Will Australia cease being a rogue state anytime soon?

Now an education revolution is a fine thing for any government to undertake and it is an investment in the future, but if I hear about this Rudd Government priority one more time this week I will scream.

 

Children's education needs to include other things besides computers and the standard curriculum. Things like an understanding of ethical behaviour and the rights of others. Something they are not going to learn from examining Australian society at present.

 

For the last seven years Australian governments at both federal and state level have introduced a whole raft of legislation which attacks basic human rights and is often in prima facie breach of international law.

The Commonwealth Criminal Code now enshrines most of these abuses.

Since 2001 the Australian Government on a wink, wink, nudge, nudge, basis has condoned kidnapping, false imprisonment, torture and more.

The former Howard Government marched us all off to two wars which may yet lead to war crimes charges.

 

Less about computers and more about a review of all Commonwealth legislation to ensure it meets Australia's obligations under UN treaties and instruments, Prime Minister. We have been living in a rogue state for too long.

 

In The Age yesterday. A short summation of what the Rudd Government needs to urgently address:

  http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-coalitions-shame-file/2007/12/03/1196530572748.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Well, we had to do something during all those boring government ads!

Australia's population nudged over the 21 million mark in June this year. For the first time in years the annual birthrate is looking healthy at 1.85 babies per woman in the country.

Now some might say that the baby bonus encouraged a few more pregnancies. But I think that more people switched off the tellie to escape those long and boring federal government ads which ran during the last year of the Howard Government, and found much better things to do with their time than be alert and alarmed.

"The Australian" has a nervous breakdown after its horse failed to come in

The Australian gives space to Mark Steyn, a Canadian columnist and film and music critic, who laments the fall of the Howard Government as "A loss for civilisation".

After reading this unmitigated tripe, I was at a loss for words. Pity Steyn wasn't.

Though it was somewhat amusing to see John Howard's name still connected with this sort of clumsy attempt at a xenophobic scare campaign. 

The Australian Steyn article yesterday:
 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22857673-7583,00.html

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/