Ross Garnaut, heading the emissions trading review that Rudd pre-emptively commissioned before the election, has caused quite the fuss with comments on short-term emissions targets. According to news reports, he’s not particularly fussed about short-term emissions reductions: The Age reports:
More than six months before the report is due, Prof Garnaut said it was more important to achieve a long-term greenhouse gas reduction target – for example over 40 years – than to meet short-term targets in particular years.
The market should decide how quickly to cut emissions, he said.
“By focusing on a particular date you may diminish the environmental impact of what you’re trying to do and you may increase the economic costs of it,” he told ABC Radio.
The question seems to come out of the second discussion paper that Garnaut has released in the course of his inquiries, relating to the financial risks associated with climate change and how they might best be tackled. The issue of short-term targets is a complex one, at the intersection of technology, economics, and politics, and Garnaut has a point. But it’s probably not one that should be taken to its logical extreme, and the evidence so far suggests that Garnaut isn’t going to recommend anything so simple as “the market” exclusively deciding to cut emissions. Continue reading ‘Garnaut’s banking and borrowing causes a fuss’
I’ll be having a look in my New Matilda column this week at the Libs’ dilemmas on how to respond to Julia Gillard’s legislation abolishing WorkChoices, the first tranche of which will be introduced when Parliament convenes in a fortnight’s time. Intriguingly, there’s another option open to the Libs other than trying to preserve AWAs and the abolition of unfair dismissal laws, the direction the leadership looks like taking – what might be described as the crazybrave path. The Australian today has published a leaked consultant’s report to the party which argues, incredibly cynically, that the Tories should cosy up to the unions and try to wreck the economy by promoting a wages breakout. If this is the quality of the strategic advice Nelson is receiving, Liberal supporters should be throwing their hands up in despair.
Elsewhere: More from Tim Dunlop.
Update: Possum has his say:
The documents provide a veritable shooting gallery of political naivety, and there is such a large quantity of nonsense contained in the “adviceâ€? that it’s hard to know just where to begin, let alone to stop when it comes to pointing out its plentiful inanities – it’s no wonder that some Libs leaked it to the media. It’s certainly an effective way to kill off any potential outbreak of derangement that might occur in the Liberal party should some parts of it, in their desperation, start taking this horsesh*t seriously.
The best piece of advice D’Cruz could have given the Liberal Party is to stop listening to their ever tightening incestuous circle of apparatchiks when it comes to advice in the first place – but that’s another story.
Further update: More from me on this issue here.
Cross-posted at PollieGraph.
Edwards is out. So is Guiliani, who’s endorsing McCain. George Bush gave what is probably his last State of the Union address, and nobody cares. Seriously, it’s hard to find any interest at all in the US plogosphere…
Meanwhile, in the background, the situation in Congress is fascinating. According to Kos of the (in)famous Daily Kos, there seems to be an oddly large number of House Republicans who aren’t intending to run again in 2008:
Continue reading ‘US politics quickie’
Our good friend Possum Comitatus spent most of last year happily rampaging among the detritus of received political wisdom cutting myths down to size armed only with a rapier sharp mind and a handful of regression equations. Now, Possum has turned his statistical armoury onto the assumption that a Lib/Nats amalgamation makes sense because the Nats are letting the side down, and found that… the Libs have been letting the side down.
The logical conclusion all the various reviews should draw to ensure a Tory renaissance?
Springborg for PM!
While the merits of bringing the externalities of our more ancient sins into an economic frame are up for debate, the marketability of voluntarily offsetting certain modern excesses is becoming increasingly clear. Enter GM Holden, importers of Saab. Last year’s ‘Grrrrreen’ campaign which ran in newspapers, magazines and billboards comprised of statements like ‘Every Saab is green, Carbon emissions neutral across the entire Saab range’. And it has now attracted the ire of the ACCC, to the surprise of Holden – if the first comment at this prdisasters.com post is any indication.
Now I’m no lawyer (just a lowly social science postgrad) but from where I sit the ACCC’s claim – not to mention the scope of its issues paper – is quite profound in its implications. Continue reading ‘Firing up the Trrrrrraade Practices Act … could get interesting’
The question is:
The lyrics of which iconic Canadian folk song refer to a 19th century Australian colonial governor?
The first correct answer will cause a link to the song to be posted.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has called for limitations on the criticism of Federal Police and government security agencies.
This guy is beyond a joke. Obviously smarting from the Haneef affair, and I hope justly concerned about how the judicial enquiry will judge his performance and that of the AFP. But seriously, what a petulant and absurd statement.
Rejoice! Although this SMH headline is worded more politely, it harks back to a gentler, nylon-clad era, when suburban newspapers would shriek at the iniquity of Winnie Reds rising to over 75 cents a pack.
So dear readers, here is your false-dichotomy debating topic of the day:
So-called ’sin taxes’ on certain legal substances are an appropriate way of recovering the cost of preventable diseases and other social costs associated with these substances. In fact, they’re such a good idea, we should extend them to carbon, jet travel, coffee-drinking, meat, tofu, breathing and anything else that isn’t nailed down. And nails too.
-or-
‘Sin-taxes’ are an unacceptable form of nanny-state coercion and in effect a regressive tax upon low income earners who are subjected to middle-class morality everytime they pay more for the only simple pleasures they can afford, while the law-makers enjoy tax-privileged junkets and resort holidays…
Discuss.
(Name-calling will be subjected to a non-deductible swear-jar levy.)
I was pleased to see Ross Gittins get a gong in the Australia Day honours list, because I think he’s a passionate columnist and an exemplar of what we need more of – an economist who’s prepared to demystify their profession and place it within its human context. One of my other must read economists from the mainstream media is Peter Martin of the Canberra Times – not itself among my newspapers of choice but whose work I got to know from his laudable participation in the art of blogging. We do, of course, have quite a distinguished crew of blogging economists in Australia – in fact some of the prime movers of the Australian blogosphere – John Quiggin, Nicholas Gruen, Jason Soon and Andrew Leigh come to mind. But Martin is in a rather different media and institutional space as an MSM employee rather than as an academic or consulting economist.
One of the tidbits I picked up via Martin’s blog last year was Treasury Secretary Ken Henry’s keen interest in Indigenous welfare. It turns out this isn’t an isolated or personal concern, but rather fits within a conceptual framework Treasury has developed whereby public policy is evaluated in terms of its contribution to human wellbeing. It’s nice in passing to note that Treasury indicates that sociology among other disciplines has something to contribute to such an analysis. But it’s also interesting to observe that Martin saw fit to highlight this aspect of Treasury’s mission as news in his column this week.
Continue reading ‘Treasury (un?)orthodoxy’
Victoria’s tabloid media knows its target market well. Former North Melbourne football star Wayne Carey’s run-in with the law has received saturation coverage down here. According to reports, Carey initially called the police to ask them to remove a woman from his property, but when the police arrived Carey refused to let them in, and allegedly then assaulted the police officers, prompting them to use capsicum spray to subdue him.
The future of Wayne Carey’s media career is no particular interest; what’s more interesting about this incident, and other recent, heavily publicised incidents, is what it seems to reveal about police usage of capsicum spray as a weapon.
Continue reading ‘The increasingly all-purpose capsicum spray’
In today’s Australian Bill Hayden pays tribute to his late friend Patriarch P. McGormless Padraic P. McGuinness.
In the process Hayden – erstwhile globe-trotting Federal Government Minister cum Governor-General in his Vice-Regal clobber cum wealthy Lockyer Valley gentleman farmer and Quadrant editorial board chairperson – reinvents a working class identity for himself and an identity as “workingman’s friend” for McGuinness:
Continue reading ‘Bill Hayden intensifies the Crass Struggle’
Tony Abbott has changed his tune:
Supporting families shouldn’t mean favouring one family type over others. We have to resist yearning for ideal families and traditional mothers.
Every family is a source of nurturing and security for its members. All parents are striving for the best for their children. There can be no antediluvian thoughts linking child care and women neglecting their children during the working day.
In responding to this, Brendan Nelson said “marriage is between a man and a woman”.
Even with the writers’ strike, The A Daily Show still delivers the goods. Jon Stewart neatly skewers the US media trying to develop a narrative of conflict using comments by Mitt Romney and Bill Clinton on the hustings.
Continue reading ‘The media goes Don King covering the US primaries’
Maryam Hosseinkhah
In Deborah Siegel’s book about conflicts within the feminist movement – or at least within the American feminist movement – Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild, the author suggests that young feminists are largely conducting their battles on the Internet these days. Thus, blogs like feministing.com provide a forum for debates about whether “the new forms of public sexual expression…represent progress or regression”, among other issues. While discussions on feminist blogs created in democratic nations can get heated and abusive (usually due to comments being made by those who view feminism as a monolithic and totally negative force), it’s worth noting that the Iranian blogger, journalist, and women’s rights activist, Maryam Hosseinkhah, actually spent time in prison for her writings. According to Amnesty International’s website, “She was reportedly accused of “spreading lies” and “propaganda against the system” in connection with articles posted on websites she edits, but she has not yet been formally charged.” Ms Hosseinkhah was released earlier this month, however, the threat of having one’s blog filtered, or of even ending up in prison, remains a constant threat in Iran. According to an item written last year by Omid Mermarian, an Iranian journalist, blogger and women’s rights activist:
Continue reading ‘“The last refuge of communication”’
Like many other political junkies I’ve been keeping a close eye on the primaries in the US at the moment. Not surprisingly, like many others of the leftish persuasion I’ve been more than a little transfixed by the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So far the Democratic primaries have been a war of framing, code words, and message control that makes Kevin07’s campaign look terribly amateur.
Standard disclaimer: I like both of the candidates. I’m a fan of both of their skills and their policy positions. I think both of them have a more than decent shot at winning the general election, I also think that both would probably end up as pretty good presidents.
Now that’s done I can be honest and say that I really hope Obama wins.
Continue reading ‘Hope and change versus experience’
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