Piers Akerman, the last boy left on the burning deck

One has to hand it to The Daily Telegraph's Piers Akerman.  He is nothing if not consistent.

Here is a quote from his latest 'reading' of the political climate.

 

"Prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd's decision to give his deputy Julia Gillard the responsibility for both industrial relations and education sends the trade union movement a confused message.

After gambling their members' money on an expensive 12-month advertising campaign in support of Rudd Labor, union leaders are concerned that IR has been relegated to a part-time portfolio.

The Howard government's clunky WorkChoices legislation was central to Labor's fear message and it appears to have worked in all parts of Australia except WA, which happens to have the highest number of people employed on the Australian Workplace Agreements the Rudd Government is sworn to outlaw.

Workers on those agreements are now wondering whether they can enlist the support of WA Premier Allan Carpenter to protect them from federal Labor, which they see as driven by power brokers a long way from the realities of their state's minerals boom.

With the nation enjoying its lowest level of industrial unrest in living memory, IR will have to be carefully managed and Gillard will have a lot on her plate driving Rudd's promised education revolution."

Yesterday's Akerman article in The Daily Telegraph:

 http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22853331-5001031,00.html

 

Akerman ignores the fact that transitional arrangements for changes to WorkChoices were on track at the time he wrote this piece, as well as conveniently forgetting that WA electorates in mining areas generally came out strongly in favour of federal Labor on 24 November.

One has to wonder why if Akerman's worried 'workers' were so numerous as to rate a mention, he didn't include a direct quote and name for at least one.

This Akerman piece is just another reworking of his federal election campaign positions.

 

Yet another MP predicted to take his bat and ball and go home

I really wonder why some Libs and Nats bothered to stand for re-election this time around.

Liberals Phillip Ruddock is said to have joined the growing band of Coalition MPs who were successfully elected this month but are expected to retire before the parliamentary term has ended. Talk about bad faith! Childish and petulant because their side didn't win the match and now these electorates are to endure by-elections sometime in the next eighteen months to two years.

Labour MP Janelle Saffin gets positive reception in her new North Coast electorate

"On Saturday night Janelle Saffin made history as the first female elected to represent the electorate of Page.

So I asked her about being a woman in the male-dominated world of politics.

"A lot of people were very warm about it," she said. "There was just one man, at one market, who said 'I never thought I would see the day a woman would go for Parliament'. There were two young men there and they both jumped in and said: 'Isn't it wonderful. It's about time'."

In Grafton she said people would sing out to her in the street: Go Girl!

"I'm 53," she said. "Go Girl is pretty cool. It could have been Go Grandma. I think maybe it says something about my energy too. You need it for this job."

The Northern Rivers Echo full article:

http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=View%20Article&article=18928&issue=302

Cowper's very local Local MP is not up to the deputy leadership of the Nats

Citizens in the electorate of Cowper can breathe easy again and start sleeping at night. Their Local MP, Luke Hartsuyker, pulled out of the race for deputy leadership of the Nationals. Mr Hartsuyker said the job would involve spending too much time outside his electorate.

With the very skinny margin that Hartsuyker has in the seat of Cowper you can bet your bottom dollar he will be out and about in the electorate a heck of a lot more than previously. Perhaps he might even fully acquaint himself with the devil in the detail of WorkChoices, a policy he knew precious little about but was always ready to jump up and support. Readers of The Clarence Valley Review have golden memories of Luke's inability to provide answers to questions about WorkChoices that the Review put to him.

Read about Harsuyker's decision at:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22856839-12377,00.html

Natasha has style

Democrats Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja sent out a press release shortly after Kevin Rudd announced his ministry, praising the inclusion of the highest number of women in senior Cabinet roles since Federation.

After watching her own party get decimated at the polls, she still looked to the positive for Australian society - now that's what I call grace and style.

Never heard a peep from the Liberal's new deputy leader, Julie Bishop.

Ruddock refused to budge on sedition laws - will Rudd be any different?

One of the unsettling features of the recent federal election campaign was its narrow focus. There was barely even lipservice paid to concerns about the extensive anti-terrorism and sedition laws created by the Howard Government over the last seven years.

 

Every parliamentary committee or independent commission appointed to review Australia's sedition laws recommended major amendments to and sometimes scrapping of much contained in that new legislation covering 'sedition'.

 

The Howard Government had rushed these laws through parliament on the promise that it would accept the Australian Law Reform Commission review findings and recommendations when these were tabled at a future date. However, then Attorney-General, Phillip Ruddock reneged on full acceptance of the Commission's recommendations and his department has not been overly enthusiastic in its approach to the little which Ruddock did endorse.

 

The question which now confronts the Australian community is whether Kevin Rudd will rescue our civil liberties and remove these potential impediments to free speech. During the recent election campaign he was quick to promise a change to Freedom of Information legislation and regulations, but was silent on our sedition laws.

 

Rudd now heads a Labor government with an extremely healthy majority in the House of Representatives. By next July it will have a strong ally in the Senate, the Greens, on matters relating to civil liberties and social justice. So will Rudd move on these flawed sedition laws or have we just exchanged one right-wing philosophy for another?

 

I hope that Kevin Rudd and Labor will recognise widespread and legitimate concern over sedition law evidenced by submissions, and move quickly to implement all of the recommendations outlined in the Australian Law Reform Commission's report. Legitimate dissent is a vital part of the democratic process and deserves to be protected by law.

 

'New-look' Libs still flirt with the political dark side according to Clarence Valley media

The new Liberal Party leadership team are not to enjoy a honeymoon period in the Clarence Valley.

Yesterday's editorial in The Daily Examiner took the Liberal Party and Brendan Nelson to task for the continuing refusal to say sorry to indigenous Australians.

 

Saying of the Liberal Party attitude: "Even though the wealthiest benefactors/supporters of the Liberals, and the Nationals for that matter, had made their fortunes by dispossessing Aboriginal tribes for two centuries, white Australia was not responsible.----they still flirt with the Hansonites on the political dark side."

 

Many in the Clarence Valley are shocked that this 'new-look' Liberal Party seems to have learnt next to nothing from its recent electoral defeat, and the editor was merely reflecting a growing 

disquiet within the community.