The National Water Initiative?Can anyone find a shred of detail on the commonwealth takeover of the Murray-Darling Basin, weve seen bizarre consortiums of various states mixed with farmers federations and lobby groups all going hammer and tongs on a plan which seems to be absent of any detail. I heard on the radio this morning a representative of the Victorian Farmers Federation complaining that this plan is nothing more than a backdoor method of privatising the entire basin, while Malcolm Turnbull has insisted repeated that privatisation is completely off the books. Rice growers are threatening cotton farmers, cotton farmers are waving sticks at various state and federal agencies, cats are performing cunnilingus on dogs, but I cant quite figure out why when no details beyond rumour and innuendo are before anyone besides the state leaders and the commonwealth.
The plan had been a "long time in the making" and subject to expert analysis, Mr Turnbull said. "A lot of thought went into it, a lot of calculation and assessment went into it, a lot of people were consulted," he said.
But what the fuck is it? Is it $10 billion over ten years for all states to split (including WA and the Northern Territory), or just specific to the four states that have the Basin? Who is going to be the overseers of the project? Will it turn into another exercise in pure federal pork barreling with the majority of the money being targeted to buy votes in marginal electorates like so many grand iniatives from this Federal bank of mellifluous skanks? Will it be as transparently guided as the current situation where we, the people who are meant to be judging the rights and wrongs of the project, are left with a million blanks to fill in, but told that this is so important that it will only be once in our lifetimes that this opportunity will come about? And if this is so important (and it is important) why the god almighty hurry to get an agreement on an agreement which to me looks like a lot of hastily scrawled signatures on a blank sheet of paper.
As the Labor members at estimates in the Senate rightly asked, IR uber reformer (dont tell anyone about plans for after the next election) Nick Minchin, if a $225, 000 peice of pork was discussed in cabinet and treasury, why wasnt this $10 billion legislation discussed by those two erstwhile bodies?
And what happened to the November water iniative the premiers and PM signed up to and loudly trumpeted by the PM as australias water savior? Why were the premiers signing onto an agreement that the PM said was already outmoded as his relevant departments were privately working on this agreement while they scribbled the ink on the other? What kind of mess is this Federal Government really in when the most important, once in a lifetime scheme, just looks more and more like what many have descibed it as, legislation worked out on the back of a cigarette packet.
Would you trust this Federal Government with anything like the blanket powers they are seeking, with such little detail provided, with no secure oversight, with no review, no sunset clause, no appeal, no ...well, anything that may actually resemble a plan other than a wink and a grin of "you can trust us, were very trustable" Like fuck. If this agreement is so important, it needs at least a bit of public input and time to digest the details and comment. It really is the least we should expect. It is important, vital for the the eastern seaboards future, and I demand some answers, and the death by firing squad of that dipshit, Christopher Pyne. And I want them now. When the last few years plans to improve the health of that most beautiful of creatures, The Murray (and her equally stunning tributaries), have so far yeilded 0% of their outcomes, what hope do you give this current plan of working? Its pure ugly grandstanding politics in an election year, led by the man who makes love to cameras like Browyn Bishop at a press convention, Malcolm "Flashbulb Smile" Turnbull.
The Age interviewed Australia's top water experts — economists, environmental scientists, irrigation specialists — about the PM's proposal. Like Bracks, all noted the lack of detail and the back-of-the-envelope whiff about a plan that did not pass under the nose of cabinet. But almost all said it contained the right sentiments about putting the system on sustainable footing.
Three major problems emerged:
_ The plan does not properly separate water and politics.
_ There are significant concerns about whether the $6 billion in infrastructure improvements will be well spent.
_ Doubts exists about the ability of the Federal Government to administer the system and make the tough calls.
John Kissupkickdown Bolton
I am getting as little tired of the plethora of governement ministers and extreme "conservatives" eg Dik Morris and fuckstiks like John Bolton being given excessive air time on Lateline, especially when they are not challenged by Tony Jones on the utter shit they spread.
Bolton, one of those who agressively pushed for the Invasion, still refuse to acknowledge a single mistake out of the myriad that they made in the war, insisting on such utter shit as
"the threat that Saddam posed, was having broken free of UN sanctions and UN inspectors would he have returned to possessing weapons of mass destruction and would he be a threat in the region and around the world?"
So, even tho all the evidence points to the UN weapons inspectors haveing done a more than brilliant job, Bolton still pushes the WMD line as though invasion was the only possible way. I thought he would trot out the "mushroom cloud" illusion.
He pushed the same old tired lines of 9/11 links to Saddam, the same myths that have permeated and perpetuated this entire sad fiasco. What the fuck are Saddam's "nuclear Mujahadine", what kind of bullshit delusion is this lackey living. He then pushes the latest Bush barrow about iran having been pursuing nuclear weapons for the last 20 years, which is utter shit, as Ayatollah Khomhemy, called the nuclear industry evil and shut down the entire industry.
Jones did not once call Bolton on his complete fuck up of the North Korean talks. Bolton was the first Bush appointee to head talks with Nth Korea, and walked into the talks with a very simple, very agressive delusion to beat the Nth Koreans about the head with, namely that every thing they said was a complete lie. He repeated his bullshit last night as though it were a fact:
We have estimated and indeed others have estimated North Korea's probably had nuclear weapons since the early to mid 1990s, so what has happened in the past six years has been a playing out of a strategy that North Korea has also been pursuing for decades.
Now I dont trust Nth Korea, but there was absolutely no proof whatsoever to the above statements, it was just a neo-con dreamed up fabrication used to justify the breaking of Clinton era agreements and halt all talks with the North. Foriegn Affairs magazine (a very conservative, in the old sense, mag) wrote of what a complete fool bolton was and of how he undermined the talks a couple of years back, refuting all of Boltons lies and basically blaming Bolton for the failure of US policy in the region. The man deserves to be more than sidelined in any debate, he needs to be trashed from the moment he opens his frothing, warmongering lips.
Basra, Shining jewel in the success that is Iraq.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2296829.ece
And who could ever forget our wonderful defence minister Brendon "Mr ALP" Nelson, lowering the bar for success in Iraq yet again, "victory" is now not possible, in fact should not be spoken of ever again. Just how low do we need to go before we declare that complete catastrophy is the surest sign that we are indeed winning. If you shit in my hand and call it candy, dont expect me to eat it.
now onto Iran:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/11/fakhravar.html
The National Water Initiative?
John Kissupkickdown Bolton
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