As we have seen from the last few days there are no certainties and precedents don’t count when politicians panic.
Category: Sustainable Settlement and Agriculture
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.
GILLARD POISED TO DEFEAT RUDD
Party sources tell the ABC that Ms Gillard agreed that the party faced electoral annihilation with Mr Rudd at the helm.
As a series of secretive meetings were held around Parliament House the ABC became aware of the moves against the Prime Minister and broke the story on air and online at 7:00pm AEST.
That accelerated events as the conspirators were hoping to finalise their plans without the media catching on. As it played out it became clear that even senior ministers were unaware of the power play.
One Cabinet minister told the ABC: “I am sitting in my office watching all this unfold on TV. I have no part in this and no idea what’s going on. This is madness.”
Rudd’s pitch
Announcing the party room spill, Mr Rudd listed his achievements and unfinished plans.
“I was elected by the people of Australia as Prime Minister of Australia. I was elected to do a job,” he said.
“I intend to continue doing that job. I intend to continue doing it to the absolute best of my ability. Part of that job has been to steer this country through the worst economic crisis the world has ever seen in 75 years. I believe the Government has acquitted itself well to that task.
“Part of the reason the Government was elected was to deliver fundamental reforms in the health and hospital system. I believe the Government has acquitted itself well to that task as well.
“Part of what the Government was elected to do was also to deliver fair outcomes for pensioners in Australia, and I believe we’ve done that well by increasing the pension to the extent that we have.
“These are important reforms; infrastructure, education, health, hospitals, closing the gap with Indigenous Australians, also the apology to the first Australians. As Prime Minister of the country I’m proud of each and every one of these achievements. There is much more to be done and we intend to get on with the job of doing it.”
And after weeks of denying the internal disquiet at his leadership style he admitted that he knew some in his ranks were out to get him.
“It’s become apparent to me in the course of the last period of time, the last several weeks, that a number of factional leaders within the Labor Party no longer support my leadership,” he said.
“That is why it is imperative that this matter be resolved”.
“I was elected by the people of Australia to do a job. I was not elected by the factional leaders of the Australian Labor Party to do a job, though they may be seeking to do a job on me, that’s a separate matter.”
Never popular
Mr Rudd never enjoyed the popular support of his party and his autocratic style has further soured the relationship. His centralisation of decisions and the narrowness of the group of ministers he consulted is being blamed for many of the party’s woes.
The feeling against him is visceral.
One powerbroker said: “This crypto-fascist made no effort to build a base in the party. Now that his only faction, Newspoll, has deserted him he is gone.”
The collapse in the polls followed hard on the heels of the decision to suspend the Government’s push to set up an emissions trading system.
Having declared climate change the greatest moral and ethical challenge of our time, the electorate reacted viciously and polling on both sides showed many voters lost faith in the Prime Minister.
Others in the party say it is the steady flow of asylum seekers that is killing the Government in marginal seats.
Last night Mr Rudd suggested he was not behind those decisions and suggested that, if he was removed, the party would lurch to the right chasing votes.
“I believe it is absolutely wrong for this country and absolutely wrong in terms of the values which we hold dear, to get engaged in some sort of race to the right in this country on the question of asylum seekers, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“That’s the direction the Liberal Party would like to take us, under my leadership we will not be going in that direction.
“Furthermore, can I say this, on the question of emissions trading which you have raised and obviously is a matter of great controversy in the community.
“Let me be very clear. Action on climate change cannot be achieved in the absence of an emissions trading scheme. We need a price on carbon. And that price on carbon needs to be put on it within a reasonable timeframe. That would be the decision of the government, assuming I am re-elected as Prime Minister.”
This Prime Minister usually doesn’t sleep much. He won’t sleep at all tonight.
This is unprecedented. These are historic times. And should he fall today, history will not be kind to Mr Rudd.
Governments refuse to act to save builders as ‘junk’ insurance schemes collapse
Governments refuse to act to save builders as ‘junk’ insurance schemes
collapse
Canberra, Wednesday 23 June 2010
Many builders across Australia will be forced to operate illegally or
close their doors after June 30 if governments fail to remove the
mandatory requirement for Last Resort Home Builders’ Warranty Insurance.
Today in the Senate, the Rudd government refused to even acknowledge the
problem.
Most state governments still require builders to have the insurance in
order to operate, even though it has been described as ‘junk’ insurance
and has been the subject of numerous inquiries, including a Senate
Inquiry established by Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator
Christine Milne, last year.
“With one of the last remaining companies offering this ‘junk’ insurance
withdrawing on June 30, many builders will be unable to get cover and
others will likely be subject to price gouging from the virtual monopoly
that will be left,” said Senator Milne.
“It’s not good enough for the government to say this is a State issue
while hundreds of jobs are on the line. The Commonwealth can and must
step in to save jobs and small businesses.
“These people are the backbone of the Rudd government’s economic
stimulus, but they won’t lift a finger to make the changes builders need
to keep operating legally.”
The government and opposition voted against a motion from Senator Milne
noting the problem and calling on the government to step in.
“It’s well past time the Rudd government took some responsibility and
worked with the states to ensure they implement reasonable and effective
home builders warranty schemes, along the lines of the Queensland model.
“In the meantime, the Rudd government must urgently work with state
governments to remove the mandatory requirement for this ‘junk’
insurance before builders are forced to close their doors or operate
illegally as soon as next week.”
The Senate notes that:
1. A crisis is looming in the building industry with Vero exiting
the Last Resort Builders Home Warranty Insurance market in NSW by
September 30th and in all other states by June 30th leaving only two
providers in the market, QBE insurance and Calliden;
2. This insurance product is mandatory by law in all states except
Tasmania and Queensland;
3. Thousands of Australian builders will be left without this
insurance product on June 30th requiring them to build illegally or to
stop building immediately unless QBE provides insurance or there is
government intervention within the next eight days;
4. Small building firms will be disproportionately affected as they
will not be as attractive to a virtual monopoly provider as large
building firms; and
Calls on the Federal government to act immediately with their state
government counterparts to remove the mandatory requirement for this
product before this impending crisis in the building industry occurs.
Tim Hollo
Media Adviser
Senator Christine Milne | Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate
Change Spokesperson
Suite SG-112 Parliament House, Canberra ACT | P: 02 6277 3588 | M: 0437
587 562
http://www.christinemilne.org.au/| www.GreensMPs.org.au
<http://www.greensmps.org.au/>
Greens call for immediate increase to aged care funding
Greens call for immediate increase to aged care funding
Wednesday 23 June, 2010
The Federal Government has again demonstrated its lack of understanding
of Australia’s aged care needs, failing to commit to the immediate
funding increase called for by the aged care sector and supported by the
Australian Greens.
Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for Health and Ageing used
today’s Question Time to ask the Government if they planned to restore
the Conditional Adjustment Payment supplement of 1.75% from July 1 in
order to correct the nation’s alarming aged care funding shortfall.
“Yet again, Government has failed to provide leadership on the issue of
aged care,” Senator Siewert said today.
“Over the last decade, successive Federal Governments have presided over
a widening gap between the costs of providing care to Australia’s ageing
population and the level of funding being invested in the sector,”
Senator Siewert said.
A Government letter, responding to concerns raised today by the Aged
Care Industry Council claims a significant increase in spending on aged
care over it’s term in office.
“This increase does not represent a real increase in the level of
subsidy being provided across-the-board to meet recent significant rises
in the cost of providing care,” Senator Siewert said.
“What is needed is the immediate restoration of the 1.75% Conditional
Adjustment Payment supplement for residential care, and for it to be
extended it to community care from July.
“The Greens understand that aged care providers are not at all happy
with today’s response from the Government and we will continue to
support the campaign for sustainable aged care funding,” Senator Siewert
concluded.
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Big swings against Kevin Rudd in key marginals
In Labor-held seats where the Greens’ vote is low, support is dramatically shifting from sitting Labor MPs to the Coalition, removing hopes of Labor surviving on preferences and boosting Tony Abbott as the prospective prime minister.
Most voters are dissatisfied with Mr Rudd as Prime Minister in the five seats polled by The Australian, with a high of 61 per cent in western Sydney seat of Lindsay where the Opposition Leader is ahead as the preferred prime minister.
Julia Gillard is the preferred Labor leader in Lindsay, although Mr Rudd is ahead as preferred prime minister and Labor leader in the three marginal seats polled in his home state of Queensland.
As the NSW state Labor government reels from the weekend loss of the western Sydney seat of Penrith after a swing of 25 per cent, the key federal seat of Lindsay, which the Liberals won from Labor in 1996 and lost in 2007 and which incorporates much of Penrith, has suffered a 12 per cent swing against it on a two-party-preferred basis.
According to a special Newspoll survey of three marginal Labor-held seats in Queensland and two Labor-held marginals in NSW, Labor could lose 10 Queensland seats held by margins of less than 6 per cent and at least four or five seats in NSW. Senior Labor MPs fear the dispute with the mining industry over the resources super-profits tax, community concerns about illegal boat arrivals and disenchantment with Mr Rudd as Prime Minister mean the ALP will lose the election.
The Newspoll survey, covering the Labor seats of Dawson, Flynn and Longman in Queensland and the NSW seats of Lindsay, in Sydney’s west, and Page, on the north coast, shows Labor’s primary vote is even lower in some marginals than the 35 per cent it was in the national Newspoll survey taken last weekend. The NSW seat of Page is Labor’s only bright spot in the marginal seat survey because the ALP primary vote is level with the Coalition on 38 per cent but is pushed to a two-party-preferred figure of 55 per cent to the Coalition’s 45 per cent because of Greens’ preferences.
In the three Queensland marginal seats, the ALP’s primary vote is 34 per cent compared with the Coalition’s 45 per cent, giving the Coalition an election-winning two-party-preferred lead of eight points there, 54 to 46 per cent.
At the 2007 election, Labor’s two-party-preferred vote in the three Queensland marginal seats was 52.1 per cent compared with the Coalition’s 47.9 per cent.
In Lindsay, which includes the state seat of Penrith, Labor’s primary vote is 34 per cent, compared with 51.4 per cent at the 2007 election. Labor’s two-party-preferred vote is down from 56 per cent at the election to 44 per cent.
The Coalition’s support has reversed, going from a primary vote of 38 per cent and a two-party-preferred vote of 43.6 per cent at the 2007 election to 44 per cent and 56 per cent respectively.
In Page, where the Greens’ primary vote has jumped from 8 per cent at the election to 14 per cent last weekend, the Labor Party is even with the Coalition’s primary vote of 38 per cent and ahead on the two-party preferred vote 55 to 45 per cent.
There is more dissatisfaction with Mr Rudd than satisfaction in every marginal seat surveyed, with dissatisfaction at 61 per cent in Lindsay compared with satisfaction of 33 per cent.
In the Queensland marginals, satisfaction is just 30 per cent and dissatisfaction is 59 per cent. In Page, satisfaction with Mr Rudd is at 36 per cent and dissatisfaction is at 55 per cent.
In Lindsay Mr Abbott is preferred Prime Minister at 44 per cent to Mr Rudd’s 40 per cent and the Deputy Prime Minister is preferred Labor leader by 45 per cent to Mr Rudd’s 36 per cent.
In Queensland Mr Rudd is six points ahead of Mr Abbott as preferred Prime Minister, 45 to 39 per cent, and in front of Ms Gillard as preferred Labor leader 48 to 34 per cent. In Page, Mr Rudd is up six points on Ms Gillard and 16 points over Mr Abbott.
Compared with the national Newspoll survey taken last weekend, in which Labor had a two-party-preferred lead over the Coalition of 52 to 48 per cent because of the 15 per cent primary vote for the Greens, the marginal polling in Queensland and western Sydney is much worse for Labor.
Yesterday, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young indicated it would be a mistake for the government to assume Greens preferences would flow to Labor with the same generosity as at the last election, when 80 per cent of Greens preferences went to Labor.
She said some recent polling put the ratio at 60:40. “Who (voters) put as their second preference, that’s totally up to them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the distribution changes at this next poll.”
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