Andrew Bolt's Blog, page 1892

MTR today, January 25

On our MTR 1377 show today:

- George Negus reviewed. Ouch. We play the worst questions asked of Gillard.

- I show Steve Price pictures of more than 20 Afghan "unaccompanied minors" held in the Melbourne detention centre. I challenge him to say which of these boat people look remotely like teenagers, entitled to the special treatment reserved for boat people under 18.

- The report into the Christmas Island tragedy. The real question was dodged, of course.

- Refugee advocate David Manne joins us and says he didn't point fingers at the navy.  He accepts there have been more drownings than these, yet seems more damning of the Howard laws which had stopped the dying at sea than off the Labor laws which had them resume. He seems to concede that even he had questions about the age of "unaccompanied minors" in detention, but plays down the problem and demands the evidence that only the government could provide. Although I do have my photos…

- Since we're having a go at media celebrities, what about Josh Thomas and Ruby Rose?  Tsk tsk.

- The suicide bombing in Moscow. Heads says it's an Islamist.

- The dog ate my homework.

- I forget to say Happy Birthday to my wife.

And more. Listen here.

Bookmark this link if you want to listen live on the Internet. We're on each weekday from 8am.

(No comments until moderators on deck.)

Parko should first explain why he's doing the talking

Australia being a monarchy is no more anomalous than Sir Michael Parkinson giving the Australia Day speech:

The 75-year-old became the first foreigner to deliver the annual Australia Day speech in its 14-year history in Sydney yesterday.

Following his address in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he told reporters: 'Why should Australia not be a republic? It's its own country, its own man. I find it incomprehensible that it's not that now.'

If it's incomprehensible to Parkinson, maybe he doesn't understand the country he's lecturing.

The answer? It's a bit like getting a Brit to give this address: if it works, we're fine with it.

Bradman wouldn't have been asking fans for dating tips

The problem with Michael Clarke is that he's Generation X-box:

NOTE to Michael Clarke and his management. If you want to know why the Australia Test captain-in-waiting has an image problem - and is mostly unloved by cricket fans and the sporting public - look at his Twitter page.

At 9.07am on Saturday, with Australia's World Cup plans in chaos after serious injuries to Nathan Hauritz and Shaun Tait in the previous night's one-day international, Clarke was playing romantic matchmaker.

"Trying to find a date for Steve Smith to take to the AB medal??" Clarke tweeted.

And a minute later: "You can tweet me with your expressions of interest . . ."

Besides the obvious point of who really cares whether Smith takes Dolly Parton or Daffy Duck to the Allan Border Medal (except perhaps the man himself), surely Clarke has more pressing matters to worry about.

Clarke's Twitter page here.

Grattan grudgingly concedes: there will be more drownings under Labor

Last month, after another 30 or more boat people drowned off Christmas Island, I was attacked by The Age's Michelle Grattan for quoting some of my many warnings that the Labor Government's soft boat people laws were luring dozens to their death:

I'm stuck. The Age's Michelle Grattan on Saturday accused me of "not a little distasteful triumphalism about prior warnings", but I don't know how else to prove the Government was warned its policies were costing lives than by quoting earlier warnings, and I also don't know which other journalist issued warnings I could quote.

If Grattan had said before last week the Government was luring men, women and children on to sinking boats, I'd have gladly quoted her instead.

But she never did. Not once did she speak, as the tally of known deaths jumped from five, to 14, to 25, to 42 and then, even before last week's tragedy, to as many as 170 or even more.

Grattan today finally ensures - albeit belatedly, given perhaps 200 boat people have now died - :that I can next time quote her instead:

The chances of a repeat so close to Christmas Island might be remote, but there will be other drownings… Yesterday's admission about what isn't known will reinforce the opposition's argument that the only sure way to prevent tragedies is to stop the boat trade - something the government hasn't so far been able to do, despite its toughening of its policies.

It's true that there almost certainly will be more drownings, but two things about the way Grattan phrases this seem to me deceptive.

First, Grattan's claim that Gillard has been "toughening" her policies is actually false and in an way that excuses Labor its responsibility for the tragedies. The drownings started after Labor softened its laws, and in large part as a direct consequence of its doing so. Most of Gillard's changes since she took office have been either manifestly preposterous (the proposed East Timor detention centre) or more of the deadly same (bringing more detainees to the mainland, housing more in motels, rushing "unaccompanied minors" into community facilities).

Second, Grattan fails to note that there were many previous drownings that should have alerted the Government to the consequences of its policies. This is not a question of being wiser after the latest event. It's a question of refusing to be wiser after several previous disasters. Again, Grattan is effectively excusing the Government.

One last thing: if you really thought, as Grattan writes, that there "will be other drownings" as a consequence of government failure, wouldn't you do a lot, lot more than write just eight mild, exculpatory and evasive paragraphs to prevent them?

What's overheated are the "hottest year" claims

John McLean on the latest warmist hype:

The ABC headline screams "2010 the hottest year on record" and News Corp says "2010 warmest ever year says UN weather agency". Forgive me if I'm not excited. Not only did the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) actually headlined its media release, "2010 equals record for world's warmest year" but there are plenty of other reasons not to attach much significance to the claim.

There's a huge difference between "hottest year" and "equal warmest", especially when the difference between 2010 temperatures and 1998, 12 years earlier, was not statistically significant. The WMO states that two-hundredths of a degree separated 2010, 2005 and 1998, and that means that these high points are rather well spread over the 12 years, so much so that you would think the temperature was nearly flat.

The WMO media statement says that the data came from the UK's Hadley Centre and two other sources, but data directly from the Hadley Centre tells a different story. It shows the 2010 average temperature anomaly (the variation from the 1961-90 average) as being +0.468. It gives 2005 as +0.474 and 1998 as +0.529, leaving 1998 as still the peak temperature after 12 years and incidentally after the addition of plenty of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. So much for claims of accelerated warming driven by a common greenhouse gas.

(No comments until moderators return.)

No time for new taxes - and Gillard's old promises

Terry McCrann:

The ghost, so to speak, at the feast of discussion about how to pay for the floods, over the last couple of weeks, has been Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens.

He finally gets to "speak" next Tuesday when the RBA announces its first decision for the new year on interest rates....

(S)omebody has to start ringing the warning bell. To tell the Prime Minister the Government is playing with fire in its determination to build the NBN and the halls, right now, come what may. That whether or not they were a good idea before Christmas, they are now a very bad idea after the floods....

Does Ms Gillard really want to go to the next election with two big new taxes—the Queensland levy and the carbon tax—and the wreckage that big increases in home loan rates would cause?

Suicide bombing in Moscow

Dozens dead in Moscow in a suicide bombing:

At least 31 people were killed and 120 injured in an explosion at Moscow's busiest airport Monday morning.

On-the-scene testimonials and amateur video recordings are chronicling a powerful blast leaving dead bodies strewn about Domodedovo airport and smoke billowing throughout the arrivals hall. Immediate suspicion is falling on separatist rebels in Russia's long-restive Caucasus region—though no one can say with any certainty at this point.

In a televised address, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said "At Domodedovo an explosion has occurred, and according to preliminary information it was a terrorist attack."

Helen Curtis:

I was in the customs area when we heard and felt the bomb. Upon getting through to the baggage area it was obvious people were unsure exactly what happened. Then the most upsetting scene, bloodied dead and injured bodies being pushed through the aiport on baggage trolleys. The scene was one of chaos.

Interfax quotes an unnamed security source:

We have found the head of a man of Arab appearance who is about 30 to 35 years old. He presumably set off the explosive device.

BBC:

According to eyewitnesses quoted by Russian TV's Vesti news programme, the bomber shouted "I'll kill you all" before detonating his explosives.

A timeline of Islamist terrorist attacks on Russia.

That's enough from Muscat

Is there some reason Kevin Muscat should be allowed to keep playing in Australia's A-League after this latest stunt?

Every question answered except this: who lured them to their deaths?

Just as predicted, the Gillard Government's inquiry investigated everything about the Christmas Island tragedy - other than the lax laws that lured another 30 or more boat people to their deaths:

A NEW land-based radar system will be tested on Christmas Island to help in the early detection of wooden boats following last month's asylum-seeker tragedy.

The move is one of eight recommendations accepted by the federal government following an internal review by border protection authorities of the December 15 disaster, which cost at least 30 lives.

Customs and Border Protection authorities said they did not know a boat which smashed into cliffs in rough seas at Christmas Island was heading for the Australian territory.

In the wake of the disaster, questions were asked about why border protection authorities did not get to the stricken vessel in time to prevent it breaking up on rocks.

So, also just as predicted, it was too soon last month to suggest the Gillard Government's weak laws were in large part to blame, and now it's too late to make anyone care.

Political management 101, abetted by a culpable media. And so the guilty escape the blame.

UPDATE

David Marr's immediate instinct was to blame the navy:

How anybody allowed that boat to get anywhere near the cliff is the principal question of this disaster. What was that boat doing there? The first people it needs to be directed to is the navy… The first question that must be asked is why the navy, it it was within the navy's power, why the navy let that boat anywhere near the island.

The report gives Marr his answer:

The review found that Customs and Border Protection Command personnel and their navy colleagues risked their lives to rescue 42 asylum-seekers aboard the SIEV 221 who were thrown into the ocean.

The review also found the organisation's personnel responded appropriately to the disaster.

It said the organisation had no intelligence to indicate when the boat departed Indonesia or was likely to arrive at Christmas Island.

Chief executive Michael Carmody said ... "We don't have anything that would enable us to pinpoint every vessel and know exactly where it is, that's just not capable (sic)"

So what's Marr's second question?

Big enough already, thanks

Who in these cities wants it? So why are we getting it?

AUSTRALIA'S capital cities will more than double in size within 50 years under current immigration rates, dramatically affecting quality of life and cutting food production.

Research for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has found more than 430,000 hectares of land will have to be found for housing in both Sydney and Melbourne if net overall immigration remains above 260,000 a year.