Hopefully the promise of an election is a full-commitment... the GG has been advised, parliament has been disolved and so would have been half the Senate... Vote judiciously.

Rotation of senators and half-Senate elections

In order to strengthen the Senate as a reviewing house, the Constitution provides that the Senate should have a continuing, but rotating, membership. Senators are elected for six-year terms, half of them being elected every three years. To allow for this, the first SenateSenate is elected after a double dissolution. This system of rotation does not apply to the four senators from the two territories, who serve the same term of office as that of the members of the House of Representatives, normally three years. The six-year term for senators was adapted from the Constitution of the United States of America, and was intended to provide senators with a greater degree of independence from electoral pressures than is possible for members of the House of Representatives, who have to go to the polls every three years. was divided into long and short term senators, and a similar division takes place when a completely new

With the exception of an election of the whole Senate following a simultaneous dissolution of both Houses, state senators retire in rotation, half on 30 June each third year. Newly elected senators begin their six-year term on l July. Half-Senate elections must be held within one year before the places of the retiring senators become vacant. Usually half-Senate elections are held concurrently with elections for members of the House of Representatives.

Sarkozy details green France plan

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for taxes to target polluters and said French use of pesticides should be halved.

He also said the commercial planting of genetically-modified (GM) crops would be suspended in France.

Mr Sarkozy was speaking at the end of a national conference on the environment.

He promised total transparency on environmental issues, including nuclear energy, and vowed to change transport policy to prioritise non-road traffic.

"We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes and charges. The aim is to tax pollution - notably fossil fuels - more, and tax work less," Mr Sarkozy said.
He called on the European Union to study in the next six months "the possibility of taxing imports from countries that do not respect the Kyoto Protocol" - the international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

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Gus: to some extend this might have more profound repercussion on the world economy than the Chinese "floating" the Chinese yuan which presently is precisely 0.133435 U.S. dollars...

... The "tsunami" predicted by our Pete should the Chinese do float their currency will look like a wavelet on windless Sunday afternoon. First because the Yuan will still have floaties and second it will be kept on a leash to make sure it does not sink or fly away. In fact the tsunami would be in a galloping inflation in Western economies... Ill prepared after 10 years of basking in the sun, Costello "in a hammock" as so colourfully described by former PM, Keating.

But the fact is that Russia will put tariffs on some of its export especially wheat (between 10 and 20 per cent) and the French are threatening to hammer countries non-signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and demanding the EU partners to join in this. This is top notch. All the green measures announced by the French president are great steps towards a greener future — steps announced on the same day as the UN sad report on the state of the planet... Congratulation Mr Sarkozy.