Investment will be shelved and electricity prices spiral unless industry has certainty.

I HAVE spoken a lot about reform lately - because I believe that's the job of governments. As it is a word that gets a good workout in politics, it is worth stopping occasionally to think about what it means.

Reform means literally that - a reshaping. A reforming government starts with the proposition that it is possible to reshape the landscape, to look afresh at the way things are done and find a better way.

It is possible to do something for so long that you forget there are other ways to do it. Electricity generation in Australia is a bit like that. Historically, Australia has relied almost entirely on our extensive coal reserves to fulfil our electricity needs.

That has served us for a long time, and it has served us well. Many Australians work in the coal industry, and it is an industry that is not about to vanish. But, just because the dominance of coal has been the status quo, it does not mean it should remain the status quo.

In fact, the exact opposite is the case: as the climate changes, it is up to this generation of people and the generations coming up fast behind it to take the action necessary to tackle climate change and its potentially devastating impacts on the Australian economy.

Australians want action on climate change, and that means cutting carbon pollution. And that, inevitably, will involve a gradual shift away from carbon-intensive power generation.

The question is how we do this in the most effective way to ensure costs are minimised. Our electricity sector contributes more than one third of our national carbon pollution. In terms of the electricity Australians use, about 82 per cent of power in the national electricity market is generated from coal. Only 10 per cent comes from natural gas and 8 per cent from renewable sources.

Conventional brown-coal power stations are between three and four times more carbon intensive than the most-efficient natural-gas power stations. Black coal sits in between these two - which is why we have one of the most carbon-intensive electricity sectors in the world.

If we can change the way the electricity sector operates, we can bring down our levels of carbon pollution, and continue the crucial task of tackling climate change. Putting a price on carbon would do this.

By introducing a price, fuels that produce less carbon pollution become more price competitive. Energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar become more able to compete with coal. And as the price of producing more carbon pollution goes up, coal-fired power stations will have an incentive to invest in new technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

Right now, Australia's energy sector is suffering from a lack of certainty created by the fact that the Parliament has repeatedly blocked the government's attempts to introduce a carbon price.

Because it is generally accepted that there will be a carbon price at some point but there is no time frame in place, the energy sector is caught between investing in old technologies it knows are going out of date, and investing in new technologies it does not yet have an incentive to invest in. That dilemma, and the lack of infrastructure investment that accompanies it, is playing a role in pushing up electricity prices.

As Rod Sims, chairman of New South Wales's electricity price regulator, said last week, one of the key drivers of current electricity price rises is ''continuing carbon price uncertainty''.

A carbon price will give industry the certainty it needs to plan ahead. It will allow it to start making investment decisions now so that we can make the transition to a low-carbon economy smoothly, efficiently and in the cheapest possible way.

Continued lack of certainty will see vital investment decisions delayed and money ploughed into costly and wasteful stop-gap options.

As former prime minister John Howard and his then environment minister Malcolm Turnbull know, a carbon price is the only prudent answer because it unlocks one of the most powerful forces on earth - the genius of the free market.

By resetting price signals, we will open the door to a new era of investment and innovation, creating thousands of jobs for Australians in the industries of tomorrow.

The alternative is very stark. If we continue to do nothing, we will pay a heavy cost - electricity prices will spiral, big investment decisions will remain on hold, our power supplies will begin to run short, and clean energy jobs will be lost offshore.

This is a domestic economic reform that is needed to reshape the way the Australian economy works.

Like the controversial cuts to tariffs and the decision to float the dollar 25 years ago, a carbon price will shift the way things are done.

Julia Gillard is Prime Minister.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/carbon-price-now-or-well-pay-later-20101116-17vti.html

...

And when compared on the basis of reductions from what emissions would otherwise have been, the targets reveal a similar degree of effort.

Because we haven't done much - and because Obama's promise to continue working to achieve emissions reductions by other means received little attention - we happily assume other countries haven't done much.

Not true - especially not for China. It is actively pursuing the target it reported to Copenhagen. It has ordered the shutdown of inefficient and high-emitting coal-fired power stations and their replacement with high-efficiency coal-fired generators. It has imposed energy performance standards for emissions-intensive industries and vehicle emission standards, is offering various incentives for clean energy and is spending bucketloads on developing renewable energy.

You can use trading schemes or a carbon tax to impose an explicit price on emissions of carbon dioxide. That's the best way to do it. But government subsidies and other measures can do the same thing indirectly.

A study sponsored by Australia's Climate Institute has sought to measure the implicit carbon price in various countries. It's $29 a tonne in Britain because its participation in the European trading scheme is backed up by various domestic measures.

It's $14 a tonne in China thanks to the measures I've mentioned and it's even $5 a tonne in the US because of federal subsidies to clean energy sources and state renewable energy targets.

And what do our bits and pieces add up to? A princely $1.70 a tonne.

Two conclusions. All the key countries - even the US - have pledged their willingness to take significant action and some, including the biggest single emitter, China, are getting on with it. As other countries see this, they'll become more active themselves.

Far from being the country that's leading the way and making sacrifices while others hang back and marvel at our naivety, Australia - a country with more to lose than most - is dragging the chain.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/other-countries-are-doing-far-more-than-us-to-cut-emissions-20101116-17vr7.html

One can only blame Tony Abbott for being an obstructionist, with no understanding of the situation — past present and future... see picture at top...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Prime Minister's commitment to putting a price on carbon shows she has "lost her grip" on the realities facing families.

The Coalition has used Question Time today to prosecute its argument that a carbon price will push up electricity prices and increase cost-of-living pressures.

But Julia Gillard says the Opposition is fearmongering.

For the third day in a row Mr Abbott has accused the Government under Ms Gillard of lacking an agenda.

The fiery Question Time saw manager of opposition business Christopher Pyne ejected from the chamber for an hour and other MPs were also warned.

"Isn't her claim that a new tax on electricity won't push up prices further evidence that she has lost her way and also that she has lost her grip on what happens in the real world?" Mr Abbott said.

However Ms Gillard maintains an absence of a carbon price will drive up prices because of uncertainty in the electricity sector.

"I'll leave the Opposition to go out and argue to Australians why it wants energy uncertainty for them for the future," she said.

"We will work our way through the process of pricing carbon."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/17/3069149.htm?section=justin

--------------------

As mentioned above, any idiot believes that climate change is crap... see picture at top..

But the evidence so far is that the Prime Minister, in her re-prosecution of the climate change issue, has decided at least to start with the basics, and the Adelaide speech is a well-written, cogent explanation of the Government's reasons for the attempt.

Political debate on big issues, in the hands of politicians and political journalists, often goes from "zero" to "too hard" in seconds flat, as basic groundwork is abandoned for juicier areas of complicated disagreement.

Perhaps the utter devastation of her government's first attempt now instructs the PM's back-to-the-drawing-board approach.

From minister after minister yesterday, we heard about how important for the Australian economy, how useful for power generators it would be for Australia to price carbon.

Treasurer Wayne Swan quoted the OECD, as he loves to do (although the OECD, or Overwhelmingly Excellent Commenting Dudes, do tend to morph into Occasionally Erroneous Commenting Dudes at certain times, like when they are dissing the NBN).

Greg Combet explained that electricity prices were going up in part because we don't have a carbon price.

And only one minister - guess who? - returned to the famine-and-pestilence approach.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/17/3069111.htm?site=thedrum

Gus: Climate change is no laughing matter... If humanity wants to save most of itself and the whole planet from major troubles, climate change has to be tackled SERIOUSLY... Julia Guilard has risen to the first step of the challenge.

Dump crap on Abbott...

Today, parliament carried by the slimmest of margins, 73-72, a Greens motion on gay marriage.

Not to grant legal status to gay marriage, mind you.

No, this vote was just to give parliamentary weight to MPs talking to their constituents about gay marriage - and seeking their views.

It's significant progress, no doubt, but in the smallest of ways.

Despite the result, it continues to be the rigid stance of Prime Minister Julia Gillard - who has ruled out changing the party's policy on the issue until Labor's national conference - that has arguably sparked the most discussion.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/gay-marriage-dinosaurs-should-evolve-or-die-out-20101118-17xzk.html

------------

Gus: unfortunately, thereafter the writer of this article dumps on Julia for "waiting"... The odds are that Julia is not against gay marriages... But Julia knows how politics work and that before launching a policy full on, the message needs to be massaged... Rattus used to be an expert at this too but his direction was to be retrograde back to the 1950s... Julia in contrast is driving this country towards the 2020s. The flimsy "focus groups" and "opinions polls" are just there to be manipulated into submission — in the same way Julia has now pushed the agenda on carbon pricing. In the same way, she is also negotiating the mining tax, which the miners feel they have been conned into "accepting"... Julia has formidable negotiating skills and, slowly but surely, she has the discreet method to induce major shifts of opinions — which of course the media led by a rabid Murdoch and his poodle Abbott (and confessor Pell), will do anything to oppose...

One has to be patient. Things will change, even in the Labor party (loaded with catholics), and will change in the Liberal (conservative) party (loaded with opus dei and fm)....

Mr De Bruyn says the more Labor "panders" to the Greens the more it will lose the middle ground, making it impossible to win elections.

"There are no votes for Labor in the marginal electorates in the big metropolitan areas on the gay marriage issue," he said.

"We all know that marriage is between a man and a woman not just because that is what the definition of the Marriage Act says but simply because this has been the way that it has been in the existence of the human race."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/19/3070792.htm

------------------

Gus: and so spoke a union boss from times immemorial... He's wrong on many counts. First there is no such thing as the "human race". There is a human species made up of different races (we used the word "breed" for other species). Second a lot of things have changed since the beginning of the human species. Otherwise we'd still be swinging from our trees. And there has been homosexuality from the time dot. Haven't you ever witnessed a bull mounting steers in a paddock? Haven't you ever seen a couple of male dogs engaged in intercourse? or a female dog acting like a male dog? This does not mean it has to be the norm.

To recognise the reality that a proportion of some species, including humans, are inclined one way or another would put an end to the victimisation — social and personal — in whatever form that comes with it — including self-victimisation that often end up in suicide. And the notion, that there is "no vote" in doing something about it, shows a low limit of spirit.

And one can sense some people frothing at the mouth to have to accept in horror that our prime minister lives in a defacto relationship... and is a proud atheist. 

a letter from the SMH

In quite an extended interview with Fran Kelly on Radio National last Friday, neither Joe de Bruyn nor his host mentioned the elephant in the room, the union leader's fanatical Roman Catholicism.

He said that marriage between a man and a woman ''has been the way that it has been in the existence of the human race''. Homosexuality has certainly been around since then, but marriage? Romantic marriage for the common people is a fairly recent invention, mainly used as a means for the churches to maintain control of society. Marriage in the past was used among the ruling classes purely for dynastic purposes. In pre-civilisation times, group marriage was the norm, then there were several intervening stages leading to today's monogamous relationships.

Labor certainly won't be ''going forward'' with such reactionaries as de Bruyn in positions of power.

Stewart MacDonald Ashfield

----------------

Gus: Fran Kelly always appears very selective in her interviewing... The whole package is rarely mentioned.... Many times I have hurled a shoe at the radio when she panders to say an Abbott and gnarls at say a Julia, while she should be doing the reverse... I have been wondering if this was simple bias or if she was scared of the internal inquisition at the ABC — or plainly lacking a brick... I still hurl my shoes. We expect better from our national broadcaster. Read what I wrote in the comment posted above in regard to the "human race"...

The Opposition has used today's anniversary of Kevin Rudd winning the 2007 election to renew its attacks on the Government about the emissions trading scheme, its school stimulus program and the proposed mining tax.

Among its arsenal was leaked minutes of the caucus meeting on the day Mr Rudd lost the Labor leadership.

During today's Question Time, Nationals Leader Warren Truss quoted Mr Rudd's comments about problems with the mining tax.

"I refer the Prime Minister to the statement of the former prime minister in these leaked minutes of the Labor caucus, that the mining tax was one of the three great failures of this government," Mr Truss said.

"Does the current Prime Minister accept the statement of the former prime minister that it was not his failure alone but hers too?"

Julia Gillard brushed off the Opposition's comments.

"I didn't realise when I came to the Parliament today that the Opposition had been replaced by a history club," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/24/3075543.htm?section=justin

Gus: may the opposition members also remind themselves of Rattus being thrown out, about all the lies that Rattus used to go to war with GW Bush and Blair, and remind themselves of Rattus never-ever GST stunt — just a few idiocy amongst many other crap dished out by Johnnee. He was of course a liar first class. And thank Athon, the god of atheists, he's gone, hasn't it?.... The fruitcakes of the opposition are still fruitcakes...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has begun the last day of parliamentary sittings for 2010 fending off criticisms that the Government lacks direction and an agenda.

At a special meeting of the Labor Caucus last night Ms Gillard outlined her values to MPs, saying she wanted to increase job opportunities and prosperity.

And in a speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, she said she wanted the next 10 years to be a "decade of infrastructure" featuring the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has spent much of the past fortnight attacking Ms Gillard for heading a "do nothing" Government, and this morning he accused her of heading a "bad Government which is getting worse".

"When I read in the paper this morning [about] what she intended to do in the next 12 months it just looked like a prime ministerial bucket list - the kind of things that you kind of do before you face the kind of inevitable Caucus executioners who came gunning for Kevin Rudd," he said.

Speaking on AM this morning, Ms Gillard defended her Government's achievements and agenda.

"I think what it says about me and the Government is when we have meetings, like we had of our Labor colleagues yesterday, that we are taking a purposeful, methodical approach to everything we do," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/25/3076014.htm?section=justin

Gus: the little rat Abbott is bleeding... Ate too much rat poison and he is spewing his bile in a bucket. He does not make sense anymore (as if if ever did!)... see image at top.

Meanwhile, another Liberal (conservative) is going nuts:

Long-serving Federal Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop has complained about Parliament's schedule for next year, saying it is due to sit until Christmas Eve.

But Ms Bishop has her dates wrong by a month.

Parliament has today approved next year's sitting schedule, which shows the final sitting day of next year would be November 24.

The Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese, told Parliament it is time for Ms Bishop to retire.

"When you cannot look at a sitting schedule that you have had for days and you think we're sitting up to December 24, well let me tell you, that was one of the most extraordinary performances from someone who time has just forgot," Mr Albanese said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/24/3075670.htm?section=justin

...

But the lack of tangible results has not, at least so far, been the fault of the so-called new paradigm. Quietly, almost oblivious to the critics' constant refrain, Australia's first hung parliament in 70 years has established its processes and begun to function.

In its first five weeks it has passed 51 bills. The government has lost three votes, none of them on legislation. (Two were on ''motions'' and one was procedural.)

The independents have gradually worked out how to process the mass of information they need to cast informed votes on every long and complicated bill, drawing heavily on special bureaucratic briefings that provide one-page summaries on each issue each Tuesday during sitting weeks. And they have worked out how to cull the deluge of requests for meetings to those they really need.

Despite their manifest differences they have established a rapport, dining together at L'Unico Italian restaurant in the Kingston restaurant strip in Canberra each Wednesday to celebrate the momentous year that threw their strange collective into the national spotlight.

The weight of the workload has come as a shock. The Queensland independent and former National Party MP Bob Katter, who did not back Gillard to form government but still gets a fair bit of attention because he is not wedded to the other side, says the job is ''enormous''.

''We have to study every piece of legislation and we have to know how we are voting. When I was in the National Party I had no idea what I was voting for most of the time, I just sat with the rest of them, but now I need to know,'' he explains, shaking his head at the revelation.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillards-grip-on-power-20101126-18anc.html

see image at top...

JULIAN ASSANGE is at risk of being arrested in Britain and extradited to Sweden to face possible rape charges, at the same time as the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, added her voice to an international call to prosecute WikiLeaks.

''I absolutely condemn the placement of this information on the WikiLeaks website. It's a grossly irresponsible thing to do and an illegal thing to do,'' Ms Gillard said.

-----------------

Gus: Julia should take this on the chin and be more supportive of the "Jules" factor... See Julia-Julian? Assange has only exposed the lies of diplomacy, the lies of war and the lies of governments. These governments deserve to be exposed for what they are. Diplomacy is the art of lying... As a most truthful trustful negociator, Julia should know that... We should know the crap that we're being fed. And Julian is doing nothing illegal...

As John Pilger says as an Australian Assange should be protected by the Australian government and nof left at the mercy of the US vile bile and its ambassador-goons.

Secrecy? the need to lie?... CRAP.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the Government's carbon price scheme will be rolled out from July 2012.

Announcing details of the scheme today, Ms Gillard said the price on carbon would be fixed for a period of three to five years before moving to a cap-and-trade system.

"I'm determined to price carbon," Ms Gillard told a joint press conference with Greens leader Bob Brown and Senator Christine Milne well as independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor.

"History teaches us that the countries and the economies who prosper at times of historic change are those who get in and shape and manage the changes. The time is right and the time is now.

"There are some people that will say we can't afford to move to a clean energy future, I disagree with that, we can't afford not to move to a clean energy future," she added.

Agricultural emissions will initially be excluded from the scheme but farmers will be compensated for any efforts they make to cut emissions.

The Government is expected to announce more details of the plan, including the initial price, at a later date.

Senator Brown said the announcement was an important step forward in a "nation-building process".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/24/3147523.htm

----------------

Gus: a bold small step in the right direction that will be poopooed by the rightwing ratbags... But this is a step more important to this planet that can be imagined yet. Far more will be needed in time but congratulation on starting to move on.

AUSTRALIANS, YOU SHOULD SUPPORT JULIA ON HER VISION  HERE.

Tony is a little shit on this and many other subjects. DUMP HIM. With Gillard's vision, the planet's environment starts to have a real value beyond money — the value is SURVIVAL in the future...

see image at top..

Conviction politicians are hard to find in Australia these days.

Ten years ago, the then Liberal Party federal director, Lynton Crosby, said his research turned up two genuine conviction politicians - John Howard and Bob Brown.

But today, the leaders of the two major parties - Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott - are constantly wrestling with the concept, confusing the public about their positions on key policies. Their approach to climate change is the most graphic demonstration of that.

Gillard by all accounts was instrumental in persuading Kevin Rudd to drop an ETS when he was running the country. Then, as leader and in the run up to the election, she ruled out a carbon tax.

Now she is arguing passionately for a tax and eventually an ETS.

Abbott one day questions the science and the next declares that man made climate change is a reality.

Gillard, from the Labor Party's left, an atheist with a live-in boyfriend, nevertheless resists gay marriage and euthanasia. The public wonders whether that is her political, as opposed to her personal position.

The vulnerability of both leaders was on display in the parliament yesterday as they stood toe to toe and hurled insults at one another.

Abbott said of Gilllard that the public sees "wooden Julia, teary Julia, all the way with LBJ Julia, the George Washington never tell a lie Julia." But, he said, they never see the truthful Julia.

He said if she really was a conviction politician then "she should have the guts to face the people, to seek a mandate for the carbon tax."

Gillard said of Abbott that he was a hollow, bitter man who constantly got the big judgments wrong, whether it be on the flood levy or the mining tax.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/25/3173248.htm

---------------------

Gus: to me, journos like Barrie Cassidy never scratch below the surface... And they have to appear "balanced" because he works for the ABC... So it's one portion for Julia and one portion for Tony...

But there are far more convictions in Julia's that there is in Tony... To me, Tony has sociopath tendencies. He lies and changes his mind, he says things that are simpatico with some people then says the opposite but simpatico with others... One day it's climate warming is not proven, one day he wants to do something to stop global warming, within one hour he speaks of the "human" CO2 not being a culprit and do nothing. He has no idea. He just goes with what he does not know as long as it sounds good. The one thing he is consistent with and is a winner amongst his adulating ageing crowd of old blue rinse and R M Williams shirts is that he hates Julia. Possibly because he knows that Julia will get the better of him. Tony will do and say anything to destroy her — and destroy the democratic future of this country... and of the planet at the same time. He does not care much beyond that... Sure he may appear to profess a few "charitable" issues here and there but overall, Tony's attitude is that "one can commit sins till one goes blue in the face and then confess with a 'I did not mean it so forgive me I'm really a nice person' routine..." Totally whacko. Incredible duplicitous. Efficiently hypocritical. Sociopath destructive tendency.

For Julia, the core of the the matter is that one cannot negotiate nor get any proper ideas across when there is a clown making loud farting noises and pumping music with car trumpets and bicycle bells in the same room where you are delivering a eulogy. And you can't ask that clown to leave... half of the audience is made up of careless silly old clowns. Your message is not going to be heard. Every word that you are going to say will be twisted and covered by that clown overbearing noise and flashing lights. One cannot concentrate. it's like loud music and bright lights in the cells at Guantanamo bay 24 hours a day.... At least one would hope that Tony goes to sleep from time to time but his loopy backers make sure the noise stays at psychological destructive levels... Even Barrie Cassidy helps by doing a "they're all crappy" routine... I would not be surprise if, secretly, Barrie does not like Julia but loves Tony's clowning... But he also loves Malcolm general custard stand routine... (yes I know I know... It's General Custer's last stand... but can't you take a pie in the face?)

Julia, contrary to clowning Abbott, has a strong agenda and solid convictions. But she has to go around the paddock to avoid being pestered by an idiotic Tony who is not interested in any other things but making life miserable for Julia. Julia is smarter than the average bear — Tony. So far the political points are all in her favour despite the public being cool to her and warming to clown Tony's distracting destruction.

To me, Julia has a few ideas that are wrong, such as on Israel and on Julian Assange... But to some extend I am not convinced she's convinced about these. But she is committed about climate change action. What Barrie says about her that she forced Rudd to drop the ETS, is total crap. If Rudd had wanted Rudd to have an ETS he would have continued with it, Julia or no Julia...

Julia is a decent woman with a few faults and a few wrong ideas but she has strong convictions. Tony's convictions are like that of clown in a circus. But when clowns in circuses remove their make up in the dressing rooms, they have a soft sad side to them reflected back to them in the mirrors... When Tony removes his make up, there is another clown under it.

Tony is like a clown at a funeral... The sooner he's the one in the pine box (politically speaking), the sooner we'll all be relieved... and then can enjoy the wake with booze and lamingtons...

And please Barrie don't add to the folkloric legend that Howard was a man of conviction. He opposed the GST when Keating was thinking about it and did a never ever routine to con-vince us with it. Same with whatever he could get away with. The only conviction in Johnnee's mind was to bash workers as hard as one could, for fun.

Journos like Barrie Cassidy end up impaling themselves by sitting on the fence for too long...

Mr Keating says party machinations have destroyed New South Wales Labor, which is why it suffered such a huge defeat at the election last weekend after 16 years in government.

"What's gone wrong is that the Labor government of New South Wales had its moral authority torn away from it," he said.

"When the machinery of the party decided to usurp the prerogatives of the parliamentary government, which is what it did, it destroyed the sole case of the government inside.

"The rot set in when (Eric) Roozendaal became (NSW Labor) secretary, followed by (Mark) Arbib and then (Karl) Bitar.

"What it really means is that a Robertson leadership endorses that view, endorses that amoral view of the way the party should operate.

"The thing that characterises this group is they believe in nothing. They're not about policy, just about winning the next election, just about poll reading, winning the next election."

He agreed the election loss would have federal implications, calling Mr Robertson "more weight for Julia Gillard to drag along".

But despite Kevin Rudd's ousting in his first term as prime minister, Mr Keating denied there was a trail of "rot" leading to Canberra.

"All governments struggle in the polls, particularly when you take on big issues," he said.

"Julia Gillard has taken a big issue on with carbon and carbon pricing, and all power to her.

"It will give authority and energy to her Government."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/30/3177189.htm

-------------------

US magazine The Atlantic has named Prime Minister Julia Gillard as one of its "Brave Thinkers" of 2011 for her carriage of the Government's clean energy legislation.

The Government's long-debated carbon price bills cleared the House of Representatives this morning amid scenes of jubilation from Labor MPs. The legislation will now go to the Senate for final approval.

The Atlantic has named Ms Gillard, along with late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and US president Barack Obama, in its list of 21 people who have "risked their reputations" in pursuit of "big ideas".

The magazine notes Ms Gillard may have been forced into her energy policy by the need to form a minority government with the Greens, but by doing so she "risked her political life".

"Whether you see the move as politically expedient or as a principled course correction, there's no denying the risk that it entails in a country where climate change is a wildly contentious issue," the magazine says.

"Australia is also the world's leading coal exporter, and vocal factions of the powerful mining industry say the tax scheme will destroy jobs and sink the economy. Such fears help explain the prime minister's horrendous job-approval numbers."

But its praise was somewhat tempered by the fact that it spelt Ms Gillard's name wrong - as "Gilliard" - on its Big Thinkers webpage.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-12/gillard-named-on-brave-thinkers-list/3553582

Julia Gillard's prime ministership has been crisis-ridden as she has lurched from one misjudgement to another.

One dreads to ask the question: are we confronting a politician with a tin ear for politics, a politician who lacks the necessary political instincts? Each new stumble seems to emerge from the previous one, like a Hollywood formula, with spin offs, sequels and Christmas specials.

And yet, amidst all this the Gillard Government seems to be characterised by a legislative hyperactivity, which, given the state of Parliament, is no small achievement. However, what Gillard above all represents, to many in my generation, is the failure of political imagination.

This is nothing new of course. John Howard before her effectively waged a war on imagination in this country and ensured that the language with which we think about ourselves and the world which we inhabit was drained of both meaning and possibility. The current Prime Minister has failed abjectly to escape this political reality and her skills as a negotiator, her ability to navigate the minefield of a hostile media, a vicious Opposition and a bizarre coalition of independents does not alter the fact that the risk-averse Gillard Government is running on empty when it comes to ideas.

Characterised by the complete absence of political vision, this government has been unable to conjure up a compelling story or engage the electorate in a new narrative. And so the impetus falls to those outside the political sphere. Public writers, intellectuals and journalists are now responsible for shaping the way in which we look at the world, for making sense of the contemporary political landscape and our own political and cultural identity.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3905794.html?WT.svl=theDrum

Er... easy you young little twit... What do you want? In your essay, there is NOT A SINGLE WORD, not a single thought on what you want... not a single one... just blaming the older women for failing to GIVE YOU SOMETHING you think you should have... Bugger orf! Find your own THINGSTER and use it!!!  Call it imagination or a dill-doh, create your own bloody revolution... Shake the apple tree without blaming anyone else for the apples not falling off!!!... And please do not forget HISTORY... Women like Margaret Whitlam (I could name dozens) produced many advancements for women and if you think things are now stale, create your own toys!!! Marry another gal! Do something like pissing in the street but STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT the OLDIES not doing enough, especially those who have had more crap to cope with than you seem to have, apart from your toenail painting... Can't you see the media has created your vacuous empty head full of want? And NO IDEA of what to want in your little brain?

Go and play in the street! Fight with your fists and create your own ideals!!! And please show them to us...

JULIA Gillard should consider falling on her sword for the good of the Labor Party, because she can no longer present an even slightly credible face at the election. Her spectacular U-turn on everything she'd said before on Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper has left her looking nakedly expedient, and further exposed the state of crisis within the government.

At one point in her news conference Gillard wrung her hands. It was a metaphor for what the caucus is doing. Her claim that suddenly ''a line'' had been crossed, so she had to act to preserve Australians' respect for Parliament, came out as a workshopped confection she could not explain. After months of declaring Thomson had her support, after a week of backing Slipper returning to the Speakership if he was cleared on criminal allegations, she wants us to believe she arrived back from Gallipoli and suddenly realised that the public see a dark cloud over Parliament?

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/credibility-gone-pm-should-fall-on-her-sword-20120429-1xt3a.html#ixzz1tT1eZi4n

Go and play with the other dung beetles pushing shit uphill, Michelle... Rack orf!

This has nothing to do with running the country. Respect Parliament? Do you think John Howard was smelling like roses in there as well in his porkie days? Do you think Tony Abbott is good for Australia? A spectacular U-turn on Craig Thompson and Peter Slipper? Hey, who cares! None of them have been found guilty of anything as yet... They are just dimwits like many other dimwits we have in this parliament —and have had since year dot (1901) — and there are still many... What matters is as Mike Carton pointed out in his Saturday column, "The booming economy is the main event"... to which I would add a willingness to tackle  global warming, even if this means doing somersaults because of a rabid Abbott...

What matters thus is to push the carbon tax regardless, the mining tax regardless... and other reforms which ONLY Labor can deliver.

Wilkie, give a bit of slack to Julia and stop being on a higher horse of better than thou... Make sure the budget passes, then you will get what you want on the pokies which you would never ever get under an Abbott anyway. Don't be silly...

"But it is in diabolical trouble. Every opinion poll suggests it is heading for a defeat as calamitous as the savaging handed out in NSW and Queensland. It is not impossible the next election could leave Labor without one Queensland seat in the House of Representatives. Not one."

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/pm-must-go-or-the-party-will-be-over-20120720-22fcl.html

It's sad but people like you (Mike Carlton) writing things like this are actually doing more damage to the Labor party than Gillard is supposed to do... This is GUTLESS opinionated journalism that has been stirred by the Merde-och press from day one in order to get Tony Abbott elected... If you think that replacing Gillard with Rudd would improve the result at the next election, you are totally mistaken...

All it would do at this point in time is to somehow advance the date of an election forward and by default destroy all the advances made by Labor "despite the polls"... Come on shows some balls and don't wimp... Stop being "poll driven" and wake up! Tell the world how bad fucking Tony Abbott is... He's a sneaky, two faced populist catholic... And do you think the press would let Labor off the hook would Julia be replaced by someone else? Stop falling into the trap set out by Mr Murdoch and the Gina's of this world... You know better. 

In order for Labor to restore its public standing, reengage with organised labour, and reassure a bewildered nation, it must return to the issue that led to its creation. It is work that has defined both Labor's values like fairness and dignity, and its policies like full employment and fair wages.

Unlike the esoteric but necessary policy preoccupations of the political establishment, the concept of work is the foundation of Labor's long-term connection to the Australian psyche.

This Labor Government's record on work cannot be beaten - low unemployment in an era of international joblessness, billions invested in skills and apprenticeships, increased superannuation, Fair Work laws, and a sophisticated approach to the transition from welfare to work. It is this record and these policies that best showcase our values and competence in a profoundly troubled world.

Labor must look to its past to showcase the future. The great political challenges of these times cannot be met through a hotchpotch of key lines, media appearances and one-off summits, Power Point presentations, and community cabinets. These challenges can only be met through serious debate, substantive policy frameworks, and serious and permanent consultative mechanisms with unions, business and civil society.

Labor should refashion the social wage concept from the eighties for this new era. The social wage was an easily understood but substantial policy vehicle to explain individual policies based around work.

The social wage explains Fair Work laws, increased superannuation, parental leave, apprenticeships and training, and the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It explains that individuals, families and communities all benefit from the mutualism inherent in Labor's approach to Government.

It explains why we should contribute and what we get from collective action. The social wage is Labor's reply to the foreign, reactionary, self-serving, and self-defeating economic liberalism of modern conservatism.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4144264.html?WT.svl=theDrum

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So far one has to acknowledge that Julia Gillard has done the job... whether we like her or not.

The title to this piece is crap but there are some good points in the article... After the glorious years of workers bashing by John Howard and Tony Abbott (let's not forget this denialist, populist two-faced bum), it has taken a few years to redress the issue — in a totally changed economic landscape.

When John Howard was booted out, the world economy was roaring like a stove coal-fire fuelled by extra potatoes... Hot potatoes that started to explode within... You don't know the trick? When we were kids, we used to add raw unpeeled potatoes in the fire of central-heating stoves... Explosions galore... Made Opa happy!... 

So the world economy was going gangbusters — some savvy economists like me saw the writing on the wall, way before — until it busted as soon as Labor took over in this country... One cannot blame Labor for this... Greenspan in the US had been telling porkies : everything was fine while the fire was loaded with hot potatoes... from below par subprime to dangerous derivatives...

Thus Labor did well to steer the good ship Australia away from the greedy crumbling banking system... Overseas, government panicked and threw more expensive potatoes into the fire... They rescued the banks and their big fat bonuses!!! Thus letting people in the lurch... In Australia the people were given the money by various means... If you don't think that this made any difference then you are as thick in the head as too many Queenslanders. 

Anyway, Julia has had the guts to do some "unpopular thingies" which are only unpopular because the media led by a rabid Merde-och press is vile... And one of her problem is that a few ningnongs in the Labor party are catholics... They try hard to undermine her, adding fuel to the Merde-och fire... And this morning, Mike Carlton gives up the ghost as well... Imbecile!... Changing nag at this point in time will only destroy the good strides done till now... Wake up! Don't give up! Julia had to clean up not only after Howard's mess but the mess that Rudd was driving Labor into... Believe me it's not easy... That's why the Liberals (conservatives) have already acknowledge the value of the NBN despite having bagged the thingy for years... Give it another year and they will come to term with the carbon tax, possibly by turfing the stupid dangerous idiot-abbott out...

Of course I must acknowledge a sterling Swan for doing the sums that the hypocritical Libs (conservatives) are always poopooing, but Captain Gillard kept the ship steaming into safe waters.... Yet all the ningnongery want her to go, so they can get a closer look at the rocks, like the Costa Concordia... Brother! Mad!

JULIA GILLARD is going to win the next election.

There, I’ve said it. I figure someone may as well make this call, since every journalist in Australia already has the election won by Tony Abbott. But I’m not just saying this because I think the labour movement could do with some optimism. I really believe it. And this is why: Abbott is offering a highly uncertain future for Australians, and uncertainty is our biggest fear.

Last week, I read Laura Tingle’s Quarterly Essay: Great Expectations: Government, Entitlement and an Angry Nation. Tingle puts together a very good argument. In a nutshell, she suggests that Australians are happy to live in a free market economy, but we only want the upside of this market and expect government to protect us from the downsides.

Tingle’s theory is that we were convinced of the benefits of globalisation and reduced Government regulation by Hawke and Keating, and once we got over our initial misgivings, we embraced the idea that the market can solve any problem. Throughout the nineties, our free market appeared to be going swimmingly — house prices were rising, incomes were going up and Australian exports helped to grow our GDP each year, making our lucky country even luckier. Tingle argues that throughout John Howard’s era, Australians came to expect to have it all — the benefits of the market and Government handouts for everyone (not just those in need) to encourage us to buy houses, have babies, send our children to private schools and to buy private health insurance.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/why-gillard-will-win/

.........................

Gillard's beautiful back flip on the refugeees will give Abbott a headache... All Julia's got to do now is tell the yanks to go and suck on a lollipop in regard to Julian Assange... As well, she's got to slowly wheel-in the ultra right wing of the Labor party on the gay marriage issue... and bob's your uncle... But one has to be weary of the big bad Merde-och wolf...

PETER Gordon, the lawyer who investigated Julia Gillard's conduct during a union funds scandal almost two decades ago, says he found ''no explicit or indirect evidence that she was involved in any wrongdoing'' then - and this remains his view today.
Mr Gordon, the former senior partner of the law firm Slater & Gordon, said yesterday he found nothing in his investigation which contradicted Julia Gillard's explanation of what had taken place - and her role in it.
One of Melbourne's best-known lawyers, Mr Gordon released a detailed statement yesterday after his former partner at Slater & Gordon, Nick Styant-Browne, released to The Australian without his knowledge a draft statement he had penned dealing with Ms Gillard's departure from the law firm in 1995.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/no-evidence-gillard-had-case-to-answer-says-the-investigating-lawyer-20120821-24kll.html#ixzz24FqDyFiO

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Of course the shit-stirring team of shit-stirrers from the Liberal bullshit artist organism (conservative) want to pursue the matter which has no legs but they hope mud will stick... They are expert at throwing mud, sure, but as Whitlam used to say "Ye who throws mud looses ground"...

VLADIVOSTOCK, Russia - Prime Minister Julia Gillard has failed to appear at the opening session of the APEC summit, because her father has died.Russian President Vladimir Putin told the conference Ms Gillard could not be present because of her father's death.
Trade Minister Craig Emerson, who was already at the summit venue in the Russian city of Vladivostok, is taking Ms Gillard's place.
Australian government officials said they were not yet sure whether Ms Gillard would be returning immediately to Australia.
John Gillard, a psychiatric nurse and a coalminer during his working life, was 93.
When his daughter became the first female Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Gillard said anticipating the feat had been beyond his wildest dreams.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillard-misses-apec-because-father-dead-20120908-25ktc.html#ixzz25qyYFFGX

Yet the media remains central to the outcome of every election.

For 200 years, the print media has been the primary source. Publishing newspapers is incredibly expensive. Modern printing machinery costs hundreds of million of dollars to build and maintain. Vast reams of paper, manufactured from millions of trees around the world, feed the machines — an important aspect in this climate conscious age. Hundreds of trained staff are required — engineers, electricians, journalists and office workers.

Only multi-millionaires can afford to publish newspapers today and they will continue to lose money to promote their private agendas — which are often not to the benefit of the country or the people. They are prepared to spend their money, simply to make more.

In this election year, the internet and television will play a greater part than newspapers and opinion polls — which are always subject to suspicion.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/greatest-australian-prime-ministers/

-----------------------------------------

John and I have different views on Julia Gillard and so be it... At this stage, despite having had a few bad eggs in the Labor camp — people who want to prop their own nest ahead of the shared common good, though according to some insiders, they were really popular and generous in their own electorate — Labor is the go despite its conflicted moires.

Aligned as reluctantly as we think they are (I don't think Julia minded this alliance, it gave her some clout within the Labor party) with the greens and the independents, let's face it, Labor did more good things in the past three years than during the eleven years of John Howard and his pope-loving white-picket fence advocate, Tony Abbott.  

And sure enough, Julia appears to have been misguided on a few front, though she has had to deal with many sand-pit dynamics in the Labor Party and she had to counter the antics of a silly nose-elongated dummy and his bunch of pirates who get free-kicks instead of fouls in the media, constantly...

More good things will come should we hold our nerves... Sure some people are still upset as the way Julia replaced Kev07... To those, I say get a life, Kev13 might come back or not and so what?... What matters at this stage is that we do not let Tony Abbott through the front door or even the back door... 

From my intimate knowledge, the bad eggs in the Labor camp are more the exception than the rule, but the crazy thing is that the Liberal (conservative) Party is the party where being a bad egg is promoted as a virtue (as long as one is not perceived as a bad egg), under the guise of being a Vatican saint.... The media of course is playing a sterling role here at supporting the rightwing nuttery in its endeavour to steal properties and ideals from the guilible public — on a much grander scale than any fake Labor stooge — and get points for it.

For example, to me, the idea of a private casino run by Mr James Packer on PUBLIC land is totally crook — insane. Sure the NSW Labor stooges have been hookwindled into becoming part of the merry-go-round but that's only because of the Bitars of this world have twisted a few arms... And who in their right mind who say boo to a crying James...

Furthermore, we have not seen an ounce of Liberal (conservative) policy, apart from the super-nanny boobies from Abbott. Does it matter? Of course. We have had inklings of what they are preparing for us: screw the workers, repeal any attempt to appear aware of climate change (sure, it's freezing in Sydney in summer after the super hot days but Antarctica is melting fast and the centre of Aussieland is still bloody hot), and let their mates, the miners enjoy the raping of this country resources...

WE can all laugh at Wayne Swan's pitiful mining tax collection, but the miners can only defer their tax liability for so long. Give Abbott the nod and the miners shift their "deferred tax liability" to dividends for their shareholders, mostly the overseas dudes. Result: Australia looses out.  Be patient and eventually, Wayne's till will start a-ringing. 

The Liberals (conservatives) will kill off any sense of social justice and replace it with dancing girls at charity functions, where the money goes around in the same pockets, tax free. Most tax avoiding — sorry I mean charitable — organisations have overheads and administrative costs that one would kill for.

If you want to see more real Liberal (conservative) undercurrent, see what Chris Berg and the IPA (Institute of Public Affairs) — and the media — have to offer Tony Abbott on a platter. If this does not frighten you, then you are made of sterner stuff than I am:

We hope he grasps the opportunity to fundamentally reshape the political culture and stem the assault on individual liberty.

1 Repeal the carbon tax, and don't replace it. It will be one thing to remove the burden of the carbon tax from the Australian economy. But if it is just replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone.

2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change

3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund

4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

5 Abandon Australia's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council

6 Repeal the renewable energy target

7 Return income taxing powers to the states

8 Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission

9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

10 Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol

11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities

12 Repeal the National Curriculum

13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums

14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

15 Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be balanced'

16 Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law

17 End local content requirements for Australian television stations

18 Eliminate family tax benefits

19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme

20 Means-test Medicare

21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

22 Introduce voluntary voting

23 End mandatory disclosures on political donations

24 End media blackout in final days of election campaigns

25 End public funding to political parties

26 Remove antidumping laws

27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions

28 Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board

29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency

30 Cease subsidising the car industry

31 Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction

32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games

33 Deregulate the parallel importation of books

34 End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws

35 Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP

36 Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit

37 Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database

38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food

39 Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities

40Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools

41 Repeal the alcopops tax

42 Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including: 
a) Lower personal income tax for residents 
b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers 
c) Encourage the construction of dams

43 Repeal the mining tax

44 Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states

45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold

46 Cut company tax to an internationally competitive rate of 25 per cent

47 Cease funding the Australia Network

48 Privatise Australia Post

49 Privatise Medibank

50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function 

51 Privatise SBS 

52 Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784

53 Repeal the Fair Work Act

54 Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them

55 Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors

56 Abolish the Baby Bonus

57 Abolish the First Home Owners' Grant

58 Allow the Northern Territory

59 Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16

60 Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade

61 Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States

62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts

63 Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport

64 End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering

65 Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification

66 Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship

67 Means test tertiary student loans 

68 Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement

69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built

70 End all government funded Nanny State advertising

71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling

72 Privatise the CSIRO

73 Defund Harmony Day

74 Close the Office for Youth

75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme

THIS IS COMPLETE CRAP ... AND MOST OF IT WOULD BE COMING TO YOU WITH ABBOTT AND HIS BUNCH OF MERRY PIRATES...

And note that cartoonists Zanetti and Warren are merde-och stooges..

The House of Representatives has passed legislation recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first inhabitants of Australia.

The bill is considered an interim step on the path towards an eventual referendum for constitutional change.

Its passage through the Lower House this morning came on the five-year anniversary of former prime minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has described the legislation as a "sign of good faith" that Parliament is committed to righting the wrongs of previous actions.

"No gesture speaks more deeply to the healing of our nation's fabric than amending our nation's founding charter," she told Parliament.

"This bill seeks to foster momentum for a referendum for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples."

The legislation passed with unanimous support.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says constitutional recognition for Indigenous people is long overdue.

"We need to atone for the omissions and for the hardness of heart of our forebears, to enable us all to embrace the future as a united people," he told Parliament.

Mr Abbott has paid tribute to those who have worked to achieve reconciliation over a long period of time, including former prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Harold Holt, John Howard and Kevin Rudd.

He has also recognised the efforts of Ms Gillard.

"So often in this place, we are antagonists. Today on this matter, we are partners and collaborators," he said.

The preamble to the legislation notes that further consultation is necessary to refine plans for a referendum and to grow community support for the change.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-13/politicians-unite-on-indigenous-recognition-vote/4516238?WT.svl=news0

THE FAIRFAX MEDIA GROUP has ramped up its campaign against the Gillard Government. It appears now to have abandoned any pretence of reporting fairly on its successes and failures.

It has also copied the Murdoch ploy of enlisting academics to its tawdry anti-Labor campaign.

Monday’s National Times featured a bizarre opinion piece by honorary associate at La Trobe University David Day.

The article was headlined triumphantly ‘Final nail in PM’s coffin’ and sub-headed, just to make sure we understand:

‘Julia Gillard’s lack of leadership has spurred on her inevitable demise’.

So what is the basis for the academic’s claim that a ‘demise’ is now ‘inevitable’?

Well, there are the polls, of course. The endless feedback loop of bad reporting leading to poor polling leading to more negative reporting leading to poor polling … and so on.

But does Day offer evidence of actual bad government? Well, there’s this:

‘ … her [Gillard’s] propensity for political stumbles have seen her repeatedly fall flat on her face. The September election date and the resignation of Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans were just the latest of them.’

Really? The careers of two ministers came to an end with plenty of advance warning to the PM, allowing her to determine the timing of their completion. Since when does this constitute evidence of a PM’s‘propensity for political stumbles’?

John Howard asked for the resignations of retiring ministers David Kemp and Daryl Williams in 2004 in near identical circumstances. Was that evidence of the PM falling flat on his face? Or was it hailed as an opportunity for renewal, fresh perspectives and youthful energy?

Is Day aware the rate of ministerial sackings and resignations under Rudd/Gillard has been the lowest of any government in any Westminster nation since the 1820s?

Is there any evidence that the ministers left for anything other than admirable reasons? In Roxon’s case, including wishing to parent a 7-year old daughter.

When asked these questions by email, Day responded thus:

‘I was referring to the timing of the resignations. I agree with all you say [re ministerial resignations] but the timing gave the appearance of chaos. It was a poor political calculation and nothing was done to hose down the hooha in the press.’

This is further nonsense. It was never poor political calculation when John Howard did precisely the same. And just how can a government ‘hose down’ media ‘hooha’? Arrest the lying journalists? Ban the mendacious mastheads?

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/fairfaxs-anti-government-bias-is-as-clear-as-day/

See also;

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/25955#comment-26861

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, March 05, 2013 (12:15pm)

Sky presenter Paul Murray captured the Prime Minister sneaking through the Rooty Hill RSL bistro Monday night for a closed door dinner in a private dining room with a group of women he said looked just like her and were wearing the same glasses.

He wasn’t far wrong.

The chosen few handpicked by Julia Gillard to feast on vegetarian tarte tatin and Alaskan King Crab in the RSL’s private Zest Wok n’ Grill dining room were mummy bloggers, many of whom had previously dined with the PM at Kirribilli house in December, and none of whom appear to live anywhere near Rooty Hill.

They later posted photos and wrote blogs about their high time, sequestered away from the great unwashed of Rooty Hill in the bistro outside

One such lucky out of town dinner guest was “Mrs Woog” of woogsworld ("Making the most out of the mundane” is her motto), who posted the photo above of the elegant table setting and this one, below, of the PM’s Roasted Chicken Supreme, Potato Gratin and Sun-dried Tomato Jus selection.

Another dinner guest was Eden Riley of edenland, an apparent prime ministerial doppelgänger who posted on twitter the photo at the top of this post of herself with the PM.

As for the locals outside? Let them eat cake.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php

--------------------------

Cake?... A cheap shot... In fact if one is true to the reality, the economy has never been so good and stable as it is now... So what's the beef, sister Devine?...

As well as dealing with the 24 hour news spin cycle and the hung parliament, Julia Gillard has had the enormous task of keeping a nasty little puppet of the extreme religious right away from touching any of the levers of government... And so far so good...

You rode it out well this week. I am glad to see your spine actually meets your brain, unlike many of your male colleagues. What a sorry lot they are. Politics taught me that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex. They can't always help it; they're just not fundamentally suited to a political life. They lose their nerve easily, get tired and confused and fret too much. Just stare them down. It may be the cock that crows, after all, but it is the hen that lays the eggs. I can see the tigress in you that defends when attacked: unleash it like I did...

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/to-a-battler-from-a-baroness-20130322-2gl3a.html#ixzz2OLlmTF00

The Gillard backlash says more about her detractors

A lack of political conviction from both Labor and the Liberals has ended in a month of blood letting. When policy is chosen based on the polls, so are the leaders, writes Robert Simms.

March 2013 will long be remembered by political tragics as a month of brutality that would surely have made Brutus himself wince.

Labor's botched leadership coup may have been Rudd-less but it certainly wasn't bloodless, with a series of ministers caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile, on the conservative side of politics, a premier and a chief minister were knifed after a string of unfavourable opinion polls.

Leadership change and renewal are inevitable in any democracy. Ultimately, even the most successful leaders must eventually step aside or face their makers, be they in the parliament or the electorate. However, the frequency of the leadership changes of recent years suggests a disturbing trend in our politics.

It is fashionable to blame the media and its preoccupation with opinion polls for this unedifying musical chairs, but in truth the major political parties themselves have also driven this shallow political culture.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4615260.html

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It is fashionable to place Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard in the same basket of shallow political conviction. Most media pundit do it. They ride the bandwagon... For the Green Robert Simms to indulge in it smells a bit rank...

Long have gone the days of boots and all, of arms raised to a Fuhrer, of countries being monotised by single ideologies — except in Saudi Arabia, North Korea and a few despotic regimes... 

Let me be frank here, one can paint a society in large bold brush strokes like those of Pollock to be noticed in action or do detailing like in a painting of Michelangelo. Presently Julia Gillard is painting a much larger canvas than we realise, with a Da Vinci's cunning genius. Dare I say, even Da Vinci had moments of hesitation and he made some mistakes...

Meanwhile Abbott is finger-painting a four-year old kiddie style-image and the media goes up in arm about his extraordinary talent.

One has to be stupid to place Tony Abbot and Julia Gillard in the same basket... Julia can breathe easier, doing things of importance in China, now that the old farts of the Labor Party are licking their wounds.. but some of them are still carrying some subconscious misogynist rancour. Hopefully this will pass in time as they see discreet changes brought in by Gillard that are designed to improve a diverse and complex society.

As far as the Greens — of which Simms is a member — are concerned, their policies are unimplementable holus bolus and the Greens have rarely had a sense of the way business is structured to serve society despite its sometimes ugly profiteering...  Yes, I am all in favour of going back to flower power but it does not takes a genius to know you can't roll the ball into the system as if it was a ten pin bowling alley. That would be boots and all.

IN what she described as ‘‘the very final moments’’ of her three years and three days as Australia’s 27th prime minister, Julia Gillard drafted a letter to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

The letter, published with Ms Gillard’s approval, was in response to a letter Ms McCarthy had sent to Ms Gillard in May, after learning about her tears in parliament over the DisabilityCare legislation.

Ms Gillard describes Ms McCarthy as ‘‘a truly remarkable person’’, a description that all of us at the Herald – and all of the people she has helped over the years – would endorse.

‘‘Thanks in large measure to your persistence and courage, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry and the federal Royal Commission will bring truth and healing to the victims of horrendous abuse and betrayal,’’ Ms Gillard wrote.

Ms Gillard announced the Royal Commission in November last year, days after Premier Barry O’Farrell announced a more limited inquiry into events in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church.

After weeks of hearings in Newcastle and Sydney, the state inquiry is due to report by the end of February next year.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held its first hearing in Melbourne on April 3, and its Sydney hearings start on Monday.

Six commissioners were appointed for three years, and their interim inquiry is due by June 30 next year. A final report is timed, provisionally, for the end of 2015.

Less than three months later, the events of Wednesday, June 26, seem like ancient political history, given the intervening election campaign and change of government.

In her concession speech Ms Gillard said she was very proud of having ordered the Royal Commission, which she believed would ‘‘change the nation’’.

‘‘It will change individual lives as people get to come forward and tell their story.

‘‘It will change the nation because we will learn how to better protect our children for the future.’’

That Ms Gillard wrote such a heartfelt note on her final night as Australia’s leader is a measure both of the impact of Ms McCarthy’s reporting and the motivations of Australia’s first female prime minister. 

A LETTER FROM THE PRIME MINISTER - BY JOANNE McCARTHY

JULIA Gillard’s letter arrived at my home on Monday, July 1, five days after she lost the prime minister’s job to Kevin Rudd.

It wasn’t expected.

It was one of three or four letters I opened without benefit of glasses, in the semi-dark, after a long day at the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle, and while my dog Lloyd barked and pranced about because he wanted a walk.

I thought it was a bill.

I opened it and saw the date – June 26, 2013.

I read the first line, ‘‘I am sending you this letter in the very final moments of my last evening as Prime Minister. I do so with tremendous pride’’, stopped reading, grabbed my glasses, turned on a decent light and told Lloyd to shut up for a minute.

Then I read the letter in full and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I did a bit of both before putting it down and walking out into the dark with the dog. When I returned I read the letter again, and then I cried.

I’ve never met Julia Gillard, but the thought of her taking the time to write such a gracious and extraordinary letter on that night, of all nights, and under those circumstances, was quite overwhelming.

It has had the same impact on everyone who has read it. Most – both men and women – have become tearful at the grace, compassion and regard for someone other than herself it displayed.

It is the same grace which distinguished her from Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott last Saturday night after the federal election.

While Rudd’s speech was astonishing for its self-congratulatory tone, and Abbott’s teetered on triumphalism, Gillard’s written messages were warm and inclusive. She congratulated Abbott and wished his team well, and acknowledged the ‘‘spirited fight’’ by Labor.

‘‘My thoughts are with you all,’’ she said via Twitter, after two months of dignified silence following her June 26 defeat.

The letter from Gillard to me was in response to a personal letter from me to her.

On May 15 Gillard cried during a speech at the passing of the DisabilityCare bill, given in front of near-empty Opposition benches, and when the toll from three years of negotiating a formidable list of legislative reforms through a hung parliament was on distressing display.

On May 15 I sat in the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle and cried from exhaustion, when the emotions of an inquiry into child sex abuse and events over the previous 18 months became too much.

I wrote a handwritten letter to Gillard the next day after reading about her emotional speech and seeing a beautiful photo of Gillard taken by a child, Sophie Deane, 12, who has Down syndrome.

I quoted the aunt of Belmont North man John Pirona, whose suicide last year was the driving force behind the Newcastle Herald’s Shine the Light campaign for a royal commission.

His aunt, Angela Barry, wrote that she had never really understood the saying ‘‘If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to listen, does it make a sound?’’, until her nephew’s suicide.

His death, from ‘‘too much pain’’ related to being sexually abused by paedophile priest John Denham in the 1970s, would have remained a tragic event for his family, like so many tragic but secret events experienced by other families of the sexually abused, but the Herald’s reporting had made John Pirona the face of a national tragedy, Ms Barry wrote.

One man’s death made a sound that was heard around the world when Australia’s first female prime minister announced a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in institutions on November 12 last year.

I don’t have a copy of my letter to Gillard, but I remember writing that she would never, ever know how many people she had helped by steering the DisabilityCare bill through, and establishing the Royal Commission.

And I hope I wrote that that should be enough for a prime minister – to know that her time as leader of Australia actually meant something to countless people, many of whom have been silenced, marginalised and vulnerable their whole lives.

I asked retired Newcastle MP Sharon Grierson if she could deliver the letter to Gillard personally, and I thank her for doing that.

Julia Gillard’s letter to me was written on June 26, 2013, my mother’s 75th birthday. It will be framed, but not just yet. The history nut in me still likes to feel its weight in my hands.

TRANSCRIPT OF JULIA GILLARD'S LETTER

I am sending you this letter in the very final moments of my last evening as Prime Minister. I do so with enormous pride. 

Joanne, you are a truly remarkable person. 

Thanks in very large measure to your persistence and courage, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry and the federal Royal Commission will bring truth and healing to the victims of horrendous abuse and betrayal. 

Please know that in your remarkable struggle to tell the story about this shameful chapter in our nation’s history, you are not alone. Thousands of Australians share your passion for justice – I’m one of them.

So thank you for your humbling and inspiring letter – your integrity shines through in every sentence.

As I leave office, many piles of correspondence and briefings will go back to the Department for filing, but your letter will stay with me always.

With admiration and best wishes,

Julia Gillard

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1775058/pms-letter-to-herald-journalist-joanne-mccarthy/?cs=30

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