It is interesting to see a few people have come to the defence of our PM on the subject of his father's coconuts...

For example Joe Weller Lewisham says in a letter published in the SMH:

""""""The article about John Howard's father suggests Howard snr was engaged in a deception that provided the seed money for the myth of the family's small business origins, and that there was a fraudulent imposition on the Commonwealth government. Before anyone gets too het up about this, they should consider this: if Howard snr were alive today to defend these accusations, it's a fair chance that he did not know what was happening and no one told him."""""

I think not... I know it can appear uncouth to invoke our general grocer's education and his family history but all of it is relevant because they are at the source of the continuing rigmarole that comes with the man... including his lies, his fiddles with things that are dismantled to reduce their universal efficiency for a few to benefit more than the rest, etc... His bend-over backwards policies to accommodate Indonesia in his refugee policies are beyond belief and are slippery as if coated with coconut oil...

And no sir, One can't claim not knowing the law when a deal is struck and too good... "Just sign on the dotted line here and here are a few hundred pounds... don't ask any questions..." does not wash especially when there was warnings about the stint... I can assure the dear reader that had the price of copra not gone through the floor, things would be quite different...

And for the grocer to tell the world that "The whole idea of doing something with your life was about personal achievement, and starting a business. That has influenced my attitude, because my father had a garage … I guess working for yourself, working for private enterprise, and not working for the government, was something I was brought up to believe in." So tell us Mr Howard, why are your working for the government and have done so for nearly all your working life?

Especially after having done just a very short stint as an employee lawyer? Was there no more belief in "private" enterprise for you? Or did you decide to sacrifice your career so you could privatise all the government assets as well as stuffing all employment benefits with draconian IR laws? And decide that GST is bad when someone else want to introduce it and good when it is in your little hot hands? A bit skitzo, isn't it?...

From the ABC

TWU faces fine for aiding workers
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says it could face a multi-million dollar fine for defending 99 Qantas workers, who have had pay docked for meeting about unsafe working conditions.

The union says their complaints were upheld by the Industrial Relations Commission but Qantas is still docking four hours' pay.

TWU secretary Tony Sheldon says Sydney-based baggage handlers were docked pay for meeting about an imminent danger in their work place.

He says an underpayment claim is being taken to the Federal Industrial Magistrates Court.

"If we fail in this application we are also liable as a union for each individual case for a $33,000 fine," he said.

One baggage handler says the issue is about WorkChoices, not Qantas.

"It's probably not the companies - they're just following the legislation and its going to hurt us and our kids in the future," he said.

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Our grocer knows how to sell crappy fruit... Gus

Yes Gus ....

It never ceases to fascinate me how when the "good guys" get caught doing the wrong thing, they use the old "I didn't know" or "no-one told me" defence.

It doesn't matter whether its a director of telstra, the reserve bank or AWB; a minister (both government & of the cloth) or a government department ... the defence is always the same & it always works.

And whilst Joe Weller from Lewisham might just be one of the rodent's "little battlers", his use of the phrase "fraudulent imposition on the Commonwealth government" suggests to me that he could well suffer from different origins.

Like most awstraylens, I've never been keen about unions initiating direct action, but it seems to me that if corporate Australia has succeeded in getting the federal government to do its bidding or, at best, is willing to let the government's "Workchoices" legislation be its excuse for intimidating & extorting its workforce, then its time for the workforce to pursue direct action.

Such "direct action" doesn't have to be the good old fashioned, all out strike action that our unions were once, long ago, famous for.

No, just take a leaf out of the rodent's book & "run dead" on the job.

Years ago I warned an American executive, threatening the workforce of its local subsidiary, that awstraylens were the world's greatest  "passive dissenters" .... that if they made-up their collective minds to do so, they could put you out of business, whilst appearing to be working harder than ever.

Maybe if a few extra Quaint-Arse passenger bags wound-up in Haiphong or outer Tubekistan, things might just loosen-up a little?

Maybe that's part of Labor's problem?

Maybe they've allowed themselves to be mesmerised by the little rodent & have forgotten where the real power is in this country?

The engine room of capitalism might be owned by the big end of town but I've never in 35 years in business seen anyone from there, or government for that matter, actually make it function.

Or has Labor really forgotten its roots? 

from the ABC

Beazley bullied by unions into AWA pledge, PM says

Prime Minister John Howard has accused Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley of caving in to union demands by promising to axe individual workplace agreements.

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Gus is impressed that all the doing of our little grocer is not influenced by anything...
like
refugees laws not influenced by...
or the IR laws not influenced by...
or dismantling medicare not influenced by...
or going to war on a whim not influenced by...
No.
No influences except for a few virtual coconuts?
Yes no need to bully our grocer to do what he does...
He's a natural at making most people's life a misery... without them knowing about it.

Definitely not influenced by:
Indonesia
big business
pharmaceuticals
George Bush
etc...
The list is long.... long... long...

One can assume with a reasonable amount of confidence that the rodent knows he is trouble... Otherwise he would have delegated himself, away from the government puppet show, to the Queen's real birthday celebration in the Albion — unless he was not invited...!!
That would be trouble, wouldn't it?

(Albion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the archaic name for Great Britain. For other meanings, see Albion (disambiguation)
Albion (in Ptolemy Alouion), is the most ancient name of Great Britain, though often used to refer specifically to England. Occasionally it instead refers to only Scotland, whose name in Gaelic is Alba (and similarly, in Irish, and Yr Alban in Welsh[1]). Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (iv.xvi.102) applies it unequivocally to Great Britain, "It was itself named Albion, while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae." The name Albion was taken by medieval writers from Pliny and Ptolemy.)