Angry voters ready to give Rudd the red card
Angry voters ready to give Rudd the red card
Poll: When do you think Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will call an election?
- Early. He will rush to the polls in August or September before his popularity drops further.
-
20%
- Late. He will wait until October or later, taking the time to turn around his fortunes.
-
80%
Total votes: 4399.
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Poll closes in 17 hours.
Disclaimer:
These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.
COMMENT
Australia has near full-employment, a strongly rebounding economy and interest rates are about 2 percentage points lower than they were at the last election.
Yet the government is on the nose and the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, rivals Pim Verbeek as the most unpopular person in the country.
Save our remaining rainforests
Dear Friend,
There has never been a better opportunity to protect Australia’s remaining native forests.
The growth of overseas and Australian timber plantations and a dwindling market for its product means the logging industry is in crisis.
Some companies are even asking conservationists for help to get out.
There is also unprecedented public support for ending logging in native forests.
Kristina Keneally’s flat plague
Kristina Keneally’s flat plague
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- June 15, 2010
AN UNHERALDED State Government concession changing the rules on how much public transport must be nearby for developments to be approved could open the way for strips of high-rise flats, councils have warned.
Rules on affordable housing construction were quietly changed last September while Premier Kristina Keneally was planning minister so blocks of flats could be built within 400m of a bus stop which had services running from 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday only.
Previously the requirement had been a need for bus services to run from 6am to 9pm seven days a week.
The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils warned yesterday the change meant high-rise could now occur in “nearly any Sydney residential street”.
Pensioners pay more after pleas ignored
Pensioners pay more after pleas ignored
LOUISE HALL STATE POLITICS
June 15, 2010
THE Keneally government will take more than a quarter of the $30 increase given to single aged pensioners who live in public housing, despite a federal rebuke and pleas from seniors groups.
From September, public housing tenants in NSW will be forced to dip into the welfare boost granted by the federal government last year to help pensioners cope with the increased cost of food, medicines and electricity.
The clawback was revealed indirectly in last week’s state budget which failed to protect the full pension increase.
The Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmanian governments have agreed that the $30 increase will never be included in public housing rent calculations, which are usually pegged at 25 per cent of the pension base rate.
Rudd takes command of mining tax talks
Rudd takes command of mining tax talks
PHILLIP COOREY CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
June 14, 2010
SENIOR ministers have rallied around Kevin Rudd in a bid to kill off nagging leadership speculation as the Prime Minister resolved to take personal control of the mining tax negotiations to try to bring the damaging dispute to an end.
With Parliament entering what could be its final fortnight of sittings tomorrow before an election is called, ministers and factional bosses, both on and off the record, stressed yesterday there were no moves afoot to replace the Prime Minister with Julia Gillard or anyone else to try to revive the government’s flagging fortunes.
Australian company blamed for oil spill
Australian company blamed for oil spill
Posted
As oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico, there are fears about the potential for another smaller spill in Papua New Guinea.
Two big oil tanks are leaking heavy fuel oil close to the sea on the island of Bougainville.
The tanks used to fuel the massive Panguna copper mine before it was abandoned more than 20 years ago because of a bloody civil war.
The mine’s Australian owner says it wants to clean up the leaks, but Bougainville is still too dangerous for its workers to return.
It has been more than 20 years since the two large fuel tanks at the port of Loloho on Bougainville’s east coast had any maintenance.
Back then, the resentment local landowners felt towards the Panguna copper mine sparked a decade long-civil war that forced the mine’s closure.
Now the tanks are leaking and the ground around them is coated in thick heavy fuel oil.
A black lake lies between the tanks and there are fears it could get worse.
“There’s a faint crack down through there,” said Ron Blenkiron from South Pacific Environmental, a company that wants to clean up the leak.
“This is about 20 mil thick at the bottom here but these cracks will still open up in an earthquake or anything serious like that, so it’s definitely an issue.”
The tanks are only a stone’s throw from the ocean and Mr Blenkiron says the system put in place to contain leaks has broken down.
An oil-soaked pit, just metres from the water, is the last barrier preventing the fuel from leaking into the sea.
“During the wet season, when we first came here, this pit was basically full of water and the oil was about 50 mils from running into the sea, so it was pretty close,” Mr Blenkiron said.
“You’re living on the edge of a catastrophe here.”