Conroy's censorship plans a joke

In the media today there is much commentary about plans for the government to censor websites where games which are refused classification are sold or can be played under the Internet censorship plan.

As Australia doesn't have an R18+ for games, any game which is more suited to adults than MA15+ will be blocked.

The Internet filter, which is supposed to protect children is starting to encroach into other areas of Internet use. It is leaning more towards a China-type filter, which is hardly surprising given Rudd's love of China. Surely adults should be allowed to determine what they wish to view so long as that content is not child pornography.

Where the protection of children is concerned - how about parents use filtering software or even better - supervise their children's Internet usage.

Tanner calling for Liberals to turn over computers - why?

News.com.au is reporting that Lindsay Tanner is calling for Malcolm Turnbull to turn over his computer records to the Australian Federal Police in the wake of the Utegate affair.

Why does Tanner believe that Turnbull must do this? I would of thought if the AFP wanted to see them they would either ask or get a warrant.

Turnbull has been interviewed by Police and I am sure if they need or want more information he would comply.

Tanner is just making a goose of himself.

Utegate highlights Turnbull's inexperience

As the HMS Liberal leaks like a siev what is becoming apparent is Malcolm Turnbull's inexperience in politics. The Herald Sun today reports that Turnbull was warned against attacking Kevin Rudd and advised to just go for Wayne Swan.

Instead, Turnbull went for it like a bull-at-a-gate and completely botched the opposition's attack, centred around dubious evidence given to a senate inquiry by Godwin Grech. Turnbull, being a former lawyer should have known about the importance of relying upon good evidence (something which they had against Wayne Swan).

Instead of solely targetting the Treasurer, the temptation of putting Rudd's head on a platter was far too great. By attacking the PM, Turnbull gave Rudd the opportunity to deflect from Swan and turn the scandal around onto Turnbull.

Such poor judgement shows that Turnbull is not yet ready for the Prime Ministership.

NSW Labor shows true democracy

Over night chaos descended upon the NSW parliament, as Tony Kelly, the only minister in the Legislative Council moved for the house to be adjourned one day early to avoid further defeats to government legislation. The motion didn't proceed to a vote and due to there being no government representative in the house, the President of the Legislative Council adjourned sitting on the "ringing of the long bell".

MLCs were prepared to sit but were unable to do so because there were no ministers in the house. They were effectively locked out due to the ALP going on strike.

It shows the true state of the NSW government when the government can defer it's own legislation by going on strike. Perhaps they should walk out of government as well.

Liberals are afraid

The federal Liberals are afraid of an early election and have dodged one this week by backflipping on the Alcopops tax and deferring the vote on the Rudd government's Emissions Trading Scheme. It was widely speculated that if defeated, the Rudd governement would use the Alcopops legislation to force a double-dissolution.

Labor is now claiming that the opposition are making the parliament unworkable and the country ungovernable and that they are affecting ordinary Australians. These are all words which indicate an election is imminent. The question is how?

Without a double-dissolution, the government may only hold an ordinary election after August 2010, however these words indicate that the government is considering calling a house-only election to demonstrate the Rudd government's mandate and capitalise on disunity in the opposition.

Anonymous source may bring Turnbull, Abetz down

We can safely assume that the "high placed source" quoted in the Herald Sun as claiming that Malcolm Turnbull and Eric Abetz met with Godwin Grech, the treasury official at the centre of the Utegate scandal will be hotly sought out by the Labor party.

The source's claims, if proven could possibly bring down both Turnbull and Abetz. The source claims that Grech allowed both men to read the email and take notes, he did however refuse to ahnd the email over to Turnbull and Abetz.

The claims could be a major headache for Abetz who claimed he heard about the e-mail from a journalist.

Sharman Stone on immigration debt

I read about Sharman Stone and her comment that abolishing debts for immigration detainees is a message to people smugglers that Australia had left her back door wide open and am curious as to why she believes that making asylum seekers pay for their detention slows people smugglers.

Under the Rudd government's proposal people smugglers and illegal fishers will stil be liable to pay for their detention.

When you have debts of $54 million between 2006-8 of which only $2 million is repaid, it shows that there is little, if not nearly zero chance of the government's costs being recovered.

One of the best speeches I have heard in parliament for a while came yesterday when Petro Georgiou spoke on the new legislation. Georgiou said:

"Do we charge drug dealers? Serial paedophiles? Sadistic murderers? Multiple
rapists the cost of their detention?"

"The charging of people who arrive on our shores seeking protection, the cost
of
their detention is part of the way in which we have demonised them and
presented
them as being worse than criminals."

Georgiou and three other Liberal MPs were planning on supporting the government's legislation, despite the official party position being to block it. In the end, the opposition let the draft legislation pass the House of Representatives without a vote. Such a move was smart on Turnbull's part, he doesn't need more images in the media of Liberal MPs crossing the floor.

Did Turnbull think he could do a Fraser?

Did Malcolm Turnbull really think he could accuse the Rudd government of corruption and bring down the Rudd government? Did Turnbull think he could follow in the footsteps of another Malcolm and bring down another Labor government?

The big difference is that the Utegate affair was based on a fraudulent e-mail whereas the Khemlani Affair was based on actual evidence.

I just wonder if Turnbull was planning to use the same tactic and block supply in the Senate to force an election hoping he would win. Only problem, now he will NEVER be Prime Minister of Australia.

Utegate will affect both sides of politics

With both sides of politics claiming that members of the other should resign, it is obvious that both the Labor and conservative sides are going to suffer casualties over Utegate.

Despite Malcolm Turnbull calling for the resignation of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan over Utegate, I would say that only Wayne Swan will be caught misleading parliament. He already told parliament he had no special interest in the case of John Grant applying for Ozcar funding and that he wasn't kept up to date in the proceedings.

This is clearly not true following the receipt of faxes to his home fax machine about John Grant. The only question is - did he take this interest becasue Grant is his boss' neighbour?

The e-mail the Liberals claim was sent between the Prime Minister's office and a treasury official will most likely harm someone in the Liberal Party if it is found that the email is a fraud. The Liberals refuse to produce the email they have relied upon as evidence and now claim that Rudd is using it as a distraction. The fact of the matter is, if the e-mail is fake the Liberal Party most likely created it. After Turnbull's denials this will lead to his downfall.

It's going to be an interesting week in politics.

Costello admits Hawke-Keating government wasn't all bad

After years of complaining about what a shambles the Hawke-Keating government left the country in when he took over the country's purse, Costello has finally admitted that Hawke and Keating did well to liberalise financial markets and cut tariffs.



What Costello stopped short of was admitting that while they ran the country into debt, the Hawke-Keating government set the country up for the prosperity it enjoyed during the Howard years.



Despite all the bashing, some of the most significant economic reforms in Australian history were made under the Hawke-Keating governments. Strangely, these reforms are those which we would normally associate with the conservative side and not Labor.

Antony Green's 2010 Election Calculator is now available

For those who like playing with swings and running possible election scenarios, Antony Green has put up his 2010 Election calculator. Take a look at: http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2010/calculator/

The leader that never was - Costello

I must admit that when I heard that Peter Costello has finally stated that he will not be contesting his seat of Higgins at the next federal election, I was extremely surprised. I have long thought that Costello would wait until Turnbull was defeated at the next election and then move in for the kill. Costello will forever be the leader who never was.

Despite being perhaps one of the greatest treasurers in Australian history, Mr Costello is also a formidible foe on the floor of parliament. Costello is a powerful orator and a fierce debator, perhaps the finest in the current conservative side of politics.

His comments today will become more Costello quotes in the future:

“It is just possible both sides of the dispatch box are happy with the
announcement I've made”

“It is a very nice thing to actually come here and not be quite departed
and hear the kind of speeches one hears as eulogies. In fact, I might come back
tomorrow, I'm enjoying it so much.”

While Costello had the chance to be the leader of the party, he never stepped up to the challenge. He supported Alexander Downer during his failed stint as opposition leader and supported John Howard when he took over the party in 1995. It is possible that if he ran for leader against Howard he could well have been Prime Minister from 1996-2007.

Instead, Costello took Howard at his word - that he would hand over the reins one and a half terms into the job. This was probably Costello's biggest mistake, Howard is always a man who will say what he thinks will get him what he wants and isn't afraid to double-cross.

After the election loss of 2007, Costello was again touted as leader. He refused to nominate. It was likely that Costello believed the antagonism in the Australian community towards the Howard government needed to settle before he could lead the party. After all, a senior minister in the Howard government leading the party would have been seen as just another extension of the Howard Liberals.

Instead, Brendan Nelson, the last Defence Minister in the Howard government became leader, only to be overthrown 10 months later.

Rees may cause leadership spill - how about a real vote?

Speculation that Nathan Rees is planning a pre-emptive leadership spill against Frank Sartor has me thinking - if Rees wants a vote, he should call an election and let the people of NSW decide who should lead the state!

If the ALP caucus is concerned about its low poll scores, instead of looking for another leader they should force an election. The voters of NSW will not tolerate yet another unelected Premier.

I don't understand why the ALP is worried about the leadership - who really wants to lead the party to massive defeat at the next election? The only question is - how long will the ALP be out of government in NSW? The longest conservative government in NSW since 1901 was during 1965-1976.

Congrats to the Nats

I must congratulate the NSW Nationals on some of the items raised at the state conference in Wagga today.

Nationals leader, Andrew Stoner announced that as part of the party's reform process it will trial "community preselections" in one election at the 2011 state election. This would be the first such pre-selection in Australia. Despite not being a Nationals supporter myself, if this was done in my electorate I would certainly take part in the process.

I also like the plan to end three-cornered contests in NSW. I have always seen it both stupid and unfair for the coalition to have 2 candidates for a seat in an election. While I understand that preferential voting in part to alleviate this, there is a chance of the conservative vote being split (particularly in a state where there is optional preferential voting) but also a unfair advantage in having a 2:1 candidate mix in the major parties.

Brown may be expelled from the Senate

Following his loss during his bid against logging in the Wielangta State Forest the federal court ordered Brown pay Forestry Tasmania's legal costs. Forestry Tasmania has now demanded that he pay $240,000 within 21 days.

Bob Brown took action, claiming that the logging was breaching federal environment laws as it threatened the survival of the threatened wedge tail eagle and Swifts parrot.

Brown said he could not afford to pay the legal bull and would not be able to raise them within the period required.

The letter of demand says that Forestry Tasmania will have Senator Brown declared bankrupt if he is unable to pay.

If Brown is declared bankrupt or is insolvent, he will be expelled from the Senate.

Brown had been successful at the first instance, which was overturned when appealed by Forestry Tasmania. Brown had applied to appeal to the high court, but was refused.

Given that Forestry Tasmania is a government-owned corporation, would it be possible that the Labor government could waive the legal fees? What would happen to the relationship between the Greens and ALP if they don't?

If Brown is expelled, the Tasmanian parliament will be able to select someone to replace him in the Senate. While convention states that someone from the same party as the outgoing senator is to be selected, there have been occasions when this hasn't happened.

Ministerial resignation always a good time to reshuffle

In Australian politics it is always popular to reshuffle a government's front bench after a ministerial resignation or dumping and the Rudd government is no different.

Kevin Rudd today announced that he would be reshuffling his front bench, with McLucas (parliamentary secretary for Health and Ageing and currently under investigation for travel claims) and Debus (Minister for Home Affairs) falling to the backbench.

Winners include Greg Combet, promoted to Minister for Defence Personnel, Material and Science and Minister Assisting the Minsiter for Climate Change; Chris Bowen becoming minister for financial services, superannuation and corporate law and minister for human services; Mark Arbib becomes Minister for Employment Participation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Government Service Delivery; and Brendan O'Connor, who becomes Minister for Homes Affairs.

Despite only being in parliament 20 months, the promotion of Combet to the outter ministry is hardly a surprise. Combet ran a hugely successful campaign against the Howard government's Workchoices regime, so it was inevitable that he would be rewarded at some stage.

Arbib's promotion was inevitable, given his powerbroker status within the party and his strong support of Rudd.

The other major promotions are an attempt to freshen up the front bench, with some new talent and these would be considered the rising stars of the ALP.

Rudd claims Debus stepped down as he plans to retire at the next election, but I would have thought he would have been a logical choice for a senior post in troubled times given his extensive parliamentary and ministerial experience.

Rudd has his first Ministerial resignation

The Rudd government has had its first ministerial casualty after Joel Fitzgibbon, Australia's defence minister resigned due to breaching the ministerial code of conduct over a meeting between his department and his brother's employer - health insurer NIB

The resignation follows a rocky road for Mr Fitzgibbon who two months ago failed to declare trips to China paid for by businesswoman Helen Liu and failing to declare a hotel room paid for by NIB.

The opposition had been calling for Fitzgibbon's resignation since a meeting between Major-General Paul Alexander, the head of defence health services was told by defence officials to attend meetings with Fitzgibbon's brother Mark. This was despite Joel Fitzgibbon playing no part in the meetings and being handled by a junior minister.

Fitzgibbon's breaches are foolish but the Rudd government should be commended on the high standards expected of its ministes. Look at the Howard government, by the same time in its tenure, already seven ministers and secretaries had fallen. Three had resigned over conflicts of interests, one of whom misled the Senate; One resigned over questionable expense claims and three resigned over the travel rorts affair.

Then, despite John Moore and Warwick Parer breaching the code of conduct, they were allowed to stay on as ministers.

NSW claims Medicare will collapse

NSW Health Director-General Deborah Picone has claimed that Medicare could collapse within 5 years and will head towards a US-style user pays healthcar system. Even more startling is that Health Minister John Della-Bosca backs her claims.

Della-Bosca said -
Prof Picone and many, many commentators in the medical system ... are telling me that we have a limited window of opportunity to preserve the great public hospital system that we have.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon rejected the claims and said:
I think that is a nonsense for us to say that public and free health care is dead.

The commonwealth is absolutely committed to ensuring that people can have access to high quality care whether it is through their GPs or whether it is in public hospitals.

Obviously Della-Bosca hasn't been to a public hospital in NSW lately or read the newspapers for a while. Does he think really think that the current public hospital system in NSW is great? If he does then he truly has no idea about what is going on!

Does NSW Health really believe that Australia will move towards a US-style health care system?

Changing Medicare to a US style system would be political suicide. Voters would never support it being rolled back or ended. It is also interesting to look at the rest of the world, where the US is the only developed nation with a user-pays health care system.

Joyce indicates there is two conservative parties - who would of thought?

Barnaby Joyce, the outspoken Nationals Senator from Queensland has once again spoke his mind without thinking about the significance of his words. During a radio interview, Joyce said that there was no split between himself and Turnbull on climate change policy simply because Turnbull doesn't have a policy:

Only Kevin Rudd has a policy that we're about to vote for. You tell me what
Malcolm Turnbull's policy is? I haven't seen Malcolm Turnbull's policy.

Joyce's comments come as the Nationals stand steadfast on refusing to support any Emissions Trading Scheme, while the Liberals want to delay making a decision on the ETS until after the Copenhagen summit.

Joyce made it clear he would not bow to Liberal pressure when he said:

There are two parties - the Liberal Party and the National Party

Mr Joyce's comments indicate that the Nationals are more than content to formulate their own position on the ETS issue.

For some time there has been some speculation of an Australia-wide Liberal-National party merger similar to that which happened in Queensland, but Joyce's comments and the actions of the West Australian National Party after the 2008 election indicates that this is unlikely for now.

While many will claim that Joyce's position shows disunity in the coalition, I think it shows the strong leadership potential in Joyce.

Is Rudd overworking his deputy?

While watching the morning news on channel 7 this morning there was a segment on how a report found that 25% of Australian students in years 4-9 are bullied in school. The speaker on the topic was Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

I must admit that Gillard looked the worst I have ever seen her. She had bags under her eyes, bloodshot eyes and looked like she hadn't slept in about a month. Is Kevin working his deputy too hard also?

Liberals should be afraid... Very afraid

The release of the latest Galaxy poll is nothing but bad news for the Liberals. The poll shows that 51 percent of voters believe Rudd is the better leader for current economic conditions, while just 33 percent believe Turnbull would be the better leader.

The poll must really hurt the Liberals, who are generally considered to be the better economic managers. The poll also shows that the Liberals campaign against the Rudd government's plans to borrow up to $315 million.

While the poll found that 43 percent of Australians believe Kevin Rudd has a nasty streak, to Malcolm Turnbull's 31 percent voters indicate that they believe Rudd is a stronger leader (55 percent to 27) and more trustworthy (46 percent to 29 percent).

On the question of whether or not leaders were out of touch with the Australian public, 48 percent said Turnbull was out of touch while only 29 percent said the same of Rudd.

The poll shows that the Liberals message about the government isn't getting through to voters.

Rudd government's debt as a proportion of GDP flawed

Like most Australians at the moment, I do think about the amount of debt the government is running up. On 19 May, the Prime Minister said his target was 13.8% of GDP or $300 billion, expected during 2013/14.

For this percentage to be realised, GDP would need to grow to $2.17 trillion. In the 2009/10 budget, the government is estimating GDP to be $1.18 trillion for 2009/10, which is a fall of 1.52% from 2008/9.

For GDP to increase to the levels claimed by the Rudd government, it would need to increase by 45.75% or 11.43% per year. Looking at the graph to the left showing GDP growth around the time of the last recession, these figures are unrealistic.

Based on history, it would not be pessimistic to claim GDP growth of 5% a year following the current financial crisis. Based on this rough estimate, GDP would be $1.42 billion in 2013/14 at which time the $300 billion claimed by Rudd would represent 21.2% of GDP.

Debt would be less under the coalition

Brendan Nelson's refusal to say how much a coalition government would go into debt for during the global financial crisis is a little hypocritical after the coalition mocking Kevin Rudd for not saying the word "billions".

During ABC's Q&A program, Nelson said:

It should be obviously less than it is at the moment and the quality of the
spend should be quite different from what it is.

Does that mean the coalition would go into $314,999,999,999 of debt?

It's OK to send our staff first class, the last government did it

Kevin Rudd's defence of paying $60,000 to send four treasury department staffers to London in first class by claiming the previous government did it is a complete and utter farce.

It cost the government $15,000 per person to send these staffers to London. Looking briefly at airfares, a trip in economy class would cost $5,000 each while business class would have cost around $7,500 each return. Would it have hurt them to fly in business class and save the government 50% of the fare?

Was a cost-benefit analysis done on business vs first class? Probably, only to find that "the benefits to staff travelling in first class at a cost of 200% over business class outweigh the cost".

I suppose a saving of $30,000 is nothing when the government is looking at spending up to $315 billion in borrowed money.

West Australian hoon should be gaoled

Serial tool, Ryan James Joseph, 20 of Perth should be gaoled after being fined for his 6th hoon offence. Joseph's other previous driving offences include driving while disqualified and reckless driving.

Despite the vehicle used by Joseph to perform the latest burnout being registered in his girlfriend's name, a magistrate ordered that it be confiscated and crushed by police. Prior to being siezed by police, the vehicle had already been trashed, allegedly by Joseph.

At the time Joseph committed the burnout offence, his girlfriend and 14 month old child were in the vehicle.

Speaking to the media, WA Police Minister Rob Johnson said: "It just shows you the irresponsible type of person that he was and I am glad that he is not only losing his vehicle but he will be losing his licence and I hope that he will be fined very heavily."

Does the minister honestly think that taking this guy's car is really a deterrant to him - he trashed it before police collected it. It shows that he couldn't care less what happens to it. As for losing his licence - the hoon has already been busted for driving whilst disqualified in the past, what will stop him from doing it again?

Add to that a heavy fine, do they really think it will deter someone with the mentality of Joseph?

The best way to deter Joseph and prevent him from driving is for him to be imprisoned for the duration of his disqualification. It is clear he has no respect for road rules and orders of the court.

Image Credit: (c) Perth Now

Home quarantine works, if people actually do as they are told

I read with disgust how some of those ordered into home quarantine are flouting health officials orders, placing the vulnerable in the community at risk. Even more startling is that health officials claim there is nothing they can do to ensure people obey the orders.

Why bother issuing orders if people don't have to comply with them?

Why are these people so selfish and thinking only of themselves?

These same selfish people are probably going out into the public, getting up close and personal to people, coughing on them, shaking hands after they have coughed or sneezed without washing them.

How would those who are ordered into quarantine feel if they spread the virus to someone undergoing cancer treatment, someone with AIDS or a respiratory disease? Would they even care?

Image Credit: Zelda, Wikimedia Commons, PD

NSW Health messed up on the Pacific Dawn

The NSW Health department has completely messed up on its handling of AH1N1 swine influenza aboard the Pacific Dawn.

When the Pacific Dawn docked in Sydney on Monday, health authorities believed that those with flu-like symptoms on board were suffering seasonal influenza as the ship had not been to any affected countries.

Passengers of the ship have condemned the lack of information from health authorities.

Even more strangely, a child who was aboard the Pacific Dawn attended school for half a day before being told he should be home in quarantine.

While the death rate of A/H1Nq has been fairly low thus far, the handing of the Pacific Dawn by NSW Health shows serious flaws in its handling of potential pandemics. What would of happened if it was a highly pathogenic and contagious disease?

Once again, the NSW government has screwed up. Congratulations Mr Rees.

Image Credit: US Center for Disease Control, Public Domain

Conservative economic management

It is a common view in Australian politics that the conservatives are better economic managers than Labor. Is this because they tax more and spend less?

Looking at the record of the Howard government (because the budget periods from 1995/6 to present are easiest to get data for) - it seems that it increased taxes while spending less on core services like Defence, Health, Education and Transport/Communications. While the Howard government paid off the $96 billion in net debt it had at its first budget in 10 years, it neglected core services and the challenges Australia faced.

One only has to use health, education and transport systems in Australia now to realise that they have deteriorated significantly in the past 15 years. Now, before my neo-conservative friends say "that's a state responsibility", they need to think about where most of the money comes from for these services.

While it is important for the government to run budgets in the black, it is more important for the government to be able to provide core services to its taxpayers.

Has the Howard government's underspend on infrastructure helped the economy? No, because now we only have to spend what should have been spent on the first place. Thanks Mr Howard.