The Guardian 13 December, 2006
Dingo bytes
In NSW, the one-upmanship of the Liberal Party leader Peter Debnam led him last week to announce that if his party wins next year’s election he’ll oversee the reduction of 20,000 jobs in the public sector. "I’m entirely happy to stand up to the public sector unions", said Debnam. "The union hierarchy knows they can’t blackmail me." Along with front-line workers, he plans to cut workers in regional areas as well, where public services are already sliced to the bone. In fact the Public Service Association says that services across the state are already at breaking point after the public service was reduced by one third, in real terms, over the past 20 years.
Sixteen religious faiths in Australia have called Australians to become responsible stewards of God’s creation and tackle climate change. Invoking Genesis, the Christian denominations of Anglican, Greek Orthodox and Baptist declared the wilful destruction of Earth a sin. The Australian Christian Lobby also warned that the faithful will use their votes to "weigh the degree of determination in each party to tackle climate change at the next election". Joining the Christian churches calling for immediate action on climate change are Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jews. Where does that leave the Howard Government in the lead-up to next year’s election?
The scare campaign sparked by PM Howard and his Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer last year — when they claimed that white powder sent to the Indonesian embassy was a "biological agent" — has been revealed as a lie. Documents from ACT Pathology and the federal police show the microbiologist who examined the powder on June 1 last year never called it a "biological agent" but described it as a commonly occurring bacteria. After some days of testing the substance was revealed to be flour. John Howard said at the time that sending the powder to the embassy was an act of "murderous criminality", an attempt to ratchet up the fear factor. Downer told Parliament it would cause "a good deal of anti-Australian sentiment in Indonesia". It now is set to cause a good deal of anti-Howard Government sentiment in Australia.
The body appointed two years ago by the Howard Government to advise the government on Indigenous affairs, the National Indigenous Council, is angry over the lack of consultation on policy. The Council was set up after the government disbanded the democratically elected body, The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Two months ago the government asked all council members to extend their terms until the next federal election, but one, Joe Proctor, refused because he had lost faith in the Council process. He said the government had allowed Indigenous economic development to "drift into obscurity" and that he hoped it all wasn’t just a plan "to completely disempower Indigenous people in this country". Sounds like Joe’s hit the nail on the head.
CAPITALIST HOG OF THE YEAR: is Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, obviously.