Kevin 24/7: Born to run

Coast to coast Labor governments

Kevin Rudd isn't the only Queenslander with a view on Bill Henson's photos

Why Rudd needs the CPRS to be passed
It’s become something of a race to the finish between the Liberal leadership spill and the CPRS’ passage through the Senate. I haven’t seen much discussion out there of the implications of a defeat for the ETS bill. Those who are assuming that Rudd wins either way might want to think again. If the anti-Turnbull forces succeed in derailing the CPRS in the Senate, Rudd could indeed call a double dissolution election. But he would have to go to it on the basis of the unamended bill. Or present the amended bill another time early in the new year. At this stage, if the CPRS – as amended by the Wo

Victorian Ombudsman on child protection failures
More important stuff getting lost in the noise – the Victorian Ombudsman’s investigation into the failures of the Department of Human Services child protection program. I’ve just skimmed the executive summary, but one thing that does flabbergast me is that a while there are other issues (drawn-out Children’s Court proceedings taking up gobs of time and yet another buggered-up IT implementation among them) a large part of the problem was a simple lack of resources. Problems in this area are usually not part

Abbott will stand on Monday
ABC News: Former Opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott has confirmed he will challenge Malcolm Turnbull in a leadership spill on Monday morning if the Liberal leader does not back down on emissions trading. “If there’s no movement then I’ll be calling a spill for Monday morning,” Mr Abbott said today. “If it comes to it I will be calling on a challenge.” Part of me wants to laugh at the likely prospect of the Liberal Party vote utterly destroyed under Abbott’s leadership. The hairs on the back of my neck, however, are still ever so

China commits to quantities in emissions reduction
China has now nominated cutting its carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 as a quantitative aim. Given the growth in the economy this will not see emissions peak for some time, probably not for two decades as we discussed in this post. Dr Tony Haymet, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in an interview with the 7.30 Report, siad there were no climate denialists in China and their scientists were very concerned with the melting of ice c

Propositions on the Liberal right week of FAIL
Let’s sum up a few things about the CPRS/leadership shenanigans: (a) It’s been intriguing to see the focus of political discussion narrow to the Parliamentary dramatics. Journalists – and one suspects, many Liberal MPs – appear to have completely lost sight of the effect that Turnbull’s stand might be having on the public. I’d be very surprised if there isn’t a lot of sympathy for him and his position. Yet those normally obsessed with Newspoll now equate politics with a bunch of lunatics gathered in Nick Minchin’s office, rather than even stopping to think about h