labor government
(Courier Mail) AUSTRALIA is to spend $30 million to protect forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, to tackle climate change. [..] Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the project would protect trees on the mineral soils of the province of Jambi, and comes on top of an existing conservation project in the swamp forests of central Kalimantan. [..] Australia will not be able to count the greenhouse emissions saved against its own target to cut emissions. But international negotiations over a new climate deal may allow countries to pay others to cut their emissions, then count the emissions savings themselves. Australia has promised to send money to the developing world to help tackle climate change, as part of UN climate negotiations. read more
I went to work today to help fund some East Timor hating clowns in Indonesia? What's wrong with the Indonesian government funding their own Sovereign matters? They don't want our cows any more, so they'll be saving $700 million a year. I must have been dreaming, but I could have sworn that the Copenhagen meeting was a flop and no ETS is in Australia. Why don't we bail out Greece as well -- This Ms.Ying-yen Wong woman giving away money we don't have needs to be sacked ASAP!
(SMH) Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is stripping away a woman's right to have her baby at home, protesters around the country have been told. Hundreds of people have come together across Australia at 13 simultaneous rallies to protest against the government's planned overhaul of maternity care. NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon told a crowd of about 100 in Sydney that access to a homebirth was a woman's right. "We are in an extraordinary situation when a woman can choose to have a caesarean but she can't choose to have her children at home," Ms Rhiannon said outside the office of the federal Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek. Ms Rhiannon said the government had succumbed to pressure from Australian Medical Association, which is opposed to home birthing. The proposed new laws, introduced to parliament last year, will require all midwives to be insured and part of a new national register. But a two-year exemption will apply for up to 200 independent midwives, who are unable to gain insurance because it is no longer provided for home birthing. They will also have to work in collaboration with a doctor - who will be able to override their decisions - to access Medicare insurance and pharmaceutical benefits for homebirths. The overhaul has outraged homebirth groups, which say the practice will be forced underground, a concern that was also highlighted in a recent Senate inquiry. Christine Wrightson, who had two planned home births, one of which ended up being in hospital due to complications, told the crowd in Sydney that it was not for the government to decide how women give birth. "I had one child in hospital and one was born at home - for both births we chose to be under the care of a privately practising midwife," Ms Wrightson said. "This was because it was extremely important to me to minimise the chance of medical intervention as I strived to have a natural birth. "At the time I never imagined that this could be something the government could take away from me - not in Australia and not in 2010." Less than one per cent of births registered each year in Australia are homebirths. By contrast, The Netherlands has the highest home birth rate in the western world at around 30 per cent. source
(SMH) The federal government will spend $69 million to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks across Australia. [..] Mr Rudd said home-grown terrorism was now a "reality in Australia" and the threat was no longer just something that travelled to Australia from overseas. "The threat of home-grown terrorism is now increasing," read more
Gee, those behind the September 11, 2001 American attacks must be happy their terror has turned countries as far away as Australia into police states. We can hear Benjamin Franklin from the grave yelling out; "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Today we have Kevin Rudd in the flesh announcing that terrorism is now "permanent" in Australia. In case you don't know what the word "permanent" means, here's a link to the dictionary explaining it.
(APP) A picture paints a thousand words so a good understanding of our gross debt is seen in the graph above. It shows clearly that the Coalition is a government that pays off debt and that Labor is a government that creates debt and Mr Rudd is creating debt at a faster rate than has been seen in recent history. With gross debt currently in excess of $125 billion one would be foolish if they were not concerned by the trajectory of the growth in debt. How would you feel taking this to your local bank manager as an example of your fiscal prudence, and the ceiling insulation program as an example of your management technique? learn more
(SMH) A program in which every school child in Australia would be given an identity number so their academic progress could be tracked through their school life is expected to be announced by the federal government as early as today. The Herald understands the number, to be known as a ''unique student identifier'', will be annexed to the My School program, which publishes the performance of individual schools on the internet. [...] The ''unique student identifier'' is expected to cause controversy and raise privacy concerns. read more
(APC MAG) Stephen Conroy has expressed admiration for what he termed as Google’s role in suppressing controversial web content in China, Thailand and other countries. In the latest twist over his controversial Web filtering scheme, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has expressed admiration for what he termed as Google’s role in suppressing controversial Web content in countries like China, Thailand, and elsewhere – and confirmed he is trying to use similar filtering to prevent Australians from viewing offensive content via Google-owned YouTube. read more
Beef imported to Australia from countries where there has been an outbreak of mad cow disease will not be traced back to individual farms, a Senate inquiry has been told. Yet beef farms in Australia are subject to full traceability through the National Livestock Identification System. The double standard drew the ire of coalition senators during a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday. "How on earth ... can we be sure about the beef that's coming from that (overseas) property?" Nationals senator Fiona Nash asked the chief veterinary officer from the government's Biosecurity Service Group. Asked whether there would be individual assessments of traceability, Dr Andy Carroll replied: "No." read more
Why import healthy cows, let alone possibly infected ones? What's next, importing coal, iron ore, wheat and beach sand?
(AdelaideNow) ALL Australian homes will have to undergo a mandatory energy-efficiency assessment - costing up to $1500 per property - before they can be sold or rented under new laws to tackle carbon emissions. The mandatory assessment - being drafted into law by the federal and state governments - will rate homes by an energy efficiency star system, similar to the ratings given to fridges and washing machines. It will apply to all commercial properties from later this year and to all residential properties from May 2011, Adelaide Now reports. [...] The Council of Australian Government's National Strategy on Energy Efficiency says Mandatory Disclosure will "help households and businesses prepare for the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme" read more
(AAP) Opposition finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce has been heavily criticised after suggesting aid to the third world should instead be spent on reducing food costs in Australia. Senator Joyce described as "galling" a decision by the Rudd government to give the World Bank $150 million, a third of which he said would be used to reduce food inflation in developing nations.[...] Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Senator Joyce said the government should be giving more attention to "food inflationary aspects in this world" rather than boosting funding to help the third world. "It just seems to defy logic ... there's something galling by the fact that the Labor Party went to the election saying they would ease the squeeze, that they were going to put downward pressure on food prices. "What happened to that? We ended up with the highest food inflation in the western world. And in the middle of this, they're sending $50 million to help other nations out. read more
related: Lord Rudd's "thousands of dollars" three course in flight meals
(Ziggy Zapata) The top six leading members of the Rudd Labor Government from Rudd down, have a collective work experience of 181 years, but only 13 years in the private sector. If 11 years of those 13 years that were spent as trade union lawyers are deducted, of the 181 years, only two years were spent in the private sector by these fiscal geniuses. The sad truth is that the people who will rack up a nett Federal debt of a minimum of $188 billion, the highest in our history, have virtually no experience in business. So out of 181 years, these people have..." learn more
Wow, only two years experience in the private sector. Pauline Hanson who's been "copied and vindicated" had more private sector experience -- seriously think about that before clicking here and seeing the $300 billion communist shackles comrade Rudd placed on our Australian great grand children. For the record and living up the site moto, we're not Liberal fans either after Howard bent a knee (3mb video) before a three times failed businessman called Bush, taking us into Iraq clocking up over one million dead Iraqis since 2003 because of some WMD dribble Bush and Blair were aware of 12 months before
related: The bloke you're taxes are supporting for the rest of his life, admitted oil is the reason for Iraq
