Opposition is trying to make here. Surely Kevin Rudd is allowed to talk to people at functions he attends and if people ask questions of him surely they are entitled to answers. The purpose of this car dealer approaching Mr Rudd was to ask about the OzCar scheme and whether it was up and running. Surely this was reasonable and attacks of this nature can not be sustained either.

Is this just a tactic by Mr Turnbull to divert attention away from the fake email the he relied so heavily on?

The last week has shown that Malcolm Turnbull lacks the judgment to be the alternative Prime Minister. Not checking the validity of information before launching such a vicious attack and not knowing when move on are pretty basic skills required of any politician. Mr Turnbull needs to move aside as Leader of the Opposition or the Liberal Party needs remove to him to save themselves and get on with the business of opposition and leave these poorly founded attacks behind them.

Wayne Swan has tabled documents which show that he did not give preferential treatment to John Grant. So the subject should be closed.

There clearly has not been any corruption from Kevin Rudd or Wayne Swan and the opposition needs to stop flogging this dead horse. It clearly is not going anywhere.

There is important work to be done in Parliament. The politicians in Canberra need to get on with it and stop their petty bickering before Parliament breaks.

The sad and needless death of Iranian women, Neda Agha Soltan, has been viewed around the world on sites such as YouTube. It is a disturbing video and I won’t be providing a link to a video here but it is not hard find if you search on a search engine or on YouTube.

Neda Agha Soltan


While Neda is not the only person to be killed during protests in Iran following elections that are regarded by many Iranians to be corrupt, it is the most widely covered and discussed. Its impact on world wide interest on the current events has been significant.

What I think is the most tragic part of the deaths happening in Iran is the fact that these people are dying in their efforts to support democracy in their country due to the very undemocratic actions of the countries leadership and it paramilitary.

These people are protesting over what they see as the flawed and corrupt result of the Iranian presidential election held in June this year. A recount of votes has been carried out, although limited, and while some irregularities have been found they were judged by ‘independent’ electoral authorities to not have influenced the result.

The large number of people attending these protests and the sustained effort of protests so far would seem to indicate the popular wish of the people. Though popular wishes do not always mean much in a country ruled by dictators such as in Iran.

The death of Neda certainly seems to have inspired continued protests and hopefully democracy can win in the end. Hopefully with as little blood shed as possible.

Investigation by AFP officers into the email at center of the OzCar affair have tracked its origin to a computer in the Treasury Department.

It has been revealed that the email originated from the Treasury Department and was sent to Treasury official Godwin Grech. Federal Police this morning raided Grech’s home. Grech was interviewed by Police with Police emerging from his home at about 1 pm with three hard cases.

Police have also established the email as a fake.

Police also want to interview a former staffer of Malcolm Turnbull, Paul Lindwall, who is also a former Treasury colleague of Godwin Grech.

A firm link to Malcolm Turnbull has does not seem to have been established at this stage and there are people from both sides of the political spectrum working at Treasury, but it does seem to be getting closer.

During a fiery session in Parliament today The Government focused much of its attack on the email issue with the Opposition calling it a diversion from the issue of Wayne Swan misleading Parliament. While this may be the case it could also be said that the Opposition trying to steer focus to Wayne Swan could be a diversion away from Malcolm Turnbull and the fake email.

With the Opposition still trying to attack Wayne Swan about providing assistance for Ipswich car dealer John Grant it also seems clear that he hasn’t received anything that he wasn’t entitled to. If this is what assistance from Wayne Swan gets you then I don’t think I will be going to him if I need help.

So what happens next?

As far as I see it Kevin Rudd seems pretty much clear, although there will be a bit of mud still to clean off.

Wayne Swan has some explaining to do and does not seem to be completely clear. It will be a tough week for him.

Malcolm Turnbull is also in for a tough week. Although he is not in any real trouble yet things seem to be hotting up and it is yet to be seen what his involvement in the email scandal is, if any at all.

Things are continuing Stay tuned.

Kevin Rudd has given Malcolm Turnbull and ultimatum to produce the email at the centre of the Oz Car scandal within 24 hours or resign.

Speaking outside a church in Canberra, Mr Rudd said “Mr Turnbull and the Liberals have been boasting for a long time now that they are in possession of this information. Well the time has come to produce this information to the parliament for authentication.

“If when parliament resumes in 24 hours, Mr Turnbull fails to produce this email, this email upon which his entire case against the Government is based, for authentication he has no alternative but to stand in the parliament, apologise, and to resign.”

The Opposition has been looking for a chink in the Labour armour and they obviously thought this was their best chance yet. Unfortunately for them the pivotal evidence that they claimed to have doesn’t seem to exist and they need to produce it now to justify their allegations.

Deputy Prime Minster Julia Gillard told ABC television “Mr Turnbull’s got a very big problem.

“It turns out that there is no such email so Mr Turnbull … has got a pretty big decision to make, he can either produce the email that he’s been carrying on about for days or he can tender his resignation.

“His credibility has been so shot that there will be no other alternative.”

Treasurer Wayne Swan has fended off calls for him to resign saying media reports that his position hangs in the balance and that he should resign over the OzCar affair are “ridiculous” and “absurd”.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull claims Mr Swan has misled parliament over claims that he did not assist car dealer John Grant. “If you look at the emails that are on the public record, what you can see is Mr Grant didn’t receive any assistance from OzCar or Ford Credit. He didn’t receive any assistance at all,” Mr Swan Said.

Certainly Mr Rudd seems to be in clear air at this stage but Mr Swan would seem to have a bit of work to do yet before he is in the clear. Email records tendered to a Senate inquiry on Friday into the OzCar program showed that Mr Swan was being kept in the loop regarding Mr Grant’s application for finance. Whether any undue influence was applied is yet to be seen.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey however has chosen not to speak on the affair today. He refused to comment on the email or who had seen it.

He did say that Wayne Swan would be hounded by the Opposition on the matter over the next few days. “Wayne Swan this morning dodged a few bullets. Over the next few days he will not be able to avoid answering questions, detailed questions, about his relationship with John Grant and exactly what he did to help John Grant,” Mr Hockey said.

“Over the next few days we will be asking a lot of questions of the Treasurer. We expect a lot of detailed answers.

Clearly it has become an issue to hot to handle except in the sanctuary of parliament.

Stay Tuned.

By Harrison, on June 20th, 2009

David Letterman is a pale shadow of his former edgy self… all of those years of hosting his own show have worn him down until he’s reduced to taking cheap (and safe) shots at people like Sarah Palin. In the little bubble Letterman lives in it’s okay to mock Conservatives because everybody he knows thinks the same way. If Letterman had any “edge” he would have made a joke about Obama’s daughters. For some reason, in yet another apology issued by Letterman he is still fixated on his joke not being about Palin’s 14 year old daughter. According to a story in the Associated Press:


Fair game because she's a Republican.

On Monday’s edition of “Late Show,” Letterman explained that the risque joke thought by some to have targeted Palin’s underage daughter, Willow, was actually referring to 18-year-old daughter Bristol. The name of the daughter wasn’t mentioned in the joke, which was part of Letterman’s monologue on last Monday’s show.

It was “a coarse joke,” “a bad joke,” Letterman told viewers. “But I never thought it was (about) anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18.”

So in what passed for American talk show humor it’s okay to joke about an 18 year old girl getting raped by a baseball player but if that girl is 14 it’s in poor taste? It seems as though Letterman figured Palin and her family would be a decent punching bag and there would be no fallout… seems as though, like a scolded dog, he slunk off into the corner:

“I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke,” he said. “It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault that it was misunderstood.”

He apologized to both daughters, “and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke,” he said as the studio audience applauded. “I’m sorry about it, and I’ll try to do better in the future.”

What Letterman has shown is that, aside from sitting there with his sarcasm he really doesn’t have any other kind of act. I think this incident shows that Letterman should be ushered into retirement as he has no edge and no ideas… he’s just plain nasty. Would he want his children to be mocked with the possibility of being raped by A Rod?



Been a long while since you’ve been funny.

Now that we have a Democrat in the White House it is getting more and more difficult for Liberal comedians to make their jokes. Bill Maher, who started on late night TV with his show Politically Incorrect on ABC is now reduced to attacking Republicans even though they lost the elections. There are other “safe” topics for a Liberal Hollywood comedians to mock such as NASCAR fans and people who go to church but even these have become tiresome. But they refuse to go on the attack against Liberals with the same vigor they did when a Republican was in office.

What is even more unsurprising about this entire incident with Letterman and Palin is that feminists have not really come out to condemn his attacks. I think NOW added a link to their website naming Letterman as being “bad” but imagine the outcry had Letterman talked about Michelle Obama. We’d be hearing from Al Sharpton, NOW, and every other crackpot feminist out there. But, with Palin… nothing.

Somehow, because Palin isn’t a Democrat I guess she doesn’t enjoy the same type of “sisterhood” other women enjoy. What this entire episode has exposed, for perhaps the 5 millionth time, is that Democrats, who claim to “celebrate diversity” only embrace others who buy organic produce at Wholefoods and not Walmart.

From Just Politics..?

Could an attempt to help a mate mean the end for Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd?

Certainly if he is found to have used his position to help his car dealer friend, John Grant, get finance through the Governments Oz Car scheme it bring the end of his days as Australia’s Prime Mininster.

It has been claimed by the Opposition that Mr Rudd’s office had contacted Godwin Grech, the head of the Government’s $2 billion OZ Car scheme to help for Mr Grant.

Of course Mr Rudd denies this communication ever happened and has claimed that an email allegedly sent by his senior economic adviser Andrew Charlton to Mr Grech is an elaborate fraud. After an investigation by Mr Rudd’s office they have been unable to find any record of this email originating from his office.

Kevin Rudd has now called for an Auditor Generals enquiry into the affair.

If it is found that any influence did come from Mr Rudd’s office then he surely would have no other choice but to resign.
Mr Rudd has set a high standard of conduct for his Government colleagues and to fail to live up to this standard would surely be unforgivable.

If it is found that the email is a fraud then who knows who’s head will roll? If this is found to be a fraud then not only could there be the political fallout from such a scandal but also the possibility of criminal action as the Australian Federal Police have also started investigations into the affair.

Stay posted for updates on this. It could get very interesting.

How many of you take your kids to work? I sure there are some but not many. It is not something that normally happens. You are at work to do your job, not look after your children. I am sure there are some parents who have their kids visit work at some time to see where mum or dad work, and while most bosses probably don’t mind, I bet they would if it interrupted the operations of the workplace or broke long established workplace rules.

Well in the Australian Federal Parliament this week one parent thought she would give bringing her child to work a go.

Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens Senator in the Australian Federal Parliament, bought her two year old daughter, Kora, into the Senate chamber during a division. A well known rule of the Senate is that no strangers are allowed in the chamber during divisions. Well no matter which way you want to put it, children are strangers in the senate and do not belong there at certain times. That is it. It is a rule of the workplace so why knowingly break it?

Of course the Senate President, Senator John Hogg, had no real choice but to instruct Senator Hanson Young to have her daughter removed from the chamber. This is a rule of this workplace and it is also a place where decisions are being made that affect all Australians. This is no place for children.

Senator Hanson-Young was not very happy with this action saying “The way this was handled was a mistake.” Well yes Sarah it was a mistake. You should not have taken your daughter to the chamber at this time. You know this, or at least you should.

There are plenty of other times that I am sure members of parliament can take their children on a little tour of their workplace. The Australian Parliament does not sit every day and one of these many non sitting days would be a great time to take Kora to have a look at where Mummy works. No one will be bothered. No rules will be broken. No one will get upset. Yes the ensuing hassle did upset the poor little girl who could reportedly be heard crying from the senate chamber during the division.

Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, said “I don’t know of any employer that’s going to say you can’t have five minutes with your child.” Yes you may be right Bob. There probably aren’t many who, if your family turned up to say hello would be happy for you to say a quick hello and then get back to work. I am also quite sure they would not be very happy if you bought them into an important meeting, or onto the factory floor or did anything else to disrupt the workplace or broke workplace rules.

Well this is exactly what happened in this situation. The workplace was disrupted and rules were broken.

NSW opposition spokeswoman Pru Goward, a former sex discrimination commissioner, told ABC radio that children in workplaces can be “very distracting”.

Yes that is right they can. That is why people don’t normally take their children to work.

Senator Brown said this morning that Kora had provided a “pleasant diversion” for those nearby after a hard week. Senator Brown, You are involved in important work here. Save your “diversions” for when the work is done, please.

There is also a childcare centre about 500 metres from the Senate Chamber. It is a very nice childcare centre and would have been a wholly better place to leave Kora whilst important work was taking place in the chamber.

Senator Hanson-Young was accused of using her daughter in a parliamentary stunt. Of course she denies this and I am willing to believe her as I would hate to think that any parent would use their child in such a pointless stunt.

The Senate is due to debate on this issue on Monday. This is a terrible waste of parliamentary time and hopefully commonsense will prevail and it will be made clear that children do not belong at work when work is supposed to be done.

Hopefully all members of parliament will make sure they are aware of the rules and do their best to abide by them so that no undue disruption occurs in the future.

And Sarah. I hope you have learnt from your “mistake” and this doesn’t happen again. After all you were elected to do your job as a Senator, not to amuse your sweet little girl during important meetings. You will also be able to avoid a repeat of the “most humilating moment of your life.”

“Everybody Mr Costello has left the building.”
Well not quite but he will be very soon. Peter Costello has announced today that he will not be renominating for the next Federal election.

The announcement drew praise from both sides of the house, something not often felt by Mr Costello before.

During question time Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was an important day for Mr Costello. “It should be marked appropriately,” he told Parliament, praising the former treasurer for his significant role in the formation of the G20 finance ministers group. He also acknowledged Mr Costello’s role in addressing the Asian financial crisis, adding it had helped Australia’s relationships with its neighbours. Mr Rudd also described these achievements as being correct decisions in the national interest.

Peter Costello leaves after 20 years in Federal Parliament, 11 of those as Federal Treasurer.

As Mr Costello’s career in parliament draws to a close the Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull breathes a sigh of relief. No longer will the specter of a leadership challenge from Mr Costello be a threat to him.
Maybe now the Australian Liberal Party can get on with preparing for the next federal elections without the worry of leadership instability and put up a reasonable campaign.

In the meantime I am sure most people would wish Mr Costello well in his future post on the International Advisory Board of the World Bank.

After sucking up tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money but still declaring bankruptcy, the U.S. governmnet has put someone in charge of sorting the company out who has no automotive experience whatsoever! Hey, it’s only General Motors… who needs automotive experience, right?

The New York Times reports:

It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.

But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.

Nor, for that matter, had he given much thought to what ailed an industry that had been in decline ever since he was born.

I’m sure Mr. Deese is a smart guy, hardworking, and all of that but why is he in charge (aside from the fact that he was put in charge)? I’m all for “out-of-the-box” thinking but something as important as the way the U.S. governmnet will handle the future of General Motors and Chrysler should probably left to somebody who has at least some automobile industry experience, right?

According to the same New York Times article:

Mr. Deese’s role is unusual for someone who is neither a formally trained economist nor a business school graduate, and who never spent much time flipping through the endless studies about the future of the American and Japanese auto industries.

What is so ironic is that when Bob Lutz was hired to turn around GM he was hailed by everybody as the solution because he was a “car guy.” Lutz brought a lot to the table and helped GM to improve its product line-up by championing cars like the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky (which were sold out for almost a year), reviving Cadillac with such cars as the award winning CTS, and pumping new life into the morbid Buick line-up with vehicles like the LaCrosse. Still, there was only so much Lutz could do but he certainly did more than almost any other product planner there for the previous 40 years.

And now a “non-car guy” is going to figure it out? How is it, in the government, you can get such a powerful job without having any past experience in the field where you will be exerting an enormous amount of power and influence?

Back in high school when I was a teenager and worked as a life guard I went to dump some chemicals into the filter system and could only find latex gloves for one hand. My boss, a former U.S. Army guy didn’t sweat it, he used a right glove for his left hand and, even though it didn’t fit right, said he had done it all the time when he worked for the government because they always ordered the wrong stuff.

I guess “saving” GM is kind of the same thing, eh?

From Just Politics..?

So President Obama is in the Middle East trying to repair relations with countries in the region. Can he do the seemingly impossible?

The Middle East has a long and hate filled history with the U.S. and they don’t seem real keen to change in a hurry. Many terrorists seem to have the U.S. and their interests as their exclusive targets.

Sure Obama might be able to improve relations with some of the officials in this region but this is not going to change the views of the general population.

So what is it that people in the Middle East have against the U.S.?
Well largely the U.S. is seen as an empirical power trying to gain control over as much of the world as it can. They resent the U.S. using their military might to interfere in the region and acting like a bully protecting its own interests.

They also dislike the U.S. supporting Israel and giving them financial and military assistance.

There are also the obvious cultural differences between this largely Muslim area and the Christian dominated U.S.

As Obama lands in Saudi Arabia Al Quaeda has just released an audio message from Osama bin Landen denouncing Obama’s policies regarding the Middle East. The recording was released by news agency Al Jazeera shortly after Obama’s arrival in Saudi Arabia

In this recording he describes Obama as following the policy of his predecessor George Bush in “antagonising Muslims”.

“He has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonising Muslims… and laying the foundation for long wars,” bin Laden says in the recording.

Saudi officials were quick to denounce the recording but bin Laden and Al Qaeda are quite effective at stirring up anti U.S. sentiment in the Middle East and as long as they and other groups like them can have an influence in the area it is going to be difficult to improve relationships in the region. The leaders of these countries are still politicians and they are, like politicians in other countries, interested in using the general opinion of the people to their advantage.

I hope Obama can make a peaceful difference and make the world a safer place but I fear it will take many more years of repair than there have been of damage to make a difference in Middle Eastern relations.