More water than we need. But...

Hundreds of billions of litres of water all over the area and all but the tiny percentage that happened by chance to fall in the catchment areas will simply end up in the ocean.

We really do need to call our politicians to account for their appalling mismanagement and incompetence.

Central Coast dams 90% empty, yes 90%, and the water that we do receive is deliberately thrown away.

It's not that we don't actually collect a lot of it. All the rain that hits the roads, the roofs, the built-up areas has to be collected by guttering, down-pipes, drains. We get that bit right.

Then having collected it, what do we do? We put it all together and funnel it out to sea.

Meanwhile the fools blather on endlessly about new dams, about desalination.

COME ON!! We know the problem, we know how to fix it. SO FIX IT, YOU IDIOTS!

THEY WANTED TO KEEP HIM???

I find it hard to believe my eyes.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald report:

"Outspoken Muslim leader Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly has stood down as Australia's Mufti.

The controversial Islamic cleric was reappointed mufti at a meeting of Muslim leaders in Melbourne today, but declined to accept the position.

Sheik al Hilaly was a surprising and controversial first choice for the Muslim leaders, who have come under intense pressure over the past year to sack the Mufti.

In a statement issued today, the council said Sheik al Hilaly had "gracefully declined'' to accept another term.

They wanted to re-appoint the man who has done as much as anyone to damage relations between Muslims and non-Muslims!

I'm almost speechless.

I hope immediate past president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Rehin Ghauri, is correct when he said:

"Most Australian Muslims would applaud his departure. The ordinary Muslims don't like to see him as mufti.''

It wouldn't be the first time that religious leaders have shown that they're out of touch with their followers. I really do hope there's some follow-up with a survey of 'ordinary Muslims' so that their feelings can be aired.


The Sydney Morning Herald report is here.

Government Water Policy: 'Pray for Rain'.

If it wasn't so tragic, displaying such lack of vision, you'd have to laugh.

"I say without any hint of irony, you should all continue to pray for rain.
John Winston Howard.

In denial in the face of the evidence of global climate change, in denial that the endless drought, the empty dams, the year after year lack of rainfall could be the result of it.

Record windfall tax revenues from Australian companies. Record commodity prices, because of other countries' explosive development, not our government's policies.

But the well-being of Australia and our future is ignored in favour of self-interest, of buying the next election time after time, of retaining power with handouts. No investment in the creaking infrastructure that's hindering our exports. No investment in water management.

Keep spending the money to keep yourself in power and tell us to 'pray for rain'.

History will judge John Howard harshly.

That'll have'em rolling in the aisles, John.

"We won't buy poll victory: Howard"
JOHN Howard says he will not recklessly spend his way out of electoral trouble to gain a boost in the polls, and had not expected an immediate boost in popularity from the recent budget.

So says the report in The Australian.

Well, the polls are saying we're going to take the money, but not thank you for it.

60% said it was a good budget, 11% were neutral, 17% uncommitted and only 12% said it was bad.

But on the two party preferred vote, it's 59% Labor, 41% Coalition.

So in spite of the transparent attempt to buy the election, in spite of the diversion of investment from creaking infrastructure, from the water crisis, from anything with vision, to vote-buying handouts - it seems to have failed.

And not surprisingly, JWH has the bare-faced nerve to tell us it was never intended as a vote-buying budget and he didn't expect a poll advantage.

Ho, ho, ho.

I wonder how that compares with the private conversations they've been having.

I'm pleased to say that it looks as though, whatever tricks he tries, the Australian people have had enough of John Winston Howard.

Stand by for some more dirty tricks - along the lines of previous ones - 'never ever be a GST' or 'children overboard' for example.

Newspoll is here.

The report is here.

Praise the Lord - Vanstone's gone.

There are still far too many of JWH's dreadful favourites left in government, but at least we're free of Amanda Vanstone.

She deludes herself in believing she was unpopular because she made tough decisions that had to be made. She made the wrong decisions based on ideology and bigotry. Added to that is the utter incompetence and, in true Howard government style, the blaming of anyone other than herself for it.

Instead of the ignominy her record demands she's rewarded with the plum, enviable, cushy Ambassador to Italy job.

How better the country would be if the worst one of all, Ruddock, was also rewarded with a job somewhere far, far away.

History will judge Howard and his government harshly.

Santo panto

So the pantomime involving Santo Santoro, Minister for Ageing, has concluded, with Santo exiting stage right.

I mentioned the issue a couple of posts ago, when JWH was upholding ministerial standards with his ususal response: 'He has my full support. He did nothing wrong.'

Less than a week ago, Our Great & Fearless Leader: "...has refused to sack Ageing Minister Santo Santoro over his apparent breach of ministerial guidelines on share ownership.

The Prime Minister said in Tokyo today that Senator Santoro’s breach, revealed in The Australian today, was inadvertent and did not result in personal profit.

Well, it's now revealed that in addition to that little inconsequential inadvertent forgetfulness, Mr Santoro also was 'negligent' in the reporting of 72 investments.

Oops.

It also turns out that bragging he'd donated the $6,000 profit on the original CBio shares to charity was another inadvertent slip of the memory.

...it was in fact a non-profit political lobby group that promoted pro-family, anti-abortion policies. The president of the group, Family Council of Queensland's Alan Baker, is the same man who offered him the financial advice to purchase the CBio shares.

Not surprisingly, JWH has now quickly decided to abandon Santo and act the wronged, righteous victim. He smells the political wind.

In another breathtaking piece of hypocrisy, Our G&FL said: There is no excuse for somebody not complying with the rules.

Yes folks, Mr Howard says: There is no excuse for somebody not complying with the rules.

"Believe me, I'm a politician."

The Australian has the story here.

Waste of time, waste of our money.

There's a story in Murdoch's tabloid rag about a racist attack in Campbelltown.

"A white supremacist gang is believed to be responsible for a brutal attack on students and teachers at a Campbelltown high school yesterday" it tells us.

Towards the end of the report these paragraphs caught my eye.





They raise a few questions in my mind.


If the gangs were clearly identified as long ago as 2003, why and how are they still operating? What have the police been doing?


If Taskforce Var was set up as long ago as 2002 to tackle gangs in schools, how and why do we continue to have attacks by intruders? And, for God's sake at a rate of more than one a day!

And last but not least, how much of our tax dollars went into these operations, which have obviously been an abject, total failure?