The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.
Let’s hope he is right. Neville Gillmore. Rio declares RSPT dead Friday June 25, 2010, 5:00 pm The head of Rio Tinto in Australia says the mining super profits tax, in its previous form, is dead. Sam Walsh made the comments at the opening of the company’s new operations Continue Reading →
June 25, 2010
FOR months, a group of Labor senators who did not like Kevin Rudd had been meeting regularly for dinner.
On Tuesday night, the location was La Capanna restaurant in Kingston. Senators David Feeney, Steve Hutchins and Mark Bishop were among those at the table.
There was the usual grumbling about the boss but no serious talk of a coup. With two days of Parliament left, there was no momentum to roll the leader and Julia Gillard was not openly agitating.
The next day, the mood changed. A story in the Herald revealed Mr Rudd had charged his trusted chief-of-staff, Alister Jordan, with gauging support for the leader in the wake of bad polls. It was seen by those looking for an excuse as a sign the leader did not trust Ms Gillard’s pledges of loyalty.
At 9.30am on Wednesday, Senator Feeney, from the Victorian Right, and Mark Arbib, from the NSW Right, asked Ms Gillard to challenge.
Ms Gillard, also cranky at the Herald’s revelations, asked Labor’s veteran fixer, John Faulkner, to organise a meeting with Mr Rudd. They had a hostile exchange before question time.
Feel our pain: Drilling proponents arguing for a temporary injunction against the ban say it could cost more than 10,000 people their jobs if you count everyone on shore whose income is linked to the 33 affected deepwater rigs. Government attorneys counter that until they know what caused the Deepwater Horizon explosion, they can’t risk another underwater blowout. A federal judge will decide today or tomorrow whether to grant the temporary injunction. [UPDATE: On Tuesday, the judge granted the injunction and blocked the ban.]
Bankruptcy expert Peter S. KaufmanPhoto: Gordian GroupThere is a reasonably high chance that BP could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the next few years, or even months, and the result would be an “absolute horror” for the government, according to a bankruptcy expert.
Peter S. Kaufman, the President of investment bank Gordian Group and head of the firm’s Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice, told me that if he had BP’s ear, “I’d advise them to explore the option of bankruptcy.” If he had the government’s ear, he’d tell them to stop berating the company to the point where BP would find it appealing to use bankruptcy to limit its liabilities.
Australia’s union movement has fallen in behind new Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saying they’ll fight tooth and nail to help her defeat Tony Abbott.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has pledged its support for the nation’s first woman prime minister, saying a return to a Coalition government and Work Choices is not an option.
Ms Gillard has said voters will go to the polls within months, after senior Labor figures urged her to capitalise on her honeymoon period as the nation’s new prime minister.
‘We will stay focussed on preventing the Coalition from reintroducing Work Choices and attacking the rights of Australian workers,’ ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said, after Kevin Rudd stood aside for Ms Gillard when his party turned against him.
leadership spill
24 Jun 2010
Julia Gillard is our new PM as Kevin Rudd is knifed by ALP apparatchiks. In the end, Rudd’s only supporters were from the Left faction that he didn’t support, writes Ben Eltham
In the end, his fall was precipitate, even Shakespearian.
A leader who had once been so popular and powerful finished his reign isolated and bewildered. For months now, support for the Prime Minister has been slipping away: in the polls, among factional power-brokers, and among the MPs and Senators of his party.
One by one, and then all in a rush, Rudd was deserted by his supporters. The revelation his chief of staff, Alistair Jordan, was ringing around doing the numbers yesterday underlined the extent of his isolation within his own government. Where were Rudd’s loyal factional lieutenants? The stark truth was Rudd had none.