From: "Brent Wallis" <brent.wallis@gmail.com>

Told myself not to reply but can not let this go.

- First...there is an error in your calc. ABS data shows we were at 22.7 M users as of 2012.

The numbers were to give a "rough idea". If I come up with 100 years and have 6 years to 2020.. you can double the number of visits and interest and a few percent higher population - these all does not come close to was floated two days ago. If you tell me you are running 10 GByte/sec over a GBit/sec switch, I do not bother to check whether 10.4 or 8.7 GByte/sec - there is something fundamentally wrong.

I could go on but please do answer 1 very important question then suggest that you perhaps take the ill informed fake green tanty somewhere else...that party used to stand for something worthwhile, now they just rant and rave like the extremists they have become:

A keystone of the current budget was to levy high income earners 2% for a fixed period to help rein in debt:

Why are the Greens so divided on this given past statements?

I asked this myself, I do not have a clear answer yet (I contacted Adam Bandt over this) but I can tell you what I think.

Why and how has "Kristine the Milliner" won an internal "Pseudo Green Party" policy debate on the issue? Could it be just plain hubris, personal hatred and poltix?

Well, I can see how passionate you are about the Greens. You seem to love them a lot;-) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/budget-long-on-losers-short... "High income earners are hit too, with a two per cent deficit levy that will cost someone on $200,000 a year an extra $400 a year - but only for three years." That sounds like an cornerstone of the budget.. I am impressed. The question is whether you let this fig leaf pass or show it as it is: a fig leaf to hide that it is a budget to ensure that the rich get richer and the poor poorer.. This levy is, as the biology research fund, a last minute stunt to justify what the Coalition is doing. There is no seriousness in this. Just look at the last months of decision making. My family at the kitchen table has more logical discussions than that. All was "utterly nonsense" one day and next day in the budget, this levy started at $80 000 one day and $180 000 two later, there was "no $70 billion black hole" in their promises and on the sudden we had a budget emergency, we cannot afford NBN and then we have $20 billion for medical research, we have problems with Medicare and than on the sudden we do not pay for Medicare, we pay for research, there are no cuts to education and than education is not Federal so the States have to run it, on the sudden we have schools again and have $250 million dollars for school chaplans financed by the Commonwealth.. Sounded very much like the adults are back in government.. They know what they are doing - they just have to create a smokescreen big enough to ensure that enough people vote for them - despite stealing the money from our pockets. But this fire may to big, hopefully, even for Murdoch's Own Country. By accident I saw "Two men in China" after the budget night. There were ex-pats mourning the ignorance shown recently to invest in our relationship which China, even when Australians were first when China opened. There were reports of Chinese praising the Australians engineering efficient wind farms etc. There were 2 men asking: what else can Australia trade with China besides of the obvious: our soil? Can you imagine what the current government will do in this regard? The axing of support for solar energy and wind farms? The cut for the Australia Network run by the ABC? The truth is: there is no interest in investing in anything here. Just cut and give Gina her $2 slave labour. Forget the medical research. It's there to introduce you to the end of free health care in Australia. Unis for research? First, they are good for selling degrees for the ones that can pay. And create private unis. Because the money should always go to the rich. It's just wasted on the poor. Just ask your Minister for Science. Oops, we do not have one.. Regards Peter