The conservative party in Australia - a revolution is needed

During my chat with our Liberal Party Branch President the other night, she said to me that perhaps some good will come out of this ETS mess for the Liberal Party – thereby giving weight to my long-held belief that optimism lies at the heart of true a conservative. I digress. Anyway, Pres might be right – but not in the way she thinks.

You will often hear the mantra that the Liberal Party is ‘a broad church’, referring to its conservative as well as progressive, or moderate members.

The problem with the Liberal Party, I believe, is its inclusivity. Its membership and parliamentary representation has become too broad. It tries to be all things to all people.

On the Emissions Trading Scheme, Malcolm Turnbull has sought to be all things to the moderate element of the party, as well as the Labor Party, leaving the conservatives in the Liberal Party (including most of the ones who recognise Anthropogenic Global Warming for the fraud that it is) like shags on a rock, shouting back at him, ‘hello – remember us?’

To the conservative membership, the Liberal Party has become too left-wing; I can't speak for the moderates, but they probably think the Tories in party are beyond help as well.

I believe the only way to end the in-fighting in the Liberal Party – which will continue after the CPRS/ETS issue resolves itself (HA!) - is for the conservatives and the moderates to break off into their own separate parties. The Liberal Party would stay as it is, and become a separate centre-left party - similar to the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK. It would be a nice home for the Turnbulls and Hockeys.

One thing is clear: Someone other than Malcolm Turnbull will emerge from the Liberal partyroom tomorrow as its new leader. If it is Joe Hockey, then all that will have changed is the leader. 

Remember, Hockey is a moderate. He is a climate change believer, and wanted to support Labor’s CPRS bill unamended. As much as he is a nice avuncular bloke, he lacks the cross-portfolio breadth of knowledge and intellectual acuity to be leader. As for uniting the wets and the dries, forget it.

If the above scenario plays out tomorrow, and the poisoned chalice is handed to Hockey, I believe a conservative revolution should commence in this country.

Every true conservative should resign from the Liberal Party and join forces to proclaim a new way forward. The conservatives, liberated from the Liberal Party and thus cleansed of its spear-throwers, would then be able to re-invent itself. 

A good start would be by seeking to merge with the National Party on a federal and state level, to become one Australian conservative party. A conservative party not for the bush or for urban areas – but for the whole country.

The current unedifying nonsense must stop.

And if Tony Abbott emerges as leader tomorrow? I’ll get back to you on that.

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Climategate, but the media aren't interested

An excellent observation from the always entertaining James Delingpole - on Climategate...

Climaquiddick, they’re calling it now. Why? Because the liberal media aren’t reporting it with the glee and enthusiasm and foaming self-righteousness they accorded Watergate. Instead, they’re giving it the grudging, embarrassed non-coverage the libtard MSM invariably does to a story they’d rather, ahem, drown.

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Climate science - want to know the real consensus?

J.R. Dunn, writing in American Thinker, tells us in great detail what the world needs to know about climate fraud; and what people are slowly beginning to realise about ClimateGate. Politicians of the world (in particular, Kevin Rudd, Penny Wong and Malcolm Turnbull) take note, and, should you choose to ignore the real facts, then be it on your heads.

Read the whole article. But, in sum:

The East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) revelations come as no real surprise to anyone who has closely followed the global-warming saga. The Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) thesis, to give it its semi-official name, is no stranger to fraud. It would be no real exaggeration to state that it was fertilized with fraud, marinated in fraud, stewed in fraud, and at last served up to the world as prime grade-A fraud with nice side orders of fakery and disingenuousness.

---

What you do, if you are a serious scientist operating according to the established method, is attempt to falsify your hypothesis. Test it to destruction; carry out serious attacks on its weakest points to see if they hold up. If they do ... then you have a theory that can be published, and tested, and verified by other scientists. If you don't, you throw it out.

None of this, amidst all the chicanery, fabrications, and manipulations, appears to have been done by anyone active in global warming research, the CRU least of all. From which point we are forced to conclude that AGW is not science, and that any "consensus" that can drawn from it is a consensus of fraud.

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Solidarity in the Liberal Party

"Joe is absolutely at one with me on the need to get this legislation passed." - Malcolm Turnbull

If Joe is 'absolutely at one' with you Malcolm, that's fantastic. This Liberal Party member would like you both to capitalise on this unity by doing what's best for the party: ride off into the sunset together, never to be heard from again.*

*I posted this comment on the news.com.au story - linked above.

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Poll shock on Turnbull ETS stance

Figures like these cannot be ignored. Turnbull is gone.

MALCOLM Turnbull's hopes of fighting off a Liberal rebellion over climate change to hold on to the Opposition leadership have been shattered by a poll showing a whopping 60 per cent of Australians are against Kevin Rudd rushing the Emissions Trading Scheme through parliament.

Despite Mr Turnbull insisting the ETS must be passed now - ahead of the UN's Copenhagen summit - the poll overwhelmingly backs his opponents - with 81 per cent of Coalition supporters wanting the vote delayed.

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Monckton on *those* emails

Would the climate change doomsayers and politicians in Australia and elsewhere please watch this. Everyone else should watch it, and pass it on. 

Those responsible for inventing and perpetrating the con-job that is 'climate change', and the fear that is assosciated with it, deserve to have the weight of the law in every country on this planet thrown at them.

UPDATE

The rest of the videos of this conversation with Lord Monckton can be found here.

The ETS has given me RSI

As I mentioned previously, I wrote last night to four Liberal Party Senators. I thought I had best finish the job, and wrote to the rest of them this morning. I then went away for a few minutes and returned to the computer to find 3 emails waiting for me. 

Responding so soon? Surely not. 

I was surely right - I had miss-typed two addresses, and the third one was an out-of-office reply from Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, whose message read,

Thanks for your e-mail.  If you are writing to me about ETS/CPRS Bills, I advise that I will be voting No on this legislation.
Regards
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells

Thank you, Senator. I hope I get more replies in a similar vain.

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A 'wipe-out' for the Libs, says out-of-date Newspoll

The Coalition could lose at least 20 of its metropolitan seats, including those of its leader, Malcolm Turnbull, Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey and climate change critics Kevin Andrews and Andrew Robb, according to an analysis of Newspoll results. ...

'Results' from a survey taken in the middle of September. Ignore it. The sentiment of the electorate has shifted seismically since then and will continue to do so.

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Joe vs Tony

I am flabbergasted that the Liberals would think of throwing their support behind Joe Hockey as a "compromise candidate".

Rubbish.

Hockey supports the ETS. To be fair so did Tony Abbott - but, the difference being that Abbott had the guts to resign from the frontbench and confront Turnbull on the issue. Hockey is still sitting in the same pew waiting to be anointed by the party room.

The last damn thing we want is more of the same.

Tony Abbott is light years in front of leftie Joe.

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UPDATE

I spent 35 minutes on the phone this evening with the President of my local branch of the Liberal Party. We are fortunate in that our local federal member is totally opposed to an ETS, but the Pres and I both know there are harder nuts in the party to crack. To this end, Pres told me she has been calling Senators' offices over the past couple of days (bless her). Unfortunately I think her efforts to persuade the intransigent Liberal Senators will be in vain.

I will single out one Entirely Treacherous Senator for special mention:

Senator Marise Payne apparently will vote for the ETS. I have never held much regard for Senator Payne ever since I met her at a local party branch meeting where she ignored me the whole evening. At the beginning of proceedings she didn't even call my name, in spite of the fact I was personally introduced to her not 15 minutes before! Well, Marise, honey - up yours.

UPDATE 2

News of the resignations by the courageous Liberals who did so this week has made UK blogs

UPDATE 3

I have just sent emails to Senators Coonan, Heffernan, Payne and Humphries expressing my outrage at their apparent intention to shack up with Labor to vote for the amended ETS bill. Let's see if I get any replies. I won't be holding my breath. I believe I was civil, yet firm. In regards to the email to Senator Payne - and in light of my comments above, this was not easy.

A message for the federal Liberal Party

DO NOT VOTE FOR THE CHANGES NEGOTIATED WITH LABOR ON THE ETS.

DO NOT VOTE FOR AN ETS, PERIOD.

The coalition party room needs to have the balls to stand up to Malcolm Turnbull and Ian Macfarlane, and vote against the changes the Libs have negotiated with Penny Wong. 

The ETS is a tax, and a bloody big one at that. 

The Australian way of life will change irrevocably should our parliament be culpable enough to bring in an ETS. 

If a Liberal Party leadership spill ensues, tomorrow, so be it. But I think they should be careful. Kevin Andrews – a climate skeptic – has neither confirmed nor denied that he would take on the leadership if a spill and a vote occurred. Kevin Rudd is testament to the fact that someone without charisma can be Prime Minister; but, having said that, I don’t think I could bring myself to support Kevin Andrews.

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UPDATE

Andrew Bolt writes:

Malcolm Turnbull will be challenged on Thursday by either Tony Abbott or former Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

Kevin Andrews gave us WorkChoices. WorkChoices was good; but it cost the Coalition the last election, and Andrews would not survive Labor and Union attacks in the (short) lead-up to the next election.

Of Tony Abbott I am no big fan. At least he has charisma and some fire in his belly. I am not wholly convinced of his skeptic credentials, either, especially as he was the author of this.

I would prefer Barnaby Joyce or Nick Minchin to lead the Liberals. Problem, of course, is that one is in the wrong party, and both are in the wrong chamber. I have heard no Conservative politician make more sense on the ETS debacle than Barnaby Joyce. 

If the Liberals fail to listen to their grassroots supporters on the ETS issue, then the Nationals should field candidates in every seat in the country - rural and urban - for they would subsequently become the dominant Conservative party in the country - not the Liberals - and, with any luck, Barnaby would contest and win one of the seats, and thus become leader of the Nationals, and, hopefully, Prime Minister.

Turnbull once said that he would not lead a party that was not as committed to action on climate change as he was. As much as he would like his childish actions today to appear as if he has the partyroom's support, in reality, Malcolm, it looks like it's time to nick off.

UPDATE  2

I heard Tony Abbott on 2GB this afternoon tell Jason Morrison that he will be voting for the amendments to the ETS out of solidarity for the Shadow Cabinet. After the interview Morrison said he was stunned. I nearly drove off the road. Tony, at the polling booths in Warringah at the next election, thank your erstwhile supporters - and then say good-bye to them, because you're gone, mate.

UPDATE 3

On the road to redemption - perhaps Tony Abbott reads this blog. I expect, rather that he was taking notice of (his words) "a deluge" of calls and emails to his office.

UPDATE 4

Tony Smith and Sophie Mirrabella have also resigned from the shadow front bench. Unless another leadership spill is called, there will surely be others.

UPDATE 5

Malcolm Turnbull's leadership is now terminal. There will most likely be a new leader of the Liberal Party before the weekend. 

News sure to give Aussie exporters a heart attack

The Australian dollar will reach parity with the US dollar in the next six to 12 months and peak at about $US1.02-03, a currency strategist says.

Meanwhile, what a good time to take an overseas holiday. I would like to make mine a permanent one to here to escape our interfering government, lead by someone who attempts to hide his cluelessness on most issues behind a mask of disproportionate narcissism.

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Tragic collision, but where exactly?

From The Sydney Morning Herald and AAP (www.smh.com.au)

Four people have died and a man has been injured after a collision between a car and a semi-trailer near Yass, north of Canberra.

A silver Honda sedan and a semi-trailer collided in the southbound lanes of the Hume Highway, about 20 kilometres north of Yass, at 10.50am today, police said.

Four people, believed to be travelling in the Honda, have died, while the semi trailer driver, a man aged in his 50s, is being treated for head and leg injuries at Yass Hospital.

Southbound lanes of the Hume Highway remained blocked on Sunday while police investigated the accident.

Anyone with information about the circumstances surrounding the incident is asked to contact Yass Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The fact that four people are dead is a tragedy, and my prayers to their families. 

Accuracy in reporting the location of accidents isessential, and for numerous reasons. The above is a poor example, for 'in the southbound lanes of the Hume Highway, about 20 kilometres north of Yass' is geographically ambiguous. That description - thanks to the enigma that is the Hume Highway, and the position of Yass in relation - could cover an area anywhere between Gunning and the Harden turn-off - a distance of about 50 kilometres. 

Journalists, traffic reporters and media outlets should spend more time looking at proper paper maps, instead of their GPSes, and stop confusing people.

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UPDATE

View Accident site in a larger map

Click on the blue marker on the map, then 'zoom here'.

The report would have been more accurate if it had said '20 kilometres east of Yass'. 

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Um...

I was definitely going to write about something else tonight, but I can't for the life of me think what it was.

So, I guess it's 'goodnight' then!

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The conspiracy - more from Monckton

Brisbane radio 4BC's Michael Smith interviewed Lord Christopher Monckton in what is one of the more in depth interviews with his Lordship that I have heard on radio. 

Michael even called him Christopher, too - impressive. The interview is in three parts. To listen, dear readers, click here, and scroll down a bit 'til you see m'lord's visage.

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Railing for faster trains

I commend to you a feature on Railways in this weekend's The Weekend Australian.

Of particular interest to me is on page 2 of the feature, entitled 'High-speed back on track.' 

Would be great if that were the case, but I don't feel tempted to hold my breath.

Readers of this blog will know that I've gone on about long-distance trains in Australia and how we are about 20 years behind the rest of the world in infrastructure, and at least ten in rolling-stock.

The article by Mark Carter cites the fact that the Sydney-Melbourne air corridor is the third densest in the world, and goes on to say:

...it is an appropriate time to review the potential for high speed (sic) rail in Australia.

It isn't. Reviews have been done. The time is needed for action, and that time is now.

Build the line from Melbourne to Sydney via Albury, Wagga Wagga, Canberra and Goulburn.

This would open up scores of development - and re-development - opportunities in towns up to 200 kilometres away from Sydney and Melbourne, as places that young people could afford to live in, whilst still being within one hour's commute to the city. In the case of Goulburn in NSW, you would be looking at a trip of about 40 minutes on high-speed rail, compared to the 2009 time of 2 hours 40.

The CRC for Rail Innovation study aims to provide an informed opinion on high-speed rail options, which, for example, could take the form of a link between Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, or some sections of it.

The study is seeking to establish and review the technical, contextual and institutional requirements required for the introduction of high speed (sic) rail.

You can see why I'm not holding my breath.

The study is due to be released next month.

Government and consortia should read it, then build it; and let's finally bring Australian rail travel into the 21st century.

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Friday funny

I have not had an enjoyable week, what with dealing with a supervisor who thinks her colleagues are kindergarten children; and a tragedy involving a family personally well-known to mine.

I need a laugh, and I hope you do too. After watching the below, I hope your day will be a little brighter.

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Paying boofheads not to have kids

New Zealand politican and talk back host Michael Laws has stirred up a hornet's nest by suggesting that dysfunctional couples, including those known to authorities, be paid not to reproduce, "given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care."

I empathise with Mr Laws, and completely agree that there are adults in society who should not, for a host of reasons, be allowed to have kids.

But I disagree totally with the notion that such societal trash should receive some financial inducement ('scuse pun) not to breed. Far from fixing the problem, the cash would mostly be spent on booze, leading to getting stonkered, resulting in shagging anything that moves. End result: more children born into a life of suffering, hardship and depravity. The cycle continues.

Better law enforcement and harsher penalties for perpetrators of child abuse and neglect is the answer.

In the comments section below the original article (hyperlink above), I repeat the words of 'Mike USA', who gets it right:

Rehabilitation is a myth. Spend your money building prisons to incarcerate those who violate laws. Don't pay them off. That only creates more of them because, for some, it's easier to take free money than to work. It's one thing if a person is unable to help oneself due to affliction. Those people need help. It's quite another thing to pay dregs who will continue to be dregs. They will just spend the money on drugs and pollute other people's children. Help the helpless, but don't help the clueless.

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Jones gives both barrels to Turnbull

Listen to Malcolm Turnbull put in a pathetic but totally predictable performance in this interview with Alan Jones on 2GB this morning.

If Turnbull does not change his tune on the ETS and start listening to the Liberal Party constituency on this, then I'm afraid he will have lost me for good.

On the whole ETS and climate change nonsense, Turnbull has proven convincingly that he is Kevin Rudd with a posh accent.

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Cycling would have been quicker

Back in September I ranted at the state of long distance trains in Australia, especially the XPT.

I had confirmation today when I put my mother on the train to Sydney. It arrived one hour and twenty minutes behind schedule.

Thankfully I phoned Countrylink beforehand so we were not waiting longer than we had to on the platform. But the train arrived even later than the pre-recorded station announcements had us believe. 

I suppose I should be thankful it arrived at all.

Australia simply does not know how to do public transport. In a country as vast as Australia, public transport should be something we do really well, and for which we set the benchmark for other nations. What a laugh that is.

The travelling public deserve so much better, and I can't for the life of me work out why they don't kick up a stink about it; for unless they do, nothing will change.

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