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Showing Tag: "politics" (Show all posts)

ADF reaction to Andrew Hastie's photo use was political, hypocritical

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, June 10, 2016,
Like many I'm deeply disappointed by the decision to dump politician Andrew Hastie from the Army Reserve, simply because he had a photo of himself in uniform in campaign material and refused to remove it

Clearly, the rule about non-politicization of the army is being applied selectively. There have been many cases in which serving soldiers have worn the uniform in highly politicized contexts and they suffered no punishment. 

So Hastie's sin was not to be political. It was to be the wrong kind...
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Carbon tax repeal means cheaper public transport

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, November 4, 2014,
The manner in which the state government has refunded the cost of the repealed carbon tax to users of public transport seems to have been met with a range of reactions. But I have to say it's fine by me. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn't have to pay a cent to go anywhere I wanted to yesterday.

And I was greeted with another pleasant surprise today: My all day ticket went down from $12.10 to $11.80. Not a huge plunge, but that will add up over time. I get around Perth a lot on ...
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Bloke who sat on whale carcass provokes range of reactions

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, November 2, 2014,
I'm sure you've heard about this boatie who sat on a whale carcass off Rotto as humungous sharks circled around it. There was an interesting range of reactions to this stunt. Not surprisingly, most people thought he was an idiot.

Post by Perth Now.

Nonetheless, some opined that he was a champion and a legend, or at least not in any danger. Not surprisingly the ongoing political battle over the shark cull was a persistent theme in comment threads.

Some of these reactions illustrated the green t...

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Local Labor feminist in toilet related portrait outrage

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, October 19, 2014,
Labor really are in dire straits. They have completely lost their way. Federally all they seem able to do is get offended and make false accusations of bigotry -- sexism, mostly. Often it's their leader Bill Shorten doing most of the blustering. So funny considering what scumbags most leftie men are to women. They talk the PC talk, alright. But they sure as hell don't walk the walk. Hell, they don't even crawl the walk most of the time ... 

Shorten's latest display of, er, right-on chivalry ca...
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McGowan's take on Esperance shark attack proves his tin ear

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, October 4, 2014,
Two of the most notable things about Julia Gillard were her inability to judge the public mood, and her utter lack of common sense. While she was brilliant at acquiring and maintaining power at all costs within the Labor Party itself, she hadn't the slightest clue how to sensibly relate to, communicate with and build the enduring trust of the Australian population at large. This "tin ear" is a common affliction in Labor. And the party's West Australian leader Mark McGowan suffers it as well. ...
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Lawyer Simon Watters ruffles feathers at quiz night

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, September 2, 2014,
Every now and then someone of high social standing flouts this age's politically correct conventions and gets severely spanked in the media for it. The latest example is local lawyer Simon Watters, who apparently indulged in some off-colour humour while emcee of a recent quiz night.

I wasn't there to see what's been reported. Maybe it's a beat up as he and others have claimed. And it should be remembered that whenever humour's involved there's always the matter of tone. Sometimes people are tr...
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Apex Harmony "The Shark Cull" is clearly beyond parody

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, September 1, 2014,
Just when I thought that the deep green campaign to stop the West Australian "shark cull" couldn't get any sillier, the outraged nature boyz 'n' girlz waging it have outdone themselves with a deranged doco called Apex Harmony "The Shark Cull".

The title on its own is a hoot. Apex Harmony refers to Sea Shepherd's hilarious "shark defence" campaign. It's like "Shock and Awe" for big fat fish.

The site proudly proclaims that new merchandise will be out soon. Hey, don't these people detest capitali...
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Will PIAF's giant puppets for Anzac subvert the dominant paradigm?

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, July 26, 2014,
There's a proposed Perth International Arts Festival production that sounds very intriguing. It will be part of the Anzac Centenary commemorations and will feature some giant puppets expertly crafted by Frenchmen.

Now, this sounds extremely unusual. Don't know about you, but the first thing that comes to my mind when someone says "giant puppet" is stupid shouty bolshie protest. I also think: crap creations that don't look remotely like the eeevil hate figures they're meant to represent (namely...
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Barnett and Buswell are like Martin and Lewis

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, July 23, 2014,
Troy Buswell is in the news again, this time over alleged hush money paid to a woman whose car he smashed into on that notorious night of drunkenness several months ago. Yet again, Premier Colin Barnett is exasperated by his friend's behaviour.

This time he's even come out and directly criticized the decision to offer the woman money. He's also expressed his frustration over the fact that Buswell hasn't personally paid for the damage to his ministerial car.

This ambivalent reaction is typical...
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Mark McGowan's medical marijuana push a tactical error

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, July 6, 2014,
Alannah MacTiernan isn't the only Labor politician moving alarmingly to the green left. There are clearly others in WA Labor who've been afflicted with this tendency, including the leader Mark McGowan. His endorsement of medical marijuana is a case in point.

I have no strong feelings about this proposed policy. If it helps people who are suffering, great. But he should remember that a big chunk of the population have a strong emotional reaction when it comes to the issue of drugs. It doesn't ...
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Alannah MacTiernan gets even greener with euthanasia push

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, June 25, 2014,
There has been a lot of fervent internal debate about the direction that Labor is heading in. Much of this has been focused on the inordinate power that union heavies wield. There's another battle that's ideologically related to this, but tends to get less attention. And that's the tendency of some Labor pollies to go further and further to the Left, into wacky Greens territory. 

Alannah MacTiernan is the best example of this trend in this state. Not so long ago she was blathering about the he...
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McGowan's bikie slur against Buswell

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, April 30, 2014,
There's no denying that politics is a blood sport and that anyone who wants to be treated with kid gloves should give the profession a wide berth. That said, there should be some standards.

For example, indulging in sledges that equate your political enemies with violent low life criminals is unbecoming. That's just what Labor Leader Mark McGowan has done to disgraced former State Treasurer Troy Buswell in an attack referring to the latter's recent behaviour in the aftermath of his disastrous ...
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Hopefully Senate Election will show clear support for LNP

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, April 5, 2014,
Being in the Curtin Electorate, and living in Mosman Park, I nipped down to the charming art deco Memorial Hall to place my vote. Mossie Park is a real Liberal Party stronghold, given that it's generally a pretty well off and established suburb with lots of oldsters. (That said, there are chunks of it that are demographically the opposite of this, making it quite an intriguing locality.)

The atmosphere at the polling place was certainly very different to King St Newtown, where I voted a couple...
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Kelly Slater's silly anti-shark cull statement

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, March 18, 2014,
The irrationality of those who are against the shark cull is quite something. Sure, it's not that surprising coming from hard core greenies. They live in a world of emotionalism, after all. But every now and then you hear about deranged utterances from people you thought would know better. 

Take Kelly Slater, for example. The world champion surfer has actually gone on record saying that he'd be honoured to be eaten by a noah.

That's not just a case of jumping the shark. That's humping it as wel...
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Russell Woolf, Verity James to save our (their?) ABC

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, March 15, 2014,
West Aussies are preparing to go back to the polls for the Senate by-election in April. There are several micro-parties running in a bit of a mini-repeat of what happened federally several months ago. But they're not as colourful as that last crowd, which was memorably equated with the bar scene from Star Wars

One of them is a one-issue party headed by former ABC stalwarts Russell Woolf and Verity James. They have formed the Save Our ABC party. 

Hmmm. What do they mean by our ABC? Being the r...
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Racist abuse of Nic Naitanui on Twitter reveals PC double standard

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, March 15, 2014,
When I first heard about high profile West Aussie footballer Nic Naitanui copping racial abuse on Twitter I assumed it was at the hands of an Anglo. But it seems that the alleged perpetrator was of Vietnamese descent since his surname is Nguyen.

Just goes to show that racism is not always whites abusing non-whites. In this case the local Equal Opportunity Commissioner is condemning the abuse. But I wonder if this would be the case if the victim were white, in particular a white straight male. ...

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Is "Emperor" Colin Barnett the Jeff Kennett of WA?

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, February 28, 2014,
Colin Barnett certainly dominates politics in this state. No matter how hard his Labor opponents try, they just can't seem to land a punch on him. Desperate to turn voters against him, they constantly repeat this line that he's arrogant and out of touch. I don't think this is a majority view, nor will it ever be. Still, it is certainly proliferating. 

And I think it was one of the main reasons recent anti-shark-cull protests were so crowded. A substantial proportion of the crowd were not full-...
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WA's green intensity and the nature of the state

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, February 24, 2014,
I have been thinking about the ferocity of the anti-shark cull campaign here in the west. I keep wondering why it is so intense. Sure, people get het up about these things all over the globe, but generally not to the extent we've seen here recently

For example, there have been drum lines and shark nets in Queensland and NSW for decades. Yet they have caused little controversy. There were even people demonstrating about the West Aussie measures in those states. Makes you wonder why they didn'...
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Carmen Lawrence leads predictable calls for female Governor

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, February 16, 2014,
I'm sure you've been wondering whatever happened to Carmen Lawrence. Well, she did what many feminist politicians do after their disastrous reigns. She retreated to the halls of quackademe.

It's a well worn path, this. Natasha Stott-Despoja did it. Same with Julia Gillard. And what has Professor Lawrence been doing there in her ivory tower at UWA? Well, as well as making other po-faced PC pronouncements she's been calling for more feminists to be installed in positions of power, of course! 

Her...
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Colin Barnett believes shark cull has public support

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, February 13, 2014,
Considering the level of outrage about the policy of deploying drum lines and killing big sharks, you may be wondering why the WA State Government is going ahead with it.

I think that there are two reasons for this. Firstly, they are pretty sure that despite the noise created by the anti-cull protesters and their fellow travellers in the media, most West Aussies are quietly in support of this approach. Premier Colin Barnett said as much during a live blog session earlier today.

I doubt this is ...
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Media focus on drum lines as shark debate intensifies

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, February 12, 2014,
It's amazing to watch how the shark wars are covered by the media here in Western Australia. People are intensely focused on this subject -- not least because they're worried that the next time they go for a swim at one of our beautiful beaches they might get bitten in half by a bloody great white pointer!

They're also forming into two polarized political groups. There are those strongly against what they feel is the brutal murder of these deeply misunderstood creatures. Or, more likely, they'...
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Animal Justice Party's Katrina Love speaks at shark protest

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, February 6, 2014,
As I mentioned in a previous post, there were some truly silly speakers at the Cottesloe protest against the "shark cull" on February 1. Katrina Love of the Animal Justice Party was one of them. I've included a video of her speech below for your amusement.

Now, if your average garden-variety greenie is out where the buses don't go then animal rights activists are well and truly off the beaten track. (Well, metaphorically speaking that is. It's one of the ironies of their movement that the more...
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Anti-shark cull protest at Cottesloe had a surreal atmosphere

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, February 1, 2014,
Having been an avid surfer in my youth, when the sport was a lot safer than it is now, I've taken a keen interest in how the local shark wars are progressing. So I went down to Cottesloe Beach earlier today to watch the latest protest against the so-called cull and get some video footage of it. 

And isn't it interesting that the term "cull" is the default description -- even for those who are for the State Government's mitigation strategy. In my opinion it shouldn't even be defined as a cull. ...
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Protest placards prove Perth is shark raving mad!

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, January 5, 2014,
One of the most fascinating aspects of green-tinged, left-wing demonstrations is what's written on the placards. The slogans often give a telling insight into the state of mind of many of the participants. Read them closely and you'll realize just how nutty, retarded, and sometimes flat out scary many of those attending actually are. 

Yesterday's rally at Cottesloe in support of white pointers, tiger sharks and sundry marine man eaters was no exception. There were silly signs aplenty. You can ...
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Large crowd at Cottesloe anti-shark cull rally worries me

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, January 4, 2014,
In these days of social media mania, "slacktivism" is rife. There are countless people all over the globe who think they are changing the world for the better simply by pressing a like button on Facebook. Routinely, many more people pledge online to attend upcoming demos than actually rock up on the day. 

Frankly, I thought this was going to happen with this rally to oppose the State Government's plans to kill sharks deemed a threat to human life. See, six thousand people had said they would s...
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Shark-huggers react predictably to "kill zone" strategy

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, December 10, 2013,
I'm really glad that the WA Government has finally decided to do something about the threat posed by sharks. As this article makes clear the proposed "kill zone" strategy is nowhere near a cull. It's actually a targeted approach.

Quite frankly I would have been much happier with a cull -- preferably one involving dynamite. But you can't have everything. The Government was under immense pressure to make a compromise and has done so. 

Well, good to know they are doing something proactive. Obvious...
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Voted at Council House polling place, St Georges Terrace

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, September 7, 2013,
I voted earlier today at Council House on St Georges Terrace in Perth. Back in my long lost youth, when election days came around, I used to see voting as a chore. Now, as I near the big 50 I really look forward to the the process. It reminds me of what a fantastic country we live in. We all have a say in who governs us. And sadly that's still not the case in many nations.

Not only do we have democracy but party representatives and citizens almost always treat each other with respect. While t...
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Teresa van Lieshout, like Clive Palmer, is not a team player!

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, July 3, 2013,
Not surprised that the Palmer United Party candidate for Fremantle Teresa van Lieshout has been dumped. She, like Clive Palmer himself, is not exactly a team player.

This was obvious right from the start. Almost immediately after being endorsed as his candidate she was publicly questioning the party's asylum seeker policy.

Ms van Lieshout, a teacher and author, told The Australian that Mr Palmer was entitled to his ideas but she thought asylum boats should be stopped and taken directly to Chris...
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MacTiernan's concrete city scenario reveals her green delusions

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, June 25, 2013,
Mayor of the City of Vincent Alannah MacTiernan is angered by WA's new residential housing codes. The changes are minor:

WA's new residential housing codes, to come into effect on August 2, reduce the minimum open space requirement for multi-dwelling R50 and R60 developments from 45 per cent to 40 per cent.

But of course this is all too much for Ms MacTiernan. She says the change will contribute to a heat island effect. Wouldn't be surprised if she invokes climate change as well ...

I think mos...
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Howard Sattler's sacking by Fairfax shows fickleness of media

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, June 16, 2013,
The case of Howard Sattler being sacked over his tasteless questions to the Prime Minister says much about the Perth media scene as well as the machinations of power in general.

Here's a guy who is paid big bucks to be provocative, aggressive and offensive. That's what the listeners find compelling, after all. Day in, day out for years on end he's been annoying the great and the good of Perth and his employers have been very pleased with him.

He clearly finds the combative approach invigorati...
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Shock jock Howard Sattler and Perth radio culture

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, June 14, 2013,
This scandal over Howard Sattler's blunt and stupid questioning of the PM has got me thinking about Perth radio culture as compared to Sydney's.

Sattler is a local "shock jock" that PC types love to hate. But he really is the only one here. Pretty much every other broadcaster is drearily right-on. (I suppose Paul Murray might fall into this category. But from what I've heard he's hardly provocative.)

Being a bit of a right-wing death beast myself, I'm a supporter of the politically incorrect s...
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Shock: University of Notre Dame hostile to gay marriage activism!

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, June 10, 2013,
Two things that always astonish me about the more zealous proponents of politically correct leftism are their childlike naivete and sheer brazen gall. It's a very odd combination. But these are very strange people.

The little ruckus about the trendy lefty cause of gay marriage meeting a hostile reception at Notre Dame Uni is a good illustration of this:

Student Alex Kemp claims the university does not allow students to actively advocate for gay marriage on campus and refuses to recognise groups...
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Ben Wyatt, Dennis Jensen and Labor's cultural struggle

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, April 22, 2013,
Ben Wyatt has weighed in on Dennis Jensen's recent controversial comments on Twitter:

WA opposition spokesman for Aboriginal affairs Ben Wyatt said Mr Jensen had made a stale, facile and low-grade contribution to the debate, which had moved on to how much was being spent on indigenous people in hospitals and prisons.

Native title agreements had for many years focused on economic development and education outcomes, he said.

"He might want to do some research and reading to catch up,'' Mr Wyatt sa...

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Dennis Jensen falsely accused of racism on Twitter

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, April 18, 2013,
Dennis Jensen, the member for Tangney, is the latest politician to be embroiled in a Twitter storm. He was involved in some snarkiness on the subject of colonialism:

The Tangney MHR told TheKooriWoman to “get over” colonialism, saying “every country in the world has been successfully invaded in the past!” in a tweet yesterday.

“Do I snap my fingers and forget 213 years of oppression Mr Jensen?,” she replied.

His comeback was: “So you have personally lived 213 years? Work out ways t...

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Colin Barnett, Mark McGowan, Troy Buswell and Julia Gillard

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, March 5, 2013,
Colin Barnett is pretty much a dead cert to retain his job as Premier of Western Australia on March 9. He's been at the helm of a booming state for a while now and he's been a competent and confident leader. Of course state issues are different to federal ones but they do influence each other. And the Libs are certainly capitalizing on the dysfunction in Canberra. I've seen at least one ad that reminds West Aussies about what a mess the current Australian Government is in. This will be highly...
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West Australians for Shark Conservation indoctrinating children

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, February 17, 2013,
Hot on the heels of the barmy Peaceful Paddle (Against Shark Culling) comes another dippy deep green campaign of "attitudinal reconstruction". The group West Australians for Shark Conservation is now offering school classes teaching kids that sharks aren't scary at all. No, they're actually kind and cuddly cweatures just like weally big fwuffy-eared bunny wabbits!

That's so typical of greenies' "get 'em while they're young" philosophy, isn't it? And highly ironic given that while they want ...
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Labor's Metronet and the Libs' light rail plans are ideologically distinct

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, February 16, 2013,
People like to say that there is very little difference between the Labor and Liberal parties on many major issues, particularly when it comes to state government. I think that's long been quite true.

However in recent years the two parties have started to diverge and become ideologically more distinct. Federally, Labor has become much more of a high tax, high spending government. It keeps coming up with grand projects for the people but so often they come a cropper through incompetent managem...
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Thoughts on the Peaceful Paddle (Against Shark Culling)

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, January 21, 2013,
Clearly many Perth people are very anxious about the possibility of shark attacks these days. And in an attempt to allay their fears, a couple of local surfers called Rob Mayberry and Cam Avery have created a community event to be held on Sunday, February 10. They, along with anyone who wishes to join them will paddle from Cottesloe to Scarborough. The event is called the Peaceful Paddle (Against Shark Culling).

While I'm sure their intentions are sincere, I can't help being skeptical myself....
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Colin Barnett's shark tower vs Mark McGowan's ocean pools

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, January 6, 2013,
Premier Colin Barnett has recently confirmed that a shark tower will be built at Cottesloe Beach. This is his own electorate, so it's not surprising that many people claim the decision is a case of cynical pork barreling, an accusation he denies:

"Yes it is my electorate and as the Member for Cottesloe I'm delighted the government is going to help the club build a much needed patrol tower and I think beach users at Cottesloe will appreciate that," he said.

"Most of the other surf clubs do have ...

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The Buswell-Carles split and his defamation lawsuit

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, December 11, 2012,
Politics is a dirty, brutal business. Frankly I just don't understand how people can cope with the stress of it when it's being conducted routinely. So when the bitter breakdown of a romantic relationship is thrown into the mix for all the world to see the stress experienced by those involved must be extreme. And that's exactly what's happened in the case of Troy Buswell and Adele Carles.

The Liberal politician has issued a writ against Carles for claiming that he is an alcoholic with psychol...
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The Crime Factory and WA police culture

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, December 10, 2012,
A former cop has written a book highly critical of the culture of the Western Australian police force. In it, he describes it as sexist, racist and violent. It's called The Crime Factory, and he's penned it under the pseudonym "Officer A".

It's common for disgruntled former employees to make such accusations. And quite often they exaggerate their experiences. Political correctness is fashionable these days, and people have become so attuned to the possibility of sexism, racism, homophobia, etc...
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Hillary Clinton at the Hyatt Regency Perth for AUSMIN

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, November 14, 2012,
Late yesterday afternoon I was on the bus going from Victoria Park to Perth. It had just crossed the Causeway and was on Adelaide Terrace approaching Plain St when traffic slowed right down. I thought there'd been an accident. But the driver told me it was something to do with Hillary Clinton's visit.

I got out at the stop and walked to the corner where the Hyatt Regency is. There were heaps of policemen around, some on motorbikes. The traffic was halted at that particular intersection. And th...
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Hyde Park Deli has changed little in forty years

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, September 23, 2012,
As I've mentioned previously on this blog there are many locations around Perth that have been so completely transformed in recent years that they bear little or no resemblance to what I remember from my childhood. But there are a few places and buildings that have hardly changed at all.

One of these is the little deli situated on William St, just opposite Hyde Park.



I used to wait at the stop on the edge of the park for the school bus out to Kingsley Montessori every morning for years, after ...
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Perth
Line of Sight
When War Came to Fremantle
The Devil's Garden
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