Australian Election 2013

This election would have to be the most uninspiring that I've ever had to vote in. The Labor party I just can't seem to be inspired by, I just get that feeling that they are only united because of the election and Kevin will go back to his cranky micro managing everything. The Coalition, well nothing inspiring, no vision. Not that Labor has either...

The only glimmer of hope is that the independents, they will add a bit of color to politics if they get a few seats, even more so if they have the balance of power.

This last parliament I recon they made it harder for the minority government to govern. But they kept the legislative process more accountable. I think there were better outcomes than just a majority labor or liberal party's in power.

So with the minor parties we have Palmer United which appear to be polling well, Katter's Party and the Greens. So Yeah for the minority's and independents!

On a Christian perspective, Mark Connors has it right with politics on his blog a nice balanced perspective.

 

Labor, I lower my head and weep

Since 2007 In which Labor brought in hope with a new government, now all is despair. Rudd quitting the front bench only confirmed that all was not well with the labor government leadership. The public can only see a fractured labor, and who wants that sort of leadership running the country. Its terminal.

Rudd:: In many ways brillant, but can he lead others instead of micro manage, I doubt it. His time is up. Having not sided with any of the Labour factions, once his popularity slipped he was gone. He will never be leader again without factional support.

Gillard :: The lady with the knife. She lost the election, but hobbled together a coalition. Poor popularity. The one who went behind Kevin Rudd's back and stole the leadship. Then broken major promices. The only reason she is in power is because of the 'faceless men'. I think she has done well navigating some of the legislation through parlement. Though integrity has a lot of political captial she has zip.

The only hope for Labor is a new leader. I can only see Stephen Smith. Even then I doubt he could defeat Abbot. I doubt that with the fragile numbers in the house of represenatives that the governement will last 3 months. Shame a really.

 

 

election 2010 :: roundup

Well exciting times, just a brief summary of my thoughts::


-The sex party polled better than family first! (What does this say?)
-A hung parliament, no political party gets to push their legislation down our throats without proper review.
-Flinders: for the locals Greg Hunt gave young Francis Ventura a flogging. The Greens like most seats increased their percentage at the expencsive of Labor
-Broadband is still an issue with the independents who hold the balance of power. There is hope for an NBN.

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Election 2010:: Flinders a no brainer

If you are a swinging voter then I think Labor party has made the choice easiser for you to choose in Flinders. Especially if you believe that the candidate should represent you.

Its very hard for me to vote in the house of 'representatives' someone who puts their address down as in 'Southbank' 
Poor Francis, the Labor Party bunny.

Anyway I think Greg Hunt deserves to win in Flinders, he's worked hard, made connections in local community groups. Answered my emails. He's worked hard.

Thank goodness their is a Senate though.
Their is no way I feel comfortable with Tony Abbott. One of the most conservative politicians in the parliament. I don't mind moderate left or right, but Tony is way over on the right. I've watch this prodigy of Howard's for a long time. He's got the potential to be Australia's answer to George W Bush.

The Greens are the only way in the Senate to 'Keep the bastards honest', to flog an old Democrat's saying.

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Election 2010 :: Abbott out of puff?

Has Tony Abbot run our of puff? Personally there have been quite a few negatives for the Coalition this week.

The first was the actual Coalitions 'Election launch'. The whole thing seemed to be going back to the 'Good old days' with John Howard given a huge prominence. There seemed to be no vision, no really policy that was innovative.

The second was the communications launch. This one I was really holding my breath on. What I judge this one on is the Crappy service we get on Phillip Island.

Mobile broadband = Crap, as soon as the weekend comes or public holidays the speed goes to a crawl
Fixed line = Telstra. Telstra has the monopoly, no choice. Telstra gets my money for line rental no matter what.

As far as I could understand this is not going to change under the Coalition. That even if it does they have done a poor job explaining it to me how it will.

While the Labor party their is hope with the National broad band. The important thing is I can understand how it will happen.

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Election 2010 :: Labor in Flinders; Oh dear....

From the Frankston Independent::

Mr Gagliano-Ventura, 21, who lists his address as Southbank, appeared to struggle when asked what he thought were the important issues for Flinders electorate.
He said the Hastings pier obviously needed some work, at which point Cr Reade Smith, who is running for Family First, pointed out the pier was being renovated by Parks Victoria.
Mr Gagliano-Ventura said there was "a footpath in Rye" that he would lobby to have built, although he could not say where in Rye it was. He said he had been involved in politics since he was a toddler, going to meetings with his mother, a single parent.

I can't help but think 'Francis' our Labor candidate has been set up. Not living in the electorate, not knowing local issues. Its a real shame. You can't help think that the Labor party couldn't give a stuff in Flinders.   

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Warming....

A report from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has concluded that the world is warming. From the ABC::

"Each of the last three decades has been substantially warmer than the decade before it," he said.

"On a decade scale, that is very clear. The 1980s was the warmest decade on record as of December 31, 1989, but every single year in the 90s was warmer than that decade's average temperature."

Peter Thorne, of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, says the scientists were not swayed by the debate over climate data and whether it had previously been manipulated.

"What this data is doing is screaming that the world is warming, and that cannot be driven by any single individual or even a small set of groups, because the evidence is there to see - there are lots of groups doing this stuff," Mr Thorne said.

The scientists say the warming is due to greenhouse gases and while there were signs of human fingerprints, the report was not designed to attribute blame.

I think all Australians have in recent years have felt the effects of extreme weather, which I believe is connected with  green house gasses. Future generations will depend on what action we take now...

So far both Liberal and Labor political parties in the 2010 election, have been a joke with their sence of urgency with the situation at hand.


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Election 2010 :: Flinders Labor's Candidate

The Labor party now has some information on its site about its Candidate for Flinders Francis Ventnor.

 Francis Ventura is part of Julia Gillard’s team.
 

• Funding 1,000 new nurse training positions every year
• Providing 1,300 new GPs qualified or in training by 2013
• Delivering over 700 new Trade Training Centres for schools
• Increasing hospital funding by 50%.

For me this is no incentive to vote for this guy.
What does he think of local issues!

Election 2010: What is happening in Flinders

After been in other electorates which are marginal I'm amazed at the lack lustre performance by candidates in Flinders . I've not received any information from any of the candidates regarding how if their government would affect local issues!

What is alarming is the Labor candidate. All that I can gather is from Anthony Green's site on the ABC 

Mr Ventura is a Youth Ambassador with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and was previously a Youth Reference Group Member on the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVIC).

There's not much information on Mr Venturas blog. Any content has mysteriously disappeared including his opinion on the Australian Flag, I actually thought his stuff on the Human Rights was really good. Its a pity to see it down.

As a voter there are numerous questions which I think are important for the Mr Ventura the local Labour candidate.

Does he live here or at Melbourne University?
Dose he know local issues? The car ferry at Cowes for example?

At this stage I'm highly sceptical.

Lets see what the next few weeks brings....

Election 2010 :: Labours Enviromental policy

Rumours today of Labours environmental policy,  as reported by the ABC

A re-elected Labor government would ask a new "citizens' assembly" for climate change advice, under a key part of the ALP's new climate change policy set to be launched by Prime Minister Julia Gillard today.

I cannot but agree with Mr Greg Hunt our local man at Flinders who said

 Julia Gillard's proposed "citizens assembly" will fail to produce action.

The problem I see with it is that their is no actual leadership in a citizens assembly. I would rather vote for an environmental plan than somthing that 'might' happen. It's just to wishy washy for me.

The only person talking any sence in Malcolm Turnbull

"The Coalition's policy is not the ideal from my point of view I grant you that, I'd like to see a market-based solution, but I'll tell you this, it does have the potential to meet the emissions reductions targets by 2020," he said.
"The real question is the policy. Everyone knows where I stand, I've stuck to my principles on it. But the fact is, we have got a policy, Labor has nothing."

I think he is right. Labor has nothing!

Politics :: Bass

With changing enrollment details, I received a welcome letter and a survey if I wanted to fill out by our local state memeber "Ken Smith". I filled out the survey noting I thought it was a concern with an elderly population which is growing that there were no 24hr emergency or bulk billing medical services on Phillip island. I got an answer to this question::

If the Liberal Party regain power in November this year, we will  be working with the Federal Government to set up a 24 emergency care facility at Cowes to cater for some of your urgent health needs

It sound positives but....
1) The Federal government is Labor. I couldn't imagine them working with the Libs on this one.
2) Health is a State responsibility.
3) I didn't do the typo "24 emergency", I suspect he means 24 hour emergency.  

Now the Federal election is also around the corner, so I wonder what the opposition environment member Mr Greg Hunt offers.

Copenhagen, a Christian response

Its been a bit disappointing to me to see that there has not been much of a buzz around the Christian literature that I read, no real mention of the environmental efforts at Copenhagen. Or any Christian lobbying regarding the issues.

Politically it was also pretty disappointing.

I think our government went in really wanting to make a change but that didn't happen.

The Australian opposition just looked on trying to score political points with 'I told you so' attitude. Especially after the leadership spill.

The Australian Greens just winged saying it was not enough and a failure.

I can always remember at school during a religious education the discussion came up, 'How will the earth end? The teacher was pointing towards some sort of Spiritual Armageddon. One smart lad said the world would end with a nuclear war... I thought this was the most insightful (It was still during the cold war). But I realize now it will most probably be due to our environmental negligence.

Anyway, I've found the good old wikipedia the best for news on Copenhagan. No real spin, and just trying to report what is really happening. Here is what I think is a good summary::

On December 18 after a day of frantic negotiations between heads of state, it was announced that a "meaningful agreement" had been reached between the United States, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil.^[77] The use of "meaningful" was viewed as being political spin by an editorial in The Guardian.^[78] An unnamed US government official was reported as stating that the deal was a "historic step forward" but was not enough to prevent dangerous climate change in the future. However, the BBC's environment correspondent stated: "While the White House was announcing the agreement, many other – perhaps most other – delegations had not even seen it. A comment from a UK official suggested the text was not yet final and the Bolivian delegation has already complained about the way it was reached – 'anti-democratic, anti-transparent and unacceptable'. With no firm target for limiting the global temperature rise, no commitment to a legal treaty and no target year for peaking emissions, countries most vulnerable to climate impacts have not got the deal they wanted."^[79]

Early on Saturday 19 December, delegates approved a motion to "take note of the Copenhagen Accord^[80] of December 18, 2009". However it was reported that it was not yet clear whether the motion was unanimous, or what its legal implications are. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the US-backed climate deal as an "essential beginning". It was unclear whether all 192 countries in attendance would also adopt the deal. The so-called Copenhagen Accord recognises the scientific case for keeping temperature rises below 2°C, but does not contain commitments for reduced emissions that would be necessary to achieve that aim. One part of the agreement pledges US$ 30 billion to the developing world over the next three years, rising to US$ 100 billion per year by 2020, to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Earlier proposals, that would have aimed to limit temperature rises to 1.5°C and cut CO₂ emissions by 80% by 2050 were dropped. An agreement was also reached that would set up a deal to reduce deforestation in return for cash from developed countries.^[81] The agreement made was non-binding but U.S. President Obama said that countries could show the world their achievements. He said that if they had waited for a binding agreement, no progress would have been made.^[82]