The 'Hijacked' Rock Eisteddfod...and other stupid Government ideas.
I heard this story the other day - vaguely, whilst in a taxi in the
city.

Apparently, a school in Sydney has chosen a 'political' theme for it's
performance in this year's Rock Eisteddfod. The Federal Education
Minister, Julie Bishop, has decided, in her party-lined political
'wisdom' that because the same school derided the Invasion of Iraq in
2004, that this performance has been hijacked by political activists.
She seems to postulate that it has an anti-Bush-led-Iraq-War theme just
to embarrass Dubya whilst he is in Sydney for the APEC Summit. In
essence, she appears to say that anything which publicly questions the
Government of the day is a bad thing and 'children' should be taught to
blindly accept things in the world and to not question (obviously)
unpopular and bad actions by the Government representing their country.
It'
s an interesting story, and shows just how paranoid this current
Government is.

Another 'sterling' piece of Government activity is the ability for the
ACCC to now have the ability, through the newly introduced Trade
Practices Amendment (Small Business Protection) Bill 2007, to sue people
if (for whatever reason) they mount a protest against a business and
cause that business to lose money. So, if a restaurateur, or an
upholsterer, or any form of business supplies goods &/or services which
are substandard, and you mount a protest against that business,
and it causes the business to lose money (ie: people legitimately voting
with their feet to take their business elsewhere), that
business can now sue you for loss of income. They can provide bad
service and can sue you for saying so.

Not to mention Federal Police desperately seeking legal advice as to
whether Dr Haneef's legal counsel were allowed to release a full
Police interview transcript from which the Federal Immigration
Minister has been quoting out of context. Why out of context?
Apparently to besmirch the bona fides and reputation of the Dr
and to apparently support his own spurious case for removing Dr
Haneef's Working Visa. My fervent hope is that Haneef gets the visa
awarded back to him, whether he returns here or not, so I can just laugh
in Kevin Andrew's face.

Finally, this
story would mean that my world would come to an end... well be a lot
less interesting.