A short guide to the Middle East

The letter ran in Thursday’s Financial Times.

Tony Abbott will buy leaky fishing boats

If elected, Tony Abbott intends to buy leaky fishing boats from poor Indonesian fishermen and destroy them.  He will also set up a "Village Watch" program where Indonesians will be paid for information leading to an arrest or major disruption to the people smuggling trade.

The boat buying scheme sounds a bit bizarre, as the poor fisherman will then have two potential buyers instead of one and will naturally hang out for the highest bidder.

Labor front bencher Bill Shorten agrees.  "Wait till the news gets through South-East Asia that if you've got a leaky unsafe boat, the Australian taxpayer will buy it off you" he said.  "I don't know who dreamed it up but I'm sure the Liberal Party should be taking that person and putting them in witness protection."

And it gets funnier.

"Mr Abbott's plan to have, it seems, a three star general, sitting at the end of the jetty with a cheque book to buy back fishing boats from Indonesia is about as irresponsible as his plan for a paid parental leave scheme which gives $75,000 to millionaires" he said.

President Assad now lowest form of life

President Obama has demanded that President Bashar al-Assad give UN officials immediate access to the site near Damascus where so many innocents have died.  If Assad refuses, it's going to put pressure on Obama to act.

But surely the days of the US undertaking the role of policeman of the world are coming to an end and this shocking chemical attack should be handled by the UN because that's what they're there for.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius made a fool of himself when he said world powers must respond with force if Assad is proved guilty. But in the same breath he said there was no question of France sending any troops so why did he say it in the first place? We know why - to stir the US into action and fix the problem for him.

Laurent Fabius

Israel isn't helping, they have accused the world of turning a blind eye and why not?  It's impossible to tell which side is telling the truth and we won't know who's right until the UN inspectors get permission to go in and have a look.

Keep calm and carry on America.

New Zealand passes domestic spy bill

Prime Minister John Kee

Last night after a passionate debate, New Zealand passed a bill that allows the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to spy on its citizens.  But it only just scraped in - 61 votes to 59.  The bill gives the government legal access to electronic communications including mobile phone calls.

Last year the GCSB illegally spied on New Zealand resident and Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom.  Armed police raided his Auckland mansion as part of a US-led investigation into online piracy.

Dotcom was accused of costing the entertainment industry $500 million through pirated content uploaded to his file-sharing site which had 150 million users.  Dotcom denied the charges and fought an attempt to extradite him to the US. 

Kim Dotcom is furious with the new bill and said "This will be the birth of a surveillance state in New Zealand."

Kim Dotcom

The Prime Minister said he was sorry that so much misinformation had "alarmed and agitated" some citizens. "But my regret would be nothing compared to the threat if this legislation was not passed and New Zealanders were harmed because of a gap that currently exists in our security arrangements." 

In April this year, New Zealand made same sex marriage legal. Parliament spontaneously broke into song and people in the public gallery clapped and cheered  when the bill was passed  77 votes to 44. Australia is still reluctant to commit.  

Irish schoolgirl outed at Eminem concert

A 17 year old schoolgirl gave oral sex to two men at an Eminem concert in Ireland last Saturday night.  After the photos went viral, she is under sedation in hospital and her sexual partner has been praised as a hero and a legend.

Although many of the Twitter and Instagram pictures have been taken down and also the 'slut-shaming' page on Facebook, the world now knows who she is - a secondary schoolgirl from west Ireland.

Police arrested 63 people during the American rapper's concert, watched by 80,000 fans.  It was held at Slane Castle, organized by Lord Conyngham who lives at the castle and is known as the 'rock and roll aristocrat.'

A Twitter spokesman said "If people come across content that may violate our policies, we encourage them to report it so we can quickly follow up, rather than re-tweet images and links."

A Facebook spokesman said "Unfortunately there will always be a tiny number of malicious people who are intent on harming others, online and offline.  It is difficult to prevent this minority from behaving this way but once they do, we will work hard to  remove them from Facebook and make sure they are brought to justice."

Performing consensual sex acts in public in 2013 is reckless and stupid. In Australia, 9 out of 10 boys aged 13-16 and 60 per cent of girls have seen online porn, according to the University of Canberra, and the sex is getting rougher.

Acts of physical aggression against women occurred in 88 per cent of the most popular DVD and video porn in 2010. But the wrong message is being sent because the female porn star responds in positive ways to that aggression.  The viewer sees the woman enjoying being choked, gagged and hit.  

British PM David Cameron once described pornographic images as "corroding childhood" and this unfortunate Irish girl is just one of many teens today who are confused about what is required of them sexually. 

But they need to remember that the old-fashioned value about sex and women still applies today, as this incident shows - the man is a legend and a hero, but the girl is a slut.

Bob Katter's Australia Party

Bob Katter began his parliamentary career as the member of the National Party in 2001 but continues to hold the seat of Kennedy as an Independent. 

In June 2011 he made a brave decision to start his own party - Katter's Australia Party (KAP).  His father Bob Senior was the member for Kennedy for twenty four years and Bob Junior stepped easily into his shoes.  He is a Maronite Catholic of Irish and Lebanese descent.

In 2001 he resigned from the National Party and easily retained his seat as an Independent in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010, each time with almost 70 per cent of the vote and presently holds the seat with an 18 point majority.

James Blundell and Bob Katter

It's hard to describe Bob Katter.  He's known as the man who wears the big hat around Parliament House but he's also known as a rebel, a loose canon and totally unpredictable.  Some would say it's Bob's way or the highway, so it was no surprise when he started his own party.

Katter wanted country singer James Blundell on his team and convinced him to run for the Senate and if he wins, he could hold the balance of power.

Since Rudd's comeback, KAP hardly registers on the national Newspoll with just 0.4 per cent of the vote but in Queensland, the party has 1.8 per cent statewide.

Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil's lead singer Peter Garrett can't wait to get out of politics and Blundell thinks the country is losing a good man.  "That ferocious front-foot articulation of his should be right out in front of any contemporary political party" he said.

Peter Garrett at work in Canberra

A fan asked Blundell why he was going into politics - was it for the pension after his bankruptcy?  He said it had nothing to do with the money.  (The base salary for a senator is $180,000, plus perks, of course.)

After nine albums and winning nine Golden Guitar awards, Blundell lost most of his money trying to set up his own recording label and in 2010, he filed for bankruptcy.  It was discharged on March 13, allowing him to sign on as a KAP candidate.

But Blundell has already run into trouble. He made a speech which stunned the conservative KAP party faithful and some members have left because of it - he said he would support gay marriage.  In the same speech, he said he wanted to abolish penalty rates which upset the Queensland unions and more members walked.   Blundell and even Katter himself are accused of being in breach of their party's constitution which bans gay marriage and defines marriage as a lifetime union between a man and a woman.  

If elected, Blundell would join the Senate in July 2014.

Julia Gillard's ultimatum

I wonder if Julia Gillard expected to win the leadership ballot against Kevin Rudd that fateful night of June 26.  Late on Wednesday afternoon she announced the ballot would take place that night at 7 pm on one condition - that the loser must leave politics.

She had been down this road before and knew she had the numbers. Rudd conceded defeat and promised never to challenge again but as Labor continued to sink further in the polls, his supporters convinced him to have another go and this time, it paid off.

Did she have any idea that she could be the one leaving politics? When she made that spectacular ultimatum, it's unlikely she knew that at the eleventh hour, 30 minutes before the ballot, Bill Shorten would withdraw his support that ended her political career.

The next day, she sat with Treasurer Wayne Swan in the back benches and it was hard not to feel sorry for our first female Prime Minister. She held it all together right up until Rob Oakeshott, in his parting speech, said her father, who passed away earlier this year, would be proud of her.

As she watches the election campaign speed up from a distance, I wonder what she's thinking.