Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is going after the environmental votes that have traditionally gone to the left side of politics.

Mr Abbott will stake out his environmental credentials in a speech he will give at the New South Wales Liberal Party's Millennium Forum in Sydney this morning.

He also outlines some decidedly un-Liberal links in his past - one of his grandfathers was a unionist, and his father says he attended a communist Sunday school and sang The Red Flag instead of hymns.

From the BBC

It would have been "right to remove" Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein even without evidence that he had weapons of mass destruction, Tony Blair has said.

The former prime minister said it was the "notion of him as a threat to the region" which had tilted him in favour of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Without WMD claims it would have been necessary to "use and deploy different arguments," he told the BBC.

Mr Blair is expected to face the Iraq war inquiry early next year.

From Senator Minchin website:

"Ensuring energy security is one of the great challenges we face as a nation, but it also presents exciting new opportunities across the energy sector including in the field of renewable energy.

tweedling

From The Sydney Morning Herald supported Barry O' Farrell...

"It would put the public back in control. In the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, it would again ensure in NSW ''that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth".

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Yes Barry... Good Barry... Sorry Barry... Bollocks Barry...

I read between the lines:

From the SMH

Like Uncle Fester, Abetz seems to carry an electrical charge and can doubtlessly light up a bulb in his mouth.

Then there is the notion that the old hands of the Howard era should be shown the door.

Poppycock.

Even though he himself admitted they had been, at times, both "polarising" and "controversial", Abbott seemed delighted to announce the resurrection of three political poltergeists: Philip Ruddock, Kevin Andrews, and Bronwyn Bishop.

One of the Coalition's most prominent climate change deniers and passionate advocates for nuclear power has complained bitterly about being left off of Tony Abbott's new front bench.

Dennis Jensen, the Western Australian MP who disputes man-made climate changes and led backroom efforts to convince colleagues, has expressed his displeasure on Facebook.

"Pretty damned disappointed at the lack of a frontbench guernsey," he writes.

By PETER BAKER

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says he has accepted a job on the frontbench of the Federal Opposition.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, is expected to announce a reshuffle early this week.

Senator Joyce has told ABC1's Insiders, he has taken advice from several people before making his decision.

"I know what I'm going to be doing because I've had that discussion with Tony, but I'm going to leave it for Tony to announce it. I can tell you it won't be the Minister for Arts," he said.

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Scientists say early predictions that Phillip Island would have a record number of penguin chicks this season, have proven tragically wrong.

Indications in October suggested more chicks would be born than ever before, significantly boosting the species' population.

But penguin biologist, Andre Chiaradia, says half of all hatchlings have died of starvation in recent weeks.

He says the local fish population moved offshore, forcing the adult birds to remain at sea for weeks at a time.