The South Australian Upper House has been accused of delaying the Serious and Organised Crime bill by Rann Government Police Minister Paul Holloway. This is despite the Government voting to adjourn debate on this bill. It is the Government actually delaying the passage of their own bill by preventing the Upper House from doing what it does best, reviewing, scrutinising and amending bills.

Minister Holloway has also accused the cross bench parties of proposing “Mickey Mouse” amendments. It is clear that the Government wants to force through a law that is full of holes, has no accountability mechanisms, gives the Attorney-General the power to ban certain organisations on the basis of secret evidence without the evidence being test in court and could be abused by the Government and Police. The scope of the legislation is so wide. The Democrats and Greens are working together to amend the law to ensure that no innocent people are caught unawares by this law. They are also working to save the basic right of association.

Both the Democrats and Greens have said they support giving Police the legislative tools they need to deal with crime, however both parties say the law goes too far. The Democrats and Greens stances are backed by all of Australia’s other Labor Premiers and the Law Society of SA.

In the bill’s current form, it is bad law.

Democrats leader Lyn Allison (a participant in the 2020 summit’s Sustainability stream) has written a scathing letter about the 2020 summit.

In summary:

• She alleges that the Coal industry participants were able to scotch ideas like banning new Coal fired power stations until Carbon Capture schemes are proven effective and put into operation. This is because the groups worked on consensus rather than majority opinion. Anything disagreed upon was diesregarded.
• Discussion groups suggestions had to be worded in a particular way, excluding words like “must”, “should”.
• Groups were prevented from suggesting targets.
• The convenor of the Sustainability stream ruled out meaures for increasing use of rainwater tanks claiming that they are more energy intensive than desal!
• The wording of ideas discussed and agreed upon was changed overnight after the summit.

You can read the full article by Lyn Allison on the 2020 summit here >>

I have my own concerns about the 2020 summit. These discrepancies were not reported by the media. I wonder whether this had anything to do with those reporting on the summit also being participants? (as reported by ABC’s MediaWatch.) I have a sneaking suspicion that this 2020 summit was more about generating media for the government than actually tackling the issues.

It is interesting that just today, Kevin Rudd has reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring the public service can give frank and fearless advice. It is interesting however that his very own Government has decided to prevent some of the discussions at the 2020 summit from giving just that (a frank and fearless view of what needs to be done to advance Australia in the coming years.)

Today, I received an invitation to the launch of the results from the “16th and final Youth Poll” from Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. The launch will be this Friday (9th May) in Adelaide.

Apparently the Rudd Government has failed to take up conducting the Youth Poll.

The Young Australian Democrats have indicated that they will take up the Youth Poll initiative.  No other organisation has the courage to ask the tough and controversial questions that the Democrats do.  The reason why the old parties will not take it up is because either they don’t care about the opinions of young people, or they just aren’t willing to ask the controversial questions.

I am glad that sanity has finally prevailed.  The charges against the Chaser 11 for their APEC stunt have been dropped. Satire wins again.

Just in case you have forgotten two young Australian Democrats candidates proposed a “Chaser protection bill” during the 2007 Federal Election.  At least they have a sense of humour.

The Rudd Labor Government is going to increase taxes on alcopop drinks, blaming the former Howard Government for Australia’s binge drinking culture due to a cut in excise. The move was announced by Labor’s Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

I can only describe this attack on the former Government as ridiculous and politically opportunisitic. Let’s not politicise the binge drinking problem.

Increasing alcohol taxes alone will not stop binge drinking. We need better education for all Australians on enjoying alcohol in moderation. We also need to stop the media glorifying the celebrity lifestyle. Perhaps warning labels on alcoholic beverages should be made mandatory and the Police in every state should also crack down on venues that serve alcohol to intoxicated persons along with a crackdown on premises that sell alcohol to minors. There are some venues at Marion and Glenelg in Adelaide’s south that need to be targeted due to alcohol fuelled violence and vandalism.

Whilst the increase in alcohol excise is a good first step, it is not the silver bullet the Government is looking for. The Government needs to change Australian society’s attitude towards alcohol consumption.

I am growing increasingly cross about inaction by the African Union and United Nations in regards to the Zimbabwe elections. The ZEC still has not released results from the presidential elections nearly a month after they have occurred. The MDC has had its offices raided along with the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (an independent election monitoring centre.)

UPDATE: Obama and Hillary squabbling continues with the latest lot of heat released from the Clinton camp directly aimed at Barack Obama and each candidates teams picking a poll to say they have the ascendancy.

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I have been watching the US Presidential election primaries with interest over the past year. I am now starting to question whether a Democratic nominee can win the Whitehouse.

The campaign started well when both major contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were talking about the issues that matter.

Unfortunately for US Democratic party, neither candidate has been able to win a clear majority so far and this has lead to trench warfare over who did and said what years ago. It is degenerating into a farce.

Both Clinton and Obama should focus on the issues and should avoid attacking each other. Whilst Republican John McCain is now free to talk about what matters to Americans, Obama and Clinton are still squabbling.

Water and Climate Change minister Penny Wong has demonstrated just how poorly she is performing as minister.  She has not been able to bring Victoria to national agreement on water.  In fact she has let Victorian Premier John Brumby walk all over her.

The Murray-Darling system will now operate as previously with an extraction cap and states controlling their part of the river system.

This system has proven to be a failure and now the Rudd Government have gone back to a failed system.  The Murray-Darling system needs a national approach not a patchwork of different policies from different states.

Penny Wong has demonstrated she is a failure and should resign immediately and Labor have demonstrated they do not have the guts to tackle the nation’s biggest problems.

Different government, more of the same.

The Democrats voted at their last SA State Council meeting to contest the impending Mayo by-election.  Nominations are currently opened.

Whilst Sir Alex is too busy lunching with journos and playing golf with Mark Vaile, the Democrats have already hit the ground running and will be campaigning at the Mt Barker show.

It is time that Mayo had a real voice and that’s what we Democrats will provide during the campaign.  We will be surveying local residents of Mayo to find out what issues are important to them and then taking those issues into the public arena for action.

Click here to read about Rann’s $2.3million for new defibrillators for 107 SA Ambulances. >>

What is not mentioned is that SA has over 200 Ambulances (215 according to the SAAS 2006-07 Annual Report), so only half will be getting new hi-tech defibrillation machines.

The replacement of defibrillators has been re-announced. It was originally announced on 7th June 2007 as part of the budget last year by Treasurer Kevin Foley. So if you think it is new money, don’t be fooled.

This re-announcement serves no purpose but to make the Government look good. And hey, wouldn’t it be better if all SA Ambulances were fitted with new defibrillators rather than half of them.

By the way, wouldn’t it be nice to see Premier Mike Rann actually deal with some bad news rather than palming it off to Foley and Conlon?