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The inept Kevin Rudd has no future as Prime Minister of Australia – he will be displaced and fairly soon. He is an arch hypocrite and wind-bag who has been revealled as such on countless occasions and who is now trying to demonstrate that he has backbone by backing a ludicrous tax on the resources sector [...] I have been following the increasingly strident claims of the American conservative movement primarily through my interest in climate change denialism, a component of their agenda. More important parts of this agenda focus on the Obama health plan, on the bailouts to various groups in the economy as a consequence of the GFC and to what seems to be an obsessive hatred of President Obama. Continue reading The American right – conservatism &/or fanaticism? I have zero affection (or respect) for the Labor Party in NSW but, for the life of me, I cannot understand the hysterical puritanism that has driven the resignation of John Della Bosca from its state government ministry. Nor do I understand the more recent sentiments suggesting he might be ‘rehabilitated’ and reinstated into the ministry. Continue reading John Della Bosca The pursuit of Malcolm Turnbull should now cease. It is clear that Godwin Grech – a formerly respected public servant who ran the OzCar policy for Labor – provided a false email to Turnbull that was the basis of Turnbull’s attack on Swan and Rudd and which therefore distorted this attack. The Labor Party is a perennially [...] Well almost certainly not but this report is disturbing. For a decade NSW has been declining relative to the rest of Australia. The poorly-performing Labor Governments of Bob Carr, Morris Iemma and now Nathan Rees have been a factor in this decline. Continue reading NSW, a basketcase? The Herald /Neilson poll shows promising news for the Coalition. The Coalition is – as it should be – making significant inroads against Rudd and Labor. A 5% swing to The Coalition since March and back to the narrow margin of the 2007 poll. Labor leads the Coalition by 53% to 47%, down from the 58-42 gap in the previous poll. The Coalition made up 9 points in the crucial primary vote. Labor’s primary vote fell 3 points to 44% while support for the Coalition rose 6 to 43%. Continue reading Good poll news for Coalition Malcolm Turnbull’s budget response was very political. The main practical point was to emphasise retaining the health insurance subsidy and substitute a 3 cent extra tax per cigarette to raise the same income. This is probably sensible in my view but small potatoes. Otherwise the attack was primarily on the size of the $57 billion deficit and the implied debt which he claims will blow out to close to $300b once Labor’s Ruddbank, Broadband and other proposals are included in official debt forecasts. Continue reading Budget 2009 – response by Turnbull Kevin Rudd has further delayed the start of the emissions trading scheme to 2011 (after the next election), reduced the initial price of carbon to be charged from $20 per tonne to $10 per tonne (that is now about equivalent to a massive 2.4 cent per litre charge on unleaded petrol) and increased assistance to heavy industry (steel and aluminium previously would get 90% of their permits free – now they will get 95% of their permits free for the first 5 years – or really 1+5 years – of the scheme). The only a bonus is agreement to cut emissions by 25% by 2020 if all other nations agree to do the same in Copenhagen this year. It is a major backflip for a man who said, last December, in the face of the full obvious force of the financial crisis, that there was no case for delay. But it is by no means an astonishing backflip. I think Rudd’s mouth runs ahead of his brain most of the time but, on climate change, he simply cannot be trusted at all. Continue reading Rudd on climate change I am deeply saddened by the disasterous turn of events in Thailand. Ex Prime Minister Thaksin may have been corrupt or ineffective – I do not make any judgement – but the way to get rid of him (and his successor Mr Somchai) if this was sought was via the ballot box not by forcing them out of office. Thailand’s middle class ‘yellow-shirts’ effectively forced a popular leadership out and now his ‘red-shirt’ supporters have returned with a vengence demanding the end to the succeeding government of Mr. Abhisit. Thaksin operating from abroad has mischievously called for a ‘revolution’ and offered to return to Thailand to take power. He should not have said this – the stakes are too high irrespective of his perceived personal injustices. Continue reading Thailand & arguments for being a constitutional democrat $43b is a lot for a high speed broadband internet service. That is so even if half of that is raised as debt with the residual being equity, half from the public purse. The financing approach used does not reduce this project’s cost – it is about $2000 for each Australian. And cost is the issue – we would all like a fast broadband service if it were costless. I am sympathetic to Malcolm Turnbull’s rejection of the Rudd stimulus package and to his proposed more modest alternative of bringing tax cuts forward. I think the recession does have a long way to go and that disposing of all available fiscal ammunition immediately is unwise – a conservative package of something less than half Labor’s [...] Gracious and serious this is a speech worth listening to. There is much sense amid the rhetoric and Obama is – as everyone now knows – a talented man of enormous charisma. But as I stressed a few days ago the difficulties facing the US and hence Obama are immense*. The positive changes will only take [...] Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States tomorrow. Despite the exceedingly tough economic times Americans overwhelmingly see Obama as something positive for America. Cynics [...] The middle class radicals who have forced the end to democratically-elected governments* in Thailand have not done Thailand any long-term favours. Recent events in fact constitute a middle-class coup that has driven a popularly elected government from office. That is true even if the government was not entirely saintly. When I lived in Thailand 20 years ago there were [...] I forecast that Barack Obama would be the next US President when it was unpopular to do so. Of course given the polls I am happy to retain this forecast as evidence of my luck or prowess now. I think Obama is something of a populist visionary/demagogue, has loose ideas on tax and tariffs and defeatist attitudes on [...] |
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