The benefits of a 'direct action' approach … on Cattle exports to Indonesia

A few brief thoughts on the policy challenges implied by the Government’s moratorium on live cattle exports to Indonesia:

• Needless to say, the visual images obtained by 4 Corners ‘Bloody Business’ episode are horrific, distressing and irrefutable proof that the current trajectory of the Australian livestock export industry’s attempts to improve slaughtering standards in Indonesia is one of failure.
• If the inhumane practices are as widespread in Indonesian abbatoirs as suggested on 4 corners, then a moratorium is an appropriate response.  This should theoretically allow Indonesian abbatoirs that are up to standard to apply for exemptions and to resume the importation of Australian cattle.
• Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenaphon’s desire to implement a permanent ban on the exportation of live cattle, supported by Getup and the RSPCA is, I’m sure, well-intentioned, but it also implies that Indonesians will forever be incapable of treating animals in a manner deemed acceptable within Australia.  This strikes me as a fairly pejorative judgement that doesn’t accommodate the complexities of Read the rest of this entry »

A poetic letter to the editor (With apologies to Dorothea MacKellar)

A response to the Economist’s summary of Australian politics.

From ANZAC to ANZETS: How kiwi apples show an ETS can work

What's not to like about kiwi apples?

ANZETS – to emissions trading what ANZCERTA is to free trade?

On a particularly memorable September day in 2008 I found myself being chauffeured down the cobbled backstreets of Prague in the company of Mike Moore, former director-general of the WTO and momentary Prime Minister of New Zealand.  While we inevitably ended up discussing the prospects of the All Blacks looming European tour, Mr Moore revealed two gleaming insights into the trans-Tasman relationship: firstly, how proud our two nations should be that the Australia and New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA – a.k.a CER) was a WTO-endorsed role-model for free trade agreements (FTAs) everywhere and secondly – judging by his steely glare when I brought it up – how serious a stumbling block Australia’s ninety year embargo on New Zealand’s apples was to further bilateral cooperation. Yet even that hurdle has now been lifted, on February 16 Julia Gillard informed the New Zealand parliament (to rapturous applause) that on the recommendation of the WTO, the fire blight embargo was no more. Whether Ms Gillard made this announcement under the duress of kiwi secret agents wielding sharpened wide-comb shears I do not know, but in the face of protests from Australia’s ‘big apple’ lobbyists it signalled a golden-delicious victory for the positive experience of CER and more broadly, good global citizenship.

As Australia painstakingly moves towards the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, with the eventual intention of joining a global carbon trading market, it is hard to think of a better policy ‘road-test’ than a CER inspired ‘Australia and New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme’, hereby dubbed ‘ANZETS’. Read the rest of this entry »

My name is Hugh and I’m a disasterholic

I realise this sound flippantly macabre but I think everyone should know I’m aware of the problem and that I intend to seek help. Maybe I’ll watch a couple of eps of Dr Phil or something.

I wasn’t always this way—growing up, disaster coverage basically meant occasional snippets on the news, no more than a brief time-decelerating interruption between Rugrats and the Simpsons.

My first memory of an international crisis comes from 1994 when Mr Carey – my favourite teacher of all time – started one particularly memorable day by silently tracing a succession of six letters in the air with his forefinger: R…W…A…N…D…A. Read the rest of this entry »

Contra the last (probably).

It seemed polite to include a picture of John.

It seems only fitting that I present a right of reply of my very own. I’m not going to apologise for this, frankly, if you’re still reading this exchange then you have no one to blame but yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

Contra Fowler – why we should support a no-fly zone in Libya.

The symbol of the Libyan revolution - Libya's flag prior to Gaddafi.

In which I disagree with John’s latest post

A thought experiment: If Col. Gaddafi was informed that a few thousand protestors had gathered in Tripoli’s ‘Green Square’, would he a) resign immediately b) hope they’d eventually move along as ‘there was nothing to see’ c) shoot them all.

If the answer is c) and we can do something about it, should we?

Although the hypothetical nature of this multiple-choice arrangement absolves one from having to deliver an answer, it is worth noting that the reason it is a hypothetical is that Gaddafi’s brutal henchmen are murdering anyone with a potential whiff of a revolutionary air, well before they’ve suffered their way through the Tripolitanian streets that lead to the city’s centre. Read the rest of this entry »

Churchur Earthquake appeal

Having been born in New Zealand, I spent a lot of time travelling up and down the country and have stayed in Christchurch on a number of occasions. It has been pretty gut-wrenching watching the horror unfold and I’d encourage anyone and everyone to consider making a donation. Australians can make tax-deductible donations via the Australian Red Cross. Or you can donate directly to the NZ Red Cross appeal.

Q. Why put One Nation’s Ian Nelson on #Qanda? A. To appease our inner Rubbernecker.

Rubberneckers giving oxygen to a previously unheard of Koran-burning pastor.

ABC is bringing the Tojo talkfest to Brisbane tonight and it seems I know someone who knows someone who has tickets.  I found out on Friday, shortly before Qanda changed its lineup to include the totally outrageous Ian Nelson, State director of the One Nation party. I considered not going as a result, for fear of being unable to contain my shoe-throwing tendencies (I first threatened to throw a shoe at my High School graduation back in 2004…way before it was cool), but I guess I’ll just a pop a valium or several, or something.

I can only assume that given ONP’s statistical invisibility in modern Queensland (See below), #Qanda are looking to create a torturous hour of programming that leaves political nerds unable or unwilling to look away.  This is pretty sad for a program that prides itself on building a more interactive democracy – for mine, it’s like chartering a tour bus through Brisbane’s flood ravaged suburbs, it’s a wanton trivialisation of serious issues and a perfect example of the increasingly base political-pygmy-gladiatorialism promoted by Australia’s political journalists.

Nelson’s inclusion naturally raised a lot of ire in the Twitterverse (not least from myself), especially after @abcqanda justified the inclusion on the basis of this article in The Australian, which accuses the Coalition of lifting its policies on immigration straight out of the One Nation manifesto.  Despite the less than water-tight nature of the accusations (One Nation are hardly the first party in the world to demonise asylum seekers), the fact remains that, these days, One Nation has about as much influence on issues affecting Queensland as dessicated sheep dags.

According to the Electoral Commission of Queensland, the ONP scored an infinitesimally small 0.38% of first preferences at the 2009 Read the rest of this entry »

Link-dump: Terrorist hunters, Scientology, Man v Machine #unfocused

First, an Escher video:

• The Hunter becomes the Hunted – Esquire. Hands-down the best piece I read all week, where Daniel Voll does a brilliant profile piece on Omar Mohammed, Iraqi terrorist hunter.  All I can say is that there are men, and then there are Men. This guy is definitely of the capitalised variety and you need to hear his story – the passages on how he met his wife (by shooting Al-Qaeda lackeys blasting their way through her house), and his motivation to hunt down the murderers of Margaret Read the rest of this entry »

Why Italy should become Australia’s 7th state

How much Berlusconi exposure is too much? This much, I would contend.

There is a running joke in Europe that “Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians. Paradise is where the police are British, the chefs French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss. Well step aside Switzerland, there’s a new puritanical society in town…

For most of us in Australia, coverage of Italian politics has become a source of guaranteed mirth, a kind of Punch and Judy show meets Jersey Shore that bridges the newsworthiness gap between harrowing reports of revolutionary bloodshed in Arabic autocracies and Lindsay Lohan’s latest cocaine escapades. And yet, after the latest round of allegations against the most depraved and lecherous of lotharios to govern the Italian provinces since Caligula, it appears that Berlusconi’s compatriots have accepted, at long last, that he has become too big even for il strovale - their boot-shaped peninsula.

The parlous state of Italian politics became apparent to me during the several months I spent living in Milan in the fall of 2008 – shortly after Berlusoni had stormed to power for the fourth time. Read the rest of this entry »