Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for June, 2009
Peter Costello. Calling it quits.
16 June 2009
He has been called Australia’s greatest-ever treasurer, and the greatest leader the Australian Liberal Party never had.
Peter Costello delivered 12 budgets and each year pushed the federal finances more and more into surplus.
The tragedy of the Costello years will always be that he was promised the prime ministerial succession by PM John Howard, and that was a promise that was never delivered. As the years went on, it was clear that Team Howard-Costello was anything but a well-greased Ferrari. The men barely tolerated each other, but in that bizarre way of politics, they continued to make the decisions that kept the Australian economy bubbling along.
When John Howard was inevitably thrown from office 18 months ago, Peter Costello knew that the leadership of his party was his if he wanted it. But he also knew that it was highly unlikely that the first Opposition Leader against Kevin Rudd was likely to survvive to fight the next election. So he went to the backbenches. Only last year he told us at the Breakfast Club that he wished he still had his hands on Australia’s economic levers. But Costello knew that to do that he would first have to become Opposition leader, and then defeat Kevin Rudd at an election.
This is where things became difficult. He could not take the leadership before the next election. Rudd will most likely win that election because even the economic downturn has barely dented his political ascendency. So that meant Costello waiting until after Malcolm Turnbull loses the next election, and then snatching the leadership in time to try to clobber Kevin Rudd.
His resignation from parliament, announced yesterday, surprised me, but it should not have done. It’s beyond reasonable expectation that a man of his history would stay in a do-nothing position for another eighteen months. He must have been going out of his mind to be there as long as he has. It could well have been that one evening his wife asked him whether he was happy to just sit on the backbench waiting for Godot. The clincher might also have been the news that support for his resurgence was waning.
So Peter Costello is unlikely to ever become prime minister. It’s not necessarily all over because anything can happen before Costello’s retirement at the next election, but it is unlikely that the stars will align for him now, after ignoring him for ever so long.
Yes he would’ve made an interesting PM. Instead, he becomes, like unrequited Liberal leader of the 1980′s, Andrew Peacock, a man forever haunted by a giant ‘what if”. He deserved better.
– Phil
Australia wants to host the World Cup
15 June 2009
Whether it has a snowflake’s chance of getting it in 2018 or 2022 is another thing.
Because the truth is that a World Cup’s financial success, like the Olympics, is predicated on a live viewing audience. Sydney got the rights to host the Olympics in 2000 because Olympic events run across most of the day and well into the evening. That means that viewers in Europe have at least a chance of seeing something on their loungeroom TVs.
For the World Cup, unless games were played late at night, the Europeans and Africans would not get much of a chance to watch live games (this is apart from the fact that they would not be able to see the games at the ground, unless they travelled all the way to Australia to do it).
This doesn’t look too good for Australia’s chances, but there is another side.
Asia is a big soccer market that has great potential. We’ve already seen a number of English premiership clubs sign Asian players, only to keep them on ice. The logic behind the signings was to get the emotional backing of that players’ country. Whether the player gets a significant number of top flight games is not really that relevant. It’s the fact that they had been signed. Likewise, having a Soccer World Cup in our region would give huge exposure to this emerging market, and if we’re talking about doing it in a decade or so, the market will be even bigger. The Asian TV market alone would be huge, especially now that Australia plays in the Asian zone.
So it could make sense to do it, but again, it could make even more sense to stage it directly in South East Asia itself.
If Australia can pull this one off, just like it did for the 2000 Olympics it would be against the odds, but it would be a great event in a country with plenty of facilities, no pollution problems and experience holding the world’s biggest event.
And if the Socceroos do well at next year’s World Cup in Africa, who knows?
– Phil
Swine Flu. It’s a pandemic now.
12 June 2009
Televisions and computers around the world this morning are showing vision of the World Health Organisation’s Margaret Chan making the stoney-faced announcement that the swine flu outbreak is now a pandemic. This makes it the first flu pandemic for forty years.
As this upgrade hit, Hong Kong closed its schools for fear that the disease would spread. The Philippines has reported its first cases. The US has revealed it has 1000 people in hospital with the swine flu.
There clearly seems to be some fear and loathing across the world. Certainly people have died, Mexico being the worst hit. But the truth is that the swine flu is a mild disease. All but the very vulnerable will suffer no more than a few symptoms, a week in isolation and then a full recovery. One of my co-workers here had two children with the swine flu, but they had virtually recovered before they had even been diagnosed.
The big thing about swine flu is that it is very contagious, and that’s the danger. If people are not isolated, then then there’s a strong chance that it will infect the vulnerable, the very old, the very young, the very weak. That’s when a mild flu becomes a potential killer. You can understand why Hong Kong is going to extremes here, although countries with a smaller health care system would be the ones that would benefit more from such drastic measures, because they would be less able to cope with a big jump in swine flu infectees. Our health system is pretty good, but a sudden surge in the sniffles would stretch it, particularly if the old and very young start getting sick.
There has been a call for Australian sporting events to be cancelled here in Australia. That won’t happen, but you can understand the call.
Margaret Chan certainly looked glum, but there’s probably no need for the rest of us to be, especially considering that this flu is probably the weakest in recent years. Be a little careful, wash your hands, watch for symptoms, and see a doctor if you feel ill. Otherwise, business as usual.
– Phil
AC/DC might be evicted.
11 June 2009
They’re just about the biggest rock act in the universe (and that’s even if there is life on other planets).
AC/DC are riding a wave right now after the huge release of their latest album, Black Ice.. Angus has pulled on his very worn schoolboy pants, Malcolm has been practicising his snarl, and Brian Johnston has been capping down and rasping it up all over the world. Venues have been booked, fans queuing, P.A.s reserved. All has been made ready for the roadshow which is coming here to Australia early next year.
Then comes the spanner delicately tossed into the machinery.
The venue that was booked for AC/DC here in Melbourne, Docklands Stadium, is a huge capacity venue which holds more than 60,000. The only other place to rival that kind of seating is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which has been known to collect more than 100,000 people in one sitting.
The aforesaid spanner involves the other user of the Docklands Stadium, Aussie Rules Football. It claims to have a contract with Docklands to have first right to use the venue, and it wants to use it on the night of at least one AC/DC concert. The MCG has been booked by an international cricket tournament. The only other big venue, all the way down in Geelong, south of Melbourne, is being redeveloped, so the footy wants Docklands, and it claims it has the legal right to take it from AC/DC.
The cricket at the MCG and the Geelong redevelopment means that if Docklands is taken away, there is nowhere else for Acca Dacca to play in Melbourne. There is no back-up plan.
Disaster, for the band, for the fans who have already paid their money, for the promotors who have undoubtedly had a sleepless night, and for the stadium, which may well face legal issues.
The final word on this debacle comes from Nathan Brown, a footy player with the Richmond club, who told Australian TV media this morning that he’d rather go to see AC/DC than the footy. I suspect he probably speaks for quite a few players too. It is only a pre-season competition after all. AC/DC could only ever be considered the Grand Final of concerts.
Melbourne is AC/DC central. They have a lane here named after them, and of course they shot that fabulous video of them blasting out “It’s a Long Way To The Top” from a truck in the middle of the city.
Sort it out guys, and let one of our proudest exports have their day back where they belong.
– Phil
Climate Change. Where did the urgency go?
10 June 2009
Yesterday the Australian government scrapped its extremely generous rebate on solar power installations.
So generous was the rebate that people queued to get it. Under the plan you could get $8000 towards the cost of the panels, which would guarantee you sun-powered free electricity for the rest of your home’s life. In many cases that $8000 completely covered the cost of the solar panels, so it ended up costing people nothing to pay nothing for electricity (and help the environment as well). The problem was that only 150 million dollars was allocated for the scheme, and this was swamped. At last count the scheme blew out to 750 million dollars, making the government’s financial black hole an even blacker hole.
Still, this was a great result. It showed that people cared about the environment. It also showed that people will care more about the environment when you pay them good dosh to care. Adelaine and I were both seriously thinking about applying for the scheme, as were, apparently, a lot of other people.
I for one think it’s a bit sad that the government has ended this scheme. The financial imperatives are there, but the thought of millions of homes being powered by the sun was a beautiful prospect. It would’ve made Australia a world leader in environmentally friendly schemes, and it would’ve, in one hit, cut right down on our reliance on dirty coal. We are per capita, the biggest emitter for greenhouse gases in the world.
Eighteen months ago climate change was a massive priority for Kevin Rudd, Opposition Leader. Yesterday, he didn’t seem quite as rabid, his public angst being saved for (1) newspapers that dared to take photos of his wife, and (2) celebrity chef and proclaimed mysogynist Gordon Ramsay.
Today we’re speaking to a researcher who says that the clearing of rainforests in Indonesia for Palm Oil plantations causes a huge amount greenhouse gas emissions from the forest peat. Yet the clearing goes on.
The world is warming Mr Rudd. Tomorrow people will be asking Gordon Who?
– Phil
