Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore confirmed yesterday what we already knew - she's completely lost her marbles. The lady thinks a huge spiral looming above the city called "the cloud", birds on poles and a giant plastic milk crate is art. She's about to spend $9 million on three sculptures that will leave people shaking their heads for eternity.
She's wasting this money because she's got plenty of it. City of Sydney Council can well afford to splurge $9 million because they have a $600 million surplus in the bank. She said the sculptures were an "investment" that was needed to bolster visitor numbers with George Street about to be torn up next year for a light rail system.
With so much cash in the bank, what about building some more homeless shelters Madam Mayor? That's where they all congregate, in your neighbourhood, right under your nose - you must have to step over them as you move around the city.
Ms Moore actually believes these monstrosities will become the world's most recognizable structures, just like the Eiffel Tower. "Great art around the world can really put a city on the map - you only have to think of the Eiffel Tower in Paris as an example and our own Opera House" she said. Hello?
Japanese artist Junya Ishigami's steel Cloud Arch sculpture will soar up to 75 metres into the air near Town Hall and form a gateway into George Street.
Tracey Emin
London-based Tracey Emin was another lucky finalist. Sydney will be adorned with her bronze birds, dotted about doorways, awnings and on poles in the central business district's north.
But the milk crate has to take the cake. Egyptian-born, Sydney-based Hany Armanious will leave a legacy to Sydney of an ugly fibreglass "milk crate" sculpture at Belmore Park.
"People know the Sydney Opera House, they know the Harbour Bridge and in future they'll know the cloud" the Lord Mayor said.
Already, social media has declared it a very bad joke, which is what it is.
From 1 July 2015, the unemployed will be forced to look for 40 jobs per month and perform up to 25 hours of community service to qualify for the dole.
Job seekers younger than 30 will have to work 25 hours a week while those between 30 and 49 will have to work 15 hours a week.
Those aged 50-60 will undertake 15 hours a week of approved activity, such as training.
Assistant Empoyment Minister Luke Hartsuyker "It's not unreasonable to expect job seekers to be out there looking for work every working day. Work for the dole is just part of a range of strategies that the government is putting in place to improve the prospects of job seekers to get into work and at the same time, give back to the community."
When a job seeker under 30 applies for unemployment benefits, he will automatically lose payments for 6 months but must continue to look for work during that time. And to me, this doesn't make sense. How can a unemployed person with no income, apply for 40 jobs a month?
The system definitely needed a shake-up. In some rare cases, generations of families have never worked and don't intend to, they have happily resigned themselves to living a life of poverty on benefits. These people needed to be shaken out of their complacency. Then there are the kids living the dream on a permanent surfing holiday, paid by the taxpayer, they too needed a wake-up call.
But it's the older unemployed I feel sorry for the most, they have to wait until they turn 65 before qualifying for the aged pension and the constant rejection from employers must be hell. Their prospective bosses won't tell them they are too old because age discrimination isn't allowed, but they know that's the reason and must keep trying.
So after 1 July next year, being unemployed in Australia is going to be really tough.
It was a bit of a shock to learn that Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski have split up, they seemed so happy when they first met on set of Crocodile Dundee.
If you can believe the celebrity press, Kozlowski will get $US5.775 million and continue living in their Venice beach house until 2018, or until she remarries. She also has the option of buying the property for $US1.59 million which was the original purchase price.
Hogan gets to keep the rights to the Crocodile Dundee character and and the film company that produced the movies.
Hogan asked the judge to deny his estranged wife any spousal payments and he was also very insistent on having shared custody of their son Chance, who is now 15.
This will be the third time Hogan has been divorced. He married his first wife Noelene in 1958 before parting ways in 1981. The couple who have five children together, remarried in 1982 but divorced again in 1986.
After returning home to attend his mother's funeral in 2010, the Australian Tax Office stepped in and stopped him leaving the country. They wanted him for $150 million in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest and said he used offshore tax havens.
Hogan said he reached a settlement figure with them on a "without admission" basis, and the travel order was lifted. No charges were ever laid and Hogan consistently denied any wrongdoing.
President Putin's daughter Mary is living with her Dutch boyfriend in the suburb of Voorschoten, outside The Hague and some citizens of the grieving country aren't happy about it. Her boyfriend, Jorrit Faassen, is a senior executive who has held jobs at Russia's state-owned Gazprom Energy and pipeline manufacturer Stroytransgaz.
There has been angry talk of kicking her out of the country but residents of the town where she lives don't agree. "Why should she leave?" said Arnaud, the local postman. "Her father is a strange man, a frightening man, and it is so terrible that his support for the war in Ukraine has led to this - but we have nothing against her."
The apartment building where she lives is home to wealthy doctors, lawyers and other professionals, most of whom claim they have never seen her. But an elderly man watering his plants said "Yes, they live here, and every day we see them on their bicycles going to the shops."
Putin has always tried to protect his children from the media and was furious when a photo of Maria turned up on Facebook. It was quickly grabbed by a Ukrainian website and reposted around the world.
So like it or not, Putin's daughter is now involved in his fight to keep Ukraine within his control. And we know he could stop the fighting if he wanted to, he just doesn't want to.
So who is this uncouth woman now gracing the corridors of our Senate? It's Tasmania's Jacqui Lambie who only got 1,501 first-preference votes in last year's election. Thanks to Clive Palmer, we now have our first bogan Senator.
Within hours of arriving in Canberra, she called Tony Abbott a "psychopath" and said she wants his job one day.
Apparently she's been in the Army and her favourite weapon is a M60 machine gun and only joined PUP because she needed the money.
This week she showed her true character to the nation. As a ratio guest, Lambie said she is looking for a man and she has only two requirements - "They must have heaps of cash and they've got to have a package between their legs, let's be honest" she said.
In response to her bizarre statement, 22 year old Jamie rang up and wanted a date. "Do you have heaps of cash?" she asked and then "Are you well hung?" Jamie responded "like a donkey" and the radio studio erupted into hysterical laughter.
But the single mother of two insisted she was just "taking the mickey" out of her non-existent love life. "I won't be scripted, I'm sorry, I can't operate like that" she said. "I'm just a normal, average Australian, that's what I am and whether I've got Senator in front of my name or not, that's not going to change."
But one thing's for sure, everyone in the country knows who she is.
There's an ordinary looking terrace just listed for sale in the heart of Kings Cross. It's big - 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, one kitchen and a commercial laundry. It's being marketed as 'a grand terrace zoned for residential and commercial use.'
The 'iconic address' in Kellett Street, Potts Point, 'with boundless scope and future promise' is currently being used as a brothel.
The property sold for $2.1 million in 2006, $1.5 million in 2004, $1.4 million in 1999 and $90,000 in 1979. In April 2013 it failed to sell at $1.98 million and today it's listed at $1.8 million.
It's incredible to think that a man living in Australia today could possibly think that his 12 year old daughter was ready for marriage. Yet this Muslim convert married his child off to a 26 year old Lebanese man in the lounge room of his house without a second thought.
He told his child that sharia law "overrides" Australian law which is rubbish because nothing overrides Australian law. Both the father and the university student were charged with child sex offences.
Dressed in traditional Islamic dress, the child's father of seven fronted Burwood court yesterday and was committed to stand trial in the Sydney District Court. He is charged with procuring a child for sex and accessory before the fact to sexual intercourse with a child.
To obtain welfare benefits, the family tried to get the husband registered as her legal guardian and that's when authorities pounced.
The 26 year old groom was charged with 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a child after admitting he had sex with the girl every day since the sham marriage took place in the Hunter Valley. His case is still before the court and he is being held at Villawood Detention Centre after his student visa was revoked.
The child bride, who is now 13 and her 8 year old sister remain in the care of the Department of Community Services.
