Why Gloria Jean's coffee doesn't taste too good

Paul MacDermott on The Sideshow (ABC TV, October 27) provided a hint as to why Gloria Jean's coffee tastes so poorly. MacDermott said that Hillsong Church members denied rigging Australian Idol because they were too busy rigging the Australian election.

When thinking about Hillsong ... add Gloria Jean's to your thoughts.

http://www.journeyonline.com.au/showArticle.php?categoryId=1&articleId=692

Another of Howard's little secrets: Kyoto

News.com.au reports today that PM Howard is refusing to deny Cabinet considered but rejected a proposal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change just six weeks ago.

ABC TV news is reporting Malcom Turnbull unsuccessfully tried to convince Prime Minister John Howard to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Read the report http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22657337-29277,00.html

Watch ABC TV news
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200710/r194870_739472.asx

So, what should be made of this news? Yet again, there's disquiet in the Coalition camp.

NSW North Coast lashed by severe storms

News today on yesterday's storms:

"Large hailstones and destructive winds battered the north coast towns of Dunoon, Grafton, Byron Bay and Mullumbimby late yesterday afternoon.
Dunoon, 10km north of Lismore, was the hardest hit.
A Country Energy spokesman said 30 crew members were working today to restore power to 75 homes in the small town, where 20 houses have severe roof damage.
The spokesman said power should be restored to Dunoon by 3pm (AEST)."
Full News.com.au article:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22657153-29277,00.html

Labor's new Freedom of Information policy

Yesterday Federal Labor announced a re-vamping of Freedom of Information and Privacy legislation if it wins government. Not perfect, but better than the Howard Government's long rort of the terms 'transparency' and 'accountability'.

Journalists should welcome this attempt to protect them from punitive harassment by government.

The Australian Law Reform Commission might also reasonably expect a less obstructive response to its own recommendations.

 

This is what a Rudd Labor Government says it will do:

• Bring together the functions of privacy protection and freedom of information in an Office of the Information Commissioner – to streamline and fast-track information policy across government;
• Preserve the existing role of the Privacy Commissioner – to protect individual privacy;
• Abolish conclusive (non-reviewable) certificates from the FOI process – which stymie genuine requests by allowing Ministers to arbitrarily deny the release of information – For example, Treasurer Peter Costello refused to release information on income tax bracket creep and data on the First Time Home Owners scheme;
• Support reasonable changes to current journalist shield laws to protect their sources and ensure that a responsible journalist is never again prosecuted for a story that is "merely embarrassing" to a government;
• Pursue national reform of suppression orders in court proceedings through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General; and
• Provide best-practice legislation and expansion of protection for public interest disclosure whistleblowers protecting them from retribution – such as the customs officer, Mr Alan Kessing, who blew the whistle on organised crime, lax airport security and inadequate policing.

"Background – FOI refusals – full or in part
In the period 1997-98 to 2005-06, the Howard Government refused full access to 75, 064 information requests; of those 57,975 were refused in part and 17,089 refused completely.

In the period 2005-06, the Howard Government refused full access to 8,655 information requests; of those 6,298 refused in part and 2,357 were refused completely"

ALP media release:

http://www.alp.org.au/media/1007/msagloo260.php

Executive Summary of Labor's Information Policy:

http://www.alp.org.au/download/now/071026_information_policy_exec_summary.pdf

Full policy document:

http://www.alp.org.au/download/071026_government_information_policy.pdf

"The Age" on Page

The Age yesterday on the Liberals struggle for traditional heartland.

"Other Coalition seats under threat are Dobell on the central coast, Eden-Monaro — the New Hampshire of Australian elections — bordering the ACT, and Page on the north coast, held by the retiring National MP Ian Causley. Although he leaves a comfortable 5.5 per cent margin, an influx of seachange retirees has radically changed the demographic make-up, pushing climate-change issues to the fore."

http://www.theage.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/libs-struggle-for-heartland/2007/10/25/1192941243841.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

It's the C-L-I-M-A-T-E, you idiots!

Findings in the United Nations GEO 4 report released on 25 October 2007 have huge implications for Australia.

Index to full report:
 http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/index.asp?

 

These findings tell us that climate change is occurring faster than originally anticipated and that we have all talked for too long without doing anything significant about addressing either root causes, mitigation or adaptation measures.

 

The CSIRO informed us only a few months ago that the NSW North Coast could expect higher temperatures, changes to rainfall patterns, less surface and underground freshwater, more severe storms, stronger flooding and seawater eating into some of our populated coastal areas.

Not in two hundred years, not in one hundred years, not in fifty years, but anytime from now on.

 

Yet Howard, Costello & Co. want to focus on the supposed financial tsunami which will overwhelm us if Labor's industrial policies come into play. Almost as an afterthought yesterday the Prime Minister released a promise of renewable energy funding which only plays catch up to where Australia's fledgling renewable energy industries should have been a decade ago.

 

Brief one-liners on the environment from local Nationals candidates do nothing to instil confidence in any future Coalition response either.

 

Federal Labor may not have covered itself in climate change glory so far in the campaign, but at least it has consistently recognised the urgency of our position and is likely to be able to successfully carry off a true national response to the now almost unavoidable climate change impacts we can expect.