Photo courtesy of Lauren Black Photography
I was walking through the carpark at Kaleen Plaza last week and I saw her. She instantly caught my eye. She was such a part of my life in younger years and she seemed not to have changed a bit. My heart began to beat faster and I remembered the times we shared together. I had to stop and reaquaint myself.
As I stood before her admiring her beautiful curves, her owner arrived, pushing a trolley and wondered what I was doing standing in front of his car.
"Hey there," I said, "I used to have one just like it. Was my very first car."
He understood.
I don’t know what it is about your first car, but it always has a special place in your motoring heart. Mine was an XC Falcon. She was light brown with a black trim. This was the XC with the round lights. It had a 4.1 litre 6 cylinder engine and it used to purr. I can remember driving through the main street of Northam in Western Australia and checking myself out in the shop windows as I drove ‘my car’.
I was 17 when I bought her. I’d been living at home and working and I paid cash, the last time I did that buying a car for 20 years. I had first dates in that car. I had my first little prang, an argument with a white post on the ‘back road’ to York. I packed all of my possessions in it when I left home and moved to Perth and 6 months later when one step further when I ventured off across the Nullarbor to start working in regional radio in Victoria. I loved that car and the feeling hasn’t changed over the years.
Not everybody feels the same about their first car. MLA Amanda Bresnan’s first was a Ford Laser and she tells me it was ‘an absolute lemon !’ "We had very much a love-hate relationship that car and I" explains the diminutive Green.
Anne Kowalski from Kowalski Recruitment fondly remembers her first car, a blue mini which ‘would go around corners on two wheels."
Liberal MLA Brendan Smyth kicked his motoring ownership off in a 67 Volkswagon which he ‘belted around in for many years.’
Catholic Bishop Pat Power broke the car ownership ice with a ‘gutless’ Cortina back in the 60’s.
And National Press Club President Ken Randall get’s a sparkle in eye when he reminisces about his two tone Hillman Minx. It had a scarlet roof and a cream body and when he talks about it, I just want to go for a drive in it myself.
I'm worried about Matthew Newton. There's something not right with young Matty at the moment. You would have heard about the incident in the hotel room. He stayed in a swish hotel for an awards night in Sydney last week. After he'd checked out, they discovered that he'd gone beserk in the room and damaged it extensively. I gather he's apologised and he's paying for everything.
This morning we hear that after leaving the hotel to fly back to Melbourne he threw airline staff into a panic with some bizarre behaviour prior to jetting out. He lobbed at the airport late and was the last to board on this Virgin Blue flight with a number of items of carry on luggage. Staff had to find spaces for his bags in different compartments...and then without warning, he just got up and walked off the plane. Went back into the terminal.
Staff tried to find all of his luggage to get it off the plane...and then all of a sudden he wandered back on.
This was a 3:45pm flight. It ended up leaving at 5pm.
I think Matty's got some problems. I don't know what they are, but this doesn't sound like normal behaviour.
So let's get a little bit of perspective about the Liberal leadership woes. This latest fork in the road for the Libs is much more about the ETS than it is about Malcolm Turnbull. Global warming and how we deal with it is a polarising issue. Whoever was leading the party and whichever direction they took they would have faced some form of mutiny.
If someone from further to the right had been party leader....If they had made the call to oppose the ETS, there would have been those in the party who when it came to the crunch couldn't bring themselves to vote against it. Wouldn't there ? Or am I wrong on that one ?
Kevin Andrews or Tony Abbott would have found the left side of the party staring them down just as much as the right is now.
On another point, Victorian Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield appeared on my radio program on Tuesday ahead of the party room meeting. I asked Senator Fifield about what he was planning to do this week....whether he was going to stand behind his principles, his party or his leader. Senator Fifield answered that he was going to stand behind all three. I suggested that this would surely not be possible. It clearly wasn't.
It always makes me laugh when you're in at McDonalds or Hungry Jacks and you see someone order a burger meal...and the drink they choose is diet coke. Honestly ? What is with that. If you're in buying a burger and fries, concede that your failing on the diet front and go a full bodied coke.
I cannot believe that Hungry Jacks were slammed this week for their new burger. It's called the Angry Angus, in retaliation of the Mighty Angus and Grand Angus from McDonalds. Health experts were demanding that the Angry Angus carry health warnings because it was chock full of saturated fat.
Guys....it's a burger. It's got two beef patties, bacon and deep fried onion rings in it. Do we really need to explain to consumers that it's fatty boombah food ? I don't think so.
How stupid do these people think Australians are ?
Will we get to a point soon where there are big signs in at Maccas and Hungry Jacks that say....HAMBURGERS MAKE YOU FAT....and while we're at it.....ALCOHOL MAKES YOU DRUNK.....and SEX MAY LEAD TO PREGNANCY.
Give me extra bacon and cheese thanks
Well done to all of those who've been a part of Mo-vember in Canberra. There are strange looking facial hair epxeriments all over town. A lot of money has been raised and there's been another raising of awareness of mens health issues.
There's a big Mo-vember she-bang tonight at King O'Malley's tonight and I know that MLA John Hargreaves is shaking in his boots. He's been involved in a public battle with Lachlan Kennedy from Win News over facial hair. Locky has risen to the challenge and he's been looking like a 70's porn star on the news at night.
The deal for Hargreaves is this. If Lachlan wins any awards tonight at King O'Malleys, then John's mo must come off.
Get the razor ready John cos you're in strife on this one.
Malcolm Turnbull's leadership of the Federal Liberal party appears untenable. He is by title, officially still in captaining the ship this morning, but there is munity afoot and the boat itself is taking on water.
Unfortunately for Malcolm, this is so much more about the party than it is about him. The party is fractured. Whoever was leading them at the moment...whatever path they were being sent on, it just wouldn't work.
There must come a point where Malcolm just throws his arms up in the air and says, "Why did I bother ?"
We're expecting a leadership spill today. Wilson Tuckey and Dennis Jensen gave notice last night that a motion would be moved and both Kevin Andrews and Tony Abbott are both considering a challenge. Joe Hockey will not take on his leader...he's made that clear.
We're also told that Nick Minchin may resign from the front bench so that he can vote against the ETS.
It would appear that somehow a deal can be struck and that the legislation will just scramble through the Senate.
I do hope that's not the case. Australians are slowly waking up to exactly what's at stake here. It wouldn't need many of the Libs to change their mind on this for it to be scuttled, and I do hope that's the outcome. There is nothing to lose by delaying this vote till next year and that's exactly what we should be doing.
More action coming up today.
So many Australians have tuned out of the debate on an emissions trading scheme. It's been just too complicated for them. Too complicated and seemingly not related to their lives. For months and months it's been something that went on in Canberra. Well, as of Tomorrow it could be something that goes on all over the country. What will it actually mean for you and I ?
Well, if you can believe the detail as revealed by Kevin and Penny, it'll end up costing you around $1100 a year in extra bills. By as early as 2012 it'll add around $300 for typical households in power bills. The suggestion is that it will lead to a surge in grocery prices of around 5 percent. That'll translate to around $520 per household per year.
Those on lower incomes will be hit hardest and the Government is vowing to compensate those households.
This scheme has been tinkered with so much in the last 6 months that it no longer resembles the plan put on the table at the start of the year. There are so many concessions now for heavy polluters that the whole thing seems to lack any point. It's no longer about carbon. It's about appeasing everyone and achieving nothing. It's about setting up a new complicated tax beauracracy which will dominate our lives for very little reason.
The Rudd Government has demonstrated in two years that it's big on rhetoric, but not so much on actually delivering. This is a Government that bends over backwards to be seen to doing the right thing irrespective of whether it actually is. Ever so slowly, Australia seems to be waking up to that fact
So, is anyone mourning the death of the Polly Waffle. Nestle have confirmed that it's a goner. It's been around 62 years and to be honest, I'm surprised it's survived for that long. How do you fill a chocolate bar with marshmallow. And what sort of a name is that for a chocolate bar. Polly Waffle. Polly Waffle is what goes on in Question Time.
The Polly Waffle is uniquely Australian and uniquely ordinary.
It's at the point where it's costing them more to make it than they're getting from sales so it's going by the wayside.
And the biggest reason it's going is the Kit Kat. The Kit Kat has risen in popularity in recent years to the detriment of it's marshmallowy brother the Polly Waffle.
Rest in peace the Polly Waffle. Officially axed after 62 years.
Two days till the test series with the West Indies gets under way. I cannot wait. Might see if we can Boony back on this week, he being one of the selectors. I think they've erred on a number of fronts with this side to play in the first test.
You open Test matches with opening batsmen. Young Phillip Hughes, is the future of Australian cricket and he should be opening the batting at the Gabba. You don't go into a home test series with a make shift opening batsmen. I think Watto may well get found out at the top of the order. Just as well we're not playing a good side.
Stuart Clark has been for 5 years the most under rated bowler in the country. Time and time again he comes up with results and he should be bowling on Thursday ahead of Doug Bollinger. And I still would have gone with Jason Kreyza as the slow bowler. With all respect to Nathan Hauritz, who is a serviceable off spinner, I think you pick spinners to win test matches, not to save them. Kreyza turns the ball. He's the man I'd want on the 4th and 5th days to win the test match.
I'm worried that we're going to have a series of 3 test matches. I don't think the Windies are up to it at test match level. They're one day game is much closer to the mark. I do hope that Channel have got a lot of old episodes of Two and Half Men, Hogans Heroes and some of those kids quiz shows up their sleeve because they're going to need them.
The Canberra Times have gone with a story on their front page this morning which is sure to get some people fired up. The provocative headline suggests that killers may tickets of leave from the Alexander Machonnochie Centre. How outrageous ? Convicted criminals let out into the community without supervision.... People will be lined up outside Simon Corbell's office come 9 this morning to get an explanation.
This has all arisen from the AMC's transitional release policy which has been obtained by the Canberra Times. It suggests that all prisoners classified as minimum security, including those serving life sentences can apply for transitional release. That would mean that, as they approach their release date, they are allowed out into the community for up to a week at a time to ease them back into the community.
Now that's all fine for most prisoners. The only drama here is that in the case of 'lifers' in the ACT, they generally are in jail for life. Why would you start a transitional release program for someone who is never going to be released anyway. I think the answer is, you wouldn't.
But for the others, I don't have a drama at all.
You have to ask the question, what is the primary purpose of the corrective system. Is it to punish, or is it to rehabilitate. When someone finishes serving time inside, you don't really want to see them back. If you can succesfully prepare them for their new life with a transitional release program, I think that's a win for everyone.
As far as 'lifers' spending a week at a time unsupervised in the community...well that's absurd.
Bear in mind, that this isn't a mandatory thing...they do have to apply for it. The risk of escape will always be assessed. I don't think that even this administration would be in the business of letting 'lifers' get out for a wander for a week at a time.
