Rudd gets no honeymoon from Media With Conscience News - A Site without Borders

Gideon Polya who had for years taken the fight right up to the Howard Government over its participation in the unlawful invasion and occupation of Iraq, now reminds Prime Minister Rudd that leaving any Australian troops in Iraq for another three years will inevitably involve this country in further violations of Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention.

His editorial states: "Most Australians don't like child-killing, mass murder and war and are overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush Iraq War. We certainly didn't vote for the continuing complicity of Australia in the passive mass murder of Iraqi kids at the rate of 0.1 million every year --"

Polya full editorial on 1 December 2007:

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18458&Itemid=1

It is my understanding that Mr. Polya's war crimes complaint to the United Nations and The Hague is still extant.

Taxing conundrum

If a fine is a tax for not behaving well and a tax is a fine for doing well - what exactly is the GST?

Time for the Federal Government to revisit how the GST is calculated on some goods on supermarket shelves, in order to iron out anomalies which see the poor sometimes paying up to 11-12% consumption tax on certain items.

Today the Australian Governor-General accepted the formal resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Howard, so there is only one thing left to say...

Image found at http://typingisnotactivism.wordpress.com

Saving Migaloo, the white fella whale

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has stated that when he attends the new federal government's first cabinet meeting today he will be raising Labor's election promise to send the Australian Navy south to monitor the Japanese whaling fleet.

This pseudo-scientific annual kill by Japanese whaling vessels, which in reality is a highly lucrative commercial endeavour, must be stopped.

Diplomacy may have its value, however it is of little use for the Australian Government to be successful at International Whaling Commission meetings on this issue if Japan continues to flout the rules in this manner.

This year for the first time since the moratorium on commercial whaling in southern waters began, the Japanese fleet will also be hunting Humpback as well as Fin and Minke whales.

The highly visible white whale Migaloo will therefore be vulnerable.

The NSW North Coast has a special interest in these whales as their migration path runs close inshore to our coastline each year. They are a unique attraction and are affectionately viewed as a special part of our local environment.

Greenpeace continues to do a splendid job in monitoring the annual southern whale hunt, but the fact remains that the Japanese Government will only respond to our concerns if the Rudd Government gets serious about protecting these gentle giants of the sea.

This first Labor cabinet meeting will also be a test of how seriously other ministers take Peter Garrett's concerns.

At a personal level I intend to take Clarencegirl's advice and boycott all Japanese produce and products from now on.

The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
 http://www.smh.com.au/news/whale-watch/alp-faces-whale-of-a-decision/2007/12/01/1196394682277.html

Migaloo information and pictures:

http://www.migaloowhale.org/

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.