Blogotariat

Oz Blog News Commentary
North Coast Voices Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 21:00 Source

In 2010 Lismore City Council installed water bubblers in the Lismore CBD to provide free filtered water. It was (and still is) a terrific example of how local government can play its part in reducing the demand for purchased water and help get rid of plastic bottles.

Then: 2010

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En Passant Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 20:20 Source

Racists and right wingers are trying to use yesterday’s horrific killing in south London to divide working people and whip up hatred of Muslims writes Charlie Kimber in Socialist Worker.

It is crucial that we stop them. We must not allow this to be exploited to generate racism or to give a boost to the far right.

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George Monbiot Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 20:00 Source

Somehow almost all of us have missed the real story behind the disappearance of our wildlife.

By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website, 22nd May 2013

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AusVotes 2013 Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 18:59 Source

I know, I know, all those of you who didn’t already think I was certifiable have just joined the cult.

A little over a year ago I said in multiple fora that I think we’re heading to another hung parliament result in 2013.

I still think that. I am unmoved. 14 billion in additional spending on public education, a national disability insurance scheme, poll after poll saying the Coalition is going to romp it in and I am utterly unmoved.

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Club Troppo Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 18:38 Source

This is sort of in the vein of the intermittent series (1, 2), its adopted sibling and an older post on “hollowing out”. But it’s also much less thought out.

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Your Democracy Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 18:25 Source

puddin' thieves

Sloppy Joe Hockey’s 15 biggest Press Club furphies

read more

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The Global Mail - Syndicated Stories Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 18:19 Source

Ford is folding in Australia. Is Australian manufacturing stripped of parts?

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Table Talk: Bob Ellis on Film and Theatre Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 17:14 Source

Greiner, a former proud dispenser of the addictive poison tobacco to teenagers (including, I am told, his children), has been removed for corruption, again, or maybe just for being a raging, hubristic pest.

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Larvatus Prodeo Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 16:42 Source
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Table Talk: Bob Ellis on Film and Theatre Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 15:55 Source

12.40 pm

At the rainswept Sydney Writers’ Festival. I meet in the big theatre foyer Maxine McKew who offers her hand, then, confused at my outstretched arms, kisses me. She is pleased she will be played in the Rudd miniseries by Miranda Otto, not having thought, in her shy, self-diminishing way, that she might be in the narrative at all. I strive to get a cancelled ticket for her session (usually someone dies between booking and performance) but there are none, and I go, as planned, to The Origins Of Sex with the sleek young Anglo-Indian historian Faramerz Dabhoiwala and Richard Glover. More to come

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Croakey Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 15:49 Source

For those wondering about the Coalition’s plans for health policy, some hints emerged when Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton spoke at an Australian Institute of Company Directors meeting this morning. Thanks to Dr Stephen Duckett, health...

Read more on the blog...

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Inside Story Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:18 Source

Nick Cater: intemperate attacks on the usual targets.
Photo: Dean Lewins/ AAP Image

The Lucky Culture
By Nick Cater
HarperCollins | $29.99

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Table Talk: Bob Ellis on Film and Theatre Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:02 Source

I am reading Clive James’s translation of Dante, the book he will be remembered for.

Its excellence is almost indescribable. A quote perhaps would help.

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Core Econ Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 13:55 Source

As I said a few months ago, tax evasion is the big cliff in terms of the future of the EU project. It was thus fascinating to see the tax evasion games played out at the latest ‘summit’ In Brussels yesterday.

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Club Troppo Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 13:54 Source

As I said a few months ago, tax evasion is the big cliff in terms of the future of the EU project. It was thus fascinating to see the tax evasion games played out at the latest ‘summit’ In Brussels yesterday.

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WixxyLeaks Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 13:18 Source

By now you have probably heard that Craig Thomson was in court in Melbourne yesterday.

You have probably read how there were 19 new charges laid against him, and that this time his wife Zoe was not there to support him. All of these things are true, but there is more that you probably haven’t read in the main stream media.

I’ll try to fill in the gaps.

For starters the 19 new charges, you probably don’t know what they are.

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Table Talk: Bob Ellis on Film and Theatre Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 13:18 Source

Peter Slipper was forced out of the Speakership, it now seems, not for sexually harassing a thirty-four year old male ( the first such charge in world history), nor for using word ‘cunts’ in a private communication (who has not done that), but for misusing cabcharges, if he did, cabcharges worth a thousand dollars, a sum he could pay back in an instant, misusing them to cross a border and visit a winery.

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newmatilda.com - Independent news, analysis and satire Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 12:47 Source

Joe Hockey thinks Treasury's budget figures are 'Wayne Swan’s numbers'. Attacks on public servants are not new but this recent talk about a politicised Treasury is nonsense, writes Ben Eltham

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Inside Story Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 11:58 Source

Attorney-general Mark Dreyfus says the government will take a “long look” at the reviews.

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Catallaxy Files Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 11:47 Source

Ford have just announced that it will cease Australian manufacturing operations after 2016.

FORD will cease producing vehicles in Australia from October 2016, in a move that will cost 1200 jobs.

Ford Australia boss Bob Graziano announced the closure of the car-maker’s Broadmeadows and Geelong plants in Victoria while unveiling a $141 million after-tax loss for 2012-13 year, making losses of $600 million over the last five years.

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Andrew Leigh Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 11:47 Source

TRANSCRIPT – CAPITAL HILL
Andrew Leigh MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
Member for Fraser
22 May 2013

E&OE

TOPICS:                Coalition costings.

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newmatilda.com - Independent news, analysis and satire Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 11:36 Source

In Asia, high-speed fibre broadband is seen as an enabler, not an expensive drain on the public purse. Gabrielle Jackson compares the top networks in the region

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newmatilda.com - Independent news, analysis and satire Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 11:26 Source

When it comes to resources policy, critics love to liken Gillard's approach to Whitlam's. It's politically effective – but it's wrong, writes Sarah Burnside

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Geelong BlabbertiserGeelong Blabbertiser Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 11:11 Source

IMG_20130523_104628

CEO Bob Graziano of Ford Australia announced this morning that they will be closing operations in Geelong and Broadmeadows, resulting in Ford being an import only Australian brand.

“We will cease our manufacturing operations in October 2016,” Graziano said.

“Manufacturing is not viable for Ford in Australia in the long term.”

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Club Troppo Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 10:57 Source

Well, as Ned Kelly may have said on the scaffold, “I suppose it had to come to this”. Ford has been prosecuting a strategy of risk minimisation which has principally been about investment minimisation in Australia for at least a decade and naturally enough, if you don’t invest you end up uncompetitive.  It’s been sad to watch how little dignity our politicians have had in negotiating with Ford. We’ve tossed them money begging them to stay.

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Inside Story Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 10:54 Source

Invisible brawl: footage of this incident in Beijing’s Ghost Street captured by artist Ai Weiwei can’t legally be viewed in China.

AN UGLY brawl erupted last Sunday outside a restaurant in Beijing’s Ghost Street entertainment area. Windows were smashed and people bloodied after itinerant pedlars reportedly clashed with the owners of a popular eatery. It was one of the estimated five hundred “mass incidents” across China each day.

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Larvatus Prodeo Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 10:36 Source

Tornado damage_cropped_300

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Inside Story Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 10:24 Source

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newmatilda.com - Independent news, analysis and satire Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 10:14 Source

Kevin Rudd has shown us his true colours, and those colours are a beautiful rainbow. Ben Pobjie gets real about the courage of St Kev

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newmatilda.com - Independent news, analysis and satire Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 10:03 Source

When did the pre-occupation with fact checking arise? When audiences stopped trusting mainstream media. Even expert-sanctioned truths need some scrutiny, writes Jeff Sparrow

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