Oz Election Thread #4 - Gillard's Labor

Independent MP Tony Windsor has launched a furious attack on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in Federal Parliament.

The Opposition again interrupted Question Time to accuse the Prime Minister of lying over the carbon tax and asking her to apologise to the Australian people.

But Mr Windsor said Mr Abbott would have been willing to introduce a carbon tax in order to win the support of independent MPs after the last election.

"This man, the Leader of the Opposition, was quite prepared to do that if he'd been given the nod on that particular day," Mr Windsor told Parliament.

"'I will do anything, anything to get this job' - they were the comments, and people know that, and they should know it.

"He made the point not only to me but to others in that negotiating period that he would do anything to get that job: 'I would do anything to get that job, Tony, the only thing I wouldn't do is sell my arse'."

Mr Windsor said Mr Abbott had been totally inconsistent on carbon pricing.

"You're an absolute disgrace in the way in which you're wandering around on this issue," he said.

"You have exactly the same target, you have the audacity to say you'll achieve that target through a much more expensive arrangement of putting a price on carbon."

When Jon Faine interviewed Tony Abbott on ABC's 774 on Tuesday, something unusual happened.

The Opposition Leader's careless use of words was actually challenged.

Abbott, discussing the asylum seekers issue, asserted:

Frankly, we've had 22,000 illegal arrivals, almost 400 illegal boats ...

Faine responded:

They're not illegal. Tony Abbott, do I need to remind you that the use of words in this is critical? They are not illegal arrivals. There is nothing illegal about seeking asylum when you are a refugee.

Abbott:

Well, I'm making my point Jon ...

Faine:

Well, so am I making mine! And I think it's been made to you before.

Tony Abbott did not further dispute the point. Like an errant school kid, he seemed to accept the admonishment. Yet within 24 hours, he was again referring to asylum seekers as illegals. Nobody in the media pulled him up. He knew they wouldn't. They rarely do.

Did you see on insiders that even after the Faine explanation Abbott still said 'Illegal' in parliament.

I loved mike seccombe's observation that during the Howard years the funding of private schools massively increased while australia ranking for student achievement steadily dropped. Ergo, private schools make you dumb.

21 Aug 2012 | Scott Ludlam:

Labor and the Coalition united to betray Australian obligations under international law to eradicate cluster bombs, the Australian Greens said tonight after the Government's cluster munitions bill passed the Senate.

The Greens spokesperson assisting on Defence, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, said the bill "ignores the urgent pleadings of the medical and humanitarian communities and completely fails to meet our obligations under the international Convention outlawing cluster bombs".

"Sub-munitions from cluster bombs that do not explode on impact remain a threat for decades - 98% of the victims of these are civilians. These monstrous weapons have no legitimate role to play under any circumstances.

"This law allows Australian forces to store, transport, and assist in the use of cluster bombs. Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic said this law could ‘allow Australian military personnel to load and aim the gun, so long as they did not pull the trigger'. It also fails to outlaw indirect investment in companies producing cluster munitions.

"The Government advised me in the Senate last night that storing and transporting cluster munitions for other countries is not their policy. If it's not their policy, why is it allowed by the legislation? Why not close the loophole?"

Senator Ludlam tabled leaked diplomatic cables - published by WikiLeaks and used in Fairfax media reports in May 2011 - showing the Government, at the behest of the United States, lobbied to undermine the Convention to allow the very same flaws now entrenched in Australian domestic law.

"Despite the denials, leaks revealed that the Government lobbied countries to water-down the Convention on eradicating cluster munitions. That shameful misadventure failed, and as a result our country is a signatory to an unequivocal agreement aimed at eliminating cluster munitions from the face of the Earth: There is no grey area and there are no excuses - yet tonight the Government and the Opposition have shown no backbone and no honour."

Can you tell me about the treaty to ban cluster munitions?

The treaty to ban cluster munitions bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and places obligations on countries to clear affected areas, assist victims and destroy stockpiles of the weapon.

Like the Land Mine Ban Treaty before it, this new treaty is likely to have a powerful effect in stigmatising cluster bombs, so that even those countries that do not join the treaty will not be able to use them without being subject to international condemnation. ......

.......
Who has used cluster munitions?

At least 15 countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Israel, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia (USSR), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, UK, US, and FR Yugoslavia. A small number of non-state armed groups have used the weapon (such as Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006).

For a breakdown of when each of the above countries used cluster bombs go to http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/map-of-user-countries-and-nsags.pdf


Why don’t we want the legislation to pass?
The Cluster Munitions Prohibitions Bill put forward by the government is problematic due to sections 72.41 and 72.42 of the legislation.

Section 72.41 – defence for acts by Australians in military cooperation with countries not party to convention on cluster munitions refers to how Australian troops interact with countries who are not signatories of the treaty. This section of the bill allows Australian forces to actively and directly assist countries who are not signatories of the treaty to use cluster bombs. This is directly opposed to the spirit of the international treaty to end the use of cluster bombs.

Section 72.42 defence for acts by military personnel of countries not party to the convention on cluster munitions of the treaty allows for the transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions through Australian ports and on Australian soil. This is again inconsistent with the spirit of the treaty and in fact facilitates the continued use of cluster munitions as opposed to their end.

Furthermore Australian Lawyers for Human Rights notes the “unprecedented” nature of Australia’s explicit provisions enabling the convention to be circumvented: “No other party to the Convention provides expressly for other parties to act contrary to its objects. It is unprecedented… That Australia is on thin legal ice is unlikely to escape the notice of the international community." ....

John Hewson on comparisons between the Abbott #730 interview and his 'GST cake' interview 'Give me a break, I knew what I was talking about'

While the media has been rabbiting on endlessly about Julia Gillard's creation of a "slush fund" while working as a lawyer 17 years ago ( ), something very worrying happened in the federal parliament which, I guess was deemed not important enough to report on ...