Mourning the loss of Don Chipp

We are deeply saddened at the news that Don Chipp, in honour of whom this blog is named, passed away on Monday evening 28 August 2006 from pneumonia. In the words of Heather Jeffcoat the acting president of the Australian Democrats,

Don was a caring human being, and a master politician who, through his passion, commitment and charisma inspired hundreds of thousands of Australians to take a keen interest in the future of their country.

Don's Party, his beloved Australian Democrats, founded on the principles of Honesty, Tolerance and Compassion, burst onto the political scene in 1977 and for the greater part of the next quarter of a century held the balance of power in the Australian Parliament.

He will be missed by all those who knew him and by those touched by his compassion and action. Australia is a better place because of Don Chipp's vision and enthusiasm. May he rest in peace, and may his vision for a fairer and more tolerant society live on.

Senator Andrew Bartlett has a fine obituary to Don Chipp on his blog .

Technorati Tags: australian politics, australian democrats, don chipp

Cut Australia's Carbon Emissions

It is time to do more about cutting Australia's green house gas emissions. Australia has one of the highest, if not the highest, carbon emissions per capita and the low costs of electricity today is mortgaging our children's future.

We need to put in place policies to reduce and offset carbon emissions, especially from coal-fired power stations. While the Australian Democrats have been calling for such a move for many years the current federal coalition government is sitting on its hands. Many state Labor governments are taking moves to address the situation but not in an overly coordinated way. For example, the NSW government has initiated an emissions trading scheme and the Queensland government is investing $300 million in research and development in "clean" coal.

Carbon trading can work now to encourage a reduction in overall green house gas levels, however, it does enable polluters to side-step their obligations to some extent. Clean coal research is necessary but will take at least ten years to begin to make an impact and is still not a renewable energy source. Wind, solar and hydro power schemes are renewable but at present not scalable to take sufficient load off Australia's reliance on coal-fired power stations.

We need political leadership (rather than the current recalcitrance) at the federal level to pursue a balanced and coordinated approach, both across the country and across the variety of strategies that will address the problem. We also need to understand that there must be some sacrifice in regard electricity and other fuel costs because we are on borrowed time and not paying the full costs. It may well be possible to offset these additional costs with savings through energy efficiency and minimising energy use.

Technorati Tags: Australian politics, Australian Democrats, Carbon Trading, Clean Coal

Restricting Democracy

In proposed changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act the conservative federal government is proposing to restrict the ability of Australian's to exercise their right to vote and at the same time protect those who wish to influence the political process through financial donations to political parties.

Among the changes is a reduction in the time, after the announcement on an election, that the person has to enroll to vote or update their details on the roll. The time reduction to come into effect from 2007 is down from several days to several hours. This has been highlighted by the recent snap election announcement in Queensland where some people thought they may have been caught out by the legislative changes. The change particularly effects young voters who may not have enrolled to vote and those who have shifted house since the last election and may not have updated their electoral roll address details. This potentially disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of voters.

Another significant change in the legislation is the raising of the threshold for anonymous donations to political parties from $1,500 to $10,000. As well, closely related parties (i.e., members of the same family) are treated separately, as are donations to different state and territory party branches. As a result, a rich family could secretly donate hundreds of thousands to a party. A report from the parliamentary library indicates that based on 2004-5 figure as much as $8 million in donations would become anonymous. To add insult to injury, the tax free threshold for political donations has been increased from $100 to $1500 per annum. This effectively moves millions of dollars from the common wealth to political parties.


Technorati Tags: Australian politics, Australian Democrats, Democracy