Engel's word picture of the Australian Federal Parliament and Tony Abbott in 2010

Only the British media would approach the subject with this much bile, but there is more than an element of truth in Matthew Engel's article Up a Gum Tree in The Financial Times on 26 November 2010:

I have seen a few crazy parliaments. I have watched the Israeli Knesset, where one extreme would happily exterminate the other – and the Dáil in Dublin, the only known gathering of inarticulate Irishmen. I have seen the empty shell that constitutes the US Senate. I have done time at the Commons, and been appalled by the pathetic lack of individuality of the whipped curs. I thought I was unshockable. But Canberra’s House of Rep­resenta­tives is the worst. These curs only snarl as instructed.

Some of the kindly journalists in the Canberra press gallery asked me what I thought. This being a country that prides itself on candour, I told them. They looked at me as though I were crazy. “You should have seen it a few months ago,” they said. “It’s improved no end.”....

Unless they swing round, which Tony Abbott does all the time, turning his back on the PM to confer with his colleagues – especially when she is speaking, a gesture of contempt that would be recognised among primates. There is indeed something rather simian about Abbott: he is a hulking fitness fetishist-cum-exhibitionist, often photographed in the skimpy swimming trunks that Aussies call “budgie-smugglers”. The other week he was spotted running through the parliamentary corridors, past the coffee shop, in his tight black shorts: “It was like watching evolution in reverse,” said one latte drinker........

Under all the circumstances, Australian democracy is a kind of miracle. The country has a remarkable respect for the rule of law and a great sense of civic responsibility (greater than Britain’s, I would say). Quietly, good work does get done in parliament – speaker Harry Jenkins insists – although much of the legislative scrutiny is done by the less powerful Senate. The federal structure ensures that the decisions that affect people’s daily lives are largely made by the individual states.

The entire article can be found here.

Another wonderful Trioli blooper

Crikey and mUmBRELLA might have had it first after YouTube, but it's still worth another airing:



This clip now joins that other delightful gaffe from last year:

Cancún Climate Change Conference: yada, yada, yada

Right now in Cancún, Mexico, the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP16/CMP 6 is underway until 10 December 2010.

As national representatives get to their feet and (as they have done on so many occasions before) talk ineffectively of the need to address global warming, it is worthwhile looking at a visual representation of where Australia’s energy was being drawn from in November 2010.

These pie charts from The Climate Group's The Weekly Greenhouse Gas Indicator represent energy consumption in four of the eight states and territories over one 7 day period.

In descending order, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria:

Given that only South Australia has managed to consistently reduce greenhouse gas emissions below the 1990 baseline (10% below in this 7 day period), it is also the only state which could be said to be seriously addressing Kyoto commitments.

Victoria is 26% above the 1990 baseline, New South Wales 5.8% above and Queensland an almost unbelievable 109% above that same baseline.

Unfortunately, in Australia energy consumption is still predominately drawn from carbon-based resources and relies heavily on 'dirty' coal.

As the Gillard Government continues to drag its feet on an emissions trading scheme or carbon tax and the Coalition Opposition goes deeper into denial that global warming even exists, how is the average citizen going to respond?

I suggest that individual responsibility does not stop with reducing our personal carbon footprints, it extends to voting out of office every politician who blocks legitimate legislative response to global warming or seeks to water down bills addressing climate change so that carbon-reliant energy companies and industry can continue 'business as usual'.

Now I've heard everything! A Press Council LOL

Darryl Mason 28 Nov 10 5:23 pm
Considering The Press Council couldn’t even get Piers Akerman to publicly apologise after he said intellectually disabled people can’t understand “plain English”…no thanks.
http://tinyurl.com/y94fc5n

mUmBRELLA gives the cyberspace laugh of the week by reporting:
"Prof Disney suggested that the Press Council could seek to regulate bloggers . He said: “At present, only one of the Council members publishes solely on-line. The Council will continue to invite other on-line publishers to become members and thus subject to its regulation. This reflects a desire to avoid unnecessary duplication, inconsistency or gaps between the regulatory processes which apply to print and on-line publications in the area of news and current affairs. Consideration will also need to be given to the possibility of encouraging membership by serious bloggers who focus on the same area.”
I'm with Darryl Mason - when the Press Council begins to seriously address the ethical failings of paid professional journalists, then it can raise the possibility of extending the juristiction of its 25 member toothless tiger.