When I speak with mates it seems that most everybody has decided that a Rabbot government is inevitable.. Listening to Kevin Rudd the other day was heartening at least, but the government gets no traction for their unprecedented legislative program or for pulling Australia out of a certain recession/depression.
Meanwhile our media guides (even the ABC) allow the conservatives to keep going weith their constant negativity without a thought to a policy idea or a fact while the government members are not asked anything that might enlighten a viewer or listener. So will we get the government we deserve? There is still time for the truth to trump the awful lies we are being fed.
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When I started this site the aim was to write about books and to share opinions with readers and writers. With the advent of reality I have found myself writing more, and reading more, about the issue of the day, month and year; what we are doing to our planet and what the planet is doing to adjust.
The most curious response comes from those who willfully deny the reality that confronts all of us. And why? There are those, and many of them, who have just bought into the paid for denial put out by the many credible looking but not credible on close examination like the buffoon Monckton and our very own Professors Carter and Plymer neither of whom have relevant expertise. Ranged against these truly evil men are the 99% of climate scientists who are in heated agreement (pun intended) that what is obvious from all the scientific data is that the globe is warming faster than was thought by the IPCC even a few years ago and that we are now beyond tipping point and into the phase of coping strategies. In the case of the cynical political Right these are made up again of the don't get it (Joyce, Bernardi) and the short term opportunists (Abbot, Hockey). As there are now protocols following the various examples of war time atrocities in the 20th Century will we see an equivalent in the 21st Century for the crime of climate denial? Because that is what pretending that we are not on the edge of an abyss amounts to. And if you have political power or desire it then it is incumbent on you to be direct, honest and not self-serving (in the short term) to enable solutions. In the real world much is changing without governments and to a degree with governments. Residents and businesses are cutting their demand for electricity and changing the ways they do things like the lighting they employ and generally being more aware of their carbon footprints. Interestingly as the demand for electricity goes down the price goes up so what we are seeing is the paradox of less demand and more price gouging which in Australia is more fuel for the liars to blame carbon pricing as the driver for these increases. How much damage will need to be done to our lives, environment and being before some sense is brought to bear on this question? Our media must carry as big a responsibility as our nakedly ambitious and stupid politicians. Print, radio and TV push the line that there is an active debate with two sides - is climate change real? The perpetrators of this idea of "news" as entertainment should be the first in the dock or at least at the same time as the pollies. Then there are the self interested big polluters who not only don't care about the rest of us but also don't care for their own children and grandchildren. They want to own the Titanic but not travel on it. Sorry guys, not possible. Everybody is expecting an Abbot victory in September and the media have already anointed him - the old saying that a week is a long time in politics should remind us all that only in places like Fiji can be taken for given.
With the media going LibNat full time and full tilt it is up to us in the electronic media to show some balance. Elections are rarely lost in the part of the cycle we are in. Australia's economic indicators are among st the best in the world with unemployment low. The historically high dollar has hurt exports and the decline in mining revenues are factors but not ones that are credited by any of the chattering class. Meanwhile we have had one of the most productive governments in recent history with a slew of legislative and policy triumphs against a background of negativity, sleaze and possible corruption. The Slipper matter has a long way to go but has already implicated Mal Brough and it would be a massive act of will to not see Pyne and Abbott in the equation. While the government had delivered social programs like the dental and disability schemes, environmental programs like the mining resources tax and the carbon trading arrangements they have been opposed by not just a negative opposition but one that willfully spreads disinformation and mis-truths that are eagerly reported by a slavish press without comment or demurral. "Australia is going it alone" when in fact 5 billion people live in jurisdictions with carbon trading and the US would if President Obama could get it through the Republican House. What is lost in all of this is a discussion that is informed by science. Science that informs us of what is happening in the real world and not what can be spun from the offerings of vested interests or paid mouthpieces of the fossil fuel industry. Our media likes to debate the issue as if there are two sides with valid claims. News and information as entertainment not as a report on reality. The reality I find beyond the pale is one I hope will not come to pass. An Abbott government with all the destruction he promises in public let alone what he says he will do behind closed doors in promises to his wealthy mates. There is still time - a week can be a long time. David Ritvo has sent the following text from Gabrielle Gifford the US senator who survived after being shot in the head by a gunman. David is a practicing psychiatrist in San Francisco and is angry that no action is being taken to curb the free flow of guns in the US.
He is right to be and most of us in the rest of the world don't get either. A Senate in the Gun Lobby's Grip By Gabrielle Giffords SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them. On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms -- a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count. Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents -- who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them. I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we're going to hear: vague platitudes like "tough vote" and "complicated issue." I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending. Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I'm furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo -- desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation -- to go on. I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You've lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators' e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I'm asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You've disappointed me, and there will be consequences. People have told me that I'm courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours. I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job. They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby -- and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing. They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done -- trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you -- but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony. This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I've always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy's history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate -- people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list. Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities' interests ahead of the gun lobby's. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way. We all know about the pink batt scandal don't we? A government putting up a ridiculous program at massive cost to put silly PINK (OMG) batts in people's roofs. What a blatant waste of cash at the tax payer's expense and further evidence (if it were Needed) to show up the incompetence of the Labor Government. This is at least the conventional wisdom repeated over and over by the baying hounds of the right and unquestioned by a supine and grovelling Press.
The real story is very very different. As part of the stimulus package that helped Australia keep jobs, drive the economy and make an environmental difference, the government gave subsidies to households to insulate them and thus make warmer (in winter) and cooler (in summer) environments thus allowing them to use less energy for the same result. I have yet to see any figures that show the outcomes. The idea was sound and a great deal of insulation went in Some unscrupulous installers took advantage of the ready funds and used untrained personnel to do (in a very minute number of cases) a shoddy job that resulted in some fires and even the death of installers. These practises were and are unacceptable and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. HOWEVER equating bad behaviour with a bad scheme is like saying that a government that builds roads should be held to account for bad driving on those roads and be responsible for the deaths and accidents that happen there. Every murderer in state prisons went to school and so the schools should be closed down immediately. The easy sound bite has replaced civilised debate and discourse. It is easier and more memorable to insult, deride and slander than to really engage in debate with knowledge and research. I witnessed a doctor interviewing a patient today and while she was thorough and patient she didn't have access to all the patient records she needed to do her ob properly. She rang the GP who had referred the patient but that part of the practice was closed already. With the NBN and a national medical register all would have been accessible in a moment instead of the now multiple visits, letters and phone calls and the delay in treatment. Mr Abbott assures us that with HIS plan for broadband we will (most of us living in big cities) be able to watch four different HD TV programs at the same time in a family home. Malcolm Turnbull., singing from the same song sheet, was smart enough to know that there is more to broadband than watching TV. Wait and see what the impact is on what used to be called programming. Yes, it's a long time to September; long enough for the Pretender to be exposed countless times and for Australians to learn who is looking after the store. Here is a letter (or eletter sent by the local(St Kilda), involved and concerned Helen and Jack Halliday to the Women's Environmental Network on the success of two Councils in meeting their (modest) energy efficiency targets contrasted with our very own non-transparent, down right opaque City of Port Philip, which continues in it's own tradition of treating it's rate payers and inhabitants as mushrooms.
Read on Dear WEN Colleagues, I'm attaching an announcement from Moreland Council that they've become the third Australian Council to become carbon neutral. This certification applies to the Council's own emissions, ie, from street lighting, Council buildings and infrastructure, Council fleet, waste etc, (called corporate emissions) . At the same time the City of Yarra has similarly been certified as carbon neutral. These two councils are two of only three in Australia which have achieved this milestone. There are a number of important lessons in this for Port Phillip. Moreland Council has achieved its target of zero Council (corporate) emissions by 2012 .To achieve this goal it created the Moreland Energy Foundation with initial funding in 2000. Since then both Council and Foundation have worked purposefully towards a program of achieving corporate carbon neutrality. A stepped program of annual reductions was developed some 7 or 8 years ago, accompanied by rigorous annual evaluation of measures taken. The Foundation has also worked with surrounding Councils to cooperatively develop programs for carbon reduction. The City of Yarra has achieved its target of zero Council (corporate) emissions by 2012. To assist in achieving its goal it created its own Energy Foundation 2 years ago, with initial annual funding of $350,000. Its model is slightly different, with Council staff working on reducing Council's own emissions while the Foundation is focusssed primarily on communityemissions, (ie, residential, commercial and industrial) with a target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2020, excluding the transport sector. A new program for community engagement has just been initiated by the Foundation. The CoPP has set a 2020 target date for Council emissions to become carbon neutral. It is difficult to obtain information on Council's progress in reducing emissions for a number of reasons.
Again, a number of important lessons here for the CoPP:
The three Council reports cited are: Towards Zero: http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/default/ATT_1_-_TZ_Progress_Report_Yr4_Final_130312.pdf Council Inventory and Methodology, Draft Greenhouse Plan, Appendix B:http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/default/GAP_Appendices_B_v1.pdf Council Plan 2009-2013 (Year 3), April to June 2012 Quarterly Report:http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/Report_3_-_Attachment_1.pdf A cliché describes a self-evident truth that becomes overused and then loses its descriptive power and thus needs to be reformed in language.
There is still the odd favourite. "You get the face you deserve", is one; look at Christine Nixon, Simon Overland and Peter Ryan. Ask yourself who has been telling the truth all along, who is a twisted, sandbagging liar and who you would like to share your dinner table with.There has been so much written and speculated about this but just look at the faces with no other input. Obvious isn't it? On the international stage there is Dick Nixon, Joseph Stalin and Ghandi. Keeps working. Back here we have Pyne/Abbot. Deserve? For a little while I've been meaning to write about James Button's book Speechless which I devoured in two bites.
First some housekeeping. I read it on my Ipad after downloading the epub file from the Melbourne University Press site. (you can do it too). And the book? I will try and stay away from clichéd superlatives but forgive the lapses. This is a book in three parts. A memoir about John Button the man, his life and work. A year writing speeches for Kevin Rudd and part of that year discovering the public service and what it is and what it isn't. Finally it is a meditation on a son's love of his elusive and impossible to grasp dad. The biographical material on John Button the man is clear eyed and unsentimental but clearly loving and engaged. The John Button I knew slightly comes to life in these pages in all his complexity and even his smiling eyes and direct approach are clear and alive. As a father myself, as is James now, I would be blessed to have such writing about my life. Not that I am comparing my life to John's. Occasionally I would run into John at the MCG where he went to see his beloved Geelong. I would be there to support the Magpies and he would twinkle a greeting as he went to his seat. I feel after reading the book I have a better picture of the man, his struggles and his private demons and angels. As to the James with Kevin, this is not a kiss and tell book but the picture of working for a driven and boundary-less man is compelling. After this stint James is inducted into a unit under Terry Moran, head of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the person responsible for recruiting James in the first place to Canberra. Here comes the insider view of working for the public service and the dispelling of all the cliched views of this fine body of dedicated public servants who work hard to give good advice while staying in the background of public debate the whole time being excoriated for wasting money, being a waste of money and time. Campbell Newman is cutting through them, Ted Is getting rid of them and Abbott promises to. We will be all the poorer. Can you imagine Joe Hockey making economic policy by himself? A truly frighting thought. By books end James comes back to his dad and to Melbourne where his family are to be a more present dad. John spent years away in Canberra and in the rough and tumble of the political life, while achieving a great deal for his fellow Australians, James spent a year away and came back to write a book that we all should read. Scott Morrison has been for some time unhappy with his leader outstripping him as the most vile public figure so he has upped the ante with his remarks about Iranian refugees on Nauru forcing others to self harm as a form of protest.
You can imagine the scenario here *as it was made up by Morrison feel free to imagine what you will: "Hey you!!" "Me?" "Yeah, you. Start hurting yourself and do it for real or we will hurt you" See? Makes sense doesn't it? Morrison, who is fluent in Farsi overheard this conversation and was able to reproduce it to a waiting Australian Press. Mr Murdoch would be proud. In the same way that Mr. Abbot has been found out by the electorate as a serial liar Morrison is due to be on the scrap heap of history. In the meantime we have to look at his confected outrage on our news reports on a deadeningly regular basis. The price of democracy I suppose but when does this mob start giving value for money? Writing from Shanghai this week and how different this city is since I first came here almost twenty years ago. Unrecognisable really with the high rise buildings replacing the mostly single story ones and the elevated roadways jammed with cars that took over from the rivers of bicycles that were everywhere.
Shopping is a mainstream event for locals and visitors alike with the increasing globalisation of the look, feel and names of the shops. While we have got used to the idea that much of what we buy is made in China many of the global producers now have a presence here and have been building that for years. VW for instance started with a smallish business making taxis and now there are a lot of different VW models on the road. Today we went to a French supermarket, then lunched in a traditional Chinese cafe but everything was on offer depending where you looked. What is evident from the outside looking in is the rapid increase in sophistication, understanding of the global pressures and a better handle on the recent (last fifty years) past. Even more than this on a policy level while the carbon deniers smugly say that they want to see China sign up to Kyoto before they agree the Chinese are putting the rubber on the road and are building gigantic capacity of solar and wind without missing a beat. In some ways it is an advantage of a command economy while the so-called democracies are tied up in the false debate about the evident, demonstrable and obvious facts of what is a global crisis. Short-termism, political opportunism and the idea of a dollar today versus energy and global security for tomorrow should be a no brainer but we are faced with no-brains in top jobs. |