The Coalition will impose new noise monitoring rules on windfarms that the multibillion dollar industry says will inflict crippling costs, provide no useful information and represent another victory for an anti-noise campaign by concerned citizens backed in part by the climate sceptic lobby.

The yet-to-be-released resources policy is set to require all windfarms to provide “real-time” noise monitoring, with the findings immediately publicly available, so nearby residents concerned about the alleged health impact of windfarms can compare the results with strict state government noise controls. The Coalition resources spokesman, Ian Macfarlane, will also try to introduce the measures before the election with a private members bill.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/windfarm-industry-coalition-turbine-noise

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We should slap a private member's bill on the emission of hot air and CO2 from the COALition...

The prime minister has called for LNP candidate Mal Brough to be disendorsed, in a growing furore over a menu for a party fundraiser that contained crude and sexist references.

Julia Gillard rounded on the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, for standing behind the LNP’s candidate for Fisher. She also implicated Abbott in a “pattern of behaviour” culminating in the LNP choosing to display a “grossly offensive and sexist menu” at a fundraiser for Brough in Brisbane in late March.

“Mr Brough should be disendorsed, that’s what should happen here,” Gillard told reporters in Perth on Wednesday afternoon.

“Let’s go through the pattern of behaviour. Mr Abbott personally has gone and stood next to signs that described me in a sexist way. We’ve had the Young Liberals hosting a function where jokes were cracked about the death of my father. And now, we have Mr Brough and Mr Hockey at a function with this grossly sexist and offensive menu on display,” she said.

“Join the dots.”

Abbott criticised the offending menu which offered a dish to attendees called “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail – Small Breasts, Huge Thighs & A Big Red Box”. But he said Brough should not lose preselection for the Fisher federal seat.

Abbott condemned what he termed a “tacky, scatological menu out the front of a Liberal party event” – but he also referenced a previous incident where a joke in poor taste at his expense had been made at a trade union dinner in Canberra.

“Whatever it is, I think we should be better than that. I think we should be appealing to every Australian's best self as we go into this election,” Abbott told reporters during a visit to manufacturer Combat Clothing on the Gold Coast.

Campaigning in south Sydney, Kevin Rudd sprang to the prime minister’s defence over what he described as a “snide, dirty and, I think … sexist trick”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/julia-gillard-abbott-sexist-menu

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Please note: I often call Abbott a little shit, a neocon, a borderline sociopath, I call him Tonicchio, Detritus, Shithead and all the names I can find under the sun in the English lingo, because they are descriptive of what HE DOES: he lie, he porkie, he tell fibs, he is hypocritical, he stands in front of insulting signs but says he cannot see them, he is a pure neocon with a catholic bent, he is heartless while pretending he has one (ask Bernie) and the list goes on and on — all with specific instances of bent behaviour...

Last night, there was a twist in the tale.

Apparently, Joe Richards ‒ the owner of the restaurant at which the fundraiser was held ‒ has claimed responsibility for the menu, and says it was an “in-joke” that was not used at the fundraiser at all.

As reported on The Age website, Richards wrote a letter to Brough explaining the situation after seeing it reported on the evening news.

Bullshit!

And here’s why:

At midday, this story, written by Latika Bourke, was released on the ABC website, with the headline screaming:

‘Liberal National Party candidate Mal Brough apologises for ‘offensive and sexist’ menu which mocked Julia Gillard’s body’.

The third paragraph of the article states:

‘Mr Brough says the menu was drawn up by a non-party member who thought it would be “humorous” and “didn’t mean any harm by it,” but is now “deeply apologetic”.’

So. at midday, Brough was aware that the menu had been drawn up by a non-party member, who was now deeply apologetic.

But wait … how could Brough have known this, if Richards didn’t contact him until later in the day?

Remember, Richards didn’t write his letter to Brough until after seeing the story on the evening news.

And in his letter, which was subsequently distributed by the LNP, he stated the following:

As you know no one at the dinner was privy to such a menu, and it is so unfortunate that an in-house joke between myself and my son has caused you great problems and embarrassment.

How, then, could Brough have known that Richards ‒ a non-party member ‒ was responsible for the menu when the ABC article was published at midday?

It doesn’t add up.

Brough made statements, reported at midday, containing details that he couldn’t have known until later in the day ― if he and Richards are to be believed.

Unless it is just a flimsy fabrication to protect a highly protected candidate.

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-mal-brough-menugate-cover-up/

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Meanwhile the former large guy, now a twiggy impressionist, Joe Hockey did not recall seeing the menu. This, in catholic circles, is the equivalent of "I saw it, I laughed, was embarrassed a bit, thus I did not see it."...

But there is a double possible twist to this story... Say the whole thing was staged managed to give Tony Abbott a new platform to "condemn this sort of thing" and place himself in a helicopter of holy grace hovering above the rest of us in our sexist little holes, while remind us that infamous dinner at which a comic hired for a union dinner made a tiny bad joke about Tony... Of course. 

Well to say the least, Gus thinks Tony is a real bad joke and this country could soon find the punch-line a bit off... I mean a lot off.

And as you go to the IA site, cast your goggling eyes on the list of grog, including the Louis Roederer Champagne... Is this a a tax deductible tipple while "fund raising" or graciously donated by the importer as "sample"?...