Three articles from the weekend news media go a long way to sum up the parlous state of politics in Australia.
Guy Rundle has a piece in the Saturday Paper The political caste playing student politics in Canberra which goes a long way to explaining how this state of affairs has come to pass. Continue reading The state of politics: weekend political commentary
That’s the view of Laura Tingle in the AFR. She has plenty support.
Judges have to appear impartial. Justice Dyson Heydon has said so very forcefully in the past as a judge. Continue reading Saturday salon 15/8
On the morning before the joint party room discussion on same sex marriage I received an email from the Courier Mail with the headline
Laura Tingle is wonderful when she loses patience. She reckons Abbott’s climate policy is “the dodgiest bit of public policy in recent years, possibly since the Coalition’s now infamous $11 billion hole in its 2010 election policy costings.”
She describes the policy a “rubbish” and says that the real target is the Labor Party. Abbott wants to argue that Labor would wreck the economy with higher electricity charges. Continue reading Abbott’s climate con
The Abbott Government’s 2030 emissions target aims to put us at the back of the pack internationally, and the Government will do next to nothing to achieve the target. Continue reading Climate clippings 150
Abbott has maintained on pollie travel entitlements that the system is broken, it’s not so much the actions of individuals. Bronwyn Bishop, however, erred and was Abbott’s pick. If the system is broken, then the party in government is held responsible. Either way Abbott can’t escape. Continue reading Abbott still in the mire
As I compiled the 12 posts on our Simpson Desert crossing photos from the other nine cameras drifted in. Those from Patsy and Don, however, arrived after the series was complete. Their collection contains some excellent landscapes I certainly would have used, had they been available. This selection tells the story of our crossing with links to the earlier posts in the headings. Continue reading Simpson Desert crossing: photos from Patsy and Don
Bronwyn Bishop will have to get by on a pension of $255,000 plus 10 free domestic return flights a year if she were to take the Prime Minister’s hint and quit Parliament at the next election. Continue reading Saturday salon 8/8
The momentum at present is with lithium-iron batteries, which are being used in devices from mobile phones to electric cars. Since the technology was commercialised in 1991 its performance has improved immensely – design tweaks have tripled the energy stored in a given volume. Continue reading Lithium-ion batteries and other electricity storage news
Last week’s Morgan poll had Labor ahead 54-46, Essential continues at 53-47. There was no Newspoll this week but the Abbott Government’s political fortunes remain decisively buried. Interest turns to how the leaders are tracking. Here the news is that “Don’t know” and “Anyone else” are performing very well indeed. Continue reading Poll stuff 5/8
The verdict:
French President Francois Hollande did not turn up to give the opening address at a major climate science conference in Paris recently, being otherwise occupied with questions concerning Grexit. Had he been there he may have been able to explain why France has restored subsidies to the French companies building coal-fired power stations in other countries.
As the matter stands, we are told, a coal renaissance is underway which will deliver a 4°C world, or warmer. Continue reading Coal renaissance, as scientists meet and the faithful examine their conscience
