Orange Parrot is the new Red Herring

With the Federal Government putting the $220 million dollar Victorian wind farm project on hold over dubious concerns that the Endangered Orange Bellied Parrot may be further threatened by the existance of the wind turbines in a region it rarely visits, a few of my work collegues have decided to hijack an old enlglish idiom to highlight just how ludicrous the debate has become.

From now on instead of using the term "Red Herring" to describe a situation or topic designed to divert attention from the real issues at hand, we have decided to use the term "Orange Parrot". So when we describe something as an "Orange Parrot" the idea is that it is a side issue raised to craftily turn debate away from the real issues.

Hopefully this will take on, and will expose the stupid political games the Federal Government is playing at the expense of furthering progress on renewable energy technologies.

Another interest rate rise

Well, interest rates have risen by another 0.25% making it the highest in 5 years.

The irony is that people are blaming the government. now I'd be the last person to defend the Howard Government, I think that the Howard Government has been a dangerously ideologically driven government that has paid no heed to ethics and the greater common good in the pursuit of their economic rationalist objectives, but the truth of the matter is that the Government is not to blame.

The issue comes back to the promise from the last election that "under a Howard Government, interest rates would remain at record lows", what no one seems to be mentioning is that this was a stupid promise in the first place, and that the Australian public were gullable for believing that the government was able to fulfill that kind of a promise.

Even more rediculous is that the opposition refuses to point out that this was a promise that could not have been kept, probably because they want the Australian voting public to view this as another Howard broken promise, and to think that maybe a labor Government could do better, so that they stand a chance of actually winning the next election.

I think the whole problem comes down to the vast majority of Australians having a certain amount of political apathy such that they'll be swayed by vague promises of financial security that have no real substance, if they're shouted loudly enough to them just before an election. C'mon Australia, it's time for something better, lets inject a bit of realism into the political debate, it's time to get involved NOW, not one month before the next federal election.