Baggas' Blog

Ob1 posted a link to this video on his blog, and I agree it is a scary thing to watch…

Similar thing in yesterday’s local paper here in Rockingham… they have photos about a bunch of people they asked what they thought about Rudd’s proposed ETS – almost all didn’t have a clue, and another said she thought it would be good for “jobs and young people”

Personally if I was so ignorant about an issue I wouldn’t want my photo in the paper proclaiming my lack of knowledge.. I wonder what the paper’s editors are getting at here (because they do this every week – people showing how little they know on various issues) – are they purposely trying to demonstrate how ill-informed and indifferent our community is? Because if they are, I don’t think the message is getting through… The difference between the Palin video and Australia is that these people in the video are passionate about their ignorant opinions, whereas ignorant Aussies could care less… both are a bad thing, but I think the Palin fans are more scary…

Things are yet again quiet here at work so I’ve had plenty of time to scan the various news websites and read up on the Liberal party leadership intrigues.

Here’s my 2c worth.

1. Malcolm Turnbull lost my remaining respect for him when he publicly sabotaged Joe Hockey on the weekend. It’s clear Turnbull has virtually no chance of remaining leader so why pre-emptively criticise the one person who might be a succesful leader who actually agrees somewhat with Turnbull’s position on the ETS? Turnbull’s loyalty only seems to be to himself rather than the good of his party.

2. Joe Hockey is my favourite person in the Liberals. He seems like a nice, smart guy with sensible opinions on things and he’s a Christian as well. I do feel sorry for him though because he’ll be coming to the leadership in a difficult time with virtually zero chance of winning the next election. I see him as being a bit similar to Kim Beazley – hopefully the Liberals won’t assasinate him as well and over the next 4 years he can rebuild the party and maybe go one better than Beazley did.

3. The Liberals must take some sort of action on climate change. I can see their points about wanting to wait and see what the rest of the world does and that really whatever we in Australia do will make no difference compared to big economies like China, India, USA etc so we shoudln’t put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. But to do nothing is political suicide – Hockey (if he becomes leader) will have a massive challenge soothing the climate sceptics in his party but still remaining true to his own impulse to construct an ETS.  Turnbull’s crash through strategy was a disaster but I don’t know if taking a softer approach will work much better with these hard right wing types. A huge challenge, but if he can somehow get through it and get something passed so the next election is not fought over climate, then Hockey might have a slightly better chance of beating Rudd.

Will be interesting to watch.

Sometimes, instead of just criticizing politicians, it’s good to recognize when they do something right. And in this decision PM Kevin Rudd has made some excellent choices.

Kim Beazley may not have been destined to be Prime Minister, but he certainly was to be Ambassador to the USA – a smart, likeable guy with a huge knowledge and relationship with the USA and vast experience in Defense. There could be no better choice. And I think Brendon Nelson will do well as ambasssador to Europe and NATO – a similarly experienced and intelligent guy, he was even less suited to be PM than Beazley but should be great in this job. Good choices Kev – nice to see a little bit of token bipartisanship once in a while.

… Wonder if Beazley will be as bamboozled as I am over the controversy over President Obama’s attempts to construct a decent universal health care system?

If The World Could Vote

I really feel like the result of next week’s US election will have a profound effect not only on the USA but on the entire world. After watching Obama’s inspirational “infomercial” today on You Tube I am even more convinced of just how important this election is. Wish I had a chance to vote myself, but I’m afraid the closest I might get is the website above, which gives people from around the world a chance to vote, and then tallies the votes by country… and the results are overwhelming as to who the world’s choice is. Check it out, and cast your vote!

My only question is – what’s up with Macedonia? Perhaps next Wednesday John McCain may be considering retiring there…

I’ve seen noted before the eerie similarities between the current US presidential race and the final season of The West Wing (my all time favourite show). Today I discovered an interesting Australian blog about US politics, Kan Da Shan, who in this post, goes into some detail listing the similarities…

Always a sucker for a good quiz, Christianity Today have put up a Church & Politics Quiz. Many of the questions are very specifically geared at the USA and are fortunately issues we don’t seem to ever encounter here in Australia (like having national flags in the sanctuary and the notion of our nation as being somehow “chosen by God”) but it’s still very interesting and worth doing.

For the record my scores were :

• Part 1 Politically Engaged or Disengaged : 29 – You scored between 10 and 32, which indicates that you believe the church ought to be Politically Engaged
• Part 2 Chaplain or Prophet : 27 – You scored between 10 and 32, which indicates that you believe the church should take a prophetic posture toward the government.

This all puts me close to the centre of their grid, but within the “Quiet Critic” quadrant, which I suppose is fair enough. Not the most precise quiz of this sort I’ve ever seen but still worth a look. The Out of Ur blog is hosting a discussion of people’s results but there’s not much there as yet.

Imagine I was a member of a local church of some variety, for example Baptist. And let’s say that some thing happened in that church that I was not too pleased with – maybe they changed the style of music, changed the carpet to a colour I didn’t like – or something a little more weighty like not electing my preferred elder, or employing a new pastor different to the one I wanted. And now imagine my response to such a decision – I kick up a big fuss in the church, complain and disrupt proceedings… and then walk down the road and sign up as a member of the local mosque! Doesn’t make sense does it? For a Christian, no matter how cheesed off I may be, I should remain within the Christian church – not go and join the Muslims.

This is how I see these Hilary Clinton supporters who are threatening to vote for McCain because she got defeated by Obama (and now also was not selected as his VP choice). I’m no expert in US politics but surely policies and party loyalties should come before personality? Obama and Clinton are not too distant from each other in terms of policies and would probably take the USA in similar directions as President, but both are miles away from Republican John McCain. So why would any person who previously supported Hilary give their vote to McCain instead of Obama? It just seems so incredibly childish and petulant to me. If they are opposed to President Bush, how could they risk 4 or more years of the same by voting republican purely on the basis of sour grapes?

Hopefully these fruitcakes are just a vocal minority (see the CNN forums if you want to sample some of their idiotic ramblings) and the majority of Clinton voters will get in line behind Obama. Will be interesting to watch the events unfolding in Denver over the next few days…

The Global Ambition of Rick Warren

this is a great article from Time about Saddleback megachurch pastor Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life. Warren cops a bit of flack on the Christian web, both from conservative dogmatic types and from some emerging types, for being a bit of a lightweight, too compromising, not conservative enough, not liberal enough etc etc – but perhaps this is part of his success. He has managed to present the gospel message in a way that connects with the average person in a real and meaningful way. Although a very smart guy, he keeps his message simple and direct so as not to overwhelm people.

So I’ve always kinda liked Warren, but his story gets better. Not content with having a massive church and being a best selling writer (who gives away most of his earnings though), Warren is now moving more into the political sphere. Fortunately he’s not just becoming yet another of the divisive, condemnatory Religious Right – rather he seeks a more conciliatory, unifying approach to Christian involvement in politics. He seems to see the role of the church as being a force for good, making positive changes in the world, rather than just a defense against bad.

He says he is more interested in questions that he feels are “uniting,” such as “poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate change and human rights”

Interesting article about Warren, his global PEACE plan for Christian mobilization, and his upcoming political forum where he will have both Obama and McCain together for one of the first times this campaign.

In California, a House Divided Stands Strong – NYTimes.com

This is a cool story. The California Governor’s mansion lawn has a mixture of signs supporting John McCain and Barack Obama as Gov Arnold Swartzenegger and his Kennedy family wife Maria Shriver back the respective candidates.

Nice to see that a family like this can have differing political alleigances without it being nasty. But hard to imagine this sort of situation popping up too often. Can you imagine if Kevin Rudd’s wife was openly supporting the Liberal party? Or if Laura Bush showed up at an Obama campaign rally? An article worth reading. I quite admire Arnie’s attitude in the interview.

• The Exigent City – this is a fascinating in-depth article from the New York Times on the history, sociology and architecture of refugee camps around the world. They also have a good article on the groth of new cities.
• Ben Witherington writes an excellent post on God’s freedom, love, and human free-will. I’ve been pondering some of these issues lately so this is very timely.
• On the US election, this article compares the online presence of Obama and McCain, and this article looks at McCain’s strategy in searching for a Vice President – Google!
• Apple News from the WWDC conference. A better, cheaper iPhone with 3G and GPS, coming to Australia soon (wonder how long I will be able to resist?). An upgraded .Mac service (no trouble resisting that) and a new Mac OSX ‘Snow Leopard’ next year. Read a summary of some of the buzz here. My only disappointment is that I was hoping to see an upgraded version of the MacBook Air with more storage and RAM – guess I’ll keep waiting for that one… until the next Stevenote..

On the Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama – NYTimes.com

For a young, single, athletic, educated guy, this would have to be one of the best jobs in the world. This story from the NYT looks at Reggie Love, 26 year old personal aide to Barack Obama. If you’re a West Wing fan think of Charlie and you’ll get a rough idea of this guy’s job – assistant, friend, training partner. Better yet, read the article.

And not only does he have a cool job but he’s got a pretty funky name – Reggie Love.  Speaking of cool names, another good one I heard last week is the Australian Indy car driver Will Power. I once worked with a doctor who’s surname was Power – now that’s a name you can get creative with. I think if it were me I’d name one son William and the other Max. Anyone else got any naming suggestions for the Power family??

One thing you could say about the Howard government is that they were generally positively disposed to single income families and stay at home mums. Unfortunately our new, left(ish) Labor government does not seem to share the same priorities – they are all about trying to encourage mothers to get back into the workforce as soon as possible by focussing on child care and tax structures for double income families. I don’t have a problem with mothers going back to work if they want or need to but I do believe that those mothers (or fathers) who desire to remain at home with their children during those early years should be encouraged and supported in that choice. Sadly it seems the philosophy Rudd government is quite different. [Howard's high earners to face cuts - National - theage.com.au]

Much has been said about Barack Obama’s talent for inspiring lofty rhetoric – but it’s perhaps even better when set to music. Check out this video where hip-hop artist will.i.am has used Obama’s New Hampshire speech as the basis for a new song “Yes We Can” (and no – it has nothing to do with Bob the Builder).

I bet no-one could make Hillary sound this cool. 

Up to now I’ve not had a strong opinion either way on this whole business of saying sorry to the “stolen generations” of aboriginals. I tend to think that if these people, who were undeniably badly treated, feel that a parliamentary apology will go some way towards healing their wounds, and if the Prime Minister wants to do it then he should do so, however I don’t necessarily think the previous prime minister was necessarily wrong to not do it when he genuinely didn’t feel it was appropriate. What I do not understand is the vehemence of some of those who are opposed to it – the shameful behaviour of some Liberal MPs and others in Parliament (mentioned in this story : Nelson backs apology amid MPs’ boycott | The Australian) really got me annoyed. I can understand people being of the opinion that such an apology is not necessary but to actively oppose it in such a strong way seems to me  to be insulting to these aboriginals and a denial of their pain. Such ugly division is unbecoming of our Parliament and our nation.

Well it’s Wednesday here in Australia, but in the US it’s Tuesday, and not just any Tuesday, but Super Tuesday! And my web browser (and TV when I get home from work) will be locked in to CNN watching as the results come in.

On the Republican side I’m finding that John McCain is really growing on me – he seems like a fairly straightforward, genuine sort of character – and with an amazing bio to boot. For some reason I really don’t like Romney very much – just doesn’t seem to be much of a personal connection and he doesn’t inspire trust, in fact he doesn’t seem very inspirational at all (unlike all the other main candidates). Huckabee is kinda inspirational in his own folksy kind of way – also seems like a pretty nice guy, but just doesn’t seem to have that same leadership quality that McCain or Obama possess. On the Democratic side, if you’ve been reading this blog you’ll know I’m a fan of Barack Obama, so it will be interesting to see how he goes against Hillary. From what I’ve seen it looks like it’s going to be a pretty tight contest.

American politics is so much more interesting than ours. Might be time soon to dust off my old West Wing DVDs and start from the beginning. A McCain vs Obama election would have eerie similarities to the Vinick vs Santos contest in series 7. Anyway, for the time being I’d better get back to seeing some patients.

Just watching live coverage of the US primary elections. Really impressed with Obama’s victory speech – very inspiring. It made Kevin Rudd’s acceptance speech when he won the Australian election look like a uni lecture. Clinton coming in third throws a big spanner into her campaign but by no means is it a knockout blow. Really hope Obama can maintain the momentum he has generated in Iowa. As for Huckabee… well I’ll admit he scares me a little – just seems to have come out of nowhere. Regardless of what happens, it will be fascinating to watch what happens in the USA in 2008…

Business beckons as Birney packs in politics – for now : thewest.com.au

I don’t normally pay a lot of attention to WA state politics but this story grabbed my attention for a couple of reasons. Matt Birney, former leader of the WA liberal opposition, announced yesterday he will be quitting politics to pursue a career in business. This will be a huge blow to the already hopeless WA Liberal party – Birney is one of their few bright stars who at least can string a sentence together and look good on TV (unlike their leader Paul Omodei).

One of the reasons Birney gave for quitting, in his refreshingly honest announcement was that politics is “an expensive hobby that did not pay the bills.” This drew a bit of fire from the West today, since the $125,000 base pay plus allowances of a backbencher is far above the average wage in our community. However I must say I agree with Birney here and always find it annoying when the media complain about MP’s salaries. The fact is that although MP’s get a pay that is considerably above the average wage, they have to work incredibly hard and make a lot of sacrifices for it. And more tellingly, the pay of even a senior federal minister working incredibly long hours in a high pressure job, is still far below what can be earned in corporate management. If we want the best quality people running our country we should be prepared to pay them adequately. Leaders in business, law, medicine and other professions are unlikely to be able to take a huge pay cut in order to enter the risky arena of politics. Especially in these boom times where unskilled young people can be earning well over $100,000 in the mining industry, we should be paying our government leaders more. And in reality, even if we were to double the salary of all the MPs in the country, the impact on the federal and state budgets would be minimal – a small price to pay for potentially attracting the best possible candidates to run our governments.

Yesterday I happened across a news story about how one of Hillary Clinton’s aides had been fired for asking indiscreet questions about her rival Barack Obama’s history of drug use as a teenager. Coincindentally, it turns out that the day before I had just started reading the memoir in which he admits to these things. And far from making me think he’s an unfit person to contest high office, after reading this book I am very impressed wth the man. It’s been a little while since I’ve finished a book in three days.

Dreams from my Father is the story of Obama’s life up until the early 90s, when he went to Harvard Law School. It is the story of the child of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan man, growing up in Hawaii, Indonesia, and Los Angeles before finally settling down to work as a community organizer in the poor south-side of Chicago and then going back to Kenya to explore his roots. This is a brilliantly written book – easy to read yet profound. In it is revealed a deeply intelligent man who has struggled to define his own identity, especially in the context of the ongoing disadvantage of many black people in America, and also in Africa. In some ways it is also the story of a journey to faith – faith in himself, faith in other people, faith in family, and faith in God (although this is only gently alluded to in this book). Obama’s honesty about his struggles make him seem real – he comes across as someone who will be able to sympathize with the poor and disadvantaged in America and across the world. The drug use he mentions in relatively minor – he never had a “drug problem” as such – it was just something he played around with as a teenager like many other people. I probably wouldn’t have even mentioned it now if I hadn’t heard the story of that Clinton Aide.

Anyway it’s a fascinating book which is incredibly thought provoking on multiple levels – personal identity, American (especially black American) culture, the problems of Africa and a post-colonial world, and how to break the cycles of generational social disadvantage. And if nothing else it’s worth reading to get an idea of the character of a man who may well be the next “leader of the free world” – and in case you haven’t guessed my impressions are overwhelmingly favourable. Could you ever imagine George W writing such a powerful piece of literature as this?? Almost makes me wish I was eligible to vote in the US elections… I look forward to reading Obama’s other book, Audacity of Hope.

Looks like I’m a day behind the news, but I only just saw this story - Peter Costello has decided to not stand for the Liberal leadership. I’m a bit surprised but you can’t really blame him. Realistically it’s unlikely Rudd will be defeated at the next election, and the chance of Costello surviving as opposition leader for 6 years is pretty remote. I think it’s a sad loss for the party – I’ve always thought Costello would make a good Prime Minister, but I can completely understand why he’s doing it. Will be interesting to see who’s next though…

One day to go before the election, and here’s a cool you tube clip I found. Admittedly it’s a bit biased, casting the Howard government in the role of the Empire defending against Rudd and his band of rebels, but I still found it pretty funny, and well done. Don’t know if it was intended or not, but the father vs son parallels here are interesting. Apparently if you get tired of (or depressed by…) the election coverage Channel 10 is just showing Star Wars so it’s something to keep in mind…

In other election related news, I just read The Australian’s final editorial, which ultimately in a close decision between two “worthy opponents” advocates a vote for Mr Rudd. This is surprising from The Australian, which usually sticks to a relatively conservative line in contrast to leftist media like the Melbourne Age. What is even more surprising is that they advocate a change to Rudd without any compelling reason why. The discuss the many similarities and minor differences between the parties, highlight the key difference on IR and mention some of the potential economic dangers in Labor’s IR policies, yet choose to put their trust in him nonetheless in what is almost a leap of blind faith. Seems like the editors at The Australian have fallen under the spell (or force) of Labor’s messiah, Kevin Rudd. Seems like he’s pulling off some kind of immense Jedi mind trick on the whole country…

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…

EDIT : ok a little more browsing YouTube and it’s full of these kind of things. Here’s another one – Kevin 007 – The man with the golden jaw. I also found a Kevin Almighty clip, but the execution is not a clever as the idea. Anyway, enjoy Kevin 007…

ALP wins the high ground on economy | Paul Kelly Blog | The Australian

Well it looks like we are set to have a new Prime Minister in a little over a week’s time. Just when there were some slightly promising signs that Howard & Costello might be able to miraculously twist last week’s interest rate rise and the accompanying economic angst in their favour, they have been blown out of the water by their lavish spend-a-thon campaign launch and especially by Kevin Rudd’s shrewd response in his. None of the Coalition promises the other day were deal-breakers, so Rudd’s decision to not try and outdo them but actually spend billions less was visionary. It’s the ultimate irony that offering less money to the voters is possibly the final straw that seals Rudd’s election victory – by negating the coalition’s arguments that Rudd is an economic risk and they are the safer choice. This still may be true, but their statements don’t look as solid now. You’ve gotta give kudos to Rudd – this is a very very clever strategy. Time to start getting used to the idea that our government will be changing soon…

Well as predicted, the reserve bank has lifted interest rates, for the first time ever in the midst of an election campaign. Some commentators have stated that this might even be a positive for the coalition, since increased economic uncertainty may incline voters to stick with the economic managers they know, rather than taking a huge risk on Labor. John Howard, whilst acknowledging people’s pain, is trying to spin it this way – blaming the rate rise on a mix of a strong Australian economy and economic instability overseas (esp the US) and predicting that things would get a lot worse with a Labor government in charge, particularly with their industrial relations policies.

All of this talk from commentators, and from Howard, makes sense and is logical. But the problem is I doubt the voting public will think things through in such a fashion. Although the shine has faded from Kevin Rudd in recent times and the polls are narrowing many people will still view things simplistically and the combination of “tired of Howard,” “interest rates bad => blame government,” and ill-founded Work Choices paranoia will see the Liberal ship sink. I’ll just be glad to have the election over with.

Here’s a great quote from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni relating to recent floods that have troubled this country. I think I get his point but his theology isn’t quite coming out right :

I advise the religious leaders not to pray early for the rain to stop. They will confuse God. I know God is all-knowing but don’t confuse him.  (Sunday Vision – Oct 14, 2007)

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness

This is a very disturbing article with interviews from 50 US veterans of the war in Iraq about the treatment of Iraqi civilians. Very long, and uncomfortable to read, but equally impossible to stop. Eye-opening and scary

Senator proposes $10,000 baby bonus | NEWS.com.au

This is purely self interest, but I like this proposal that Family First Senator Steve Fielding is taking to John Howard tomorrow – a government bonus of $10,000 on the birth of your third child. I just hope they implement it before February / March next year

Battle of ‘Young Howards’ : The Australian

Could this be true? Paradoxically after all the recent leadership turmoil, the liberals may in the end come out of it with a bit of a “fresh start,” even without switching leaders. Instead of one PM fighting against Kevin Rudd, the Liberals now have two candidates with Peter Costello likely to play a much bigger role in the campaign. I’ve always thought Costello was better at articulating a vision for the future than John Howard (which is just what the Libs need now – not just past successes but a plan for the future), and he’s already come out doing it. After days of silence, he looks like a man on a mission, and indeed the whole party seems a lot more positive and energized. Keeping Howard, but being honest and up-front about a future transition to Costello, is probably the best move they could have made, allowing them to play both the experience and ‘youth’ cards at the same time (and Costello can lay claim to both those attributes, unlike Rudd, who lacks the experience of Government.)

So now we have three Howards – the original, the younger Labor version, and the younger Liberal version (Costello just needs to get some glasses and a tracksuit, and eyebrow implants) – whether this is enough to save the coalition I doubt, but it’s probably the best strategy for them to take under the circumstances. How the electorate responds we will have to wait and see…

Edit : here’s another good opinion piece on the same subject, which expresses similar ideas : Is the Treasurer Howard’s Rabbit?

I know my postings have turned a bit political of late, and I’ll try to avoid this blog being too narrowly focused, but I couldn’t resist linking this piece from The Australian :

Howard Must Go | Janet Albrechtsen Blog | The Australian – “Howard must go” – there’s been no shortage of that kind of talk recently but what makes this so notable is that it’s from the pen of Janet Albrechtsen, who is probably one of the most pro-Howard journalists in Australia. Even in this article she’s effusive in her praise of the man, calling him the finest Prime Minister we’ve ever had…

But then she goes on, with a heavy heart, to say why she thinks Howard should pass the baton to Peter Costello, which she introduces with this wonderful line “The last rabbit Howard should pull out of the hat is Peter Costello.”

What an amazing turn of events that would be! But I can’t see it happening. If nothing else Howard’s tenacity and persistence would stand in the way of him making such a move, and realistically I don’t know if it’s the best thing for Costello or the Liberals to do this right now. It’s a move that should have been made probably 6, 12, 18 months ago. The leadership now, for Costello, would be a poisoned chalice. I can’t see him, in the space of a few weeks campaigning, turning things around enough to beat Kevin Rudd. Costello’s best chance of being PM (for more than a few weeks) is for Howard to win an improbable victory and then hand over within a year of the election. His second best chance is for Rudd to win and then for Labor to stuff everything up – if the economy goes pear shaped and the unions muscle back in then in 3 years time the electorate  may well be ready to welcome back with open arms “the best treasurer Australia has ever had” to come in and straighten things out. So while a Rudd v Costello battle now would be a fascinating ride and a huge gamble, I doubt it’s gonna happen. Regardless of what happens, Australian politics is the most interesting it’s ever been right now – a PM on the ropes, an ascendant opposition leader showing off by making speeches in Mandarin, and a bunch of global heavyweights like Bush, Putin, Abe, and Hu cruising around Sydney. Hold on to your seats!

Risk of annihilation | The Australian

This is one of the better political editorial pieces I’ve seen lately. Paul Kelly, looking historically and at the current situation, discusses why John Howard does not necessarily deserve to be turfed out, and yet why he probably will. Worth a read.

Oz Politics

If you like graphs and polls and numbers and stuff, then you may find this blog site interesting, although possibly also quite depressing if you’re a coalition voter :\ However, it may be a good one to keep bookmarked in the lead-up to the election – which is looking increasingly likely that I will be in Africa for – never had to do an absentee vote before… and I will hate to miss the wall-to-wall TV coverage, which I have always enjoyed previously, but them’s the breaks.

Allow me to get a little bit political for a few moments … It’s good to see that health has finally opened up as a bit of a battleground for the upcoming election, after a couple of fairly quiet years on the health policy front. This was sparked off by Kevin Rudd’s headline grabbing “policies” of a federal takeover of state hospitals and something called GP “super clinics.” There’s been plenty written about the former idea and all the potential problems associated with it (including maybe an increased GST) but not much press on the Super Clinics. Like most of Rudd’s policies to date, it seems to be a flashy title designed to beguile the public and make Rudd seem like a sensible man of action, yet has very little substance behind it. As if building these new clinics is going to address the problems of a nationwide doctor shortage and overcrowded emergency departments. Where are they going to get these doctors from? If they manage to attract doctors to shift into these practices (and so far the only “incentive” I have seen mentioned is a $15,000 payment which really won’t attract many GPs at all, especially if these clinics are to be bulk-billing clinics which would actually reduce most GPs’ income)… but even if they can attract GPs to work there, aren’t they just shifting the problem from one place to another, making it even harder to get appointments in the practices the doctors woul be forsaking? When there’s only a limited pool of doctors, building new clinics won’t go a long way towards solving the problem, they need to add to the pool of doctors… HOW? only two possibilities spring to mind – one is increasing the medical school intake, which the Howard Govt has already done, but which is a long term solution only since it will be years before these new docs are practicing. Or secondly increasing the amount of foreign doctors allowed to work here, but this is both morally ambiguous (since we might be “stealing” doctors from other countries who need them even more) and slightly dodgy politically (after the recent doctor terrorist scare) and medically (since it’s hard to assure the quality of medicine practiced). So Super Clinics is all headline (don’t you just love the word “Super”!) but no substance. But hopefully it will have the effect of upping the ante and making health a bigger issue in the upcoming election. Hopefully the government can come up with a better plan than Rudd’s efforts so far.

I must admit, for the last couple of months I’ve been a bit news-starved. I rarely catch the TV news and my newspaper abruptly stopped coming a while back (I didn’t bother chasing it since I knew I’d have to cancel it for our trip anyway)

So I get most of my news online, which is a bit of a patchy way to read the news because you can pick and choose which headlines are of interest. Often reading the Opinion sections of the news sites (esp The Australian) is the best way to get a handle on things.

So here’s a couple of opinion pieces that caught my interest today

A crawl to prosperity ain’t money for jam | Matt Price | The Australian – Matt Price is perhaps my favourite Australian journalist. Often humorous, always insightful, generally fair though perhaps with a very slight tilt to the right. And as an added bonus he comes from Perth, which means he gets it in a way that journos from the East don’t. The above article takes a step back and looks at why Kevin Rudd is so popular in the polls, how even in an environment of unprecedented economic prosperity, voters’ fears for the future, especially the future of their children, have a profound effect on their politics. Although Rudd certainly doesn’t have any better answers for these fears than Howard, it is his clever exploitation of these issues that may see him elected.

Noel Pearson: Politics aside, an end to the tears is our priority | Opinion | The Australian – this gives the perspective of an Aboriginal leader on John Howard’s extraordinary moves to address child abuse in indigenous communities. Pearson is broadly supportive of the Howard plan, however offers some important warnings about where it may fall short. For an analysis of the politics of the situation, check out this piece from Glen Milne – PM’s haters parade their own defects. Few people disagree totally with what Howard is doing, but many of the left-leaning journos are lining up to find dark, politically inspired motives behind it (aka the new Tampa) – Milne adroitly takes them to task in his article. I thought Kevin Rudd was very clever not to get “political” or criticize Howard much on this issue – he didn’t need to. All he needs is for the leftist press to sow the seeds of political doubt about Howard’s motives, and he can stand innocently to the side with his principled support. This issue will not be a new Tampa – sadly there are less people whose votes will be influenced by the plight of indigenous children than there were whose votes may have been affected by their fear of a wave of illegal immigrants and “terrorists.” Which hearkens back to the pointin the paragraph above – fear is a key political motivator. Howard (might have) used it in his favour in 2001, and it is Rudd who can use it to the opposite effect now.

Well they say Christmas only comes once a year but for the last few years in Australia it has seemed like we were developing a tradition of “Christmas in May” at least in the greedy, consumeristic sense of Christmas. May is federal budget time, and in these recent times of economic boom there has been a continuing series of tax cuts and handouts to the average Australian. Despite all this there are always some who find reasons to whinge and complain.

This year is no exception – Peter Costello has once again managed to deliver significant tax cuts whilst spending additional money in key areas like infrastructure, education and defense. Even though this is an election year it seems the budget is fairly financially responsible and should avoid inflationary and interest rate pressure, which is a noteworthy achievement. There is no doubt that many of the initiatives in this budget are politically motivated to try and neuter some of Kevin Rudd’s strengths, but overall it seems Costello has been reasonably restrained (although he’s got plenty of cash in the kitty to buy votes closer to election day).

So overall I’d say that this is a pretty good budget. Last year’s was more explosive with tax cuts and super changes, but he seems to have struck a fair balance here. There’s not a whole lot under the tree for me this time – just a very small tax cut (though a slightly bigger one next year) and no extra Medicare spending that I can see. Hopefully if he can survive the election Costello’s next budget will risk some more bold reform of the taxation system, such as the eradication of the 45% tax rate, but the Liberals have some big hurdles to jump before then. The other thing I would truly like to see is a massive increase in foreign aid – although they have boosted it a little this year it pales in comparison with the extra $2 billion devoted to defense. If even a quarter of that amount was spent on foreign aid it could make a tangible difference to many people worldwide and set a good example to other nations. If only Peter’s brother Tim Costello had a bit more say in the matter…

For some reason my newspapers have stopped being delivered over the last couple of weeks and I haven’t had time to ring up and get it restarted. Not sure that I’ll bother now until we get back from our big trip.

But this means I’m depending on the internet for all my news and it’s a bit of a hit and miss affair. For example I can’t believe I missed this classic quote from Kevin Rudd attacking PM John Howard over his embrace of nuclear power in the war on climate change :

“But instead Mr Howard has gone the 25 nuclear reactor way. That’s his solution for the future.

It’s the Montgomery Burns solution for Australia’s future climate change challenge.

And if you think of the nuclear safety record out there at Smithfield (sic) with Homer Simpson in charge, be afraid, be very afraid.”

Like I said the other day I’m a bit less impressed with Rudd after his IR policy launch at the weeked, however you’ve gotta give kudos to a politician using analogies from The Simpsons (though he loses marks for getting the name of Springfield wrong!)

Politics is once again getting very interesting …. excellennnnt…

Paul Kelly: A bizarre blast from the past | The Australian

It’s bound to happen in every TV show and perhaps every political career. And it looks like Kevin Rudd’s dream run has finally come to an end – he’s hopped on his water-skis and jumped that shark. A Labor leader taking his party to the center, standing up to the unions and moving into the 21st century in Blair-like fashion sounded too good to be true … and indeed it was. The commentators are having a field day following the weekend Labor conference, and Paul Kelly’s article above is right on the money…

At this point Labor loses the goodwill of big business, the hope of winning small business and the dream that it stands for entrepreneurship. Rudd’s election strategy is to pitch to working families with the claim that an arrogant Howard has abandoned them.

The stage is set for a bitter election over the industrial model that Australia needs for its open economy, an issue unresolved for a generation that now approaches showdown time.

In his speech, Rudd said Howard had launched “an assault on Australian family life” and that Labor would “restore the balance”.

This is neither a credible nor accurate statement about the totality of Labor’s policy. This policy goes far beyond any family friendly test. It is better described as union friendly. The details and the scale of Labor’s package transcend any effort merely to restore fairness to the workplace.

So the battle lines are drawn – the scene is set for the next election. Either Rudd has shown his true colours or has shown his weakness in this capitulation to the union movement – either way he’s jumped the shark as far as I’m concerned (and to think I was starting to like the guy!) The big question remains though – will the Australian public be fooled by this “family values” line and maintain Rudd’s high ratings, or are Kevin Rudd’s Happy Days drawing to an end? Stay tuned…

You can think and say what you like about President George W Bush, but you have to admit the guy has a sense of humour (or at least his speech writers do!). Check out this entertaining speech from the Radio & TV correspondents dinner in which he pokes fun at himself, his opponents, and especially Dick Cheney. Can’t wait for the Dubya gets his Groove Back pop-up book

Had a couple of dreams last night which I still remember. The first was that it was this weekend, post the election in NSW in which not surprisingly Labor had won. What was odd was that a Federal election had been also held, and we were waking up on Sunday to our new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. I don’t know if my dreams are prophetic, but at the moment it’s looking increasingly like that one will come to pass. Rudd’s latest move, by abandoning his opposition to the sale of Telstra and promising a huge investment in high speed broadband access, is a huge potential vote winner. Hopefully the coalition will try to match or beat it and we will finally end up with decent internet no matter which side wins … which at the moment, unless Howard can find a rabbit to pull out of his hat, looks like it will be Rudd…

The other dream I had was less topical, but probably more weird. I was at a huge mega-multiplex cinema with my family. Firstly Owen and I were playing in the foyer on one of those 20 cent games (you know where the 20c coins slide of the edge of a moving platform and you drop in new coins to try and push them over – I love those games) and we had won so many coins we had to get an empty large drink cup to hold them all. Then we went to the counter to buy our tickets, but then some bad guy was chasing us and we had to run all the way to our cinema to get away from him. Luckily we escaped him and got into cinema number 43 before the movie started, still managing to retain the big cup full of 20 cent coins. And it was a really massive cinema too, considering they had at least 45 there! But that’s all I remember. Weird?

If you’re not from Australia (especially Western Australia), you probably won’t get this cartoon from today’s Weekend Australian newspaper, but I thought it was one of the most incisive I’ve seen in a while, considering how toxic former WA premier Brian Burke is at the moment. The biggest question about this scandal is whether it will ultimately force a state election, but the sad thing about that is that even if an election were held, the Labor government would very possibly still win, considering how inept our state Liberal opposition are. Anyway, it makes for interesting news, if nothing else.

(I don’t think it comes through clearly on the image, but the prisoner in orange is David Hicks…)

Howard heart-attack email carries virus – Security – Technology – theage.com.au -  I got two of these emails yeterday afternoon, and I must admit it made my heart skip a beat when I saw it. I wasn’t taken in enough to click on the link in the email, but it did make me do a scan of other news sites and check the TV news when I got home for any other reports of the Prime Minister’s demise.

Allow the conspiracy theorist in me to come out for a minute. Wouldn’t this sort of hoax email be a great ploy for the Australian Labor Party? The very fact that a John Howard heart attack is a believable story is a reminder to the electorate that the man is getting on in years. I believe they’ve had to turn up the PA at Parliament to enable Howard to hear properly, since his deafness is worsening. I don’t seriously think for a second that the ALP would be involved in this sort of thing, but any kind of reminders of Howard’s age will only serve to make Kevin Rudd, labor’s more youthful Howard clone, seem more comparatively appealing.

I think the 2007 Australian Federal election is shaping up to be the closest contest in years. Prime Minister John Howard has spent the last couple of days dominating the news cycle with his savy cabinet reshuffle and big anouncement on water policy. But not to be deterred, new Labor opposition leader Kevin Rudd has hit back with an extended election style prime time TV advertisement in which he begins to discuss his vision for Australia. I must admit, I thought it wasn’t a bad effort. I’m not usually a Labor supporter but I am fairly impressed with Rudd and think if he continues in the steady fashion he has begun, he will have a real shot at this election.

I’ll refrain from the temptation to post yet another YouTube video on this blog, but if you didn’t see it, you can watch Rudd’s video here : YouTube – Kevin Rudd Australia Day ad

US politics is getting more interesting, with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton outing themselves as Democratic contenders for the Presidency in 2008. At this stage I’d say I like the look of Obama (who has a cool name Barack Hussein Obama that rhymes with the US’s nemeses Iraq, Hussein (as in Saddam), and Osama (as in Bin Laden). But Hillary will be hard to beat. Will be very enthralling to watch. My personal favourite would be an Al Gore ticket with Obama as his running mate, grooming him for another run at the Presidency when he’s a bit older, but we’ll have to say if Gore decides to take time out from saving the environment to have another go at the top job.