The extreme right wing Conservatives have laid down the law to Turnbull.                                                                                 And he has jumped through hoops to please them.  From The Conversation.

Turnbull government rules out an emissions intensity scheme

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra

The Turnbull government has slammed the door shut on an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity sector, in a demonstration of the power of the conservative forces in the Coalition.

Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg on Monday left open the possibility of such a plan, in comments on the terms of reference he released for next year’s review of climate policy, to be done by his department.

But, after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Frydenberg went on radio to rule it out.

Conservative senator Cory Bernardi had described re-opening the debate about any form of carbon pricing as “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”, and there had been angry rumblings among Coalition conservatives more widely.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday night said in a statement: “I’m sure the last thing ministers want to do is to reopen questions that were settled for our side back in 2009. We’re against a carbon tax. We’re against an ETS. We’re against anything that’s a carbon tax or an ETS by stealth. We are the party of lower power prices and should let Labor be the party that artificially increases prices under Green pressure.”

Any sort of carbon pricing is highly sensitive for Malcolm Turnbull. He lost his leadership in large part over this issue in 2009. He had to pledge not to substantially vary the Abbott policy on climate in canvassing votes for the leadership last year and then in the Coalition agreement with the Nationals when he became prime minister.

The hard line against an emissions intensity scheme came despite industry welcoming a look at it.

Frydenberg said on Tuesday night there would not be an emissions intensity scheme under a Turnbull government. “What I’m focused on is how to keep down electricity prices, not to put increased pressure on electricity generators.”

The way such a scheme would work for the electricity industry is that an emissions baseline would be set with producers with emissions above it having to buy credits from those below it.

On Monday Frydenberg was asked whether, given the review would look at reducing emissions on a sector-by-sector basis, that could include for the electricity sector an emissions intensity scheme.

While stressing the government rejected an economy-wide approach, he said: “The electricity sector is the one that produces the most emissions, around a third of Australia’s emissions come from that sector. We know there’s been a large number of bodies that have recommended an emissions intensity scheme, which is effectively a baseline and credit scheme. We’ll look at that.”



Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

National Rifle Association (NRA) and Fundamentalist Islam

You may ask why I would concern myself with the National Rifle Association (NRA) of the USA.
After all their ideals only appeal to a very fringe "loony" section of Australian society.
And what's this with fundamentalist Islam?
Well, I direct you all to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald
The author Nick O'Malley  US correspondent for Fairfax Media 
He went to the NRA national convention.
These are a few extracts from his article.

"Despite all the guns, the music, the show bags and the raffles, despite the thousands of stalls, the real business of the convention was done a floor above the exhibition hall in a ballroom that seats 8000."
"It is in this room that it becomes clear what this event really is: a conservative political rally directed by a single-interest group at the height of its powers.

When the group's figurehead, executive vice president Wayne LaPierre​ strides onto the stage, after members have held hands for a prayer, the crowd erupts and he starts dishing out the red-meat rhetoric they love.  I vow on this day the NRA will stand shoulder to shoulder with you and good, honest decent Americans and we will stand and fight with everything we've got and in 2016, by God, we will elect the next great president of the United States of America and it will not be Hillary Rodham Clinton," he says."

"Rick Santorum​, a hard right Catholic says, "Freedom is under assault not by the gay and lesbian community, but by the left in America ... What is under assault today is the freedom to exercise your faith."

The hawkish Senator Lindsey Graham,  "We're at war. This is not a time of peace," he says. "My goal is to make sure that we go after those bastards that are trying to kill us and everybody like us, and make sure they feel the wrath of this country – that we dig them out and we kill them, because there is no other substitute."

"So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or, you know, anti-trade sentiment [as] a way to explain their frustrations," he said."

"In Nashville it becomes clear that the NRA has successfully bundled and packaged all of these anxieties and linked them to gun ownership. It has done it so effectively that the Republican Party is bound to show up in force.

Its candidates know that while an NRA endorsement does not guarantee victory, NRA opposition can kill a campaign.

Fear then is the source of the LaPierre's power. He can maintain membership, dues and donations, and he can direct the voting of 3.5 million-plus members, as long as he can keep them scared of a world that he once memorably described as being full of "terrorists and home invaders and drug cartels and car-jackers and knock-out gamers and rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers, shopping-mall killers, road-rage killers, and killers who scheme to destroy our country with massive storms of violence against our power grids, or vicious waves of chemicals or disease that could collapse the society that sustains us all".

To me the rhetoric of fear and mistrust, the idea of you are either with them or against them is the exact same rhetoric of fundamentalist Islam such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. They divide a society and in particular the vulnerable and turn people against each other. This is worrying to me because this attracts all of the conservative politicians in the USA and if they get control of both houses of parliament and the Presidency their loony rhetoric may become more mainstream. 

This is worrying for Australia and our kowtowing to the USA government and following them into any crackpot war they may choose to start, such as Iraq.

We need good strong independent politicians to fight the ideas of this possible loony right group coming to power in the USA. 

Stupid, Stupid Government

How stupid is this Government.
They go and raise the security threat level for this country. This makes some people alarmed about the Muslims plus the right wing nut jobs have now got an excuse to demonise and threaten the Muslims.
The morons in the Coalition, Bishop, Bernardi etc have effectively banned the Burkha/Nicab from the viewing area except behind glass in the Federal Parliament. This has effectively demonised and isolated these women even more from Australian society.
They have played right into the Terrorists hands, morons.
What you do is increase the security in a quiet non obstructive way. Don't give the nut jobs an excuse to threaten and divide the Australian community. Don't allow the nut jobs in Federal Parliament a say in demonising a very small unobtrusive section of the Australian community.
This mob has to go.
I can honestly now say that this is the worst Government that we have ever had.

'Take the Power Back' - Christine Milne National Press Club Address

http://youtu.be/YB_Wsv4WN9w

Hooray

Hooray.
Just received a letter from my Energy Provider AGL.
I save approximately 7.8% on my electricity bill from the repeal of the carbon tax.
But.

Carbon emissions from the country's main electricity grid have risen since the end of the carbon tax by the largest amount in nearly eight years.
Data from the National Electricity Market, which covers about 80 per cent of Australia's population, shows that emissions from the sector rose by about 1 million tonnes, or 0.8 per cent, at an annualised rate last month compared with June.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/emissions-from-energy-generation-jump-most-in-eight-years-after-carbon-price-axed-20140903-10by8d.html#ixzz3CTt7NvCn

Thank you very much Mr Abbott.

Hockey's Class Warfare

Treasurer Joe Hockey has accused those that are complaining of the budget’s unfairness of using “1970s class warfare lines”.
Well the only class warfare lines I can see is from the LNP. Their "Lifters and Leaners" analogy is a disgrace.
So if you are unemployed, disadvantaged for many reasons you are a leaner and must be demonised. But who are these leaners that Hockey and Abbott are talking about?
To me the leaners are the people who are on middle to upper salaries and getting welfare. The big corporations that get taxpayers money or are paying practically no tax.
Hockey goes on to say, "The average working Australian be they a cleaner, plumber or teacher - was working over one month full time each year just to pay for the welfare of another Australian, Hockey said." But of course it is the "dole bludgers" and poor, disabled, disadvantaged, all for many reasons are not working or can't get enough work that he is talking of I am sure, not the big corporations.
His talk of working one month a year by the average Australian to pay for welfare needs to be "Fact Checked" I am sure.
Maybe it will be right when Abbotts Paid Parental Leave scheme gets going.

The following article is from The Conversation.
It is written by Michelle Grattan.
This is an important report, particularly with the dreadful budget that has been inflicted on us.
The article link.

The Conversation

Increasing inequality brings high social cost: report

By Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The land of the fair go is disappearing, argues former Liberal leader John Hewson, on the release of a new report on wealth inequality.
The report warns inequality is increasing rapidly in Australia, posing dangers to community well-being, health, social stability, sustainable growth and long-term prosperity.
Entitled “Advance Australia Fair?”, the report finds that in the wake of a declining resources boom “there is a growing gulf between those in the top range and those in the lower ranges of wealth and income distributions”.
The wealthiest 20% of households now account for 61% of total household net worth, while the poorest 20% account for only 1%.
“In recent decades the income share of the top 1% has doubled, and the wealth share of the top 0.001% has more than tripled. At the same time, poverty is increasing and many of those dependent upon government benefits, including the unemployment benefit, have fallen well below the poverty line,” according the report.
“If we do not pay attention to the problem of financial inequality, current economic circumstances are likely to make it worse.”
Written by Bob Douglas, Sharon Friel, Richard Denniss and David Morawetz, the report from Australia21, in partnership with The Australia Institute and the Australian National University, follows a roundtable earlier this year.
It comes as the Abbott government’s first budget has been widely attacked for being unfair, with the burden falling on lower and middle income earners. It curbs the growth in pensions and family payments, and critics say it will increase inequality.
For most of the last century, Australia was a relatively egalitarian country “and proud of it,” according to the report.
In the half century after World War 1, incomes rose faster at the bottom of the income distribution than the top. “By the end of the 1970s Australia was one of the most egalitarian countries in the world.”
But from the mid-1970s, full time wages for the bottom tenth of the income distribution have grown only 15%, while full time earnings for the top tenth have increased by 59%.
Australia’s unemployment benefit is the lowest of OECD countries, and 20% below the poverty line, and many government benefits “have barely kept place with inflation over recent decades”, the report finds.
Australia is one of the lowest taxing countries in the industrialised world, and its welfare spending as a proportion of GDP is amongst the lowest in the OECD.
Large tax cuts and tax exemptions introduced by both sides of politics in recent decades that disproportionately favoured the rich is one factor contributing to the growing inequality of incomes and wealth the report identifies.
“Other factors include globalisation, asymmetric access to rapid technological change, changes in compensation practices for top executives (including use of bonuses and stock options) and the neoliberal economic policies that have prevailed since the 1980s.
“Another important contributor has been the increasing practice of ‘rent seeking’, whereby wealthy and powerful companies, organisations or individuals use their resources to obtain economic gain at the expense of others, without contributing to productivity.”
As remedial measures, the authors urge promoting “a national conversation” about inequality, taxation reforms, fairer funding for schools, more investment in early childhood development especially for the disadvantaged, and setting all pensions and benefits no lower than the poverty line and indexing them to average wages.
Other actions should include establishing more job creation programs in priority areas, developing new models of employee management and co-operative ownership of business, implementing the World Health Organisation recommendations on the social determinants of health, encouraging an inquiry by the Productivity Commission into the impact of inequality on economic efficiency and growth, and establishing a national research program to monitor progress of interventions.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Welcome to the brave new world of Malcolm Turnbulls Fraudband.

Welcome to the brave new world of Malcolm Turnbulls Fraudband.
A Fraudband that will be "sooner, cheaper and more afford ably".
Well read this

Quote:

"High-rise owners corporations are concerned about being locked out of the NBN due an aggressive fibre installation campaign by a TPG-owned company.
PIPE Networks (a TPG subsidiary) has told owners corporations (OC) in Docklands and in other high-density areas across Australia that it will be installing fibre facilities in their buildings.
Dock 5 OC committee member Tom Burt fears residents will miss out on the NBN roll out if PIPE Networks installs FTTB in the building first.
This view is backed up by Strata Title Lawyers’ Tom Bacon, who said Pipe Networks would enjoy a commercial advantage if is was first to install its infrastructure within buildings.
“A suburb, such as Docklands, which is home to a number of large residential towers, is an attractive target for telecommunications suppliers, and if most or all units in the building are forced to switch to one particular carrier for their internet and phone-line services, then the carrier stands to gain an increased market share and a substantial increase in revenue,” Mr Bacon said.
Mr Bacon said the installation of TPG infrastructure wouldn’t stop NBN or other telecommunications providers from installing similar infrastructure, but said the presence of two types of DSLAM systems could cause system interference and performance degradation."

One of the beauties of Labors NBN was that NBN Co. would install and own the fibre infrastructure and private enterprise ISPs would supply the service to the customers. This would create great competition between ISPs. The ISPs are using and dealing with only one wholesaler for tremendous ubiquity and conformity. Under Labor, TPG could not be a wholesaler and retailer, but with Fraudband this will happen with the customer missing out on competition.