Perhaps she could take the dreadfully weak journo from ABC Stateline WA with her? Worst interviewing technique ever. No probing questions and no insightful background material.

Just offering up opportunities for corporate info-mercials. That’s NOT journalism, that’s advertising.

Indeed. Like the South Australian State Government and it’s ‘mining boom’. Which if it existed, I would say was being artificially inflated by the allocation of millions of state money in mining exploration grants. Following the logic of some in this thread, if anyone dies in a mining accident it will be the fault of the Minister that signed off on those grants. Nutty.

If the idea were to take hold that industry safety was no longer the responsibility of the employer and instead should result in a ministerial sacking (a favoured outcome for some)every time someone died, to misquote an old dead dude, who would stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

As for Garrett, I still don’t see how he is culpable. Maybe naive but culpable in overseeing OH&S issues – I don’t think so. I did hear on the radio Rudd announce Garrett at a community cabinet meeting and Garrett got a strong round of applause. Also I think its not coincidental that the government polling has recovered to trend this week.

However if it the issue continues into next week politically Rudd may need a circuit breaker. And won’t that puff up the Murdoch press and their undercover operative Fran Kelly once they get their ‘scalp’. You can just imagine the crowing from on high and what the ‘narrative’ will be until the election.

So hopefully Rudd will tough out the issue, Hunt will flop about ineffectually in parliament for a couple of days not landing any blows (he’s got got one or glancing gloves on Garrett at best this far!) and then Monsignor Abbott or Barnaby Bucket will open their mouths and insert foot royally, we’ll be back to the real issue affecting the nation – the Lyndon LaRouche led climate, industrial, and economic polices of the Tories.

But, he is so fucked.

I am starting to feel a little sorry for him.

With a whole raft of STATE and TERRITORY Departments whose job it was to police this – why are you directing your ire at PG?

My “ire” isn’t directed at Peter Garrett – it’s directed at the participants in this thread who have argued in his defence that the poor administration of the scheme and the workplace deaths that resulted from that poor administration are inconsequential compared with the greater goals of the scheme. My “ire” is directed at those who refuse to beleive that their golden-doemd one was the victim of unforseeable circumstances, when it’s quite clear that those circumstances were foreseen. My “ire” is directed at those who have decided, on the basis of tribal loyalty, that Garrett must be defended because his attackers are our political opponents, and no way we’re giving ground to them. Even if we have to rearrange our principles to mount the defence.

None of that means that I’ll be voting Liberal at the next election – but when I vote for the ALP it will be purely out of self-interest, not because I believe that they do governance better than the Libs. That idea is plainly old hat.

“If accepting bad public administration, shonky business practices and avoidable workplace injuries and deaths is obligatory for members of the left, then I’ll happily renounce any claim to be a leftist.”

With a whole raft of STATE and TERRITORY Departments whose job it was to police this – why are you directing your ire at PG?

I can accept anger and frustration at the Departments who did not do their job. (And telling PG he should be doing their job is NOT doing their job).

Like I said, PG is being held to impossible standards.

We could hold a meta-discussion about why PG is expected to do something impossible I guess.

I know, the Feds partly fund hospitals – ergo the Fed Minister for Health was responsible for Dr Death in Qld….and the loss of those paper clips.

What are you doing back? I thought you’d “thoroughly refuted” any view which didn’t conform with the one you hold.

Chris @ 292 I missed the evidence of this. Can you remind me when this happened?