Fresh updates from the world of emissions trading: Read more »
Fresh updates from the world of emissions trading: Read more »
The unfolding mass human tragedy that is the Burmese cyclone (the specifics of which I don’t have anything except that a) I hope that the junta stops putting up barriers to international assistance, and b) that it’s going to make the global food crunch worse) reminds us of the awesome power of nature to inflict death and destruction. Read more »
I’m quite the fan of George Megalogenis’ journalism, for a number of reasons. Unlike too much of the instant analysis which passes for political commentary which almost always sticks to a singular press gallery script, Megalogenis has an eye both for longer term political trends, and a desire to connect psephological and political observation with social research. My caveat would be that his matching of census data with electorate level voting patterns is methodologically flawed in two ways. Read more »
This piece was written last week, and didn’t make it into print among the plethora of musings on the Australia 2020 summit. It should be noted that after I put pen to paper, the stories about the final communique having a rather tenuous link with the discussions in the stream emerged. That’s disappointing, but hardly surprising. I learnt a long time ago that whoever writes the minutes of a meeting is in an incredibly powerful position. Read more »
Newspoll tomorrow has Brendan Nelson up one point to 10% as opposed to Kevin Rudd’s 71% (down two points) on the preferred PM question. Within the MoE, Dennis. Labor’s up two on the 2PP to 61-39.
Dennis Shanahan actually spoke some sense recently: Read more »
Two debates have cropped up in the last week or so which touch upon resolving some of the hairy issues raised by climate change. The first is the global disaster unfolding that is the food crisis. Like the oil crisis, the food crisis has shown what happens when globalisation goes bad and instability in supply collides with growing demand. The second is the national issue of the Rudd Government's carbon capture and storage (CCS) dalliance. Read more »
I’ve been intrigued to see the debate about the funding and direction of the ABC go underground since last year’s election. Although Kevin Rudd only promised “adequate funding”, the defeat of a government that expended so much energy on critiquing “bias” and whose acolytes in the commentariat never tired of denouncing the ABC in hyperbolic terms has probably served to siphon off much of the intensity of the public broadcasting budget wars. Read more »
As a follow up to the discussion of the 2020 Creative Australia stream here, I’m reproducing (with permission) below the fold an article by Nicholas Pickard in today’s Crikey. Read more »
Nutrient deficiency is something we generally associate with the developing world. But in Australia? Hardly. But, apparently, iodine deficiency is so prevalent in Australia - around half the population is iodine-deficient to some extent - that the government is likely to mandate the use of iodized salt in breadmaking. At least one professor is arguing it’s still not enough: Read more »
Like 2020 summit participant Professor Hugh Possingham (though possibly for different reasons), I’m a little bit disappointed with the 2020 sustainability sub-summit outcomes. But he does mention one interesting, positive development: Read more »
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