The War On Birds

According to this report, each wind tower kills at least 10 birds per year, a tally that includes eagles, hawks, kestrels, magpies and migratory swifts.

According to the Clean Energy Council, Australia had 1639 wind turbines spread across 68 wind farms at the end of 2013.

Therefore, there are at least 16 thousand birds killed in Australia each year, and they aren’t going to be Indian Mynas and Pigeons either.

But yeah, let’s use taxpayer money to subsidise the building of more wind farms because global warming and evil oil companies.

Here is a sliced and diced pelican:

Squirrel Sighted

The blow torch is being pointed towards Bill Shorten as the AWU scandal is further exposed:

Shorten must come clean

In recent weeks, the commission has examined the AWU, a union that has long had a cloud over its integrity. A deal was struck between the union and Winslow Constructors whereby sham invoices would be paid by the company to fund union membership fees. These phantom members enabled the AWU to increase its influence inside the Labor Party. Another cosy deal was reached with Cleanevent that saw the union promise not to launch industrial action against the company in return for an annual payment of $25,000. On top of this, $6 million in workers’ wages were traded off for $75,000 from Cleanevent and a swag of extra phantom members. These arrangements were overseen by Mr Shorten’s successor at the Victorian Branch of the AWU, Cesar Melhem. He was forced to resign as a whip in the Victorian Legislative Council earlier this week.

New claims have emerged that Mr Shorten himself oversaw a deal to create phantom members that would elevate his power inside the Labor Party. Documents from the commission show that in 2005, when Mr Shorten was AWU Victorian Secretary, Winslow was invoiced $38,228.68 to fund 105 union membership fees. Payments, according to separate documents, continued the following year. Yesterday, Mr Shorten said these claims were “wrong”. He added that he was “proud” of his record at the helm of the AWU. But he has not definitively answered whether or not Winslow or Cleanevent made payments to the AWU with his knowledge. He said payments to the union were a matter for the company. He also refused to disown his close ally, Mr Melhem. However, Mr Shorten signed off on the enterprise bargaining agreement between Cleanevent and the AWU in 2004.

This leaves the ALP & the ABC in a bit of pickle. What to do, what to do?

I know! Look, a squirrel!