Thursday, September 03, 2009

Oh How Generous.

Our illustrious 2IC and part-time Minister for Education has generously donated a whole $7,300 to assist the Indian slum dwellers children gain some education. All about Political spin to appease the Indian students who are now re-considering their options about studying overseas.

...Australian Deputy Prime Minister yesterday as she tiptoed her way good-naturedly over open sewers and smiled at bare-footed urchins to announce a 300,000 rupee ($7300) donation for the purchase of school books.


It would be better, if quite a bit more expensive, to do something about assisting those Indian students to be more secure within Australia. That would have a bigger impact in the Indian media than a small donation.

In the mean time Ms Gillard has managed to arrange massive amounts of money to go to rural primary schools in Queensland that are about to close. One school, with only 1 student, has been given $250,000 for a new library. WTF?

Reference here.

Why would you do something as stupid as that and, almost with the same hand, take away funding for other rural schools so they could build science and language buildings? Incompetence, that's how. A completely ballsed up process based more on ideology than intelligence. A more cynical person might accuse the Government of blatant pork-barrelling.

While a political storm was brewing at home over revelations the federal government had redirected money from some of the country's most disadvantaged high schools to make up a shortfall in its primary school building program, in India at least it was a day of largess.


Source for both quotes above here.

Just like the Auscars assistance program. Put one man in charge who cannot cope, fail to provide any additional help and then wonder why he attempts to crash the government. By the way, a fake email is one which has been written, printed but not sent. As soon as it is sent it is a genuine email. The contents may be true or false but the email is still genuine.

K.Rudd and J.Gillard are micro-managers because they don't understand what they are doing. People who micro-manage are always into the minute detail without ever getting a handle on the big picture, the overarching concerns. You cannot change their path once their minds are made up because their minds are like concrete, all mixed up and permanently set.

Micro-management is the refuge of the incompetent, their shield from reality.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

$50 billion Gas Deal with China or just more BS from Kevin?

I another case of inflated self importance and rubbery figures it seems that the Australian Labor Party is still running on fluff and bubbles with no substance.

The loudly trumpeted claims of success for a deal begun long before little Kevvy was even the leader of the Labor Party and while Ferguson was still bullying employers seem to not stand up to the clear light of inspection.

According to this account in the Sydney Morning Herald by Matthew Murphy the numbers just don't add up. How often does that happen with this mob of "financial conservatives"? Most of the time actually. In this case we need to halve their claims and call it a $20 billion deal, these numbers coming from the Governments own financial forecaster ABARE.

To achieve the $50 billion deal the average price of the gas needs to be $1,111 per tonne for the annual 2.25 million tonnes of LNG under the terms of the sale. Living a fantasy world is this Clayton's Government.

Problem with this is that it now isn't the biggest deal ever, it is dwarfed by the deal done by Woodside Petroleum in 2007 which is a genuine $45 billion deal.

In 2007, Woodside Petroleum agreed to key terms for supplying 2 million to 3 million tonnes of LNG to PetroChina, the same customer as ExxonMobil, in a deal worth about $45 billion, according to Woodside's chief executive, Don Voelte.

That means PetroChina potentially would pay $5 billion less under the Woodside deal to receive more LNG. In its latest production report, Woodside received $345 a tonne for LNG during the June 2009 quarter.


I would have thought that any "financially conservative" Government would at least be able to do their maths properly, clearly they can't.

Seems to be an ever increasing theme with the latest BS from Ms Gillard about how the blowout in spending for the unnecessary school building program "just shows the project is successful" despite the fact that there is mounting evidence that the Labor State Governments have been skimming the fund, builders have been overcharging and the Principals have been complaining that they can't get anything useful to the school actually built.

Since in January Ms Gillard, the part time everything, said that every school in Australia would get a new building to now claim that she really meant only 90% would get a new building and now that they have all asked for one it shows how successful the program has been.

They shut down the solar panel rebate because of that same success and the new deal is just a fraudulent exercise to pad the numbers for their greenhouse gas reduction number later.

Add in the additional poor performance and flaky dealings and it becomes increasingly clear that this is a Government which says one thing while consistently doing something else. The words totally incompetent come to mind.

If you needed another example, look at the National Broadband Network. If there was ever a totally incompetent decision this was it. We the taxpayer are now committed to a $43 billion construction project which is almost out of date now let alone in 6 years time if it ever gets completed. There is no plan, there is no money yet, there is no suggestion of cost to use the system, there are no private companies who have put their hands up to join in. All in all, $43 billion for an idea which has no planning is typical of the Australian Labor Parties approach to almost everything they do regardless of State or Federal bodies.

Australia cannot afford them any longer. Remember, you will have to pay the money back. $200 Billion is $10,000 each plus interest for a family of 4 that'll be $40,000, thanks. You both have parents who are not working? Better kick in another $40,000 for them then. You have an unemployed brother and his wife with their two children? Whoops, another $40,000 from you to help them out. So you bill now comes to $120,000 plus interest. See why we can't afford the Australian Labor Party?

Good Luck buying your house or having a holiday anytime soon.