Brownyn Bishop’s escalating expenses row, from helicopters to limousines to god knows what else, the contempt the vast majority of Australian people feel for her, the protection Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave her and the consequent damage this has done to his government and party, all combined to see her resign as speaker of the House of Representatives and Abbott announce a root and branch review of parliamentary entitlements.

Did you hear about the man who entered New Orleans’ airport with explosives and a machete? No? Well, you would have if he’d been Muslim.

A Muslim American man carrying a duffel bag that holds six homemade explosives, a machete, and poison spray travels to a major U.S. airport. The man enters the airport, approaches the TSA security checkpoint, and then sprays two TSA officers with the poison. He then grabs his machete and chases another TSA officer with it.

The Speaker is under further pressure as revelations emerge that she hired a corporate aircraft to travel from Sydney to Nowra for a Liberal party fundraiser.

Adam Goodes is a great Australian Rules footballer. He was won two Brownlows (best and fairest) and two premierships with the Sydney Swans. He is a former Australian of the Year. He is proudly Aboriginal. For that, for the very fact of proclaiming his aboriginality, he is now being booed by many opposing football fans.

from Crikey ….

Australian sovereignty is at risk under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with evidence showing a toxic combination of corporations, ambulance chaser law firms and biased arbitrators will be able to overrule our laws.

Cat owners who live near areas containing threatened species could be banned from allowing their pets outdoors as the federal government sets its sights on the potential killing machines.

Australia's first threatened species commissioner, Gregory Andrews, said all cat owners should keep their pets contained 24 hours a day, saying it makes them happier and healthier, and saves native mammals.

But a veterinarian said the measure, already in place in some jurisdictions, could cause health and behavioural problems and should be implemented with caution.

Gambling lobby group Clubs New South Wales must explain why it donated money to the Victorian MP and federal minister Kevin Andrews, Independent senator Nick Xenophon says.

This piece of parchment is a fake... It was found in Leonisko da Vinci archives —between a Telstra bill and a hamburger wrapper... Though the parchment is fake, the words are true Leonardo, mirror like. 

from Crikey …..

Every kid in Australian schools know our flag. They know the seven pointed star beneath the union jack symbolic of a colonial past. But not our valiant Turdy. Apparently he never studied the flag. He never looked at it beyond seeing the union jack from his country of origin. He is a pom, flaunting the laws of Australia. 

Last year, Treasurer Joe Hockey famously declared that Australia needed to be a nation of “lifters, not leaners”.

The Coalition wants us to believe workers and the poor have it easy—and that the funds for their coveted budget surplus should be taken from our pockets. Labor leaders, for their part, largely agree.