Picking through Gillard’s policies

Ray Evans writes: Re. Oh — you meant you *might* build a centre in East Timor. Sorry, our mistake. (Friday, item 9) Poor old Bernard, he is obviously trying to find as many holes as he can in Julia’s policies and pronouncements such as sustainable population growth and the off shore processing centre. As with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax it will be Bernard and all the other critics who will have egg on their faces when Julia announces prior to the election (October 16 is one of the most likely dates) that East Timor has agreed to setting up a processing centre in their country.

I am looking forward to Bernard’s puerile comments on Julia’s new policy on climate change. Again it will be Julia who will have the last laugh on the likes of Bernard who obviously believes that the ‘pie in the sky’ Greens have got all the answers on how to tackle climate change.

And the band played on

Muso Matthew Lee writes: Re. ACMA put digital radio local content quota on ice (Friday, item 16) Tracey Grimson, writing about commercial music radio stations, also mentions some record labels…

“…which chose to ignore that other recent technology game changer, file-sharing, and then, when it was already too late, opted to waste resource and more time pursuing obstruction and litigation, rather than working progressively with the new technology at hand.”

Wow, sounds like some good business sense right there. I hope I get signed by one of them.

The first part of that quote is: “This must seem like a sort of déjà vu to the artists who were cut from local rosters when the arse started to fall out of their labels’ bottom lines”

Yeah, I am getting a sense of déjà vu. Perhaps if there was evidence of commercial radio stations actually looking to be innovative in the last 10 years the feeling wouldn’t be so strong.

Curtain closed

Simon Wilkins writes: Re. Under the gum trees, the Greens declare fightback on refugees (Friday, item 3) On reading Andrew Crook’s piece on Friday, I was shocked (shocked!), to hear that those crazy Greens are proposing to close the Curtain detention centre. I am all for welcoming refugees into the community, but frankly drapery has no place in Australia. What’s next from the Greens I ask? Compulsory viewings of Shutter Island? Pro-Venetian blind rallies? This madness must stop.

If Andy was instead referring to the Curtin detention centre named after Australia’s 14th Prime Minister, then this whole email, like Crikey’s sub-editing may be a bit redundant…awkward for all concerned!

A tax on all your houses

Gavin R. Putland writes: It is reported that the ATO is checking purchases of property, yachts and private jets as evidence of undeclared taxable income. In that case, wouldn’t it be simpler to forget about the income and tax the property, yachts and private jets?

Roddy and Rita

Jim Spithill writes: A friend noticed the similarity between Rita and the PM from the film Roddy and Rita. As well, Abbott and Roddy have a few physical characteristics in common. And they have similar job descriptions, involving dealing with muck. Just a thought.