Peter Garrett, it gets worse.

I've always had the opinion that Garrett was caught up in his political infatuation early in his life, quite possibly before Uni, and was staunchly anti conservative.
He used this to his best advantage as front man for Midnight Oil where his politically incorrect (for the time) lyrics complimented the Bands cutting edge, unique sound and put them into a niche withing the pop music genre where they had almost no competition as an anti government / pro humanity act.
There are of course those who sentimentally believe that Garrett is what he sings, I don't subscribe to that theory at all, despite him having served as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1989 to 1993 and 1998 to 2004, in addition he also joined the International Board of Greenpeace in 1993 for a two-year term and served as adviser and patron to various cultural and community organisations including Jubilee Debt Relief, and was a founding member of the Surfrider Foundation.
My personal opinion is that due to his high profile, he was sought out for those roles to raise the profile among younger people and help with fund raising.

Anyway, read this and make your own opinion, is Garrett just a puppet a token, a Labor yes man?

Former musician and Arts minister Peter Garrett has shut down an elite Melbourne classical music school.

The former singer with political rock band Midnight Oil has decided to defund the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and start a new institution within the University of Melbourne.

Unlike other institutions, ANAM does not offer degrees or formal classes - it comprises mainly of one-on-one tuition and opportunities to perform.

The body is seen as a good bridge between learning institutions and the professional musical circuit.

The federal opposition has questioned the motives behind the decision, pointing to the cosy relationship between the Vice Chancellor of Melbourne University Glyn Davis and the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Davis helped Rudd run the recent 2020 Summit in Canberra.

Garrett has not announced how many students the new school will take or where it will be located.

Hillary Clinton, past it, or just the wrong person for the job?

The foreign policy of the US has ramifications accros the world and as far as being a peacekeeper the US has an important role but has the appointment of the Ex President's wife, a blatant crony job, tainted the impartiality with which the world expects issues to be tackled.

Hillary Clinton has already said that she is 100% behind the ongoing destruction of Palestine by Isreal and has fixed ideas about foreign policy on many other subjects and personally, I think someone new and a little less biassed or more impartial would have been better for the job, actually I think Mrs Clinton has no place in this new administration after all the US has been in the clutches of clintons and bushes for 20 years, isn't that enough?

Read on;

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged China to keep buying US debt as she wrapped up her first overseas trip, during which she agreed to work closely with Beijing on the financial crisis.

Ms Clinton made the plea shortly before leaving China, the final stop on a four-nation Asian tour that also took her to Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, where she worked the crowds to try to restore America's standing abroad.

In Beijing, she called on authorities in Beijing to continue buying US Treasury bonds, saying it would help jumpstart the flagging US economy and stimulate imports of Chinese goods.

"By continuing to support American Treasury instruments the Chinese are recognising our interconnection. We are truly going to rise or fall together,'' Ms Clinton said at the US embassy here.

Ms Clinton had sought to focus on economic and environmental issues in Beijing, saying Washington's concerns about the human rights situation in China should not be a distraction from those vital matters.

Beijing's human rights record emerged nonetheless as an issue, as dissidents on Saturday reported being harassed or intimidated by Chinese authorities in a bid to stop them speaking out or meeting Ms Clinton while she was here.

"Plainclothes police blocked me from leaving my home. They were afraid I would try to meet with Hillary Clinton or others in her delegation,'' democracy campaigner Jiang Qisheng said.

Ms Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi largely agreed to disagree on human rights as they pledged future joint action on the economy and climate change.

The goodwill, also on display in her talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, could raise hope for a new era of cooperation between the two largest greenhouse gas emitters and two of the world's top three economies.

What a difference a day makes, as Qld plunges lower into recession than any other state.

As the treasurer tells his tale of woe and lays the blame at global factors out of his control, the question is being asked, how long has the problem been going on and why didn't the state government do something earlier.

We are going $1.66 billion into deficit by the forecast, and could be deeper and worse our states credit rating has dropped, the only state to do so, to AA+ from AAA which means we will pay a higher rate of interest on government borrowings and we were paying $10 million a day in interest before all this.

You'd have to say that the treasury has not kept the government informed of the situation or they have simply turned a blind eye to it hoping it wouldn't impact until after the elections.

With labor heavy weights jumping ship and taking life time incomes with them, it will be years before this state will be in the black again and one could only expect the incoming government to be stuck with the job of trying to sort out a mess.

Once Australia's boom state, riding a wave of property and mining investment, Queensland has an economy grinding to a halt. Treasury officials issued a dire warning yesterday for the next financial year, when they fear the budget deficit will double to $3.2billion.

The latest forecasts, which take into account the Rudd Government's $42 billion stimulus package and recent interest rate cuts, predict a further 60,000 people will be laid off in 2009-10, when economic growth will slump to 1per cent, putting Queensland on the brink of a recession.

With the property market stagnant and weakening global demand for coal, the $809 million surplus forecast for this financial year had become $54 million by December and was revised yesterday to a $1.573 billion deficit.

In the past two months, Treasury officials have revised down revenue collections by $500 million in transfer duty, $427 million in royalties and $334 million in GST, and for the first time will have to top up the supposedly fully funded government superannuation scheme.

The treasurer has come up with a solution though, he plans to either cut services, or raise taxes.

Brilliant!