I’m headed for Wagga Wagga, the carbon tax capital of NSW.

This week’s column reviewer is Shaohong Y., who emails:

Oh Timmy your articles are so witty and funny. “Union boy”, something my 8 year old would say in the schoolyard.

Only eight years old and already the kid is making fun of unionists. I’m impressed. Speaking of Monday’s column, here’s treasurer Wayne Swan in Canberra the following day.

Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes claims:

we correct errors on air.

Really, Jonathan? Really and for true? Holmes the Errorless is currently dealing with hostility from SBS’s Dateline program, Joe Hildebrand and Correllio:

Quite so.

The Australian National University has released those alleged death threats made against climate sciency folk.

The Prime Minister keeps it real:

Julia Gillard yesterday targeted Mr Abbott, portraying him as a “cosseted” silvertail, living on Sydney’s north shore and out of touch with “real families” …

Later, in question time, she targeted him again: “It is only those who are cosseted on Sydney’s north shore that could fail to realise working families need relief.”

Gillard is hitting real families with a real carbon tax. Abbott has vowed to scrap it. Who’s doing more to help?

Crown prosecutor Ron Davies QC opens the case against three Indonesian men accused of people smuggling:

Mr Davies said conditions were “squalid”, with “very little food” and “enough water” to last the journey.

Witnesses would describe how Rasjid ordered them, just before the SIEV 221 arrived off Christmas Island, to “rip up their passports” and throw the pieces overboard, along with their mobile phones and navigation equipment – including a global positioning system – used on the voyage.

Mr Davies said everyone on board knew they were going to Australia, and each of the three crew had been offered 20 million rupiah – just over $2000 at the time – with a 1 million rupiah cash advance to cover expenses.

He said they knew they were doing something “illegal” and were told they might be sent to jail in Australia, but would only be locked up “for three months”.

The case continues. All three accused men have pleaded not guilty.

No comments.

I work Sundays so tend not to go out much on Saturday nights. Friend Pete was annoyed by me declining an invitation to his place last Saturday, and via email attempted further negotiations:

It’s not going to be massive. Not a big party at all (seriously).

Caught up with tequila-loving Pete on Tuesday. His party was still firing at 3am.

Via reader Kirill Pogorelov, stunning images of the Soviet Army during WWII. And here’s a gallery demonstrating how communist East Germany was repaired.

A vile case is closed:

Six members of a gang who preyed on under-age white girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester have become the first in Britain to be convicted of sex trafficking …

The paedophiles who paid small sums of money for the frequently violent encounters were predominantly British Pakistanis.

Of the 11 defendants on trial at Liverpool Crown Court, 10 were Pakistani and the other an Afghan asylum seeker.

Incredibly:

Greater Manchester Police had the chance to move in on the gang when their first victim said she had twice been raped. But the force “regrettably” failed to take their investigation further.

It was another two years before they carried out a second wave of arrests that led to today’s convictions.

Why did it take so long for police to act? Nigel Bunyan reports:

The issue of predominantly Pakistani men seeking out under-age white girls for sex is perhaps the most uncomfortable to face British society for generations.

In recent years police forces and social work departments across Britain have generally failed to tackle it for fear of being seen as racist.

Instead, they have cited official figures that paint a more generalised picture of sex gangs springing up in a variety of ethnic communities.

But the reality is that in pockets across Britain vulnerable white teenagers are being groomed and then trafficked to satisfy the cravings of Asian men, the vast majority of them Pakistani.

At least a few people saw the crimes instead of the possible racial issues:

The investigation was only revived after Nazir Afzal was appointed chief crown prosecutor for North West England and examined the file …

“There is a particular problem with groups of Pakistani men who think white girls are worthless,” said Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation. “They think they can use and abuse these girls in this abhorrent sort of way and then discard them.”

All you need to know about the 2012 federal budget:

• The bacon tax has increased.

• The duty-free tobacco allowance has been cut from 250 cigarettes to just 50.

UPDATE. No need for pork rage:

A spokeswoman for Australian Pork said speculation the levy was a bacon tax had “the pig by the wrong end”. The group’s CEO, Andrew Spencer, said the extra revenue would go straight back to funding the industry body.

“This levy will not change the retail price of pork and pork products,” he said.

“Whilst the government does collect the levy on industry’s behalf, it passes it straight through to APL making it a budget neutral item.”

Inclusion of the levy in budget papers is a simple formality, according to Spencer.

Leftist brain zone The Global Mail hits trouble:

Just 14 weeks after the launch of Australia’s newest media venture, its editor, Monica Attard, is out.

Ms Attard, a former ABC foreign correspondent and Mediawatch presenter, was installed last year as editor-in-chief of The Global Mail, an online magazine devoted to independent journalism and backed by a philanthropist multimillionaire. The website launched in February.

She is understood to have lost out in a power struggle at the fledgling media operation to chief executive Jane Nicholls and the site’s backer Wotif founder, Graeme Wood.

The over-designed $15 million fancy-pants project isn’t getting great numbers. Nobody knows why.

Labor MP Graham Perrett following the release yesterday of Fair Work Australia’s Craig Thomson report:

Not sure if there would ever be a good day to mention this, BUT, I just found a pair of trousers in a Parliament House corridor. What the?

Thanks to Graham Readfearn, we now have a full description of the threat against climate scientists that was so terrible it could not be published by the Canberra Times. But first, further details from Readfearn on the deadly torment endured by our climate science community:

I understand there were several incidents at the ANU in early 2010. On two separate occasions, individuals had walked into institute premises demanding to see particular staff members. Both individuals were acting “aggressively” Professor Steffen said. The institute’s offices were on the ground floor with open access with no security restrictions. The institute’s website had also been subjected to what Prof Steffen described as a “cyber attack”.

At the same time, other climate scientists at other institutions had been receiving abusive messages and emails.

So a couple of “aggressive” people turned up two years ago and the usual email and web nonsense happened. This, although regrettable, is nothing out of the ordinary for anyone halfway prominent in public affairs (me included). And now we come to the moment so chilling that even a battle-hardened Fairfax science and environment reporter couldn’t bring herself to divulge it:

There was an incident at an ANU public engagement event where a climate sceptic who had been invited to attend had become frustrated. During an exchange, the individual had showed what he claimed was a gun licence to people sitting at the table, before claiming he was a “good shot”. The individual is understood to have left voluntarily.

That’s … it? The big scary threat is someone with a gun licence who claimed to be a good shot? It’s probably news to the sort of people who attend “ANU public engagements”, but every single person who has ever held a gun licence claims to be a good shot. Hell, so does almost everybody who has ever held a gun. This, people, is apparently what the Canberra Times described as the “worst threat [Will Steffen] received”. Readfearn continues:

Whether or not any of these incidents constitute a “death threat” is, to me at least, beside the point.

Of course it is. Because they aren’t death threats.

The only benefit of NSW’s drought – now officially over, by the way – was that it brought native birds into our cities. Magpies and kookaburras swarmed urban areas seeking food and water.

Like many in Sydney, I took to feeding our tuneful visitors. They loved meat scraps. Observing their antics became an afternoon obsession, especially when a madrigal of magpies happened by. These expressive birds turn on a show worth paying for.

One memorable scene, if replicated by humans, would have provoked a five-alarm response from the Department of Community Services.

Continue reading 'BIRD NOISES'

Workplace minister Bill Shorten’s important union-related announcements are frequently denied proper attention due to unfortunate timing. Sadly, his run of bad luck is set to continue, as this exclusive glimpse into Minister Shorten’s 2012 diary reveals:

• June 11: The minister informs the press about latest developments in the Toddler and Baby Cuddlers’ Union hantavirus controversy.

• July 27: An important announcement regarding the bloody 30-day siege at AWU headquarters.

• September 29: As members of the Federated Picklers’ Association make good their vow to dose vegetable stocks with ricin, the Minister has a statement for the media.

• November 6: Workplace minister Shorten welcomes questions following last week’s bombing of Parliament by the National Society of Knitwear Menders.

• December 25: Revelations that Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe is funding union death squads across Australia are cause for concern, says Bill Shorten.

• December 30: The minister demands full and frank answers over the arrests two months ago of senior union officials for selling female staff to North Korea.