After much work, I’ve finally got the old website for the Society of Frogs and Reptiles migrated to its own domain name and a brand new website platform that supports any size browsers, including smart phones.
The site is now live at http://sofar.org.au
The coalition has just announced that if elected it will cut 4.6 billion dollars from Australia’s foreign aid budget, and divert the money into “infrastructure” projects in Australia, where “infrastructure” is code for more roads! In the Infrastructure section of their policy costings document there is 11.5 billion dollars across 31 line items – 30 road/bridge projects, and just one rail project (and funding for 5 rail projects abolished). Oh, and they also want to spend 1.8 billion dollars propping up the car industry by reversing recent fringe benefits tax changes.
I’m sure the millions of people in developing countries lacking clean drinking water and basic sanitation, subject to the vicissitudes of climate change will understand the need for Australians to drive on new 6 lane expressways in new cars bought from a government subsidised local car industry, burning fossil fuels in a carbon tax free economy, within an automotive friendly fringe benefits tax regime. Surely they’ll understand that we must do that? Surely?
Moments before the coalition release their policy costings, supposedly “well before the election” and “in good time” for the Australian public to scrutinise, the AEC confirms that 2.25 million people have already voted. Talk about evasion. If ever earth is threatened by a rogue meteor, don’t send Bruce Willis – send Tony Abbott, the master of evasion.
1.4m have voted at an early voting centre. Additional 850k postal. Total 2.25 approx
— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) September 5, 2013
Tony Abbott has spent much of this year and the election campaign crowing about how the coalition’s policy costings will be out “well before election day” and that the Australian public will have plenty of time to scrutinise the details.
As it turns out that “well before election day” means sometime on the Thursday before the election, less than 48 hours before polling places open, and well after some 1.2 million people have already cast their vote by pre-poll voting.
I’m not sure what I find most disturbing about this, that Tony Abbott is engaging in such brazen chicanery(*), or that apparently 53% of the Australian public are prepared to support such a charlatan.
(*) Chicanery = “trickery or deception by quibbling or sophistry”