Diary of our stinking Govt.

As it's more than 100 days now, it has been suggested that a new thread was needed.  The current govt has been breaking promises and telling lies at a rate so fast it's hard to keep up.Woman Happy

 

This below is worrying, "independent" pffft, as if your own doctor is somehow what? biased, it's ridiculous. So far there is talk of only including people under a certain age 30-35, for now. Remember that if your injured in a car, injured at work or get ill, you too might need to go on the DSP. They have done a similar think in the UK with devastating consequences.

 

and this is the 2nd time recently where the Govt has referred to work as welfare???? So when you go to work tomorrow (or tuesday), just remember that's welfare.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-20/disability-pensioners-may-be-reassessed-kevin-andrews/5400598

 

Independent doctors could be called in to reassess disability pensioners, Federal Government says

 

The Federal Government is considering using independent doctors to examine disability pensioners and assess whether they should continue to receive payments.

 

Currently family doctors provide reports supporting claims for the Disability Support Pension (DSP).

But Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews is considering a measure that would see independent doctors reassess eligibility.

 

"We are concerned that where people can work, the best form of welfare is work," Mr Andrews said at a press conference.

 

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I think they mean Canadia....

 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/10/climate-unity-dealt-blow-as-australia-and-canada-...

 

Climate unity dealt blow as Australia and Canada put business first

 

Prime ministers Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper say they do not want to harm economy in the fight against climate change

 

The Australian and Canadian prime ministers have suggested that economic growth is more important than tackling climate change, playing down the prospects of strong co-ordinated global action.

 

Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper indicated during a joint media conference in Ottawa that they felt no additional pressure to address climate change as a result of the US president Barack Obama's new package to reduce emissions.

 

Reflecting pessimism about the likelihood of ambitious co-ordinated global action, Abbott said climate change was "not the only or even the most important problem" the world faced and argued each country "should take the action that it thinks is best to reduce emissions".

 

The Australian Greens accused Abbott and Harper of creating a "conservative climate deniers club" while the Australian Labor party said the surest way to destroy jobs and growth in the long term was to do nothing about climate change.

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Climate unity dealt blow as Australia and Canada put business first.

Gosh how could they do such a thing?   Business first, from us, who could double or reduce to nil our GHG emissions  and it would not be noticeable on a global scale. As for Canada what they do is their business but it is hard to decide what the post signifies as it is a C&P of others thoughts with no useful/intelligent input at all.

 

Now a C&P, sans comment, because it is so easy!:

 

Tony Abbott wins support of Canada’s Stephen Harper on climate change


TONY Abbott and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have dismissed the need to escalate action on climate change in response to a new US edict to cut carbon emissions, insisting their own plans do enough to tackle the problem.

Speaking at a joint press conference, the two prime ministers welcomed US President Barack Obama’s plan to cut power station emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, but said it did not change their thinking on Australian and Canadian action.

Mr Harper said the US plan does not go far enough compared to Canadian action in recent years while Mr Abbott said he was encouraged by the “direct action” being taken in the US.

Both leaders, who are seen as “like-minded” conservatives on climate and other issues, emphasised the risk of going too far on climate change in ways that would destroy jobs and growth.

 

I have to comment, sorry.

The Kyoto Protocol treaty was negotiated in December 1997 at the city of Kyoto, Japan and came into force February 16th, 2005.

"The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding agreement under which industrialized countries will reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990 (but note that, compared to the emissions levels that would be expected by 2010 without the Protocol, this target represents a 29% cut).

Since then there have been many other GHG reduction talkfests, the result :

 

CO2 at Mauna Loa.

Week beginning on June 1, 2014:     401.82 ppm

 

co2 loa.png

 

 

A lot of talkfests, a lot of Green noise, "climate unity dealt a blow" (whatever that means) a few C&P's with no thought, little  general knowledge regarding the problem/effects, and still CO2 continues its anthropogenic driven  inexorable rise.

nɥºɾ

 

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Hmm there's a fair bit of spin going on with AP. what's hurting their profits most of all is the 20 million dollars paid in executive salaries. They are still running at a profit of around 320 million when parcel post is included. There hasn't been much mention of this, the focus is on the loss incurred by letters.
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specially for monman12....

 

The world's two largest economies - China and the US - are increasingly adopting carbon trading to cut greenhouse gas emissions, contrary to suggestions by Prime Minister Tony Abbott that other countries are not introducing schemes.

Speaking in Canada, Mr Abbott said carbon taxes and emissions trading were the wrong way to address climate change.

 

Carbom map

Carbom map

 

He said the debate was not about the existence of climate change, but the best approach to respond to it and he backed ''direct action measures'' such as improving energy efficiency and planting more trees.

 

Asked if direct action was preferable to an international emissions trading scheme, Mr Abbott said: ''There is no sign - no sign - that trading schemes are increasingly being adopted. If anything trading schemes are being discarded, not adopted.''

 

Kobad Bhavnagri, Australian head at analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said it was wrong to claim trading schemes were being discarded. He said China started six regional emissions trading schemes in the past year - building towards a national scheme expected to be in place this decade.

 

 

 

In the US, he said the recently announced emissions limits on coal-fired power plants - expressed as targets imposed on the states by the Environment Protection Agency - would likely lead to more states adopting emissions trading to deliver required cuts.

 

''Apart from Australia I don't think any other country has plans to unwind an emissions trading scheme. That assertion they are being discarded is incorrect,'' Mr Bhavnagri said.

 

''In the world's two biggest economies - and the world's two biggest emitters - we are seeing quite a deliberate move towards carbon pricing and emissions trading, not away.''

 

Carbon Market Institute chief executive Peter Castellas said there was momentum in Australia's largest trading partners to price

carbon as a way to limit emissions. He said if governments were going to oblige companies to limit emissions, then a trading scheme was the best option to do it at lowest cost.

 

A World Bank report released last month found the share of emissions covered by domestic carbon prices significantly increased over the past year on the back of trading schemes launched in China, California and Quebec. But it warned the push towards an international carbon credit market had stalled, with major countries such as Japan and Russia refusing to sign up to a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol - the climate treaty covering wealthy countries.

 

The World Bank found 39 countries, most in the European Union, and 23 states and provinces within countries have adopted either emissions trading or a carbon tax. They cover about 12 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The Abbott government has vowed to repeal Australia's carbon price and replace it with its Direct Action policy.

China is due to launch a seventh regional trading scheme this week, in Chongqing. A senior official from China's powerful National Development and Reform Commission, Sun Cuihua, last week said a national emissions trading scheme could begin in 2016 or 2017, but would be fully functional in 2020.

 

The US Congress has blocked attempts by President Barack Obama to install a national emissions trading scheme. But California started a scheme in 2013 and nine north-eastern US states have been involved in a scheme covering power plants since 2003.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-missing-signs-of-worlds-switch-to-...



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man of action.jpg

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"specially for monman12" : "The world's two largest economies - China and the US - are increasingly adopting carbon trading to cut greenhouse gas emissions, contrary to suggestions by Prime Minister Tony Abbott that other countries are not introducing schemes."
Interesting, but do you have any original  thoughts apropos the topic?

China is actually only trialing i.e. has pilot schemes, and in the US there is no federal scheme just: the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), covering nine states in the northeast, and a programme in California. It might (?) interest you to know that this scheme is aimed purely at the electrical power industry which is responsible for just 22.5% of emissions by the RGGI participants.

Ranping Song and Hongpeng Lei - January 24, 2014 World Resources Institute:
While pilots are generally functioning as designed so far, it remains to be seen whether China’s ETS experiment is successful. This year could provide early indications: most ETS pilots will finish their first compliance period, where the whole cycle of activities like allowance allocation, permit trading, and allowance submission can be evaluated for the first time

The Economist Intelligence Unit 2013
Trials & tribulations: China experiments with carbon trading

China is launching seven carbon-trading trials with a view to later creating a nationwide scheme that could be the world’s largest. However, our research highlights significant barriers to these efforts. Amongst them, trials will suffer from low trading volumes, especially in the early stages; a national system will not take root until late this decade and cautious regulation will severely hinder China’s progress in carbon finance.

Within the C&P is this:
"But it warned the push towards an international carbon credit market had stalled, with major countries such as Japan and Russia refusing to sign up to a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol - the climate treaty covering wealthy countries."
The World Bank found 39 countries, most in the European Union, and 23 states and provinces within countries have adopted either emissions trading or a carbon tax. They cover about 12 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Gosh only 12%,  but the media coverage makes it  sounds like a lot more. Perhaps that is why the talkfests are having no effect upon the steadily increasing CO2 levels.

The mathematics of  small reductions over some years upon 12 % of emissions as a ratio to the sum total is fascinating, but for later.

nɥºɾ

 

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Israel and Australia: New best mates?

Australia has a lot of best friends. Sometimes it's Japan. Sometimes it's Indonesia. Sometimes it's China.

Now, though, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thinks he might have found a new best mate Down Under.

Last week the Australian Attorney General George Brandis issued a statement saying: "The description of East Jerusalem as 'Occupied East Jerusalem' is a term freighted with pejorative implications which is neither appropriate nor useful."

Others though were not best pleased.

The Palestinian Authority reportedly summoned Australia's representative to explain the change in position.

The Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki called it a "radical change in Australia's position on Palestine".

Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon said it was "an extraordinary and reckless departure from the bipartisan approach of the last 47 years".

"Even Israel's strongest ally, the United States, does not hold this position," he added.

So Australia is seemingly going out on a limb.

The country has long been regarded as a strong supporter of Israel.

Along with Israel, Australia was one of only 14 out of 194 UN members to oppose Palestine becoming a member of Unesco, the United Nations education, and scientific and cultural organisation in 2011.

Australia abstained from the vote in 2012 that saw Palestine become a "non-member observer state". Forty other UN members abstained. 138 voted in favour and 9 voted against.

Australia's support for Israel is contentious here.

Israel has been warned it is currently facing increasing international isolation.

That's why the Israeli government will value the fact that it still has a friend in Australia.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27761956



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I was a bit shocked by that when Julie Bishop spoke about it,

 

it is occupied land IMO

 

also the economy doesn't look like picking up at all

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-11/westpac-consumer-confidence-june/5515030

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Abbott shows his true colours

 

More to public's dislike of the budget than simple selfishness

..........Since the election, he's revealed himself to be a hard-line ideologue, intent on reshaping government to suit the interests of big business and high-income earners.


.........Since the election, he has transformed into an inflexible "conviction politician" who doesn't seem much worried about whom he offends.



......this budget is neither fair nor in the nation's interest – unless you share the Business Council's certainty that the world would be a much better place if only big business was allowed to do whatever it pleased and executives paid minimal tax.

...I never imagined I'd see the day when any government decided to take on perhaps the most powerful voting bloc of them all, Grey Power.

 

...Nor did I ever expect to see any government declare war on virtually the whole of the younger generation

 

If I were Abbott, I wouldn't be counting on too much voter gratitude for fixing the budget.

 

Ross Gittins is economics editor.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/more-to-publics-dislike-of-the-budget-than-simple-selfishness-20140610...

 

 

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"Consumer confidence has steadied at a strongly negative level, failing to recover from a post-budget slump."  strongly negative???

Consumer confidence whilst of some interest is trumped by market reality!  Here is the ASX200 index for the last 3 months. It might be noticed that it is higher than post budget, and actually there was not even a post budget slump.

 

asx 200 3 months.gif

However, quoting a month or two of share prices  is meaningless, unless you are writing for consumers. I prefer longer term trends of share prices, like these 2 companies , of which I have  a few:

 

cba 5 years.gif

 

 

TLS 5 years.gif

 

"strongly negative level" ?  and they both pay full franked dividends as well.

 

nɥºɾ

 

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