Andrew Bolt adds up what a deluded, self-aggrandizing PM with eyes on a UN-seat costs us:
* KRudd throws Israel under the bus and offers another billion jiziyah to Indonesia. That’s just for starters….
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has “gone missing” on the problem of Zimbabwe because he fears it could hamper his bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, the Federal Opposition has claimed.Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Rudd had made no formal statement on Zimbabwe since June, in contrast to the “robust diplomacy of Britain, the United States and the European Union to galvanise international support for the isolation of the brutal Mugabe regime”…
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Helen Coonan went further, suggesting the inaction “is related to Mr Rudd’s personal campaign to garner votes for a seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2013”, which would require support from other African nations.
I’d say Rudd’s campaign for a UN Security Council seat, trinket that it is, is in fact a cover for his campaign to be UN secretary general. But look at what else he’s prepared to spend or jettison to achieve a prize so worthless:Â
The campaign, to be waged over the next four years could cost up to $40 million.
And:
Australia’s aid to Africa was poised more than treble to A$8-billion by 2015…, the Australian High Commissioner to South Africa Philip Green said on Thursday… He said that the government of new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would be focusing more closely on Africa in order to “broaden and deepen” Australia’s reengagement with the continent..
And:
Shadow minister for foreign affairs Andrew Robb …said this could mean holding back support for Israel because many of the countries that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would need to convince to vote for Australia do not favour the Jewish State.
And:
THE Government’s decision to join most of the world and vote against Israel on two United Nations resolutions was motivated by a desire to keep the peace process alive and not the need for votes for Australia’s Security Council bid. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, told Parliament Australia switched positions during a vote on the weekend because it allowed the best opportunity for a two-nation solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict… (But) there were suggestions within the Jewish community that the move was motivated by Australia’s UN Security Council bid.
And:
AUSTRALIA will provide $1 billion to Indonesia as a stand-by loan to help tackle the global financial crisis if it’s needed.. Rudd also announced $3 million towards a new Institute for Peace and Democracy in Bali, which is aimed at fostering democracy in the Asia Pacific.
And:
I warned in March that Kevin Rudd’s decision to funnel aid to Burma through the United Nations, rather than Australian aid groups, was kissing goodbye to our cash. Claudia Rossett now shows that the truth is even worse than I feared. Some of our $12.5 million seems to have gone straight into the junta’s pockets…I suspect Rudd’s UN ambitions are interfering with wise decision-making on our aid money.