The Guardian 5 April, 2006
Dingo bytes
The board of the Reserve Bank is loaded with members of the ruling class — Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie, Business Council of Australia President Hugh Morgan etc — because it is responsible for monetary policy. Now there’s a vacancy on the Board because one of its members and generous donor to the Liberal Party, Robert Gerard, was forced to resign over some messy taxation matters. Now the Federal Government is having trouble finding a politically suitable replacement whose business dealings and could withstand close scrutiny. Apparently their mates are running a mile from what was one of the most sought after jobs.
In NSW, the clown leading the Liberal Party has laid out a scenario of chaos on the streets that requires the imposition of a state of emergency. After a number of shootings in Sydney’s south-west — clearly a turf war between rival groups — Peter Debnam called for 500 police to be on the suburban streets. "The number one issue is that it’s a war zone in south-west Sydney", he stated. That should have been the cue for him to put on his funny red nose, spray the media with a water pistol, jump into a toy police car and race around the block, but he missed his big chance. Greens MP Lee Rhiannon pointed at that both Labor and Liberal are hypocrites because they refuse to ban semi-automatic weapons and had supported a bill by the Shooters’ Party that allows people on good behaviour bonds to possess gun licenses.
CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is the debacle known as the Cole inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board payments of bribes to Saddam Hussein’s regime. It’s not necessarily a debacle because of Terrence Cole, even though he’s been a mate of PM Howard’s for nearly 50 years. It’s because the terms of reference for the inquiry stops it from investigating officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, effectively excluding the Government from scrutiny. Just one fact alone, that Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer last year told AWB officials that they were off the hook over the payment of $290 million to the regime for a bigger slice of the wheat trade to Iraq, means the Government was in the know all along.