Take note owners of Loy Yang, Munmorah et al. Greenpeace activists admitted causing £30,000 damage to the chimney of coal fired plant in protest at plans to construct another one but were acquitted by a jury on the grounds that “they were legally justified because they were trying to prevent climate change causing greater damage to property around the world“. The decision has reverberated around the world, particularly down here. Continue reading ‘Climate Change and Electoral Politics - Local Edition …?’
The only question is why it took Morris Iemma so long to see what everyone else could see plainly. Apparently Paul Keating had a hand in the decision.
Update: Trevor Cook:
Costa is a loud-mouth political bully who screams and screeches like a two-year old when he doesn’t get his way. He held several portfolios without distinction. He is basically a blow-hard and ineffective politician who has spent his miserable career doing damage to the union movement, the NSW Government and the people of this state.
Update: Via Amanda in comments, there’s speculation that Iemma will be toppled too when caucus meets.
Update [dk.au]: Iemma resigns. Daily Telegraph
So, Barry O’Farrell and the Coalition rained on Morris Iemma’s privatisation parade. Now, the Dilemmster announces that he can still privatise the retailers and generation sites without parliamentary approval.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Iemma’s original argument some high sounding blather about the sovereignty of the people’s representatives in Parliament assembled and governing in the people’s interest not those of the unions and the party machine? Internal ALP democracy was supposed to give way to parliamentary democracy.
Pathetic. Contempt for his own party, the people of New South Wales and democratic institutions.
Hat tip: Chookie in comments.
Poor old Morris. He can’t take a trick. After cunningly switching the introduction of the electricity privatisation bills to the Upper House (to avoid the chance of a symbolic defeat in the House that actually determines government and presumably to unleash the persuasive charm of Michael Costa), now he’s finding to his surprise that his troops in the Liberal Party won’t do his bidding. Wtf? But it’s the logic of NSW state politics at the moment. Confused columnists at The Australian are also decrying the Liberals for doing something which is a political no brainer - going with public opinion rather than propping up Iemma. The “business community” might be unhappy, but on that see this post from Andrew Elder, who I think reads the politics somewhat better than Tim Dunlop does. Dunlop seems to have partially swallowed the “test of O’Farrell’s mettle” theme. I think it’s perfectly sensible, and indeed appropriate, for an opposition to oppose highly unpopular legislation which is misconceived anyway.
Update: A new post on Iemma’s latest move - dispensing with parliamentary democracy altogether.
I note that Brian Costar has been thinking along similar lines to me and Andrew Bartlett on the subject of the formation of the Liberal National Party. He’s put his finger on the key challenge for the Borg and his crew, who haven’t had any amalgamation bounce if today’s Galaxy Poll is to be believed:
The new party is almost certainly to be more conservative than the pre-existing Liberal party – especially on social issues – and this might not prove attractive to the urban middle classes, who are certainly more numerous in Queensland than when Bjelke-Petersen mis-governed the state. Unless the party can harvest Brisbane seats from Labor it will not win government.
Continue reading ‘Queenslandism II’
Elliott Bledsoe reminds us not to take men wearing robes all that seriously. Make sure you look at this photo very carefully indeed.
Note: If you don’t like what you see - tough - it’s now legal to be annoyed.
Continue reading ‘World Youth Day: The dark side of the force?’
Published in Authoritarianism,
Ethics,
Feminism,
History,
Lesbian and Gay,
Media,
NSW Government,
Politics,
Religion,
Sexuality,
Sydney and
Urbanism .
It’s no secret that “the sectarian strand” is one of the less attractive aspects of Australian history, and interestingly, probably not one featured highly either in the so-called “black armband” or triumphalist narratives so beloved of our home grown Antipodean culture warriors. That may be because the deep cleavages - overlapping but not identical to class and ethnicity - around Catholicism and Protestantism needed to be elided and to be buried in order to construct the “Anglo-Celtic” identity which came into its own at the same time that the state aid controversy was settled into its grave and multiculturalism launched on its career. And not coincidentally. “Anglos” and “Celts” were on different sides of the political and cultural coin in the Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit for most of its whitefella history. In a way, Gough Whitlam is probably the progenitor of the “mainstream” Anglo-Celtic Australian. But sectarianism typically rears its head as a defensive accusation whenever the Catholic Church is particularly prominent in public debate, and whenever criticism is directed at the Church’s institutional power.
In the context of World Youth Day in Sydney this week, this accusation has been levelled both with regard to criticism of the extraordinary powers granted to police by Greg Craven and with regard to the ABC’s highlighting of Cardinal George Pell’s ethically very questionable handling of clergy sexual abuse complaints by Andrew Bolt. More broadly, the media sponsors of World Youth Day at News Limited have worked themselves into a lather of holy righteousness, denouncing “aggressive secularism” and lauding all the Popey goodness they’re sponsoring - without disclosing that sponsorship in their journalistic or opinion pieces.
It may well be that a residue of sectarian anti-Catholicism might be in play on the margins of all this, but one of the big ironies is that while Tony Abbott and others speculated that Pope Benedict’s message might not be communicated effectively, the Pope himself has seemingly become a football to be kicked around by the usual suspects in distinctly Australian culture wars which often have only a tenuous connection with his concerns. But are there not genuine issues - of public interest - that can and should be raised at a time when Catholicism is top of the pops in the media stakes?
Continue reading ‘Is criticism of World Youth Day automatically Catholic bashing?’
Irfan Yusuf has the money quote on all the World Youth Day imbroglios, writing in today’s New Matilda:
I guess it really boils down to values. Cardinal Pell once accused Muslims of having difficulty separating Church from State. Unless he openly distances himself from (and not just denies involvement in) increased police powers designed to protect pilgrims from annoyance, his own secular credentials might look compromised.
On Lateline last night, in the context of new revelations about the crimes of Father Terrence Goodall, and George Pell’s casuistry in dealing with clergy abuse victim Anthony Jones, and his avoidance of any admission of culpability and therefore responsibility for the consequences of his actions, host Tony Jones interviewed prominent Catholic journalist and author Robert Blair Kaiser.
And I think that model can be applied to modern times and we can be a much more responsible, accountable church in a local situation where the bishop is not appointed by the Pope but elected by the people.
In referring to the democratising forces unleashed by Vatican II, Kaiser was suggesting that the root cause - not just of clergy abuse but also of cover-ups and grossly inadequate responses to its “horror” - is a deeply authoritarian tradition and its accompanying mindset and culture. George Pell is one of the leading lights of the Catholic “restorationists” who want to put all the genies of Vatican II back in the bottle, and return to a “Father Knows Best” model which has given us Catholics a Church marred and contaminated by misogyny and authoritarianism. Pell’s attitude to political power (which has been on show with World Youth Day) and his treatment of those whom some priests and brothers have monstered is cut from the same cloth - a desire to protect the institution and its power above all else. Continue reading ‘Annoyed! III’
What the hell is with the New South Wales government? Down here in Victoria, our state government is at least trying to grapple with serious issues like how we’re going to move ourselves around our rapidly growing state capital. Meanwhile, in New South Wales, the government seems to be far too busy fighting itself and the NSW union movement to do anything much. Not to mention backbenchers publicly slagging off the entire front bench.
About the only policy output coming out of them right now seems to be Treasurer Michael Costa running his mouth off at the Garnaut Review in The Oz. As typing is not activism points out, it’s moronic.
Is there any prospect whatsoever of the NSW Labor Party getting itself sorted out and concentrating on dealing with that state’s considerable economic and social problems at some point between now and the next election?
Published in Activism,
Authoritarianism,
Crime,
Ethics,
International,
Law,
Lesbian and Gay,
NSW Government,
Politics,
Religion,
Sexuality,
Sydney and
Urbanism .
To be fair to Morris Iemma and his bunch of clowns masquerading as a government, New South Wales isn’t alone in imposing risible and over the top security regulations for major “public events”. We’ve seen similar things in finance talkfests with Melbourne and CHOGM in Queensland saw Peter Beattie invent preventive detention for “known public nuisances”, as well as going to ludicrous lengths to prevent protest. But Iemma’s mob seem to have made it an art form, perhaps because as I’ve speculated before, their sense of authoritarianism compensates for their total ineffectuality in governing just about anything else than public events. (Compare - “public services”.) But the latest bunch of regulations for the Pope Fest really take the cake. It’s more or less private governance. Where’s the public benefit in preventing pilgrims attending World Youth Day in Sydney this month from being annoyed? Will their world really come to an end if someone hands them a condom or wears a t-shirt with an anti-homophobia message? What possible public justification does the NSW government have for denying basic rights to freedom of expression at the instance of the fragile petals in Cardinal Pell’s hierarchy?
Continue reading ‘Annoyed!’
The New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma, has deferred a vote on electricity privatisation (which he would have lost due to Labor MPs voting to uphold party policy) in order to negotiate with the Coalition for its support. An admininstration in permanent crisis teaming up with the opposition to introduce something opposed by a large majority of voters. Not a good look.
If you’d been watching George Brandis and Pru Goward on Q&A on Thursday night or Christopher Pyne on Lateline last night, you might have formed the impression that Belinda Neal’s alleged dust up with restaurant staff was Watergate or something. High crimes and misdemeanours, corruption, abuse of power, blah blah. It was interesting that Pyne apparently felt able to deflect any parallels with Troy Buswell by saying the Liberal party had endorsed his leadership and he’d apologised (that’s ok, then) and then by claiming that he didn’t have to answer questions about something that had happened a few months ago because it had happened a few months ago and therefore wasn’t “news”. Put this together with Virginia Trioli’s claim that Iguanagate was the political “talking point” of the week (everything the government actually did in policy terms was just “symbolic” or “spin” according to Pyne), and reference to how important the story must be because it was on the front page of the Daily Terror for days, and you’ve got - what?
Add in another datum - the plan by Morris Iemma and Michael Costa to refer New South Wales’ industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth, which is being discussed in terms of revenge on the unions for their stand on electricity privatisation. Continue reading ‘Iguanagate - what’s really going on?’
Well, hasn’t it been a busy week or so for NSW Minister John Della Bosca and his wife, Federal backbencher MP Belinda Neal?
Of course, for the last few days we’ve only been hearing about her, despite Della Bosca’s documented history of multiple traffic offences leading to a revoked driving license and allegations that he was part of the alleged drunken and abusive behaviour in a Central Coast nightclub last weekend.
Last month Della Bosca’s licence was revoked for six months following a series of speeding offences, after which he reportedly swore at a newspaper photographer for taking pictures of him riding a bicycle.
Yesterday, he refused to speak to irate teachers who invaded his office to vent their fury at the Government’s decision to change the rules under which school principals hire staff. [source]
Perhaps the newspapers are a bit bored with Della Bosca’s temper, plus although people like to lampoon him he’s simply not that easy a target for anything more (such as collecting a political scalp for the editor’s wall), due to the degree of power he wields in the NSW Labor party. But his wife doesn’t have the same powerbase behind her, and besides - a woman with a filthy temper, there’s a news story with legs - cue hordes of gleefully chortling editors. Neal’s excesses have made the international newspapers now, which gives us a very pithy summary of the key points that are being latched onto for the news cycle: Continue reading ‘Power couple politics NSW style and the alleged disciplinary double standard’
What’s with the Iemma government?
DRINKING a glass of wine in your own home could be illegal under extreme new liquor laws that rubber-stamp the use of no-go alcohol zones in NSW.
All kinds of nanny state madness, I guess.
Apparently, unlike the NT intervention, it’s up to “communities” to request a no grog zone where even drinking in the home will be banned. But who are those communities? And who gets to say whether “chronic alcohol abuse” is going on? All I can see resulting from this is a push from some residents in areas such as Newcastle’s CBD with a big concentration of nightspots in one area to ban takeaway sales. Presumably respectable citizens won’t expect the booze police to knock on their door and confiscate their chardy, and all the bourgie restaurants on Darby Street will fall outside the zone. It may also of course result in all sorts of puritan dogooders forming unrepresentative action groups or whatever in their local hood. Just stupid.
Continue reading ‘No rivers of grog - now for whitefellas in NSW (if they want)’
Whatever you think about the merits of the issue (and it’s certain that Morris Iemma doesn’t have the public of New South Wales on his side with his electricity privatisation drive), the politics of Iemma’s decision to ignore a contrary vote of the Labor Party conference which was carried overwhelmingly - by 702 to 107 - are intriguing.
Iemma’s trying to position the whole thing as a fight with the unions. You’re supposed to win electoral kudos as a Labor leader by standing up to “union bosses”, or so the Tony Blair script goes. But that ignores the fact that Iemma’s at the end of his government’s tether, not a bold new opposition leader, and both he and the policy are wildly unpopular, whereas the unions’ position is in keeping with the public will. He’s also broken not just election promises but specific undertakings to the party. I don’t think the “tough guy standing up for what he thinks is right” act is going to do him any favours, not at all.
Continue reading ‘Iemma and electricity privatisation’
Recent comments
Adrien, Peterc, danny, danny, Graham Bell, Kim [...]
Snugsentise, Umm Yasmin, pablo, Roger Jones, Rebekka, Ben Eltham [...]
wilful, klaus k, joe2, David Rubie, FDB, Robert Merkel [...]
Tyro Rex, Shaun, Lefty E, Ambigulous, Ambigulous, Patrick B [...]
JohnL, Nick Caldwell, joe2, Spiros, Down and Out of Sài Gòn, Bingo Bango Boingo [...]
Adrien, Mercurius, silkworm, Adrien, Ambigulous, Adrien [...]
wizofaus, Robert Merkel, wizofaus, Robert Merkel, Chris Anderson, MsLaurie [...]
Nick Caldwell, Paul Burns, Ambigulous, Paul Norton, Lefty E, Ambigulous [...]
Fine, Kevin Rennie, Megan, paul walter, Mark, Fine [...]
Nancy, MarkL, Graham Bell, Katz, Nabakov, MarkL [...]
patrickg, Kim, OldSkeptic, Lefty E, Kim, Ambigulous [...]
Kim, Helen, Stephen Hill, Graham Bell, Paul Burns, Mark [...]