29 posts tagged “global warming”

Exactly how long is it going to take for the Good Ship Lost Cause (otherwise known as her majesty's Opposition) to plug the holes and get sea worthy again?

It's been a shocking week and it's only Wednesday.

Monday night got things off to an exciting start with the 4 Corners program giving the Climate Change skeptics a full run. After all Malcolm's efforts to try and hide these characters the ABC has given them the opportunity to increase the size of the hole in the hull and they went for it boots and all.

Then something snapped in Joe Hockey who is supposed to be a future leader of the Libs. For some strange reason he has decided to play the God card, presumably because he thinks it will better his chances in Leadership ballots. Logic fail. Kevin 07 beat Howard in spite of his religious beliefs not because of them.

Aussies are always supicious of "God Bothering" from pollies. Yes, you can declare your hand if the matter is raised by others but to start the topic yourself is a very dangerous tactic. When you have another political challenger in your Party representing Cardinal Pell pushing a different God then things can get ugly mighty fast.

To add insult to injury, young Joe has also come out with the extraordinary claim that he doesn't lie. Perhaps he has already forgotten his part in promoting Work Choices but the victims of it haven't. It shouldn't be too long now before the Interviewers start reading back on his unhappy time as the Minister and start quizzing his pronouncements. Perhaps he should have added the caveat "from now on" but even that would be a struggle. His announcement that "People smuggling is in decline" though not an outright lie is certainly a dishonest presentation of the facts.

All this on top of Howard sticking his head up to remind the Voters of children being imprisoned with their asylum seeking parents.

The week can only improve from here.

This morning’s AM program, and later the commentary by Michelle Grattan during RN Breakfast, bought forth an interesting item about the Environment Minister, Penny Wong, effectively issuing a time deadline to the Opposition over the upcoming ETS legislation due back in the Senate before too long. When this is coupled with the hints at a Double Dissolution, the pressure is really on the Opposition benches.

The next couple of months look extremely interesting and it’s hard to tell which way things are going to play out.

I do think it’s high time the Liberal Party accepted that they lost the last election and started to work at becoming an effective Opposition. It shouldn’t be too foreign to the party. They have been in Opposition before so there must be some political memory of how to appear as a viable alternative government. If not, then examining how Labor defeated them is a rich field of study and not that long ago so the bodies are still warm.

Once they start behaving more responsibility they will be able to ignore the threat of a Double D and then perhaps they can relax a bit and start doing a better job.

Of course it would also help if the Shadow Ministers and “seat warmer” Malcolm could get their stories straight. This morning’s responses from Turnbull and the Shadow Environment Minister make an interesting study.

McFarland’s response to Penny Wong’s memo was “She is just demanding what we have already agreed to”. Be this true or otherwise it was a good reply that cannot be easily dismissed without further study. Compare that to Malcolm’s response which effectively said they would work along at their own speed regardless of what Minister Wong demands. Wow. That’s a maximum score on the arrogance scale even if they meet the target as McFarland suggests. That's what I call turning a positive into a negative.

Poor Malcolm still doesn’t get it. It’s not all about him. It’s about what the Aussie Public want. Continually reminding the Voters that he feels left out is not going to garner any sympathy. It’s one of the “benefits” of losing an Election and it's time for a reality check.

Labor has done their best to assist young Malcolm get the Libs in shape with the threat of a Double D. It gives him a lever to try and instil some discipline within the party and has already helped him marginalise the likes of Iron bar Tuckey. The trouble is Turnbull is such a loose cannon and often can’t keep his character flaws under control. He worries the party and effectively undoes the help Labor has inadvertently (?) offered. In some ways he reminds me of Mark Latham from the Labor side.  Unpredictable and ultimately dangerous.

So then next couple of months are very interesting. If the Opposition remains a basket case, they could well face the Double D. As much as I have never been in favour of early elections, I’d be seriously tempted to bring it on if the ETS bill is defeated. It would more than likely rid the chamber of the floundering Fielding and cart out a few more National Senators to boot. It might even thin out the Greens after their less than stellar contributions.

It would be an easy case for Labor to argue sound financial management against the “Do nothing” approach of the Conservatives. Especially when the Public is getting impatient about actually making a start on tackling Global Warming in the face of unstable weather patterns.

The good ship Lost Cause appears to have met with some technical hitches of late and it makes me wonder how long it is going to take the new crew to get a grip on their not so new roles.

First and foremost the crew seems to be unaware they are still stuck on the rocks that John and Peter drove them onto before the last Election. This is a little puzzling because it’s pretty clear even to the Liberal party that things are not going swimmingly well. The problem seems to be below deck and they haven't searched that far yet.

The problem comes from a number of areas not the least of which is being caused by wanting their old job back without getting their policies under control. The idea that they should be focussing on being a strong Opposition doesn’t seem to have occurred just yet, so, to continue the metaphor, they are trying to relaunch the good ship Lost Cause while it still has structural damage.

The “Fake email” affair is fair of example of just how far off the mark the party is. Desperate to have something to attack the Government over, they rushed off without checking the data (assuming they didn’t help create it) and the whole fiasco blew up in their faces.

Here are a couple of tips to help the hapless Malcolm get his mind around the job. Lets call it Opposition 101.

1.       Don’t run the attack of something like secret emails yourself. That is what gooses like Ironbar Tuckey are for. You let the story break with a known dill and see if it will fly. That way if the story goes “pear shaped” you are not left standing there with your finger prints on the evidence and public statements to answer to. If the story grows legs you still get the points but you can claim to be above such gutter tactics.

2.       When the horse has died in the traces, put the whip away. Like living in a successful marriage, if you have fallen into a hole. Stop digging. Make the apology and accept the fact that it makes you look human. It’s actually a plus with the Voters though who knows how the Party will view it.

3.       Don’t attack the strongest member on the other side. This one is simply common sense.

4.       Stop trying to discredit Kevin 07 on character issues. Current public perception is young Kevin is boringly straight while the Opposition is projecting themselves as desperate folk unprofessional enough to run any hint of a problem without the skills to check it out. This last episode looks like more of the same.

5.       Get yourself a serious Emissions Trading Scheme. You were voted out for ignoring Global Warming and blocking and filibustering new legislation simply show the Public you are still without answers. Forget what the party wants. It's supposed to be about what the Voters want unless you aspire to the Iranian model.

6.       Cast off those crazy Nationals. (Think of them as ballast). Trying to hide Climate Change deniers is no easy trick especially when one of them is Barnaby Joyce. You have a serious cred problem here and you cannot solve it with these folk holding back policies.

This morning I was surprised to hear Joe Hockey defend the fake email on RN Breakfast. I know he has a role to perform as the 2 IC but this one is dead. He might have something to work on with the Treasurer but it isn't the email. He was actually changing his position as he went through the interview. Clearly he had not thought the problem through and he was trying out different excuses “live to air”. Ouch. You have to have your story straight before you face the media.

The starting gambit was “the email exists so it’s proof something is happening”

Fran. “But the police have discovered it is a fake”

Hockey. “Yes but it proves it does exist”

(Not sure what he was aiming at here but it certainly does not do his party any credit that it does and they ran with it. He was probably trying to restate obvious stuff before running a smoke screen but just happened to pick the wrong item.)

Fran. “Are you claiming it’s not a fake?”

Hockey. “It proves an email exists. Doesn’t it?”

(Hmm. Sounds like he was going to try and claim its existence was proof of guilt but then it didn’t sound like such a smart idea. The inflection hinted at 2nd thoughts as did the question mark)

A little later on. Fran. “Are you going to release the details of this email?”

Hockey. “This matter is in police hands.”

(Ouch. The old subjudice argument except it doesn’t hold water in this case. The text of this “missing” email was read into Hansard by a Senator late last week. )

At the end of the interview, Hockey was asked to character reference the person alleged to have produced the fake email. Surprisingly he did so. Even though the suspect is an ex-Hockey staffer, I would have thought it time to play safe in case the poor chap has had a brain fade and generated the fake with malice aforethought. I’m not going to complain too much about him supporting the guy, that’s rather human, but it does add to the overall look of an Opposition that doesn’t think forward and is prepared to front the media without a solid plan.

Once the party gets over trying to set policy to meet their internal wishes and starts formulating policies to meet Voters requirements, then things will start to get underway again. I just can’t predict how long it is going to take them to “get it together”.

Australia has 5 programs that are directed towards us living with a smaller carbon footprint and I am going to post a summary of each one in the hope that it will be easier to absorb than hitting their packed web site.

By the way this post has been inspired by Geology Byotch's blog on UK assistance

Some of the programs here carry significant $$$ as you will see.

The first cab off the rank is the Energy Efficient Homes package which is one of the lesser dollar figures but a welcome relief for those folk living in uninsulated homes.

• free ceiling insulation worth up to $1,600 for currently uninsulated homes; or
• a $1,600 rebate on the costs of installing solar hot water systems
  
• help for renters, with a rebate for landlords on the costs of insulating their rental properties.
  

Not a bad little opener this one and it doesn't stop you for applying for some of the other schemes on offer. If you use this package for insulation you can still apply for a solar rebate subject to the guidelines.

I was shocked to discover some houses are not insulated considering the temperatures we have to endure. Hitting 110 degrees in the old measure is life threatening in my view. Not only is this a low carbon footprint bonus but a health benefit as well.

Assisting renters is a real bonus. So many things are aimed at home owners, it's good to see about 1/3 of the population have not been ignored. Census data 2006

For more detail on this package, an Faq and an application form go here.

After patiently waiting for Valentines Day and watching it come and go with no eggs in the chook pen, I was wondering just how long it might be before our 4 chickens became productive.

Well, the wait is over. The black chook named Chris, after the designer and builder of Casa Del Chook, has produced 2 eggs in 3 days. A little on the small size as expected but beautiful strong yellow yokes and firm whites.

Now we know the trick of working out when they are ready to lay. The comb on the chickens head gets much redder when they start laying.

I will post some piccys tomorrow when I get access to the laptop and I can pull the shots off the camera.