Households in New South Wales are expected to be slugged an extra $250 a year for electricity after Julia’s Carbon Tax takes effect.  But this is only the tip of the iceberg for struggling families. Higher energy prices lead to higher costs for almost everything we do and everything we consume.

It’s the cost of voting Green and subscribing to their quack science which predicted our dams would now be dry. 

The Greens have denied us the natural advantage we have in the form of cheap and abundant reserves of coal and uranium.  Unfortunately their fellow travellers in the left-wing commentariat have convinced us that coal is dirty-evil and uranium is clean-evil.  As a result we export these valuable resources, as well as our competitive advantage, to booming overseas economies that use them to produce cheap electricity.

The Greens would argue that they wouldn’t feel as good as their sanctimonious selves though!

We cannot blame the Greens for the entire increase though.  The international carbon price is little more than half of Julia’s Carbon Tax which is based on $23 a tonne.  This means we are paying around $13 for the carbon component and the additional $10 is a straight out tax slug!  So having lied about imposing a Carbon Tax in the first place, Julia is now deceiving us by disguising the true nature of the tax that will deliver a cold and miserable winter for our pensioners and financial pain for struggling families.

The former boss of the Commonwealth Bank and Chairman of Australia’s $73 billion Future Fund has described Julia’s Carbon Tax as the worst piece of economic reform he has ever seen.

But the Greens are unrepentant.  They are driven by the politics of envy, middle class guilt and their hate against capitalism and western institutions. Julia is about to discover the cost of appeasing them is prohibitive.

Every one of their feel-good alternatives to energy production has proved to be an expensive white elephant.  Ugly wind-farms will soon stand as monuments to their discredited political ideology of enviro-evangelism. Every Green scheme introduced during the Rudd-Gillard-Brown era has been an abject failure at great cost to Australian taxpayers.

It might be worth remembering this when you open your electricity bill after 1^st July.

Julia told a bigger lie than Anna and the voters are waiting to let her know how they feel about it.  If Queensland is a guide the result is not going to pretty.

The once proud Labor Party is in dire straits.  Workers and battlers, once Labor’s bedrock, are an endangered species.  The Party has been hijacked by inner-city elitists who have a theory on everything but practical experience in nothing.  They have perfected the art of putting their hands in the taxpayers pocket and have no empathy with people who have to put their hands in their own.

Union membership is declining as workers and battlers learn more about the lurks and perks of their hierarchy.  Generous overseas trips; jobs for the boys on Government Boards; political office, prostitutes on call; etc, etc – it’s a great lurk for the privileged few in the Union movement.

Then there are the pet Green projects designed to make the inner-city cafe society feel better – wind farms, solar panels, green energy and so on which will send electricity prices through the roof.  Julia is about to learn that workers and battlers get very angry when they can’t afford to switch their heaters on.

Traditional Labor voters, the workers and battlers in Struggle Street, can no longer raise their concerns in traditional Labor forums.  These have been captured by the politically correct who sarcastically mock them as ignorant rednecks, deniers, sceptics and lunatics.

Unfortunately the elitists have failed to realise that many battlers in today’s society aspire for better things for themselves and their children.  And they know that the pathway to achieving their goals is hard work and better education.

The elitist have also failed to detect the movement of workers and battlers towards the Liberal Party.  Here they see a grassroots democratic Party based on freedom and enterprise.  The current Premier, Barry O’Farrell, was an army brat raised in sub-standard Housing Commission homes known colloquially as ‘married quarters’.  The Police Minister, Mike Gallacher, was raised in Mt Druitt.  Glenn Brookes, the Liberal Member for East Hills, couldn’t read or write when he left school but went on to create a multi-million dollar business.  The Party Room now comprises the sons and daughters of immigrants, tradesmen, farmers, soldiers, housewives and many other working class graduates.

It’s too late for Julia – but not too late for Labor to jettison their elitists and require new Members to have had a real job or run a real business as a prerequisite to joining their Party.

Bullets are flying around, aimed at you and your mates as thirty fanatical Taliban are trying to kill you and your fellow soldiers.  Two of your regimental friends have already been killed in previous actions as well as another 33 soldiers from other units.  This is reality, not Hollywood, not a game and death is forever.  So are sucking wounds and smashed bodies from a high powered weapon.

A giant of a man gets up and almost suicidally charges at the people trying to kill him.  One jumps on him, but he is shaken off and killed.  Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith then moves forward towards a machine gun crew firing 600 rounds a minute at him and gets close enough to kill them all.  He then charges a second MG and kills its crew too.

He miraculously survives and is awarded the Victoria Cross to go with his previous awards for bravery in the face of an enemy trying their hardest to kill him.

Having done all that, he comes back to his twin daughters and a loving family in WA (which he had a 90% chance of being lost to, dead as a result of his courage). When called upon, like every other soldier, he goes back to the war as his government demands and does it all again.

But his greatest reward?  Medals, money, fame?  No, being given a spot on the Aunt Sally Circle Show where he can be vilely mocked by infantile and moronic ‘celebrities’ (I had never heard of) who think he needs to dive to the bottom of the pool to find his brains (Yumi Stynes).  This is offensive, as Ben Roberts-Smith is better educated and more intelligent than any sandwich-maker with shapely boobs (which is where her brains were sucked).  See how easy it is to make snide, meaningless remarks, but then, like Yumi I was only joking to make a point, so no offense, OK?

But the piece-de-resistance is the demented (or is it dementia) of ‘Dangerman George’ Negus who ‘apologises’ for his despicable remark that maybe “he (Ben, VC) is no good in the sack” – a dud root as some idiot chimed in.  This was clearly intended as a slander at Ben and his wife because it took IVF for her to conceive.  I wonder how many of the thousands of IVF couples fell off their chairs laughing at that one?  I am quite a good wordsmith, but I can find nothing publishable in my vocabulary that can express my disgust and contempt for this geriatric parody of a cowardly, humourless has-been hack.  No, I need to correct that as George is just a ‘never was’.  But I sympathise with the unenviable position you TV station have placed him in: the rest of the panel were all clearly smarter, faster with the repartee and getting all the attention.  He needed a headline grabber that his mind could hang on to at the pace of his walking frame.

It only got worse when the next day he doddled out his so-called apology and explained that he has been in dangerous situations too. I feel sick that he can even be allowed to breathe the same air and compare his danger-filled ‘experiences’ (whatever they were) with those of Ben, VC.  For goodness sake, how tough can Georgie boy be when Margaret Thatcher chewed him up and didn’t even ruffle her hair!  Boy, was that a dangerous situation!  What a legend, or rather, what a pathetic specimen of the human race.

This was one of the most disgusting performances from our New Age bogan morons that society seems to be producing in greater numbers than ever before.  They are uneducated, flippant, mocking, without substance, ignorant, vile, vacuous – and with opinions on everything they can never understand.  They are celebrities …!

My advice to your show?  Get rid of this pair of freaks for a start (but you might have to keep the mindless audience as they will laugh at everything, no matter what, as they think they are famous for being there).  You can never recover from this while you have a geriatric and a sandwich-maker as the main attractions.  Let them settle to their real level of capability and join the ‘Occupy Something’ zombies.

Might I suggest that you raise the intellectual and cultural level of the show (and somebody might watch future episodes), by replacing dumb and dumber with, umm, like, you know, like people like Kyle Sandilands and Marieke Hardy ….

I had better explain that this suggestion is just a little joke as you may be so dumb as to think I was serious.

No pseudo-apology from the mindless mockers to a man who has risked everything several times will ever undo the vileness of his attackers.  And the insult to his manhood was beyond redemption.  Get rid of them – or the show.

I have included about 20% of my address book on this distribution (though this is your only copy) and will send the next four editions immediately afterwards.  Every addressee is free to do what they think is the ‘right thing’ (including sending you their opinions).  For me it means never watching the show and avoiding the advertisers who support it.  But from here to eternity it also means never watching any programme containing Negus or Stynes.

Alistair Pope
Mobile (24 Hours) +61 (0)419 367 726 <tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20367%20726

“Do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do”
Hiroki Sugihara (who did and paid the price)

The Truth has no agenda

Stephen Smith is obviously well qualified for a senior role in Government however he seems to lack the empathy required for the Defence portfolio.

Defence is a complex giant spread between servicemen and women in field units and unwieldy bureaucratic empires in Canberra.  A successful career in the field is no guarantee of success in Canberra.  The values of trust and respect have to be earned from the troops that officers and NCOs have the privilege to lead in the field.  Any officer who fails to put the welfare of his or her troops at the forefront of their minds on a daily basis will not progress.

Those who have never served in the regular forces will ever understand the meaning of ‘esprit de corps’ in a combat environment or the relevance of military discipline for effective command and control.  Service in the Reserve Forces or participation in team contact sports provides a feel for it whilst students of military history will have an appreciation for it.

The Machiavellian nature of politics is not conducive to an empathetic understanding of the term. Notwithstanding this many politicians do have outstanding people skills and a genuine respect for military service.

Within the defence bureaucracy senior public servants have to rely on frank advice from senior military officers for the impact of decisions on morale, combat readiness and the preparedness for future threats.  Senior military advisors in this environment have to be aware of changing political-social norms and ensure these are reflected in the recruitment, training and development of servicemen and women.  It is a fine balance.

Over recent decades the military has had to endure progressive social change within its ranks. Political correctness is regarded as more important than military discipline in the eyes of social zealots.  The unprecedented manslaughter charges against combat soldiers in Afghanistan by a Canberra based lawyer is a direct outcome of this folly.

We now have the former Chief of Army and two Generals with combat experience in Afghanistan publicly attacking the Defence Minister over his failure to understand the essentials of military discipline exercised by the Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy.  The Commandant is unable to defend himself in these circumstances and the Minister has therefore lost the confidence of servicemen and women by publicly shredding his career.

Julia stared down the faceless men to install Bob Carr as Foreign Minister.  She should now summon Stephen Smith to her office and transfer him to a portfolio without people.

Labor supporters will be hoping their slide down the polls has bottomed after Julia’s success in seeing off the leadership challenge from Kevin Rudd.  They will also be hoping her feisty performances during the challenge will see a more confident Prime Minister emerge from the calamity.

For awhile it seemed her only option was a minor rearrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic with Defence Minister Stephen Smith moving back to Foreign Affairs.  This promised all the excitement of a grass-growing competition.

Senator Mark Arbib’s surprise resignation, followed by speculation that former NSW Premier, Bob Carr, would be offered the job as Foreign Minister, reignited interest in Labor’s leadership woes.  Whilst a couple of frontbenchers on the bridge of the Titanic objected, Julia pulled rank and they resumed their heading towards the iceberg.

Senator Bob Carr is a scholar. Those who know him have great respect for his intellect, his abiding interest in international affairs and his wit.  He is keen student of American politics and has been honoured with a Fulbright Distinguished Award Scholarship for his contribution to US-Australian relations.  His high-achieving Malaysian born wife, Helena, ensures he is well versed in the intricacies of Asian politics.

Whilst he has all the attributes to be a worthy and successful Foreign Minister he faces some serious challenges between now and the next election.

The most spectacular failure of the Rudd and Gillard governments has been their handling of illegal immigrants into Australia.  People feel insecure over our loss of control of our national sovereignty.   They are quietly seething over the hundreds of millions of dollars the Gillard Government is spending on their accommodation, welcome packs and welfare.  They feel powerless as they see people smugglers openly flaunting our border security and ridiculing our Navy.

They are angry over the hundreds of millions Kevin Rudd has thrown at corrupt African dictatorships as a bribe for his election to the United Nations gravy train.

They simply can’t wait for the next election.

Bob Carr has little time to turn this issue around.  If he is as smart as he is supposed to be he will ring John Howard and ask him how he managed to stop the boats.

He faces many other challenges in the Pacific with the instability of our Melanesian region, the emergence of China’s influence and our relationship with Indonesia.

But first he has to stop the boats.

One can only wonder what these veterans would think of the current status of ‘those entrusted with the government of our Country’ in Canberra today.

The current Federal Labor Government is a joke.  They exist because two country clowns, Rob Oakshott and Tony Windsor, betrayed their conservative electorates; Peter Slippery ratted on his Liberal constituents; Andrew Wilkie is obsessed with poker machine addicts; and Craig Thompson is protected by our political-legal system for allegedly using his union credit card to hire prostitutes.

Overseeing this rabble is the master puppeteer, Bob Brown, who leads a mob of Australia-hating communists disguised as Green enviro-evangelists.

Not even King Solomon could pretend to hold such a mob of political misfits together.

And now we have a political psychopath using a social style of celebrity politics to ambush the Party that entrusted him with the political opportunity of a lifetime.  Queenslanders provided a portent of his character when they labelled him ‘Dr Death’ as a result of his stint as Director-General in their State Government.  His maiden speech provided another omen when his ‘working class’ credentials were exposed as a fabrication.  Mark Latham, who worked with him in the Labor caucus, observed that the more people knew about Kevin Rudd the less they liked him.

It was always going to be a matter of time before Australian voters saw through the facade of Rudd’s carefully crafted public persona.  His Labor colleagues were well aware of his tyrannical megalomania and judged that enough was enough before the end of his first term.

Unfortunately Julia Gillard did not live up to the promise she had shown up till then.  She was heavily scripted by Labor’s spinmeisters who did their best to justify their unprecedented coup against a sittin Prime Minister.  When this failed they tried to revert to the real Julia but by then even she didn’t seem to know who that was.  We have seen a glimpse of this in some feisty performances since Rudd launched his challenge against her.

After Julia trounces Rudd in the leadership ballot he should do what spoilt nerds do when they don’t get their way – take his bat and ball and leave politics.

I then stood on the foreshore of the Darwin esplanade at the exact time 188 Japanese bombers swept over the unsuspecting city and dropped more bombs than they did on Pearl Harbour two months earlier.  Veterans of the Darwin bombing returned for a commemorative service attended by a couple of thousand from all over Australia.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott attended the service and delivered dignified speeches.  They were obviously written separately but each one complemented the other.  After the service they mixed easily with the crowd and were greeted warmly and respectfully. 

Whilst the commemoration was proclaimed as the ‘Bombing of Darwin Day’ it could easily have been called ‘Proud to be Australian Day’ as veterans, indigenous people, civilians, servicemen and women - young and old – mingled long after the official ceremony had concluded.

The occasion provided a pleasant but brief respite for Julia who flew south to the seemingly inevitable leadership showdown with her political nemesis,  Kevin Rudd.

The outcome could be ironic.  In the first instance voters elected Kev and got Julia.  The second time around they elected Julia but could well end up with Kev!

Fortunately this won’t happen.  The Labor Party might be badly wounded and bleeding profusely but they will never reinstall Kev as their leader.

Kev once boasted that he would play with John Howard’s mind.  He is now doing the same with Julia and appears hell-bent on her political destruction as payback for rolling him. He seems willing to tear the Labor Party apart to achieve this.

The only way Labor can rescue some sort of respectability before the next election is to turn to Simon Crean.  As one of the most experienced and respected senior MPs in their ranks he would stabilise the situation.  There is no question about who the real Simon Crean is or what he stands for.  After the coup his first muscle-flexing exercise should see Kev moved from Foreign Affairs to the backbench and Julia returned to a respectable place in the Ministry.

In the meantime Julia should not forget the lessons from Darwin 70 years ago – Kamikaze Kev could well launch a surprise attack at anytime!

Recent attempts to frighten the gullible into believing the world was melting and rivers were drying up have been ridiculed by the big freeze in Europe and record floods in Australia.

Their latest bogy is Gina Rinehart’s investment in media enterprises.  According to Greens Senator Christine Milne, these investments ‘are an assault on our democracy’.

She neglected to explain how large media investments by Wotif founder, Graeme Woods, are OK.

Wood is the wealthy global warming alarmist who made the single biggest individual political donation in Australian history – to the Greens. A whopping $1.6 million.

Such doublespeak is straight out of the little red book issued to Communist sympathisers during their Cold War heyday.

One would think the Greens, those great supporters of equal opportunity for women, would be trumpeting the success of a female in charge of our biggest mining company.  Unfortunately Gina Rinehart is not a member of the sisterhood, is a capitalist, and probably votes conservative.

The Greens have a collective paranoia about any media outlet that dares question their extreme Left agenda, particularly the greatest hoax of our time, Global Warming.  They label their detractors as deniers who are influenced by ‘hate media’.  Their political goal is to introduce curbs on their criticism by limiting their right to free speech.  This is a common trait in communist countries.

The issue that irks the commentariat more than any other is the fact that the majority of readers, listeners and viewers ignore their favoured outlets such as the ABC and the Fairfax media which provide a ready platform for issues such as global warming, indigenous welfare and gay marriage. These might be of concern for the inner-city chattering class but they don’t register with struggling families and businesses about to be saddled with a crippling Carbon Tax.

Media organisations are no different to any other in a competitive free enterprise economy.  They have to provide a return for shareholders by responding to market needs.  Only those subsidised by taxpayers, such as the ABC, can afford to ignore ratings.  Others such as the Fairfax media will see their share-price decline as their readership diminishes.

Perhaps Senators’ Bob Brown,  Christine Milne and Lee Rhiannon could seek an investor for their ‘Green Left Weekly’ to counter Rinehart’s raid on Fairfax.

Australians of all political persuasions were stunned as our Prime Minister’s security contingent had to activate emergency measures to extricate her and the Leader of the Opposition from a baying crowd of ferals.

Moments of stress in the face of imminent danger can trigger the good, the bad or the ugly in a person.  Julia Gillard’s reaction was exemplary.  Her concern for Tony Abbott’s welfare during the emergency evacuation and her calm and dignified demeanour after the incident should make us all proud of the quality of our political leadership. It won’t of course.

Julia didn’t go far enough in sacking the spin doctor who triggered the incident. If she is to have any chance at the next election she should sack them all and just be herself.  We all liked what we saw in her instinctive reaction to danger from the welfare warts of our national underbelly.

It was not the media’s proudest moment as they deliberately misinterpreted Tony Abbott’s remarks. Truth seems to be the first casualty in the competition for a headline amongst the Canberra pack.  The fact that Tony Abbott didn’t call for the Tent embassy to be closed was never going to get in the way of a good story for wannabees on the hunt for a media scoop.

Fortunately the other 99.9 percent of Australians had a most enjoyable family day.  Dr Charlie Teo presented a wonderful oration.  We applauded Geoffrey Rush, Laurie Baymarrawangga, Marita Cheng and Lynne Sawyers as our Australians’ of the year.  The Tamworth Music Festival was a hoot and we watched with pride as our immigrant cultures cheerfully participated in ceremonies, waved flags and enjoyed the fellowship of the day.

It was a pity the media decided to focus on the .01 percent of political parasites who hate Australia but love our welfare.  Maybe Tony Abbott should have been more specific and say it’s time the media moved on from the Tent embassy. It would soon become an irrelevant humpy if they left it alone and chose to focus on our aboriginal role models and their achievements instead.

As for the ferals – black, white, brown, brindle and Green – they would be well advised to keep their smelly, grubby selves away from the people we elect to represent us.

The benefits of the new wave are beyond the dreams of earlier generations. They have irrevocably changed the way we live, work, love, fight, learn and play. The technologies are affordable, accessible, universal and instant.

Whilst baby-boomers are daunted with every instruction book accompanying new devices pre-schoolers accept them as a natural accessory.

‘I saw you at the supermarket’ said the teenager daughter of a friend on Facebook.  ‘You should have come over and said hello’ was the posted response.  A grandmother checking her grandson’s Facebook page chastises him for a message he posted to his friends.  She is ‘unfriended’. 

It’s hard to appreciate the implications of the dehumanising of our social relationships in this way.

It’s equally as hard to anticipate the longer term consequences on what we might say to a friend, colleague or protagonist in fit of bother.  It wasn’t a problem in the past – we could just tear up the letter or nick the carbon copy and move on.  Not any more – every word, phrase and missive we send is captured by big-brother and will remain tattooed within our DNA forever.  They will be read by future friends, lovers, work colleagues, bosses, your kids and their kids.  It’s enough to make one want to reach for the biro and notebook – the old-fashioned paper one.

Rebellious teenagers – and they all are at some stage –  don’t often think of these implications when dealing with the pressure of their peers.  But we can be sure there will be some embarrassing job interviews for some in a few years time!

Whilst the technology is certainly affordable the sacrifice of our personal privacy may not be.

Cyber-bullying is emerging as a dark side of social networks.  Teen suicides have recently been reported as the result of the invasion of their privacy.  Exposure to scams, cyber-stalkers, pornography and other sinister activities are as big a threat as drugs to vulnerable young minds.

Parents and teachers face a daunting challenge in communicating the need to communicate responsibly in the new cyber era.  They not only have to worry about the impact of junk food on the physical condition of their children – they now have to worry about the negative effects of junk information and junk relationships on their wellbeing.

It’s almost a relief to be a luddite who is satisfied with the odd Google after reading the papers.