Every Monday morning during my radio show on community radio 4ZzZ FM, I chat with Peter Black, a constitutional lawyer, follower of social and political issues and obsessive user of social media. I don’t normally put links to those chats on this blog, but given that our talk this morning was all about the federal election, I thought it was worth putting a link to it on this occasion.
You can have a listen to it by clicking on this link.
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Given I am now running as a Greens candidate, I suppose it is no surprise that I am indicating my agreement with a comment that Bob Brown made today. But I would also say that it isn’t any secret that I haven’t agreed with every public comment that Bob has made, and I would agree with the following comment about the schoolyard level nonsense regarding another possible leaders debate even if it had been made by Steve Fielding:
“What we’re seeing now between the two leaders is an absolute farce and people everywhere are rolling their eyes at Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard not having the maturity to get together to agree to the series of debates which would have enlightened the electorate,“
It is a joke and a sad reflection on the optic and image driven nature of political media coverage in Australia. A couple of weeks ago, there was a three way debate at the National Press Club on important ICT issues such as internet filtering, broadband and wider communications policy. More... ()
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about mountaintop mining in the USA. All mining has some impact, but the sheer destructiveness of this type of mining is astonishing – and that’s before you take into account the greenhouse impact of the coal.
This article in the New York Times details the potential impact of a similar project in West Virginia. The significance of this proposal is that there is the possibility it may be stopped, or seriously curtailed, by the Obama administration, which would be a signal of a positive shift on this issue.
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Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I’ve done, plus an online one
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As I noted in my previous post, this week’s Newspoll saw the Greens register 16% support – the highest that party has ever achieved, comparable to the Democrats best Newspoll result of 17% back in 1990. History suggests it is unlikely that this peak will be maintained right through to election day (or even the next Newspoll) but it is part of a continuing trend of solid Greens results. I’ve written a piece expanding on this, and how the party might approach the challenges ahead, at The Drum/Unleashed on the ABC’s site – which you can read by clicking on this link.
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Contention over Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation has been bubbling along for quite a while now. Unfortunately, as with many issues which become polarised, each “side” is focused on defending their position, which has meant that some important underlying issues are not getting the attention they deserve.
I’ve just had a piece on this topic published at The Drum on the ABC’s website. It’s fairly long, so they published it in two parts – the first part is at this link and the second part is at this one. I should emphasise that the article reflects my personal views, and is not a formal view of the Greens, nor of ANTaR Queensland, who I am also involved with.
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Hip hop fans in Brisbane might be interested in tuning in to my radio show on 4ZZZ FM this Monday morning around 7:30am. I’ll be talking with the Gold Coast based duo Choose Mics, who are launching their debut full length album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers at the Step Inn in the Valley this coming Friday night as part of what will be a big night for fans of hip-hop/rap/urban sounds, with Brisbane’s The Optimen also launching their second album “The Out of Money Experience” as part of the same event.
Even though there is a steady stream of musical offerings in Brisbane, a double album launch of this magnitude doesn’t come along every day of the week, so I’ll dedicate a half hour or so to exploring not just the words and sounds of Choose Mics, but getting a broader overview from them of the hip hop related scenes locally and nationally.
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8 Comments, Comment or Ping
Tony
Well the 1700 emails released last week and over the weekend will certainly add to the opposition of this foolish carbon trade scheme.
People are now starting to finally wake up to the alamists nonsense.
New York Times
and again
Bishop Hill
Tony
Nov 23rd, 2009
paul walter
The Doomajee case is cause for national shame and really shows why no real progress is made in Aboriginal affairs.
Lack of trust.
As ever, Aboriginals ask themselves “why bother”, when whites proclaim the superiority of their civilisation, centrepieced by our so called justice system and urge the victims to rehabilitate themselves to meet “civilised standards, when our “standards”, when the default measure for our “civilisation” is Palm Island and the frightful murder of Doomadjee.
.
Nov 23rd, 2009
Lorikeet
In regard to the “CPRS Endgame”, it would appear that one of the teams has split in 2.
It seems to me that an endgame could be some months off, with the entire proposal being placed in the hands of a Senate inquiry.
You have to admire the tenacity of Peter Dutton, trying to get himself into the position of Deputy Leader under Tony Abbott in order to raise his profile, after his previous plan to desert his electorate in favour of greener pastures failed.
Nov 27th, 2009
Donald Oats
Copenhagen mightn’t be enough based upon scientific evidence, but at least if it goes in the direction it seems it might, then enough countries will be heading on a path in the same direction.
From that we may apply pressure upon those that refuse to carry any burden, however slight. Even Canada has thought it had better make a showing at Copenhagen, now that the USA has.
Perhaps if Copenhagen is successful at getting the countries on the same path, roughly aligned, it may then be possible to adjust the path to be more realistic in the face of the scientific evidence. One can hope.
Cheers,
Don.
PS: Have you thought of running again, say as an independent?
Nov 29th, 2009
Lorikeet
Donald Oats:
Have you ever tried getting the Chinese government to do anything that it doesn’t want? Especially in view of the fact they are producing 55% of emissions?
Dec 1st, 2009
Tony
Donald Oats says: From that we may apply pressure upon those that refuse to carry any burden, however slight. Even Canada has thought it had better make a showing at Copenhagen, now that the USA has.
Put pressure on them for what. Havent your heard the earth is cooling.
This tax grab has nothing to do with the environment. Its all about control and enforcement with wealth distribution. Thats it.
Donald Oats says: PS: Have you thought of running again, say as an independent?
Havent you heard. Andrew threw a left turn into the greens.
Tony
Dec 3rd, 2009
Andrew Bartlett
Thanks Donald
You’re right about Copenhagen Donald. I think there is still a fair chance of some progress being made there which will at least move things further in the right direction – whether it will be far enough, fast enough is an open question, which is why it is important for the general public to keep maintaining the pressure in as many ways as possible.
One benefit of the weak CPRS being defeated is that it opens up the chance of a much stronger scheme being put in place and for there to be much fuller debate about the facts of climate change, what emissions cuts are needed to avoid serious environmental, social and economic harm as a consequence, and how best to bring that about. If the flawed amended CPRS had passed, there would have been a fair chance the government and media would have treated the issue as ‘dealt with’, at least politically, and shifted attention elsewhere.
As noted, I am running again. I’ll be pursuing much the same approach and be as independent minded as I was before – but running as an independent candidate never really appealed to me, as I prefer to put energy in building and supporting a wider group of people. Needing to find a new viable party, the Greens were the obvious choice, given the many similarities with the Democrats over a number of years, and the fact that they are now evolving to take on much of the Democrats’ previous role and approach.
(and best to just ignore Tony – he’s mostly harmless, despite his habit of dishonest propagandising. I hope he only takes that approach on this site, rather than when he’s speaking in his official role for the DLP, although sadly I wouldn’t be surprised if adopts the same tactics elsewhere too.)
Dec 3rd, 2009
Lorikeet
I don’t think Tony is the stupid one on this, but I don’t think Andrew has taken a left turn either. He has just continued down the same relentless path to Global Communism, along with wiping out the livestock industries, and legalisation of amoral recividist acts.
Dec 5th, 2009
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