A draft risk assessment report on the dangers of allowing gun use in 79 NSW national parks has been leaked to the Fairfax press.
The report alerts NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to the serious dangers to human life and well-being if hunters are allowed into national parks:
The Draft Risk Assessment, produced by the Office of Environment and Heritage and dated December 10, 2012, lists groups at risk from ”projectiles causing death and serious injury to people” as parks workers and visitors, including ”families, special user groups, remote visitors”. Hunters, whether shooting by permit or illegally, are also at risk, as well as ”neighbours” with properties that border the 2 million hectares of parkland to be opened to hunters.
The 59-page document said the risks to these groups was ”major and the likelihood as possible … giving a risk rating of high”.
Mr O’Farrell personally negotiated a deal in May that resulted in the Shooters and Fishers Party supporting the government’s $3 billion electricity generator privatisation in return for access to national parks for amateur hunters.
Let Barry O’Farrell know straight away how you feel about guns in our national parks.
Twitter: @barryofarrell
Phone: (02) 9487 8588
(02) 9228 5239
Fax: (02) 9487 8550
(02) 9228 3935
Email: office@premier.nsw.gov.au
kuringai@parliament.nsw.gov.au
We don’t want amateur hunters armed with guns in our national parks. It’s barbaric, Barry. It’s dangerous. It’s a threat to human life. And it’s your responsibility.
No Place For Sheep 
Bugger!
What is wrong with this thing?
Ok, in the disappeared post was going to say how many nutty right wing policies of different types get taken out US rightist think tanks, holus bolus, unthinking.
The only surprise is that this was done so soon after the spate of murderous killings in the USA, typically another trait involved in this sort of politics, the empathy gap that comes with conservative politics shows like an infected toe.
Yes, they are also trying to rip up or sell off the parks system the USA on a more virulent form of the malady, in the red states, give it time.
Monkey see, Monkey do.
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Hardly surprising it is leaked now, is it – the deal was done months ago to get Fatty O’Barrell’s privatisation through. But now is a great time to leak it, hard on the heels of the latest massacre.
The gun lobby in Australia is rather pathetic compared with the US version, but it has some measure of leverage in the NSW Upper House, due to the numbers.
O’Barrell would regain some community support if he walked away from the Shooters and Fishers deal; it would be like Shooting Fish in a Barrell right now.
:))
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After seeing the NRA moron belittle the death of 20 children and six adults, as per the latest massacre I can only acknowledge that their call for attacking the root cause of gun massacres,
“lunatics gone mad’, I agree with them that is is time to take action.Given in its speech they have amply demonstrated the main core of the NRA is where the bilk gun loonies reside I suggest they close themselves down forthwith.
I have never heard such dangerous rhetoric and denial in my life.
This is the NRAs last stand and they know it.I can see this ending in bloodshed.
I don’t know what the Australian gun lobby are holding over O’Farrell’s head, but I’ll bet it resembles a form of bullying or an offer too good to refuse.The concept of shooters in NPs is so deranged I cannot comprehend it.It is the work of a psychopath.
The good news is there will be no parks eventually because the conservatives states will be letting the loggers in if they get re-elected.QLD has already begun to,by tearing up RFA’s and allocating more forest to the axe-men.Every other state is close to the bottom of the barrel for old growth and large native trees.
The NP’s are the only big trees left.
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EDIT
bulk gun loonies
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Some ex-judge (Texan?) said that if the teacher had been armed she could have gotten Lanza’s head before he had time to do anything; arm the teachers, this is America, Annie get your gun…
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I’d be happy enough to let them (the yanks) ‘self regulate’ by way of natural selection,Second Amendment style, were it not for the slaughter of children and the fact that the sleazy gun culture is now fully entrenched here in OZ.
I fear it may be too late as the clock ticks away and we get closer to the deadly cocktail of meth and high powered guns everywhere.The customs smuggling and Sydney shootings are an omen,I fear.
Shooting in NPs should be challenged in the courts.I think it could fail.
And, either way, if an accident, or worse, does happen linked to this stupid idea,O’Farrell’s a*se is charcoal.
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Yes, the children,and I’m thinking of all those Christmas presents that the parents have wrapped up lovingly for their seven year old, who are not there to open them up…
Yet one couple from Sandihook was worried about house prices going down because of the shooting…. a strange country.
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Oh, I don’t know Helvi; the peaceloving citizens of USA will be giving their kiddies their first assault rifle for Christmas.
After all, the only way to stop a baddie with a gun is with a goodie with a bigger gun.
Or so they say.
Just issuing the teachers with M4s or M16s has the intriguing possibility of a teacher snapping and blowing away the kiddies; but teachers might think twice if every kiddie has his or her own weapon under the desk.
A scenario :
Herman (age 7 ) : “I got in trouble at school today, mummy.”
Mummy : “What happened?”
“Mummy, one of the boys called me a sissy!”
“Well, what did you do?”
“Blew him away, of course! That mother****** couldn’t even get his AK47 out of his desk!”
Mummy : “Wow, Herman that’s great!”
“But I got detention!”
Mummy : “That’s a shame, dear; I’ll tell Daddy how well you’re doing at school, he’ll soon sort out that teacher”
And so it will go . . .
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DQ, I suppose you are right, the parents are wrapping up guns right now…for Herman and for Chuck too, who is only five.
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They come up with some strange stuff in some parts, over there. Solution to gun problem: more guns!
How dare they try to turn teachers into guards, aliens, homicides or even infanticides, in their bizarre quest for a Western Theocratic version of Stalinism.
I fear they are a lost cause.
Some of you may have read a marvellous futuristic novel by Margaret Attwood, “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
If not, please, recommended reading, it is a spectacular ideas machine that’s so relevant to understanding this story and one or two others about the aether just now.
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I have read most of her books, Handmaid’s Tale is very good, went to see her once with my Canadian friend in Sydney…
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-22/three-shot-dead-as-gun-reform-debate-intensifies/4441598
It’s all Hollywood’s fault.
BTW guns in the forest?
Ask the families of the Belangalo murders, what they think of the idea of a couple of young back packers coming across a few horny pig hunters,armed to the teeth,pissed as crickets, in the middle of bum f*ck.
Wonderful tourism strategy, Bazza.
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Yes, of course!
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PW Looks like your std Av has been made over.
I was used to the oldie.It didn’t look like your head had a geyser.
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Shit!!.. she’s turned me into a spud….Jennifer!!
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Chip off the ol’ block.
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But will my life be frittered away and what is the wedge tactic I must endure?
Who will stand with me,on St. Crisp-ins day?
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Nice mash up.
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Don’t knock the “round” avatar….your colour scheme could be improved though 🙂
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But Poirot,
yours is a sex-agonal.
All the joy of circular, but with many facets…………..
(And you have Playboy Bunny ears too, I just noticed.)
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Of course you’re right, Hypo…..
“All the joy of the circular, but with many facets……”
So true!
My bunny ears are an endearing feature, don’t you think?
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One of many…………..
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And perverted the use of your erstwhile recognised avatar to one red-text userID ‘David’ logging-in from where Firefox can’t find the server: https://noplaceforsheep.com/2012/12/21/abbott-when-i-grow-up-2/#comment-60201
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Yes, Forrest, Hypo and I noticed that – we both thought it was macabre…
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a ponytail, the latest in hair styling 🙂
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In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, I think it’s way past time the serious investigative journalists picked up this local issue, and also started asking serious questions about exactly who are the Shooters and Fishers Party king pins.
I suspect they are simply the local gun lobby and have usurped, and infiltrated the pacifist fishing community to dilute their sinister shop front.
When the 4 Corners 7:30’s dig deep enough I think they will find all shooters and the odd fisher.I would also not be at all surprised to see links between political lobbyists of the NRA and Australian shooters.
I think it’s also time we as a nation called the S&F Party out, and demanded that the two ‘separate’ groups be totally separated by name and by nature.Such deceptive tactics have no place in an open and secular democracy.The gun lobby needs to exposed,isolated and made totally accountable for their own propositions, not be seen hiding behind women and children who like to throw a line in, in passive leisure pursuits.
RENAME NOW!
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Funny isnt it ?
We used to think of some of the characters in Southpark as satirical parodies, but truth has become stranger than fiction.
How briskly reason flees from wishful thinking.
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The only way out, it seems, would be for Obama to go hard on the Gun toting and bullet lobbing pro-kill-‘m Senators and NRA by saying ; Either do away with your lethal guns voluntary or, I’ll resign and let the nation make this choice for once and all. We go for another election with a change of the second amendment of the constitution. The second amendment has been given so many different interpretations; surely they can find one that will support changing this ‘bearing of arms” by all and sundry. When the Amendment was first passed in law back in 1791 by James Madison guns were just guns which took time to load and fire, giving a fair chance of survival, while in 2012 guns are killers by just looking at them. The founding fathers then sought to place trust in the power of ordered liberty of democratic government versus the anarchy of insurrectionists. Today, the cult by the manically adherence of the right to bear arms by the individualist has usurped the insurrectionist.
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I agree with you Gerard.The constitution needs to change.By way of an update of the Second Amendment.
Nothing less will work.The NRA and the blood-lusters have hijacked the true meaning for too long.The whole USA knows it.The whole world laughs at it.Meanwhile the grieving suffer immeasurably.
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It’s the whole network: rich old right wing billionaires so far to the right it’s a wonder they haven’t slipped off the flat earth that the sun revolves around and galloped off on their dinosaurs.
The NRA is only a sock puppet as are most of the political units and politicians, who are in on it anyway. Close to a one partystate run by one of two competing factions, as the old line goes.
Any move to question, let alone change the status quo is repeatedly and increasingly overtly, rebuffed
Gerard, marvellous post!
How good to tease apart the final distinction. I can only add that we have moved to the government by pre-schooler.
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…and we must also be reminded that behind the NRA is a mega trillion dollar arms industry.
I think there are layers of hypocrisy (the killing of other peoples innocents etc) America will have to tackle while they try to sort this out.I expect it will just drag on and on ,until another war front,hurricane or recession pops up.Then it will disappear again.
We will revisit the friendly fire in urban America many times in the future I think.
And I also think the idea of a black president telling white gun slingers to hand in their ‘law makers’ is fraught’ with obvious perils.Maybe why the White House handed the job to the VP.
Gerard’s plan may be a good idea.Especially if Obama wants a safe exit, from politics.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.”
And Mr NRA, what if neither had a gun? Or the good guy looking after the school, turns out to be a bad guy?
Or the bad guy was just a kid (good guy) in a hoody, in the wrong place, wrong time?
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I’m worried about Obama already, a black President with children going against NRA…
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It must be a daily crucifixion. The legacy of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King and the sheer cost of holding to a principle,
He, his wife and the kids, every day. Is there a James Earl Ray waiting for them, as well?
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It is US policy not to publicise threats and attempts on the President’s life, and there are thousands dedicated to his protection. So we can’t really know how many have tried. All have failed, but it only takes one to get through. Then there is the example of Indira Gandhi, and that of Anwar Sadat to worry about. The madmen on the right thought that the ballot box might do what they wanted; their frustrations may seek other avenues, they are fully mad enough.
But we live in hope.
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Surely the word ‘amendment’ means flexibility to change. It is not writ in concrete, so.. call the changed amendment ‘the Obama third amendment’. ( with a small referral to G.Oosterman in small letters 🙂
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I wish all the children in this world Happy childhood, not necessarily prosperous but always safe.
Socks no more
Posted on December 23, 2012by gerard oosterman By Helvi OOsterman
When I was a kid, we used to get hand-knitted woollen socks for Christmas. Mum was very busy and sometimes she had only enough time to finish one sock, and we had to patiently wait for a whole year for its partner. By the time I was ten, I had received roughly four and half pairs of socks…
Mum was lucky that she did not have to go shopping for the wool; it grew on the backs of our black and white Finn sheep, which was very handy. All she had to do was to send it to the local wool co-op to be processed into a knitting yarn. Some busy people called it LWCO for short, but we had enough time to get the words out, and we used the longer version.
Our Mum was a gentle person, not one of those tough black and white people. She liked nuances and shades better and therefore she also asked the wool to be blended into soft grey. Of course in those days we had never heard of the Aussie Rules that tell you that girls ought to wear pink and that blue is for boys. We were blissfully ignorant of such rulings and were happy just to have warm feet.
Life was good; we did not even know that paedophiles existed in our charmed world. Our parents let us walk to school, so obviously no one had told them either about these bad people. In return we did not tell them of our adventures of swimming in fast flowing rivers and the games we played on breaking up ice floes in springtime…we knew of people who had drowned, but not THAT many…
Now the mums have to buy big black cars and become taxi drivers for their offspring, and by the time the kids turn ten they have sleepless nights before Christmas because they can’t think of anything new they still have to have. They have their laptops, WII’s, IPods, IPads and scooters and trail bikes, and socks and shoes to die for with labels etched into them. Even the pencil cases have to be bought only at some special Smiggle shop; pens and rubbers from K-Mart just don’t cut it…
On Christmas Eve Dad and Big Brother used to go to our own forest and came back with a proper Christmas tree, a spruce with sturdy branches, branches so strong you could hang edible red apples on them, and of course home-made gingerbread biscuits and real candles firmly sitting in their holders…no, we never managed to start a fire…We made sure all the edibles were eaten before the 6th of January, the Finnish Independence Day, and also the customary date for taking the Christmas tree down and out.
Little Max saw a black plastic Christmas tree the other day at some shopping mall and thankfully thought it was horrid, so would have my Mum, if we would have talked about it too loudly on her well-kept grave.
They don’t make Childhoods or Christmases like they used to. I just hope that it is still politically correct to wish you all a very good Christmas…!
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Oops again, i just wanted to put a link to this old story,sorry…I’m still learning…very slowly it seems…
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Thanks for that, Helvi…a breath of fresh air.
I read that once before when Gerard linked to it on Twitter. I was as charmed then as I am now reading it again.
Merry Christmas everyone.
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Well said. I wish you all a happy Christmas,too.
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And the NRA blows the head clean off any inkling of hope.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-24/nra-issues-point-blank-no-on-gun-control/4442190
We must act quickly in Australia and extract all semblences of Te local version..
“The only thing more dangerous than an angry psychopathic , is an angry psychopathic with an arsenal.”
Or to put it so the NRA can comprehend:
“The only thing which can stop a bad guy with a gun lobby, is a good guy with a gun law.”
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Yep, once they cross that wide river, denial.
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Morning,spud.
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As you say, just a chip off the ol’ block.
I had tobe here this morning though, either this or endless repeats of “Mash”.
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Land of hope and glory
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-30/woman-charged-with-new-york-subway-murder/4447528
Wait for the backlash…………..
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The contents below are from an email spamming the world.Another part of the gun lobby’s desperate clutch to power.This is the sort of insane stuff which appeals yto conspiracy theorists and gun nutters, and will probably motivate some gun loony in America to act on it. It will probably hit your in trays soon.
*************************************************************************QUOTE
Excerpt from Muad’Dib’s January 7th, 2013 Critical Mass Radio interview:
..They used a poster child for this to get everybody’s sympathy and to get everybody’s emotions up so that they could hopefully bring in a gun ban. They used a little poster child, a little blonde-haired blue-eyed six year old girl. She was the face, the poster child. She was supposedly killed along with the other 19 six year olds and seven year olds at Sandy Hook. Three days later Obama was there doing a photo op and she’s sitting on his knee. She’s supposed to be dead, used as a poster child, this little girl died – she’s sitting on Obama’s knee three days later. The same little girl.
And then they have her parents interviewed. It shows that they’re all actors. It never really happened, because the guy that was supposedly her dad, is shown in the video where he’s to the side and he’s laughing and joking with other people and then he’s called up in front of the camera. He’s off to the left. Then he’s called to the center, to the focus of the camera to be interviewed and to give his speech about Sandy Hook and about his daughter. And he goes from on the side from laughing and joking with everybody, he comes up to the center and … he takes the joking, smiling face off and you can see him physically trying to force his face to look sad and then he starts talking about how his daughter’s been killed. They’re actors. There were no bodies.
It was a made for TV drama to try to ram through the gun control laws, because they want to kill the American people and they can’t kill armed people. That’s why Hitler disarmed the Germans, it’s why Stalin disarmed the Russians, it’s why chairman Mao disarmed the Chinese and they killed between them something like 120 million of their own people. And that’s what they want to do in America and they can’t do it because the people have the Second Amendment and they have guns. So they have to do all of this, and they’ll keep doing it. There will be more incidents like this, which are made for television, until they manage to persuade the American people to give up their guns. And then they’ll start killing the Americans. Because the Americans are the only people stopping them from doing what they want to do already. They know they can’t put their next phase, which is reducing the world’s population, they can’t put that phase into operation whilst the Americans have got millions!
of guns.
***UNQUOTE
From a mob called;
Voice of Freedom.
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I think for once we may actually want to back US policy on something.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-17/obama-announces-sweeping-gun-control-proposals/4468330
It doesn’t happen that often, but I think it’s as much as we could have expected.
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OM? did you see the maggot on 7:30 last night?
I am afraid the Yanks are a lost cause.
We need to put a tourniquet on the S and F Party ASAP!
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OM?
Which Maggot? I didn’t see 7:30 last night but I was looking at the videos on their website and wondered if you meant Larry Pratt?
I though Leigh Sales handled Pratt very well.
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Think that’s him.Gun Owners Cheer Squad or something.
Going on about how the good guy (carrying a gun in a gun free mall) with the gun turned a possible 30 death massacre into a ‘mere four death mass murder,typical Walmart fun family outing,nothing to see here folks,day!’
With this twisted logic accounting for the main view in US of Tara we should just leave them to it.
BUT! In Oz,
We must begin the process of dismantling the power that gun owner groups have in this country.I believe it is those ‘officials’ that lobby for less gun control ,who need to neutered ASAP. They create the monsters and enable the mass shooters.
I’d like 4 Corners etc to do some digging and exposing.I’d like the AEC to make the Fisher element of S and F run separately.
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Yeah I hate that conflation myself being a fisher who’s not a shooter. But it’s a free country and I think people have probably already seen through it to a degree that’s going to make the lie a liability for them.
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“But it’s a free country ” Look what the outcome of the US version has become under expanded gun ownership, which is the EXACT point I am struggling to enmesh.
Sell the concept of Free Country to grieving parents in Sandy hook, HG.
Good luck.We need an aggressive media enlightening our population before gun ownership goes from a benign background growth hobby, to a false symbol of our democratic right.
Guns at best in any civil population are for target shooting or the humane hunting of feral animals for food or by environmental agencies/supervised landholders in eradication schemes.
Some farmers have some reasons for owning some guns sometimes.
We need to make sure we have the Genies feet shackled to the inside of the bottle on this issue,because we all know what happens when Genie gets out.
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Cut it out already….. I meant a country with free speech not an anarchy like the US gun lobby seem to be promoting. Is that okay with you?
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It doesn’t have to be OK with me.It has to be OK with Wallace,the NSW right and the MSM.
I am just trying to highlight just how prostituted the term ‘free country’ has become, now that it has been enlisted by the lowest life forms on earth.The unaccountable untouchable orgs etc.
Do you remember the scenes on our wharves when Reith sent the cops in?
We are a ‘freer’ country than many, but our freedoms are not always consistent with what the law says we can safely and legitimately do.That little gem is left to the ‘opportunist of the day’.
Which is why we should be outraged about the govt we have at the moment.
You may have noticed I am.
😉
BTW
The US Gun lobby is proof that the second amendment was written on a Friday.
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Sure I get it. Outraged right!
But if you haven’t completely imploded yet then you might should you awake some late November day soon to find Tony Abbott’s our new PM.
So in all honestly here’s to the Labour Green alliance that to pinch Keating’s idoim, Australia had to have…
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A Green Labour alliance sounds better.
In one of my earlier posts today I explained why I have nothing to fear from Abbott.
Who if gets installed by that other chapter of the Tea Party (faux Labor), AND does what I am told by the one eyed faux-Labor apologists,will only last one term.
Besides, my bloated paranoia menu is full.
Too many people are worrying about ‘what ifs’ while the incumbents install the ‘what ifs’ core policies.I don’t think for one microsecond Labor will undo any of their anti-Labor policies.They have set a direction which they intend to continue and only the politically wet behind the ears, believe differently.The ONLY 2 things faux Labor will respond to is poll pressure / public demands NOW (see RCom called after mass support). And electoral annihilation.If the former does not work the latter will.
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Yeah well we’re already that far left on quite a few issues that Abbott’s struggling to stay to the right of Gillard. I dunno we could take even one more term of that no matter what party’s name it goes by!
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Another reason why there needs to be a name change of the Shooters and Fishers and a serious enquiry into their membership.
This should include the actual number of non-shooting fishers.
They may actually NOT be complying with their own constitution.
If the movers and shakers of the hunting lobby are anything close to these allegations……
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-23/senior-hunting-officials-investigated-over-cruelty/4479988
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It’s official.We have a gun lobbby, and they are politically active and growing in number and power.And as in America,unless the next election sees them gutted,they will not be easy to put back in their box.
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Hi colleagues, its impressive paragraph regarding educationand
completely explained, keep it up all the time.
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But we can make educated guesses about the kind of life he would have
lived, and the kind of person he would have been.
Nady’s case also rested on an interpretation of “rights. Have the kids organize elements of costumes so they’ll know where everything is when they decide it’s time to play dress-up.
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I have fun with, result in I discovered exactly what I was looking for.
You have ended my 4 day lengthy hunt! God Bless you man.
Have a nice day. Bye
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The final world within the branches of the Yggdrasil tree is Alfhiem, the home of the elves.
The shape of a plant may change throughout its growing season, or
life. At every crossing of thread there is an individual, and every
individual is a crystal bead.
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Hello this is kind of of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or
if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting
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Wow that was strange. I just wrote an extremely long comment
but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr…
well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say great blog!
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