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Failings and crimes of the Rudd Australian Government:
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Introduction"Every nation has the government that it deserves." (Joseph de Maistre - Letter on the subject of Russia, Aug. 1811)
Nor does Australia have full freedom of speach or of the press. The Howard Government significantly reduced freedoms in Australia, using the "terrorist threat" as the justification; the Rudd Government shows no sign of restoring these important democratic rights. The greatest threat facing the World in the early twenty-first century is greenhouse/climate change. At least two thirds of Australians want serious action from government on the problem of global warming. The Rudd Government promised Australians that it would act on greenhouse, instead it is proposing an inadequate and deeply flawed carbon trading scheme and has not acted on its promise to mandate renewable energy to 20% by 2020 - with the consequence of slowing the introduction of wind power. In December 2008 the Rudd Government identified 94 infrastructure projects worthy of consideration for government support, only one of these was a green energy project; (from Business Spectator). There is a great deal more that the Rudd Government should be doing. The Rudd government does have a hard job to do, following the eleven-year Howard Government which did next to nothing about Australia's shameful greenhouse gas production rates and allowed the Murray-Darling to get into its present pathetic state. |
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Climate ChangeIn May 2009 PM Rudd announced that he was delaying the start of his emissions trading scheme a year (until 2011) and the carbon price for the first year will be capped at $10 per tonne, effectively delaying action on climate change for a further year. He has broken his election promise to the Australian people to take prompt and effective action on climate change.In an attempt to retrieve his government's environmental credibility he announced that he was going to spend almost $1.4 billion of taxpayer's money on the world's biggest solar power project. Far more could be achieved toward increasing Australia's renewable energy generation and reducing emissions by spending the same amount of money on upgrading the country's electricity grid to permit private investors to build wind and solar projects. |
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Solar Credits Scheme
In Issue 107, Apr-Jun 2009, of ReNew (the journal of the Alternative
Technology Association) the following was printed under the title 'Phantom
Solar':
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Carbon trading schemeAustralia's proposed carbon trading scheme is a potential disaster. It aims at reducing Australia's greenhouse gas production by 5% to 15% from year 2000 levels. Anyone with any knowledge of the problem knows that this is not enough.In effect, what the Government will be doing, is to give the big polluters permits to pollute at levels that are quite unsustainable. Should some future, responsible, government decide to bring greenhouse gas production levels down to sustainable levels it will have to pay huge compensation to the big polluters for canceling their pollution permits. If, instead, the government was to introduce a carbon tax it would be possible for future governments to increase this as and when necessary to further reduce pollution. |
Freedoms in AustraliaThe Howard Government reduced the freedoms that Australia had since federation to their lowest ever level; the Rudd Government has done nothing to correct this. Wikipedia lists press freedom in Australia as only satisfactory, not good. The Rudd Government has given no indication that it intends to correct this situation.The right of 'habeas corpus' is ancient. It is the requirement for anyone (whether a police department, state security department, or whatever) holding a person in custody to produce (literally) the body of the person before a court. This right was taken away in the case of a person being held on suspicion of terrorist activities. One can imagine how this law might be misused if it suited some future corrupt government. Australia is one of the very few Western nations that does not have a bill of rights: a list of rights that governments must afford to their citizens. Under Howard - a man who claimed to hold freedom of the press as one of the great virtues of Australia under his watch - intimidated, misled and starved the press of information. Reporters who were approved of got access to ministers' media spin doctors, those who were critical were left out in the cold. Rudd has not changed the rules to improve this situation. If you want true democracy, vote for independents and minor parties rather than for major party people. |
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Christian Sharia
Law in Australia
Many non-Muslims are concerned about Sharia (or Shari'ah) law, the laws that
some Islamic states impose on their citizens.
Sharia law is based on a mix of text from
the Koran and Arab tradition rather than on the ethical concerns that
form the basis of most laws.
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Plastic shopping bagsThe Rudd Government came to power promising to get rid of the common practice of shops providing free plastic shopping bags. A couple billion of these are used and dumped in Australia each year; many are disposed of irresponsibly and cause environmental damage and/or harm wildlife, especially aquatic.In April 2008 Environment Minister Peter Garrett headed a meating of all state Environment Ministers to resolve the issue. Nothing was achieved. The shopping bag issue is a minor one in the big picture and would be easily solved with a small fee on each shopping bag. If the Rudd Government cannot fix it, what chance do they have of raising the resolve necessary to fix Australia's greenhouse gas problem? |
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Little action on climate changeBy far the simplest and most effective way that Australia's greenhouse gas production rate could be reduced would be by the introduction of a tax on all carbon dug out of the ground or imported. (A great many things are taxed, why not coal?) The Rudd Government has opted for the slower and less effective carbon trading scheme and then they have decided on reducing Australia's greenhouse gas production rate by only 5% on our year 2000 levels by 2020.While Kevin Rudd promised an MRET of 20% by 2020 before the November 2007 election, as of March 2009 the Labor Government has not yet even attempted to put this into law. In December of 2008 the Rudd Government announced that it would spend billions of dollars on infrastructure projects to boost the flagging Australian economy. What better opportunity to give sustainable energy a boost? In the Business Spectator Giles Parkinson wrote an article titled Rhetoric and Recompense (full URL - "http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Rhetoric- and-recompense-$pd20081222-MJR6E?OpenDocument&src=sph") Giles wrote that "Among the 94 [infrastructure projects] identified as worthy of consideration for government support... [the Rudd Government chose to support] just one. Amid several hundred billion dollars worth of proposals for toll-roads, ring-roads, access roads, and motorways, dozens of rail lines and freight links from coal-mines, a single $119 million solar energy project in the ACT is the sum total of green projects considered worthy of funding assistance. If it was not obvious ten years ago that neither of the big parties care about environmental matters (and the future of the planet), it is obvious now. |
Fossil fuel subsidies continue
If the Rudd Government wanted to do something significant to reduce Australia's contribution to greenhouse it would introduce a carbon tax. The fact that they do not indicates how much power the coal industry has in the running of 'our' country. (It is evidence that Australia, like the USA, is a plutocracy rather than a democracy.) |
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A vote on independence for Taiwan?In February 2008 Stephen Smith (Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs) publicly stated that he did not support a Taiwanese referendum on the question of independence from China.There is a very important principle here; do a people have the right to decide who will govern them? Surely anyone who believes that democracy is the only legitimate form of government would have to answer in the affirmative. Taiwan has been effectively independent from mainland China since 1949. It has been democratic since about 1988. The question is, do the people of Taiwan have the right to keep on electing their own government, or should they accept rule from the current Chinese government. What right does the Chinese government have to rule even mainland China? They have not been elected by the Chinese people. They have no ethical right to govern at all, especially in Taiwan. It is shameful that the Australian Foreign Minister apparently thinks the democratic rights of the Taiwanese people less important that maintaining good trade relations with the despotic and illegitimate government of China. I have discussed the question of the right of a people to secede in a truly democratic world elswhere on this site. |
Small wind disadvantaged against solarThe Australian Government offers a rebate of up to $7500 for the installation of solar photovoltaic panels on homes and small businesses anywhere in Australia. However, if you want to install a small wind generater and you are connected to the electrical grid you get nothing.This produces an unfair discrimination against the small-scale wind industry. Why would you pay full price for a small wind turbine when you can get a $7500 rebate on solar? |
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Home On this page... Carbon trading scheme Christian Sharia Law Climate Change Fossil fuel subsidies continue Freedoms in Australia Introduction Little action on climate change Plastic shopping bags Plutocracy Small wind disadvantaged Solar Credits Scheme Taiwan Independence Top Voluntary euthanasia |