BBC NEWS | Australia sweeps Rudd into power

02007-11-24 | Uncategorized | 8 comments

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Australia sweeps Rudd into power
Correspondents says key changes will be the signing of the Kyoto protocol on climate change.

That would be nice.

8 Comments

  1. Carl Cook

    As I understand, here in the USA the Clinton Administration (Al Gore) signed the Kyoto agreement on November 12, 1998. However, they did not send it to Congress for ratification, in part, because China, then the world’s 2nd largest CO2 producer, is exempt from the agreement. China is building about one coal-fired power plant every week, and plans to continue doing so for years. They are now, or will become the largest CO2 emitter sometime between now and 2010.

    So, for the USA, I guess action is now the responsibility of the US Senate. About all we can do is call our Senators or elect green minded ones this coming election.

    Reply
  2. Anna

    Ottmar, according to the local paper Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au, ‘Mr Rudd said he would begin looking at the formal mechanisms required to have Australia ratify the Kyoto Protocols on Climate Change”
    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/11/25/1195753385711.html reported that
    “Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd will face a hostile Senate for his first eight months in office, with the coalition poised to block Labor legislation.

    The coalition has lost its historic 39-37 Senate majority but the new Senate does not sit until July.

    This means the Rudd government cannot be certain of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol or scrapping Work Choices until the second half of 2008, as the conservatives keenly oppose both policies.”

    Reply
  3. Anna

    Nine MSN AU everyday runs a poll. Todays question was “Will the nation prosper under the new Labor government?” Interestingly enough 18566 said Yes and 20499 said NO.

    Reply
  4. Julia

    That’s like getting your news from Fox.

    Reply
  5. Alice

    ottmar, maybe relevant…any comments about the effects of lawns and lawnmowinge and all that goes withe on the global warminge issues…i don’t really understande the fascination for that…my house vibrates most of the year from the effects and then the snowblowers in winter…!?!?…i love my trees and birds and wildflowers and candles tend to have a calminge influence…alwayes, Alice

    Reply
  6. Julia

    I think our hesitancy or doubt with regards to prosperity is because we don’t know how business/ the economy will react to the industrial relations laws that will be need to be overturned. Undoing all the work the previous government did. “Unions, which backed Labor with a massive anti-Work Choices advertising campaign, are already agitating for Labor to act quickly and honour its promise to dump Mr Howard’s workplace laws. ”

    I really hope the US election will have the same outcome – in terms of the environment playing a larger role in candidates platforms and the outcome of the election.

    America is very lucky it has term limits on Presidents! wish we had the same on Prime Ministers.

    Reply
  7. eddie

    despite Rudds inexperience, he is a welcome change from the arrogant policies of howard. If he perhaps listened to the anger relating to the health care system, the war in iraq and most importantly the new IR laws he would proibably have served a fifth term.

    Reply
  8. Carl Cook

    Unfortunately, I think the new “Global Warming” initiatives, Kyoto type agreements and other “carbon neutral” legislation will have an unintended consequence. If, and as, people are allocated “carbon credits”, I suspect these credits will be bought and sold in a new marketplace that will create “Carbon Barons”, amassing wealth from the transfer of credits.

    Limits will be imposed on the masses and a handful of people will walk to the bank laughing.

    It will be a new “Green” way of doing things, but the “Green” will be money, not the environment.

    Reply

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