Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

oil, oil, oil!!! 

 

From our ABC

10 arrested as Cheney protesters defy march ban

Ten people have been arrested during a Sydney protest ahead of tonight's arrival of the United States Vice-President Dick Cheney.

About 250 people were protesting peacefully against the Iraq war and the treatment of David Hicks when they decided to march, despite being refused a permit.

Deputy Police Commissioner Terry Collins had refused to allow a march on the grounds that it would cause unacceptable disruptions to people and traffic in the central business district.

However the march did not go very far, as there were dozens of police at Town Hall.

They lined up two-deep to stop the protesters getting to George Street.

There were a few violent scuffles and eight mounted police were brought in, along with motorcycle police.

They rounded up the protesters a few times but the protesters were eventually allowed to walk along the footpath to the US consulate.

Mr Cheney is due to arrive in Sydney about 10pm AEDT.

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Gus: the true disruptor of Sydney's life is of course the VP, Quailmissashothitaface Cheney. The man is a con artist and part of the neo-fascists who use money, war and power to impose their will.

Good to see there are some mad dedicated people (young and old) ready to brave the police and in that demonstrative folly bring to the fore the abject reality that the VP represents. The media of course has no idea... 

 

From our bleeding ABC

Current account deficit soars to over $15b
Australia's current account deficit has widened by 20 per cent in the December quarter.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show the current account deficit has climbed to just over $15 billion.

Imports of plant, transport equipment and machinery contributed heavily to the rise.

There was also a big surge in imports of consumer goods.

The ABS says the deficit on goods and services will detract 1.3 percentage points from GDP in the fourth-quarter.

Australia's net foreign debt now stands at $521 billion

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Gus is impressed by the magic figure of the black hole which in three months represents twice the outrageous penny pinching that led to a small government surplus while the country as a "hole" goes into more debt. The banks must be rubbing their hands... We should be grateful that people like Mr Costello are only expert economists and not aircraft engineers: the wings would fall off in mid air... Wrong, actually the whole plane would disintegrate on take off.

From our thinning ABC

 

Australia moving backwards in gender equality, report says

A new study published by the Australian National University (ANU) says Australia has gone from global leader to global offender in the gender equality stakes.

The report says Australian women have been silenced, with women's non-government organisations losing funding since the late 1990s.

Report co-author Sarah Maddison says offices set up by the Federal Government are not good enough.

"Those organisations are not representative of the diversity of Australian women," she said.

"They are also severely constrained in the work that they are able to do."

Ms Maddison says if Australia can get away with ignoring these questions, there is no reason for developing nations to address gender inequality.

"Australia was once regarded as a world leader, but for at least the last decade there's been a bit of international head-scratching and really wondering what has gone wrong," she said.

The report found South Australia was the only state or territory providing adequate public policy on women's issues.

 

Of course this gender report (see comment above) may exclude DFAT, where the daughter of Alexander Downer found a 44-56K traineeship... won on glorious merit, I would suggest. Obviously I could say she had inside information, but I won't. Anyway being a "woman", in order to get there, she must have been at least four times her father's value. That would be a piece of cake for most. Congratulation.

As I was musing on how Rattus got the leadership of the Liberal party in whenever, I also was musing on good ol' Alexander the Genderbender, presently Minister — for the life of any Rattus government (he-he) — of Alien Bits and Trock, who made the comparison between women and "things-that-batter", representing the official policy of the Liberal party, on the place of women in the world.

Of course, Rattus himself is not so upfront about it, but with the strange help of a former right-wing ABC journalist (yes there are some there but we only hear complaints by the rednecks about the loony left ABC) — who I may say may have believed that she was going to do good stride for women — he dismantled piece by piece, the right of women to wear trousers — if you understand this euphemism...

I must say that Rattus is charming. Enchanting like a witch who'd transformed herself in a good-looking fairy in order to make the unsuspecting public bite the rotten poisoned apple...