Aussie minister: Republican party taken over by "cranks and crazies"

So I'm guessing he's not a fan of the Tea Party. Foreign ministers don't often inject themselves into the politics of other countries but how else does a sane, rational person explain the modern GOP? They are lunatics are running the asylum and there's no way to candy coat it.

What foreign leader would honestly want to work with someone like Rick Santorum or Sarah Palin? It's embarrassing that either have ever even been considered serious candidates. The US used to care about its reputation around the world and both parties used to look to the future. The modern GOP does look crazy so I'm glad someone in power outside of the US said it so bluntly.

Whether the Republicans like it or not, the US needs good relations around the world. For both US business expansion and national security, the US has to be on good terms with traditional allies. Sending the village idiots out to talk about either of these issues is never going to be productive.

The Guardian has more remarks from Australia's deputy prime minister and treasurer, Wayne Swan.

"Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican party," Swan said in a speech to a conference in Sydney.

The Republican party's position on the US budget had led a year ago to the deadlock in negotiations, Swan said, to prevent the looming "fiscal cliff" – nearly $600bn in planned spending cuts and tax hikes that will bite early next year.

Congress had been debating whether to increase the US borrowing ceiling but the Republicans would not budge.

"Despite President Obama's goodwill and strong efforts, the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme Tea Party wing of the Republican party," he said.

What's terrifying is that Mitt Romney is the best they have to offer, as Kevin Drum wrote about yesterday. Read the rest of this post...

Australia the next Spain?

The Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan is saying no and it may be an overstatement, but there are definitely some similarities. Spain also had a budget surplus (despite what austerity people believe) as well as strong jobs growth. What Spain did not have is a large export market heavily reliant on a booming China. During the good times, the economic ties were worth a lot to the Australian economy. But those good times are fading.

“It’s absurd - the Australian economy and its economic fundamentals are very strong. On a yearly basis we are growing at 4 percent – we are going to grow faster than any other developed economy this year and next,” Swan told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Wednesday.

“Let’s go through the fundamentals – bringing our budget back to surplus in 2012-2013, low unemployment, strong job creation over time, a record investment pipeline in resources – half a trillion (dollars). What planet does he live on?” he added.

Xie, an independent economist with sometimes controversial views, argues that Australia is at danger of becoming the next Spain due to its reliance on foreign demand, especially from its biggest trading partner China, which he believes is decelerating faster than headline growth numbers suggest.

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Australian economy heading for hard landing

Australia made the decision to hitch onto China years ago and so far, the ride has been mostly good. As the economy in China expanded, so did the economy in Australia. Raw materials helped feed the demand in China and the money kept rolling in.

The downside to this approach is that China has its own bubble and when that slows, so does Australia. Then you have a credit issue that is tied to the heavy commodity trading with China. Add to this the problem of overvalued housing and you have what many believe is a painful bubble on the verge of bursting.

It was a good ride, but all bubbles eventually pop. More on the future of the Australian economy via CNBC:

Australia is headed for the “mother of all hard landings,” according to Société Générale strategist Albert Edwards, who says the country’s “credit bubble” could burst if China’s economy suffers a sharp slowdown.

“(In Australia) We see a credit bubble built on a commodity bull market based on a much bigger Chinese credit bubble,” Edwards said in a report. “Of all the bubbles I have seen over the last 30 years in this industry, this one is even more obvious.”

Edwards reiterated his case for a hard landing for the mainland economy, pointing to the official Purchasing Mangers Index (PMI) of 53.3 last month, which he says is “the worst” April reading in years.

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Ratings agency sued in Australia for giving positive ratings to junk

As the article says, there are similar cases in the US, but they are bogged down in the system. In the US, there do seem to be some efforts to demand more from the ratings agencies, but considering the damage done leading up to the 2008 crash, much more should be done. How is it so obvious to everyone that the ratings agencies were churning out dodgy information (often linked to contracts with those being rated) yet little changes? Maybe this will be the breakthrough needed to clean up the ratings agency cesspool.

Looking at the closing submissions which have now been filed with the Federal Court, the councils contend that S&P failed to exercise reasonable care and had “no reasonable grounds” for its AAA rating on the Rembrandts. The councils argue that this is supported by the limited historical data relied upon to rate the product. This was a new product, a “CPDO”, even more risky than a CDO and based on an index of derivatives which had only been going for a couple of years. They also say S&P made a “critical error” when it relied on the advice of investment bank ABN Amro regarding the Rembrandt's historical volatility. “Nobody from S&P ever checked that figure and it was not supported by any data... The figure became the cornerstone of the rating,” says the submissions.

Trillions of dollars were lost yet to date, no individual or company has been guilty of any crime. Amazing. Read the rest of this post...

Police in Australia cut off 'tent' dress from Occupy, leave protester nearly naked

Police around the world will stop at nothing to protect the 1%. The video (view here) is disturbing to watch on many levels. The woman was violated by any normal standards and the Melbourne police have some explaining to do. Why are the police always so willing to use extreme tactics against those who protest, yet do so little - nothing, actually - against the true criminals who started the recession?

Victoria Police released a statement this evening revealing the Ethical Standards Department was investigating the incident after receiving a complaint.

''The Ethical Standards Department has subsequently received a physical assault complaint in relation to this incident and is investigating. As this investigation is ongoing we will not be commenting further.''

The footage appears to show a council worker being handed a knife by police to cut the tent from the woman - identified as Sarah, 20, who begins to struggle.

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Aussie senator says Murdoch’s "news" company tried to bribe him for vote on legislation

Raise your hand if you're surprised with this charge? If the same thing happened in the US or UK, would you be surprised? The Guardian:

Australian police are investigating a former senator's allegations that an executive from Rupert Murdoch's News Limited offered him favourable newspaper coverage and "a special relationship" in return for voting against government legislation....

The newspapers reported that an unnamed executive of News Ltd asked O'Chee during a lunch on 13 June 1998 to vote against his conservative government's legislation on the creation of digital TV in Australia. The news group stood to profit from the legislation failing.

Offering a senator a bribe or inducement to influence a vote is an offence punishable by up to six months in prison.

One wonders whether the opposite was implied as well - don't vote our way and we'll give you bad coverage. That would be worse than a bribe, it would be extortion. Read the rest of this post...

Australia approves carbon tax

This is big news for a lot of reasons. The Gillard government had been having its share of difficulties lately so this is a big win for her. Australia has been feeding the rapid growth in China with its raw material exports, so this was not an easy vote. Australia will join the European Union and New Zealand, with California joining soon after. China and South Korea are also expected to begin. The Guardian:

The vote is a major victory for embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who staked her government's future on what will be the most comprehensive carbon price scheme outside of Europe despite deep hostility from voters and the political opposition.

The scheme is a central plank in the government's fight against climate change and aims to halt the growth of the country's growing greenhouse gas emissions from a resources-led boom and age-old reliance on coal-fired power stations.

It sets a fixed carbon tax of A$23 ($23.78) a tonne on the top 500 polluters from July 2012, then moves to an emissions trading scheme from July 2015. Companies involved will need a permit for every tonne of carbon they emit.

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Australian carbon tax to hit top 500 polluters

The right wing in Australia is going nuts but why should polluters get a free pass? Who is going to pay for the environmental damage plus the associated health care costs of polluters? The Guardian:

The Australian government has unveiled one of the world's most ambitious schemes to tackle climate change, a plan to tax carbon emissions from the country's worst polluters.

After a bruising political battle to win support for the measure, the prime minister, Julia Gillard, said on Sunday that from July next year, 500 companies would pay $23 (£15) a tonne for their carbon emissions in the largest emissions trading scheme outside Europe.

The government predicts that by 2029 the plan will lead to a reduction in emissions equivalent to taking 45m cars off the road. The government will fix the tax for three years, before moving to a market-set price in 2015.

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Shell to "explore" for oil new World Heritage site in Australia

Considering the record of the oil industry, this is not going to go well.

"It beggars belief that the government is not requiring a full environmental estimate of this drilling proposal," said Paul Gamblin of the World Wildlife Fund.

Instead, the enrgy giant must abide by certain conditions, including visual observations for whales. The Australian government said Shell's proposal did not require further assessment.

Ningaloo reef, about 750 miles north of Perth, is best known for its whale sharks, the world's largest fish. The 160m long reef is also home to rare and endangered wildlife including whales, sea turtles and birds. Ningaloo marine park, which includes the reef, was designated a world heritage site last month.

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Australia proposes carbon tax

The reaction has been about what one would expect in the US these days, which is of course, not a good thing. Standing idle and doing nothing while the weather patterns change is obviously much easier to do. The cleanup and devastation from climate change isn't so great but at least they won't have to pay new taxes. The Guardian:

The levy was proposed by Gillard, who needed support from Greens in a hung parliament. But the plan has divided Australia like no other issue of recent years.

An opinion poll on Tuesday 28 June showed Gillard's disapproval rating at 62%. Another poll suggested barely one in four Australians would vote for her, making her government the most unpopular in 40 years.

Cities such as Wollongong have led the assault, as blue collar voters - who have done well on the back of the mining boom - desert the prime minister in droves.

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New airport scanners to x-ray inside of body

So will the poop-scanners replace the porno-scanners? The porno-scanners cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each machine (plus training and maintenance) and it's likely that the new scanners won't be a bargain either. Australia is reviewing the new machines because of the 60 pounds of drugs that were found smuggled inside the bodies of travelers last year. Once again, this sounds like a pretty bad return on investment. Is sixty pounds of drugs worth millions in new machines and training?

NEW X-ray technology that can reveal drug smugglers' internal cavities will be trialled at airports under a plan to fast-track security searches.

Legislation before Federal Parliament would enable customs officers to use new body scanners instead of sending suspects to hospital for internal X-rays ordered by a doctor, reported the Herald Sun.

Federal police wasted more than 4600 hours in hospital waiting rooms last year because of drug smugglers waiting for scans.

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Two bull sharks spotted 30 km inland following Aussie floods

When I was diving in Africa, great white sharks made people nervous, but bull sharks terrified people. In southern Africa they are known as Zambezi sharks because they are often reported miles inland on the Zambezi River along with crocodiles, hippos and other dangerous animals. Yikes.

Butcher Steven Bateman spotted two bull sharks swimming near his Goodna shop yesterday - one of several reports of a sharks in Goodna's main street.

Ipswich local councillor Paul Tully confirmed it was a bizarre but true story out of Queensland's flood disaster.

"It would have swum several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway,'' Cr Tully told The Queensland Times.

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Floodwaters continue to rise in Queensland, Australia

The details coming out of Queensland have been terrible and the situation is likely to get worse. Flooding from La Niña is blamed for the current problems. The Guardian:

Thousands of Brisbane residents were stockpiling food and stacking sandbags or fleeing their homes yesterday as the worst floodwaters to hit Queensland for 50 years surged towards Australia's third-largest city.

Many people in the state capital, fearful of the damage already done, appeared to have heeded the authorities' evacuation warnings. By last night, Brisbane's city centre was a ghost town populated only by a few shop owners hoping to save their businesses with last-minute barricades of sandbags and plastic sheeting.

Ten people died on Monday as cars and pedestrians were swept away in an "inland instant tsunami" that sent a wall of water coursing through the city of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. More than 40 people were pulled from rooftops by military helicopters that were still searching for 90 missing people yesterday. Another 200 Australian Defence Force personnel are being dispatched to southern Queensland, which has been declared a disaster area. The flooding has claimed 14 lives in the last two weeks, but police fear the death toll could rise significantly as the bodies of people who may have drowned in their cars and homes are found.

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QANTAS pilots overcame extreme odds during engine blowout

Sounds like a pretty good crew considering the number of problems that they encountered. I vowed to never again fly QANTAS after a really bad experience (old plane in bad shape inside, lousy service) back in the '90s but the new Airbus 380 fleet is well, new. I was aware of the engine problem but hadn't realized that shrapnel also went through the wing, cutting fuel lines and damaging the beam that holds the wing onto the body of the plane. Here's a more detailed report that includes photos of the problem, for those interested.

Experience counts.

Engine pieces sliced electric cables and hydraulic lines in the wing. One of the beams that attaches the wing to the plane was damaged as well. And the wing's two fuel tanks were punctured. The leaking fuel created an imbalance between the left and right sides of the plane, Woodward said.

The electrical problems prevented the pilots from pumping fuel forward from tanks in the tail. The plane became tail heavy, a condition that could have caused the Singapore-to-Sydney jetliner to lose lift, stall and crash.

And then there was that torrent of computer messages, 54 in all, alerting the pilots to system failures or warning of impending failures.

Luckily, two extra pilots, both captains, were aboard the flight on Nov. 4, two of them undergoing evaluation. In all, the crew had more than 100 years of flying experience.

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Australia forms center-left government

It has taken a while and it's a razor thin majority, but it's done. The Independent:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's center-left Labor Party will form a minority government to rule Australia for a second three-year term, after two independent lawmakers joined her coalition Tuesday in the interest of stable government.

The decision by Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott gives Gillard's party control of 76 seats in the 150-seat House or Representatives and avoids the need for another round of polls, following inconclusive elections late last month.

It also means Gillard can continue with her plans to introduce a 30 percent tax on iron ore and coal miners' burgeoning profits and make Australia's biggest polluters pay for carbon gas emissions.

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Australian indigenous islanders win marine rights court battle

This is an interesting case because they islanders were not claiming ownership of the ocean but simply to be consulted for future development and formal acceptance of their deep links to the body of water called the Torres Strait. BBC:

Community elders say it will help to maintain their unique maritime culture and provide economic opportunity.

At the heart of their claim was a call for their spiritual ties to the sea to be formally recognised.

The court's ruling does not grant islanders exclusive rights over the vast area of ocean, nor were they claimed.

More than 200 islands are peppered throughout the Torres Strait.

Its people speak two distinct languages. Their traditional beliefs are based on the sea, the land and the sky, which have been portrayed over thousands of years in a rich array of stories, songs and dances.

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Does Australia want to link Internet browsing history to passports?

Creepy, if true though ZDNet is not a fly-by-night source. The Rudd government is getting into some very disturbing territory. It's even more extreme than the EU monitoring.

Last week we were duly shocked by the discovery that the government is looking into a proposal to make ISPs retain a log of every website you ever visit. Now it’s coming out that they may want ISPs to link that information to other personal data like your passport number.

Ben Grubb over at ZDNet broke the original story, and yesterday followed it up with a deeper insight into the proposed scheme. While the government is denying it would capture individual browsing histories, unnamed sources from ISPs are saying that the original data set sent to ISPs from the government said that they’d require allied personal information, including passport numbers.

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Australia files lawsuit in The Hague against Japanese whaling

Who are the fools that really believes the whaling is about science? Well, besides the same fools who think that if you give in a little more, this will solve the problem.

Excess meat from the program is in Japan for consumption, available through limited outlets such as special whale restaurants and public school lunch programs.

Australia's case maintains that Japan's hunt is essentially for commercial purposes and that it fails to qualify for the scientific exemption, partly because of "a lack of any demonstrated relevance for the conservation and management of whale stocks," according to court documents.

New Zealand has said it will decide within weeks whether it will file a similar case against Japan.

Japanese officials say whaling is a national tradition and a vital part of the country's food culture. Tokyo also argues whale stocks have sufficiently recovered since 1986 to allow a resumption of limited hunts among certain species.

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Australia moves forward with internet censorship

What a horrible move in the wrong direction.

The government's $128.8 million Cyber Safety policy includes forcing internet service providers to block access to a secret blacklist of website pages identified as ''refused classification'' by Australian government bureaucrats.

Web pages will be nominated for blacklisting by Australian internet users who come across illegal or ''unacceptable'' websites.

''This is a policy that will be going ahead,'' Senator Conroy said. ''We are still consulting on the final details of the scheme. But this policy has been approved by 85 per cent of Australian internet service providers, who have said they would welcome the filter, including Telstra, Optus, iPrimus and iinet.''

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Great Barrier Reef ship leaking oil in wildlife sanctuary

Even worse news is that the initial reports of a half mile gash on the reef was updated to be two miles long. Just imagine how many decades or centuries it will take to come back. Two people from the ship have been arrested.

A Chinese ship captain and a chief officer have been arrested and charged with causing damage to the Great Barrier Reef, more than a week after their coal carrier ran aground, leaking oil and tearing a two-mile (three-kilometer) gash in the protected area.

The Australian Federal Police said the master of the vessel and the chief officer on watch during the April 3 grounding would appear in court Thursday.

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