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the power of reason .....

  

the power of reason ....

 

 

South-East Asia's top diplomat has rejected as ''counterproductive'' Tony Abbott's policy to tow back asylum seeker boats to Indonesia, warning the plan could jeopardise Australia's ties to the neighbourhood.

And the chief of the 10-nation group that covers south-east Asia, Surin Pitsuwan, has cast doubt on the intentions of an Abbott government to actually carry out its threat to force asylum seekers to return to Indonesia.

''It will be counterproductive,'' he told the Herald. ''Just to impose certain decisions on the neighbours at the risk of losing many other agendas, many other issues on the international agenda.

''I don't think it's worth it.''

In what is the sharpest critique to date from a senior regional figure of Mr Abbott's boat tow-back policy, Dr Surin said countries understood the Opposition Leader was primarily targeting an audience at home.

Dr Surin is the secretary general of the Association of South East Asian Nations, a group of 10 nations that includes Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, all grappling with the explosion of asylum seekers transiting through their territory on their way to Australia.

''Rhetoric, political rhetoric, you have to take [Abbott's comments] as such,'' he said.

''I think south-east Asia or ASEAN is really mature enough to appreciate that some of them are internal rhetoric for internal consumption, for internal political communication.''

It is the sharpest critique to date from the region about Mr Abbott's controversial proposal, saying Australia did not have a record of pushing problems back on south-east Asia.

He said only a regional approach - not ''by divorcing, by turning your back to us'' - could solve the challenge of people smugglers and other cross-border crimes, such as drug trafficking.

Dr Surin said: ''You will have to think about others. A lot of this cannot be resolved by one party alone.''

Mr Abbott scored a rare diplomatic coup last week, meeting with the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in Jakarta.

But government ministers seized on Indonesian comments that Mr Abbott did not directly raise the tow back policy with Mr Yudhoyono, accusing the Opposition Leader of talking tough at home but lacking guts while abroad.

Dr Surin, a former foreign minister of Thailand, is coming to the end of a five-year term as ASEAN secretary general.

He said the region's ties with Australia had grown stronger, and Australia could now much more comfortably claim to be an Asian nation than it could in the 1970s.

''Australia came from a background of being rather distant and divorced from east Asia, from Asia in general. The perception earlier on before ASEAN or before your engagement with ASEAN was that it is a European country that happens to be in the East, and orientation, sentiments, emotional attachments always have gone to the West. But things have changed,'' he said.

''There was a need and Australia has done very well, there was a need to integrate the sentiments, the emotions and the priorities of the region.''

He praised Australia's efforts for engaging with what he described as ''architecture'' - the diplomatic institutions in the region - and helping countries work together to tackle problems.

Diplomat Rejects Abbott's Tow-Back Plan

mis-firing on all cylinders .....

from politicoz ….

The Opposition made a hash of its response to the government's mid-year budget update.

Tony Abbott made headlines with another unfortunate slip, to give the charitable interpretation: "If the government was a bit more experienced in this area," he said, questioning the government's proposed cuts to the baby bonus. He later insisted that he was not referring to the Prime Minister's childlessness and offered an ungracious apology, but the damage had been done (and indeed, who else could he have been referring to, given the many parents on the front bench?). 

Joe Hockey only added to the Coalition's terrible day. He likened cutting the baby bonus to China's one-child policy: "Now the government seems to want to penalise anyone that has a second or third child," he told ABC television. "I think that worked quite well in China, didn't it?" 

Reducing a benefit is clearly not a penalty, but only months ago it was Hockey who was calling for an end to the 'age of entitlement'. Only hours earlier the focus of his attack had been government over-spending.

The Opposition will be happy to see Craig Thomson back in the spotlight today.

"Police have raided embattled independent MP Craig Thomson's home and electoral office on the NSW central coast …

They are investigating allegations Mr Thomson improperly used HSU funds to spend on prostitutes, air travel, entertainment and cash withdrawals in excess of $100,000.

'No arrests were made but investigations are continuing.' a NSW police spokesman said."

f@#$k the media...

 

This is not Princess Diana topless on a yacht, nor is it Fergie sucking some accountant’s toes by the pool. This is just the wife of an MP, in her own house, being put under enormous pressure. The press should do all of us a favour and show a little fucking decency.

I have already spoken about Ean Higgins and his antics that seem to indicate he is a sock puppet for Kathy Jackson; I just hope Kathy washes her hands thoroughly before eating.

Aside from Independent Australia, WixxyLeaks, Vex News, and now Crikey who seem to be joining us on the front line at last with some great articles in the last couple of weeks, no other news outlet appears to be using evidence.

Some, like Ean Higgins, appear to just write whatever they’re told, as I’ve mentioned. Others use things such as a conversation someone says they’ve overheard at a crowded, drunken, HSU function, and refer to it as evidence (apparently that’s good enough for a Walkey these days).

How many stories are churned out on page one, only to have disclaimers, retractions, corrections, and disputed facts printed at the bottom corner of page 26, six days later?

Most of the press point to the FWA investigation as their bible, and the centrepiece of all that is factual. Yet, this is the investigation they took the piss out of solidly for years up to its arrival, saying how inept and useless the FWA was to take so long. Fast forward to now and we have the KPMG report that tears FWA a new one, totally discrediting its investigation and the entire process.

So, with the FWA investigation in the crapper, we then have the Temby report; alas, that is also based on that FWA investigation which is now drowning in the crapper, so best we flush and chuck Temby’s report in after it.

Read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/jacksonville-every-breath-you-take/

 

f#@$%k the police...

Mr Thomson's lawyer criticised the police for tipping off the media and described the raid as "something out of a Kafka novel".

NSW police obtained the warrant on behalf of the Victorian police, who are investigating allegations that Mr Thomson improperly used Health Services Union funds to spend on prostitutes, air travel, entertainment and cash withdrawals in excess of $100,000.

Shortly after 10am about eight officers walked out of Mr Thomson's house with a five large sealed boxes of material.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/police-raid-craig-thomsons-home-20121024-28489.html#ixzz2ACqhBB6H