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Chalk up another success of the Gillard government – Budget Blowouts.
The Gillard government will slash public sector funding and pare back the baby bonus in an attempt to turn a forecast $37 billion deficit this year into a $1.5 billion surplus by 2012-13.
The government's mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, released today, reveals the deficit is expected to come in well above the $22.6 billion forecast at budget time, on the back of a $20 billion revenue write-down over the forward estimates.
And Mr. Swan is Euromoney’s world's finance minister of the year!
From a commitment, to an objective and soon it will be all but a dream.
Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, CTV News has learned.
The Harper government has tentatively planned an announcement for a few days before Christmas, CTV's Roger Smith reported Sunday evening.
The developments come as Environment Minister Peter Kent prepares for a climate conference in Durban, South Africa that opens on Monday, with delegates from 190 countries seeking a new international agreement for cutting emissions.
Issues on the agenda include extending the Kyoto emission targets, a move being championed by Christiana Figueres, head of the UN climate secretariat.
Kent said in the House of Commons on Nov. 22 he won't sign a document at the Durban conference that extends the Kyoto targets.
"Canada goes to Durban with a number of countries sharing the same objective, and that is to put Kyoto behind us," Kent said.
Kent told The Canadian Press that the Kyoto Protocol is out of date because it excludes major emitters among developing nations, including China, India and Brazil.
The problem with progressivism, it also affects members of the Federal coalition.
Today we have Deputy Liberal leader and shadow Foreign Affairs minister, Julie Bishop, declare that an Asian language should be mandatory for Australian schoolchildren.
"I believe that we should have a much greater focus on a second language," she told Sky News today.
"In fact my view is it should be mandatory.
"It should be an Asian language. I wouldn't necessarily say it has to be Mandarin. Japanese, Indonesian - there are a number of Asian languages that would be important."
It really sends a shiver up my spine when I hear anyone from the Liberal Party utter the word “Mandatory”. It’s a word normally exclusively used by progressives, namely the ALP and Greens.
Let me be clear I am not against anyone, particularly schoolchildren, learning a second language. In fact I say go for it if you want to learn a second language.
My issue is with the word “Mandatory”. Forcing people, let alone schoolchildren, is authoritarian and regressive.
We should have the freedom that includes the freedom not to learn a second language, or study music, or play sport.
From the Liberal Website – We Believe…
In the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples; and we work towards a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives; and maximises individual and private sector initiative.
In short, we simply believe in individual freedom and free enterprise; and if you share this belief, then ours is the Party for you.
Unless of course you happen to be a little “l” liberal like Julie Bishop who thinks learning an Asian language should be mandatory for Australian schoolchildren.
British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.
As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.
Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.
The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.
A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government’s concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.
Some analysts say the shock waves of such an event would risk the collapse of the entire financial system, leaving banks unable to return money to retail depositors and destroying companies dependent on bank credit.
The Financial Services Authority this week issued a public warning to British banks to bolster their contingency plans for the break-up of the single currency.
Some economists believe that at worst, the outright collapse of the euro could reduce GDP in its member-states by up to half and trigger mass unemployment.
Analysts at UBS, an investment bank earlier this year warned that the most extreme consequences of a break-up include risks to basic property rights and the threat of civil disorder.
“When the unemployment consequences are factored in, it is virtually impossible to consider a break-up scenario without some serious social consequences,” UBS said.
The New York Times also reports:
The main danger of a euro breakup, said Stephen Jen, managing partner at SLJ Macro Partners in London, is “redenomination risk,” the unpredictable effect that a euro breakup would have on financial assets as newly created currencies sought their own levels in the market and the value of contracts drawn up in euros came into question.
Most people hope that will not happen. “Remember when Lehman went bankrupt — nobody could anticipate what happened next,” said the French banker who was not authorized to speak publicly. “That was a company, not a country. If a country leaves the euro — multiply the Lehman effect by 10,” he said.
Meanwhile that dope of a Treasurer, Wayne Swan, risks our economy with his ridiculous surplus complex.
Unless you have an iPad (which I don’t) then you would have missed this excellent story by Daily Telegraph columnist, Miranda Devine that should be read in full:
Monash University prides itself on its "multicultural learning environment" and yet it produces a handbook for one certain class of students, and not for others.
Salaam Monash is the title of the glossy 50-page "handbook for Muslim students".
"At Monash we understand that Muslim students have specific social, religious and cultural needs," writes Professor Stephanie Fahey, deputy vice-chancellor, in a foreword to the handbook.
The booklet lists Islamic banking and financial institutions, Muslim publications, women's groups and schools. It also lists Muslim medical and dental practitioners, which splits up doctors into male and female groups…
…But there is no similar handbook for other religious or ethnic groups, not for Buddhists, Taoists, Germans, Greeks, Sikhs, Mormons or vegans.
Why encourage one group of people to maintain an identity separate from other Australians?
Good question, Miranda. Why indeed the need for Muslim only handbook.
Perfect timing of the release, just days before the COP 17 BS Global Warming gabfest kicks off in Durban.
A further bunch of emails has been leaked onto the internet and as before, they show the "bent scientists" at the heart of the Man-Made Global Warming scare scam industry. All your favourite Climategate characters are here - Michael Mann, Phil Jones, Ben Santer, Tom Wigley, Kevin Trenberth and Keith Briff – and once again they’re caught red-handed in a series of emails bullshitting about the extent of Anthropogenic Global Warming, while privately admitting to one another that the evidence is nowhere near as a strong as they'd like it to be.
Watts Up With That has heaps about the new sequel.
Blogger James Delingpole comments are worth reading too.
Jo Nova is also on the case.
Even our own CSIRO looks for a scary icon:
(0445) Torok/CSIRO:
... idea of looking at the implications of climate change for what he termed “global icons” ...One of these suggested icons was the Great Barrier Reef ...
It also became apparent that there was always a local “reason” for the
destruction – cyclones, starfish, fertilizers… A perception of an
“unchanging” environment leads people to generate local explanations for coral loss based on transient phenomena, while not acknowledging the possibility of systematic damage from long-term climatic-environmental change ... Such a project could do a lot to raise awareness of threats to the reef from climate change...
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