(Gosse's Bluff, Australia)

The New South Wales opposition leader Barry O'Farrell has shrugged off reports of a back-handed insult from his party's federal leader.

Tony Abbott is reported to have told a partyroom meeting yesterday that the federal opposition would not win the next election by adopting a 'Barry O'Farrell-style small target strategy.'

The comments have been gleefully picked up by the state Treasurer Eric Roozendaal who brought a picture of a very small target into the Upper House question time.

He says it is a severe indictment.

"Even your pin up boy is saying what you are saying behind Barry O'Farrell's back," he said.

Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of persecuting the family of the murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Walter Litvinenko, the former KGB agent's father, says the Italian PM’s chummy relationship with Vladimir Putin must be behind repeated delays in processing his request for asylum in Italy where he now lives. And the 71-year-old says his family have been harassed by local police, their business closed down - and are now dependent on charity.

Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry has thrown his weight behind calls for a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, saying the church's teachings are putting Australians' lives at risk.

Professor McGorry, a world-renowned youth mental health expert, and two other respected Australian psychiatrists are supporting independent Senator Nick Xenophon's efforts to set up an investigation into the church's activities and its teachings on psychiatric care.

Professor McGorry says it is time to put the Church of Scientology under the federal parliamentary microscope.

US Vice-President Joe Biden has condemned Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes for ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.

Mr Biden, in Israel as part of US attempts to kick-start the peace process, said it was "the kind of step that undermines the trust we need".

Palestinian leaders also condemned the controversial move.

Israel insisted it was a procedural step with no connection to Mr Biden's visit.

from the ABC

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has apologised to his colleagues for not consulting them before announcing a Coalition plan for a paid parental leave scheme.

Facing Coalition MPs today in the wake of the announcement, Mr Abbott said sometimes it was necessary to make a "leader's call" over some issues, and "sometimes it is better to ask forgiveness than permission".

A joint partyroom meeting today saw almost 20 MPs speak about the plan, which would see Australia's biggest businesses taxed by an extra 1.7 per cent.

from the ABC

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will introduce a six-month paid parental leave scheme if the Coalition wins the next election.

Mr Abbott says the Coalition would offer six months pay for parents at their current salary, up to a ceiling of $150,000, rather than the Government's scheme of 18 weeks paid at the minimum wage.

The plan would be funded by a new levy on larger businesses.

Mr Abbott says the scheme would give families a better deal than the Government is currently offering.

At the coal-face of educating Gustaphian with porkies...

in Oklahoma

Note: for some strange reason, the Chris Floyd site crashes Firefox...

rats

Why pay attention to the biodiversity of the planet?...

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2010 is the UN year of the biodiversity. But, apart from a few dedicated scientists and greenies who understand and try to value the problem of biodiversity's decline, the campaign for protection of ecosystems appears absent, uninspiring, dull and at times childish, especially to business men in suits driving economic road-graders for profits and for pocket money bonuses.

There were grave fears for Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott after he went missing in a remote part of Central Australia yesterday.

As part of Mr Abbott's four-day tour of the Northern Territory, he has already spent time in Alice Springs and met with locals at some of the town camps.

Yesterday he was visiting Kings Creek Station, west of Alice Springs, when he set off on a quad bike tour.

He was with a group of traditional owners, the owner of the Kings Creek Station and the Northern Territory Opposition Leader.

From the SMH

Mr Pyne said a Coalition government would conduct a thorough review of the curriculum.

''If we find the review confirms our very serious doubts then we'll scrap the national curriculum and we'll start again because it would be better for students to have the curriculum that they have now under the states than for them to have an unbalanced curriculum that will do them more harm than good,'' he said.

"I think the problem is that the prime minister is rattled by intimations of political mortality.

"I think he's shocked by the scale of his government's own ineptitude. I think that's what got him rattled."

Mr Abbott has made similar comments about Mr Rudd in relation to the government's failed climate change policy and by the limited outcome of the Copenhagen climate change talks.

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