Midnight Oil bassist Peter Gifford pouring Oil on troubled Labor
ASK old Midnight Oil bassist Peter Gifford what he thinks of his old rocker mate Peter Garrett's Labor government, and you will get a very colourful answer.
The federal government might be on a crusade against global warming but Gifford has a vested interest in higher temperatures.
He runs a bikini business in ritzy Byron Bay.
And he reckons the Byron Shire Council is forcing him to pollute the planet by living in a petrol-guzzling bus because of exorbitant charges it imposed on a planned bachelor pad inside his factory.
"Now I roar around in my fully tax-deductible mobile office/apartment giving off some serious carbon which will no doubt create better bikini weather in our republic and elsewhere," Gifford said.
As managing director of Wicked Weasel, he wrote to Daily Telegraph columnist and blogger Tim Blair that he bought the giant bus "in response to excessive council compliance charges proposed for a modest bachelor humpy inside my already paid-through-the-nose-for factory in the People's Glorious Republic of Byron Bay".
"I recently purchased a classic Eagle Model 10 coach fitted out as a motorhome," Gifford said.
"Made in Texas and delivered to Greyhound in 1983, she sports a Detroit 2 stroke 6V92T 350 HP motor with Allison four-speed auto."
As a micro-clothing magnate employing 45 to 50 staff, Gifford has an obvious vested interest in higher temperatures, despite Gillard government efforts to cool the planet.
Aiming to create a more bikini-appropriate environment, the ex-Midnight Oiler recently completed a 2000km voyage in NSW and the ACT.
Total diesel consumption: "A Gaia-guzzling 700 litres."
Now a full restoration of the iconic vehicle is under way, aiming to return the great highway stomper to original specifications.
"It's an absolute treat to drive," Gifford said.
But it's not so much the climate change crusade that bothers him about the Labor government of Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett.
It seems Gifford has serious views about Labor's economic policies and their failure to help business and industry.
"The Gillard government must be removed. The country cannot take another term being run by these fools," he said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...n-troubled-labor/story-e6freuzi-1226216678654
