MEDIA STORIES MAKING THE ROUNDS –May 1st to4th2012
$4bn stripped from Defence
Brendan Nicholson, Defence Editor. The Australian 4th May
DEFENCE spending will be sliced by more than $4 billion in Tuesday's budget, doubling the $2bn in cuts announced yesterday, as the Gillard government confirmed no department would be spared in the drive to deliver its promised budget surplus.
The opposition ridiculed Julia Gillard's move to find savings through deferrals of spending, including a two-year postponement of the purchase of new Joint Strike Fighters, as a fresh attempt to "cook the books" and a "death gurgle from a dying government" that was feigning economic responsibility while retaining an addiction to spending.
The Prime Minister and Defence Minister Stephen Smith confirmed they would delay the purchase of 12 multi-role Joint Strike Fighters for the RAAF by two years, which would save $1.6bn in the short term.
Abandoning plans to buy several giant self-propelled guns for the army would save $600 million. Mr Smith also confirmed there would be more defence cuts to come in the budget. Full Story HERE
COMMENT: In their last ditch attempt at hoodwinking the Australian voter into thinking they really are responsible economic and financial managers, the crippled Gillard government has now slashed $4bd dollars from one of the most vital areas of our future security – Defence! And why? Well, of course it’s so the Labor/Greens mad hatters tea party can continue to finance the Asylum seeker industry and all their other idiotic ideologically toxic schemes that are robbing ordinary Australians of affordable rental homes, on time medical care, a decent education and now single parent child care allowances.
This is an all round losing game for Australians and a huge win for insanity. Thank God it can’t go on for much longer. Thank God this government will soon be gone. But will a Liberal government under Tony Abbott be any better? Lyn Vickery State President One Nation Western Australia.
Genetically modified crops' results raise concern
Carolyn Lochhead. San Francisco Chronicle
Washington -- Biotechnology's promise to feed the world did not anticipate "Trojan corn," "super weeds" and the disappearance of monarch butterflies.
But in the Midwest and South - blanketed by more than 170 million acres of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton - an experiment begun in 1996 with approval of the first commercial genetically modified organisms is producing questionable results.
Those results include vast increases in herbicide use that have created impervious weeds now infesting millions of acres of cropland, while decimating other plants, such as milkweeds that sustain the monarch butterflies. Food manufacturers are worried that a new corn made for ethanol could damage an array of packaged food on supermarket shelves.
Some farm groups have joined environmentalists in an attempt to slow down approvals of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, as a newly engineered corn, resistant to another potent herbicide, stands on the brink of approval.
Vote on labels
In November, Californians are likely to vote on a ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically engineered foods, which backers of the measure say would give consumers a voice over the technology that they lack now.
The initiative is part of a nationwide drive to thwart the Obama administration's expected clearance of a new genetically modified corn that could flood the nation's cornfields with 2,4-D, a 1940s-era herbicide used mainly on lawns and golf courses to kill broadleaf weeds.
More than a million people have signed a petition to the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of genetically engineered food. That is "more than twice the number who have ever commented on any food petition in the history of the FDA," said Gary Hirshberg, chairman of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield and a leader of the "Just Label It" campaign.
The stakes on labeling such foods are huge. The crops are so widespread that an estimated 70 percent of U.S. processed foods contain engineered genes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved more than 80 genetically engineered crops while denying none. Full Story HERE
COMMENT: One Nation opposes GMO’s
Aussies asked to take in asylum seekers, and be paid for it
EXCLUSIVE by Simon Benson - The Daily Telegraph - May 03
And still they keep coming ... asylum seekers
THE federal government will pay families up to $300 a week to temporarily house asylum seekers in their homes to help deal with the increasing flood of arrivals.
With the Immigration Department now facing a potential shortage of community housing to accommodate detainees who are being released into the community, the government has turned to householders for help.
Under a plan slated to start next month, the government will seek to access the 5000 homes registered under the privately run Australian Homestay Network (AHN) to host asylum seekers released from detention on bridging visas.
AHN was originally established to provide short-term private home accommodation and board for international students.
The organisation, which first approached the federal government with the plan last year, began writing to its national client base three weeks ago seeking applications from home owners to house asylum seekers. Full Story HERE
COMMENT: The Asylum seeker industry is the new form of foreign invasion. No Australian Government would dare ask the people, by referendum, whether they want these asylum seekers. They know the answer would be a resounding no! So the idea of Australians taking money from fellow taxpayers to house queue jumpers is little different to aiding the enemy in wartime. Every $300.00 dollars drained out of taxpayers pockets is $300.00 that ordinary Australians will never see again! Lyn Vickery – One Nation W.A. State President.
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Gillard plan - adopt-an-asylum-seeker
Piers Akerman 3rd May
Unable to keep up with surging numbers of boat people, the Gillard government wants to pay homeowners $300-a-week to house people smuggler clients in the community.
A record number of illegal boat arrivals have brought almost 100 people a week to Australia this year, an 87 per cent increase on the same period last year.
Four boats have arrived this week alone.
In a week which began with the Federal Police taking a serious interest in the Peter Slipper scandal, MP Craig Thomson finally going to the cross-benches and a senior HSU official, understood to be former ALP national president Michael Williamson caught taking documents from the HSU’s Sydney office yesterday, things are only getting worse. Full Story HERE
COMMENT: Every cent spent on Asylum seekers is a cent taken out of the pockets of Australian citizens without their permission. Lyn Vickery One Nation W.A. State President.
Oblivion awaits Gillard
Piers Ackerman 1st May 2012
Wake up Julia, Labor’s popularity is now plummeting faster than the polls can be published.
The latest Newspoll in The Australian today shows support for the Gillard government has slumped to within a point of its record low.
Labor’s primary vote has fallen two points in the past fortnight to 27 per cent while the Coalition’s primary vote has climbed three points to 51 per cent.
The last time the Coalition enjoyed such popularity was when John Howard campaigned on border security in 2001.
As it happens, border security was not one of the headline issues during the polling period last weekend – even though the number of illegal people smuggling boats arriving in Australian waters topped 300.
KEEPING THE FAITH: WHY PRIVATISATION FLOURISHES
Good Government (NSW, Australia), <goodgov § westnet com au>, PO Box 251, Ulladulla NSW 2539, Tel. 02 4455 7880, Fax 02 4455 7881; p 8, April 2012
Usually when you mistake yourself for someone else you end up in an asylum. But what happens when a government thinks it is a corporation? Capitalism is now so far advanced that even governments are convinced they must earn 'profits'.
When the profits are not large enough or when they are not there at all, they tend to think it is because they are not well managed. They then hold an audit. Now, what is critical about audits is that they are managed by accountants. And at the centre of what they say is value for money.
Acacia Prison
Take the case of Acacia prison in Western Australia. In an interesting look at privatisation of prisons, Jane Andrews in the latest Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE)explores how audits are used to compare the "success" of this privatised prison with the public system.
This prison is treated as an object lesson for the rest of the prison system. Reports consist in the main of a numerical analysis of the cost of maintaining a prisoner at Acacia compared to that in the public prison system. This numerical difference is impressive. For instance, in 2003, the cost per day of a prisoner at Acacia was $100 while it was $145 when averaged out across the public prison system. While over time this difference in 'cost effectiveness' has grown smaller it is still impressive.
'Apples and Oranges'
Yet as Jane Andrews shows prisons are not all the same. And a more searching examination indicates that it is misleading to make such a crude comparison of costs. She sets out some differences between Acacia and other prisons.
For one thing Acacia is a new prison designed to allow easier and more innovative management of prisoners. For another the costs to the public system, involved in having this privatised prison are not listed. The result is that costs that should be attributed to the private prison are in part attributed instead to the public system.
Also, some of the uses to which prisoners are put at this medium security prison may give concern. Prisoners for example make profits for the company running the prison. Also, included in the 2003 report was the fact that on a certain day only 61 full time employees were on duty compared with one hundred provided for in Acacia's contract, and with 145 full time employees in a comparable public prison (Labour of course is the largest single cost to a prison.)
When Acacia started its staff had no custodial experience at all thereby further minimising costs - it was said that this way they were starting afresh without old habits; these costs were further minimised by the recruits signing workplace agreements at significantly lower rates of pay than elsewhere in the prison system. Further, Acacia lacks the extra costs associated with the running of a maximum security prison, including the need for more experienced staff. Finally, extra personnel supplied to Acacia from the public system in the form of extra staff and professionals seem not to be accounted for. The fact that the cost of these becomes part of the cost of running the public system is an anomaly.
While the article does not go into detail it does argue that Acacia is struggling to meet performance standards. While consistently calling prison privatisation a "success" the government, curiously, has not renewed itg contract with Acacia's proprietor. What this means is that having met problems, the government is not deterred, it merely goes to a fresh contract and a fresh contractor!
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Unless listed as “comments”, the opinions expressed in this news round-up may not be the policies or views of One Nation Western Australia, but are provided as general interest stories and to encourage discussion and debate. If you wish to read the full stories please followed the links provided.
Freds Pass Rural Show – Northern Territory 18th ~ 20th May 2012
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