[Peetwo]

Dick backs Pauline - "Match made in heaven"


Courtesy the Daily Telegraph... :

Dick Smith will advise Pauline Hanson as she plans an assault on Western Sydney
[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/article/b73c297b8b3e4624a811bc261a52a788?esi=true&t_template=s3/chronicle-tg_tlc_storyheader/index&t_product=DailyTelegraph&td_device=desktop[/img]EXCLUSIVE: Shari Markson, National Political Editor, The Daily Telegraph
December 6, 2016 12:00am

MILLIONAIRE patriot Dick Smith is backing Pauline Hanson’s tough immigration stance and offering to advise One Nation as the party plans an assault on Western Sydney at the next state and federal elections.

The buy-Australian campaigner will meet with Ms Hanson before Christmas to advise her on policy, predicting she will ride a wave of Trump-like support in traditionally conservative areas such as Sydney’s north shore.

Ms Hanson told The Daily Telegraph she will launch a major campaign in Western Sydney, running One Nation candidates in the next NSW state and federal elections.



It is a move that will petrify both Malcolm Turnbull’s government and the Labor Party.
Mr Smith, an opinionated former Australian of the Year, had an initial conversation with Ms Hanson last week, drawn to speak with her after his friends, long-term Liberal and Labor voters, had embraced One Nation.

“I support her policy on Julian Assange. I support her immigration policy. She says she’s going to have a policy to help general aviation. I’ll certainly support that,” Mr Smith said.

“I agree with her views on immigration numbers, that is about 70,000 a year, not 200,000. But I do not agree with her views on Muslim immigration,” he said.

The retailer is so passionate about curbing Australia’s immigration intake he is planning to pay for an advert protesting Lucy Turnbull’s growth predictions for Sydney. He also authored a book in 2011 titled “Dick Smith’s Population Crisis”.

“I noticed that Pauline’s is about the only political party that has a policy on not having perpetual population growth,” Mr Smith said.

Dick Smith’s move to support Pauline Hanson will petrify both Malcolm Turnbull’s government and the Labor Party.

“That means we’ll end up stabilising our population so young people will be able to afford houses.” Mr Smith has also offered to help Ms Hanson with her aviation policy.

He said he would help her cement the support of tens of thousands of voters who work in the industry.

“Myself and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association will come up with what needs to be done and I will give her some suggestions,” he said.

“I think she would get tens of thousands of votes from the aviation community because they have been let down by the ALP and Liberals.”

Ms Hanson will target seats across Sydney where, she argues, voters are disillusioned with the major parties and want change.

Mr Smith said he did not agree with Ms Hanson’s position on stopping Muslim immigration, and during their phone conversation asked her some tough questions.

“We will definitely be standing candidates in the next NSW state elections and federally, yes,” Ms Hanson told The Daily Telegraph.

“People are just really fed up with the major parties and screaming out for change.

“I think there’s a move on across the country for One Nation,” she said. “People know I care about the country and the people are sick of career politicians.”

The electronics retailer, once worth $50 million, said he had never donated to a political party and ruled out ­financially backing One Nation.

Traditionally a conservative voter, except during Bob Hawke’s tenure as prime minister, Mr Smith said he may stand for federal Parliament as an independent at the next federal election.

He said his three main platforms would be stopping Australia’s ballooning population, ensuring young Australians can buy their own home and curbing debt.

“So many of my friends who normally voted Coalition reckon they are going to vote for Pauline Hanson,” Dick Smith says.

Mr Smith threatened to run against former Howard government minister Bronwyn Bishop in the last federal election in the NSW seat of Mackellar if the Liberal politician did not retire.

Mr Smith said the support for Ms Hanson all across NSW was palpable — even in the traditionally blue-ribbon north shore area.

“So many of my friends who normally voted Coalition reckon they are going to vote for Pauline Hanson,” he said. “You only have to look at what happened in America with Trump. “People are so disillusioned with our present party politics. Our politicians don’t tell the truth. They’re all actors.”

Mr Smith, an opinionated former Australian of the Year, had an initial conversation with Ms Hanson last week.

“While I wouldn’t say I agreed with all of her policies, I am starting to see why she’s going have incredible support and how completely disappointed people are with the two major parties.” Mr Smith said he did not agree with Ms Hanson’s position on stopping Muslim immigration, and during their phone conversation asked her some tough questions.

“People tend to say that she’s racist. So I asked her, does she think that she’s superior to other races? She said no,” he said.

On another front I note that miniscule NFI 4D Chester found a 'good news' story that he'll be hoping will relieve some of the aviation industry 'big end' of town pressure...

Via Oz Aviation:

Australia signs open skies agreement with China

December 5, 2016 by australianaviation.com.au

Another day, another Chinese airline inaugural. Air China’s inaugural Sydney-Chengdu services is welcomed at Sydney Airport in November. (Sydney Airport/Kurt Ams)

Chinese airlines will have unrestricted capacity into Australia after the federal government announced it had reached an agreement with China for an “open aviation market” between the two countries.

The agreement, announced on Sunday, paves the way for China-based carriers to maintain the furious pace of growth into this country in recent times, catering for the increasing number of Chinese tourists travelling overseas.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said opening up aviation capacity in the Australia-China air services agreement had been a top priority since he took up the portfolio.

“These new arrangements will remove all capacity restrictions between Australia and China for each country’s airline which is an important enabler for increased trade and tourism,” Chester said in a statement.

While the most obvious benefit will be for Chinese carriers, who are now free to continue their rapid expansion into this country, Chester noted the new agreement also contained some benefits for Australian flag carriers.

“We have also liberalised traffic rights and code share arrangements, which are important for Australian airlines,” Chester said.

“This will enable Australian and Chinese airlines to service destinations between and beyond both countries, and will allow them to take full advantage of their cooperative arrangements with their commercial alliance partners.

The Australia-China air services agreement was most recently expanded in January 2015, which increased the available capacity for both flights between the major cities of China (Beijing/Guangzhou/Shanghai) and Australia (Brisbane/ Melbourne/Perth/Sydney) as well as between so-called secondary cities in China.

Currently, there are seven Chinese airlines flying to Australia. Meanwhile, there is just one nonstop flight from an Australian flag carrier to China – Qantas’s daily Sydney-Shanghai service, although Qantas will also resume Sydney-Beijing nonstop flights from late January 2017.

Virgin Australia has proposed operating to Hong Kong and Beijing from June 2017 as part of a commercial alliance with HNA Group. However, it has offered few details publicly about their proposed flights.

Sydney Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather welcomed the announcement.
“This decision delivers expanded bilateral capacity ahead of demand, maximising the value to the visitor economy,” Mather said in a statement.

Australian Airports Association chief executive Caroline Wilkie hoped the open skies agreement with China would lead to further additional capacity in other air services agreements.

“Today’s announcement will provide further impetus for growth in travel between Australia and China and means that airlines and airports can continue working together to provide more flights and better services between the destinations unconstrained by capacity limits on the number of flights or seats,” Wilkie said in a statement.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Government and other stakeholders to remove constraints on air access from other markets where possible, in order to facilitate the continued growth and contribution of our airports and aviation industry to the Australian economy.”

  
Although I do question why it is acceptable to have an 'open skies' air services agreement with China but not with Qatar?

Traffic rights for Qatari carriers unchanged: Chester
November 22, 2016 by Jordan Chong
A file image of Qatar Airways Airbus A380 A7-APE at Sydney Airport. (Sydney Airport)

There has been no change to air traffic rights for airlines from Qatar to operate to Australia despite media reports suggesting the two countries had signed an open skies agreement.

It was reported over the weekend that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani had signed an open skies agreement during the Australian’s recent official visit to Doha.

However, Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said this was not the case.

“The agreement that was signed does not provide for ‘open-skies’,” Chester said in a statement to Australian Aviation.

“The agreement that was signed does not change the existing commercial entitlements currently available to airlines of Qatar.”

Rather, the signed agreement provided “for an over-arching legal framework under which air services between Qatar and Australia can operate, including regulatory requirements in relation to safety and security”...

Oh well unfortunately for Caroline Wilkie from the Triple-A...

Australian Airports Association chief executive Caroline Wilkie hoped the open skies agreement with China would lead to further additional capacity in other air services agreements.

“Today’s announcement will provide further impetus for growth in travel between Australia and China and means that airlines and airports can continue working together to provide more flights and better services between the destinations unconstrained by capacity limits on the number of flights or seats,” Wilkie said in a statement.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Government and other stakeholders to remove constraints on air access from other markets where possible, in order to facilitate the continued growth and contribution of our airports and aviation industry to the Australian economy.”

 ...it doesn't look like the current Qatar agreement, put in place in September after consultation between the Murky Mandarin (& his minions) and Akbar Al Baker (& his zillions) back in March - see HERE - will be increasing capacity anytime soon...


MTF...P2