No more dessert

That'll teach me to be optimistic :( Foolish, naive past-self!

Sadly, very little of my hope turned into anything over the past few years and now, at best, all I can hope is that little won't be rolled back during whatever term a minority government of either flavour maintains.

But wait, what am I depressed about, Tony is offering us "stable, predictable and competent government"! Apparently too much to ask for innovative, sustainable, compassionate leadership... Maybe the Greens' increased presence in the Senate will rub off on the right-wing fearmongers?

Immigration

In the absence of any semblance of a heart, and having played their part in making the world a more dangerous place for everyone, especially those least able to defend themselves, our fine government resorts to ridiculous, over-the-top grandstanding.

I think I'm going to have to stop reading any press releases, before I explode with fury :@ The price of staying "informed" is too damn high. This is why I can't watch the news...

Deforestation

Sure this sounds like a good idea, but as usual indicates the "big brother", condescending attitude which our government takes on all matters, including its dealing with the states.

"However, a common element of any incentives is that they will be provided only on the achievement of pre-agreed forest sustainability milestones (e.g. agreed reductions in national deforestation rates). Measurement of achievement of these milestones will be underpinned by the investment in the technology and systems to robustly monitor forest resources."

In other words: Do what we tell you, or you get nothing from us. And you better believe we'll be watching...

The idea is a very late implementation of an approach apparently discussed 2 years ago at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As Wayne Swan says:

"it’s a strategy for the election. It’s not a strategy to combat climate change. That’s what it is. He only ever gets on board when there’s an election around the corner... He doesn’t believe in the science and he doesn’t understand the required policy responses. He’s just playing politics. It’s John Howard being a clever politician."

Speaking for myself, I want leadership not politics.

Irrelevance personified

I've caught little snippets of Labour criticism towards our PM about bad mouthing Barack Obama but, seriously, nothing said by anyone in Australia (except maybe The Wiggles) could have the slightest impact on the US election. Maybe Labour's starting to believe Howard's self-deception that our country has an important role in world affairs?

I'm not saying Australia couldn't be a leader, just that the lack of vision in our government means there's not even positive local influence, let alone anything on a global scale.