News
Well, it's finally happened. The carbon price legislation has passed through the House of Representatives. Labor were exultant, the Green (Adam Bandt) was exultant, the Coalition were petulant, the protesters were angry. For Labor, this is the blessed culmination of more than six months of political self-evisceration, the first step toward putting this awful fever dream behind them. They were so happy
even Kevin and Julia shed a moment. There's little doubt that once the program is in place the public's anger will cool – as is often the way with major reform, people quickly forget how major it seemed once it becomes an unobtrusive part of everyday life. Whether it will cool enough by the next election is obviously an entirely different question. For the Green (and his party), this was the greatest of their victories. Even with the concessions they had to make to get the bill through, this is still a major piece of legislation that will make Australia one of the most environmentally forward thinking nations on the planet. They've got to be happy, even if the only way they made it happen was via political blackmail. And as for the Coalition, well, they're soon going to be without their favourite whipping boy, so they'll have to create a whole new imaginary catastrophe around which to band. Perhaps that's why they were so abominably outraged yesterday –
Tony Abbott promising "in blood" that he will repeal the carbon tax and claiming that Julia Gillard should resign because she managed to get a bill through Parliament (weirdest no confidence motion ever), Warren Truss tastefully comparing the Government to Gaddafi's regime, while the protesters they bred kept chanting "democracy is dead" until they were thrown out of the chamber, proving yet again that the people who care most about the erosion of democratic rights are typically the ones who understand the process least. The legislation will now move to the Senate, where it is expected to be passed next month.
But the fun's not going to stop yet, as the Government has decided to suicidally back up its greatest success with
a potential failure of the vote on their ill-fated Malaysian Solution. With WA Nationals Member Tony Crook still undecided as to how he'll vote on the legislation, there is every chance that the measure could fail, thereby turning Labor into the first Government to lose a measure in the House of Representatives since 1929.
The Australian dollar is back up to $US1.02, an increase of almost 8 cents in 7 days, which is being taken as a very heartening sign, built on confidence that the EU will sort their shit out, but more than anything really just shows exactly how volatile things still are. The markets could be tilted over the edge by anything...
Anything such as the refusal of an EU member state to ratify the bailout. Slovakia, the second poorest country in the EU and one of its newest members,
has voted against the bailout, taking the Prime Minister of the day with it. While putatively an expression of anger at the idea that a dirt poor nation has to pay for the follies of their richer neighbours, it looks like the primary purpose of the vote was in fact to destroy a sitting Government, and now that that's done
they may well actually support the measure. Ah, politics.
The Liberian tanker currently leaking oil into New Zealand's pristine Bay of Plenty looks to be in serious danger of
completely breaking up after significant cracks appeared in the ship's hull. There are still some 1300 tonnes of oil on board, just itching to take a big fat dump all over the local ecosystem.
Burma has made good on its promise to start releasing political prisoners, with
some 200 of the 2000 currently incarcerated having been released over the last 24 hours. Heady times for one of the most repressive and recalcitrant regimes on Earth today.
The Galid Shalit prisoner swap has been officially signed off on, with Hamas and Israel coming to a rare agreement (so rare that this took five years to sort out) to swap the captured Israeli for 1027 Palestinians, none of whom appear to have names.
Iran's attempt to send a monkey into space has failed. My condolences to the monkey's family.
The endgame in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirt could be finally approaching its end... game, with
the NTC claiming to control over 80% of the city. Commanders expect the city to fall within two days.
The GOP showed it was, if nothing else, the party of political endurance after yet another Republican Presidential debate yesterday. The basic rundown is as follows: Mitt Romney. At this point in time, while the rest of the field has its points of interest – right now in particular those being Rick Perry's complete inability to function in a debate situation and Herman Cain's unlikely ascendancy to the position of second place – Romney remains the only close to viable candidate in the race. Which is pretty impressive for a Mormon whose own home state passed a version of universal health care while he was in charge. But hey, that's the Republican race for you.
Features
Annabel Crabb on Julia Gillard's passing of the carbon tax package – doing things the hard way. To be perhaps read with these pieces on Rudd's return:
the return of Mr Popular; and
the return of the most hated man in politics.
Is China's bubble about to burst? AKA is Australia's run about to end?
Oddities/Curiosities
Brain controlled robot arm allows paralysed man to touch girlfriend for first time in seven years. Amazing technology and just a teensy bit moving.
The long, arduous process of cleaning up –
photos of Japan from immediately after the earthquake and now.
Video
Our Parliamentary process in action: the ball-tearingly exciting footage from the floor of the House of Representatives as the carbon price finally gets pushed through. If you're wondering why the Coalition start laughing like a bunch of henchmen whose evil and cruel leader has just made a really bad joke but they all have to laugh or else he'll cut their nipples off, it's because Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard actually deigned to share a celebratory kiss. On the cheek. Oh very mature.