Politicians state and federal looked north this week - the PM went to Queensland, Kevin Rudd went to the USA, Paul Omodei looked to the Kimberley's water resources and Kevin Andrews looked at US rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and told him to stay.
ALP National Conference
His name is Kevin, he's from Queensland and he's here to help.
That was the idea, anyway, as Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd strode onto the stage at the Sydney Convention Centre to the rapturous applause of the party faithful and the bars of specially commissioned song "Change in the Weather" at the ALP national conference in Sydney this morning.
The conference, which will determine official Labor Party policy for the next federal election, has been eagerly awaited by political pundits all week, although all decisions made are widely expected to be a fait accompli - determined in advance outside of conference floor discussions by the ALP's notorious factional system.
But that didn't mean there wasn't an opportunity to take the spotlight for a time, with Mr Rudd launching into a 48 minute speech which drew laughter and applause from the crowd, of 400 delegates and hundreds of observers.
Invoking the spirits of Labor innovators past - Curtin and Chifley chief among them - Mr Rudd said the election would be about the party's alternative plans for Australia's future.
He reiterated Labor's plans to improve public education, invest up to $4.7 billion in a new high-speed national broadband internet network, and tackle problems with business regulation to help boost productivity levels.
And he repeated his promise to dump the government's industrial relations policies "once and for all" and introduce policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
He said Prime Minister John Howard was "stuck in the past" and had "run out of ideas".
"Mr Howard doesn't really believe in a single idea which didn't appear on black and white television," Mr Rudd told the crowd.
Uranium policy
That said, one idea that has featured in a number of black and white showreels, as well as ones in lurid colour, is likely to be introduced in the conference, with the ALP all but certain to overturn their no new uranium mines policy.
Scheduled for a vote on Saturday, the party's left faction, led by infrastructure and water spokesman Anthony Albanese, estimated yesterday it could only muster the votes of 180 of the 397 delegates - short of the majority required.
Labor's left faction will have about 177 delegates at the conference.
The faction voted yesterday to retain its support of the no news mines policy, though it has lost a number of its major backers, including Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard and Resources spokesman Chris Evans.
Fair Work Australia
The other issue to be pushed through the conference, on what is expected to be a lazy Saturday afternoon, is the party's planned establishment of a new industrial relations umpire called Fair Work Australia.
The new body would replace the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the Office of the Employment Advocate, the Office of Workplace Services and the Fair Pay Commission.
"This organisation will be staffed by judicial officers, it will be staffed by other persons of independent merit and ability, and it will be established under independent statute," he said.
"Our objective view is to get the balance right between employers and employees.
But business groups including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Australian Industry Group have said Labor's plan was on shaky legal ground.
"This new super agency is part of an overall plan to increase industrial relations regulation and impose compulsory collective bargaining on workplaces," chamber chief executive Peter Hendy said.
"It looks to be more powerful and more pervasive than any previous industrial relations body.
The Prime Minister went one step further, telling Southern Cross Radio the policy was unconstitutional because the one body would be responsible for judicial and non-judicial functions of IR policy.
"See, way back in 1956 in what was called the Boilermakers case the High Court of Australia decided that the one body could not exercise both judicial and non-judicial functions," he said.
"The Australian Industrial Relations Commission was once called years ago, was once called the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration and it exercised both judicial and non-judicial functions and the High Court ruled in the Boilermakers case that you couldn't do that, so the thing was split and you formed the Commonwealth Industrial Court and the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, later the Australian Industrial Relations Commission."
"It is my belief (that the policy is unconstitutional) and it is supported by advice that the attorney-general has received from the Australian government solicitor and it's also supported by a lot of other experts."
However, the office of Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has refused to release the advice.
Labor's workplace relations spokeswoman Julia Gillard asserted the policy was legal and had been checked.
"We have expert legal (advice) that the proposal we put forward for Fair Work Australia squares up with the Australian constitution," Ms Gillard told reporters today.
"We've been working on this for many months now and in the course of those many months we have taken legal advice and we've ensured that what we're suggesting with Fair Work Australia is legal and will work."
Water from the Kimberley
It wasn't only the Federal Labor Party that had contentious policies this week, with State Opposition Leader Paul Omodei bringing back a few unwelcome memories from the last state election with a new plan to dam the Kimberley region's Fitzroy River to create what he called a new "food bowl" for the nation.
"The issue is really about developing an industry in the Fitzroy, creating a food bowl for the nation in the Fitzroy," Mr Omodei told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"I believe it is a good idea to bring struggling farmers from WA, and the eastern states, into the Kimberley, creating new towns and creating new export industry and creating food for our own nation.
Mr Omodei also said there should be enough water left over to pipe south to Perth.
Building a canal was the pipedream of Mr Omodei's predecessor, former opposition leader Colin Barnett, whose controversial pre-election pledge to proceed with what he said would be a $2 billion proposal arguably cost the WA Liberals the last state election.
Last year Premier Alan Carpenter said a study had confirmed building the canal would cripple the state and quadruple the average annual Perth water bill.
WA Water Resources Minister John Kobelke said Mr Omodei's proposal showed he had not learnt from Mr Barnett's mistakes.
"What he's talking about is very fanciful and reflects his lack of understanding of the basic engineering and cost aspects of water," Mr Kobelke said.
"The evidence is there that bringing water from the Kimberley to the south of WA is a pipedream that with the current technology is never going to happen."
Mr Kobelke said stage two of the Ord River Dam irrigation system would significantly expand agricultural production in the Kimberley.
"Why would you go ahead and build another dam on the Fitzroy when you haven't fully utilised the Ord River water?" he asked.
Howard allocates funding on Fire...
Speaking of water, Prime Minister John Howard allocated an extra $61.2 million to help fight bushfires this morning, with $41 million to be used to lease fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
A further $20 million would pay for more than 1000 bushfire mitigation projects such as water supply projects and the construction of fire trails and bridges to give emergency services better access to bushfires.
The spending package includes $15 million in the 2007-08 financial year, with the money to be spent over four years.
The funding, to be shared between all Australian states and territories, amounted to a 25 per cent annual increase in Commonwealth spending on bushfires, he said.
and Ice ...
Earlier in the week Mr Howard announced a $150 million package to fight the use of crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as "ice", to be used on rehabilitation services, education programs and the establishment of a new squad within the Australian Federal Police.
And sets out 2020 vision
In the first of what is promised to be a series of "Australia Rising" speeches, outlining the Coalition's agenda for the future, Mr Howard said the human face of globalisation would increasingly be Asian and middle class - making it crucial to build the strength of the Australian economy.
The Prime Minister said this would not be helped by the Opposition's Industrial Relations policy.
"Labor in 11 years has still not developed a coherent alternative plan to keep the Australian economy strong, which is the fundamental responsibility of both sides of politics in 2007," he said.
Mr Howard always said independent action by Australia on climate change would not have a significant effect, and it was not a moral challenge for Australians.
"Do we need to lower carbon emissions over time? Of course we do, but to say that climate change is the overwhelming moral challenge for this generation of Australians is misguided at best and misleading at worst," he said.
For his part, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd labelled the Prime Minister a climate change denier in his speech to todays' ALP conference.
"This is the modern equivalent of arguing that the earth is flat and that NASA faked the moon landing and that Elvis is out there somewhere still flipping burgers in Florida," he said.
Bits and Pieces
- Mr Rudd didn't make it to Florida in his trip to the USA, but did find time to give a speech to the influential Brookings Institute and a quick meeting with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, winning praise that both Mr Rudd and Mr Howard termed "polite."
- Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said American Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, or Snoop Dogg to his friends, "doesn't seem the sort of bloke we want in this country," - with a "string of convictions" and gang membership pushing the limits of the government's character test, as well as his having overstayed his visa by two days during his last visit.
- The ALP named Sharon Thiel of Newman as its candidate for the federal seat of Kalgoorlie, currently held by Liberal MP Barry Haase. Ms Thiel currently works in the electorate office of State fisheries minister Jon Ford - who recently attracted the attention of the CCC when one of his staffers was shown to have passed on information to lobbyist Brian Burke. Neither the minister himself nor Ms Thiel were implicated in the scandal.
- Preselection for the Liberal Party's senate ticket in WA for the upcoming federal election is due to take place this weekend. Competition for a place will be fierce between controversial incumbent Ross Lightfoot and WA Liberal senior vice president Mathias Cormann. Stay tuned!
The final word
In a week where former deputy PM Tim Fischer, in his capacity as chairman of Tourism Australia, declared a combined currency between Australia and New Zealand should be called the "zac", or Zealand Australia Currency - and then sparked outrage in the land of the long white cloud when he claimed Australian general John Monash founded Australia Day, the final word must go to the one and only former Senator Amanda Vanstone.
Rumours of Ms Vanstone taking on the role of Australian Ambassador to Italy started almost as soon as she was dumped from the Immigration portfolio in January this year, with rumours stating she had dropped significant hints about the possibility of a posting there.
In any case, the Canberra whispers were confirmed yesterday when Ms Vanstone resigned from the Senate in the morning, and was named as the new Ambassador in the afternoon.
She told the ABC yesterday the Italian approach to life appealed to her, but declined to say when she was officially offered the job.
"I don't think you can say there's a particular time that I can put my finger on, simply because there's a series of events that have to happen," she said.
"It's all quite complicated."
Arch is sure it is...
