It’s the last sitting week in parliament for 2012, and our newspapers and TVs are full of rubbish about some sort of weak smear campaign. It’s (barely) acceptable to saddle the voting public with this sort of tripe during an election campaign, but the rest of the time our politicians should be doing what they’re paid to do – governing and legislating. Get back to work!
Category: Politics
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Ambition
Tony Jones interviewed Clive Palmer on the ABC’s 7:30 programme last night, and when Tony Jones asked if there was any purpose to his recent noise-making, he responded:“If I went into parliament, I’ve got no ambition for me personally to be a minister or Prime Minister. I’ve had a good life. I’ve done a lot of things but whatever way I [can] serve the country I certainly will.”
Ring a bell? Of course, it’s straight out of the Humphrey Appleby School of Spin. When Ludovic Kennedy asked Jim Hacker the same questions in the final episode of Yes, Minister, here’s what he said:
I have no ambitions at all in that direction… All I’ve ever wanted to do is serve my country. I’ve never sought office. Of course, if my colleagues were to persuade me that the best place to serve it from was number 10 Downing St, well, I might perhaps reluctantly be persuaded to undertake the responsibility, whatever my own private wishes might be.
Of course, Jim Hacker shortly after that went on to become PM…
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Bad form
Example of the power of websites put to shameful, rather than good use:
My position on his politics can have some bench time; whoever set up this website is playing the man and not the ball. Poor form.
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Moany Abbott
30 minutes into Tony Abbott’s address to the SA State Liberal conference and he has done nothing other than complain about the other side… will someone please save the Liberal Party from this man?
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Green Guilt
Australia today set out on a path towards a low-carbon economy, with the government announcing a set of measures intended to force Australian businesses to transition their energy supply to renewable sources. As a consumer of energy, I’m not insulated from the impending energy cost increases. I expect that one way to insulate oneself from these increases would be to make the switch to renewable energy as soon as it becomes affordable enough to do so. Right now, I can transition to 100% wind-power for an additional 5.5c per kWh, which is not unaffordable. My only question is this: the logical paths for pricing of the two available energy sources should be inversely correlated. As conventional electricity pricing increases, market availability of renewable sources should as well, leading to lower prices. Therefore, 5.5c per kWh now should be as expensive (per CPI) as it should ever be. Origin Energy alludes to this in their FAQ on the subject:Why does GreenPower cost more?
Power from renewable sources is currently more expensive than traditional generation such as coal fired power stations. This is partly because the renewable energy industry is still emerging and does not enjoy the same economies of scale as traditional power and production.
I wonder if this will really be the case… or if it’s just a cynical opportunity to cash in on green guilt?