I’ve just been chatting with Zeppo Bakunin about the Stainless Steel Rat’s Weasel’s call for all Australians - even the agnostics and atheists, I assume - to get down on their knees and pray for rain “without any sense of irony or any sense of being anything other than totally serious”. Comrade Bakunin was ahead of me on this one - he actually heard Howard say it, I only picked up on it from this morning’s respectable broadsheet.
Zeppo suggested - very quickly - a list of other things we ought to be praying for: expanding export markets, an end to foreign debt and expansion of the manufacturing sector. Oh, and better performance from teachers as well - if God granted that one, we could forget the whole performance pay business. I can’t resist one-upping him there, and suggesting it might be better if we prayed for every Aussie kid to become a bright, eager, self-directed scholar and the whole issue of teacher pay would go away altogether - it wouldn’t matter what pittance teachers were paid, or what kind of monkeys you got for your peanuts, if the kids were really, really motivated to learn.
But why stop there? There are plenty of other things we could pray for - perhaps God could be persuaded to change the laws of chemistry and physics so that the whole issue of global warming will go away…
Enough from me. When you get down on your knees at bedtime tonight, what will you be asking God to do for this, his very own country?
Update: for some reason, the story has just broken again at NEWS.com.au and The Age. The silly bugger didn’t say it again, did he?
In another thread, commenter amused has written that:
The effect of not having to go out, and actually mix with the hoi polloi to do your reporting is becoming obvious, as is the effect on the quality of ‘reporting’ (if one call it that), of not having someone who actually specialises, and knows something about, the issues on which they report. It’s like having a agoraphobic write pieces on travels across the Gobi desert. It lacks the essential qualities of closeness to topic, and engagement with the experience: consequently it lacks conviction and credibility.
It appears that Labor speechwriter Dennis Glover has caught the disease of avoidable punditocratic ignorance, judging by his column in today’s Australian which largely consists of well-meaning advice to the Mining and Energy Division of the CFMEU.
Continue reading ‘Dennis Glover’s avoidable ignorance’
In light of certain special interest groups who expect our current federal government to follow the lead of the Bush administration, an important point needs to be made widely known: the new abortion decision from the US Supreme Court will not save the life of a single foetus.
What it will mean is that women who have terminal late-term complications (for themselves or their foetus) in a wanted pregnancy will be prohibited from using a procedure - intact dilation and extraction (IDX) - that protects their future ability to bear children. [more on this at Bitch PhD]
Indeed, for their future health and safety many of these women will have to terminate any future pregnancies early, because they will be unable to safely carry a pregnancy to full-term. Follow the maths: there will in fact be more abortions as a result of this ruling, not fewer.
N.B. Graphic details of uterine surgery follow:
Continue reading ‘The US Supreme Court’s ruling on Gonzales v. Carhart’
If it doesn’t rain significantly in the next two months, all irrigation in the Murray-Darling basin will cease. Press release from the Prime Minister here.
As the ABC story says, all the fruit trees, grape vines, olive trees, and whatnot being irrigated in the basin will die, reducing production (and incomes) for years to come. I hate to think what the financial and social cost of that will be.
Not to mention what it will likely do to the already-struggling redgum forests and wetlands of the Murray - not helped by farmers illegally letting their cattle loose in the wetlands.
If it does get to the stage of shutting down irrigation completely, expect the screams of the National Party for more dam building to get even louder, with proposals like Big Buffalo. Where the water to fill these dams is supposed to come from is, of course, a mystery…
On another thread, amused made a very astute point very well in a comment:
The effect of not having to go out, and actually mix with the hoi polloi to do your reporting is becoming obvious, as is the effect on the quality of ‘reporting’ (if one call it that), of not having someone who actually specialises, and knows something about, the issues on which they report. It’s like having a agoraphobic write pieces on travels across the Gobi desert. It lacks the essential qualities of closeness to topic, and engagement with the experience: consequently it lacks conviction and credibility.
It’s not just IR. It’s also foreign policy and our region, both of which are of increasing significance in our own politics and for our future. Such “expert” commentators as do get regular space in the dailies are people like Greg Sheridan, who function more as ideologues than informed observers.
It’s been observed at this blog more than once that the politics of near neighbours of Australia, such as Fiji, Timor, the Solomons and PNG, in regard to whom the Howard government has adopted an increasingly forward policy stance, are both little discussed and poorly discussed in the Australian media. Naturally, the elections in Timor, despite the fact that their ramifications continue, are now no longer “news”. So I’m happy to be able to counter these regrettable lacunae by linking to a piece in On Line Opinion by a friend of mine since Uni days, Michael Leach from Deakin, whose article is both an important piece of reportage and a significant critique of media coverage of Timor.
You can read it here.
The bizarro world refugee swap plan (whereby we swap Sri Lankan refugees who’ve arrived at Christmas Island and been shunted off to Nauru with Cuban refugees who’ve been intercepted trying to reach the States) has almost everyone perplexed. Though maybe the whole flight plan from Guantanamo Bay to Adelaide idea could work better with bulk ticket purchases? Actually, I think Kerry Nettle is on to something. Though her gender is mis-ascribed, her comments are being picked up in American news reports. This from Voice of America.
“This is about political mates helping each other out,” Nettle said. “Immigration issues in Australia and in the United States have been issues that conservative governments have sought to stand up on, and they’re now helping each other out. It’s nothing more than a political fix in the lead up to the election campaign.”
The unconvincing explanations from Kevin Andrews demonstrate that the plan makes little political sense in the Australian context. “We determine…” etc is dead as an electoral issue here, except insofar as its legacy will return to haunt Howard as public awareness of his history of deceit grows. But in America, high profile Republicans are seeking to revive illegal immigration as a stick to hit the Democrats with. But Cuban refugees also pose a political problem - many are relatives of the largely GOP voting Cuban-American population in Florida, which will be a hotly contested state in the next elections.
For the past few years, the Federal Opposition, the union movement, the Greens and folks from various other quarters have used the WorkChoices package as a flag to rally around in opposition to the Howard Government. In political terms, this purportedly “pro-flexibility� but unashamedly “pro-business� package of reforms gave credence to the possibility that the Labor Opposition could finally wrench back federal control from the Liberal / National Coalition. Put simply, the idea that WorkChoices would hurt ordinary Australian families was gaining some traction, ably assisted by some example cases (e.g. Spotlight, Cowra abbatoir workers) made highly visible by the union movement and the media.
As Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley famously pledged to rip up the WorkChoices legislation. Not withstanding the likelihood that Beazley would inflict himself with some truly grievous paper cuts on the floor of the House of Representatives, there were murmurs from some within the Labor Party that this was too strong a stance. Concerns about alienating business and/or reinstituting the infamously unsuccessful “rollback� approach to policy marketing were certainly not unfounded. New Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd’s language in relation to WorkChoices started becoming decidedly more furtive and restrained, while his star continued to soar in the polls.
We have all been waiting to hear what the Labor Party will actually advocate for the country’s industrial relations system heading into this year’s election campaign, and after yesterday’s National Press Club speech [PDF] by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd we have a pretty good idea.
It will certainly not please everyone.
Continue reading ‘Labor’s “pragmaticâ€? national industrial relations platform’
Johnathan Holmes has done another excellent 4 Corners program on energy and greenhouse issues, this time specifically on renewable energy. If you have a decent internet connection, the whole thing is viewable online, and if you’ve got a spare 45 minutes I thoroughly recommend it (and, indeed, the other programs he’s done on energy issues).
Television is not the greatest medium for discussing complex engineering and financial issues, but Holmes has given a nice survey of the potential, and the challenges, facing the sector.
For those who have been following this issue for a while, the technical highlight of the show was perhaps the discussion of solar thermal power, something that has come up a lot here before in discussions and one that deserves a post discussing the technology in more detail. Solar thermal power is the very simple idea of using mirrors to heat up something (usually a tube containing a liquid) which can then be put through a steam turbine to produce power. There were a number of bold claims from the director of Solar Heat and Power that their solar thermal power system will produce power at a cost competitive with coal-fired power very soon, and supports large-scale heat storage so the system can continue to produce power for 24 hours without direct sunlight (solar thermal needs direct sunlight to trap heat - if it’s behind clouds it simply doesn’t work as the diffuse light cannot be focussed on the collector).
Continue reading ‘Renewables - a visual primer’
The deadliest single shooting incident in US history has taken place. Wikipedia has a timeline of events. Pajamas have a rundown of coverage and commentary here.
Trauma on this scale, amplified by phonecam images from the scene and blog/Livejournal entries from students immediately affected, demands mourning and understanding followed by interpretation. I believe it’s too soon to start the tele/technical determinist blame flame games (eg. blaming guns themselves, or teh medias). However, the uncovering of any verifiable causes as we understand them in the naive scientific sense will always be partial, constructed and incomplete - a phenomenon compounded in this case by news of the suicide of the gunman.
The Newspoll in this morning’s Australian shows the Greens polling 6 per cent of the primary vote, down from 7.2 per cent in the 2004 election.
Newspolls this year have consistently had the Greens vote fluctuating around the 5 per cent mark, and this has resulted in commentary in the Oz and some other Murdoch papers about a supposed decline in Greens support.
Allow me to present some evidence in support of an alternative hypothesis: that Newspoll, for whatever reason, is underestimating the Greens vote.
Continue reading ‘Newspoll and the Greens’
Next time Cossie starts ranting about “robbing the future”, go back and have a read of Tony Harris’ Fin Review column posted at Troppo.
The first thing to say about the future fund is that it is unnecessary. Before it was established last year, commonwealth unfunded superannuation liabilities were $95 billion. These are to be met over forty years. For 2005-06, they required less than $2.5 billion: one per cent of the commonwealth government’s cash expenses. This was entirely within the budget’s capacity.
And don’t forget that what the government is actually doing with our taxes, instead of investing in infrastructure like fast broadband, is creating a big stock market play pool for Cossie’s mates (and a stack of commissions and fees for the big end of town, as is par for the course with the Howard government’s economic irrationality).
Continue reading ‘File this one away for future reference’
An intriguing email landed in my inbox on Friday.
In two weeks’ time, the Australian Labor Party will meet for their National Conference, where they will thrash out their policies for the 2007 federal election.
We have seven days to make sure the ALP know how much we are counting on them to make fair and democratic IR policy their top priority. Use our website to email Labor Leader Kevin Rudd, Deputy Julia Gillard, and the Labor team now!
Together, unions and Rights at Work supporters have over the past 18 months decided on some guiding principles for fair workplace laws. These include: no AWAs, collective bargaining if the majority of workers want it, protection from unfair treatment and dismissal, a decent safety net, and the right for all workers to be represented by a union if they choose.
Email Mr Rudd and his team and ensure this important agenda for fair and democratic workplaces is at the top of their plans. Australia and Australians have plenty of big issues - IR needs to be number one.
Should you wish to, and I have, you can send an email via the ACTU’s campaign page.
But what’s the broader political significance of this campaign?
Continue reading ‘Union bosses omnipotent, etc?’
Rebecca Traister [profiled here] is my favourite writer on tv. How spot on is this?
I have never understood people who yammer on about wanting “closure”; they can’t wait to have the mysteries of their relationships explained, their strings tied neatly into bows. To me, not knowing is the pulp of life — the thing that keeps us getting out of bed, keeps us moving forward toward the conclusion. Getting there — reaching the end, finis, kaput — in life or in fantasy: to me, that is the deepest affront; it is an end to imagination, a limit on possibility; it is final. It is death.
Continue reading ‘Gratuitous Sopranos thread’
LP was promoting Canadian indie music long before the NY Times discovered the fabulous Feist.
Indie to commercial success narrative aside, who has better dance routines in videos than the fantabulous Ms F?
Continue reading ‘Feisty!’
In his electoral analysis piece published at On Line Opinion, Mark wrote earlier this month:
But at the same time every move in this year’s political game is compared against the Latham-Howard contest of 2004.
The latest “character issue” to “emerge” (or rather to be stoked by inaccurate and hysterical hyperbole from the government) is the Sunrise saga. And what a tedious one it is too. OMG! Politician engages in media management! But what about his judgement, cry the government?
One pundit or other (I forget which one and I find the whole issue too boring to go hunting again for the link) claimed that this was a revelation akin to Mark Latham’s alleged bucks party video.
Whatevs.
The two reasons Sunrise-gate seem to excite the media are:
(1) It’s about the media and the media love writing about the media;
(2) It fits the dumb-assed script.
I’m sure that voters out there in punter (as opposed to pundit) land will yawn, if they were paying attention in the first place. And invoking the “sacred” nature of Anzac Day begs the question of whether any other politician (or, Goddess forbid, media empire) had ever tried to cynically use its symbolism to score a point or win a ratings point. This is exactly the sort of inwardly focused and tedious insider story that turns people off political reporting. One of the only salient observations after Burke/shares/Santoro/standards gate was that perhaps people wanted to hear about policies and directions for the future, not all this hyped hysteria. But that was, like, so a few weeks ago.
Update: Via blacklight in comments, the latest Newspoll headline numbers are out:
tpp: labor 59 coalition 41 (alp up 2)
preferred PM. Rudd 48 (steady) Howard 36 (down 2)
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