George Bush uses backdoor to reward Friend John

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research has announced that it will be giving John Winston Howard the 2008 Irving Kristol Award for, wait for it, having made "exceptional intellectual or practical contributions to improved government policy, social welfare, or political understanding."

Almost choked on my wheeties laughing at this institute, which has close ties to the Bush Administration and US Republican Party.

Went to its website to find out more and discovered that "John Howard is one of the world's most successful democratic politicians."  Which made my laughter turn almost hysterical.

My mirth became paralytic when I went on to read that Howard had been "retirement by the voters in last November's national elections." and that "After September 11, 2001, Prime Minister Howard forged a strong alliance with the United States and Great Britain in the global war on terror, sending Australian troops to Afghanistan and later to Iraq."

Only in neo-con America could such an contrary, autocratic political bully be described in this manner.

I don't usually put links in my posts but everyone deserves to enjoy the joke.

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.27308,filter.all/pub_detail.asp

NSW North Coast homeless struggling in soggy conditions

Spare a thought for those without a roof over their heads right now.

 

"INCESSANT rain has left homeless people scrambling for cover, according to a Tweed charity worker. Rosies, Friends on the Street Tweed co-ordinator John Lee said the continuing bad weather had made the homeless more vulnerable.------------- "The rain has made it worse for the homeless, especially if they have children," Mr Lee said. "The weather has gone berserk, and because of the Christmas-New Year period all the motels are booked out as well.---------------------The Tweed, Mr Lee said, urgently needed affordable housing. "For a family of five in a standard caravan park it can cost $50 a night and $350 a week for a tent site," he said. "Some people just can't get off the bottom rung."

The Daily News full article yesterday:

http://www.tweednews.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3759832&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

 

Note:

Minor to moderate flood warnings are current for the Kyogle and Lismore areas today.

Hotting up across Australia - one for those climate change sceptics out there

Bureau of Meteorology media release yesterday.

2007 a record warm year in southern Australia

For many Australians, 2007 was the warmest year on record, although when averaged across the whole of the continent, it was only the sixth warmest year.

Other features of the Bureau of Meteorology's 2007 Climate Statement, issued by its National Climate Centre, include near average rainfall but with a dry winter and spring following rain in southern Australia earlier in the year.

Statistically, the mean temperature for Australia was 0.67°C above average in 2007, making it the sixth warmest year since high quality Australia-wide records commenced in 1910.

But in the southern half of the continent temperatures were well above normal, with the Murray Darling Basin, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria all recording their warmest years on record.

A grim feature of the year has been extremely low water availability across parts of Australia. Despite promising rains during the first half of the year, July to October was particularly dry. It was not until November that rain returned to much of the continent with the emergence of a La Niña event.

Overall, annual rainfall was average to above average across northern and central Australia, and average to below average in the southwest, with mixed results in the southeast. Patchy rainfall across southern Australia means that long-term droughts persist in the far southwest and in the southeast, including the Murray Darling Basin, all of Victoria and northern Tasmania. South-eastern Australia has now missed out on the equivalent of an average year's rainfall over the duration of this continuing 11 year drought.

Since 1 January 1908, the Bureau of Meteorology has been responsible for collecting, managing and safeguarding Australia's climate record. It is this national climate archive that allows data recorded today to be placed in historical context.

The Annual Australian Climate Statement 2007 can be viewed at:
http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/climate/change/

State climate summaries can be viewed at:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/index.shtml

Petroleum merry-go-round

All day yesterday the Australian media was shouting out that oil had reached $100 per barrel and petrol prices at the pump would soar within days.

While increased petrol prices appear unavoidable, it was strange that not one media outlet managed to report the following.

"Oil prices eased Thursday [my emphasis] after soaring to touch a record $100 a barrel overnight on escalating violence in Africa's leading oil producer, a weaker U.S. dollar and a view that global demand for oil will outstrip supplies."

CNN.com yesterday:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/01/03/oil.update.ap/index.html?iref=topnews

 

I guess the fact that the 'magical' $100 mark only lasted a few hours wasn't thought to make a good story.

However, it doesn't take a crystal ball to realise that teaching the car to eat grass may be the only way to go on the average family budget. 

 

Life wasn't meant to be queasy

Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson is determined to give us all a chundering good time on each and every occasion he fronts the media.

His latest attempt to induce mass nausea was, "We've all seen this happen before where a newly-appointed minister goes out to consult with Australian farmers and before you know it ... we know that those consultations can be turned into a drought as far as money is concerned for Australian farmers."

Who on earth is writing his lines? Besides being a rather pathetic attempt to play on words - doesn't he remember that for the last decade all those newly-appointed federal ministers were drawn from the mob he now leads.

We intend to honour all our election promises - just don't ask us how or when

During the 2007 federal election campaign Labor promised that a Rudd Government would:

"Lift pensioners' utilities allowance from $107.20 to $500 a year

Extend utilities allowance to the disabled and carers"

The Sun Herald report:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/indepth/0,,5013913,00.html

ABC Radio "World Today" report: 

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s2078467.htm

 

After discovering that Centrelink operators knew nothing more about this election pledge than what was reported in the media and realising that the first 2008 utilities allowance payment for old age pensioners was due this March, I telephoned Minister for Human Services Senator Joe Ludwig's parliamentary office today.

To be told, by the very helpful staffer who answered, that the Rudd Government intends to honour all its election promises but that no other information was available at this time.

 

With so many people on the NSW North Coast living in comparative poverty (especially in the Clarence Valley where an estimated 40% of residents are in this uncomfortable situation) the Rudd Government needs to get cracking, and provide some certainty to aged and disability support pensioners with regard to a firm timeline for the promised increase and extension of this utility allowance.

Ministerial ethics

With the Federal Opposition now gathering its forces to block the new Rudd Government at every turn once Parliament sits in February, Brendan Nelson & Co are bound to raise a cry of ministerial misconduct.

So here are the conduct guidelines. Don't rely on the media - make up your own minds when the time comes.

 

Ministerial ethics guidelines:
 http://www.pmc.gov.au/guidelines/docs/ministerial_ethics.rtf

Good times in the Clarence Valley?

ABC News reported yesterday.

 

"It was identified as one of the most economically disadvantaged regions in the country during the federal election, but a new report shows business is booming in the Clarence Valley.

An economic profile released this week shows the value of goods and services produced in the region has grown by 8 per cent in the last year, leading to the creation of more than 1,700 new jobs.

The Clarence Valley Mayor, Ian Tiley, says growth in population and the manufacturing sector are key factors.

He says the challenge now facing the council is ensuring infrastructure keeps pace.

"The Sartor planning reforms propose we get less developer contributions from these new industries, these new developments," he said.

"That will impact on everybody because it'll mean that we won't be able to provide the same level of infrastructure in the past.

"Inevitably too when you have growth of this nature there is pressure on your infrastructure."

ABC News:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/02/2130090.htm?site=northcoast

Clarence Valley Council media release:

http://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/content/uploads/071218_Clarence_Economy_on_Track.pdf

Clarence Valley Council economic profile:

http://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/content/edu/Clarence%20Valley%20Economic%20Profile%202007.pdf

 

What Mayor Tiley didn't mention is the fact that decades of growth in the Clarence Valley come on the back of continuous land clearing, subdivision, increased urban lot density and often exceeding established building heights. With a significant number of sensitive coastal development consents coinciding with either business interests of sitting councillors or political interests of successive NSW governments.

 

What Clarence Valley Council's media release didn't mention is, that despite the rosy economic growth it alleges, at least 40% of the population continue to live on or under the poverty line.

This is not about to change anytime soon.

Memo to Tim Gartrell

Dear Tim,

Thankyou for the campaign flyer exhorting me not to vote for Howard, Costello or the Nationals, which arrived in yesterday's mail .

It's been a full forty days and forty nights since the federal election.

I think Labor may safely assume that it has come out of the political wilderness.

Time to start saving on office postage.

Therefore I look forward to not hearing from you again until 2010. 

TTFN,

Pete