Nationals leader Warren Truss says the Federal Government should send Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesia to mend relations over the cattle export ban.

Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig says live cattle trade with Indonesia will resume once the country has animal welfare standards in place.

But Mr Truss says he has been getting feedback from the cattle industry that Indonesia is annoyed about the trade suspension.

He also says if the Government waits to resume live cattle trade, Australian farmers will miss out on trade permits which get reissued at the end of this month.

Mr Truss says Mr Rudd should be sent to Indonesia immediately.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/24/3252213.htm?section=justin

Pre-commitment technology does allow people to take responsibility for their spending. But making it mandatory usurps that autonomous decision-making and may hinder its development in a person.

There is also a potential downside to labelling dysfunctional behaviour as a disease: do people take less responsibility if their behaviours are excused in that way?

Instead of promoting mandatory pre-commitment, our politicians would be better served addressing the epidemic of lack of personal responsibility that pervades society. It offers a far greater threat to our country than the poker machines at my local club.

Michael Keane is a lecturer in public health at Monash University and is a researcher at the Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University; and the University of Adelaide's department of pharmacology.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/elites-are-gambling-away-our-freedoms-20110623-1ghco.html#ixzz1QAw0abua

Gillard and Labor are in deep trouble, but only those with no sense of political history would write them off just yet.

Certain similarities connect two issues dominating national politics. On the one hand, scientific analysts with impeccable credentials have concluded that climate change is a substantial problem affecting our future, and that major changes are essential to ensure that grave consequences are avoided. On the other hand, political analysts with impeccable credentials have concluded that the state of the ALP is a substantial problem affecting its future, and that major changes are essential to ensure that grave consequences are avoided.

The second issue has become prominent in recent days because of dire polling figures for Julia Gillard and her government, but also a confronting speech by veteran senator John Faulkner, who is widely respected in the ALP.

Faulkner's dedication to the cause has been conspicuous for years. For Labor activists and supporters who aren't factional warriors he is probably the most admired individual in the party. Respect for his integrity has led to his acceptance as an honest broker by opponents in internal party controversies. He co-edited True Believers, a centenary history of the federal caucus, with meticulous devotion. No Labor MP is more familiar with the party's past or more concerned about its future.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-alps-climate-of-concern-20110619-1ga18.html#ixzz1QAwFeW7b
---------------------------
Gus: here lies many problems faced by the generational gap as well as a number of other issues. In some way the boomers were the first generation to be on the edge of an education system that encompassed civic understanding and strongly focused on personal development. Since then, a lot of educational tools have concentrated on liberating the freedom of expression while not giving a tool to understand the power and the responsibility of this freedom. For many, it heped develop a selfish attitude, a "grab-all before someone else does" mind-set.

The individual creative freedom is to be respected and yearned for... But an understanding on how a social network (a society) works is essential for groups to retain some base support, as the older individuals in their ranks cark it. Faulkner would know too well that recruitment of younger generation is getting harder not so much because Labor or the Libs stink but the young have more entertaining distractions at hand and few young people realise with a wow-factor that they actually own their own future. We, the oldies, being incontinent and loosing our marbles, are only pissing in their swimming pool.

Thus Michael Keane is correct to a point. The epidemic of personal responsibility has to be addressed but this 'epidemic" stems from various mindsets, ages and interaction. Solutions to this metastised problem are getting more and more complex. Political analysts are in general a constipated bunch. They go in circle, analysing the fluff in one's navel and pontificate with gravitas about it, unduly negatively influencing the outcome of proper policies... Nothing new... If the sunshine was always falling on politics, the anal-ysts would be out of a job.

But the main problem encountered by both, the Libs and labor, is that most of the youth don't care about the social structure as long as their mobile-phones work... They don't care much about how this mobile network came to be. How in the past, some politicians and worldwide decisive influences allow them to speak or txt inane comments in a little box. Thus most of the youth is so far estranged from the political games in which responsibilities are essential for the group and its technology to survive...

Much of the oldies, those who grew up before container ships, are now retired and are on pensions as promised by governments for their good work (not to mention the pilfering they did of some of the goods that landed at the jetties and railway plarforms) and with a little government cash are free to spend this dosh on the pokies. They are more or less lonely, having had a few boozy friends — most died from smoking — so their main companion is a one-arm bandit with glittering light. It reminds them they're still alive.

The youth don't do much betting on these machines. The "could-not-care-less" dumb young ones mostly drink themselves silly and go chasing the opposite sex... Nothing new. The poor nerds divide: Some spend their time hacking into the web with extraordinary programming dexterity, a few go to political meetings with fever and pimples. The rich nerds and loaded bullies, in general, will follow in the footsteps of their rich family and join the self-appointed protector of the loot — the Liberal party. The kick-ass party: we did not get rich by being generous to our employees, did we?..

And in the middle is stuck a class of young ones who have not understood anything... And this is growing. They are possibly confusedly trained by the education system that panders to too many of their selfish stupid needs rather than tells them the purpose of understanding a humanity on a little planet — and the understanding of the chronology of existence that made them be and where they are.

The religious lobby rakes a few of these lost minds by labelling them as souls. The army has got more chance of collecting young people than the Labor party. The army offers jobs and to some exend mateship, despite a few loose cannons. The Labor party demands some old-fashioned ideological commitments and a bit of altruistic sacrifice to the understanding of "sharing" that few are ready to commit to. The Libs empower the individuals with a gilded sociopath experience in which one can walk over other people and throw crumbs into a pond to catch the unaware and turn them into fodder.

Sure the complex scale of purpose here is simplified, But the gist is in the ball park....

Responsibility of oneself is paramount as long as one does not loose track of other people's needs around us without having to see dollars at every street corners. But there are also a lot of nuances in between. Should we stop people drink or take drugs or smoke?... The issues are numerous, including the collateral damage: families deprived of moneys due to gambling and passive smoking that can induce diseases in someone else, as well as make us exit life early. Some people are beyond understanding responsibilities as mentioned above. Usually responsibility is a simple notion of care that vanishes in the fray of depression or excitement, life itself being addictive, relatively.

 

see also: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2011/06/20/the-dumbing-down-of-america/

Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has announced he will visit Indonesia in two weeks to discuss Australia's live cattle export ban as part of a series of diplomatic trips.

Mr Rudd's office says he will discuss resuming Australia's live cattle trade with the country, which is still suspended until animal safeguards are in place.

The Australian livestock export industry was forced to suspend exports to three Indonesian abattoirs after viewing disturbing footage last month of animal cruelty filmed by animal rights campaigners.

The announcement comes after the Federal Opposition taunted Mr Rudd in Question Time over his apparent lack of involvement in the negotiations.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/25/3253352.htm?section=justin

 

see toon at top...

Charity should begin at home

The Daily Telegraph has reported government insiders’ claims that “Taxpayers will foot an extra $2 billion foreign aid bill because Labor feared the consequences of upsetting Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd”. Nicknamed “Kevin 747” for all the jet-setting he has been doing (and because his 2007 campaign for parliament went under the banner of “Kevin 07”), Foreign Minister Rudd has also been campaigning for Australia to get a seat on the United Nations’ Security Council; according to the Daily Telegraph, that campaign will cost Australia some $25 million.[1] How wonderful it must be for some politicians to fritter away the Australian taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.
By its own estimates, the Australian government spent about $4.3 billion in foreign aid in the 2010-11 financial year.[2] As a part of this, hundreds of millions of dollars was given to Indonesia, a country which is estimated to have spent over US$6 billion on its military in 2010.[3] To give away over four billion dollars is a shocking thing for the Australian government to do, when we are so short of funds for hospitals, schools, public housing, assistance for the homeless, and for necessary infrastructure and other much-needed projects. Rural medical centres and indigenous health programmes would certainly benefit from extra financing.
$4.3 billion in foreign aid? That is, $4,300,000,000.

Blah blah blah...

----------------------

What this article spun in a Mudoch conservative press and picked up in rabid protectionists web sites does not tell you is that most of that cash spent comes back to Aussieland in the form of employment for Aussie firms doing work in the developing world... It was similar spending under Howard but did the Terrorgraph complain?... Who knows... On one hand the Libs complain Rudd 747 flies here and there too often and then they want him to go to Indonesia to visit slaughter houses...

Under the United Nations Charter, Australia has to spend a certain small percentage of its GDP towards helping poor nations... The US do it, the Yourpean do it and most of these countries take the opportunity "to give the cash away" so poor nations buy their products in return... China does it, etc... The process is selfish enough so why bash it and make it more "charity begins at home" more silly selfish mantra. 

While the federal opposition makes plenty of political capital out of reminding the Prime Minister of her carbon tax lie last year, the rest of us are left to desperately hope Joe Hockey is lying now about the Liberal Party's economic policy.

Here's a quick essay question that should be easy marks for a high school economics student:

Discuss the contradiction in the following statement: “You're facing higher interest rates over the next two years, rising prices, Australian families are doing it pretty tough and the best relief you can give them is to reduce the tax burden.” For an extra mark, explain the compatibility of fiscal policy whose stated primary aim is returning to surplus with giving income tax cuts and scrapping a resources rent tax – if you can.

It took shadow treasurer Hockey less than a minute from the first question on the ABC's Q&A program to promise that dangerous contradiction of running fiscal policy to counter the Reserve Bank's monetary policy and to imply the intent to get into surplus even quicker than Wayne Swan.

It is the benefit of being in opposition that you don't really have to make sense - you can't do any of the stuff you rave about and it's pretty safe to assume the electorate will only remember the simplistic slogans and most outrageous claims, not the boring detail and more mundane realities.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/hockeynomics-101-the-fiscal-fumble-while-canberra-bumbles-20110629-1gq6x.html#ixzz1QeB0O22D
---------------------
Yes.... When I saw Joe Hockey go for it with both feet on Q&A, I said "blimey, what an idiot" aloud... The company around me told me to pipe down as not to raise their blood pressure... Joe is like taking a shower with the hot and cold water not being mixed... Burn and freeze — see what happens... I thought it was just me thinking Joe was a donk (a very ordinary car with oversized wheels OR a donkey with a big donker) delivering a stupidity with panache and assurance... Thanks to Michael Pascoe for picking the point up. Soon after Joe's eloquent inanity, we turned to mindless TV... At least I would not get stirred up (by Tony Jones letting the ball go the keeper), except for the inane adverts about killing 99.9 % per cent of whatever... May be someone should invent a Joe and Tony eradication spray... They really bug me, unlike cockroaches.