Progress in the Howard Revolution

John Howard has been determined to change the face of Australian society. Take a look at the evolving control mechanisms and some continuing results:

Silencing critics

The freedom of welfare, aid and environment groups to speak out about government policies has been called into question by a decision of the Australian Taxation Office to strip a voluntary watchdog of its charity status.

The ruling removed Aidwatch's charitable status, and triggered allegations that the Tax Office is being used by the Government to silence its critics.

Working harder and longer for less

An Australian Bureau of Statistics survey reveals the deep incursion work has already made into family and community life.

· The figures show 37 per cent of employees work overtime or extra hours - and about half of them do so for no extra pay.

· Almost a third of Australian employees work unsocial hours - between 7pm and 7am - and even more complain they have no say about when they start or finish.

· The reduced flexibility was felt across the board, but the biggest changes were in construction, entertainment and government employment.

· As for weekends, 16 per cent said they were required to work on Saturdays, and 8.5 per cent on Sundays. One in four were not always allowed to choose when to take their holidays.

Contrasted with:

· Almost two-thirds of managers have some say in precisely when they arrive at work and go home each day.

· Just over half of all managers can take time off when they need it, and make it up by putting in extra hours later.

· Only 10 per cent of managers routinely works shifts.

· Of Australia's 8 million employees, only 3 million, or 38 per cent, were able to arrange working hours to take time off when needed and make it up later.

On housing:

· The average monthly repayment needed to buy a typical first home in Sydney has hit $3000 for the first time.

· This is up $442 on a year ago, and second only to Perth-based first-home buyers who shell out $3009 a month

· Median Sydney first-home price rose 9.6 per cent to $507,400 over the year to March

The $3000-a-month figure is based on repayments required to service a loan worth 80 per cent of the value of the median first home, at the average variable interest rate of 7.5 per cent. It assumes principal repayments are made in excess of interest.

On Vaile

Mark Vaile has foreshadowed a fresh batch of grants to regional areas under a funding program previously attacked as being political pork-barrelling.

The Deputy Prime Minister has also allowed the community-based committees that make recommendations about the grants to keep $1.5 million in one-off funding despite acknowledging they have failed to meet conditions to qualify for the money.

"The Coalition Government has delivered the longest period of economic expansion in Australia's history, but we recognise that the benefits of our strong economy are not distributed evenly across the country," he said.

You get the drift, in the absence of definitive figures on economic impact I am taking a different approach; looking at those areas voters are undeniably hurting. The ‘big picture’ looks rosy, but it isn’t so rosy out in the electorate.

UPDATE:

Going broke going for broke

Despite a booming economy and record employment there are further indications of mounting economic stress from the increase in personal bankruptcies.

These have been accelerating at twice the rate they were last year and the latest figures indicate that 30,000 individuals a year are going broke.

The inspector-general of the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia, Terry Gallagher, recently told a Senate committee that bankruptcies had risen 12.5 per cent in the nine months to March.

"You could go back 10 or 15 years, when bankruptcy numbers were 13,000 a year, and now they are 30,000 a year," he said.

On the trail

If John Howard's worst fears were realised in this year's election, Coalition numbers in the House of Representatives would be halved and the Prime Minister, Peter Costello and Malcolm Turnbull would be among 13 ministers to lose their seats.

A state-by-state analysis of Herald/ACNielsen polls for the past six months provides the first detailed impression of Mr Howard's doomsday prediction last week that his 11-year-old Government faced "annihilation".

… as many as 46 of the 87 Liberal and Nationals seats could be wiped out. How annihilation looks for Howard

I’m in campaign mode and the campaign is against the Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile. He isn’t mentioned in the numbers, essentially because he is a nobody. Even so, we have his party machine to contend with.

I’m finding it fascinating that no one here can recall his name. Bloody hell! If I were Dep PM I would at least sell the idea to my home electorate! But He is far to busy for that. We have a letter box bump claiming Mark Vaile – Our local member & Deputy Prime Minister. I’m sure if I was paying a few grand for letterboxing I’d try and say something more compelling.

But he is a ‘big picture’ man and his latest media burst is – Provide ethanol blends:

“The federal Transport Minister [Mark Vaile] says Australia's major supermarket chains should sell ethanol blended fuel at their service stations.

"They can provide that at three cents a litre cheaper to assist motorists," he said.

The national auto associations claim 4 cents saving, but then say tat would be wiped out by the lower fuel efficiency. They also point out that:

· there is simply not the feedstock in this drought ridden country to provide this alternative fuel.

· There is currently no excise on ethanol, but there will be in time.

· Not all engines can cope with an ethanol mix.

So good one Mark. Almost as good as handing 4300 million to Saddam’s regime!

Commando offensive

Our election campaign is off and running with local media coverage featuring the toy soldier assault. We were out overnight deploying the troops as a back up to the news coverage.

Odd thing is that despite agreeing with the campaign sentiment, Who Cares?, and the low cost approach, the toy soldiers are deemed offensive. The above pic was taken at the candidates bank. He is well liked there and the message well accepted. But the toy soldier when into the bin straight away.

Considering all the various reasons for sensitivity towards military figures we are considering branching out into less aggressive plastic figures. There is no real interest here in the various conflicts this country is involved in, but the novel approach to campaigning is well accepted.

Thanks kvatch for the basic concept. We have a few months to refine the approach, but it beats the hell out of stuffing letter boxes with junk.

UPDATE:

Just for froggy. (see comments)

"The very least they could have done is come up with some cranky bolt action rifle." With sights asw well ;) This little guy chose the best local news network door knob!

Howard is just like Mugabe

'Howard is just like Mugabe'

Prime Minister John Howard finds himself alongside Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in an Amnesty International report which says they are among short-sighted fear-mongers dividing the world.

The human rights pressure group has accused Mr Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security.

Okay, so I’m lazy. It is a great story, but life at campaign central hasn’t left much time for pontificating. Me and the candidate started, before sunup, this morning preparing for the first local media interview.

I had expected a week or so longer, but we are off and running, with possibly six months to go. The toy soldier campaign was a real winner, so we are busy labeling a few dozen to get out overnight to time with tomorrows paper.

As I get some decent pics I will post them, but thank you kvatch, the concept really has legs! Down the track we have around 30 nurses ready to hit town centres dressed in some raunchy nurse outfits to push the Who Cares? about healthcare funding.

It is going to be a long campaign for us, but full of fun I expect. We don’t plan on winning, but we really do hope to make some powerful statements. The web site, rushed as it is for now, is http://robincartledge.galleonpoint.com/ .

Any help from anywhere will be gladly received.

Electoral uncertainties

John Howard failed to get any bounce in the polls from his big election budget. Experts are still uncertain why, but at least one straw poll suggested that many Australians are pondering the idea that we should be putting humanity before the promise of economic growth. Particularly apt as few of us really benefit from the economic growth.

The fundamental battle now is between the Feds who control money supply, of funding, and the states who are in charge of delivery. That at least is those areas which the Feds have not yet usurped. But when it comes to handing out the cash the Feds are unable to simply hand it over without strings, and refuse if the strings are refused.

When we complain about health services the Feds are quick to shunt the blame to the stats. Yet in the recent budget Federal funding for hospitals allowed for 5% growth when the actual growth needs are 7.5%. Presumably they can then blame the states for poor spending habits.

The big funding mismatch has occurred because state funding comes from consumer taxes which are falling. The feds are benefiting from corporate taxes, thanks to the country’s current resources boom. But they are using that money for their own political purpose – our money for their use at a time when there is so much infrastructure need.

Instead of tackling some of the more thornier problems of Federal and state overlap the Feds are intent on playing politics and allowing vital services to run down. It is still too far out to call, but voters are now talking about social and environmental issues being at the forefront of the agenda.

Typically, come election time, the economy will rise to the top of the heap again. But it is tempting to think the growing cynicism in the electorate might just hold out for a change. Tempting, but perhaps not very realistic.

Now this is a campaign

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I love nothing better than a political campaign (Well almost but I’m working on that too.) But this latest campaign (More election excitement) already ranks as one of the best.

This election campaign is so different from anything I’ve tried before. I am officially the campaign “whatsy-thingo-business’. Don’t ask me, I’m just trying to craft a campaign here. Personally I want to shoot some holes in the Howard government incumbency.

Without money or resources I am willing to be creative. It is a big ask, but our opponent, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the National Party and Minister for Transport and Rural Services Mark Vaile, is busy on his version of the Big Picture.

That is Mark’s favourite retort – “you don’t see the Big Picture’. But of course we can. He is currently, for the next week or so, in Queensland trying to save his arse! If the the Queensland support for his rump party dies the Dep PM won’t have a position anywhere, except perhaps as the failed leader of a failed party.

For me it is a great opportunity to engage in the dumbest campaign I have been involved with. Getting attention is the first priority, retaining it comes after that. In fact one of my major strategies is to adopt the ‘Kvatch's Kommandos approach, after I seek permission of course. (I’ll work on that froggy.)

In the end I am really interested, as campaign “whatsy-thingo-business’ in an off the planet approach to a campaign. Help me give Bush’s but plug and his offsider (the offsider is the target) a run for there money, even if it is not out money.

The campaign site is Who Cares? The Big Picture. But it will take a few days to populate the blog. So there is an open invitation for some off the planet guidance here. All weird ideas welcome. Let’s get them!

More election excitement

I can never resist a campaign, though there are some I probably should. The latest, here again in Port Macquarie, is with an independent challenge against Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader, Mark Vaile.

My brother Robin (see pic) has taken up the cudgels and, realistically, is looking to make a statement on the lack of political concern on social issues. His statement:

With a federal election due later in the year I am announcing my intention to challenge Mark Vaile for the seat of Lyne. As leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister Vaile has been consistently lacklustre. As my local member he has been a total failure.

My major concern is with social issues such as health and community well being. A key part of my campaign will be to take the word ‘care’ out of general use, to be replaced by the more accurate ‘Bean Counter’.

Health Care will become Health Bean Counter, for instance, unless a person or organisation wishing to use the word Care is certified and holds a Gold ‘Care’ Tick which must be earned to be gained.

The intention of this control will be to ensure that all Australians are aware of exactly what they are getting.

I realise that I will have to forget my long held love of Constitutional Federalism and adopt the ever popular Centralist stance to achieve this ban but ‘Life was not meant to be easy’ I have heard and there ‘ain’t’ no such thing as honesty in politics.

I shall keep my loyal constituents informed of further policy issues over the coming months and look forward to your feedback.

Robin Cartledge

Some of my regular readers might recall my previous comments on Vaile, particularly in relation to the AWB wheat scandal in Iraq. Knocking off an incumbent currently in the government leadership is not a realistic aim. But there are a few good points to be scored along the way.

It seems my task will be to craft the written stuff so he can then add his colour. I’m not sure how much I will figure in the campaign, as Robin believes I’m just a tad boring. But I will be in for the ride.

Defying predictions

Everyone from opposition leader Rudd to Howard’s team, and most pundits, predicted a boost in the polls for the Howard government following last weeks big spending budget which included tax cuts and other sweeteners.

Not so, according to the latest opinion poll:

The latest national poll indicates that the primary vote for the ALP is 49 per cent, which is unchanged since April. And for the Coalition it's 39 per cent which is only slightly changed from the 37 per cent that we saw in April.

When you look at the two-party preferred - the way that we allocate preferences is based on the last election. This results in a two-party preferred of 57 for the ALP, 43 for the Coalition, which represents a massive lead to the ALP. David Briggs was General Manager of Newspoll

Forty-nine per cent of respondents nominated Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd as their preferred prime minister, up three percentage points from the previous survey, and 37 per cent of voters preferred Prime Minister John Howard, down two percentage points.

Just listening to people around me over the past week there was little change in attitude to the Howard government, but I don’t really regard that small sample as a viable indicator, perhaps I should.

Like the pundits I was of the view that voters tend to overlook the obvious cynicism of vote buying if there is something in it for them. I also run with the economic indicators which are, on the face of it, still with the government. Obviously there are some serious underlying issues in play.

It is still too far out to get excited, but it seems each effort Howard launches to recover support simply makes things worse for him. I will watch with interest.

Soliloquy – Who cares?

It is not often I go down the path of personal reflection, but this has been a week… I have now had hands on experience of just how little the health care system of this country (Australia) cares about positive health outcomes. This is longer than I like and perhaps not the right forum, but I do need to express it.

I have a neighbour who is a stroke victim (we will call him SV). I boarded with him for a while but did not get on well. Prior to the stroke this guy was an acknowledge criminal, he retained the control freak nature which had kept him out of serious trouble.

The fact is, I found him sleazy and amoral, attributes which were not compensated for by his disability. I refused to join in his daily 2 hour drinking sessions, not because I don’t enjoy a drink, I’m just fussy about the company.

I rejected his behaviour, my brother and his girlfriend (a nurse) despised much about the man, but were obviously more caring than I. So Saturday a week ago SV was found in his apartment confused and obviously unwell – he had soiled the apartment fairly comprehensively.

We called for an ambulance and he was taken away. The hospital was not happy as he had signed himself out at least twice before, and they assumed the issue was alcohol related. They did not look further and even dumped his medications, including blood pressure and antibiotics.

So evidence based medicine was displaced by presumptions. By Tuesday he had been moved to a small rural hospital, but had still not seen a doctor apart from the ER doc. He wanted to come home, though how he was going to cope we did not know. But we worked out his issue was stress driven, that he was in deep financial trouble.

Though fairly confused SV knew he had to sort some banking out, and quickly. Not to resolve the bigger problems, but at least meet immediate pressures. We communicated all this to the medicos, but they still seemed to believe they were drying him out.

Come Friday and the hospital phoned to say he signed himself out and was coming home in a taxi. Knowing we were unable to care for him adequately, the next few hours were spent calling every resource we could find. Three strikes! No one was the slightest bit interested, on a Friday afternoon, in SV who was just seen as a trouble maker.

Worse! No one was interested in the stress it was putting on us, supposed, carers who really did not know how to cope with all this. Eventually we gained the attention of the community carers SV uses. It was reluctant and not very helpful.

5 am Saturday the community nurse rolled in in response to SV’s emergency button, then 30 mins later and ambulance rolled in. SV could not get out of bed to go to the bathroom and two burly ambos and a large nurse couldn’t figure out how to move him. My grumpy brother had to show them how to do it. Don’t know or don’t care?

The ambos went and SV stayed, then we spent the morning sorting out his immediate finances. During that process he was visibly relaxing and decided he really needed to go back to hospital. But it was up to two boofhead blokes and an off duty nurse to get him ready.

The nurse/brother’s girl friend was concerned about the smell. She had just cleaned up a death in hospital the previous night and was concerned about the smell of SV, it smelled like death. But we got in and showered him and found he was covered in shit and had not been bathed for a week in hospital.

Where is the care? Where is the dignity and basic humanity. I don’t like the man, but I am highly offended that the professional health system is so ready to dismiss on presumption then let a sick man literally stew in his own juices!

Then came the issue of getting him back to hospital. The ambos were not interested, nor was the hospital. So another couple of hours went by as we badgered the system. My brother tends to have a short fuse and is quick to tell them they are all effing C’s. Not helpful but we were stressed.

Through all that badgering, and later on the phone to the hospital, I gained a reputation for controlled verbal violence. I did not call anyone names, did not give cause to be cut off, but I was unrelenting and not willing to simply give in. When a nurse at the hospital explained that she was only an RN (Registered Nurse) as some sort of excuse I coldly told her I was not the minister for health but I still wanted answers.

I don’t like being this angry. I don’t like having to care about people I don’t like or even caring for ones I do like. Each to there own. The fact is I have enough issues of my own to deal with just now. Caring for someone elses issues doesn't really appeal.

But we did it. SV is now back in the system, for better or worse, and sort of proud that he made a good decision. Given no one in the system is interested in SV’s real issues, still, I don't really begrudge the time out from my own.

I will try not to avoid the bulk of the next few weeks of politicking on these issues. I don’t do health issues as a rule, don’t enjoy them at all. But there are wider issues involved, politically, about where our society is really heading.

The moment core issues, such as welfare, health and education,. Are taken over by money or religion we loose the plot. Once it is no longer about people then why even bother? I thought I didn’t care – now I find the system cares even less.

In Passing…

Just a couple of acknowledgements of issues from past blogs:

Coming...

JOSE RAMOS-HORTA has secured a stunning victory in Timor Leste’s (East Timor) run-off presidential election, winning 73 per cent of the 90 per cent of votes counted so far after sweeping the capital, Dili, and western mountain districts. He declined to declare victory until the final results had been announced.

The main opponent, parliamentary Speaker Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, refused to concede but, apart from in one district, had little chance of making up lost ground.

Going...

Tony Blair will tender his resignation to the Queen on June 27, and step down after a six-week Labour leadership contest that is a mere formality to elect the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

About time Tony! Though it would be encouraging to see some real democracy in the mother of parliaments.

Market Manipulation Economics

While nearly everyone benefits from the Howard government’s election budget the detail is throwing up some interesting dynamics. As I predicted, lower income earners will be better off by about $3 per week. On the other hand a massive injection into education is beginning to look like market manipulation on a grand scale.

The Budget cash splurge has failed to address key issues facing low income earners such as housing affordability, advocacy groups have claimed. New figures released yesterday show the Australian house price index rose 1.1 per cent in the March quarter.

The big item was a $5-billion ‘endowment’ to higher education. The Government says that willl deliver $300-million a year by way of its income stream for capital works in universities.

The Federal Education Department's assessment is of the higher ed underspending, or under-investment Capital Works Program. As of today it's $1.5-billion. So if you simply assumed that that was going to generate $300-million a year, in five years' time you might have caught up with where you're supposed to be.

At the same time, the basics were ignored. Australia currently ranks last across the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in terms of national investment in the education, literacy and numeracy of four-year-olds.

So the big figure has been bandied about and virtually locked away. That is $5 billion the government have access to, in perpetuity, to move in and out of various short term issues. The first of these issues will be to turn university into internationally competitive profit centres.

The Feds have used the spectre of these bags of money to move on the States’ control of higher education. The aim, it appears, is to turn higher education into an international marketplace, ignoring Australia’s own education needs. So again, ‘our’ money will be used to further reduce our investment in the country’s future.

Don’t ask me what our politicians gain from these games. Perhaps it is ego or corruption, I really don’t see the benefit to them or the country. But from the evidence the manipulation is well under way.

Whose money?

Australian Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has been given a green light for tax cuts and other vote-winning spending when he delivers the Government's fourth pre-election Budget on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday cut its inflation forecast for this year, a clear indication it will happily sit back on interest rates for at least the rest of the year. Expectations of a $15 billion cash surplus for this year and another $14 billion for next year underline how much money there is in play.

They call it the ‘war chest’ and talk about how they will use their bountiful surplus to fight the upcoming election. The opposition ALP remain mute of course, given that when they hold power the ‘war chest’ is theirs.

Whose money is it? Surely not those self serving bastards we somehow elect to govern on our behalf. The language suggests the money does not belong to the citizens of this nation, but the governing party.

Being an election year budget it will be full of supposed goodies to temp hungry voters. The reality of election year tax cuts is $2 or 3 a week in the average taxpayers pocket. I’m never quite sure how that transforms into votes.

What the approach ignores ids that ‘their’ money – our money, would be far more value if it was spent on essential health and education services. Even a fraction of the projected surplus (and a fraction is all the tax cuts represent) would go a long way in developing a much needed underpinning to the countries health and education infrastructure.

Not bloody likely, that is too sensible. Howard's latest backflip on industrial relations has given the Government a trigger for a second multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded advertising campaign promoting its workplace legislation before this year's federal election.

It is there money it seems and few are even aware that the country’s wealth is being diverted to free election campaign funds. I know Australia is not alone in this flagrant misuse of public funds. But like elsewhere there is barely a murmur of dissent.

Morally barren

John Howard has an Australian ‘good buddy’ to equal his cobber George W. When Howard has need for a media deflection or character assassination he calls on his attack dog, Senator Bill Heffernan

Heffernan has apologised to deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard for attacking her political credentials on the grounds that she was "deliberately barren". It was, in the way Heffernan does things, a cruel and cowardly attack which sticks to some degree.

Sure he apologised, but it was very much a throwaway apology. Much like the one he offered after his disgraceful attack on highly regarded Justice Michael Kirby some years back. Kirby is an acknowledged homosexual, giving Heffernan some supposed soapbox to charge pedophilia claims.

Like Gillard and the ALP, Kirby was seen as a problem for the Howard government. Heffernan’s immoral attacks are becoming a barometer for just how worried Howard is. They are designed to deflect and destroy, but sometimes they fail miserably.

In this latest case, claiming that a childless women does not have the experience to govern a nation is nothing short of moronic. As is equating gay and pedophilia. The problem is that these low and immoral acts leave a stain, regardless of how erroneous they might be. A ‘humble apology does not undo the statement.

This time though he might have overstepped. The calls for his dismissal are putting pressure on Howard rather than diverting. Even in his own Liberal Party there is more than a little unease. Especially from female members.

Heffernan is a gutless specimen, and not terribly intelligent. Howard has stuck up for him up to now, as he should if he is loading the bullets. This could be an issue where these close friends might now have to bite the bullet and part ways.

Support where you find it

Don’t rely on downunder to put pressure on an Iraq withdrawal. It must rate as one of the weakest support bases, but: Australian prime Minister John Howard today strongly defended President George W. Bush's veto of a law setting out a timeline for withdrawing US troops from Iraq.

Paraphrasing the article, Howard is an ardent supporter of Bush and a key ally in the four-year-old US-led war in Iraq, said that pulling out troops too early would cause chaos in the already violence-ridden country.

We know George W and his cronies are limited in their time scope for this madness. Unfortunately I cannot say with any certainty that Australia’s moronic leadership has any such limits.

Certainly I am hearing a lot of negative comment about Howard’s government, but experience does not translate that into action. Iraq has not really cost Australia all that much. It is minor economically and in lives locally.

That the Bush camp can find any basis of support from Howard defies logic. But then politics usually defies logic. Britain’s Blair will soon announce his departure, but he left the Bush camp long ago. Howard must be the only stooge left.

Grappling with breasts

I would really prefer to blog from a foreign land. In that way I can usually avoid micro issue and concentrate on the grand scheme of thing. But since I have been back in Australia there has been pressure to shoot out media releases on some very specific issues.

The latest comes out of some very real concerns of some local friends, and I guess does really have a universal lure. Health care is an issue everywhere. It has economic implications, especially if issues are allowed to become serious and require hospital care.

So we are talking breasts here and I know it is just one of the health issues which could be dealt with early, given the access to free screening. I have been asked to frame an Australian media release on this. Frankly, what I have read on this encouraged me to post the release here:

Breasts might be sexy, but breast cancer can hardly raise a ripple. That seems to be the case with my local independent member for Port Macquarie, Rob Oakeshott.

I have raised this issue before and since the recent state election and still cannot get any acknowledgement that this issue exists.

Detection of breast cancer provides the best chance of effective treatment for women with the disease.

Benefits of early detection include increased survival, increased treatment options and improved quality of life.

These are well recorded facts, and the evidence is available on the National Breast cancer Centre (NBCC) site.

For women, age remains the biggest risk factor in the development of breast cancer with over 70% of cases found in women aged 50 years and older. NBCC claims that women from Around 40 should have regular free access to screening.

My concern, indeed the concern of many younger women I talk to, is that women younger than 50 have limited access to free screening.

In fact even with a doctors referral woman younger than 45 are required to pay for screening regardless of the risk.

Women of different ages who are at population risk and for women of all ages who are at increased risk of developing breast cancer should have access to free screening.

NBCC say that in younger women, tumours are likely to be larger and more aggressive and overall survival is lower than for older women with the disease.

This is not simply a heath issue but an economic imperative. Limiting screening to a narrow age group has potentially disastrous outcomes in both areas.

On a personal level many women are simply not able to access early detection. The knowledge of the potential and the cost restraints for screening must add to the risk through associated stress.

On the economic side the state, or the country for that matter, would be well in front treating early onset rather than needing to fund intensive oncology units.

I am preparing this for my big brother, with whom I currently live. It is an odd issue for me, but I have actually seen the value of the push.
We are not ready to launch it yet, and any relevant comments would be very welcome.

Campaign going ballistic

Australia’s PM John Howard has not yet signaled a date for the federal election, and as his right, will not do so until the last possible moment.

But the campaign is well under way with Howard and his opposition opponent Rudd launching frenzied media campaigns over the weekend.

The trigger for ramping up the campaign was the Australian Labor Party Conference, an event which would generally entertain us with party infighting and power struggles. But this year there is a whiff of electoral success and the more feisty delegates have reigned themselves in.

Despite Labor’s socialist roots Rudd has easily taken party policy to the centre, and focussed on watering down Howard’s draconian industrial relations laws and going soft on nuclear development in Australia.

In an effort to drive wedges into the ALP conference, Howard has come out hard, ramping up rhetoric on bot these issues. To make his point, Howard had to move into extreme territory; anything for a headline.

Given the current economic climate he might well have shot himself in the foot. The economy, on paper at least, looks good at the moment. But figures released at the weekend show a slightly different story.

Housing prices are moving up steadily, for example, but not across the board. Blue ribbon Liberal seats are booming. But out in the mortgage belt where the Liberals hold many marginal seats prices are dropping, and so is support for the government.

For a government primarily campaigning on economic prowess the Liberals are losing support in their hard won marginal seats. Howard’s increasingly hard line on non-economic issues are not helping his cause.

On the nuclear issue Howard has left himself open to public fears of nuclear reactors in the suburbs. Yet he is talking up the nuclear option while denying issues of climate change which are already having dramatic effects across the country.

As the courts continue to punish employers who implement some of the more extreme aspects of the IR laws, Howard’s troops are feverishly working on amending legislation to close off legal challenges.

Like most voters, Australian’s don’t like any form of extremism and Howard is being pushed to extremes.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

First up I must say that I have no real right to delve into the US constitution. I’m not American or a constitutional lawyer. But having stuck my toe in these troubled waters, and been attacked for how others perceive my stance, I will follow the advice of Lysander Cadwalader (The right to kill indiscriminately"), and clarify.

The difficult concept, apparently, is that I hold that some provisions of the constitution are anachronisms, if interpreted in their original form. For example, the 2^nd amendment was framed in an era of slow loading and largely inaccurate arms.

There is no doubting the intentions of the founding fathers, within the culture of their time. But that aside, the 2^nd Amendment relates to a well-regulated militia as well as an associated right to bear arms.

I doubt the US government would entertain any militia, well regulated or otherwise. Yet they fail to address the issue of dangerous assault weapons in the hands of crazed nuts. Speaking of nuts, I can agree, to a small degree, with this self confessed gun nut:

First and foremost—it’s about handguns and concealable firearms—not long guns, shotguns and rifles. The National Rifle Association (NRA) must be reminded of its middle name. And let’s not blame the victims. It’s the shooters. Yes, there may be some peripheral blame to distribute, but keep it in perspective. Confessions of a gun nut
by Tony Bouza

I’m not so enamoured of the NRA position:

People are often surprised when I tell them that the National Rifle Association is a civil rights organization. It's true. The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is a civil right. And what's more, it's the right that protects all the others.
Sandy Froman: an immediate past president of the National Rifle Association of America

The ability to exist in a relatively safe and secure society must equally be a civil right. The problem with these anachronisms, out of time and place, is the conflict they set up between various civil rights.

So here we have the right to bear and used modern assault weapons while we put aside the provision for a “a well-regulated militia”. Let me remind you of the words of Thomas Jefferson:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Is there not a conflict in those several statements which are held so dear in the US?

Trading carbon for votes

I never fail to be amazed by just how shallow people can be, in their view of the world. Australia’s Prime Minister Howard is never surprised. I think his motto is never underestimate the stupidity of the masses.

Under intense electoral pressure for the first time in a decade, Howard has reached deep into his bag of tricks and pulled out the ultimate lowest common denominator.

“Maintaining economic prosperity — rather than climate change — was Australia's great moral challenge,” according to the PM.

"The moral challenge of our time is not vastly different from the challenge earlier generations faced, It's to build a prosperous, secure and fair Australia — a confident nation at ease with the world and with itself. It's to give every generation of Australians the chance of social mobility."

Any economic prosperity which ignores the threat of climate change will be little more than a dancing mirage at the edges of our bone dry landscape.

Economics focused on money alone is not economics. To ignore the wider setting, in Australia that includes the dwindling availability of water, is hardly likely to enhance our lives in any way.

So Howard is setting out to dupe 20 million or so with the false hope of abundant riches. I wonder what the rest of the world must think of that. Greed usually wins out and simplistic argument seems to be a winner.

I wrote recently of the endless shiploads of coal being shipped out of Australia: Trade at the coalface Great for national prosperity perhaps, though I doubt that, the trade is feeding the rapidly growing Asian markets with dirty energy.

Australian of the Year and science commentator, Tim Flannery , recently offered to hand his honour back because the Howard government refuses to engage on climate change issues. I expect it was Howard’s latest comments (above) that riled Tim.

Tim can put a simple case, but of course he can’t make a politicians promise of bags of cash. Dreams of wealth are sexy, the nightmare of what we are doing to our planet just does not rate.

Now for the bad news

I tend to wake early and by 6 am someone here has the morning network show, Sunrise, on the TV. For the most part I ignore, but five minutes before it ended today, at 8 am, there was a newsflash: An incident has occurred in Iraq involving Australian soldiers. A media conference is scheduled in 30 minutes.

Now honestly, that signals some pretty hard news at the tail of the country’s most respected morning show. An hour later, after the media conference had been shifted several times, I went to the SMH. The news?

Bomb injures Australian troops Two Australian soldiers have been wounded in a roadside bomb blast in southern Iraq, the Defence Department said today.

The injured men were from the Australian Overwatch Battle Group West and were on patrol on a road north of the town of An Nasariyah in Dhiqar Province yesterday.

A department news release said the ASLAV vehicle they were driving in was "extensively damaged and destroyed by a subsequent fire''.

Following my North American experience I full expected a number of deaths. What can you say about a combatant country that still reports injuries as major news? I simply offer as a reflection.

Looking at other agents of death

In the aftermath of the Virginia shootings there have been some excellent comments regarding balance in responses. One in particular from romunov “More people die in car accidents every year, and no one is bitching about that.”

This issue has been bothering me, here in Australia, for some weeks now. The trigger was a week or so of sensational news reports, example Three dead, one missing after Sydney Harbour crash ABC Online, Australia - 28 Mar 2007.

I can have sympathy for the families involved, but the daily road carnage gets nowhere near the coverage, even international coverage, this story had. So water is swexy and roads aren’t.

Soon after we had the annual Easter death spree on Australian roads:

The New South Wales Easter road toll stands at six, while there have been three fatalities on Queensland roads, two in Western Australia and one in the ACT. Victoria's road toll for the holiday period was six. Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory remain fatality-free.

The numbers were broadcast throughout the period like a sort of horse race. Can we beat last years record? The only incident sensationalized was:

Three special operations troops, who had survived combat in the world's major trouble spots, died when their car crashed as they headed back to their base at the Swan Island military exercise site, southwest of Melbourne.

The rental vehicle veered off a bridge between Queenscliff and the island, and plunged into the water at high tide

No great carnage, just fuzzy shots of divers and their boats. Again, water is cool, but showing the reality isn’t.

26 people dead, over the few days of Easter, isn’t nearly as compelling as a school massacre I guess. It is just something we accept.

The interesting part of the Easter road deaths is that those jurisdictions in this country with the toughest road laws still had the highest number of deaths. I have not done a per capita, but acknowledge the larger populations.

While on death

Another ‘value of life’ issue making waves here is euthanasia. We were recently treated to our new federal Minister for the aging championing palliative care as a valid alternative to a rational choice to a dignified death.

At the same time we are seeing evidence that patients live somewhere between three and six months in palliative care. Part of the problem is that nursing homes are profit motivated and vastly understaffed. Not much dignity in that system.

The link between these issues is the way our societies make their judgements. Few, it seems, have any great respect for the value of life. The gun deaths are regrettable, deplorable. But so are the many other travesties we seem to encourage by innapropriate community standards.