on 25-03-2014 01:16 PM
What is your favourite article so far? I like to be entertained by what I read and this pretty good
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/no-martha-defence-for-arthur-sinodinos-20140321-358cd.html
Do you think the name Arfur might stick? I love it.
on 10-04-2014 12:25 PM
Some humour for a gloomy rainy day.....
http://theaimn.com/2014/04/10/arthur-sinodinos-perfect-for-assistant-treasurer/
Arthur Sinodinos – Perfect for Assistant Treasurer!
Ok, there have been a lot of unfair remarks made about Mr Sinodinos. I can’t remember any of them specifically but I have a vague recollection that a number of people at a large dinner party were suggesting that he wasn’t fit to be Assistant Treasurer. At least I think it was a dinner party. There was food and wine and people were talking. Not wishing to appear greedy I refrained from eating and just concentrated on the wine. If I use the same standard that people are applying to Arthur, I’m not fit to be Assistant Treasurer either. Which is clearly nonsense because I have exactly the sort of skills Australia needs at the moment. I am good with money. It’s when I’m broke that I’m not so good. So if you want me to be good, just give me lots of money.
But I digress. We were talking about what people were saying at the alleged dinner party. The general consensus was that if Arthur Sinodinos couldn’t remember anything from his time at that place where he was paid more money than they were, then he shouldn’t have a position of responsibility in the Government. I thought I should set them straight.
“Class warfare, pure and simple!” I said.
People stopped and listened in that way that they often do when I crawl out from under the table and speak with my deep, well-modulated authorative voice.
“You’re all just jealous, I continued, “because you’re paid too much and if there were no minimum wage, you’d soon see what you were worth! How on earth are we expecting him to remember some part time job from the last century. Can any of you remember every detail from a job where you only worked for twenty hours? I doubt it.”
“It wasn’t last century. It was only a few years ago. And he was being paid a large amount of money,” asserted someone.
“Exactly my point, you’re just attacking him because you don’t have the skill set to earn that sort of money.” I reached for the wine bottle and poured myself another glass.
“Apart from being totally unaware of anything that the company was doing, exactly what skills did he demonstrate?”
“He can open doors. Not the everyday sort of doors that anyone can open, but the doors that are normally closed unless someone with a particular knowledge turns the handle a particular way. He wasn’t there for his excellent memory. If he had an excellent memory, he’d be on some quiz show.”
“Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” suggested someone whose name I can’t remember.
“The trouble is,” I patiently explained, “that none of you loony left understand the way the economy works. That’s why Labor sent Australia broke. They had no understanding of balancing a budget.”
“But the Liberals have eliminated the debt ceiling and intend to borrow more than twice as much as Labor did,” insisted the person at the end of the table.
“And their Paid Parental Leave is going to add billions to the bottom line,” added the man next to me.
“Look,” I said, “the PPL is completed funded. They intend to cut company tax by one percent, except for the top companies where they will have a one percent surcharge to pay for the scheme.”
“But if they cut company tax on these companies by one percent then add one percent, aren’t they just back where they started?” said the person on the end of the table.
“And won’t the companies just pass it on as they did with the Carbon Tax?” said the man next to me.
“No, because it’s a levy, not a tax,” I told them.
“What’s the difference?”
I could tell that I was dealing with simpletons. I needed to use more concrete examples.
“Take this bottle,” I said, holding up the wine bottle.
“It’s empty!’
“Exactly my point. That bottle represents Labor policies. The bottle is now empty and nobody got any benefit from it.”
“Well, we all got to drink some,” said someone. And they laughed. Everyone’s a comedian.
“Now, hand me the full bottle of wine at the end of the table. This represents a strong economy. Empty bottle – Labor. Full bottle – the Liberal’s plan for getting the economy back on track.” I poured myself another glass. “If this was Labor, they’d be doing this into everyone’s glass and then we’d have no wine left. But because it’s the Liberals it only goes into one glass and then the trickle down effect will mean that it isn’t just wasted. So having poured one glass, I’m putting the top back on, then talking it home so that it doesn’t end up empty. That’s sound economic management.”
“I have one question,” said the man at the end of the table.
“Yes,” I said.
"Who invited you to this party?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Did anyone invite you?”
“I don’t recall.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m a financial expert,” I told him.
With that, I picked up the wine and left.
on 15-04-2014 07:51 AM
And the saga continues............
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-14/icac-barry-ofarrell-called-to-witness-stand/5387974
ICAC: NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell called early as witness in Australian Water Holdings inquiry
In a surprise announcement, New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell has been called to give evidence tomorrow at the Independent Commission Against Corruption's (ICAC) inquiry into a Sydney water firm.
Nick Di Girolamo: Mistakes may have been made
Mr Di Girolamo hedged around answering questions about whether or not he "stonewalled" Sydney Water by refusing to hand over receipts and invoices.
But he did admit mistakes may have been made in billing Sydney Water for legal fees, lunches, limousines, hotels, airfares and advertisements read by Alan Jones on radio station 2GB.
"Aren't you just an old fashioned shyster, fraudster?" the counsel assisting the ICAC also asked.
"The answer to your question in no," Mr Di Girolamo told Mr Watson.
Former state finance minister Greg Pearce has previously told the ICAC a meeting between Mr Di Girolamo and Mr O’Farrell in May 2011 seemed "cosy".
The inquiry continues.
on 15-04-2014 02:03 PM
it seems the NSW liberal party is rotten to the core. this leads all the way to the premiers office http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-15/3000-bottle-of-wine-not-sent-to-butter-up-ofarrell/5391318
on 15-04-2014 02:05 PM
the winners here are PUP and the Greens (until abbott gets PUP as he did with hanson)
on 15-04-2014 02:58 PM
2:53pm: On the explosive subject of a $3000 bottle of wine allegedly couriered to his house at the behest of Australian Water boss Nick Di Girolamo, O'Farrell says he's "certain I would remember receiving a bottle of Penfolds Grange, certainly one from my birth year".
"I'm no wine connoisseur. I don't drink a lot these days, that's evidenced by my size," O'Farrell says of his slimmed-down physique.
"I noticed that," a slightly larger counsel assisting ICAC, Geoffrey Watson, SC, says.
"I commend you to it," O'Farrell quips, to a hearty roar from Watson.
O'Farrell drops a reference to his gym routine and Watson rejoins: "Stop boasting."
"It's the Don Bradman of wine, it's unforgettable isn't it?" Watson says.
"I don't believe I would have forgotten it," O'Farrell says.
2:55pm:Collective intake of breath from the ICAC hearing room.
O'Farrell is shown a phone record showing he called Di Girolamo at 9.29 pm on April 20, 2011 - the day he allegedly received the $3000 bottle of Grange.
This would tally with Di Girolamo's evidence that O'Farrell thanked him for the gift in a telephone call.
"I have no knowledge," O'Farrell says of the 28-second call.
on 15-04-2014 03:00 PM
on 15-04-2014 03:03 PM
the live blog is worth a look http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/icac-barry-ofarrell-in-the-witness-box-20140415-36o9l.html?utm_source=twit...
on 15-04-2014 03:04 PM
3:00pm:Geoffrey Watson is pressing O'Farrell about the coincidental "collision" of dates: the premier allegedly receives a $3000 bottle of Grange and, just over a month later, he meets the alleged sender, Nick Di Girolamo, in state Parliament.
O'Farrell reiterates that he and his wife Rosemary have no recollection of the gift.
Asked about his involvement in a contract granted to Australian Water during his government, O'Farrell says he had no part in it "at all".
on 15-04-2014 03:08 PM
on 15-04-2014 03:30 PM
3:25pm:Barry O'Farrell exits the witness box, the media pack in hot pursuit.
The man who allegedly gave him a $3000 bottle of Penfolds Grange and lobbied him over a PPP, former Australian Water boss Nick Di Girolamo, has resumed giving evidence.
The Premier is expected to make a statement outside the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
3:20pm:John Agius, SC, is asking the premier about his practice when it comes to declaring gifts on the pecuniary interests register.
"The practice is that I comply with those rules," a rather brusque O'Farrell says.
Asked if he has ever been given a $3000 gift, O'Farrell says he doubts even his family has been so generous. He then makes a rather dad-joke reference to a garden hose he got one Christmas.
3:11pm: O'Farrell's own brief, John Agius, SC, is now putting questions to his client. Agius was counsel assisting the 1990s Wood Royal Commission into police corruption.
He asks O'Farrell about his phone call to Australian Water boss Nick Di Girolamo on April 20, 2011, around the time the newly-elected premier allegedly received the $3000 bottle of Grange from Di Girolamo.
The premier says that if he didn't receive the gift - as is his contention - then he didn't call Di Girolamo to thank him for it.