SBS screens this week a three part series ‘Go Back Where You Came From’, a documentary which shows a group of Australians being confronted (sic) with the living conditions of so-called ‘refugees’ in the camps of Asia and Africa and with their difficult journeys (sic) to come to Australia.
The program is pure propaganda.
Originally, Australia First members Jim Saleam and Perry Jewell, were also approached to participate. As could reasonably be expected, the tentative invitations to these nationalists were not pursued. At all points, the true purpose of the producers was to choose persons who were likely to be ‘remoulded’ by a type of hands-on live-drama re-education.
So it was.
At no time does this program really explain that refugees (sic) are often people who have declined to take up arms against their alleged oppressors, that the conditions they may find themselves in are in one sense of their own making, what economic refugees may be as opposed to political dissenters, that many consider permanent flight of better value than a fighting return, that many have social practises repugnant to Australian society, that many of these people may also hate and be envious of those who possess wealth and territory – and that overpopulation and New World Order wars and other ethnic based strife are the chief underlying causes of many outpourings from the Third World.
We are witness then to an attempt to brainwash Australians to accept that they are guilty people if they lack compassion.
In fact, for most Australians other than the liberal minded, there is a feeling that this brainwash should be resisted but they don’t know how.
The Case Of Raye Colbey
The star of the show, Raye Colbey, is described as a lady from Inverbrackie in South Australia where a refugee detention centre has been founded. Mrs. Colbey goes on the SBS organized jaunt overseas and learns about her ‘hate’, learns of compassion and so forth.
Reports passed to Australia First in South Australia , suggest that Mrs. Colbey has family members involved in support campaigns for so-called refugees.
Mrs Colbey has been a victim, if she really is a victim, of psychological manipulation. We note how quickly the usual media suspects have been to publish a public recant from her of her ‘former’, t=racist (sic) views.
Schools Will Get The SBS Doco But ‘The Camp Of The Saints’ Will Be There In Reply
A report was given to Australia First in New South Wales that the program will be shown on DVD to high school students as part of a propaganda offensive to soften students’ attitudes to the refugee invasion. This offers an opportunity for the new Eureka Youth League and Australia First Party to fight back.
Both organisations will surely seek to make mass awareness of the antidote: The Camp Of The Saints, the 1972 novel which explained the psychosis the dominant groups of our Western societies faced with a refugee invasion of European lands – a work composed before there were any mass refugee outpourings from the Third World . This revolutionary novel posited that overpopulation and poverty, war and envy, would propel masses towards the vision of a better life. It then pilloried the false-moralities that would justify to certain Westerners the very destruction of their own societies.
For the curious:
http://www.archive.org/details/CampOfTheSaints
This book should be studied by all Australians who need a counter-morality to the SBS type propaganda about to invade our screens.
Intensify The Struggle: ‘Expel The Refugees’
Australians need to act against the army of churchmen, Greens, Trotskyites, lawyer-advocates and others who play morality games over the refugee invasion and who mobilize daily to beat down Australians.
The morality is on the side of the Australian people, who under the challenge of mass immigration and now refugee invasion, have opted to resist.
Our party will repudiate the United Nations Convention On Refugees (1951). Ultimately, we will expel the refugees! But we make this very, very, dark promise: the traitors who have decided to give away our birthright will pay for the assisted return, if necessary of hundreds of thousands of persons to countries of origin – by the public seizure of their assets.
It has come to this.
Warn your friends and children against the latest SBS propaganda.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
NSW power sale a 'charity giveaway'
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 » 07:16pm
The NSW opposition has labelled the $5.3b power privatisation a charity fire sale, after costs are included.
The NSW opposition and crossbench MPs have labelled the $5.3 billion power privatisation a charity fire sale, after costs are included.
NSW Treasury Secretary Michael Schur fronted an upper house inquiry into the partial privatisation on Tuesday and described the deal as 'the next best option' to full privatisation or leasing out the power stations.
He also revealed that $1.2 billion would go to pay out the debts of generators Delta West and Eraring Energy, while $360 million had been written into the deal to cover the risk of unplanned power outages.
NSW has retained control of power stations managed by Eraring Energy and Delta West, but sold the generation rights under the complex Gentrader model.
It also offloaded retail assets Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy.
In a blow to the government, Mr Schur admitted the Gentrader model was not his preferred sale option, saying it had failed to completely 'de-risk' the state against the vagaries of power generation.
'There is only one way we could have got rid of this risk entirely ... the only way you can get rid of this unplanned outage risk is to enter into long-term leases of the assets or sell them,' he told the inquiry in Sydney.
However, Mr Schur denied the Gentrader structure was a 'second-rate option'.
'I have said on more than one occasion ... that the Gentrader option is the next best option available to the state.'
The inquiry is examining whether the multibillion-dollar sale represents good value for the taxpayers, and why eight Eraring and Delta directors resigned in protest at the deal hours before it was finalised last month.
However, the former board members have refused to appear at the inquiry, fearing that because parliament was prorogued just before Christmas they will not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
They have now been summonsed to appear at the inquiry next Monday.
Opposition treasury spokesman Mike Baird said the state would be left with nothing more than short change after the sale.
Mr Baird described the sale as a 'charity giveaway' with the inclusion of the $1.5 billion needed to develop the Cobbora Coal mine near Mudgee, to provide an estimated $1 billion in coal subsidies to the Gentraders.
'If you take away all the costs you see today, then effectively there is a few hundred million for all these assets,' he told AAP.
Chairman of the inquiry, Christian Democrat MP the Reverend Fred Nile, said the $5.3 billion figure for the sale was just a 'gross price'.
'It does appear to be, as we said earlier, a fire sale or a charity giveaway,' he told reporters after the hearing.
'When the top people in the treasury indicate they did not favour the process, it is obviously then being driven politically rather than economically.'
But Mr Schur said the cost of the Cobbora mine should not be included when tallying up the sale.
'The view on Cobbora is that it is a commercially viable, stand-alone entity that will recover its costs of funds,' he told the hearing.
Mr Nile said current board members of the state electricity companies would be invited to give evidence on Friday, after Ms Keneally criticised the inquiry for only seeking input from those directors who quit.
Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell and Mr Baird have also agreed to appear next Monday.
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Finance/2011/01/18/NSW_power_sale_a_charity_giveaway_566025.html
The NSW opposition has labelled the $5.3b power privatisation a charity fire sale, after costs are included.
The NSW opposition and crossbench MPs have labelled the $5.3 billion power privatisation a charity fire sale, after costs are included.
NSW Treasury Secretary Michael Schur fronted an upper house inquiry into the partial privatisation on Tuesday and described the deal as 'the next best option' to full privatisation or leasing out the power stations.
He also revealed that $1.2 billion would go to pay out the debts of generators Delta West and Eraring Energy, while $360 million had been written into the deal to cover the risk of unplanned power outages.
NSW has retained control of power stations managed by Eraring Energy and Delta West, but sold the generation rights under the complex Gentrader model.
It also offloaded retail assets Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy.
In a blow to the government, Mr Schur admitted the Gentrader model was not his preferred sale option, saying it had failed to completely 'de-risk' the state against the vagaries of power generation.
'There is only one way we could have got rid of this risk entirely ... the only way you can get rid of this unplanned outage risk is to enter into long-term leases of the assets or sell them,' he told the inquiry in Sydney.
However, Mr Schur denied the Gentrader structure was a 'second-rate option'.
'I have said on more than one occasion ... that the Gentrader option is the next best option available to the state.'
The inquiry is examining whether the multibillion-dollar sale represents good value for the taxpayers, and why eight Eraring and Delta directors resigned in protest at the deal hours before it was finalised last month.
However, the former board members have refused to appear at the inquiry, fearing that because parliament was prorogued just before Christmas they will not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
They have now been summonsed to appear at the inquiry next Monday.
Opposition treasury spokesman Mike Baird said the state would be left with nothing more than short change after the sale.
Mr Baird described the sale as a 'charity giveaway' with the inclusion of the $1.5 billion needed to develop the Cobbora Coal mine near Mudgee, to provide an estimated $1 billion in coal subsidies to the Gentraders.
'If you take away all the costs you see today, then effectively there is a few hundred million for all these assets,' he told AAP.
Chairman of the inquiry, Christian Democrat MP the Reverend Fred Nile, said the $5.3 billion figure for the sale was just a 'gross price'.
'It does appear to be, as we said earlier, a fire sale or a charity giveaway,' he told reporters after the hearing.
'When the top people in the treasury indicate they did not favour the process, it is obviously then being driven politically rather than economically.'
But Mr Schur said the cost of the Cobbora mine should not be included when tallying up the sale.
'The view on Cobbora is that it is a commercially viable, stand-alone entity that will recover its costs of funds,' he told the hearing.
Mr Nile said current board members of the state electricity companies would be invited to give evidence on Friday, after Ms Keneally criticised the inquiry for only seeking input from those directors who quit.
Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell and Mr Baird have also agreed to appear next Monday.
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Finance/2011/01/18/NSW_power_sale_a_charity_giveaway_566025.html
The Chinese Superpower: A Historical Note For Nationalist Activists
Dr. Jim Saleam
18 January 2011
Some of the material published on this blog site on the rise of the Chinese superpower (I particularly note: 'Chinese expansionism/military build up just exposed') excited commentary from various nationalists in Australia First and outside it. I was asked: was it true that Australian nationalists identified China as a 'superpower' as early as the 1970's? was it the case that Australian nationalism developed after that time with a keen awareness of our nation's
vulnerability to Chinese imperialism?
I am able to say 'yes' to both questions.
In 1977, a group of young nationalists in Sydney founded the 'Audacity' magazine, the same title now used for the Australia First journal. In response to public campaigns from the political Left (which identified global rivalry between the USA and the USSR, the big two, the so- called 'superpowers'), the Audacity group stated that the modernisation program in China which had started after Mao's death and after considering the sheer size of China and its armed forces, identified it already as a 'superpower', certainly a power more commanding than any others on earth short of the USA and the USSR. It was explained that China's industrial expansion, which would fuel a massive military build-up, meant (even if it was not technically the case in the 1970's) that China would become the Third Superpower, alongside the USA and the USSR in fair time. That prediction has essentially been realized.
The Australian nationalists from the 1970's onwards consistently developed a public 'propaganda' on the matter of China. There is no need to describe it here. It figured in many documents and campaigns and was regarded as a tenet of ideology. These pioneers of our patriotic world-view are to be commended for recognizing the nature of China.
I recall many on the Left refusing to recognize that China was a developing superpower and needless to say they were all accused of 'racism' for their presumption.
In recent times, it has been the Australia First Party that has upheld the correct view that Chinese imperialism threatens Australia and that China has achieved true superpower status. China has carved out huge mining leases, sent hordes of cheap contract labour to Australia, has established a fifth column of migrants (sic) on our soil, has bought politicians and purchased Australian land. It has no end of public stooges who sing its praises. Chinese imperialism runs counter to Australian
independence and it threatens weaker peoples too throughout the South Pacific. Notably, in the recent Wikileaks controversy, it has been shown that Australian defence analysts are aware of the nature and extend of the military build-up of the Chinese superpower.
I expect that Australian nationalists will be compelled to expand their public outreach campaign on the mortal danger that the Chinese superpower poses to the survival of our people and nation.
18 January 2011
Some of the material published on this blog site on the rise of the Chinese superpower (I particularly note: 'Chinese expansionism/military build up just exposed') excited commentary from various nationalists in Australia First and outside it. I was asked: was it true that Australian nationalists identified China as a 'superpower' as early as the 1970's? was it the case that Australian nationalism developed after that time with a keen awareness of our nation's
vulnerability to Chinese imperialism?
I am able to say 'yes' to both questions.
In 1977, a group of young nationalists in Sydney founded the 'Audacity' magazine, the same title now used for the Australia First journal. In response to public campaigns from the political Left (which identified global rivalry between the USA and the USSR, the big two, the so- called 'superpowers'), the Audacity group stated that the modernisation program in China which had started after Mao's death and after considering the sheer size of China and its armed forces, identified it already as a 'superpower', certainly a power more commanding than any others on earth short of the USA and the USSR. It was explained that China's industrial expansion, which would fuel a massive military build-up, meant (even if it was not technically the case in the 1970's) that China would become the Third Superpower, alongside the USA and the USSR in fair time. That prediction has essentially been realized.
The Australian nationalists from the 1970's onwards consistently developed a public 'propaganda' on the matter of China. There is no need to describe it here. It figured in many documents and campaigns and was regarded as a tenet of ideology. These pioneers of our patriotic world-view are to be commended for recognizing the nature of China.
I recall many on the Left refusing to recognize that China was a developing superpower and needless to say they were all accused of 'racism' for their presumption.
In recent times, it has been the Australia First Party that has upheld the correct view that Chinese imperialism threatens Australia and that China has achieved true superpower status. China has carved out huge mining leases, sent hordes of cheap contract labour to Australia, has established a fifth column of migrants (sic) on our soil, has bought politicians and purchased Australian land. It has no end of public stooges who sing its praises. Chinese imperialism runs counter to Australian
independence and it threatens weaker peoples too throughout the South Pacific. Notably, in the recent Wikileaks controversy, it has been shown that Australian defence analysts are aware of the nature and extend of the military build-up of the Chinese superpower.
I expect that Australian nationalists will be compelled to expand their public outreach campaign on the mortal danger that the Chinese superpower poses to the survival of our people and nation.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Kristina Keneally's power enquiry block goes to State Parliament's Jubilee Room
Andrew Clennell, Gemma Jones and Kate Sikora January 14, 2011 12:00AM
THIS is where the power inquiry Kristina Keneally tried to block will be heard - State Parliament's Jubilee Room.
Yesterday the room was empty. When hearings start on Monday, it might as well be.
Legislative Council President Amanda Fazio is expected to block attempts to force the appearance of eight former directors of power companies who resigned in disgust at the Government's rushed sale, neutering the inquiry.
The inquiry begins with Premier Keneally and Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to answer MPs' questions on the $5.3 billion power sale Mr Roozendaal rushed through. On Monday morning, the committee will meet and National Party MP Trevor Khan, Liberal Greg Pearce and Greens MP John Kaye will move to summons the former directors.
It will then be up to committee chair Fred Nile's casting vote against Labor MPs to approve the summons.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/kristina-keneallys-power-enquiry-block-goes-to-state-parliaments-jubilee-room/comments-e6freuy9-1225987363077
THIS is where the power inquiry Kristina Keneally tried to block will be heard - State Parliament's Jubilee Room.
Yesterday the room was empty. When hearings start on Monday, it might as well be.
Legislative Council President Amanda Fazio is expected to block attempts to force the appearance of eight former directors of power companies who resigned in disgust at the Government's rushed sale, neutering the inquiry.
The inquiry begins with Premier Keneally and Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to answer MPs' questions on the $5.3 billion power sale Mr Roozendaal rushed through. On Monday morning, the committee will meet and National Party MP Trevor Khan, Liberal Greg Pearce and Greens MP John Kaye will move to summons the former directors.
It will then be up to committee chair Fred Nile's casting vote against Labor MPs to approve the summons.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/kristina-keneallys-power-enquiry-block-goes-to-state-parliaments-jubilee-room/comments-e6freuy9-1225987363077
China as Number One: US poll
January 13, 2011 - 4:31PM
Americans say China, not the US, is the world's top economic power, reflecting a shift in attitudes after the global financial crisis, a poll found.
Some 47 per cent of Americans surveyed from Jan. 5-9 by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said China is the leading economic power, while 31 per cent named the US. A February 2008 Pew poll, taken before the collapses of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, found 41 per cent of Americans considered the US the top economic power, with 30 per cent naming China.
The results highlight the rising influence of China, whose economy has expanded more than 90-fold in the last three decades and illustrate the importance of next week's summit in Washington between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The poll measures perception, not reality. US gross domestic product is still almost three times the size of China's and dwarfs the Asian nation in terms of per capita income. The US, with just over 300 million people, has an annual GDP of $US14.1 trillion compared with $US4.99 trillion for China's 1.3 billion people.
A Pew poll in January 1989 found that by a two-to-one margin, Americans considered Japan to be the world's preeminent economic power, a decade after the release of the controversial "Japan as Number One'' book by Harvard University Professor Ezra Vogel. The poll released yesterday found only 9 per cent of the 1,503 respondents hold that view.
Fewer than one-quarter of the respondents view China as an adversary, the poll found. Some 58 per cent of respondents said it is important to build stronger ties between the two countries. Most people polled said China was a greater economic than military threat, with 67 per cent saying that the US was the world's top military power, compared with 16 per cent who said China had the most potent military.
Almost half of Americans, 47 per cent, view China favorably, compared with 36 per cent who view China unfavorably, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus three per centage points.
Most respondents, 53 per cent, said the US should get tougher with China on the trade and economic issues, with Republicans and Democrats expressing almost identical positions. The US posted a record $US28 billion trade deficit with China in August, according to US Census Bureau figures. The US says China's currency is undervalued, undercutting US exports and eliminating jobs.
Bloomberg News
http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/china-as-number-one-us-poll-20110113-19ph4.html
Americans say China, not the US, is the world's top economic power, reflecting a shift in attitudes after the global financial crisis, a poll found.
Some 47 per cent of Americans surveyed from Jan. 5-9 by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said China is the leading economic power, while 31 per cent named the US. A February 2008 Pew poll, taken before the collapses of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, found 41 per cent of Americans considered the US the top economic power, with 30 per cent naming China.
The results highlight the rising influence of China, whose economy has expanded more than 90-fold in the last three decades and illustrate the importance of next week's summit in Washington between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The poll measures perception, not reality. US gross domestic product is still almost three times the size of China's and dwarfs the Asian nation in terms of per capita income. The US, with just over 300 million people, has an annual GDP of $US14.1 trillion compared with $US4.99 trillion for China's 1.3 billion people.
A Pew poll in January 1989 found that by a two-to-one margin, Americans considered Japan to be the world's preeminent economic power, a decade after the release of the controversial "Japan as Number One'' book by Harvard University Professor Ezra Vogel. The poll released yesterday found only 9 per cent of the 1,503 respondents hold that view.
Fewer than one-quarter of the respondents view China as an adversary, the poll found. Some 58 per cent of respondents said it is important to build stronger ties between the two countries. Most people polled said China was a greater economic than military threat, with 67 per cent saying that the US was the world's top military power, compared with 16 per cent who said China had the most potent military.
Almost half of Americans, 47 per cent, view China favorably, compared with 36 per cent who view China unfavorably, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus three per centage points.
Most respondents, 53 per cent, said the US should get tougher with China on the trade and economic issues, with Republicans and Democrats expressing almost identical positions. The US posted a record $US28 billion trade deficit with China in August, according to US Census Bureau figures. The US says China's currency is undervalued, undercutting US exports and eliminating jobs.
Bloomberg News
http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/china-as-number-one-us-poll-20110113-19ph4.html
North Korea, Marrickville: Going rogue
James Morrow The Daily Telegraph January 13, 2011 12:00AM
WHAT does the desert theocracy of Saudi Arabia have in common with Marrickville Council in Sydney's Inner West?
Ever since a Marrickville Council meeting late last year, both are sworn enemies of Israel. In a 10-2 vote, the council decided it would "boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, academic institutions, government or institutional cultural exchanges".
Trendy councils supporting trendy causes is nothing new. Greens-dominated Marrickville is a nuclear-free zone that abhors Australia's treatment of refugees while taking a "BANANA" approach to development: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.
But by boycotting Israel, Marrickville Council is taking its UN routine a step too far. The first problem is what the boycott would mean in practice.
Israel is one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial countries in the world. Its products and inventions find their way into computers, mobile phones, and medicines. A ban means a lot more than just making sure the hummus at council meetings is non-kosher. The second problem is that the move cuts against the proper business of a council and demonstrates that the supposed progressivism of the district only goes so far.
Keep in mind that this is a council that already enjoys a "sister city" relationship with Bethlehem, the West Bank town run by Fatah, successor to the PLO.
Fatah, and indeed most of that part of the world with the exception of Israel, is not exactly committed to those values Greens share with normal people, including the right of women to dress how they choose and of homosexuals not to be executed.
And, unlike Marrickville, which just wants to boycott Israel, Fatah is committed to its elimination.
This isn't the first time Marrickville has taken such a stance. Last year when a local shopkeeper painted an anti-burqa mural on his own wall, Marrickville Council finally found a piece of "street art" it didn't like.
Councillor Sam Iskandar, thought to be the driving force behind the Israel boycott, said the mural "goes against the values" of the Marrickville community and tried to get it removed.
Presumably those with strong opinions on any issue of the day are encouraged to cross Parramatta Rd to Leichhardt and hash it out in a cafe where they won't offend anyone.
Better yet, Marrickville councillors and frustrated local foreign ministers everywhere should realise what the values of serving in local government are all about. Improving amenities. Picking up the trash. Scrubbing graffiti.
And leaving the diplomacy to Canberra.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/north-korea-marrickville-going-rogue/story-e6freuzi-1225986592031
WHAT does the desert theocracy of Saudi Arabia have in common with Marrickville Council in Sydney's Inner West?
Ever since a Marrickville Council meeting late last year, both are sworn enemies of Israel. In a 10-2 vote, the council decided it would "boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, academic institutions, government or institutional cultural exchanges".
Trendy councils supporting trendy causes is nothing new. Greens-dominated Marrickville is a nuclear-free zone that abhors Australia's treatment of refugees while taking a "BANANA" approach to development: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.
But by boycotting Israel, Marrickville Council is taking its UN routine a step too far. The first problem is what the boycott would mean in practice.
Israel is one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial countries in the world. Its products and inventions find their way into computers, mobile phones, and medicines. A ban means a lot more than just making sure the hummus at council meetings is non-kosher. The second problem is that the move cuts against the proper business of a council and demonstrates that the supposed progressivism of the district only goes so far.
Keep in mind that this is a council that already enjoys a "sister city" relationship with Bethlehem, the West Bank town run by Fatah, successor to the PLO.
Fatah, and indeed most of that part of the world with the exception of Israel, is not exactly committed to those values Greens share with normal people, including the right of women to dress how they choose and of homosexuals not to be executed.
And, unlike Marrickville, which just wants to boycott Israel, Fatah is committed to its elimination.
This isn't the first time Marrickville has taken such a stance. Last year when a local shopkeeper painted an anti-burqa mural on his own wall, Marrickville Council finally found a piece of "street art" it didn't like.
Councillor Sam Iskandar, thought to be the driving force behind the Israel boycott, said the mural "goes against the values" of the Marrickville community and tried to get it removed.
Presumably those with strong opinions on any issue of the day are encouraged to cross Parramatta Rd to Leichhardt and hash it out in a cafe where they won't offend anyone.
Better yet, Marrickville councillors and frustrated local foreign ministers everywhere should realise what the values of serving in local government are all about. Improving amenities. Picking up the trash. Scrubbing graffiti.
And leaving the diplomacy to Canberra.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/north-korea-marrickville-going-rogue/story-e6freuzi-1225986592031
Roozendaal's prints all over power farce
January 9, 2011
"I RECKON they've finally imploded once and for all." That was the candid assessment of the Keneally government by an experienced parliamentarian I spoke to last week. It's hard to disagree.
The thorough mishandling of the electricity sale inquiry and the early lock-up of Parliament by the Premier have people on all sides of state politics – including Labor backbenchers – wondering what the hell is going on inside Governor Macquarie Tower.
More than a few commentators have compared NSW Labor to the last days of Rome.
It now looks more like the final scenes of The Perfect Storm – without the steering.
Half the crew has jumped overboard and those who remain aren't sure what to do before the tidal wave of voter anger hits in March. If Barry O'Farrell could have scripted his Christmas and new year he wouldn't have changed a thing, except for the cricket scores.
I wrote last week that unless Keneally caves in and allows the power inquiry to proceed, voters would go to the polls with O'Farrell's mantra ringing in their ears: "What has she got to hide?"
The Premier did cave in but because she only went halfway and won't reverse the proroguing of Parliament, the question is still being asked.
Who knows what the answer is? The way the government fought to head off an inquiry it can only be assumed it is one big fat dud deal. On a broader level, Keneally is hiding something else.
She is struggling to impose her leadership and is too easily influenced by the people around her. Particularly by those who helped in her rocket ride to the top job.
It might sound like a reworking of the infamous Nathan Rees "puppet" quote but recent events have proven it to be true.
The proroguing of Parliament has the fingerprints of Eric Roozendaal all over it.
Roozendaal's office has briefed some in the media that Keneally took the decision to prorogue Parliament. Others inside government say that isn't the case.
Who stands to lose if the detail of the power sell-off is exposed as second rate? The Treasurer.
The Premier did not work on the fine detail of the deal. It wasn't up to her to sell the merits of the privatisation to the directors of Delta Electricity and Eraring Energy. It wasn't her job to prevent them from quitting en masse.
Still, when it came to it Keneally took Roozendaal's advice to shut Parliament and hopefully prevent any scrutiny.
While Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid are usually bundled together as the "puppet masters" it should not be forgotten that Roozendaal, a former ALP general secretary, was instrumental in Keneally's rails run to preselection to the safe seat of Heffron before entering Parliament in 2003.
She has sought his counsel ever since.
It is the intricate web of personal relationships, favours, factionalism, square-ups – built up over 15 long years in power – that have led to the aforementioned "implosion" of the Labor government.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/roozendaals-prints-all-over-power-farce-20110108-19jbb.html
"I RECKON they've finally imploded once and for all." That was the candid assessment of the Keneally government by an experienced parliamentarian I spoke to last week. It's hard to disagree.
The thorough mishandling of the electricity sale inquiry and the early lock-up of Parliament by the Premier have people on all sides of state politics – including Labor backbenchers – wondering what the hell is going on inside Governor Macquarie Tower.
More than a few commentators have compared NSW Labor to the last days of Rome.
It now looks more like the final scenes of The Perfect Storm – without the steering.
Half the crew has jumped overboard and those who remain aren't sure what to do before the tidal wave of voter anger hits in March. If Barry O'Farrell could have scripted his Christmas and new year he wouldn't have changed a thing, except for the cricket scores.
I wrote last week that unless Keneally caves in and allows the power inquiry to proceed, voters would go to the polls with O'Farrell's mantra ringing in their ears: "What has she got to hide?"
The Premier did cave in but because she only went halfway and won't reverse the proroguing of Parliament, the question is still being asked.
Who knows what the answer is? The way the government fought to head off an inquiry it can only be assumed it is one big fat dud deal. On a broader level, Keneally is hiding something else.
She is struggling to impose her leadership and is too easily influenced by the people around her. Particularly by those who helped in her rocket ride to the top job.
It might sound like a reworking of the infamous Nathan Rees "puppet" quote but recent events have proven it to be true.
The proroguing of Parliament has the fingerprints of Eric Roozendaal all over it.
Roozendaal's office has briefed some in the media that Keneally took the decision to prorogue Parliament. Others inside government say that isn't the case.
Who stands to lose if the detail of the power sell-off is exposed as second rate? The Treasurer.
The Premier did not work on the fine detail of the deal. It wasn't up to her to sell the merits of the privatisation to the directors of Delta Electricity and Eraring Energy. It wasn't her job to prevent them from quitting en masse.
Still, when it came to it Keneally took Roozendaal's advice to shut Parliament and hopefully prevent any scrutiny.
While Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid are usually bundled together as the "puppet masters" it should not be forgotten that Roozendaal, a former ALP general secretary, was instrumental in Keneally's rails run to preselection to the safe seat of Heffron before entering Parliament in 2003.
She has sought his counsel ever since.
It is the intricate web of personal relationships, favours, factionalism, square-ups – built up over 15 long years in power – that have led to the aforementioned "implosion" of the Labor government.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/roozendaals-prints-all-over-power-farce-20110108-19jbb.html
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