The image on the left appears on the front of the Christian Democratic Party's brochure that is causing so much controversy right now. While the brochure tries to make out that militant Islam is a threat to Australia, the use of this photo on a page that is otherwise black save for the title &emdash; "Aussie Values versus Radical Islam" &emdash; gives away the real motivation.
The sign being held up by he woman in the photo says "Jesus is not son of God. He is a Prophet of Islam". There is nothing radical about that statement &emdash; it is a mere statement of the the religious belief of the person holding up the sign. While Islam, having no central authority, is a diverse religion where it is dangerous to make blanket statements about the beliefs of all adherents, this view is fairly consistent throughout the whole religion. To use that photo as the lead in a brochure about "Radical Islam" is to paint all of Islam as radical. The real beef of the Christian Democrats is that Islamic belief offends their own sensibilities.
Today there was a forum held at the Cheltenham Recreation Club for candidates for the seat of Epping. Eight candidates turned up, the only absentee being Michael Bergman (Australians Against Further Immigration). As it turned out all four of the Bennelong candidates for 2004 who actually resided in Bennelong were there as well, so it doubled as a reunion of sorts.
The first thing to get out of a forum like this is to get a sense of each candidate's ability to present their case in public - their public speaking skills. These skills are important in politics since a stronger public speaker will have a better chance of persuading others on the floor of Parliament and will normally have stronger skills in presenting arguments in back room forums.
One more candidate has been added to the list - Michael Bergman as the candidate for Australians Against Further Immigration. You have to wonder why a party whose one issue is a Federal issue is running in a State election. The ballot order is as follows:
- Nicole Campbell (Australian Labor Party)
- Simon Tam (Unity)
- Lindsay Peters (Greens)
- David Havyatt (Australian Democrats)
- Martin Levine (Independent)
- Michael Bergmen (Australians Against Further Immigration)
- Greg Smith (Liberal)
- John Kingsmill (Christian Democratic Party)
Submitted by Troy Rollo on Thu, 08/03/2007 - 8:18am
While the election remains an almost under-the-radar affair for most Epping candidates, Martin Levine's campaign is progressing and his first letterbox drop arrived late last week - a four page glossy that appears to be the first in a series. The usual rule for such things (where the budget and manpower allows) is that the fourth is the one that makes the difference. Given that the election is just under three weeks away, this would fit a plan to drop one of these each week.
Much of the flyer goes over material that already appears on the web site, but there were some new items. Most importantly, he has answered the "influence of religion" question as follows:
The Federal Government is in a lather over Kevin Rudd meeting with former West Australian Premier Brian Burke three times in 2005. Their claim is that if Rudd met Burke, and Burke was corrupt, then Rudd must be corrupt. Now Burke, of course, has met other people so a bunch more people must be corrupt too. And if Rudd is corrupt, he has met a lot of others too - all of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, of course, and in effect the entire House of Representatives, including most of the present Ministers of the Howard Government, so on this theory of infectious corruption there must be plenty of corruption going around in Canberra.
Who is this “insider†that Samantha Williams from the Daily Telegraph continually cites in her anti-marine conservation pieces? I think anyone who cares about such things would be pleased to hear that there are indeed 6000 grey nurse sharks in our waters. But I’m not breaking open the bubbly in response to unreported assertions by recreational fishers and unnamed “insidersâ€.
Grey nurse sharks were once a plentiful species in NSW- there used to be far more than 6000 of them. The grey nurse shark was the second most commonly caught shark after the whaler shark around Port Stephens in the 1920s.
In a column today, Lindsay Tanner puts the case for Labor's claim to be better economic managers than the Howard Government. He outlines a plan to use budget surpluses to provide for the future, to cut government waste, and to reduce hand-outs. This cuts heavily into traditional Liberal Party territory that has been effectively abandoned by Howard. The plan shows a position that is more economically responsible than Howard and paints Howard as a reckless economic manager who has squandered the good times of the past few years.
The decision overnight by the Guantanamo tribunal convening authority leaves only one charge against Hicks - that of material support for terrorism. Under the law in effect at the time of the alleged offences Hicks faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment for that offence, and since his alleged offences are not in the worst category of such offences and he has no previous convictions for this kind of offence, any conviction would result in a sentence that is much shorter than the 6 years he has already served. While the United States would not deduct time served, Hicks would be returned to Australia to serve his sentence, and Australia would deduct time served, thus giving him freedom on return.
John Howard has claimed that the economy has become too complex for Labor to manage, which invites an analysis into how and why the Liberal Government has performed so well on the economy since 1996. While Howard boosters attribute it to some Midas touch on the part of Howard, the truth is far more mundane.
When we look at the Prime Minister's record, there are four major factors that have helped the economy along, and one of those &emdash; rapid growth in China leading to a resource boom &emdash; has nothing whatsoever to do with Government action.
