The Kennett Symbol

Tough on the outside, but very messy once you put the pressure on.

Depression is growing in our society , not only because things are broken and  need fixing ( nothing new) , but because the popular political correction methods do not work - mess.
You get depressed when things don't work . When what you imagine of yourself  and others proves to be faulty. Sure its right to see the problem as personal mindset but its corporate crap too that can have caught you here - its what i'm talking to here.


Many people have bought into a pup . They throw out the old and buy into the new , when the old may work better and using it costs our children nothing - infact we give them BOTH  a debt free future and a debt free attitude . Thinking outside the box is right but only if what's inside the box works and works better. Repairs, like reform is completely underrated esp by those who muddy the waters by their throwing mud at human solutions to just about anything ( see Churchill qualification for democracy)  . Maybe major  new growth industries in Australia could be repair reform ones (copyright 30th May 2012 EA)
Buying into new solutions is expensive and, unless it really works long term ,  only builds castles in the unsustainable and non renewable court of retail therapy -Shelf projects ( you heard it first on blogger).Some Liberals are pleased . Thinking liberals are not.

New shells do nothing . Only new attitude; " metanoia" -  brings relief  . After all,  our only disability / others only disability is our / their attitude. ( GK Chestertons  record breaking letter to the London Times ) 

Jeff Kennett,  in becoming a lead figure in Beyond Blue has learned something from being in office . He created enough of the problem to know something about it . If only others would follow his lesson learnt lead there, and learn something .
If only some of those like 3AW's Neil Mitchell and James Packer  could only see beyond  the simplicities he symbolizes .These dummies continue to confuse their desire for boundaries with their desire to remove them .
James Packer , in a move which symbolizes some of the worst aspects of modern liberalism , said yesterday he would like Jeff Kennett on the board of some of his casinos enterprises ECHO .   Xenophon is right - "curiuos" when depression is the main disease in gambling and the effect of chasing such simplicities 

What is it about Jeff the symbol that is so attractive to power brokers ? ( and where is the real Jeff Kennett in all this?)
Clearly its JK's "can do" attitude - just as this attitude was the one that got him elected as Premier of the State of Victoria in the 1900's . Jeff   does not let  the complexities of oikonomia get in the road of a way through . The tendency of the simple to find such stupid simplicities attractive are completely understandable : that doesn't make these sort of Liberals  fit for office - any thing but .

We all may regret the wasteful good will hunting nonsense of Labor with mere money , but the Modern Australian Liberal Party take the cake for wasteful good will driven non thinking  nonsense of the basis of liberalism . The Modern Australian Liberal Party takes the cake for not using their brains when making decisions - as if everything comes at a price or worse , everything good comes with more pressure. The Modern Australian Liberal Party takes the cake for dumbness and idolness.
I fully accept the need for toughness but not the shallow stuff symbolised by JK .  I fully accept the need for toughness but know it only works when it originates in toughness of the mind and spirit .
We trust that there are some people in all parties who still think and take advice instead of applying retail rhetoric  to every problem they haven't already yet solved. 

How many big hammers does LNP need to change the world

None. If Newman reflects  on the wasted smash and grab  of Kennett  and the key result of even less competent planning bureaus  he might realise that Labor are not the only ones with a problem .

Nothing is more dangerous for the new QLD LNP leadership than  arraogance and a sense of righteousness.  We saw it on election night when the deputy got stuck into Katter ( calling his talk rubbish")when all Katter said was quite reasonable .  More importantly LNP might have relied on KAP for preferences = as if the winner needs to do this shows a form of mental illness that offends.
Bob Katter is absolutely right to point out to the arrogant comfort zone collectives in this country that market driven economics is too exploitative for rural economies (and he speaks for the whole world on this and as a lone voice in Australia). 
Because of that fact he should poll well in rural areas where this news is not news. I hope for the sake of the cathartic effect of truth, that his inability to fully articulate " a political solution " will not be held altogether against him. We ALL need help to develop responses to our constituencies concerns and while he remains a lone voice he is not getting it ! Posted 8am Saturday24th March 2012

When will Libs take up the slack and win?

The opposition parties , to be credible, have to carry the indifference and objection of some party supporters with them all the time. For that reason they can't afford to let the motherhood marginal parties run a policy platform THEY could just as well run themselves ( because they would study it and know how to do it properly) At both a State and federal level the Libs are missing opportunities to grab votes . I know this because I have been offering them good environ leads for years .
The Greens continue to beat this sleepy lot to a game that is easy to play a whole lot better than they do - because they CAN GET the backing of people who know ( professionals who vote major party) But no, the Libs woose out on water,  fire and health risk good policy promos , afraid , it seems to really stick their necks out and win points like the Greens will continue to do . Points that could lose them the election JUST  like a few point to the greens did last time .
eg this week a green group is influencing what sunscreens are used in schools.  FROM ABC environment 

Even the Liberals get lost sometimes

The failure of Vic Liberals to anticipate their reactive politics has to be seen to be believed . 3 years after the most serious bush fire disaster in Australia's history the new government haven't got the guts to tell the Shires that that they must create and nominate open spaces for people protection. The Shires are afraid to move without a lead and even though the inquiry highlighted the need - nothing practical has been done in one of the highest risk areas in Victoria.
Like the previous incompetents,  they build new empires that cry wolf but  fail to address the simple matter of sign posting places of last resort.

Julia beating the conservatives at their own game ?

Offering tokens at election can win elections,  but it won't keep you in government.

While Labor are being forced to accept that, why don't conservatives grab the ground of environemnatl cerdibility that is going begging when the left move right ( as they appear to be doing with uranium and cola seam gas ) . If conservatives can't be celar about who owns eco competencies ( professionals) they will continue to fail to grab the hearts and minds of young austrailians who could vote for them - if only theye were CLEAR
Not doing something or using something because its dangerous ( even politically ) may mean you prefer ignorance and fear  to a mature attitude to risk . The people want certainty; The sort of certainty  that comes with ignoring a panic driven media and political process. The sort of certainty  that comes with boring old career focus by all Australians . The sort of certainty  that comes with politcians who don't tell us "what they think" - cf a professional group such as we have at http://ecomia.blogspot.com  We work best when we don't try to do each others jobs but respect the roles .
Gillard , with the Greens running the show,  knows she has to show how Labor still has some backbone . Her statement today that she intends to make her position clear on some middle sound ground issues is very welcome. ( if not deeply credible on energy policy )  because the NEW doesn't mean throwing out the old . Such stupid reactionary politics characterizes the immature and the ageing media reactionaries in power  and helps explain why Labor has been losing its appeal
No doubt the Greens will seek to mediate a solution to the sleeping giant s wake up call - but having changed everything often ( and therefore undermined their credibility on moral ground  by constantly moving it - the moral ground clearly more passively shared by others ) they are not credible - be interesting to see if they can agree to say something useful or just hug each other over every token word that seems to say they are being taken seriously

Labor's needs to stop selling things and trying to fiddle with the market - ( not god enough at it) Greenlabor's stupid and shallow belief in change for changes sake ( they aren't used to discernment and selling that)  will need a good shake if they are not to STILL go down still  buying technology and clothes they don't understand and can't see the "old hat sale"  notice on .
We know she's been wearing invisible clothes even if the conference doesn't get it yet either .
Change driven by desperation doesn't keep you in power either .
Maybe rather than have debates on conferenence electives on a narrative (and one that isn't modelled on the word NEW)

Conservatives as thick as 2 short planks on the environment

When you hear the carelesscrap that some conservatives produce on the subject of the environment, you do wonder whether they can win the next election.


Our new  conservative Premier (Ted )only this week offering to donate more trees to urban areas.
By using the word" trees", the Libs missed the opportunity to bring thinking people with them . "Shrubs ,habitat  native veg (even ) "would have been better . Not the dumbstupidity of "TREES"(trees being objects of worship, these new brooms aren't down to earth enough to realize that trees on small blocks don't fit and infact helped kill 180 people at Marysville who also didn't accept that biodiversity is fine provided  that it protects SOMETHING (many of our native trees go off like firecrackers with wicks as long as a house is wide). move on and be ahead of the greens in the game !

THE PROBLEM
City based cynicsm,environmental tokenism  and "market will fix everything" nonsense is at the heart of it. Confusion in Nats about whether /what sort of governmnet planning they would support doesn't help .(esp Walsh and the old guard )
The conservatives need to learn how to say NO (avoiding the children in charge scenario that now hangs over them too).  Does not Peter Ryan realize that without credible backing for ENV senior ministers will continue to lack credibility and risk their right to office ?

Get some decent advisers !!!!use the words habitat plants or "design advice"something not so dull and dusted Something that will give the Public service PS something to do other than sing silly old tree choruses in church.-something thats already driven the best PS OUT of the system.

The current confusion and "free for all" WILL NOT protect rural people from the ravages of ignorant city talkers from insisting on THEIR solutions for the country.Clearly the conservatives from the old guard don't REALLY get why independents are a growing force in the country!!!
CLEARLY the ONLY OPTION for conservatives is NOT"in no government" but stronger,smaller and much more locally accountable REGIONAL government . Not 3rd tiers like CMAs , or dumb dumping of responsibility onto Shires ,who will operate only as candles in the real winds of politics and the solid ground of env competence ..

Real reform - not something any of you are credible about

Anyone who has ever advised good politicians knows how overly sensitive they can still be because its not just the truth that matters to them but how the truth is perceived. They must not let the truth be watered down internally or they will be caught in careless compromise  . Which is why its a mystery why they cultivate so much "business is government "nonsense within their own ranks .
Frighteningly for their election prospects,  the Liberal party encourages people whose style is quickfiz and who fail to listen closely enough to be more than bullies in the treatment of legislation and administration. My experience is that,  in recent days,  the "crash throughs" are worse in the Liberal party than those within Labor .
The worst thing too is that rank and file Libs don't see the danger in the style of some of their old leaders and the shallow and ineffective nature of their methods . After all the damage from Kennet Stockdale meant the Libs were out of power for far too long - let alone the reasons why they lost Corangamite  2 elections in a row.
Now we are supposed to believe ( sorry Tony - not credible) that the Libs are prepared to listen . Reith may be focused on particular reform,  but general reform must happen if the Libs are to be taken more seriously as a party of competence,  rather than more of the same old sameold  ---crash through us too  .

Helping the new Liberals along. NSW landslide victory

What Labor doesn't know they just wouldn't know --because they love to worship mere facts . Perhaps they hope that by digesting a whole pile of mere facts,   they will get some morality and purpose instead of the indigestion and " let everyone do what they like stuff" they have been sharing with us across Australia for the last decades .
And if Liberals are going to show some guts and true grit they must abandon their shallow facscination with all things good in business ( because its half the reason Labor and previuos libs went wrong )and get back to recognising the things our old culture does well and why ( way we think about temptation , business freedom and celebration) need that paradigm shift they seem no to have lost sight of
so here's a start
The education revolution - more to resisting state school degradation than new plaster , paint and wallpaper
The environment revolution - don't put the onus on farmers to prove they aren't doing the wrong thing - put the onus on the  department responsible , and if you can't find one , sack all the department heads and NGO'S and Canberra clingers on the drip feed till you do; do a survey starting at the Shires and up to Canberra on all the people meddling or connected with NVR legislation and how many Ha of trees they haven't got sustainably on GPS verified sites for how many dollars  ;  find someone who has put their hand up to defend well argued design with nature onground support and where necessary detailed on ground concern . We are conservationists here

Decision making rather than policy making  Put the metal on those departments and Ngos whose main products are paper !

why don't you add to this list  !Its still a free country !

Don't,whatever you do,tell primary industry how it should work

After all  the joint parties love affair with the market in solving environment is a failure 
-Grattan Inst says govt #climate programs have failed (listen)http://bit.ly/h2f8pN via @amworldtodaypm
Report finds $12 billion of state-federal government climate programs fail to adequately cut carbon emissions.http://bit.ly/gLe3OL
Why ? -we might well ask when both parties agree about method "the market"  Answer 
When both parties still think economics is the preserve of of bookkeepers.when its clearly a much bigger profession 


"Sit on big business and they will innovate , innovate"  ( If in competition ) never sit on a vote ? and not pass the cost on ? 


Carbon farming legislation 
As if to demonstrate the joint desperation of both parties --the danger of ignoring the implementation question over the ideas , both parties still trip over themselves today to announce a revamped sequestration  incentive ( Greg Combey at 12pm today and Greg Hunt on ABC lateline 23rd )


 Taking one to know one they know the idea but not yet how to implement it - seriously dangerous . 
-- taking from the rich or careless is fine if you trust the govt to use the money well 
-.we don't need more bureaubrats.. Tax fuel abusers (eg 4WD) and give sequesters a decent excise
- As if farmers don't already have enough single focused greenclones talkin to them bout things they don't understand
-The earth is able to sustain itself .A coalition of low integrity and accountability wants us to take them seriuosly No
-Only trade unions would think they would be able to tell farmers when they need to be paid and how much
-Always inventing new stuff and talking to solutions in name only shocking #abcenvironment #lateline
-Greg can't see that his proposition for tendered on ground evaluations would sink the liberals in the country

Ten reluctant points to Tony Burke last week

Well I have got to hand it to Tony Burke (Calling the cows back from the high country on Friday).
It maybe that the Libs have got a decent brief for research but what I have seen so far looks like (whitewash or should we call it "blackwash" ) .the media have only got to take some nasty pictures of fenced in areas ( not fair but will happen) and Mr Walsh And Mr Baillieu will be in trouble.

The Libs won't get anywhere by acting in reaction to the conservation excesses of the left. ( Our PM was right to to state greens policies as "extreme" but is  Mr Walsh in Victoria acting a little on the extreme?)
The Libs can only survive by defining their own unique brand of conservation competence ( full not just fire ) and  avoid the impression they don't take it seriously , say with their " high country grazing trial"  .( the brief i have seen on the DPI  website  does not seem to include a proper review of ecosystem resilience and biodiversity issues )
The thinking people of Australia rightly expect , not necessarily an EIS  ( a dumb reactionary tool often ) ,  but a clear commitment to careful research and proper review in this sensitive landscape . I will be the first to state the acceptibility of grazing, but also the first to insist on how it must be done ( based on ALL applied research so far ) .

Liberals keep missing the opportunity to win votes

We saw them on the ground lose a easily winnable seat in August 2010. They would be in power in Austral;ai now if they weren't so trusting in the market and the way they traditionally do things ( throw money rather than logic and truth at a problem ) .
some challenges ( Fuel costs ) require at least a bit of planning . And instead of a tit for tat game over fears face them ( both parties  are both acting like children by not facing their own versions of them )  - libs need to see they have nothing to fear from looking deeper into conservation questions
The appeal of being able to do something about something really big is understandable . Julia Gillard is swept up with a tide of emotion over pricing carbon as if the long lost role of leftish governments has finally found a new home - as an  ally of the market .
The West never grew under such stupidity and secondrate role placement  - it grew by being strong in itself.  Lets hope the lazy liberals too don't keep falling for their own simple rhetoric - that the light shines out of price amd market controls,
Oh yeah , by the way , that makes them as desperate as Labor are,  for an identity . How about a lightbulb moment gentlemen !  .

Are the Libs really ready to govern?

Are the Libs really ready to govern?

I welcome the Libs return to leadership in Victoria and the attitude with which Mr Baillieu has taken to the task .Slow and Steady .
 But can this "business knows best"  group wrench both major parties from their addiction to business led models of governance ; Models that continue to grow government and NGO agencies and go against the very principles of sound liberalism - models that have now created unaccountable activity bureaus whose connection with the public interest is not often seen,  let alone known ( why else do the government want all the stats from them ) .

Do the libs really know why Kennett lost them the opportunity to govern ? I don't think so , so they better listen more carefully than they have been even with 11 years in the wilderness .
I like how the new Libs have started and wish them well . Get some advice off the net before you do what so many Polys have done over the last ten/ twenty years - gone off half cocked - at our expense !
Real liberals understand that the greatest evil is still done in the name of the best intention. 

Are many liberals the biggest intellectual handicap this country has?

So What NICK( Minchin ) ?   So your party (on qanda tonight)  know how to exact the last drop out of the people?  Not clever just predictable .
Is all their careless talk of caring for people just hype ?
Your faith in innovation like that of the Labor power broker below is popular ,but misplaced when it comes to the issues of environment ( not steel and concrete) Don't preach to the stressed about innovation either . I come from a long line of innovators .
The libs insane( short term gain long term pain )  love affair with high returns for shareholders will please  many,....  but never the future .
So what if we have benefited from selling our resources -
So what if we have profited from selling what's not even ours
So what if this generation of innocents on the island thought they were clever to get 12% when they could more easily live with 11% .
Maybe we have a future no different from Countries who rejoice that they have oil  , gas , carbon and cash to sell to buy......... arms ?  It won't be the extra dollars that will be remembered in history but the comfort zone and blind faith of  those who drive their own  poor to do and say desperate things.

Making the most of the moving feast

While Tony is right to highlight the quickfiz politics of Ms Gillard,  Liberals could use the time of reflection on Labors mess to ALSO review their less than brilliant love affairs with the words "innovation" and "change". 


All political parties need to very careful with the old easy sword called "needed change". The people while not necessarily aware of the shallowness of the new paint , can still smell a rat when it comes to sussing what's really behind "the grand imperative and need for change ". 
The temptation of new Labor to change direction is a strong one ( because it has great appeal to many) , but to actually commit to it  is not one that is "necessary" ( after all its too easy to gain a sense of momentum ,purpose and neccessity from the mere appearance of "change").Think of the nature of normal progress - reform not revolution . 
 Surely Julia's decision to talk about a new place for detention centres this week was a case in point - short term appearance largely for effect  and medium term crash  due to evident instability of mind and commitment -when the press ask whether the change is rooted in anything but more hot air politics. ( East Timor refugee camps)
Bask in being representatives of stability - as long as you are!  

Bill Shorten's use of the word "innovative" (QandA last week )( A safer word for change ) is symptomatic, not of his being on the right side of his earth shift (between conservatives and radicals), but of being clearly down the crack in between.


Its very easy too to allow the importance of a marginal argument to cloud the unintelligence of it - clever polys may be rewarded for saying nothing important about such matters  . After all, while many an election is won on the margins, your smart arse ( and often overly cynical ) advisors often never know where new cracks can  appear.( eg the strong swinging Christian vote that helped Labor get into power)   In times of uncertainty and blatant cynical denial by the leading reactionaries  , remember that to encourage good sense is best ; if you are too cynical to believe in all those that seek to do good , try remembering all the intelligent people on all sides of politics who you can alienate by trying to jump cracks . Marriage , schooling choice  and Self Care may be mundane.  but they are the hard freedom stuff on which our democracy is built and if government and their increasingly dopey bureaus think they are going to supplant the private interest in this - we all know what will happen. We will stop paying them to play with serious matters of everyday common sense that have been the private right of choice before the  Labor nanny state politics moved in . Its a power game yes, but  how hard is it for the liberals to win if they just focus on the nanny state of Labor politics in practice .  
If elections are also won by the encumbents losing : (losing faith)  ( lost trust)   , the conservatives need to demonstrate  that they are not cynically standing too close to cracks and , infact encourage people to  live and think in the many safe places some distance away .Trust is important to demonstrate and you don't do it by changing everything too often . 
besides if your world view is in ecomia you'll know there are more cliffs on the edge than in the centre.  

Making the most of Labor's outrageous tax tricks

The conservatives  could win the next election easily if they hunted down all  the rabbits in Labor governments who use tax , rather than reason,  as their way of getting their own way.
Abbott , for example , could add Labor's "BIG little taxes"  to his responses to Labor's pathetic and predictable range of new tax tricks . Why not add Labor's drip feed taxes  and fire fighting funds  to the lexicon of Labor's long time drip feed focus . YHIFOB

-Give us your money and then we will decide what to do with it ( ETS). That labor don't quite know what they are doing (eg  educational revolution based on changing the colour and texture of 4 walls) is a story for another day
-Water is cheap,  so we will put the price up on that and make a real killing ( VIC + NSW could lose office on their poor handling of water issues alone)
- Energy is so cheap we can cover the place with windmills, home insulation and offer energy switching advice to every Australian in their evening meal times. After all Indians Labor comes cheap and the people love listening to us offering help to them . And we can do it all through the tax system without having to worry what sir humphrey says 
- Profits from primary industries are currently so high that it would be obscene for a Labor goverenmnet not to try and give it all back to the poor. The fact that such behaviour is clearly UNSUSTAINABLE --goes against eons of sound bipartisan support for efficiency and value adding in such industries.

CLUE
Middle Australia ,I think,  have had enough of any polys who handout money in the name of disadvantage ( take the reasoning OFTEN used  towards refugees for example -even though there are lots of prejudices her BUT  the reasoning used towards this group is often  that they rort the system - so does LABOR and some of its welded on supporters -----whether they admit it or not  -----Labors drip feed politics  ) There are other egs !

Libs have  a big opportunity to recapture some of the middle ground of Australian politics ( as well as the edge).
 Are they smart enough to know what to say,  and smart enough to say it ! Time is running out .

Overplaying the great big new tax trick

All libs need to be aware that , while they are right to expect the reactionaries to blow the budget  in trying fulfil their idealistic objectives, just being cynical and smart will keep them on the nose in the thinking Australians mind ( more than  few marginal persons!) .
While the high level of comfortable cynicsm amongst the libs  may not matter to some of them( you've got the biggest cynics high in the team - we know)  because they think " the thinkers" group is a minor -many of the rest of the people still have  Libs as on the nose because they often only play at being idealistic, but don't put their money where there mouths are like Labor often does . Lets face it - The libs let Costello go - how stupid and long winded political suicide and unreality was that!

The  libs biggest handicap to my mind both at the State and Federal levels  is that they are truly short of idealism in practice (  if they really believed in liberty they would KNOW how to make small government work and could talk about it --they wouldn't be so prone to doing just what Labor do )  When it comes down to practice and credibility  , the Libs are short of idealism and professionalism in improving government performance.
Examples: Tony got his Big new tax off Barnaby Joyce.  (We country folks cannot afford the quickfiz creative accountancy games many Libs tie themselves up in - and are they still hiding in some comfortable cynicsm about not being country bumpkins even now? .We don't care for arrogance in either party !  )

Malcolm Fraser well put the predicament of Rudd with runaway idealism on Qanda last night .  Would Abbott / Balli-who be able  to recognise the need for a McEwen and a professional PS to make their regional policies more than tokenism. (Vic Libs offer to provide for windmill experts to Shires might get them votes ,but it would only add to regional  ineffectiveness long term- could send em broke (like the CEO idea that Libs cultivated too  ) .
Malcolm Turnbull , for example would be in the same boat as Rudd because he, like Rudd,  doesn't recognise the dangers  of relying on his current advisory system on environment ( key regional competency ) The bureaubrats , while not always idealistic , exhibit the simplicity , arrogance, ignorance and tokenism that comes from decades of politicizing a popular but poorly supported profession .
The only way to stop the bushfire syndrome with environment policies is to grow the competencies back in rural areas. You heard it first on blogger

Strong man politics - only for the desperate

Conservative peoples in deep trouble think the strong man is their key to survival,  or redemption . No doubt many sledgehammer cynics in the liberal party non think tank agree - the simplicity of this idea no doubt appeals to them .
"As long as he looks and behaves like GrandPa Howard " they said before the last election,,, and we know how effective that was . . These dills failure to give Costello a go,  means they should go . Their tired and uninspired cynicism means they should go.
. The liberal party  is,  at its best , a party that promotes idealism (and realism in context ) At both fed and vic level it shows precious little of that at the moment .  Labor won and Labor are still winning on the idealism  front .

No doubt it will take a shake inside to stop them from trying to hide the heavy hammer inside the kid glove .

Our society is indeed in need and , I think , somewhat ready for a hammer - but maybe only one they can see . They can't see Labors , but neither can Labor.

Will the libs take the opportunity to speak tough and be tough where it matters ?

See its not the tough image that matters,  but the tough mind 

Its no use voting in another strong man to lead when he doesn't have a strong mind to guide him .
Hewsons celebration of Turnbull is a example of the Libs current stalemate (as is Turnbulls final speech ). Full of "me, I in the kid glove of we"  and little real  understanding of the needs of the party - let alone the people.

 Does the lib party have some straight up strongs?  ( Hewsons  taunt yesterday )  gotta have ;
The party machine have just gotta give up on the idea that he must look good and sound tough every time he talks . If libs lose at the next election it will be because they would rather look well dressed and stay smartly  cynical than show blatant courage and credible control in dealing with the woosiness and misinvestment that explodes before us .
Joyce will not go away .  |His cries for more than location location concentration by the libs will echo like bombs in their ears,  if nothing is done to address them.


Who do we hate most?. Someone who knows what they should do and doesn't do it . or some party who doesn't even know what its doing?

Knowing the Basics

One recurring trouble with conservatives is even when they "know" the basics, their articulation of them tends to be poor - the sound pointers and symbols move into the background. For reactionaries knowledge of the basics names is simple because they are always warring against them.
When the cons are at their best, they can point beyond the predictable failures of the reactionaries ( bats in the belfrey) --to those symbols- of what works
It means Abbott needs to promote a return to the concrete in science and make a move against the fearmongers . Give the people an an idea rather than give them some more gifts.

Turnbull - Lets pray he knows and shows what real leadership is

Is it Malcolm's own pride that drives him to cross the floor ? or his desire to represent those who elected him ?
While I hope he doesn't end up doing a Latham like dummy spit ,I would much rather he showed real leadership and recanted ; recognising the very responsibilities he knows are his in the situation . That would be really good for him and the Liberal party - some restoration and reconciliation with the best traditions of Liberal and liberated thinking.

Well Done and all the best Tony !

Wish you all the best Tony . Many of us, including some on the other side ( this article is from our local paper today ) are very pleased with your members standing up to this world saving policy provided by a new trading bloc called the UN .

As for those who think we are all far too religious to be taken seriously - Tell me in the sound aussie question "Takes one to know one, eh?"
Who then are the card carrying " Heavenly minded but no earthly use "characters currently in power ?
Trust you too, though, will remember where some of this nonsense has come from - thinking the best models of governance are business models - have to tell you they are not .
Even if you don't believe me, ask yourselves the question "
Why does the statement
"The moral challenge of the ......., " carry more weight politically than "The market challenge of the......? "
Too many reactionaries are themselves in denial about the role of idealism and worldview in human motivation. More HERE

By the way, this latest bit of panic driven sub scientific madness is nothing new .
If you don't believe me BOOKMARK into comments on http://ecosus.blogspot.com over the next few weeks( not linked yet) where I will list in more detail some of the other fanatical nonsense and panic misdirections promoted by polys and wannabes in areas such as salinity, water conservation, bushfire and biodiversity management.- renewable energy over the last decade.

Do environment well and we will be the first to back you !Some sure know how to "talk about it " Others of us "Know how to do it"

Hopefully the above site will help you, and thinking Australians answer the question on everybody's lips - how trustworthy is the advice the Emperors are seeking and if its NOT effective , why is SO!!!
Lets just hope the ABC can move on from some of their favoured old mentors (gurus in the silly old class of mere description) of the past!
Modern science practice needs to move on before there is no one qualified to practice this challenging profession ; and also so that all this careless talk of innovative technology export is more than just talk!