Fiery Christmas

Fiona Uncategorized

Keith Packenham

From the ABC:

The number of properties lost in the Christmas Day bushfire along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road has risen to 116.

At Wye River, 98 homes were destroyed, while 18 were lost at Separation Creek. Fire officials said the majority of the properties lost were holiday homes.

The Insurance Council of Australia estimates the losses to be worth $38 million and it is expected that number will increase as claims are made.

The Great Ocean Road area has been declared a catastrophe allowing the insurance industry to “escalate its response” to the fire crisis.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews who flew over the fire zone, said the property losses were “significant”.

“It’s kind of confirmed for us just how hot, just how volatile, just how intense this fire was, burning right to the water’s edge,” he said after a community meeting at Apollo Bay.

Read more.

The one thing I am thankful for (and I am sure all would share my relief) is that nobody died.

However, it ain’t over yet: the terrain and vegetation in the Otways are particularly difficult, and we are in for a long, hot summer.

South Australia and Western Australia have already shown its potential for length, heat, and cruelty.

Stay safe, everyone. Remember, houses can be replaced.

Lives can’t.

ABC News

389 thoughts on “Fiery Christmas”

  2. So now we have the nephew of the Nazi calling for Abbott to come back to the front bench..a second chance, just like Adolph!

  3. “PM Turnbull “we’ve got more talent than we can bring into the ministry.'”

    I wonder which of the talent will be in next year’s Australia’s Got Talent.

  4. Why is the final volume of the TURC report being kept secret? We paid for the damn thing, we should see it.

  10. “Why is the final volume of the TURC report being kept secret? ”
    .
    Saving it for the next election campaign.

  12. It’s hard to work out who was thrown under a bus – Briggs, to distract from Brough finally giving in and standing aside, or Brough, as a distraction from the Briggs story, of which there must be a whole lot more we have not been told, or both of them as a distraction from the bad press the government has been having lately..

    And TURC? A welcome opportunity for Turnbull, who bravely came out of hiding for his union-bashing presser today.

    The MSM, dutiful as ever, will run with the ‘unions evil, companies good’ thing until tomorrow and then like boxer puppies spotting a new squeaky toy they will pounce on some new story, probably absolute trivia. Cricket, perhaps, or some visiting ‘celebrity’ lined up for a New Years Eve bash somewhere, or breathless stories about how much will be spent on Sydney’s fireworks this year and what a scandal it is only the rich will be able to get access to the best viewing spots.

  14. gigilene
    So adorable, and brings back memories. No 2 son had one of those, he had to send it to live with his dad (after it grew up) when he moved into a no dogs allowed flat. He was a fantastic dog. He passed away a couple of months ago, after reaching the grand age – for a boxer – of 15,

  16. gigilene
    Don’t be sorry, he had a lovely last few years being spoilt rotten by his devoted slave, and lived longer than most of his kind manage to do.

  17. Now the “commentators” are breathless about a double dissolution because of the ABCC legislation.

    If he does and gets the ABCC legislation through he will face an even more hostile Senate than he has now.

  18. I hate to say this, but it was a mistake for Bill Shorten to take holidays right now. He should have been out there today, doing pressers and hitting the media, but it was all left to Brendan O’Connor and he was nit exactly inspiring.

    If you wondered why Turnbull decided not to take leave over Christmas then the events of today tell you why. Good strategy.

    Maybe Shorten thought it best to keep a low profile, in case TURC was bad news for him.

  19. Maybe Shorten thought it best to keep a low profile, in case TURC was bad news for him.

    Wouldn’t matter either way the media will find some way to spin it against him.

  20. Or maybe Shorten thought it would be a waste of time to be on duty, to be asked useless silly questions on the wrong doings of unionists, who have not yet been charged and get sick of saying the TURC was a witch hunt, which of course it was.

  21. Had a look to see what was happening over the road and its the usual, the Right wing nut jobs are salivating over the royal commission report and Bemused’s on the warpath because someone dared criticise the great and glorious St. Kevin.

  22. Gippy Laborite

    I give thanks to joe6pack every day for starting this site. I couldn’t stand that acrimony over there. You are very brave venturing amongst many of them. I do miss some of them, but have found that we have a much more thoughtful and intelligent crew right here at The Pub.

  23. ABC news in total moaning orgasmic meltdown over the report. Cheery faces all round, Greg Jennett looking almost as Simpkinesque as Simpkin.
    My two highlights of the day so far- how Turdball’s allowed to get Shorten’s name in again & again but of course Brough’s not charged with anything so we shouldn’t be talking about him at all, should we?
    And the other…the total lack of self reference from the media when it comes to their reporting on that erstwhile “lion of the union movement” Kathy Jackson.

  24. You are very brave venturing amongst many of them

    Not that brave, I never posted, only lurked and I stopped doing that in about January 2013.

  25. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/chiropractors-promoting-antivaccination-views-despite-crackdown-20151223-gltwpl.html

    https://boilermakerbill.wordpress.com/2015/12/29/the-million-dollar-campaign-that-failed-to-land-a-seat/

    http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/kelly-odwyer-losing-her-chief-of-staff-julian-sheezel-just-two-months-after-appointing-him-20151230-glwpoh.html

    http://www.project-syndicate.org/print/marginal-pricing-end-of-western-oil-producers-by-anatole-kaletsky-2015-12

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-12-28/the-rise-and-fall-of-shaolin-s-ceo-monk

  26. I’m going to stick my neck out and say that there’ll be no March election. IMO the commission failed in one of its tasks, implicating Bill Shorten, the only people they’ve implicated are people that the general public have never heard of. If mud did stick to Shorten then Turnbull would be rushing to the polls to ensure that it would remain fresh in the voters’ minds, but it didn’t so he won’t as demonstrated by his announcement of his intention to introduce the ABCC legislation when parliament next sits in February.

  28. Leroy,

    Robcorr certainly got to the nub.

    This bit is an utter nonsense and says, effectively, that Heydon “thinks” with no evidence.

    Where in this Interim Report there is a finding that a person’s conduct
    may have been a breach of a relevant law, regulation or professional
    standard, the word is used to convey the view that there is credible
    evidence before the Commission raising a probable presumption that a
    breach of law, regulation or professional standard has occurred.

  32. Love the cat bat.

    Must have been a young one: for the older ones, it would be infra dig.

  33. Gippsland Laborite,

    If Saint Mal takes the ABCC to a DD then the lines will be well and truly drawn: it will be the only issue at such an election.

    And More Show Than Pony wouldn’t have the balls for that.

    Can’t remember the last time we had such a pusillanimous PM.

  35. At least the previous one showed up before running. This one is doing running in advance – quite an art form.

    • Doesn’t that make my case: stupidity versus cowardice?

      It’s only nuance anyway: still the same obnoxious way of running Our Country (not to mention our obligations to other countries and the planet).

  37. ABC just showed an ep of Midsomer Murders where truffles were an important ingredient.

    Importantly, one was killed by an excess application of truffle oil.

    I am beginning to see a parallel …

  39. BSA Bob,

    their reporting on that erstwhile “lion of the union movement” Kathy Jackson.

    Didn’t you mean the “loin” of the Union Movement”? 😉

    • Too much Radetzky is barely enough.

      Some of the ballet stuff they show is great.

  47. I’m with GL – I don’t think we will have a March election. First, I don’t think Turnbull has the balls to do it and second, the timing doesn’t work.

    Parliament doesn’t sit until 2 February. He has to get the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013, the bill that brings back the zombie ABCC from the dead, back to the Senate for a vote (it has already been rejected once, in August) and then he has to follow the usual election procedure. It takes an absolute minimum of 33 days to work through that.
    http://www.aec.gov.au/elections/australian_electoral_system/electoral_procedures/Federal_Election_Timetable.htm

    Even if the Senate knocks it back in the first sitting week it’s cutting things very fine.

  49. Leone,

    That has to make christensen Git of 2015 – only just easing out a full (in many respects) field.

    As for the DD, on my calculations a March election is only possible if the bill is guillotined through the HoR very early on 2 March, and then guillotined through the Senate sometime on 2 March (good luck with that, Mals).

    IFF that ‘succeeds’, I THINK it would be possible to call a DD election for 26 March 2016.

    What a shame 1 April 2016 doesn’t fall on a Saturday.

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