On reflection it is clear that the purpose of these regulations was to ensure the high ideals of military service were not compromised by poor behaviour within the ranks, or in the wider community.

The custodians of our National Parliament would be wise to reflect on their ideals in view of the shenanigans that led to the appointment of a serial rorter of the public purse to the position of Speaker in the tradition of ‘whatever it takes’ to maintain political power.  

The Opposition attack on the appointment was blunted by the memory of the Howard Government’s appointment of a previous serial rorter, Labor Senator Mal Colston, to the Deputy Leadership of the Senate to secure his vote in 1997.  The appointment backfired when the extent of Colston’s rorts was revealed and 28 criminal charges were laid.

On the surface, Peter Slipper MP may be well qualified for the position of Speaker of the House. He was first elected as a National Party Member in 1985 and later contested his seat as a Liberal in 1993.  He is a barrister, an Anglican Priest . . . and a serial rorter!

Slipper’s expenditure on mobile telephone calls, chauffer driven limousines, taxis, office expenses and overseas business class travels across Britain, Morocco, Gibraltar, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are legendary. His snout is firmly embedded in the taxpayers’ trough.

There is no doubt that Slipper’s elevation to the Speaker’s Chair gives Julia Gillard breathing space as Prime Minister.  She now has a cushion against Kevin Rudd’s white-anting, Andrew Wilkie’s dummy-spitting, Tony Windsor’s incoherent mumblings, Rob Oakshott’s naive gibberish and Bob Brown’s demands to shut the planet down.

Public respect for our highest democratic office has been greatly diminished with Peter Slipper’s elevation, as a serial rorter, to the third highest position in our nation.  Perhaps the new Parliamentary Speaker’s motif should incorporate the Scales of Justice representing Slipper’s legal profession, a black halo representing  his position in the Anglican Church, a bloated pig representing his mastery at rorting taxpayer funds’ and a king rat representing his value system.

Julia might be proud – the rest of us are gobsmacked.

But imagine the noise if John Howard and George Bush had made the announcement.  Julia would be demanding her Socialist Soviet friends be given equal opportunity to establish a base – preferably in the ACT!  Ageing rocker Peter Garrett would have resurrected Midnight Soil to rant against American nuclear submarines. Bob Brown would have confidently predicted Armageddon the next day. The ABC and Fairfax press would have been inundated with endless hysterical rantings from the commentariat.

However the silence has been deafening since Julia and Barak broke bread over the issue. Obama’s charm turned outspoken anti-American commentators into compliant pussycats. They will no doubt find reason to rage again if Tony Abbott is elected as our next Prime Minister and agrees to continue the policy.

Changing power shifts in the Asia-Pacific region are of great concern to our defence planners.  Seventy years ago the Japanese military were well aware of our large land mass; our abundance of natural resources; our relatively small population and our geographic isolation.  They were also aware of the significant advantages we provided for America as a base for operations in the South West Pacific area.

The Japanese war strategy was therefore based on isolating Australia by controlling the island chain to our immediate North – the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia which includes West Papua), Papua, New Guinea and the Solomons.

Today this island chain remains just as relevant for our strategic planners. It is often referred to as our arc of instability with each one on the brink of breakdown due to endemic corruption in the region.  The most worrying of these States is Papua New Guinea with seven million people and enormous natural wealth in the form of gold, silver, copper, oil and gas.

Chinese influence in this region is growing by the day and their modus operandi is not restricted by the niceties of patronising political correctness which underpins our Australian aid programs.

The decision to rotate American marines through our training bases in the top end is almost a re-run of the strategy adopted in 1942 and provides a welcome reassurance for our strategic planners. Whilst our economic development is tied to our diplomatic/trading relationship with China our strategic security relies on our relationship with America.  There could even be a ballad in it for Midnight Soil with Julia and Bob in the chorus line.

The times also reflected a lack of media intrusion into the lives of public figures.  Media cycles were more leisurely and limited to newsprint and radio.  Television had not arrived and ‘internet’ was not yet a word.

Fast forward to the new millennium and we have a 24/7 news cycle. The media industry has exploded and expanded.  It now includes newspapers, radio, television, the internet, social networks and twitter.  News is instantaneous and the competition to break it is intense.

Anybody can be a celebrity. Everybody is a commentator. Anything is fair game.

Public figures can no longer avoid the spotlight.  High profile politicians have every word and every action analysed, investigated and interpreted.  They can no longer tell jokes, or even worse, laugh at others lest they be exposed as racist, sexist, misogynist or homophobic.  The slightest misdemeanour can bring about public shame and shatter careers.

Last week a popular rural politician had to resign to protect his financial future after falsely signing a Statutory Declaration in order to keep his licence.  At the same time we have a Federal politician who has reportedly misused credit cards to visit brothels.  That, it seems, is OK because there is no pressure for him to resign.

Nobody would argue that codes of conduct for elected politicians and people on the public payroll are not necessary.  The public rightly demands a high level of transparency and behavioural standards from their elected representatives and their public servants in all disciplines.

The media have an important role to play in monitoring political and public activity.  However they also have a responsibility to apply the same standards to their own behaviour before publicly shaming public figures.  The results of a quick media stitch-up to secure a cheap headline can be devastating for the families of those in the media cross-hairs. They should be guided by that old proverb ‘Let he (or she) who has not sinned cast the first stone!’

It is therefore no surprise that the Greens, whose roots are entrenched in communist ideology, want to curb media attention on their policies.  It is ironic that the Greens and their cheer squad in GetUp recently praised Julian Assange because of his success in exposing secret documents illegally hacked on Wikileaks.  Assange has become a cult hero for GetUp and the Green-Left political alliance.

The News of the World hacking scandal in Britain exposed their ideological hypocrisy.  Although there is no evidence of such practices in the Australian media the Greens have now seized upon the likelihood of it happening here to curb criticism of their Carbon Tax.

Media bias in a free press is a given.  Journalists and commentators will always be influenced by the personal values and views in their writings.  Those who do not agree with them can exercise one of our other great freedoms i.e. choice.  Newsagencies in Australia carry a range of papers and magazines covering the complete political spectrum. It’s the same in the electronic media.  Readers, listeners and viewers have the freedom to choose which papers and magazines to read, which radio stations to listen to and which television stations to watch.

It seems the Greens don’t like the fact that most people read the Daily Telegraph, listen to 2GB and choose not to watch the ABC.

But these are not the only freedoms being manipulated by the extreme left which has substantially increased its influence since Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard consummated her political marriage with Greens leader Bob Brown.

Political correctness is a potent form of suppression currently being developed into an art form by the Left.  Illegal immigrants are now ‘asylum seekers’.  Witnesses to crimes are not allowed to describe the race, religion, ethnicity or skin colour of criminals.  ‘Happy holiday’ greetings are replacing ‘Merry Christmas’.  Dead people are ‘living impaired’.  The list is endless and it starts my massaging the minds of the young at kindergarten. They are easy fodder for climate change alarmists.

Political correctness is the Green-Left’s most insidious weapon restricting dissent against their anti-white, anti-capitalist, anti-Australian ideology.

Freedom of ideas and expression are akin to fresh air and water.  We take them for granted until they are threatened.  Without them a fulfilling life cannot be sustained.

The cancer began when former Labor Premier, Neville Wran, sold off the transport corridors given to him by the Federal Coalition Government at the time.  Wran sold the land for a short term political gain.

He was later followed by former Labor Premier, Bob Carr, who was elected on a promise of scrapping t tolls on the M4 and M5 in 1995.  Further investment in transport infrastructure was not possible because of the cost of Carr’s commitment.  Factional infighting between Carr, his Treasurer, Michael Egan and Roads Minister, Carl Scully scuttled plans for a third lane in the M5 East tunnel.  Western Sydney motorists have suffered ever since.

The Carr-Egan transport blueprint was titled ‘Transport 2010’.  It ended at Liverpool.  Carr and Egan were at the height of their arrogance at the time and obviously believed Western Sydney commuters would always vote Labor anyway.

Inner-city elites, led by Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, are now intent on making it more difficult to commute into or through city by chopping up roads so they can peddle their bicycles between their city pads and their favourite wine bars.  Western Sydney motorists can eat cake as far as they are concerned.

Union featherbedding in the transport industries has added to the expense and inefficiencies within the system.  The only way of breaking their grip on this vital service is to introduce competition through the establishment of public-private partnerships for the development of vital transport infrastructure.

Motorists don’t mind paying a toll providing the tollway allows them to travel freely.  But they do get angry when they have to sit in a parking lot.  Similarly they will not wear a congestion tax while inner-city elites treat the Sydney CBD as their recreational playground.

The looming Labor-Green Carbon Tax and the consequent escalation of energy costs are going to inflict severe financial pain on Western Sydney families.  They are already stressed and angry at the massive waste of their taxes on failed government rorts such as the pink batts scheme, the Green loans fiasco, the school building farce and the NBN white elephant.  They are sick of funding thousands of highly paid enviro-evangelists living high off the hogs back in Canberra.

Commuters will not wear any additional taxes or tolls until they are convinced that Governments are dinkum in cutting waste and ending the rorts.  Sacking Clover Moore and the Sydney City Council would be a good start.

According to the Latham Diaries this is the bloke who trawls through politicians rubbish bins in search of dirt. Apparently nothing is sacred to Riley in his quest to make a name for himself by destroying others.  Heroic stuff.

He is now leading the media pack in their quest to destroy Tony Abbott’s leadership.  But Riley doesn’t care about the people he hurts in pursuit of his next grubby headline - grieving army widows and parents are merely collateral damage in his pursuit of relevance.

This is serious stuff because suited media spivs such as Riley are able to influence public opinion in accordance with their own political leanings.  They seek heroic status in wine bars and coffee lounges.   

As a returned serviceman I often judge people by whether I would share a weapon-pit with them.  One needs to choose carefully.  A weapon-pit is not a place for cowards, pretenders, wannabees or spivs.

Tony Abbott studied for the priesthood, won a Rhodes Scholarship, worked as a journalist, served as both a volunteer fire-fighter and lifeguard for more than a decade, played rugby, won a boxing championship, completed an ironman, published a book and served as a Minister of the Crown.

Mark Riley worked as a cadet journalist with the Newcastle Herald and later with the Sydney Morning Herald.  He has also reported for the Melbourne Age. He appears to be a commentator rather than a participator with a penchant for city wine bars rather than  rural fire stations.

The major difference between them is that Abbott had the conviction to leave journalism and enter politics so that he could make a positive contribution to building a better society.

Riley obviously has strong political views but doesn’t have the guts to throw his hat in the ring.  He prefers to operate like a cockroach trawling through rubbish bins to damage or destroy his ideological opponents. 

Former soldiers who have seen action and understand the context of a briefing in a war zone have widely condemned Riley for his grubby attempt to portray Tony Abbott as being unsympathetic to the plight of our soldiers in Afghanistan.  One does not have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know who they would prefer to have in their weapon pit.

Riley was also condemned by politicians from both sides of the political divide.  They have little respect for  cockroaches from the commentariat.

Colonel Kurtz’s media protégé, Laurie Oakes, will not be happy with upstarts like Riley trying to do a better job on Tony Abbott than he is. 

We can only hope for the day a political martyr will strap a cockroach bomb to themselves and pull the pin in the middle of the Canberra Press Gallery.

Julia Gillard was a key member of the notorious ‘Gang of Four’ who presided over the disastrous economic decisions that blew the surplus inherited by the Howard-Costello Government and sent us reeling into debt. Now we have real disasters to deal with there is nothing left in the bank.

Real Julia agreed with Rudd’s ‘historic’ reform program to wrest control of hospitals from the States.  This was a strong vote of no-confidence in State Labor Governments who had been running the hospital systems for up to 15 years. 

Whilst State Labor governments admitted guilt by signing off on the reform new Liberal administrations in WA and Victoria have refused to surrender any share of the GST to Canberra. But before the corpse of that ‘historic’ reform has cooled Julia has replaced it with another yet ‘historic reform’.  She now wants to bypass State Governments and have Canberra give money directly to hospitals.

Hello!  Isn’t this is the same Labor Government responsible for some of the greatest stuff-ups of all time.  Think pink batts, Copenhagen, school building rorts, grocery-watch, fuel-watch, cash-for-clunkers, green energy fantasies, etc.  Micro-management from Canberra in the delivery of services is a proven recipe for disaster.

The further a bureaucrat is located from the point of delivery the less empathy they have for people affected by decisions they make.  How would they like to sit in a sweltering non-airconditioned school halls in Western Sydney and endure record temperatures?   We saw that their feel-good Green inspired natural ventilation systems did nothing to lower the sweltering temperatures our kids had to endure last week.

Imagine writing to a distant Federal Bureaucrat complaining about the time it took for an elderly parent to be seen by a doctor in a crowded waiting room on a stinking hot day.  Imagine the amount of paperwork generated by their automatic response systems expressing regret, bringing it to the Ministers attention, reminding the writer how much money the government is spending on health and promising to draft a more considered reply when time permits – blah, blah, blah. The whole system is destined for the intensive care ward.

Reform of our health system needs to start from the bottom up.  Re-establish local hospital boards to work with State Governments in effective service delivery and patient care. Healthcare is too important to be left to historic whims and thought bubbles emanating from Canberra.

I hate whingers, knocker’s, drug dealers, freeloaders, snobs, inner-city pretenders and sanctimonious politically correct commentators.

Having got that out of my system I can proudly proclaim that I love Australia.  I love our land.  I love our people. I love our way of life.

On this Australia Day, the 241^st anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing at Botany Bay,  special ambassadors, essentially ordinary people who have done extra-ordinary things, will travel far and wide and share their thoughts and experiences with communities all over the country. 

Poets, buskers and yarn-spinners will talk of times gone by.  Youngsters in street parades will remind us of times yet to come. Our best – and worst – country music singers will assemble in Tamworth to strum, yodel and cooee for a week.

Most Australians though will take time out with family and friends for a barby, a few beers and a yarn.

No doubt the usual coterie of Australia-haters in academia and left-wing fringe groups will gather in cafes and wine bars to decry Cook’s historic landing as an invasion and judge us all to be intolerant xenophobic racists.  Journalists will run feature articles questioning who we are, who we think we are and who they think we should be.  These are usually a reflection of their own insecurity than any meaningful insight into our Australian way of life. 

Dinkum Australians know who they are.  They know what they want and are prepared to roll up their sleeves to get it. Their spirit is currently evident up and down the coast as armies of strangers gather in volunteer battalions to help those who have lost everything.  It was on display when devastating floods ripped through towns, farms and suburbs as people risked their lives to save those in distress.

In my opinion the young Australian of the year, by a country mile, is Jordan Rice.  Jordan was the 13-year old boy who asked rescuers to save Blake, his 10- year old brother from the top of their stranded car before being swept away with his mother.

The senior Australian of the year, in my opinion, is our latest Victoria Cross winner, Corporal Ben Robert-Smith of the SAS.

Jordan selflessly gave his life to save his brother.  Corporal Ben Robert-Smith put his life on the line to protect our country and his mates. 

Nothing epitomises the Australian spirit more than the actions of Jordan Rice, Corporal Ben Robert-Smith VC and our army of selfless volunteers.

We can afford to be very proud of them – and of our great country.

Happy Australia Day.

In the interim we need to ensure that those affected by the trauma of losing loved ones, property, possessions and income are given maximum support to recover their lives and get back on their feet.

The response of the community has been magnificent as battalions of strangers with mops, buckets and shovels volunteer to do whatever they can to help and donations roll in to the relief appeal.  Unfortunately thousands of families and small businesses will never recover because they were not adequately covered by insurance.

Many were not able to insure their homes, properties or businesses because the premiums were either unaffordable, not available or because they were allowed to build or buy in flood prone areas.

One would hope that it wasn’t because they took note of Tim Flannery’s prediction that global warming would soon see Brisbane run out of water!

The chief culprits at this stage seem to be State and Local Governments who have ignored scientific advice in pursuit of development dollars.  They are also responsible for the current regulations which allow big insurance companies to refuse to insure properties located in flood or fire prone areas.  This effectively allows them to minimise risk and maximise profit.

State Governments also use insurance policies to fill their coffers with the Goods and Services Tax, stamp duty (tax) and a fire services levy (tax). 

We can only wonder if a ‘flood services levy (tax) will be the next hit on taxpayers already under siege because of higher energy bills caused by the new Labor-Green Alliance.

Governments have a duty of care to ensure that people and their property are protected from natural disaster as much as possible.  They have planning instruments to control developments in fire and flood prone areas.  They are charged with developing infrastructure to meet our economic and social needs.  They also have a legislative duty of care to protect people from unfair exploitation by big business and big unions.

Insurance companies have a moral duty to meet their obligations for loss and damage caused by the floods.  To quibble over the definition of ‘flood’ for policy holders who thought they had flood insurance is reprehensible.  They are corporte pariahs.

Both the Henry tax review and the Victorian bushfire royal commission have found State Government transactional taxes on insurance policies to be inefficient.  Regulations allowing insurance companies to minimise risk and maximise profit are immoral.  They should also be illegal.

Governments have a responsibility to minimise the risk of fire, flood and drought by implementing fuel-reduction measures in our farms, forests and national parks and building a series of dams to drought-proof our agricultural land and control the flow of excess water. They also have the ability to reign in the corporate pariahs in the insurance industry.

And they have the means to send Tim Flannery to Brisbane with a mop and bucket!

Sadly, they are unfortunate victims of war, terror, poverty, persecution and religious fanaticism.  It is impossible for us to understand the desperation of their plight from the comforts of our surrounds here in the lucky country.

The tragedy is a wake-up call for the Federal Government to stop the bloody boats!  And the only effective way to do this is to remove the incentives for people smugglers to run the gauntlet of treacherous oceans in unseaworthy boats.  John Howard did it and Julia Gillard could do it if she had the gumption to reopen the offshore detention centre at Nauru. 

As a trade-off for admitting that John Howard was right Julia could announce a substantial increase in our refugee intake via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and call for bipartisan support.  Our Australian story has been built on successive waves of immigration and we have been enriched in every way as a result.  Our fears about the arrival of boatloads of refugees from the Vietnam War were never realised as their sons and daughters are now among our finest global ambassadors – and proudly Australian.

Julia would earn some kudos if she stopped pandering to wacky independents and other extreme left organisations such as GetUp and the Greens.  She should do a ‘Keating’ – tell them all to get a real job and get on with the task of nation building.  No more taxpayer funded stunts such as pink batts, plasma TV sets, school hall rorts, grocery-watch, fuel watch etc.  If she wants a second term as Prime Minister she should be articulating a vision for the construction of dams, nuclear power plants, very fast trains and information super-highways to meet our future population demands. 

 It will be interesting to see if a ‘new’ real Julia emerges after the festive season in 2011!