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Showing posts from May, 2017

Current ACT Chief Minister accused of "gross conflict of interest" by Labor predecessor

Canberra Times Letters to the Editor this morning: "Labor joining the wrong clubs" I assume it was a coincidence that Chief Minister Andrew Barr launched the new government-friendly CFMEU Clubs Association on the day that submissions to the Legislative Assembly select committee inquiry into the establishment of an independent integrity commission closed. I don't know if it is just me but the Chief Minister's Trump-like response to Clubs ACT daring to oppose the government over the decision to give the casino poker machines does seem, at best, a tad petulant. Residents and community organisations are entitled to disagree with and to oppose the actions of government. It's called democracy. As an aside, I vividly recall it was my colleague Wayne Berry, now a director of the Labor Club, who convinced me that under no circumstances should the casino ever have poker machines. A view I continue to hold. My fundamental concern about the ACT government's de

Australia siding with major international corporations at climate change talks

A cryptic reference in the New York Times today puts the Australian government on the side of big business in the continuing talks on the United Nations climate change agreement. The Times reports that developing nations and environmental groups are challenging some of the world’s biggest companies and wealthiest countries over the role corporate lobbyists play in United Nations climate change negotiations. The dispute opens an additional battle in the struggle over how to fashion a global response to climate change, one that corporate interests appear to be winning, for now. Though companies are not permitted to participate directly in the climate talks, representatives from almost 300 industry groups are free to roam the negotiations in Bonn, Germany, as “stakeholders,” and to lobby negotiators on behalf of corporations that may seek to slow action, the developing nations and their allies say. ... Negotiators from Uganda, Ecuador, the Philippines and other countries have proposed

Are the Murdochs fit and proper people?

The Financial Times of London has argued that the Murdoch controlled Fox’s second bid for The UK's Sky television deserves proper scrutiny. In an editorial the FT argues that while with most products, at most times, market competition does an excellent job supplying consumers’ appetites, in a democracy, information is not just any product. The market may give consumers the information they want, but there is little economic reason to think it will supply citizens the information they need. A wide variety of information and opinion must be available. It is a key job of democratic institutions to ensure that this happens. This is why media mergers are exposed to intense scrutiny. The editorial concludes: When it comes to the fit and proper test, the allegations of sexual harassment at Fox News, following as they do the phone hacking scandal at the newspaper arm of the Murdoch empire, raise serious questions. In both cases, failings of corporate culture were endemic, with senior

A political quote for the day

UK Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron on the life of MPs: “Time with lobbyists, time going to various social and ceremonial events — they don’t do any good at all, other than make MPs feel self-important.” (From an interesting story in  the Financial Times .)