As the saying goes perceptions are everything, and while we’re out shopping, drinking and lazing around, a couple of released polls alluded to the problem confronting the NSW Liberal Party – Unsurprisingly it’s Peter Debnam.
December 27th in The Australian.
Months of scandal and ministerial resignations, culminating in drugs and under-age sex charges against Aboriginal services minister Milton Orkopoulos, have not been enough to cut deeply into the Iemma Government’s popularity. Nor has the poor comparative economic performance of NSW against the other states, the Bob Carr legacy of neglected state infrastructure and rundown government services, or the argument that state Labor is fatigued after 11 years in office. According to Newspoll, Labor leads the Coalition by 53 per cent to 47 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis. On primary voting intentions, Labor leads the Coalition by 39 per cent to 37 per cent, compared with 41 per cent to 37 per cent two months ago. While Mr Iemma’s disapproval rating has risen five percentage points, he still outranks Mr Debnam as preferred premier 45 per cent to 23 per cent.
Continue reading ‘New South Wales notes: Debnam poll axed’
Unfortunately this will be my last post here. Feminism is over, and I have nothing else to write about. I had mistakenly thought that feminism was about autonomy, choice and equality in all areas of life, but now I know that it was only about having a career to keep the hivemind sisterhood happy.
Now I have permission to quit my job and have babies before it’s too late.
Hooray.
Well it is that time of year again – a time when we traditionally write down a list of resolutions that are designed to make us better people in the new year or, at least, make the year itself better than the one we just lived.
I have always liked the process of writing new year’s resolutions. I see it as an act of hope – an optimistic commitment to the idea of that I remain in control of my life and that the coming of a new year gives me the chance to not only reflect on what kind of life I want to live, but to also do something about it.
However, sometimes these resolutions can seem to hang over you in judgment and become a list of things that you have failed to do; a symbol of your failure to live up to your ideal self. In order to avoid this depressing side-effect, my resolutions last year were simply a list of ten things that I wanted to do with my year – things that would make it more fun and more worthwhile. I think it included practicing more yoga, learning to swing dance, volunteering somewhere worthwhile, and getting more involved in Australian politics. The results have been mixed. I have at least attempted most of the things on my list, but some of them (like swing dancing) did fall by the wayside rather quickly.
This year I am not sure what to do. I am slowly embracing the idea that I will have very little control over my life in the coming year as a new little person enters our world and interrupts everything. This, of course, seems to run counter to the very purpose of new year’s resolutions, which are all about claiming control. So I probably shouldn’t be making any resolutions this year. But the thing is; I am quite attached to the process. So maybe this year I will simply make them all hopes, as in: I hope to get some sleep, I hope to find time to blog, I hope to at least live in nice pyjamas…
How about you? What do you think about new year’s resolutions and, if you are making them this year, why don’t you share some of them with us?
The Guardian has an article about international reaction to the execution of Saddam Hussein. It opens with a predictable remark from GWB about this being a “milestone” on the course to democracy. Then an equivocating comment from the British Foreign Secretary, having a bet each way on the subject of capital punishment. A stronger position is taken by the Vatican, warning that the execution could feed the “spirit of vengeance” and lead to even more violence.
Finally, the Australian prime minister (I can’t bring myself to use the word “our” about him) has his say. He believes that “there is something quite heroic about a country that is going through the pain and the suffering that Iraq is going through, yet still extends due process to somebody who was a tyrant and brutal suppressor and murderer of his people.
That is the mark of a country that is trying against fearful odds to embrace democracy.”
He believes that capital punishment as a direct result of what he calls “due process” is quite “heroic”? He believes that a process which leads to an execution is “the mark” of a country embracing democracy?
Howard is the elected prime minister of a country – a democracy – which has rejected capital punishment. Yet unlike the British, he doesn’t even have the principles to state a mild mannered objection to capital punishment on the international stage. Howard clearly never thinks he needs to represent Australian opinion as represented in the laws of this country. He only represents his own reactionary political opinions and those of his party and narrow sectional interests. It infuriates me that he makes statements like this as though he speaks for Australia as a whole. How dare he?
It’s being reported that Saddam has been hanged.
He was an evil man and a vile dictator and won’t be missed.
But I’m inclined to agree with Geoffrey Robertson that the biggest problem with the execution is that he never stood trial on the genocide charges which were laid against him. As Robertson argues, this is both contrary to international law, and sets an appalling precedent for the future. For justice to be done, and to be seen to be done, all the matters adduced against Saddam should have been aired in court, and he should have been convicted of genocide against the Kurds, if there was sufficient evidence (and no doubt there was). As it stands, he’s been executed on the first charges brought against him – relating to a massacre of Shi’a villagers in 1982. A greater contribution to stability in Iraq could surely have been made had his oppression of all ethnic and religious elements been proved in court, and had the process been transparently just.
[For some reason I can't find the transcript of the interview with Robertson I saw the other night on the 7.30 Report site.]
Update: Wikipedia links to a number of assessments of the of the trial. Human Rights Watch [link to pdf] comprehensively examines the adequacy of the legal process in Saddam’s trial.
Clearly, John Howard wanted saturation coverage of the release of the final version of the review into the nuclear industry, by releasing it in the middle of the silly season.
The final report hasn’t changed much from the earlier draft. Nuclear energy is safe compared to other energy sources by any sensible measure, and its environmental impact is small; CO2 emissions are a tiny fraction of fossil fuels, water usage is quite manageable because the plants can use seawater cooling or use dry cooling towers at a relatively low additional cost. Nuclear energy requires a carbon charge to be competitive with coal and gas, but the charge is surprisingly small. An enrichment industry is still highly unlikely in the near future; Australia has no competitive advantage over existing suppliers. The main difference is a sequence of appendices with some interesting general background information.
From a policy viewpoint, I happen to think this document has got things mostly correct. There is, in my view, no good reason to oppose on safety, environmental, or proliferation grounds the establishment of a nuclear industry in Australia if it happens to be the cheapest way to provide emission-free baseload power. And, furthermore, there’s a pretty good chance that it will be just that.
In political terms, I still can’t see this as anything other than a loser for the government. There’s not much that unites the CFMEU and the Australian Greens, but domestic nuclear power certainly does. The scare campaign going into the 2007 election campaign pretty much writes itself. Johnny, however, seems to have publicly nailed his colours to the wall as a vocal advocate for nuclear power in Australia. Anybody got a sensible theory as to he’s still seemingly so committed to the issue, when it’s wedging his own colleagues far worse than it is Labor?
Clive Hamilton is a very depressing man.
Already congestion, with all its frustrations and rage, is approaching the intolerable. Sydneysiders spend more time stuck in traffic than any other Australians. The growing volume of cars on the roads is undoing decades of legislation designed to clean up the air. In the 1980s smog levels fell after laws were introduced to improve car engines and fuels.
Now the gains have been overtaken by the sheer number of cars, especially in Sydney. The recent State of the Environment Report notes that ozone concentrations have been falling in all capital cities except Sydney, where they are getting worse.
The Iemma Government’s plan to funnel more and more people into established suburbs will inevitably destroy what makes those suburbs pleasant places to live.
Of course this is just one depressing note in whole bunch of depression regarding urbanisation and population.
The issue of congestion has more to do with motoring culture and the failure of adequate transport policies in Sydney. Convenient public transport comprising a range of options from public to private, buses to light and heavy rail and my favourite, a genuine busting up of the taxi cartel (something Macquarie Bank is attempting to do). Add to that a proper road pricing scheme and we could easily move an additional million people. I could go on too about Hamilton’s implied Australia First immigration plan, and the covering up of his fortress Australia mentality with a sop to refugees but that would be churlish of me.
The entire Hamilton view of Sydney and Australia is one based on fear, loathing and a certain helplessness, we can do nothing, woe is me.
Continue reading ‘And a happy new year to you too Clive’
An open thread where, at your long weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Happy New Year and all the best for 2007 to all LP readers!
We love youse all.
xx
Cross-posted from Andrew’s blog.
Unfortunately, Christmas has done nothing to improve the shambles surrounding the way our justice system has dealt with the death in custody in Palm Island. This situation is about justice being seen to be done and people feeling they are getting a fair go, but the application of one short-term fix piled on top of another has now created such a mess that I doubt it will appear satisfactory no matter what the outcome.
The last few days have seen a few more questions and problems added to the list. The decision by retired judge, Pat Shanahan, to resign from the review of the Director of Public Prosecution’s decision has added to the mess (or rather, the decision to appoint him rather than go for someone from interstate, added to the mess). Given how highly political this case has become, it would be unsatisfactory (and highly unwise) to go with a Queenslander, no matter how much the Premier wants to play the parochial card with by asking “what’s wrong with Queenslanders?�.
Continue reading ‘Guest Post by Andrew Bartlett: Palm Island just gets messier’
I’ve been out having a few cocktails with a friend and have come back to find the grand total of 1699 spam comments in the spaminator. So evidently it’s peak season for spammers. Please, if your comment doesn’t appear, follow the oft-repeated advice and email us. The Lord only knows how long it would take to look at 1699 spam comments to see if there are any genuine ones hidden away in there, but I don’t intend to put it to the test this Friday night.
I condemn the people at The Oz who have decided to make their own pop-up ads, advertising the fact that you’ve clicked on a new section (in case you weren’t aware).
I also condemn the fact that it chooses to keep reminding you of this fact, even if it’s open in another tab or window from the one you’re currently using.
Perhaps our very own Christopher Pearson can have some words with the IT Department. (Oh my God, it just did it again!)
Condemn away, people…
Continue reading ‘I won’t add my condemn to your condemn V (pop-up version)’
With the 4th test annihilation of England complete, allow me to introduce the first in a weekly-ish summer series of punditry on technology, science and politics.
Continue reading ‘A break from in Cricket’
This post is a bit of a history of my holiday reading – which has all been what Norman Davies describes as big books of history, and all by historians who are conservative in one way or another – Davies himself, originally a Polish specialist, and no lover of Marxist historiography, Niall Ferguson, whose suggestion to the Americans was that they should try to do Empire properly, and the crusty Catholic Michael Burleigh, whose writing has a lot in common with Benedict(XVI)ine writers like George Weigel. All have fascinated me, and taught me something new about European history, though Burleigh annoyed me a lot too.
Continue reading ‘Historicising the rectification of names’
An interesting piece in Spiked Online talks about the new “values” that we are teaching our children:
Here, the authorities are trying to attach meaning to children’s everyday mundane activities; government targets are being pursued through activities such as children walking to school or running down to the park, or even just fidgeting.
Video games are okay, apparently, so long as they involve activity. Groby Community College in Leicestershire introduced the game Dance Dance Revolution to encourage reluctant girls to exercise. The Nintendo game Wii received cheers from some quarters because it increased kids’ activity levels. Meanwhile, McDonald’s is considering replacing play areas in some of its US restaurants with kiddie gyms, to help them burn off the calories.
Continue reading ‘…healthier and more productive…’
We noticed here at LP that the Xmas Wars were pretty tame this year. But, don’t worry, according to the LA Times, they’ll be back!
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