Welcome to council-control-freak insanity in WA — the ruling class who think there is no cost to adding more rules and regulations, assume they can replace common sense with guidelines that dictate the size of the hole you can dig on a beach.
From The West Australian 22-Sept-2010
In Australia we’re passionate about our beaches and equally so about them belonging to all Australians. But one of the most popular beaches in Perth could be hit with council rules that stop you flying a kite, digging a hole, bringing a toy truck, or meeting with 11 friends. Good intentions run amok.
Under a proposal to be considered by the Town of Cottesloe by the end of the month, an extra 60 clauses will be added to the council’s beach law – bringing to more than 100 the number of activities and actions prohibited at the popular beach.
The council says the changes reflect emerging issues since the local law was last reviewed in 1999 and will give rangers more control over what happens at the beach. The draft rules will ban alcohol and glass bottles and containers, make it illegal to drop cigarette butts or disobey orders from lifeguards, as well as provide tighter controls on fishing and the use of watercraft.
A ban on sun shelters and umbrellas bigger than 3sqm, toy vehicles and flying kites will join the existing ban on model aeroplanes.
Digging “hazardous” big holes, obstructing steps and pathways and wasting water by leaving taps running will be prohibited – as will diving off the Cottesloe pylon or groyne
Prior written consent will also be needed for activities such as commercial filming or photography, public meetings of more than 10 people and fundraising, reflecting what the council says is an increase in commercial and event usage.
I’m sure for each of these rules there are stories of people being inconvenienced by inconsiderate beachgoers, but putting good manners into regulations doesn’t work. The council can’t enforce these rules 7 days a week without a major cost, both in money and goodwill, so the rules just become another chance for selective enforcement. There are already laws against anti-social behaviour.
The story comes from The West Australian. Their polling shows 85% of web readers think the council has gone too far. Do pop over to The West’s site, and please mention the Thompsons (a link to their plight would help). Sure, beach rules are interesting, but where is their coverage of tyrannical government behaviour that affects our states reputation as a place to invest and threatens to ruin a family farm? What are their priorities?
Do they think WA readers need to know about flying kites on beaches but not about businesses being destroyed?
…
Commenter, The Infidel:
If you got 10000 rules and regulations, respect for the law will disappear. Winston Churchill
Another small sacrifice of liberty means a slow descent to tyranny… I think the two Winstons were right. Smith lived in it, Churchill prophesised it.
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This is the sort of trivia that dominates the MSM. No real issues – no real news – no investigative reporting, or you could just lose your job. They are fast becoming a dinosaur media and they blame the internet. They should look instead at the message, not the medium.
P.S., Although I do admit diving there can be dangerous – I believe there’s been some Groyne injuries lately.
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These bureaucrats will not rest until they have succeeded in regulating every aspect of our lives. But you know what, Australians can stop this sort of bureaucratic madness by organizing a day for us to display “people power’ in protest! Imagine if someone could organize such a day on which we all hit the streets ‘en mass’, in yellow t-shirts, to send a message to these bureaucrats that we’re not prepared to tolerate such over-regulation of our lifestyle. Well, I’ve got my yellow t-shirt… now just tell me the day!
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What strikes me first is the level of fines that local councils think they can impose for relatively minor ‘offences’.
In the UK they just seem to think of a high number and that becomes the fine for……leaving your wheelie-bin lid open a few mm or dropping litter.
Where do they get their mandate from for such ludicrous fines? And why stop at $500, why not just bankrupt ‘offenders’ – that’ll teach ’em a lesson!
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An excuse to hire more cops as there must be a HUGE amount of offenders.
Why not rent out a square meter of beach to be on?
Take names and addresses in case of any damages.
Are we in a nut house or what???
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I suggest that Australians push back massively.
From my perspective, this is not really any different from what is being done to the cattle operation.
I should think that a few hundred people, taking a stroll down the beach to enjoy a few adult beverages and have a modest kite flying exhibition would be a good start. Voting out the banal tyrants who worked themselves up to this would be a good second step.
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Awful, small minded, fascist people..
Message: stand up and fight
Lazlo
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All you need is a few more surveillance cameras and Big Brother to document the “crimes”. Next you’ll be fined just for thinking these laws are wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime
Soon enough you’ll be sent to room 101………
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I saw the headline and assumed it was a story from the UK….
What the hell is going on?? I thought Australia was the land of the free? I really hope you lot rise up and kick this sort of lunacy out, don’t just sit there and take it like us Brits do…
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I love these facist type comments. Cottesloe is as conservative as it gets, just about the most expensive and exclusive local government area in Perth. These regulations are born of NIMBY conservatism and the desire to have the common riff raff of Perth go somewhere else.
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This is yet another example of the “joy” which lawyers have brought into our lives.
It seems that the minute something goes wrong or somebody feels a bit put out ( or is just trying it on) , there is an investigation, a committee, recommendations, “OH& S systems” & lots of very self important people in HighVis . This is all in the name PC, avoiding liability & keeping insurance premiums low.
It might briefly make a few of the well to do wowsers near Cottesloe feel better but it is yet another example of the destruction of community.
The ideal would be that nobody does anything as a community any more. We should just work & get all our social interaction from a big flat screen in the corner of the lounge. Mr Murdoch & his mates will turn us into nicely homogenized consuming units. We will be very pretty ( just like soap opera stars) have nice homes & cars & enslaved to a mortgage & an impossible ideal self image.
Give me snotty nosed, scabby kneed kids & back yard cricket any day!
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They Missed a rule out – One more required
Welcome to the beach now F**k off!
Of course, if they did this, they wouldn’t need the other rules, and that would be so simple, they wouldn’t need as many people to enforce the rules, so of course, they can’t have that.
Really, the good people of WA should be telling the council to F*** off.
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I Know bulldust posted something on this earlier, but I think this really requires some answers:
Treasury firmly places itself in the climate advocacy role in order to get more taxes out of YOUR POCKET
Yes, that’s right, the Treasury department has the following to say to the Ginga Ninja:
it warns.
So why the hell are my taxes paying the treasury department to write this crap? Since when is “Saving the environment” been a part of the treasury Departments Charter?
I thought the Treasurys’ role was to suck as much of our hard earnt out of our pockets as possible so they can distribute it amongst themselves and their mates?
It’s all about the money – right – so why has the treasury department been deceitful to our unelected government? If they were being honest they could have written the following:
“An extra carbon tax should be introduced so the government can suck more money out of the system to help pay for the BER, the insulation scheme and the other grossly mismanaged programmes run by ministers who are the definition of incompetence, you promised the CPRS to help fill these holes and haven’t given us oxygen thieves the revenue, so get cracking”
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MadJak
Being a cynic as well as a sceptic I don’t think it stops with just the Treasuty Dept.
How many punters noted that the Governors of the RBA made few noises about interest rate hikes before the election? Now that the dust has settled “the spectre of Inflation” has loomed large again….. ( cue the JAWS theme!)
You get the impression that the brick veneerial mortgagee battlers may have had a slightly different voting pattern if things were not so rosy before the election
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There are two South Golden Beaches in Australia. One is just north of Byron Bay NSW the other on the coast due south of Sale in Victoria. Both have dirt tracks running behind the sand dunes with wonderful camping grounds amongst the trees.
Camping is banned and regularly policed at the NSW version yet it is encouraged at the Victorian version which offers fireplaces with firewood.
Byron shire is a rich council with outrageous rates whereas the Victorian South Golden Beach is a quiet little town who would no doubt benefit from the campers and the trade they’d bring. It always comes back to the money!
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Pattoh,
Just quietly I think the battlers are struggling to pay their power bills these days. The hikes have been extraordinary over the past few years. Of course a “Price on carbon” will exacerbate this significantly IMO.
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How do they plan to identify the owners of discarded cigarette butts? Will beachgoers be asked for saliva samples in the car park?
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Okay, wrong beach but not that far away
Are you going to Scarborough, fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lived there.
She once was a true love of mine.
to misquote the unlikely comment of Wellesley
Good-bye Cottesloe, I’ll not see you again.
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WEll it’s worked then Richard… one less riff-raff already;)
The preferred protest is a pre-dawn hole digging raid on Australia Day.
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Mark D.
There is already a cam on Cottesloe Beach don’t you know?
http://www.coastalwatch.com/camera/cameras_large.aspx?cam=7030&state=WA&t=11:11:38%20AM&camName=Cottesloe
Time to monitor and dob in those lawbreakers.
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Madjak and Pattoh
Speaking of electricity prices, get a load of this obscene hypocrasy of the highest order. (From the Mail On-Line via the EU Referendum))
The EU Referendum opinies..
Won’t be long before people “rush the palaces” and rebel.
We’re all being fleeced left right and centre, our rights are being eroded at a phenomenal pace and yet the fourth estate is silent.
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When you feel like getting a one way ticket out of a country you love, and many friends send postcards from Russia and so said third world nations stating the freedom these countries have compared to the policed states of Australia,the word democracy which means people power falls far short. In 2002 read a great book by Graham Strachan , 21STEPS, should be compusory reading for every council and minister , helps to understand Agenda 21 programs when they are presented by councillors and do gooders. In WA many who sought a better life here especially from UK bought the baggage that drove them out of UK . Praise the new religion — Sustainable development—controlling every aspect of your life and how you live it.
Wedge island and Eighty mile beach real Australian beaches.
Save Australia and its beaches, get rid of councils.
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Baa
Don’t be to hard on the old Queen. After all it was her representative who turfed out a previous government when he judged it to be too reprehensible. We may need our current Vice Regal”umpire” to blow a wistle & ball it up again!
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Ah, local councils, you’ve gotta love them! In the late 1980s a large and expensive stone sign was erected at the exit to Adelaide Airport stating “Welcome to the City of West Torrens”. It confused the life out of international visitors who thought they had flown to Adelaide.
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Not as good as the sign erected at Edinburgh Airport in the UK, where the previous Labor Party Administration put up a sign that allegedly stated……
“This is Scotland and you’re welcome to it”
HAHAHAHHA
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Linda Comment 22
Considering how long Agenda 21 has been around (from 1992) I am amazed how few people know about it. Although governments and the UN make it all sound so good it is essentially pretty scary stuff.
a link to a simple explanation:
Agenda 21 – an exercise in tyranny.
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Lifesavers are now legal officers?
This will make fundraising for these ‘volunteers’ much easier- just give them a percentage of the on-the-spot fines they’ll be handing out.
All in the cause of beach safety, of course.
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is that true? – I’ve been waiting for that to happen – now you’ll have to swim between the flags or be fined and we’ll have little Hitlers on our beaches instead of caring volunteers.
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When terminology turns on itself… I see Julia wants a committee of MPs on a carbon tax, but only if they “agree climate change is real”:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/8016208/resources-sector-signals-another-battle/
Well seeing as we can all agree with that statement I guess all MPs are invited, yes? They really need to get back to English words that actually mean something.
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If they tried to enforce their COMMUNIST rules on my beach behaviour I would tell them to shove it up their cakehole!!!!!!!!
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Ah, Cottesloe Beach. Fond memories of surfing just south of there in the late 1960s and checking out the society chicks in bikinis at the main beach later.
Also a nice sea level marker just offshore the main beach. Seems the same as it was 40+ years ago.
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“A young kiteflier talks about what could be done to you if caught with a kite: “During the Taliban, kite flying was not allowed. If you flew a kite, (the Taliban) would beat you and would break the spool and tear the kite up.”
http://afghanappealfund.org.uk/?page_id=28
Who’s in charge down there???
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There`s a lot of this going around, people. Another expensive local government area but in Adelaide – an elderly lady had the unmitigated gall to arrange for the branch lopping of a “significant” tree which was adversely affecting her life (and her house roof). Blinkered conservationism as supported by the letter of the (council) law;
http://guardian-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/tree-trimming-tiff/
Update – last heard in a subsequent article the council was giving an indication that it would be inclined to “favourably consider” a retrospective application after all…you couldn`t make this stuff up, hey?
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Wendy
“If they tried to enforce their COMMUNIST rules on my beach behaviour I would tell them to shove it up their cakehole!!!!!!!!”
Reminded me of how a cousin of mine who had a Russian business acquaintance visit Australia for the first time a few years ago. My cousin showed him around for a week, taking him to national parks, beaches, the usual things after which he was told by the Russian, presumably someone who would know, that Australia was the REAL communist country. My cousin who like most of us would never put the words communist and Australia in the same sentence was shocked. What do you mean he asked. The Russian said look at all the regulations, licences, fees, fines etc covering many areas of our lives, all meant to tie us up, keep us fearful and hand over power to petty bureaucrats.
We need to push back, either by collective civil disobedience, political pressure, legal challenges or simply ignoring stupid laws(my personal favourite).
cheers Ron
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Mike Borgelt… the marker is “new” as the old one collapsed in a big storm a couple of years ago. The new one, of course, has been designed to end the tradition of young folks climbing up and jumping off. Can;t have people having fun spoil the beach!
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Who controls the littoral zone? (the tidal band) Somehow I doubt the local council has much legal jurisdiction over the seabed. Time for locals to organise a kite-flying day like the one at Bondi Beach, Sydney.
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Just got to fight the namby-pamby attitude and promote responsible behavior by individuals of OUR nation.
I routinely cut locks on National Park tracks becos I want people to enjoy the bush. My family walks, ride horses, mountain bikes, motor-bikes and 4WDs along our local trails. It does no harm and keeps the children well occupied but the powers-that-be (Nat Pks in this instance) seem to want to exclude humans from as much of Oz as they can.
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Dear
SerfsCitizens,There’s a rule for everything. If it’s not in the book today, check again tomorrow.
Actually, checking the rule book is now against the rules.
So there.
Dictatorially Yours,
The Authorities.
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“Ron” (34), I couldn’t agree more.
Australia IS being definitely taken down the roAd of COMMUNISM!
We need to fight with all our our might against this EVIL.
Have a look at what state and federal ALP(Australian Liers party) governments are dong to Australians.
TRAITORS to their own country the lot of them!
Time for a revolution!
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Jo and everyone:
Local government, or councils as they are known, were voted against in the 1988 referendum, giving them no legal power and, even the constitution doesn’t recognise (3rd tier of government) them. Councils have NO LEGAL POWER to regulate anything. They also have no LEGAL right to charge rates if you hold property under “Fee Simple”, which most of us do. We can CHOOSE to pay if we wish, but we have never entered in a legal contract to do so.
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how anyone can be locked into the left/right paradigm at this point is beyond me. check opposition spokesman on climate change, greg hunt, in this link:
27 Sept: SMH: Clancy Yeates: Green firms in limbo over carbon credits inaction
THE Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, is under pressure from green firms to quickly resolve a policy bungle that is forcing businesses in search of carbon credits to head overseas.
Companies that certify carbon offsets, such as forest plantations, have been unable to guarantee customers they are providing accredited offsets since the end of June, when the Greenhouse Friendly program lapsed…
The country’s biggest carbon sink provider, CO2 Group, has not signed a single new Australian customer for its voluntary programs since the CPRS was deferred in May.
Its chief executive, Andrew Grant, said he was concerned corporate Australia would be ”once bitten, twice shy” when it came to voluntary action on carbon…
CO2 Group, which has Origin Energy, Woodside, and Newmont Mining on its books, posted a $3.7 million loss last financial year.
Labor has promised a replacement program called the Carbon Farming Initiative, which will allow farmers to export their credits – a move Mr Grant described as ”very constructive”…
A spokesman for Mr Combet said the government planned to introduce legislation into Parliament early next year, and consultation on design would begin late this year.
The chief executive of Greenfleet, Sara Gipton, said the oversight meant the business was also under threat from foreign competitors…
***The opposition spokesman on climate change, Greg Hunt, said he had met Mr Combet and the opposition was prepared to support Labor’s proposal. ”It’s a chance for the government to prove they are serious about climate change and undo some of the damage that they’ve done.”
http://www.smh.com.au/business/green-firms-in-limbo-over-carbon-credits-inaction-20100926-15sf7.html
and this is where it gets scary:
24 Sept: SMH: Julian Poulter: Super funds at the mercy of climate change
As a result, Australia’s superannuation funds, who own about a third of the ASX, are more exposed to climate change than any other superannuation industry in the world. To protect our retirement nest eggs, the long-term returns of the superannuation funds, it is clear the funds should be vitally interested in the carbon competitiveness plans of the companies they own on our behalf.
Fortunately there are some positive signs as Australia’s superannuation funds have a higher proportion of signatories to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) than any other country. Therefore it is hoped that the resolutions being posed by The Climate Advocacy Fund, launched by Australian Ethical Investment this week, with The Climate Institute as a key partner, will attract strong institutional support…
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/super-funds-at-the-mercy-of-climate-change-20100924-15qar.html
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Just a little comment on the Cottesloe beach thing. Most of these silly rules are being driven by the council’s fear of being sued. Someone ends up a quadriplegic after diving off the pylon – they will sue the council. Someone breaks a leg falling into a big hole, they will sue the council. Someones kite dives and takes out an eye, and its the council which will get sued.
Its well understood, that should an expensive accident happen to you, you must find someone with money, who might be considered “responsible” for what has happened, and sue them. If a passenger in a car accident is injured, they sue the driver, and the driver’s insurance pays up.
You may recall the case of an unlucky guy who was dumped by a small wave at Cottesloe and ended up a quadriplegic. He sued the council (and rightly failed), but it was the only chance he had for a decent standard of living. So life is a lottery – if you can sue someone, great, otherwise, bummer.
Many years ago, the ALP tried to introduce a no-fault universal accident insurance scheme. A scheme which would have put an end to all the suing, and give everyone unlucky enough to suffer serious ongoing injuries the chance of a decent life. But there were lawyers making plenty of money out of our current scheme, and they made sure it never got up.
People trying to organise events often find that when you take into account the cost of insurance, it just isn’t worth doing.
So if you want to fix the nanny state, support a universal accident insurance scheme.
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I’m not an Aussie, but in some ways we have similar issues in New Zealand. This is more a statement on the state of personal responsibility than it is on the petty-mindedness of bureaucrats. With the selfishness of so many people think they need more and more laws to ensure we all live in harmony. What really needs to happen is that people should be considerate of others. Legislating all this stuff is not going to do it. It is going to criminalise those who are responsible.
Burn all the statute books and replace them with the 10 Commandments plus “It is illegal to be stupid” and you are covered for all eventualities.
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John @ 42
I think you want to reconsider that advice. That’s what we have in New Zealand – ACC. It covers people injured in the course of breaking to a house, or shot in the leg by Police in the process of apprehending them for murder (and the victim’s family gets cold comfort).
ACC has nearly bankrupted this country with people flocking here from overseas to engage in any risky or lethal activity with impunity.
Perhaps I am a bit harsh, but sometimes I look at that it has engendered in regard to people not taking personal responsibility and think it might just be a bad idea overall.
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don’t want to use any expletives to be deleted:
27 Sept: ABC: PM to chair climate change committee
By online political correspondent Emma Rodgers
Ms Gillard will chair the committee which will also consist of Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, Greens senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne and independent MP Tony Windsor…
Professor Ross Garnaut, Professor Will Steffen, Rod Sims and Patricia Faulkner will also be on the committee as expert advisers.
Ms Gillard says it is imperative to put a price on carbon to give business certainty…
Ms Gillard extended the invitation to the Coalition to join the committee with the caveat that they must agree climate change is real and that a carbon price is needed.
“We are saying very clearly to the Coalition that we would ask them to work in good faith with this committee,” she said…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/27/3023007.htm
“good faith” indeed.
perfect that abc’s “political correspondent” should write this up.
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That would be the business uncertainty due to Gillards government wanting to introduce another tax and the relevant uncertainty as exaggerated by the poll conducted by the Climate Institute right?
And Ross Garnaut – well here’s a really interesting link on Professor Ross Garnauts history with Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea.
Give me a Freakin Break! Who is pulling the strings here? Really, because these guys are just a bunch of muppets.
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Here’s a European more interested in the demise of the aspiring supra state than the local nanny version:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN259750420100925
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Gillard’s rigs her warming “consensus”!
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/gillards_rigs_her_warming_consensus/
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The Ranga Nanny is a Judas Goat leading the poor unsuspecting population of Australia on a one way trip to soveriegnty oblivion.
At least the Milky Bar Kid has a second language & will probably be able to get the drinks orders right in his next job.
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Well that’s thirteen things that are out with penalties from $100 to $500. But what abour boobs? Are they allowed to be out? We should be told. Or will the non-wearing of a Burqini become crime number fourteen?
That would really be the last straw.
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“Piter”, I’LL BET YOU WERE A FUN KID!!
BY THE WAY BLOGGERS HERE DO NOT APPRECIATE ADVERTISING ABOUT VIAGRA AS PER YOUR HYPERLINK FROM YOUR ALIAS!
—-
Piter has been thrown in the spam can — Yoda the Mod
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An old expression seems to say it all, indeed, I’ve taken to using it quite often of late, when the circumstances warrent. So, here I go, one more time, and the circumstances definitely seem to warrent — “Life’s a beach!”
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Charles @ 50
Boobs have been out at Swanbourne beach for years!
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With the high rate of malignant melanoma in Australia, I should think the sun shelter philosophy should be– The Bigger The Better!! But that would require a governmental interest in human health. Now, if it was a shelter for a lesser bilby, you could build ’em as big as you wanted!
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