Oz election thread #3 - Rudd's Labour

The short answer is that such committees don't exist here. The party that has just won power, the Labor Party, will form policy. Any policy it forms will pass the house of representatives because the members will vote along party lines, and Labor has the majority. The opposition party will vote depending on which way they think will win the them the most popularity, but it's rather meaningless. The party that has just lost, will continue to have the majority in the Senate until July next year, and they can and have in the past blocked legislation. It's beginning to look unlikely that they will in this case, as they've just suffered a rather humiliating defeat in the election, and blocking what appear to be popular legislation will only hurt them in the popularity stakes, and make it look like sour grapes. In July, the balance of power changes, and though the Labor party won't have a clear majority, they will definitely have a Senate that is more sympathetic to their ideology. It's at this point that minor changes are most likely to be made to legislation to appease whatever group holds the balance of power.

Then of course the US government has an executive branch, which doesn't exist at all here.

Thanks for the explanation. Are your politics really driven so much by popularity? Ours are, I guess, but I never know exactly who is determining what is popular.



You mean George Bush's White House? Ah well, they have hardly caused any trouble at all, have they?

Joe(Where do we sign up for the no exec branch for the next year and a half?)Nation

For the last 11 years, it seems to have been driven by the what the government thought it could get away with. For a lot of the time, the opposition party was in a state of turmoil (or appeared to be! appearances are everything). When the electorate doesn't see a viable alternative, then the government of the day is a lot safer. At the previous election (2004) the Liberal Party gained control of both houses, which enabled them to enact any legislation they desired, without having to appease any other ideological group. They used their power to enact the most draconian workplace laws in the Western world. This occurred through the blind arrogance of a man who'd been in power too long, and like so many before him, got corrupted by the power he held. He was so out of touch, he either couldn't see the damaged he'd done to people, or just didn't care. The opposition got it's act together through a new leadership team, that for the first time in years, offered a stable and more palatable alternative. And John Howard, the putrid, slimy little right wing slug, got his ass well and truly trounced.

Ah poor, poor Brendan! It must be so hard to keep the old guard & the small "l" folk happy at the same time! I mean, imagine trying to reach a compromise position between Tony Abbott & Phillip Ruddock at one extreme & Malcolm & the new guard at the other!
But help is at hand! I read today that Alexander is going to step in help Brendan & Julie out in the policy area! That should fix things right up! :wink:

I saw the footage of the announcement at the Bali conference on the news tonight & got a big lump in my throat & tears in my eyes. (really!) Fancy that, we've finally moved out of the dark ages & into the 21st century! What a blessed relief! :

Rudd ratifies Kyoto
December 3, 2007 - 8:36PM/the AGE

Kevin Rudd in his first act as prime minister has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but warned Australia is likely to face harsh penalties for missing its target under the treaty.

Mr Rudd signed the instrument of ratification after receiving the required approval from Governor-General Michael Jeffery today, coinciding with the start of post-Kyoto talks in Bali.

The news was greeted with applause on the floor of the Bali conference.

Australia would become a full Kyoto member before the end of next March, as the ratification becomes effective 90 days after being received by the United Nations, Mr Rudd said. ...<cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rudd-ratifies-kyoto/2007/12/03/1196530553722.html

A minor observation. I'm not sure what the US Executive branch is, but the Public Service (eg Education Dept) is known as the Executive arm of Government.

When one talks about the separation of power precept, you talk about the Legislative (I think - fuzzy memory on this one), Judicial, and Executive arms of Government.

That would be the office of the president, who unlike the PM in our system, is a chief executive, and holds executive powers. Our cabinet ministers are all elected members of either the house of representatives or the senate. I'm not sure about cabinet ministers under the US system, but positions such as the Secretary of Defense, or the Secretary of Treasury I believe are appointed positions. Appointed by the President.

And to see the spontaneous applause, and then have the chair ask the gathering to once again applaud the ratification.

It's nice to be nice.

Clearly Rudd had planned to win - govt sworn in and portfolios rearranged same day. Not one dodgy departmental acronym. Mrs Hinge very happy (in a 'any change is good change' manner). CDEP moved to FACSIA (or whatever its new acronym is), that shows some insider understanding.

The honeymoon continues.

Can I watch? I ain't Aussie.

Of course you can:

"For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share,"

By the way, this is only VERY tangentially related, but there's an Australian film festival going on in the film museum here, and last night we went to see The Wog Boy. Very entertaining

Wow, Wog Boy. That was the last hurrah of the 'Akropolis Now' crew wasn't it? Somewhen in the 1990s they had a stage show that morphed into a sitcom, basically taking the mickey out of themselves (young aussies of greek descent) and Australia at the same time.

They co-opted the word 'wog' to get power over it - like the 'N' word and numerous gay epithets likewise adopted by the oppressed. Even more off topic, Melbourne is the second only to Athens for number of greeks in a city.

But I've always considered you an honorary Australian, rjb!

So of course you can!

Yep, that period was a lot of fun!

Wog power!

Remember Effie?

hinge, I hate to sound like the lovely Pauline, but could you "please explain" ... in a bit more depth?

Leaving no stone unturned, OK?

How embarassment!

You know, working in the inner city here in Melbourne, I've taught lots of Effies. She got it exactly right!

CDEP (I've talked about it before) predates work for the dole (by about 15 years). Once it was determined that indigines were entitled to dole money community elders appealed to the govt not to give their young people money for nothing as it would destroy them (Richard Trudgen relates the Fish and the Shadow story to illustrate this). In addition these communities don't have state funded councils or infrastructures - so CDEP (Community Development Employment Programme) was created as the original mutual obligation program in Australia. For 25 hours work around the community (building roads, picking up household garbage, childcare, mowing lawns, whatever) those involved got the dole, and communities got some basic services (that we in white communities take for granted).

In practice the implementation of the system had varying degrees of success. But the Howard govt decided that mutual ob wasn't enough, they wanted CDEP to become a work readiness program, and to have the same strictures as our current work for the dole programs (ie you have to apply for jobs, you can't just stay on it for ever, you must undergo training). Immediately this model hits snags because:
a) There are no jobs.
b) The community can't afford to pay people the wage they should get for the work they do in CDEP (which was subsidised through CDEP)
c) The communities don't have the capacity to train anyone - and there are rarely jobs to be trained for anyway.
d) There are no local centrelink offices, oddly.

CDEP is not an employment program its a social program, so moving it from evil DEWR (employment and workplace relations) to the more society friendly FACSIA (family and community services) makes a ton of sense. The challenge now is offering work-readiness opportunities for those on CDEP who want more than work for the dole.

I hope that makes a little more sense.