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Australia lost in space

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Put aside the rubber band and icy pole stick jokes. Australia is going into space. Soon. well, soon-ish. Weather permitting.

In typical Australian fashion, the government has decided a space agency sounds like it might be a good idea and have immediately announced a committee to see if it really is a good idea and after that committee reports, the government will review it immediately or in the fullness of time, whichever comes first and move straight to establishing a working party to announce the formation of a commission to get cracking on creating a new committee to conduct a feasibility study. When that’s done, the sky’s the limit or it might be if a bunch of government consultants decide it is.

“This is really a way to bring the whole issue to a head,” Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos says in a statement announcing the review.

At this pace we should have a space agency around the time Burkina Faso sends its first manned mission to Pluto.

Full column here.

263 Comments

  • Dwight says:

    Losing one Senator because he was a foreigner is just careless. Losing _two_, however…

    I think we should get all of them to front up with their paperwork!

  • Boadicea says:

    Ooops. Another one down. Maybe more admin staff requiredwho can cross all the T’s and dot the i’s ‘!

    • Jack The Insider says:

      Will the last one to leave the Senate please turn the lights out.

      • Tracy says:

        Will anyone notice?
        Think they do have to look into the dual nationality stuff, my mother wanted to register me as an Australian citizen at birth but it (then) only applied to a child born to an Australian father overseas not an Australian mother, apparently Gough changed the rules and I could have been registered before the age of eighteen but my mother didn’t keep tabs. Dealing with Australia House in London was not one of her favourite pastime’s, nor mine on the one occasion I had to deal with them when emigrating.

        • Dwight says:

          Not a problem if you stay out of federal Parliament. And there’s a few hundred Marines in Darwin who could ride to my rescue should Queensland become a failed state. 😂

          • Dismayed says:

            Funny I always preferred Audie Murphy, Alan Ladd, Glenn ford types. But the good old boys from the US of A always seem to go for the black hat types. Seems they need to try and prove something? Marines PFFFT. Every second hand I met reckons they were a Marine no wonder the world is in such a mess.

    • Bella says:

      I think there’s more going on here B & I’m not alone.
      Typical of the far right, if they can’t control the Senate then they will do whatever it takes to slash it’s power or break it.
      If the people had wanted to give the Coalition free reign, they would’ve given them more than a third of the votes. They didn’t.

      The Greens have now lost two of their strongest most hard-working politicians & it certainly won’t surprise me or other minor parties & their supporters, if this digging for dirt campaign suddenly starts unwinding the Senate altogether.
      It certainly smacks of boom times for the dog-whistlers in Canberra.

      • Boadicea says:

        Well someone is certainly doing a lot of digging Bella. I wonder if they’ll find some from other parties? Maybe they ought to start on One Nation?? Open slather now

      • JackSprat says:

        Bella, I think it all started when somebody decided to check on Hinch.

        Not too sure he was far right.

      • Razor says:

        Bella where is your evidence that this has anything to do with the far right or any right left or middle in fact? I throw this up. It is more likely Mrs Brown is exacting vengeance than anyone from the right.

      • Milton says:

        I don’t think it has been all cloak and dagger, Bella. I don’t know how or why that Attorney in WA had the wood on Ludlum but Waters outed herself. The same result would have happened to Abbott if he had acted unconstitutionally, as those 2 have admitted doing.
        Anywho, what’s the bet Ludlum gets off scot free and that it will soon be water under the bridge for Larissa.
        Mweeaahahahaha…

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    Dicky Di Natalie’s Greens dropping like ten pins, Mr Insider, as we learn today Greens “Senator” Larissa Waters has been taking the “Queens Shilling” for a whopping 6 years whilst a citizen of Canada. Scotty Ludlam the New Zealander was first to fall now Larissa. Pay every cent back you bloody spongers I say!
    http://tinyurl.com/y779qntq

    • Dwight says:

      Apropos, I’ve been listening to kd lang’s Hymns of the 49th Parallel while catching up on the news.

    • Uncle Quentin says:

      Could there not be grounds for a constitutional challenge here? When the constitution was framed New Zealand the UK and Canada were all a part of the British Empire, ergo if you were a citizen of one of them you could not by definition owe allegiance to a foreign power. When was it that you first needed a passport to travel to the UK New Zealand or Canada?

    • Bella says:

      Why should they HB?
      They’ve worked tirelessly for a combined fifteen years in that cesspool we call a parliament. The way you’re carrying on you’d think they’d murdered someone or is it simply more blind Greens bashing?
      How about a pop quiz right now on who is/ was a dual citizenship holder for all of them in all the parties. Betcha there’s more than a few scurrying like rodents to bury the evidence.
      Has Abetz ever said when he renounced but stayed in the job?
      Mathias Cormann?

      • Razor says:

        Bella,

        1./. Every party will be checking on themselves and each other as we speak.
        2./. How do you propose ‘evidence’ in this day and age could be buried.

        Conspiracy theories don’t become you.

    • John O'Hagan says:

      Correct me if I’m wrong, Henry, but I don’t recall you being so litigious in regard to ex-Senators Cuuleton and Day!

      Unless there was some scheme to profit by deception, there’s no real basis to insist on salaries being repaid. In each case the work was done in good faith and there was no loss to the taxpayer, because there would have been other Senators getting paid in their place.

      Both Culleton and Day were given the benefit of that reasoning, although last I heard, Rod was planning an appeal to the Privy Council. That would require taking a time machine back to the early 80s when this avenue was last available, but little things like this don’t deter our Rod.

      The Greens’ mistakes were certainly silly, but also most likely genuine, involving citizenship laws of other countries as in force decades ago.

      As for Bob Day, I’m not so sure. Seems to me he tried to devise an arrangement that turned out too clever by half. IMO he was lucky.

  • Milton says:

    We all know about One Nation but who’d a known the Greens were covertly Two Nations?

  • jack says:

    some corporate speak gems from the FT’s Lucy Kellaway

    Though horrible, this is nothing on how EY got rid of a number of partners by sending a message around saying “we look forward to strengthening our alumni network”.

    https://www.ft.com/lucycolumn

    this is the sort of nonsense that leads to decisions like the AFL made, they start spouting this bollocks and then look around for some way to act on it.

    i have noticed that no one in favour of the sacking is able to say why, all they do is randomly disgorge sanctimony.

  • Milton says:

    Having contemplated long and hard on the disparity between Scott Ludlum’s former salary and his meagre positions I can only assume that the cost of inner city lattes or chai’s, kale burgers, bamboo socks and hemp undies and leaving a small footprint has gone up exponentially.
    Either that or he’s squirreled it away somewhere or has the economic nous consistent within the Green’s organisation.

  • Dismayed says:

    I see the dishonest dutton has just been given the ministry of truth to oversees propaganda and revisionism. This is a bad outcome for the people of Australia and Malcolm is again just appeasing the right wing command and control freaks. a bad and dangerous day for this nation.

    • Bella says:

      Couldn’t have said it better.
      “A bad and dangerous day for this nation.”

      That appalling press conference yesterday when Turnbull’s props were armed & masked agents, was precisely aimed at upping the Fibs scaremonger factor & he should be ashamed of himself when he knew it would have prime-time media coverage.
      FFS is frightening children even on their ‘fear on all day’ minds?
      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-17/australian-defence-force-given-call-out-powers-terrorism/8715878

      • JackSprat says:

        I found it kind of weird but the SAS goes to a lot of trouble to keep the identity of ts personnel anoymous for the protection of their families.

        • Bella says:

          That’s fine by me also, but the best way for the SAS to retain anonymity is not to appear publicly as a strongarm of the government for civilian control, wouldn’t you agree?

          It appears they’re getting us prepared for martial law at the whim of the PM.

          • Dismayed says:

            Minority report is coming with its Pre crime unit. But we know Dutton is No pre-cog. More like a cracked cog that needs replacing before he throws the whole machine off balance. This is about appeasing the right wing and holding onto a few seats in Qld.

  • Razor says:

    Didnt Eddie the expert tell us this was all about fibre to the node? Surely he couldn’t have been wrong! Or was he just telling lies?

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nbn-costs-put-brake-on-internet-speeds/news-story/3f7e7de5cc214fa8646f05d03316c1b5

    • Dismayed says:

      You are pathologically dishonest. I said, as proven by your attachment. FTTN is SLOWER the FTTP. Even FTTdp is better than FTTN. Your inferiority complex has turned into an obsession just like old angry Yvonne. You cant even make an attack now without getting it all wrong. This world has passed you by and you want to take a swipe and anything and everything that you are incapable of understanding.
      https://theconversation.com/expert-panel-the-state-of-the-national-broadband-network-56073

      • Boadicea says:

        Jesus, I didn’t say a word! Leave me out of this you silly old man!

        • Dismayed says:

          You made your usual false and victim status claims earlier in this blog about me before I had even commented on this topic. . As usual you try to deny it and be the victim. Oh from one of your other statements, you will not surprise me ever. You are just a nasty old piece of work.

      • JackSprat says:

        Dismal, you could have 100 megabits to the home and the ISP’s would throttle it back because the NBN charges too much.
        It would be even worse if there was fibre to the house because the costs would have been so much more and the NBN charges would be higher.
        I think the whole thing is turning into a fiasco.
        It is living proof that Canberra should not get involved in any infrastructure e because they do not have the expertise.

    • Dismayed says:

      Like you fttn is inferior to fttp or even fttdp. your attachment states fttn is slower. you cannot comment without false accusations. It is No Surprises you support dutton.

  • Desali says:

    JB JB where art thou

  • Boadicea says:

    Cold, wet and rather dreary down here – so I decided to see what the blanket promotion was all about and watch The Handmaid’s Tale via SBS on Demand.
    Must admit it’s got me sucked in – up to Episode 5 in to days ! Very good acting by the leads.

    By the way, JB – as a Francophile you may already know this – but I discovered from one of the episodes that the SOS call ”Mayday”” originates from the French ”m’aider”. Never knew that – did you?

    • Henry Blofeld says:

      I recall flying in to Hobart in the early 80’s Boadicea and the chill hit me straight away with snow on Mount Wellington in late December. Fortunately my stay at Wrest Point warmed me no end! Tassie is indeed a most beautiful state. Cheers and keep warm. P..S. JB hasn’t been seen on this thread amazing really as he is well versed in “space travel”.

    • Dwight says:

      28 and partly cloudy up here in paradise. Three absolutely beautiful days in a row. My heart is light again as the rainiest dry season in memory was getting to me.

      • jack says:

        Dwight, we had more than 150mm yesterday, other side of the Island had more than 200, just stopped raining now.

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