Labor Vs Coalition; six of one, half a dozen of the other

The panel segment of Sunday’s Bolt Report highlights the paucity of choice voters have between the major parties. Abbott is essentially positioning himself to be Labor Lite, or at least not as bad as Gillard, while adopting the Kevin Rudd, ‘me too’ tactic. Even former Howard government minister Peter Reith had some difficulty in justifying him: The whole coalition position needs to be rethought, and the party needs to grow a pair and make a few tough decisions. It was mentioned that Rudd campaigned essentially as a conservative but found socialism a month or so later. Don’t expect Abbott to find capitalism after the election, or free enterprise either, other than as a rhetorical device.

UKIP on a roll

Fresh from making massive inroads in the local elections in Britain, libertarian leaning UKIP seems to be on a roll in polling for next years European elections. It managed to gain 26% of the vote and one hundred and forty seven seats in the recent election and appears to be holding a bit better than that for Europe.

It is hardly surprising given the strength and charisma of leader, Nigel Farage:


 

… The survey found that 27% of those certain to vote in the 2014 contest would support UKIP, with Labour on 23% and the Tories on 21%. 

The rise of Mr Farage's party has caused major headaches for the Conservatives, and the ComRes study for the Open Europe think tank found that almost two-fifths (39%) of those who voted Tory in 2010 would back UKIP if the European election was held now. 

In a general election, the poll suggested Labour would take 37% of the votes, an 11-point lead over the Conservatives on 26%, with UKIP on 20% and the Liberal Democrats on 9%. 

… It seems like a short time ago that David Cameron and his Conservatives rode to power in a general election, forming government with the support of the Liberal Democrats. Now they are running second to Labour with UKIP snapping at their heels and supported by the rapidly collapsing Lib Dems.

McCain blames Tea Party for Democrat actions

Those Republicans who were devestated by the loss by their 2008 Nominee John McCain have some consolation now.  Watching his actions of late it has become reasonably clear; it wouldn’t have made a lot of difference.

Old John was the guy who referred to Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Justin Amash as ‘wacko birds’ over Paul’s daring to stage a thirteen hour filibuster in the Senate in an effort to force the White House to repudiate its previous assertion that it might be OK to kill US citizens on US soil with unmanned drones.  Unfortunately, he didn’t get to hear the speech as he, his mate Lindsey Graham and a number of other GOP Senators were dining with the President.

Now, with another rush of blood to the head, he is trying to blame the same people for provoking his Democrat friends into changing the rules in order to prevent opposition to their plans: 

... Cruz said on Thursday on the floor of the Senate that old-school Republicans had been working with Democrats to spend more money and raise the debt ceiling. Such Republicans, Cruz said, “would very much like to cast a symbolic vote against raising the debt ceiling and nonetheless to allow our (Democratic) friends on the left side of the aisle to raise the debt ceiling.” Mike Lee said something similar earlier in the day. 

Then McCain went off. He ripped on the Tea Party senators, stating that the set-upon Democrats would surely react by attempting to curb Republican minority rights. “That would be the most disastrous outcome that I could ever imagine,” said McCain. He added, “Isn’t it a little bizarre … Basically what we are saying here on this (Republican) side of the aisle is that we don’t trust our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol who are in the majority, Republicans.” ...

McCain is essentially claiming that if the Republicans don’t agree to allow the Democrats to do what ever they like, they will be responsible for the Dems acting in an unconscionable manner.

Perhaps old Johno might explain what the Republicans did to cause the Benghazi cover-up, the Fast and Furious cover-up, the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS, and the scrutiny of AP and Fox reporters by the Justice Department, all of which are unconscionable.

Brisbane swingers club shut down by Council

Image: Leesa and Bryan Horn at their club Couples International. Source: The Courier-Mail

The only registered swingers club in Brisbane has been forced to close down over town planning requirements.

This has been done for of all things, lack of disabled access.  This was exacerbated by a refusal to grant a building permit for the required changes: 

The notice to close Couples International by June 26 will leave the city's "thriving" swinging set with nowhere to go and has pushed owners Bryan and Leesa Horn to the brink of financial ruin. They say the move will push "the scene" back into the seedy underground of dodgy hotels and suburban homes. 

Mrs Horn, 48, said a Brisbane City Council inspector turned up at their Holden St address, in Woolloongabba, and notified them of the complaint last November. The long-time couple, who are mild-mannered building designers by day, began making plans to ensure their "BYO nightclub" complied with disability requirements, including a lift and wheelchair access throughout. 

"The problem is we couldn't get a building permit for the changes," Mrs Horn said, adding the cost of making the building compliant under the Town Planning Act was not economically viable.  

Mr Horn, 62, said Couples International, which holds paid parties from Thursday to Saturday nights, had hosted several guests in wheelchairs "with no complaints." Mrs Horn said: "They came quite a few times, actually.” …

There would be little point in shutting down such an establishment in any case, as it is an activity that can be carried out anywhere where there is the required space, and is probably going on right now.  It is a consensual activity carried out by adults and like it or not, it is not the place of the authorities to interfere.

This does however; highlight the stupidity and inflexibility of planning laws especially given the fact that the place has been in operation for over ten years without any problems until now.

Enforcement of disabled access in private businesses by government instrumentalities is an idiotic knee jerk reflex, nanny state, feel good idea which has no place in a free society, and a gross violation of property rights.  While it is nice to think that the disabled can access such places, there should be no compulsion to provide it.

Businesses that fail to make their buildings accessible tend to lose out by not getting the custom of those affected.  It is not discrimination, not that that should be illegal either, the same risk applies to that.  If a business discriminates, it only benefits its competitors who don’t.

It is outrageous that a small club catering to a small minority of the population should be forced to shut down over the possibility of a smaller percentage of a substantial minority of potential clients having some difficulty in accessing the place.

This is not beneficial to the public at large.  It only helps the bigger well heeled clubs and venues that have space available for such activities with what the council deems to be proper access.  These places have the funds to hire lobbyists and give the right sort of political donations, for which they expect the right sort of backhanders such as keeping the competition at bay.    

Another disaster for Labor

In yesterdays by-election for the NSW seat of Northern Tablelands, Labor not only did badly, it crashed and burned.  On current trends Labor might with a bit of luck get 10% of the vote as opposed to the National’s Adam Marshall on around 63%. 

This seat was once held by Labor during the 80s but was then taken by the Nationals until it was won in 1999 by the independent, Richard Torbay who resigned under the cloud of the Eddie Obeid scandal. Labor’s vote has been steadily declining over the years.  With his 60+% up for grabs, it appears Labor has done little in making inroads.

There would be little point in counting preferences, but even this would not bring much joy to the party as their candidate is currently running third to independent, Jim Maher who is on 13% currently. 

The Greens are well down on about 4% so their preferences would be unlikely to put Labor into second place, given the others who are likely to go to Maher or the Nationals. 

Brits charge social media commenters after Woolwich outrage

Britain, like much of the West seems to have been unable to drag its way past political correctness to develop any meaningful way of dealing with Islamic hate preachers taking to the pulpits advocating violent responses to any perceived slight or grievance. 

It seems that while the local Deity can be mocked, the followers of foreign Deities have to be ‘respected’ or at least have their cultural barbarities treated with understanding.  This is especially the case where said Deity demands beheadings if offended.

On the other hand, authorities are willing to come down hard on anyone who responds to such acts as the disgusting and brutal butchery of Lee Rigby by Islamic Jihadists in a way deemed inappropriate: 

A 22-year-old man has been charged on suspicion of making malicious comments on Facebook following the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby.

Benjamin Flatters, from Lincoln, was arrested last night after complaints were made to Lincolnshire Police about comments made on Facebook, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.  He was charged with an offence of malicious communications this afternoon in relation to the comments, a Lincolnshire Police spokesman said. 

A second man was visited by officers and warned about his activity on social media, the spokesman added. … 

Flatters has been remanded in police custody and will appear before magistrates in Lincoln tomorrow.  The charge comes after two men were earlier released on bail following their arrest for making alleged offensive comments on Twitter about the murder. 

Complaints were made to Avon and Somerset Police about remarks that appeared on the social networking website, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.

In the aftermath of such a sickening crime, it is only reasonable to expect a degree of public outrage and some of this will come out on Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

Attempts to silence such dissent defy the nature of the native born population who have good reason to be upset about it.  Caramelizing it is an outrage in itself in violating the right to freedom of speech, and regulating emotions to comply with those of the elite who really don’t care much for the feelings of the common herd, favoring their ideological positions instead.

Attempting to stifle discussion in the hope of denying oxygen to extremist groups other than radical Islam is only going to drive people toward such groups as the BNP.

Police ‘warning’ on 3D printed guns

It is difficult to judge from the NSW Police Commissioner’s warning on 3D printed guns whether he is trying to scare people out of using them, recommending them to criminals and terrorists, or trying to get something banned; probably the last.

First, he made mention of a ‘catastrophic misfire’ in one of the guns the police produced from online plans: 

The NSW Police revealed that the force has created and tested two 3D-printed firearms. The police used the Liberator pistol blueprints produced by US-firm Defense Distributed. The original plans for the gun were downloaded more than 100,000 times before the company pulled them from its site under pressure from the US State Department. 

Police believe that despite this, the files are still circulating. 

The commissioner said that a Liberator pistol had experienced a catastrophic misfire during testing. The failure would have been capable of seriously injuring the person using the firearm, the police chief said. 

One of the motivations for holding today's press conference was to warn of danger to the user if someone attempts to print, assemble and fire a Liberator out of curiosity.

There is of course no guarantee that the weapon was produced from the correct material, or along proper guidelines, nor any indication of the number of rounds fired prior to failure.  With a round like the .380 ACP you are putting a lot of pressure on a plastic barrel.

He then goes on to complain (or in the eyes of crims and terro’s), compliment) the cheapness of construction, power, and easy concealment capabilities of the weapon:

When the pistol successfully fired, it propelled a bullet with sufficient force to kill a target, the police revealed. When tested using a block of so-called ballistic soap – a block of gelatine used for firearms testing – the shot penetrated 17cm, which could be a fatal wound, the police said. … 

The police spent $35 on materials to create a Liberator and used a $1700 desktop 3D printer. The only metal parts used in the pistol's construction where the firing pin, created with a nail, and a .380 ACP calibre pistol cartridge. The all-plastic body means that the pistol is hard for security forces to detect. 

Inspector Wayne Hoffman said the creation of a pistol took the police around 27 hours. Assembling the pistol's 17 parts took around a minute. Hoffman said that the police had exactly followed the original instructions for creating the Liberator, with a number of modified versions of the file currently in circulation. … 

… The Liberator is "truly undetectable, untraceable, cheap and easy to make."

Then, the call for banning:

The government will have to consider whether regulating CAD files used to create 3D-printed firearms needs to be regulated, the commissioner said, but added he is "not sure that we're well placed globally to deal with he transfer and downloading of thee files" and that he doubts that regulations would be able to stop the files being shared and downloaded.

This idiot should have shut up after warning of the danger of weapon failure, rather than point out that the plans might still be available, and saying how effective it is.

Farewell Hazel Hawke

 Hazel Hawke, 1929 – 2013. 

Hazel was the former wife of former PM Bob Hawke, and was widely respected among even those who couldn’t stand Hawke himself.

An unpretentious person, she lent dignity, integrity, and a common touch to her position which made her widely loved, and may be part of the reason the Hawke government stayed in power as long as it did.

Wind Power Sucks Subsidies Instead of Turning Turbines

Media Statement by Viv Forbes

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition. http://carbon-sense.com/

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the Australian federal government and the opposition to abolish all renewable energy targets, certificates and subsidies.

The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, said that it was time for those who worship wind turbines to pay their full cost, and not force other electricity consumers and tax payers to pay for a costly, unreliable and obsolete method of generating electricity.

 “Wind power has been around since Don Quixote and it belongs in an industrial museum not in a modern economy.

 “For too much of the time, the wind just sucks subsidies when it should be turning turbines.

 “The 20% renewable energy target is unachievable without perpetual government mandates and subsidies and should be abolished.”

Quote: 


Green worshippers tell us “The wind is free.” But wind power is not free. All natural energy resources such as coal, wind and sun appear “free” – no one has to incur costs to create them. But turning a “free” resource into usable electricity costs money for collecting, generating and distributing that energy. To consumers and taxpayers, the real cost of wind power is very high, no matter how well it is hidden by politicians.

Cartoon Credit: Steve Hunter 

Reproduction by permission of the author.

Wind power is not reliable. No one can make the wind blow when the energy is needed – in fact, wind farms produce, on average, less than 30% of their nameplate capacity, often at times of low demand and low electricity prices. Not one conventional power plant has been replaced by wind – the old reliables stay there, incurring maintenance costs, because they are still needed as backup for the many times when there is zero wind power. In cold still weather, wind turbines actually consume power from the grid to keep them from freezing up – they are better at harvesting subsidies than harvesting wind. This unpredictable waxing and waning of the wind also increases the chances of sudden brownouts and surges on electricity networks.

Wind power harms the environment. Because of the large area of land needed to collect low-density wind energy, wind power requires more land-clearing, needs more transmission lines, kills more wildlife, lights more bushfires and uglifies more landscape per unit of electricity than conventional power. And the sub-sonic whine of the turbines drives neighbours batty and devalues local properties.

Like hydro-power, wind power is limited, with few suitable sites. And every wind turbine slows the wind, thus reducing the wind energy available to any downwind turbines. It is “renewable” but it is not unlimited.

Wind power is justified by claims that it reduces emissions and thus reduces global warming. However, when all the steel, concrete, construction, roads, transmission lines, backup, maintenance, replacement and rehabilitation are taken into account, wind power contributes nothing to reducing emissions or changing global climate.

However wind turbines DO change the local weather. Wind is the major component of weather. Winds bring moisture to the inland, dilute and clear pollution from the cities, and change air temperatures everywhere. Wind towers rob the wind of its energy, affecting local wind speeds and changing local weather patterns, and the more there are, the greater the effect.

Wind power is an expensive, intermittent and limited energy source that degrades the environment, kills birds, but does nothing to improve global climate.

There should be no special subsidies, tax breaks, market mandates or regulations for any energy technology – all should compete on an equal basis and all consumers should be free to choose their supplier.

Wind energy should be paid for by those who want it, not by captive taxpayers or electricity consumers.

Gillard/Swan loot pensioner’s bank account

Cartoon: By Pickering 

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder. – Frederic Bastiat

For many years the federal government has claimed the right to seize the contents of bank accounts that have been inactive for more than seven years.  These funds go into general revenue and are spent, although there are provisions for it to be reclaimed by the owner.

Late last year with the budget in disarray, it was decided to loot any accounts that had not been accessed for three years.  This allows it to gain immediate access to any funds in such accounts four years earlier in bulk up to the seven-year mark including those that would have been accessed during that time.

This has been a disaster for 75-year-old pensioner, Adrian Duffy who with his wife saved up $22,616 in an account dedicated to future medical needs and left it there untouched until it was needed. Mr. Duffy had a heart bypass operation and after coming out of hospital, found that the government had stolen his money: 

The Australian Bankers' Association has accused the Government of putting its "own financial circumstances" ahead of customers' needs, leaving them facing "months of delays trying to reclaim their own money". 

ASIC says the money can be claimed "at any time by the rightful owner", but banks have pointed out the process can take as long as six weeks. 

Toowong resident Adrian Duffy is now looking at a lengthy battle to have his savings restored.  The 75-year-old spent 21 days in hospital following quintuple heart bypass surgery and a second operation in April.  When he and his wife, 57-year-old Mary-Jane, went to check their Suncorp account, they discovered their balance had plummeted from $22,616 to zero. A note on the May 1 entry read: "Closing WDL Govt unclaimed monies." 

The couple had saved for 14 years in preparation for major health-related costs.Suncorp claims a letter was sent at the end of March notifying the account - held in Mrs. Duffy's name - had been inactive for more than three years and would be closed if no action was taken.  It says attempts were made to call the couple on April 16, followed by an "account closed" letter on April 30. 

Mr and Mrs. Duffy are adamant they received no warnings of the closure of the account.  "I called it stealing," Mr Duffy said. 

"My understanding of the definition of stealing is to take something without somebody's knowledge and not tell them. As far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what happened - (the Government) took it without telling us." 

The couple are working to recover the money, but say they were lucky to have other savings.  "If we didn't have the money elsewhere, we would now have to be paying for cardiologists, visits to surgeons, ECGs, x-rays, whatever is involved in the follow up," he said. 

"We would have to find money to pay them, because those people aren't going to say to you, 'we'll wait six weeks'.

Ironically, the Treasury claims these ‘reforms’ were designed to "help reunite Australians with their lost money sooner, and protect them from being eroded by fees, charges and inflation." The spin team must have really pulled out all the stops to come up with that one.

The good news for the Duffy’s is that Suncorp has restored the account as a ‘one off’ action due to their circumstances and they’re being good customers over the years.  They will work with the Duffy’s to reclaim the original amount.

There was a time not so long ago, when you could leave your change on the bar while you went for a piss and could expect it to be there when you returned.  Those days are long gone, even in provincial towns.

In those days though, the law was there to protect your belongings from theft.  These days the law is there to do the stealing.

The moral of the story is “Keep your hand on your wallet if the government is around.”

The secret of efficient government?

Image: By The late Stan Cross

I just pinched this one off Ronnie Manners, it’s irresistible, (although a few Poms might disagree):

Julia Gillard met with the Queen in England . She asked her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?" 

"Well," said the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people." 

Julia frowned, and then asked, "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?" 

The Queen took a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy; you just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." 

The Queen pushed a button on her intercom. 

"Please send David Cameron in here, would you?"David Cameron walked into the room and said, "Yes, Your Majesty?" 

The Queen smiled and said, "Answer me this please, David, your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?" 

Without pausing for a moment, David Cameron answered, "That would be me.""Yes! Very good," said the Queen. 

Julia went back home to Australia and asked Wayne Swan, her Deputy Prime Minister the same question.   "Wayne , answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?" 

"I'm not sure," said Wayne . "Let me get back to you on that one." He went to his advisors and asked everyone, but none could give him an answer. 

Finally, he ended up in the men's room and recognized Tony Abbott's shoes in the next stall. 

Wayne asked, "Tony, can you answer this for me? Your mother and Father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?" 

Tony yelled back, "That's easy, it's me!" 

Wayne smiled, and said, "Thanks!" Then, he went back to speak with Julia."Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's Tony Abbott" 

Julia got up, stomped over to Swan, and angrily yelled into his face, "No, You idiot! It's the English Prime Minister, David Cameron!"

Sacked IRS chief gets grilled

It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well disposed, industrious, and decent men. – HL Menken

It was somewhat difficult to decide whether to use the Menken quote above, or Joseph Sobran’s “Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what your government is doing to you.” 

American conservatives and libertarians are discovering just what excesses their government and it’s agencies is prepared to do to them in one of the latest scandals to hit the administration; the targeting of conservative PACs by the IRS.

 Rep Kelly (R-PA) while grilling former IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, who appears to be the fall guy for that action stated what we have long believed, “This kind of reconfirms that, you know what! They [the IRS] can do almost anything they want to anybody they want anytime they want. This is very chilling for the American people:”

 

Northern Territory politician’s way out Jolie rant

 It sounds like Northern Territory politician Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe hasn’t been getting enough attention lately, or perhaps is self-absorbed enough to think his comments on movie stars activities are relevant.  Mr van Holthe (Left) has come out with an over the action of Angelina Jolie (Right) in having a double mastectomy being regarded as ‘heroic:’ 

A NORTHERN Territory minister has come under fire on Facebook after bizarrely weighing in on Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy.  Country Liberal Party member and MP for Katherine, Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe sparked a flurry of angry Facebook responses after posting this on news.com.au's Facebook page last night:

Mr Westra van Holthe was referring to a story in which Brad Pitt called his fiancee "heroic" and praised her decision to undergo the radical surgery after discovering she carried the breast cancer gene that killed her mother at 56. 

Pitt was quoted saying: "Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie's choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus.

The press are a little overenthusiastic in handing out hero labels to celebrities be it Hollywood stars or gay sportsmen, but at least it saves them from the dilemma presented in finding them in the ranks of the great unwashed.  On the other hand in this case it is somewhat churlish to criticize.

Jolie essentially carried out a preemptive action to prevent the high risk she carried of contracting breast cancer.  While this was probably a difficult and emotional decision to make, it was probably the most sensible one available to her.  A great many women with breast cancer though have difficulty in coping with radical surgery despite the almost certainty of death otherwise.

Her action in announcing her action to the public will give many women encouragement to do what is needed in that situation and may save many lives in the long run.  She deserves to be congratulated on that, not hauled over the coals or have her contribution to women’s health belittled as has happened here.

We wish her well.

(Ed note): Mr van Holthe’s image (above) was taken after a fight in a pub.

Fix the Budget by Cutting Climate Waste

Media Statement by Viv Forbes

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition. http://carbon-sense.com/  

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the federal government to reduce the burden of the Climate Industry on all taxpayers and consumers.

The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the biggest national scandal today was how the whole government apparatus, including the nationalised research and media industries and parts of the opposition, was totally captive to a religious belief that a destructive war on carbon energy will somehow provide benefits to some future generation of Australians by cooling the climate and preventing extreme weather events.

 “This is a delusion.”

Quote: 

It was the great Milton Friedman who said “There is only one tax on the people and that is government spending”.

Cutting expenditure, not re-arranging expenditure, must be the total focus of this budget.

And the first candidate for spending cuts must be the totally useless Climate Change Industry.

Every department, program, research grant, travel grant or salary with climate, warming, carbon, sustainability, renewable, sequestration, clean coal, ethanol or IPCC in its title or mission statement should be abolished forthwith together with its staffing. This list must include but not be restricted to:

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) and its dependants, saving about $3.2 billion.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, saving about $10 billion.

The Emerging Renewables Program, saving about $126 million.

The Clean Technology Innovation Program, saving about $200 million.

Subsidies to Coal-fired electricity generators, saving about $5.5 billion. (This has to be the ultimate madness - the government levies a crippling carbon tax on coal-fired electricity generation to force them to close and then pays huge subsidies to the same generators to delay their closure).

All Climate Change “Research” focussed on carbon dioxide, saving about $300 million.

 “Contracts for Closure” - payments to ensure closure of some electricity generators (unbelievable - surely the carbon tax will do this).

The Coal Sector Jobs Package - payments to coal mines to offset the cost of the carbon tax- just abolish the tax.

Coal Sector Assistance Package - Subsidies to some Coal Mines (another stupidity - repaying some of the carbon tax they took in the first place).

Everything funded under the Clean Energy Future Plan.

All renewable energy subsidies.

The Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund.

The Ethanol Production Grants Program – a subsidy per litre of ethanol produced.

All climate change officials, lawyers, inspectors and auditors everywhere, maybe 13,000 of them saving, say, $2 billion per year.

The offices of the Climate Commissioner and the Clean Energy Regulator – whatever they cost is wasted money.

The whole Carbon Capture and Storage empire – The National Low Emissions Coal Initiative, the CCS Flagships Program, the National Carbon Dioxide Infrastructure Plan, and the Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.

Support for all the International Climate Forums and Conferences via APEC, CEM, G20, IEA, IEF, IPEEC, IRENA, IPCC and all the travel costs associated with attendance.

All handouts under the Green Precincts Fund - $15M spent to date.

All government advertising, market research, media monitoring, media advisers and logo designers promoting the carbon tax, the Department of Climate Change, smart meters or other climate and green energy initiatives.

Donations to Green Friends such as the Climate Institute, the Australian Conservation Council, Climate Works Australia, Green Cross Australia, and the ACTU - $3 million spent already.

To “balance” all of these reduced expenditures the government must also abolish the carbon tax and all fuel taxes not related directly to public road usage and applied to road construction and maintenance.

Note: The above list probably includes errors, double counting and omissions, but such is the confusion and proliferation of the alphabet soup of what poses as “Climate Policy” that it is doubtful if anyone could prepare an accurate and comprehensive list. The only feasible solution is to start cutting, biggest first. None of them will be missed, except with relief by taxpayers and consumers.

(Ed note: This was meant for yesterday prior to the budget but Google refused to load for some reason.)