Last week, EU leaders set a goal to derive a fifth of their energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power by 2020. The contrast with the situation in Australian couldn't be more stark. Yesterday, our major parties spent the day pledging more money for research and development into clean coal, writes Sophie Black.
From the way the politicians talk, you could be led to believe that squeaky clean coal's emissions smell as sweet as a rose. But clean coal is still coal, and according to some experts, there is a danger that the concept could be used as a convenient way to prop up the coal industry and answer the critics in the climate change debate whilst ignoring better ways to significantly reduce emissions.
After confirming that WA Liberal backbencher Geoff Prosser had hired disgraced former WA Premier Brian Burke as a lobbyist, Prime Minister John Howard said, "So what?" Prosser is also Chair of the Government's Inquiry into Uranium, and as Crikey pointed out on Monday, Burke and his business partner Julian Grill have represented mining companies with interests in uranium.
Last week Labor leader Kevin Rudd launched into an attack on John Howard over a telephone conversation the Prime Minister had last year with businessman Ron Walker over nuclear power. But has Rudd had a radioactive conversation of his own with Brian Burke, a man who has represented clients with interests in uranium?
Helen Coonan's mooted legislation requiring the classification of all content to be delivered electronically probably has some implications for staffing levels in her department. We have one suggestion: start hiring now. May we suggest thousands of speed readers?
Planting trees to offset carbon emissions sounds great on paper. Short of kissing a baby, it doesn't get much better in corporate PR terms than planting a tree, or several million trees, in the name of going green. But there's a flipside, writes Sophie Black.
The folks at Hyundai aren't the only ones spitting chips at the news that their Santa Fe TV commercial depicting a nappy-clad baby behind the wheel of a four-wheel drive and later surfing has been pulled because it could encourage copy cat behaviour. This month the Advertising Standards Bureau also pulled an ad for nasal spray to treat premature ej*culation set to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’ and another series of radio ads for a gym which used the phrase “fat *rse”.
While the Government reviews next year's refugee intake in consultation with various refugee groups, NGOs and advisers, the debate could be in danger of being hijacked by the sudden emergence of a new politically volatile Hansonesque issue -- the ''Sudanese factor''.
So is the "Sudanese factor", and the suggestion that their numbers are set to be slashed, taking on an election issue flavour? And is Australia's highly successful immigration policy really subject to political whim?
It's an election year. Hicks is not playing well for Howard. While Jovicic's case doesn't share the same magnitude, he has received a lot of positive press. He is an articulate and likeable character who has managed to shake the "ex-junkie" tag and get some influential backbenchers onside along the way.
