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During the eleven year run of the previous government we saw an end to the wholesale influx of boat people that invaded our shores during the Hawke and Keating years. Now that Labor is back in office, complete with their toothless Department of Homeland Security, scores of boat people are once again invading our nation. Whilst there is no doubt that most of these people simply want to live in a better country there is the chance that some of these people could be terrorists or other major criminals. Is Labor adequately protecting Australia's borders from illegal arrivals? The answer to that question is NO.

The Forum

Justice for unsuccessful burglar

This should be a regular occurrence. A retired soldier from the Royal Engineers in Great Britain got up to investigate noise at the other end of his house when confronted by a burglar who tried to have a go at him with a knife.

The soldier, who was a boxer in the featherweight division during his term of service, returned fire with two sharp jabs to the burglar's face, leaving him battered and bruised.

In court the defentant's solicitor rose and told the magistrate that his client looked like a car accident. However the magistrate is reported to have been unmoved by the solicitor's graphic description, ignoring it completey when sentencing the burglar to four months in gaol.

Now the question we have to ask ourselves is why this doesn't happen more often? It should be perfectly reasonable for a burglar to expect to have his head knocked off by a resident if they break into their house. Once that glass breaks the burglar should lose all their rights and liberties. No burglar is in a sub-conscious state when committing a crime - they always make a conscious decision to go ahead and they should take whatever comes. This retired soldier was doing his job - he's the man of the house and the job of the man of the house is to protect all occupants within, even if his own safety is in jeopardy.

My hat goes off to the bloke and also the magistrate who gave out a much greater sentence than a burglar in Australia usually gets.

Written at 17:46 on 1 July 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
Posted in the Society section. Comments: 0 · Chat Live ·

How do they get away with it?

The NSW Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal is currently considering new perks that have been requested by Members, including a $77.55 per day meal allowance, $20,000 per annum travel allowance for Members living in Western Sydney and a $40,000 redundancy payout for those elected to Parliament and later disendorsed by their party.

None of the above should be granted. At a time when the state of NSW is $42bn in debt and has a budget deficit of $2.5bn hanging over its head the last thing we should be considering is giving the arseholes that got the state into such a mess a larger reward for it.

I have no objection to politicians being well-paid however before this happens they should be made to get the state out of debt and infrastructure construction and maintenance programmes back on track.

By rights, politicians should not even have a means of being able to apply for these allowances. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could all go to our boss and demand they pay for our meals, travel arrangements and then look after us if we do a lousy job?

There is clearly a lack of requirement for politicians to be accountable to the electorate if all their careers amount to is having them make sure they profit from the experience no matter what.

Written at 09:15 on 30 June 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
Posted in the Politics section. Comments: 0 · Chat Live ·

Some cab drivers should be sacked on the spot

This afternoon I was on way to see the doctor and I passed by an old lady hopping out of a cab. She stopped me and asked for directions to a particular street and was quite horrified when I told her that it was about 40 minutes' walk or 10 minutes if she got on the next bus.

As it stands, the cab driver simply didn't know where to drop her off so he lied to her to solve the problem with his lack of knowledge of the lower north shore.

What ever happened to cab drivers sitting exams in local knowledge? The street the lady was looking for is a street I knew of but hadn't been down for at least 15 years. Yet I hadn't forgotten where it was. Unfortunately I didn't have a vehicle with me at the time so I was not able to help her. She had to trundle back to the shops and get in another cab.

Mind you, not all cab drivers are stupid. I used a cab the other day for a short distance. The driver knew where to take me, his cab was clean, his uniform was clean and pressed and the air conditioning was set to an ideal temperature. I let him keep the change from the banknote I gave him. Sadly, very few cabbies are as enthusiastic about their job and many simply don't try to impress at all.

When someone is paying more than $1.00 per kilometre for cab travel they expect some service, a clean cab and a polite driver. Those drivers not even prepared to get the street directory out to find a street should be sacked until their general knowledge and their attitude towards their job improves.

Written at 16:42 on 29 June 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
Posted in the Society section. Comments: 0 · Chat Live ·

Utegate scandal has come to a head

Question Time in the House of Representatives did not go ahead this afternoon. It was suspended to allow debate on the Utegate Affair to continue. In fact as I write the House has just ajourned for the day and the Sergeant At Arms has just carried the Mace from the chamber.

In recent days Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has alleged that an e-mail from the Prime Minister's office to a Queensland car dealer who is a personal friend of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was sent and it contained a question about preferential treatment for the car dealer with regard to the $2bn OzCar Fund, money set aside to assist car dealers displaced by the exit of General Electric and General Motors Acceptance Corporation from the Australian finance market.

As many will by now know, the Australian Federal Police accessed a number of computers today by warrant and the e-mail that the Opposition alleged to have existed was found. The Feds believe however that the e-mail was forged but are not aware of who created it. This means that the Prime Minister may well be in the clear though the same probably cannot be said for the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, who still has some explaining to do.

Whilst all this means that it looks like Mr Turnbull jumped the gun a bit - the essence of the whole saga is that the allegation that Mr Swan deceived the Parliament when questioned about his dealings with the Queensland car dealer who has sold him a vehicle and also provided Mr Rudd with a free ute, complete with electoral advertising banners.

The problem with all this is that if the e-mail was found by the police to be genuine it would have rocked the government to its foundations. Tomorrow, Julia Gillard would be Prime Minister (God help us!) and the treasurer would probably be Simon Crean, who was the Minister for Unemployment in the old Keating Government up until 1996. Then again, we are already in recession - can it get any worse?

Over the next few days the fine detail of the Utegate Affair is going to unfold and things will become easier for people to understand. Until then the big question will remain: Who's head will roll first?

I think the best way of dealing with the problem in the long term is that politicians stop receiving gifts. No matter how innocent it looks at the time, future handshakes, deals and even correspondence can escalate these otherwise harmless transactions to the point where responsible government stops and is replaced by a great deal of arse-covering and demands for apologies and resignations.

Even if Mr Turnbull turns out to be wrong, he still had a duty as the leader of the alternative government to shine light on the affair and in doing so hold Messrs Rudd and Swan accountable for their actions - alleged or otherwise.

Written at 22:20 on 22 June 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
Posted in the Politics section. Comments: 0 · Chat Live ·

Get out!

On Thursday Night, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (The Greens) brought her two year old daughter into the chamber whilst a division was in progress and seemed to expect to be allowed to keep her child with her during and after the division.

There are a few obvious problems with this and Senate President John Hogg felt so too, asking Senator Hanson-Young to remove the child. When she refused a Senate attendant took the child to the other side of the chamber doors.

Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, did the usual Greens thing - he rose in his place and let out his usual left-wing bleating about how infants should be excepted from the Senate's standing orders. The standing orders are only part of the issue here. By standing order and Westminster tradition - only Senators and Officers of the Parliament are permitted on the floor of the Senate during a session. Even the police are not permitted inside, which is one of the reasons why the chamber is guarded by The Usher of the Black Rod - the Officer charged with the responsibility of keeping order in the Senate.

I am sick and tired of The Greens continually stretching the friendship. It seems to be a proud Greens pastime to show disrepect for authority, disrespect for tradition and disrespect for order.

There is no place for anyone who is not an Officer of the Parliament or an elected representative on the floor of any Parliamentary chamber in Australia - no place at all. Senator Hanson-Young is well-paid for her position in the Senate so it is now time for her to arrange some child care for her daughter and stop bringing the role of the Parliament into disrepute.

The hopefully soon-to-be-bankrupt Senator Brown should shut his stupid neck too. If Senator Brown is declared bankrupt due to his failure to pay legal fees to the Forestry Commission then the court that makes the order will be doing democracy in Australia a big favour.

Senator Hogg is in order. He made the right decision to have Senator Hanson-Young's child removed from the chamber. Senator Hogg admits he could have handled the situation better, using his words, though I can't see how. What he did was right. Senator Hanson-Young's child should not have been brought into the chamber in the first place.

Written at 17:33 on 19 June 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
Posted in the Politics section. Comments: 0 · Chat Live ·