australia Archive

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  The Coaly Moleys - by frog

  
  
  
  Another laugh out loud video from Greenpeace Australia. It seems that Rudd wants to pay $1.2 billion in subsidies to the coal industry as part of their emissions trading scheme! At least when we subsidise our polluters, it is because they are trade exposed. Export coal isn’t covered by Kyoto. So what’s up? read more
  November 24, 2008 11:15 am - 2 Comments
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  National – Turning Kiwis into Aussies - by frog

  
  
  
  From Kiwiblog this afternoon we find out that National is signposting the way to an Aussie flag. That’s a vote winner. Anyway it’s a defining point for us. In our party we have an Australian who wanted to become a Kiwi.  In National they want to become Aussies.  All practice now – ‘GO wallabies!’ read more
  October 21, 2008 4:47 pm - 31 Comments
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  Meet the Candidates, Tukituki - by frog

  
  
  
  The Bay Buzz covered a local Forest and Bird candidate debate in the Tukituki electorate last night.  It seems the sitting MPs tried to dominate the event: It was mostly the Rick[Barker, Labour] and Craig [Foss, National] show, with an occasional reminder from expert witness Quentin [Duthie] that without the Greens around as babysitter, the [...] read more
  October 10, 2008 11:51 am - 1 Comment
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  Giving preferential trading rights to the USA - by frog

  
  
  
  I see a looming preferential trade deal with the United States is enough for Matthew Hooten to declare Phil Goff New Zealander of the year.  High praise indeed.  Although US trade deals don’t seem to have worked out quite so well for the much bigger economy of Australia (bigger than New Zealand that is, not [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 12:39 pm - 14 Comments
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  The Aussie Airforce’s response to peak oil - by frog

  
  
  
  Courtesy of The Oil Drum read more
  September 8, 2008 10:03 am - 9 Comments
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  Jeanette’s appeal to overseas voters - by frog

  
  
  
  According to Statistics New Zealand’s Sustainable Development and Population team there are up to 600,000 New Zealanders living overseas, most of them in Aussie (where Rayna Fahey just held her Green Party campaign launch last night).  Not all of them are eligible to vote, but presumably a significant proportion are.  Last election there were 28,000 [...] read more
  August 13, 2008 9:52 am - 42 Comments
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  Stephanie Alexander talks food in schools - by frog

  
  
  
  Sue Kedgley has been putting her journalism skills to work and talking to Australian chef Stephanie Alexander about the Kitchen Gardens in Schools she initiated. Kitchen Gardens in Schools is described as such: In the Kitchen Garden Program children across Years 3 to 6 spend a minimum of 40 minutes a week in an extensive [...] read more
  July 28, 2008 7:38 am - 2 Comments
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  Fuel for thought – the future of transport fuels: challenges and opportunities - by frog

  
  
  
  Such is the name of a report released today by the Future Fuels Forum, an initiative led by the Australia’s CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship. The Age summarises the bad news: PETROL prices could reach $8 a litre [~NZ$10 per litre] within a decade if oil production peaks and Australia is not ready to shift to [...] read more
  July 11, 2008 2:07 pm - 61 Comments
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  100% there for the taking - by frog

  
  
  
  Maybe New Zealand’s clean green image is not such a good thing after all. Each week the ABC pits two of Australia’s advertising agencies against each other in a  challenge to sell the unsellable.  This week the brief was to build support for invading New Zealand.  Follow the link and check out the ad on [...] read more
  July 10, 2008 9:14 am - 16 Comments
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  The Aussie First Party - by frog

  
  
  
  It seems like John Key has got a big thing for supporting business – Australian business, that is! First there was National’s neither confirm nor deny position on its campaign relationship with Aussie attack politics consultants Crosby Textor. Then Key was forced to admit that a National-led Government would want to privatise ACC – despite [...] read more
  July 8, 2008 8:39 am - 9 Comments
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  The Greens’ not so secret Australian political operatives - by frog

  
  
  
  Russell Brown over at Public Address seems to be obliquely fingering the Greens for using a political operative in 2002 in the same vein as Crosby Textor: Political strategy is a cynical business by its nature. Labour’s people were not appealing to higher ideals when they ran the “slippery” campaign against Key this year. Even [...] read more
  June 30, 2008 4:54 pm - 23 Comments
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  Key keeps bad company - by frog

  
  
  
  My grandmother, who, believe it or not, would be 108 this year, always said that you could judge the character of a person by the company (s)he keeps. She always made an exception for politicians, because they would inevitably end up associating with the odd scoundrel by dint of being in politics. But she did [...] read more
  June 29, 2008 4:17 pm - 50 Comments
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  Australia’s supermarket inquiry finds tainted submissions - by frog

  
  
  
  The chief of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel has just announced that powerful vested interests have been making ‘tainted submissions’ to its inquiry into grocery pricing.  Jeanette called last month for a similar inquiry to the impact of supermarket pricing on both farmers and consumers here in New Zealand.  Here is snippet [...] read more
  June 20, 2008 8:53 am - 8 Comments
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  Is anyone else getting hot in here? - by frog

  
  
  
   This from the UK Independent: The couple’s son, Sonny, was outside his fibro shack with his five children, watching the monster surf, lashed by north-west winds, rise ever higher. In the commotion, everyone had forgotten that Sedoi, the baby, was still inside. They heard her crying and found her in her cot, covered in sand. [...] read more
  May 5, 2008 5:01 pm - 35 Comments
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  Aussie farmers think consumers are missing out - by frog

  
  
  
  I mentioned 3 months ago that Australia’s Consumer Commission has launched an inquiry into food prices. The Australian National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has just testified at that inquiry that the prices consumers were paying for food was not reflected by the payments that farmers were receiving for producing food. The NFF said consumers who were [...] read more
  April 11, 2008 2:36 pm - 2 Comments
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  The price of bread - by frog

  
  
  
  National Radio had an item on the rising price of bread this morning. Much of the reason given was droughts in Australia and overseas use of crop land for biofuels. Now, bread should be something that we are able to supply relatively easily. After all it’s mostly made from things we should be able to [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 1:56 pm - 7 Comments
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  False promise - by frog

  
  
  
  When we first heard about genetic engineering its proponents said it was supposed to do all sorts of wonderful things like end global hunger.  Now it turns out it’s purpose is to enable horses that specialise in running round in large circles quickly to go to Australia.  Is it really worth it? read more
  March 14, 2008 9:08 am - 2 Comments
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  Growling grass frog causes political argument in Aussie - by frog

  
  
  
  Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden wanted to build a 70 kilometre water pipeway from the Goulburn Valley into Melbourne. To help this process along he decided not to ask for an Environmental Effects Statement on the pipeline last December. This seemed like it would be bad news for several endangered species including a striped legless [...] read more
  February 29, 2008 12:50 pm - No Comments
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  Tapping the Source: The Power of the Oceans - by frog

  
  
  
  Big Gav, a regular contributor to The Oil Drum, posted this gem of an article on TOD yesterday and on Peak Energy today. (The Peak Energy version is the more readable link, IMHO) It is far too long to quote here, but an excellent primer for some of what’s happening out there. It’s just too [...] read more
  February 25, 2008 11:21 am - 7 Comments
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  Dairy’s labour crisis - by frog

  
  
  
  John Key keeps telling us that tax cuts are the only way to stem the flow of Kiwis over to Oz. Call me a sceptic, but several reports over the last month paint a very different picture of why Kiwis are jumping the ditch. It seems a healthy chunk of young dairy talent are part [...] read more
  January 23, 2008 1:24 pm - 19 Comments