Welcome to the Question Time fashion wrap once again. Email readers will need to click the story link to see the pictures, which are all courtesy of the ABC’s Question Time broadcasts.
I liked the gold patterned tie Chris Evans wore today. It also went quite nicely with his charcoal pinstripe suit.
UPI has the alarming news that some in Russia are proposing a “People’s Vodka” be produced and subsidised to stop thousands of Russians a year killing themselves with fake alcohol.
“Osman Paragulgov, head of the wine and spirits union, says a cheap, safe, regulated alcohol could save the lives of poor Russians who can’t afford the real vodka that is currently on store shelves, the BBC said. Last year, more than 40,000 people died after drinking fake alcohol. Several regions have recently declared states of emergency.”
It’s always difficult reasoning with addicts.
Australia is well known around the world for using quarantine as a trade barrier and then getting sanctimonious about about other nation’s more honest forms of protection.
The conversation goes something like this:
Australia: So Asian neighbour, want to buy some cheap rice? Just knock down that tariff and we’ll have it in there in a jiffy.
Asian neighbour: Why certainly my Australian friend, that sounds like a good idea, and would you perhaps, in turn like to buy our lychees at a low, low discount price?
Australia: We would love too, but our wonderful horticulture sector could be blighted by the hideous diseases that disfigure your countryside. We couldn’t possibly accept your agricultural produce in the lucky country.
At which point our Asian neighbour politely excuses itself muttering something under it’s breath about the parentage of Australian trade negotiators.
AAP, via News, informs us that after 85 long years Australia is finally edging closer to allowing apple imports from that most exotic and dangerous of locales, New Zealand.
But not the whole of Australia. Out in WA they’re not quite ready for this sort of radical thinking, so they’ll have a special barrier.
And whether anything changes and we get more, better and cheaper apples in Australia will depend on just how loud the horticulturists howl, and in which marginal government seats they do the howling.
UPI has picked up the fears going around that the drought’s impact on Christmas tree farms is going to make it hard for us to get festive this season (those of us who dislike aluminium and plastic trees at any rate).
One has to wonder if the Christmas tree growers are following the example of their banana growing counterparts and creating a scare to push up prices.
Early accounts suggest today’s IR rallies are attracting woeful attendances.
This will be a major blow to both the ACTU and Kim Beazley who were banking on the rage being maintained.
Lame excuses are now flowing thick and fast from Greg Combet as to why the workers stayed away.
Forbes has a story on Google’s ignominious retreat from the business of paid answers research.
Yahoo’s free service has trounced Google in the marketplace by relying on network effects (in this case nerds wanting to show off how smart they are) rather than specialised, paid expertise.
It’s not a promising sign for any web business trying to work on any business model but fickle advertising.
A major source of export dollars for Fiji is providing the services of their quite good soldiers for UN peacekeeping missions. The money paid isn’t much chop for expensive Australian soldiers, but it’s a good little earner for Fijians. In particular the Fiji military relies on this money for its funding.
Asia Pulse, via Yahoo, reports that the UN is now getting tough with the Fijian military and threatening to boot them out of UN peacekeeping if a coup should occur.
Commander Bainimarama is going to have some big trouble in his own ranks if that should come to pass.
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has announced the first major fallout from the Cole Report and it’s very bad news for the lawyers of Australia.
Currently incriminating documents can be sent to a lawyer and once they’ve had a look (or even just acknowledged receipt) it can fall under legal professional privilege and be very difficult for law enforcement bodies to get at. This is money for old rope for the legal profession and a handy shield for big companies doing suspect things.
But due to AWB’s spectacular efforts to extend the use of privilege to lofty new levels the whole system is going to be reviewed and changes made:
“The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) says its new review of legal professional privilege could have a major impact on the way clients and lawyers will interact in future. The ALRC inquiry will concentrate on the application of legal professional privilege to the coercive information gathering powers of Commonwealth bodies”
The ALRC has been itching to get into this subject for years but AWB seems to have given it cause to be slipped off the leash.
The Bureau of Statistics has announced the release of its annual Motor Vehicle Census.
Interestingly motor vehicle registrations are up 12% since 2002. So much for getting us to use public transport. The rising price of petrol, however, has seen a sharp jump in the use of motorcycles.
“Motorcycles showed the greatest increase (24.8%), climbing from 370,982 in 2002 to 463,057 in 2006.”
Or maybe we’ve all been feeling so affluent that a to wheeled fun machine has been added to many a garage?
The ABC, via Yahoo, reports that another man has fallen victim to the perfidious sting rays and their barb-in-the-chest trick.
This time it’s a South Australian prawn fisher and the string ray missed his heart.
The question is whether we’re getting increased reporting of sting ray incidents? Or have the little beasties declared war on humankind?
Blackhawk down
The SMH has the story on yesterday afternoon’s crash of one of our Army Blackhawk helicopters into our makeshift assault ship, HMAS Kanimbla, off Fiji. There’s a reason naval aviation is sensibly kept as a distinct discipline, landing on ships is hard. The SMH goes on to conflate every Blackhawk crash with the Sea King crash (flown off Kanimbla but far away when the crash occurred) last year to paint a dangerous picture. At the end of the day there’s a small chance that every helicopter flight will end in tragedy and lots of helicopter flights makes that a near certainty. The only real question is whether the ADF’s accident rate is significantly higher than our British and American counterparts. All sections of the media are bleating about how helicopter crashes have killed more service personnel than any other cause in the last decade, something which reflects more on the relative safety of the ADF’s other activities.
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Maurice Newman for the ABC
The Age is speculating that the ASX boss, Maurice Newman, could be the Government’s choice to chair the ABC board despite having resigned from the board in high dudgeon amid accusations of leaking. Culture wars? What culture wars?
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Beazley to reshuffle
The Australian reports that Kim Beazley is going to try and assert his leadership with a reshuffle of his shadow ministry. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard to be given a joint animal husbandry and sewage treatment portfolio?
Welcome once again to the Question Time fashion wrap for the House of Representatives. All pictures in the wrap are courtesy of the ABC’s Question Time broadcast and email readers will need to click the story link to see them.
I thought Kim Beazley was quite well dressed today, particularly with that silver tie. Subtle, but well done.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2006, The Inheritance of Loss is a novel of breathtaking talent and originality.
Set largely in the north-eastern Himalayas, The Inheritance of Loss is peopled by characters of startling vividness. A crumbling old mansion set at the very foot of Mount Kanchenjunga is home to a dour and slightly demented judge, his innocent grand-daughter, their stoic cook and a saintly dog. It is from this central setting that Kiran Desai takes her reader to various destinations, drawing each scene with remarkable skill and a natural eye for detail. The brooding landscape also plays it’s part, imposing its changing moods upon the inhabitants of the house.
Expertly examining issues of identity - both personal and national - The Inheritance of Loss is an ambitious novel. From the struggle for Nepalese independence, to the daily indignities of life in America as an illegal immigrant, Desai has clothed her characters with dignity and compassion, even in the midst of their folly. With an obviously deep understanding of the subject matter, Desai has portrayed with great sensitivity the effects of cultural hegemony, and the spirit of resistance that arms common people against it.
With truly beautiful language, a cast of fascinating characters, a plot that flits seamlessly from tragedy to comedy, and a great deal of humour and compassion, Kiran Desai has produced a memorable novel worthy of its prize.
4.5 stars.
Tony Abbott has announced that a deal has been struck to to vaccinate Australian women against cervical cancer.
“CSL agreed to reduce the price of Gardasil and provided the PBAC with additional information about its long-term effectiveness. CSL has undertaken to make a substantial contribution to any booster program if it becomes necessary in the next 20 years and to the costs of setting up a national register to link vaccination data to later cervical screening records. The PBAC found that Gardasil is cost-effective at the new price offered.”
It’s just a shame that by running its stupid mouth on the issue the Oppostion has degraded the Government’s negotiating position with CSL and cost the tax-payer millions.