Sunday, March 31, 2013

Australia Posts Worst Back-to-Back Job Growth Since ’97: Economy - Bloomberg

Australia Posts Worst Back-to-Back Job Growth Since ’97: Economy - Bloomberg

Australia’s unemployment rate rose as the nation posted its worst back-to-back years of job growth since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, throwing up an obstacle in Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s re-election bid this year. 

Payrolls advanced 148,300 last year after a 49,800 gain in 2011 for a two-year increase that was the weakest since 1996-1997, government data compiled by Bloomberg show. Unemployment rose to 5.4 percent last month as the number of workers fell by 5,500 and may keep climbing after the economy slowed in the second half of 2012.

Silky smooth political skills there, champ.


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Hey Internet, it’s Time to Riot For Howie Noel | Sometime After: The Comic

Hey Internet, it’s Time to Riot For Howie Noel | Sometime After: The Comic

Hey Internet, it’s Time to Riot For Howie Noel
03-28-2013


This is one of the stories that I file neatly into my “worst damn nightmare that could ever happen to me” pile. The reason for this blog post is to help generate a bit more attention, so hopefully someone far more powerful than myself will hear this story and be able to help out some. If you’re not familiar with Howie’s work, he’s the guy behind the very popular Tara Normal webcomic. Tara Normal’s been running for quite a while now (the site has the first strip posted as 2009, but I believe it’s been going longer than that.)

 During that time period Tara Normal has received a healthy bit of attention from Hollywood execs and book publishers alike. While it may not be the reason most of us do a webcomic, you can understand the excitement that would generate. I can tell you from my perspective if I got a call from Hollywood you’d need a sedative to remove me from the ceiling. So naturally, these were all signs of things moving in the right direction for Howie.


Now rather than tell his story step by step, I’m going to post a link to a TGT podcast where Howie himself explains his gut wrenching situation to Kurt Sasso at the end of this blog. What I do want to do however is provide the direct links that Howie himself can’t mention due to possible legal recourse. The short of it is this; while Tara Normal was shopped around a few times, it never actually got picked up. However mysteriously enough a new book series titled “SaraNormal” (yeah tell me THAT doesn’t make your heart sink) hit bookstores in 2012. Not only is the name a blatent rip-off of Howie’s Tara Normal, the comparisons don’t stop there. SaraNormal features a young woman with the same abilities as Tara, hits some of the EXACT SAME plot points and even includes some of the same cast members! If that isn’t bad enough, the fictional author Simon & Schuster created to huck this brand of copyright infringement has the SAME DAMN BIO THAT HOWIE USED. The bastards couldn’t even come up with an original background for their made up AUTHOR! SaraNormal is now a book series that has 9 different books, meanwhile Howie is left with the pieces of the baby he created.

It makes me pissed to even look at this cover...
It makes me pissed to even look at this cover…

Again, I don’t know just what we, the webcomic community can do to stand by Howie during his fight against this type of brazen theft, but it’s important we do something. This is hardly the first time this has happened to the webcomic community either. Some of you may remember the hell Lucas Turnbloom of “ImageThis” went through when “Ted” came out. Lucas decided it wasn’t worth the boat load of cash he’d need to fight Hollywood even though it was pretty obvious that “Ted” more than “sampled’ “ImagineThis.” The sad thing is, as bad as Lucas’s case was, Howie’s is WORSE.
If you are a creator that uses the web as your way to get your product to the world, then this should scare the hell out of you. It appears that the world of webcomics is becoming a breeding ground for Hollywood theft. You know that dream you secretly have where you decided who plays/voices your characters? Well at this rate you may actually see that become a reality, only it won’t be you that gets the profit. You should be even more scared if you’re a webcomic reader since this kind of threat may cause creators to think twice about posting on the net at all.

Here’s the link to Howie’s full talk on TGT that you really should listen to. Furthermore, I urge you to check out Tara Normal itself. Not just to support Howie, but because it’s a damn good comic and it’s well worth a read.

On a closing note, if any of you are friends with Matthew Inman, I’ve got an idea for his next kickstarter… Now if you’ll excuse me I need to find the Colgate, this left a hell of a taste in my mouth.

***Edit***
If you want to get the actual version of the Tara Normal book Howie was shopping around to publisher, click on the link below and support a great indie artist :)

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/howie-noel/tara-normal/paperback/product-20726090.html

***Disclaimer*** Just a heads up, this blog post is solely an opinion piece based off of the podcast interview between Howie and Kurt Sasso and general public information. I do not have any additional information about this issue outside of what can easily be found in the public domain. I know a lot of you are asking questions, however they’re just not questions that I have the answers to. My goal in writing about this was to get the word out about what’s going on and encourage you to check out Kurt’s podcast for yourself. Everything I wrote about is easily available to the general public, so please draw your own conclusions and, if you feel so inclined, put your support behind a great independent creator. Thank you.
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Learning is fun: BBC NEWS | Europe | 'World peace' hitcher is murdered

BBC NEWS | Europe | 'World peace' hitcher is murdered

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.
 
The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday.

She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.

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Is Fukushima Radiation Causing the Epidemic of Dead and Starving Sea Lions In California? | Zero Hedge

Is Fukushima Radiation Causing the Epidemic of Dead and Starving Sea Lions In California? | Zero Hedge

Given that the FDA has refused to test seafood for radiation, we’re not that confident that the government is looking that hard to see if Fukushima fallout is the cause.
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How does Julia sleep? » The Spectator

How does Julia sleep? » The Spectator


The new official line on Gillard is that she is ‘tough’. In the unending experiment of how to market the PM to Australia – which has seen incarnations as bizarre and cringeworthy as Real Julia, feminist icon and knitter-in-chief – this most recent turn is surely the most bemusing. Toughness is certainly an imperative in the Labor caucus, but is it an important quality for the electorate? Does it really poll better than ‘smart’, ‘competent’, ‘visionary’, ‘trustworthy’ or ‘fair’? Regrettably, none of those options is really on the table.

‘Tough’ might be an appropriate descriptor of Gillard the political operator, but it would be the wrong one to characterise her leadership. A tough leader, I believe, would not have capitulated to Tony Abbott and forced Kevin Rudd to dump the Emissions Trading Scheme. A tough leader would not have surrendered to the big miners and renegotiated the mining tax into insignificance, breaking the budget in the process. A tough leader would prosecute the case for Labor’s compassionate stance on asylum seekers, rather than racing the Coalition to the bottom of the scrapheap. A tough leader would stand up to the unions instead of abiding loyally on every question, from 457 visas to gay marriage.

In every instance, Gillard has shied away from fights on policy, and opted to orchestrate imagined battles around jobs, workplace rights and misogyny. Her leadership team has presided over the best economy in the developed world, but they couldn’t sell cake to a fat kid. They have proven themselves utterly incapable of doing what is actually tough in politics: arguing, educating and winning.

Silky smooth political skills there, champ.

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BBC News - Chilli Easter egg 'hotter than a vindaloo'


Not for Bunnies Easter egg Those eating the Easter egg must wear protective gloves and sign a disclaimer

BBC News - Chilli Easter egg 'hotter than a vindaloo'
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But Isn't Cyprus "Unique"? | Zero Hedge

But Isn't Cyprus "Unique"? | Zero Hedge

"Cyprus is a template- dieselboom."

http://www.fdic.gov/about/srac/2012/gsifi.pdf

Direct link to the template.  Joint paper by the FDIC and the BoE, written in Dec. 2012.  By the way, the legal framework to do this here in the U.S. was put in place with Dodd Frank.  This thing is ready to roll.

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Shit Fighter Pilots Don't Say

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The Futurist: The Misandry Bubble

The Futurist: The Misandry Bubble

The Western World has quietly become a civilization that undervalues men and overvalues women, where the state forcibly transfers resources from men to women creating various perverse incentives for otherwise good women to conduct great evil against men and children, and where male nature is vilified but female nature is celebrated.  This is unfair to both genders, and is a recipe for a rapid civilizational decline and displacement, the costs of which will ultimately be borne by a subsequent generation of innocent women, rather than men, as soon as 2020. 
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Happy Easter

There is something very symbolic about having the first Easter of the new Aeon be April Fool's Day.

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Happy Easter! Enjoy your eggs! Video: An American Recovery: Hundreds of People Restrained By Police As They Beg For Food; Officials Decide to Throw It In Trash Rather Than Help

Video: An American Recovery: Hundreds of People Restrained By Police As They Beg For Food; Officials Decide to Throw It In Trash Rather Than Help

When SunTrust Bank bank foreclosed on the Laney Supermarket grocery store, managers were left with thousands of pounds of food and nowhere to put it. So, they decided to move non-perishable items to the parking lot for those who might need it. As news of the give-away spread throughout the neighborhood, a crowd numbering in the hundreds quickly swooped in.

But the goods never made it into the hands of people who desperately needed, as local police barricaded the stockpile of food. They called in a disposal company and tossed every bit of it into the trash, angering many of those who had hoped they could take some of the food home.

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It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors | WEB OF DEBT BLOG

It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors | WEB OF DEBT BLOG

Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds.  

New Zealand has a similar directive, discussed in my last article here, indicating that this isn’t just an emergency measure for troubled Eurozone countries. New Zealand’s Voxy reported on March 19th:
The National Government [is] pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts . . . .
Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English’s favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund the bank’s bail out.
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Jon Rappoport's Blog | INteresting, INnovative and INvestigative Reporting

Jon Rappoport's Blog | INteresting, INnovative and INvestigative Reporting

Asking Congress to pass laws canceling corporate donations to their election campaigns, and instituting instead “public funding,” is a joke. That’s not going to happen, and even if it did, politicians would find back doors.

Bottom line: the politicians want to be in bed with corporations. To say that our elected representatives can’t resist corporate money is like saying people aren’t responsible for their own corrupt practices. It may be fashionable to assume that everyone is a pawn and a victim, but it doesn’t hold water.

So we come to the so-called Monsanto Protection Act, the rider to a funding bill that just sailed through the Senate, and is awaiting Obama’s signature. This sneak measure will nullify court decisions to ban GMO crops while those crops are under review for being “potentially dangerous.”

Here, again, we hear excuses made for the politicians. They didn’t know the rider was in the bill, they didn’t read it, they didn’t understand the consequences, they were played by Monsanto and other biotech giants.

If you sit in the Senate and vote yes on a bill, and you didn’t read the bill, whose fault is that? If you allow one of these thousand-page monstrosities to pass into law, and you don’t know the full meaning of it, and you don’t make a huge stink about it in public, what good are you?

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Perskeptical: Did James Holmes Have Help? Compelling Evidence, Eyewitness Testimony Linger as Case Nears Trial

Perskeptical: Did James Holmes Have Help? Compelling Evidence, Eyewitness Testimony Linger as Case Nears Trial

Officer Justin Grizzle testified that after Holmes was arrested, he asked if anyone had helped him with the attack. Holmes responded nonverbally with an enigmatic half-answer that can be met with an eerie sense of conspiratorial wonder:

"He just looked at me and smiled. It was a smirk."  StumbleUpon

Happy Easter Kate Upton Style


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Happy Easter


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So, which party are you from again? | Dacka's Razor

So, which party are you from again? | Dacka's Razor

With the ALP seriously on the nose pretty much throughout Australia, there has been an interesting trend with some of Labor’s high profile MP’s not readily identifying themselves as being members of the Labor Party.

But I suppose who can blame them after Julia Gillard has helped them to trash the Labor brand so convincingly over the past few years?  Gillard’s and indeed Labor’s unique blend of politics has undeniably focussed on class and gender war, racism and xenophobia, and dodgy deals that kowtow to the Prime Minister’s supporters in some of Australia’s most militant unions.
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Smug Bitch Marketing: The Last Big Thing - over before it begins

The Last Psychiatrist: Don't Hate Her Because She's Successful

sheryl sandberg time magazine cover.jpg
the first thing you noticed is her great outfit
and the first thing I noticed is she's covering her wedding ring 
this is why you are anxious and I am Alone
 
 
Today in the United States and the developed world, women are better off than ever before. But the blunt truth is that men still run the world...

It is time for us to face the fact that our revolution has stalled. A truly equal world would be one where women ran half of our countries and companies and men ran half of our homes. The laws of economics and many studies of diversity tell us that if we tapped the entire pool of human resources and talent, our performance would improve.


I.

Sheryl Sandberg is the future ex-COO of Facebook, and while that sounds like enough of a resume to speak on women in the workplace, note that her advice on how to get ahead appears in Time Magazine.  Oh, you thought that Sandberg's book is news worthy in itself, how could you not do a story on this magnificence?  No, this is a setup, the Time Magazine demo is never going to be COO of anything, as evidenced by the fact that they read Time Magazine.  Much more importantly, they are not raising daughters who are going to be COO of anything.  So why is this here? 

The first level breakdown is that this is what Time readers want, they want a warm glow and to be reassured that the reason they're stuck living in Central Time is sexism.  This demo likes to see a smart, pretty woman succeed in a man's world, as long as "pretty" isn't too pretty but "wearing a great outfit" and that man's world isn't overly manly, like IBM or General Dynamics, yawn, but an aspirational, Aeron chair "creative" place that doesn't involve calculus or yelling, somewhere they suspect they could have worked had it not been for sexism and biological clocks.  We all know Pinterest is for idiots.  Hence Facebook.


II.

If you are still suspicious that Sandberg's appearance in Time has nothing to do with her book or with women becoming COOs but is about something else, look through the newsstand for the other magazine in which Sandberg is prominently featured: Cosmo.  


cosmo sandberg.jpgthe first thing you noticed is her great outfit
and the first thing I noticed is she's showing her wedding ring



This is the mag she felt compelled to guest edit, an issue that also has "The Money, The Man, The Baby: Get What You Want," by future Labor Secretary Kim Kardashian. No one reads Cosmo to become a COO, no one who reads Cosmo could become a COO, because-- and I'm just guessing-- they think the the secret formula for success is Dream Job + The Right Partner + Great Wardrobe = Yes I Can!  Well, you can't, not with those priorities.   Each of those may be desirable, but when placed together as an equation it is revealed to be nothing but outward branding, and the consequence is that even if you get all three you will still be unsatisfied.
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Monday, March 18, 2013

Eurotrash

“During my lifetime most of the problems the world has faced have come, in one fashion or other, from mainland Europe, and the solutions from outside it.”

 — Margaret Thatcher.
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For Everyone Shocked By What Just Happened... And Why This Is Just The Beginning | Zero Hedge

For Everyone Shocked By What Just Happened... And Why This Is Just The Beginning | Zero Hedge



Today, lots of people woke up in shock and horror to what happened in Cyprus: a forced capital reallocation mandated by political elites under the guise of an "equity investment" in insolvent banks, which is really code for a "coercive, mandatory wealth tax." If less concerned about political correctness, one could say that what just happened was daylight robbery from savers to banks and the status quo. These same people may be even more shocked to learn that today's Cypriot "resolution" is merely the first of many such coercive interventions into personal wealth, first in Europe, and then everywhere else.
For the benefit of those people, we wish to point them to our article from September 2011, "The "Muddle Through" Has Failed: BCG Says "There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis", which predicted and explained all of this and much more. What else did the September BCG study conclude? Simply that such mandatory, coercive wealth tax is merely the beginning for a world in which there was some $21 trillion in excess debt as of 2009, a number which has since ballooned to over $30 trillion. And with inflation woefully late in appearing and "inflating away" said debt overhang, Europe first is finally moving to Plan B, and is using Cyrprus as its Guniea Pig.
For those who missed it the first time, here it is again. Somehow we think many more people will listen this time around:
Restructuring the debt overhang in the euro zone would require financing and would be a daunting task. In order to finance controlled restructuring, politicians could well conclude that it was necessary to tax the existing wealth of the private sector. Many politicians would see taxing financial assets as the fairest way of resolving the problem. Taxing existing financial assets would acknowledge one fact: these investments are not as valuable as their owners think, as the debtors (governments, households, and corporations) will be unable to meet their commitments. Exhibit 3 shows the one-time tax on financial assets required to provide the necessary funds for an orderly restructuring.



For most countries, a haircut of 11 to 30 percent would be sufficient to cover the costs of an orderly debt restructuring. Only in Greece, Spain, and Portugal would the burden for the private sector be significantly higher; in Ireland, it would be too high because the financial assets of the Irish people are smaller than the required adjustment of debt levels. This underscores the dimension of the Irish real estate and debt bubble.

In the overall context of the future of the euro zone, politicians would need to propose a broader sharing of the burden so that taxpayers in  such countries as Germany, France, and the Netherlands would contribute more than the share required to reduce their own debt load. This would be unpopular, but the banks and insurance companies in these countries would benefit. To ensure a socially acceptable sharing of the burden, politicians would no doubt decide to tax financial assets only above a certain threshold—€100,000, for example. Given that any such tax would be meant as a one-time correction of current debt levels, they would need to balance it by removing wealth taxes and capital-gains taxes. The drastic action of imposing a tax on assets would probably make it easier politically to lower income taxes in order to stimulate further growth. (See Exhibit 4.)


Curiously, not even BCG expected the initial shot across the bow to be so bad that everyone, not just those above the €100,000 threshold would be impaired. Alas, that is the sad reality in Europe, where as the chart above shows, a total of €6.1 trillion with a T in additional wealth confiscation tax is coming.
Oh, and US of A... fear not - your turn is coming too: with a price tag of €8.2 trillion in wealth tax pending as of 2009. This number is now somewhere north of €15 trillion.


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The Rape Of Cyprus By The European Union & The IMF | Zero Hedge

The Rape Of Cyprus By The European Union & The IMF | Zero Hedge

Pay attention please. The European Union and the European Central Bank and the IMF have just advocated the confiscation of private property for their own indulgence. Bank accounts are not bonds or stocks or some other form of investments. It is private property like your house or your car. Germany, France et al came in and said, "We want it and we are taking it and it is necessary for our government." These countries did not demand it, yet, from their own citizens though they might soon but they demanded it from the citizens of Cyprus in exchange for funds. This is not a European Union this is a European Fourth Reich!


"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

          -John Adams

***

"Though the Earth, and all inferior Creatures be common to all Men, yet every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body had any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other Men. For this Labour being the unquestionable Property of the Labourer, no Man but he can have a right to what that is once joyned to, at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others"

...."Thus in the beginning all the World was America, and more so than that is now; for no such thing as Money was any where known. Find out something that hath the Use and Value of Money amongst his Neighbours, you shall see the same Man will begin presently to enlarge his Possessions"

 \ Locke on Property StumbleUpon

Ed Millibandstein - grandson of the Komissar who led the Katyn Forest massacre- wants to bring old skool communist media control to Britain. Stop him. Then if possible, hang him. For centuries men and women fought and died for freedom of expression. Who are Miliband and Clegg to throw it away? | Mail Online


Ed Miliband
The proposals - backed by both Ed Miliband and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg - would give the new regulator ultimate control over the Editor's Code of Conduct, which sets the rules for Press conduct

For centuries men and women fought and died for freedom of expression. Who are Miliband and Clegg to throw it away? | Mail Online

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Albino Sea Turtle

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Labor proves its credentials, a Government for Union Bosses, by Union Bosses, with Union Bosses - Michael Smith News

Labor proves its credentials, a Government for Union Bosses, by Union Bosses, with Union Bosses - Michael Smith News

The ALP and unions are the bigest criminal racket in Australia - that's why we need strong racketeering laws like the RICO Act in the USA.

Yesterday Gillard handed over $300,000 to a law centre at RMIT headed up by the former Victorian ALP Attorney-General Rob Hulls, with former ALP Premiers Bracks and Brumby (her former boss) in attendance as well as ALP lawyers, academics and judges (was Murphy there?)
The ALP Gravy Train will be making many stops over the next 6 monthas to dispense largesse on its mates before a possible election loss, whnich will cut their access to the taxpayer dollars to splash around on their mates.

And this is why there is now almost $269 billion in Federal borrowings and debt under the Rudd/Gillard/Swan Governments.

Not content to take the money out of our pockets they are also stealing from the pockets of our children and grandchildren to give themselves and their ALP and Union mates an advantage today.

Mongrel thieves.
Posted by: Gary

***


If such arrangements were in the Corporate world, there would be charges of secret commissions, insider trading etc and a number of 'leaders' would be enrolled in gaol.
Posted by: john greybeard


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Communist shitheel regime celebrates appointment of Argie pope by trying to pass Argentine style fascist media controls

Kim Williams did well in front of Doug "457 assclown" Cameron's committe on free press destruction. Also good to see squirmbrained green Lisa Singh pontificating and parading not only her ignorance but her stalinism for all to see.

Quite why anyone would vote for any socialist, marxist or independent rentseeker in the upcoming election is beyond explanation, even more so now that blatant un-Australian media control laws are being seriously proposed. Such laws have no place within the Anglosphere.

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Turns out bludging off Germany and UK, letting unelected assholes dictate to you and abridge what passes for sovereignty in pretend-land Europe: Not such a fantastic idea.

BBC News - Cyprus parliament to hold bailout crisis session

So why exactly did the UK bankrupt itself and lose its highly civilised and effective empire to let these weaklings in Europe ponce around and get dictated to?

If Hitler doing it was so fucking evil, why isn't it evil when the EU does exactly the same thing?

If Stalin and the rest of the jewish-bolshevik assclowns doing it was a crime against humanity, why are their marxist successors in the EU allowed to abridge sovereignty and destroy the veneer of civilisation that the primitives of Europe force the Anglosphere to prop up?

EUSSR: LET. IT. BURN.

LET THE MOTHERFUCKER BURN.

UK- stop letting leftwing governments commit white genocide and destroy your proud culture. Smash the EU by quitting it forever and dynamite the Chunnel. UK's got enough rabies and third worlder illegals now.


LET. IT. BURN.

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Someone's drawn inspiration. Good.

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BBC News - Steubenville Ohio school footballers guilty of rape

BBC News - Steubenville Ohio school footballers guilty of rape

Trent Mays, 16, and Ma'lik Richmond, 17, attacked the girl after a drunken party in the town of Steubenville. Both wept as the verdict was read out.

The case came to light via text messages, online videos and social media posts made the morning after, attracting nationwide attention.

The two were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile detention.

Mays was sentenced to another year for taking pictures of the naked victim, and the judge said both might stay in detention until they reach 21.

The case was thrust into the national spotlight after attention by bloggers and the hacker activist group Anonymous.

Some claimed that the community - including local police - had sought to cover up the crime to protect the accused, who were members of a celebrated high school football team.
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UP TO 80% OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE AFGHANI ARMY DESERTERS - The Pickering Post

UP TO 80% OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE AFGHANI ARMY DESERTERS - The Pickering Post


"Most illegal immigrants flooding into Australia without papers are composed of Afghani Army personnel", an employee connected to Christmas Island has claimed.

The processing centre at Christmas Island is being manipulated by corrupt Iranian and Afghani interpreters who advise the army deserters to say they are lowly farmers.

Australian Officials, suspicious of their claims, have been jetting these dodgy detainees in their hundreds to the infamous Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia.

The Centre, described as the "Hell Hole" is in a remote area 2,000, kilometres north of Perth.
Designed to hold 1400 of the most violent and suspect detainees, it was recently all but vacated after the disease Guillain-Barré syndrome broke out affecting locals.

In April 2010, the Rudd government decided to reopen the "horror centre" for what he termed "single male asylum seekers", and those who fall within the category of, "do not process".

In charge of security is Serco Plc, a UK publicly listed company, the Asia-Pacific arm of which has been contracted to the Australian Government.

It has each Australian employee on signed confidentiality agreements.

Serco has usurped billions of Australian taxpayer funds, mostly wasted on renting material and white goods that could be purchased outright for the cost of one week’s rent.

Marquees and air conditioning units are ready and rented at $10,000 per week in lots of ten to cater for the expected overflow from Christmas Island.

At least three passenger airliners are chartered permanently to shuffle detainees between centres. As few as three detainees at a time are flown into the Curtin Centre, claimed one employee.

Describing their company Serco Plc said: "We provide catering, recreation, education and excursions, manage accommodation, facilities, maintenance, transport and logistics, security, training and procurement. Our employees look after thousands of people in locations all over Australia, responding to their cultural, religious and individual needs." Mmmm.

Of most concern is the whereabouts of the 1,000 unprocessed illegal Curtin detainees who have now been dispersed to Australian cities.

"These blokes are rock-hard fit and looking for trouble", said one Curtin employee.

Sam (not her real name) is a small part Aboriginal girl once employed by Serco.

She is too frightened to talk but an angry relative explained that Sam’s job was to escort groups of these men to Canberra and Melbourne.

They were taken to holding centres before being given bridging visas and were then dispersed into the community, legally unable to work.

After six trips Sam resigned because of the sexual abuse she suffered. Traumatised, she is now living back with her family in Derby.

Enquires from Derby to Broome, including Police stations have been met with a terse "no comment."
"Waste is rampant", said one local. "Tradespeople are charging up to $10 a kilometre to drive to and from the Centre to fix a washer on a tap.

"I was charging $2 a kilometre until I found out what the other guys were charging, so I put my bill in at $10 per kilometre and they never said a word, they seem to just pay whatever you invoice them for.
"If one (of the detainees) gets a toothache or anything, someone has to come out from Derby and take them back for treatment. It’s often hours waiting before they are ready to go back."

"We are not allowed phones there", said another ex-employee, "but I tested the phones available to the detainees and I could phone anywhere in the world."

Another informant said that the local Derby refrigeration store, Lindsay Howard, was robbed of thousands of dollars of equipment which somehow found its way to the Curtin Centre on rental agreements. "Nothing came of it", he said.

"It seems this Serco mob spends more time covering stuff up than doing their job here."

So us Aussies can look forward to another tranche of thousands of Islamic Afghani army deserters soon to be scattered unprocessed throughout our communities.

Meanwhile, the Gillard Government equivocates over whether legitimate Afghani interpreters, currently risking their lives to assist our army in Afghanistan, should be allowed entry.

They are marked men once we leave.

Bloody good eh?

Asylum seekers, my arse!
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UKIP rises as conservatives in name only complete destruction of the UK

Ukip steals a march on Tories - Telegraph

An ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph shows that a key group of Right-of-centre voters are much more attracted to Ukip’s policies on immigration, government spending and same-sex marriage than to the Tories’ stance on the issues.
This same group — made up of those who have yet to decide which of the two parties to support — also rates Ukip’s Nigel Farage as a better party leader than the Prime Minister. The group make up one in 10 of all voters and their support is crucial to Mr Cameron’s chances of electoral success.
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There WAS a recount on the Prop 37 vote, and it was stopped cold | Jon Rappoport's Blog

There WAS a recount on the Prop 37 vote, and it was stopped cold | Jon Rappoport's Blog

The stink from the blocked vote-recount goes all the way from Fresno up to the capital city of Sacramento and back down again.

Naturally, the major media give this story no play. They remain silent.

As I’ve detailed in other articles, there are many reasons to reject the truth of the original Prop 37 vote in California, as well as any election in the State. But after these revelations, if you accept California vote-counts as real, you should check your sanity.

Source: The Brad Blog, “Forget About Fresno: How One CA County Clerk Stopped Prop 37′s Oversight ‘Recount’”
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BBC News - Greek footballer Giorgos Katidis banned for Nazi salute

BBC News - Greek footballer Giorgos Katidis banned for Nazi salute

A Greek footballer has been banned for life from playing for the national team after making a Nazi salute.

***

Interestingly, no one's ever been banned for making a communist salute despite communist fuckers killed more people than the black fucking death.

As usual, socialist free speech has a definition that only a drug addled moral relativist or ideological socialist fabian could understand.
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The Testimony of Roger Craig

On the day of John Kennedy's assassination, Roger Craig, previous winner of prestigious police awards, was a Deputy Sheriff on duty in Dallas.

What he saw, and could never be forced to say he didn't see, proves that there was a conspiracy in the murder of John Kennedy.

And that is why Roger Craig had to die, a broken man, so that the truth would not set us free.

http://flyingtigercomics.indieaisle.com/the-testimony-of-roger-craig



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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Jesse Ventura vs the 911 Control System

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Black and White and Green All Over: Gillard at Slater and Gordon; AWU; AWUgate

Black and White and Green All Over: Gillard at Slater and Gordon; AWU; AWUgate

Gillard at Slater and Gordon; AWU; AWUgate

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Selecting a highlighted speaker's name will display only that speaker's contributions to the whole speech.

TitleCity Link: tender
HouseASSEMBLY
ActivityQuestions without Notice
MembersSTOCKDALE
Date12 October 1995
Page656

many unnamed bank spokesmen engage in political propaganda.

City Link: contractual arrangements

Mr BRUMBY (Leader of the Opposition) -- Will the Treasurer confirm that the major sticking point in the negotiations between the government and Transurban is that Transurban is insisting that it be given a guarantee that in order to increase toll revenue and force cars onto the tollways the government will, firstly, reduce the width of Footscray Road; secondly, close Alexandra Avenue; and, thirdly, allow parking on Toorak Road so that it is no longer a clearway? Will the Treasurer give an undertaking to the house that he will not agree to any of these measures?

Mr STOCKDALE (Treasurer) -- It is a pity for Hollywood that the fertile imagination of the Leader of the Opposition is not captured by somebody who makes movies, because his flights of fancy are beyond belief.

I do not propose to go into the detailed matters that are subject to negotiation.
Honourable members interjecting.

The SPEAKER -- Order! The Leader of the Opposition has posed his question and the house should listen in silence to the answer.

Mr STOCKDALE -- The fanciful suggestions the Leader of the Opposition has made are the first I have heard of that kind. They would be unacceptable to the government in the form in which he proposes them. So far as I am aware, nobody other than the Leader of the Opposition is contemplating them.

AWU union official

Mr PERRIN (Bulleen) -- Will the Minister for Industry and Employment inform the house what action the government is taking on allegations of corruption in the trade union movement?

The SPEAKER -- Order! The Chair has some difficulty with the question. Unless the answer can be related to government administration the question will be out of order.
Mr GUDE (Minister for Industry and Employment) -- This matter should be of serious concern to all Victorians. Serious allegations of fraud and impropriety have been brought to my attention.

It is alleged that the former secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Mr Bruce Wilson, who left the union's employ in August of this year, has apparently misappropriated union funds and used his position as secretary in the most improper manner.

I understand the AWU is still receiving bills for strange items ordered by Mr Wilson. All attempts thus far to find him have come to nothing. What did Mr Wilson do when he found out that his actions had been discovered? The first thing he did was to seek legal advice from the union's solicitors, none other than Slater and Gordon. From whom did he receive that advice? One Julia Gillard.

I am informed that Ms Gillard is no longer with Slater and Gordon due to commitments as an ALP Senate candidate. That may not be the only reason she is no longer working at Slater and Gordon.

Mr Bracks -- On a point of order, Mr Speaker, from the outset you asked the minister to relate his answer to government administration. The minister is not talking about government administration but is speculating. He is seeking to try in the Parliament a case which should be dealt with outside the Parliament.

Mr GUDE -- On the point of order, Mr Speaker, I should have thought that of all members opposite the one who has just risen in his place to make a point of order should have known better because, after all, he is supposed to be the spokesperson in the industrial relations area.

The Employee Relations Act clearly provides for investigation of alleged improper action against a union. I make the point to the honourable member that the AWU is a registered and recognised organisation under the Employee Relations Act.

The concerns that have been expressed have been expressed on behalf of decent working AWU members. I have not only a right but a responsibility as the responsible minister to deal with the matter, and I propose to do that irrespective of the point of order.

The SPEAKER -- Order! If the minister can relate his answer to the act he mentioned he will be in order, but if he strays from that he will be out of order and I will no longer hear him.

Mr GUDE -- Consistent with the provisions of the legislation I am informed that the first thing Ms Gillard did, when asked what she would be doing and why she was getting out of Slater and Gordon, was to pay back moneys to the AWU for work -- --
Mr Brumby -- On a point of order, Mr Speaker -- --

AWU: funds

Mr LEIGH (Mordialloc) -- I grieve about the Australian Workers Union and the allocation of some of its money. The union has a well-known history in the Labor Party. It has been involved in a lot of rorting of the funds of many union members. Today I am seeking a fraud squad investigation into what happened to $57 000 of the union's money.

To set the scene, I want to show the credibility of the witness from whom the information was supplied.

Honourable members interjecting.

Mr LEIGH -- The gentleman concerned -- and government members may laugh -- is a 20-year member of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party, the joint president of the Australian Workers Union and a four-year member of the Victorian ALP administrative committee. He is well known to the Minister for Transport because he sat on the administrative committee during the Nunawading Province re-election inquiry that checked out what the honourable member for Thomastown -- now the Minister for Transport -- was doing when he was secretary of the ALP.

Mr Bob Kernohan has been hounded. Together with a whole range of things that have been done to him, through Telstra the union found his silent phone numbers and has made threatening phone calls to him. Today, the union is still up to its tricks and so are a number of members of the ALP. In a letter to me Mr Kernohan states:

When this is used ... may counteract by attacking me over the $6500 I received from Wilson ...

That is Bruce Wilson, who was then involved in the union. The letter continues that this person:

is well aware that the money I received came out of the Wilson election fund, this was confirmed by John Cain Jr, senior partner, Maurice Blackburn and Co.
On top of that --
this person --

is also aware that I went to the federal fraud squad and made a statement to this effect.
They found that I had no case to answer.

You must also remember that over half a million dollars went missing that --
the secretary of the union --

was aware of prior to him paying out Wilson and his mates (an additional $300 000).
I will make all of the material I have available to the house, including a copy of Mr Kernohan's statement to the federal police, following which no charges were laid against him.

This is a man who has spent a lot of years in the Victorian ALP. He has decided to come forward today

Page 53

because he is sick of what is going on in this open, honest and transparent government. Is it so honest?

Government members interjecting.

Mr LEIGH -- Who pays for you guys? The material I will make available includes several statutory declarations and I intend to read them.

Mr Maxfield -- Can you read?

Mr LEIGH -- I refer to the first statutory declaration which was signed yesterday, although I also have another one signed some time ago by Mr Kernohan. The statutory declaration states:
I had a discussion with ...
the then secretary of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) in mid-1995 and, during the discussions --
the secretary --
alerted me to the fact that a building contractor had been to see him seeking final payment for renovation works undertaken and completed at an address that was authorised by the AWU. AWU officials Bill Shorten and Terry Muscat were also aware of this serious matter.

The secretary:
told me that a considerable amount of ... union funds had already been spent on renovations at this property and that his investigations had disclosed that the property in question belonged to --
an individual. I have not named the individual as yet, but I will in a minute. The statutory declaration continues:
... he told me that $40 000 had been spent by the AWU to date.
The secretary:
told me that --
the person concerned --
was a ... close friend of Bruce Wilson. Wilson was also an AWU secretary.
The person:
was not known to me but --
the secretary --
and Bill Shorten knew her, in fact Bill Shorten said that he knew her well.
I asked --
the secretary --
what was he and the union going to do to recover our members union funds.
The secretary:
told me that he would not rest 'until these --
I cannot use the expletive that is in the document --
crooks are in jail and that the money is returned in full to the union'. To this day, despite court action taken against Mr Wilson and a court order authorising the AWU to recover these moneys nothing has been done.


The secretary:
and myself had a significant fallout over this and other serious fraudulent activities within the union because they wanted to 'cover it up'.

The secretary:

told me that Wilson also spent $17 000 on women's clothing for --
this person --

out of union funds. The ladies clothing store is called the Town Mode of Melbourne Fashion House.

I do not believe the store exists any more. So $17 000 of the union's funds were spent by the Victorian branch of the AWU to make this person well dressed. This person ultimately became what one would describe as the best-dressed chief of staff in the country for a Leader of the Opposition, because this person was a former Leader of the Opposition's chief of staff and received the clothes and the renovations.

Mr Hulls -- I was the chief of staff.

A Government Member -- Do you wear dresses?

Were you wearing a dress at that time?

Mr LEIGH -- I am well aware of some of the strange habits of the now Attorney-General but I think dressing up in women's clothes is not one of them -- that I know of!
I am talking about a former Leader of the Opposition's chief of staff -- not the current or former chief of staff, the honourable member for Niddrie -- Ms Julia Gillard, who was the chief of staff to the now Victorian Treasurer. While Ms Gillard was swanning around the country, presumably with the Leader of the Opposition, to promote the Labor Party, union funds were being used to renovate her property and $17 000 of the $57 000 bought her the best clothes -- --

Mr Hulls -- On a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker, the honourable member is casting aspersions on a member of another Parliament. His remarks are

Page 54

grossly inaccurate, outlandish, outrageous and indeed highly defamatory. The grievance debate is not a time for members of Parliament to get on their high horse and grossly defame federal members of Parliament for their own purpose, whatever that may be. I ask that you bring the honourable member back to the forms of the house and conduct the grievance debate in a proper manner without allowing the honourable member to cast outrageous defamatory aspersions on a federal member of Parliament.

Mr McArthur -- On the point of order, Mr Acting Speaker, I request that if there are points of order in this vein that you ask the Clerks to stop the clock. I also refer you to Speakers' rulings on this issue. I refer especially to Speaker Wheeler's ruling in 1973 when he said:
In the best traditions of this place, members should refrain from making imputations concerning the official actions of members of other parliaments ...

Mr Acting Speaker, I draw your attention to two things in relation to the ruling. Firstly it says 'in the best traditions of this place'; it is not an absolute prohibition from drawing into question the actions of members of other parliaments. Secondly, the ruling draws a very clear line. It says, 'should refrain from making imputations concerning the official actions of members of other parliaments'.

The honourable member for Mordialloc is bringing into question the actions of a person while not a member of another Parliament, but he is certainly not questioning this person's official actions in any way. The honourable member's issue relates to the possibly fraudulent use of members' funds from a union and where those funds were eventually expended. It does not relate to the official actions of a member of another Parliament. On those grounds you should rule the point of order out of order.

Mr Cooper -- Are you going to stop the clock?

Mr Brumby -- On the point of order, Mr Acting Speaker, the rules of debate in this place, as in other parliaments, are very clear. If a member of Parliament wants to make substantive allegations against another member of Parliament -- --
Mr Leigh interjected.

Mr Brumby -- You have mentioned the person's name now in this debate. If you want to make those sorts of allegations, as repeated in the house by the honourable member for Monbulk, it must be done by way of substantive motion.

To come in here as the honourable member does -- a member who has a reputation for never getting out of the gutter, for always being in the gutter -- --
Honourable members interjecting.

Mr Brumby -- Accusations of that type should be made by way of substantive motion. I stated through you, Mr Acting Speaker, that I assume the honourable member is prepared to make those allegations outside the house, and the gutless little coward opposite says, 'I don't have the guts to do it'!

This is a member of Parliament who cannot help himself to get out of the gutter. I suggest that if he wants to make these allegations he should get to his feet, walk out of this house, stand on the front steps and repeat them. We will then see whether he has the guts and the backbone to back up the filth that he has peddled today in Parliament.

Mr Cooper -- On the point of order, Mr Acting Speaker, there are some rules that govern matters that come before this house, and in particular rules that govern points of order. Neither the Attorney-General nor the Treasurer has followed those rules: they have simply made wild allegations. The Treasurer has tried to debate the issue and extend the debate into an attack upon the honourable member for Mordialloc. The realities are that the house runs by standing orders and precedents set by previous Speakers and by the present Speaker.

The honourable member for Monbulk stated that the precedent states that there is no point of order. The only standing order that is relevant to this matter is standing order 108. I notice that the Attorney-General very carefully avoided quoting that standing order because it refers to members of the house and states that:
...
all imputations of improper motives and all personal reflections on members shall be deemed disorderly.

The honourable member for Mordialloc did not breach standing order 108 in his remarks about Ms Gillard and her misuse of union funds. There is no point of order. Further, the clock should have been stopped to allow the honourable member to finish his contribution.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Kilgour) -- Order! I do not uphold the point of order.
Mr LEIGH -- If the Labor government is true to its word under its leader, Mr Bracks, that it is an open and honest transparent government, I seek from the Minister for Police and Emergency Services an admission that the government has a rogue union inside

Page 55

its organisation, affiliated to its body, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have a record of the former president of that organisation saying that hundreds of thousands of dollars of union money has been rorted. What we have uncovered is a small proportion of that money.

The now secretary of the union, Mr Bill Shorten, knew about it, and the former secretary and now the upper house member in this Parliament, Mr Bob Smith, knew about it. They all know about it. Ms Julia Gillard knew about it and she took the 57 000 bucks to avenge herself.

Mr Maxfield interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Kilgour) -- Order! The honourable member for Narracan should not shout like that from the back seat.

Mr Lenders -- On a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker, I draw your attention to standing order 108, on which the honourable member for Mornington so helpfully addressed us before. The honourable member for Mordialloc has in this case directly and unequivocally impugned the motives of the honourable member for Chelsea Province in another place. It is unambiguous in terms of standing order 108, which reads:

No member shall use offensive or unbecoming words in reference to any member of the house ...

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Kilgour) -- Order! I have heard enough. I do not uphold the point of order.

Mr LEIGH -- In closing, I seek a police investigation into the misuse of those funds, and I urge the Minister for Police and Emergency Services to take some steps to demonstrate that the Victorian ALP government is as honest as its leader, Mr Bracks, says it is. I do not believe he will do that.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 May 2010 

AWU: funds

Mr McINTOSH (Kew) -- I am glad to be able to follow the honourable member for Tullamarine in the grievance debate. She talked about workers, but a lot of the issues I propose to raise deal with the way workers have been mistreated by at least one large public institution that operates throughout this country. All honourable members have been concerned about the collapse of HIH Insurance and the appropriate regulatory and prudential controls that should be established to ensure that people do not lose their money through mismanagement and misappropriation, if not criminal behaviour.
Mr Acting Speaker, I have asked the honourable member for Glen Waverley to pass to you a draft report by Coopers and Lybrand and a bundle of various documents. I am happy to table those documents for the benefit of the house.

The honourable member for Monbulk has some copies for any honourable member who wishes to follow my comments.

The institution I wish to deal with is the Australian Workers Union. The Australian Workers Union is now a super-union that resulted from the amalgamation of the AWU and the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees on 1 November 1993.

I refer you to the draft report by Coopers and Lybrand, which is addressed to the Australian Workers Union and raises major matters for the attention of the union's committee of management. As I understand it, it is a draft report that was prepared for the head office of the AWU.

The covering letter dated April 1998 deals with matters that arose in the financial years ended 30 June 1995, 1996 and 1997.

I say from the outset that I make no allegation against any individual member or official of that union. I am concerned that the processes adopted by the union raise substantial questions that should be dealt with by way of a public inquiry, if not a police investigation. Most importantly, the dispassionate draft report by the auditors indicates that the union has substantial difficulties.

I refer you, Mr Acting Speaker, to the first page of the draft report, which is the first page of the April letter, and in particular to the second paragraph, which reads:

The issues detailed in this report are considered to be the major issues which significantly impact the control environment and financial integrity of not only the head office branch --
that is, the head office of the AWU --
but also the union as a whole. The seriousness and magnitude of the issues we have identified have resulted in an extreme limitation in the scope of our audit, and as a consequence we propose to issue a disclaimer of opinion on the financial statements for each of the financial years presented.

Page 880

I refer you to what may be the most important words, at the end of the third paragraph:
It must also be noted that should this less than adequate financial environment persist, we would be required under our professional auditing and ethical standards to tender our resignation as auditors of the union.

I refer you to some of the substantial allegations made by the auditors. On page 16 of that draft report, the following observation is made:

During our audit we identified a significant number of transactions for which no supporting documentation was available.

They state that that impacts on their ability to determine income and expenditure and to correctly detail the accounts of the union.

On the last page, page 17, the auditors make the following observation:
With regard to contributions paid by branches and payments on behalf of branches, we noted that:

in the general ledger there are no separate accounts to record contributions/payments for other branches separately ...

It goes on to say that there is a substantial discrepancy between what the state branches and the head office say the income and expenditure should be.

The second bundle of documents relates to a number of exhibits to an affidavit sworn on 19 September 1996 by Mr Ian Cambridge, who was then the national secretary of the AWU. As I understand it, he is now a member of the New South Wales industrial relations court.

The source of the information I propose to put before the house is the affidavit filed in proceedings in the federal industrial relations court.

I refer honourable members to the last three pages of that bundle of documents, numbered 15, 16 and 17. Those pages contain a list of some 30 bank accounts in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Page 16 contains a list of substantive accounts in Western Australia and Victoria detailing not only account names and numbers but also huge deposits -- $156 000 in one case and $383 000 in another.

Mr Cambridge says in his affidavit that he wrote to every bank in Australia and that the replies he received were from the Commonwealth Bank alone. The list of the individual bank accounts relate to the Commonwealth Bank and not to any other. He says in his affidavit that the AWU does not operate these accounts. They are not union accounts but somebody else's.

But they are using the name 'AWU' or 'Federation of Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Employees' or some variation on a theme in all those cases.

By way of example, on page 16 of the documents the first two accounts are shown as the 'AWU Workplace Reform Association Inc. (Cash Management Call Account)', which I will name the call account. The second account is named the 'AWU Workplace Reform Association Inc. (Cheque Account)', which I will refer to as the cheque account. As the front of the documents shows, in about April 1992 a corporation called the Australian Workers Union -- Workplace Reform Association was incorporated in Western Australia. The top document is an application for its incorporation. The second document is the certificate of incorporation.

The association opened the two accounts in Western Australia referred to above, the call account and the cheque account. One must remember that these are not union accounts but accounts operated by a person or persons unknown.

Mr Cambridge names a Mr Blewitt and a Mr Wilson as the signatories and the operators of the accounts, and it appears from his evidence that they were not doing it for the purpose of depositing moneys for the union.

Most importantly, during the course of the operation of those accounts a number of deposits were made by, among others, corporations such as Thiess Contractors in Western Australia. Page 3 is a deposit slip for the cheque account for the sum of $16 000. The second deposit slip on page 4 shows a deposit of some $31 000. Mr Cambridge has deposed that this is the only deposit slips he has, but he understands that the vast majority of the deposits were made by Thiess Contractors. I make no allegation against Thiess Contractors, in fact quite the opposite.

It appears that Thiess Contractors operations were above board.

It had an arrangement with the AWU to employ people for the purposes of training them on their sites in Western Australia under the then Labor government's workplace reform legislation. According to Mr Cambridge's affidavit, the Western Australian government also made substantial contributions to the union in that regard. This was dealing with taxpayers moneys! Those moneys were built up over time. Page 5 is lifted straight out of Mr Cambridge's affidavit. I am happy to table a copy of the affidavit or make it available to anyone who wishes to peruse it.

The table on page 5 gives details of expenditure and shows an unbelievable amount of cash money -- $50 000 -- together with further amounts of $8000 all

Page 881

the way down the table. Payments were made to unknown people. Items 3 and 4 on page 5 show that on about 10 February a cheque was drawn for $25 000 and made payable to a Mr Blewitt. As I indicated earlier Mr Blewitt was a union official, and his involvement raises questions that need to be answered.

On 13 February Mr Blewitt purchased a property in Victoria for $230 000, paying a deposit of $23 000. This happened three days after he was given a cash cheque for $25 000. He nominated a firm called Slater and Gordon to handle the transaction. I emphasise that I make no allegation against Slater and Gordon. It is important to note that that firm was the union's solicitors in Victoria, so no doubt Mr Blewitt went to his internal solicitors. But on or about 18 March, at the request of Slater and Gordon, some $67 000 was paid to complete the settlement of the property, and a further $2000 was paid out of that account. It is not the union's account, but it certainly appears to be union money.
Mr Cambridge has given evidence to say that the property has subsequently been sold and not 1 cent has been used from the sale proceeds to reimburse the union. It has disappeared into the ether, despite the fact that there is a civil order out against Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt in that regard.

On page 16 of the documents the first account under the heading 'Victoria' is named 'Australian Workers Union Members Welfare Association (No. 1) Account'. Again Mr Cambridge knows nothing about that account. It is not a union account, although money has been paid into it.

Page 14 indicates that over a long period corporations such as Thiess Contractors, John Holland, Phillips Fox on behalf of Woodside, Chambers Consulting and Fluor Daniel paid moneys into the account. This is not an account operated by the union. Curiously, on page 15 there are all sorts of extraordinary items.

Items 13 and 14, totalling $17 500, were paid to Town Mode, which is a women's fashion house in Melbourne. Mr Cambridge has given evidence about the likely proceeds of this. The companies were doing no more than they were obliged to do, which is to remit union fees on a regular basis to the AWU. They were the fees of ordinary members. These moneys were put into an account not operated by the union, so ordinary members were paying for items from a women's fashion house. There may be a perfectly innocent explanation but I cannot see it.

Curiously, on my accounting some $185 000 in bank cheques has also been drawn and paid back to individual corporations, presumably because by that time August had expired. At page 16, a letter dated 4 August indicates real concerns on the part of the Victorian finance committee. It states that people are to be charged under various union rules and that those matters will be referred to the industrial relations tribunal and the police. So far as I am aware, those investigations have not been completed.
At page 17, Mr Cambridge indicates he wants the accounts frozen, and they are frozen. Then, for some reason, at the behest of Maurice Blackburn Solicitors, who were then acting on behalf of the Australian Workers Union, moneys were paid out to various accounts. A handwritten note indicates that notwithstanding that the accounts contained union moneys, according to a number of documents signed by union officials they were not appropriately dispersed.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Plowman) -- Order! The honourable members time has expired.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 May 2010
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