7 June to 19 July 2011 LETTER FROM CANBERRA TASMANIAN VIEWPOINT: GREG BARNS Saving you time. Three years on. After Letter from Melbourne, established 1994. A monthly newsletter distilling public policy and government decisions which affect business opportunities in Australia and beyond. LETTER TheFROM Tasmanian Parliament’s CANBERRA upper house, the Legislative Council, is a unique beast in Australian politics. It is controlled by Independents and its electoral system and cycle Carbon Edition 7 June to 19 July 2011 Issue 35 Letter from Canberra is a monthly newsletterbears distilling no relationship public to thatpolicy of the and lower government house, LETTERthe House decisions FROMof Assembly. that CANBERRA effect business opportunities in Australia and beyond. You only need to be on a trip to miss out on the context of important stories. In a world of wall-to-wallThe information Legislative Council overload, is arguably we have Australia’s been onlysummarizing genuine house the of media review. and In classic Westminster constitutional theory, the upper house is not controlled by the executive and OUR MISSING GEOGRAPHY coffee-shop gossip for 18 years now, alongoperates with Letter to scrutinise from andMelbourne reviews bills.. This is the Tasmanian experience. !"#$%$#"&'()$*($+,-./01#,2)$'")(/1"3$ '/(,-!!"#4)/1 LESSONS... Letter)56789:6;$6;<=9;$>?$/8@=6;9$%A?A$BCD$E=$:C@=$@F;$D9BG$@=$G:C$%$C:EF@7H$:C8I5D:CE$69;BJ<B7@$<=9$@G=H$B@$(F;$'=@;I$!:CD7=9K from Canberra is focused on the interfaceThe Legislative of business Council and consists government, of 15 MPs. with They enoughrepresent politics single member and policy background to enable you to grasp anyconstituencies. relevant business This is unlike opportunities. the House of Assembly which uses the federal Tasmanian *$=C;$L;B9$756789:M@:=C$@=$!"##"$%&$'(%)"*+',$-"electorates$=9$./-+"$$/ to elect$NO%PQ$:C8K$&)(R$:C8I5D;7$?A$:775;7 MPs – its 5 MPs from 5 electorates. hen I recently told a teaching friend of my ambition Most=<$L=59$8F=7;C$M56I:8B@:=C$NBI=CE$G:@F$;B9IL$;SB:I$T;97:=CRH$BCD$B@$I;B7@$=C;$:CT:@B@:=C people have their clipping services and a range of email products/newsletters/etc. Every month, Letter Wto be a secondary school geography teacher, I was !"#$%#&''$()*#"'#+!$!,#(%-.*!)/0*1,2(3(2#,4,%!5 Legislative Council MPs are elected for six year terms which means each year there are told to hurry up because I would be the only one left. No from Canberra provides a broad overview of what has been going on, not just in one industry but across all doubt, the education ‘system’ has a lot to answer for. industries and the world of business and governmenttwo or three electionsgenerally. for Objective.MPs. There hasIndependent. generally been Dependable. a very high rate of incumbents Electricity flows from a light switch, milk from a carton. returned, and on occasion, MPs re-elected unopposed. However the June election for the Who cares or knows about the logistics and costs and southern seat of Rumney in which Labor MP and Minister Lin Thorp was defeated by an science of producing electricity and food. Read it on the plane. Or in a coffee shop inIndependent New York. Liberal, When attracted you’re strong finished, media giveinterest. it to a friend. 3=C@B8@$*<<B:97$=<$)@B@;$=C$NA>R$UVQW$?>AAH$=9$;SB:I$X5I:;@@;YB<<B:97K8=SKB5 How frustrating then for this editor to read and listen Until the Anlast annualfew decades, subscription the 160 plus to Letteryears old from Legislative Canberra Council, is had$275, no politicalwhich partynow MPs.includes Now anboth electronic the ALP and version the Liberal as wellParty asare to the politicians and the media, and the specialist representedthe inhard the Council.copy. With Labor the has new two MPsgovernment and the Liberals in Canberra, one, plus subscribersone who was abefore long standing the end member of the ofyear the willparty alsobut who receive resigned and scientists and economists and consultants, talk and stood as aan ofwall Independentland chartand water detailing Liberal.supplies, in The alldefiance otherof theof MPsopposition federal are Independent deductibilitygovernment to althoughthe fund-raising department it is effort. fair toAs ministers, saythe author they ofare advisors, Supremeconservative Court senior Justice by disposition. civilHartley servants Hanson, who and was a write about or debate, climate change and the climate deliverypolicy. Coalition agencies. Treasury spokesman and Liberal MP Joe a purported education revolution herself, Gillard lauded Queen’s Counsel before becoming a judge 16 years ago, tax (or something similar), by explaining so few facts Another recentHockey development said he strongly opposedhas been the idea the of presence a registry. of McKillopministers as an in education the Legislative pioneer who Council. believed Underin the thehas governmentbeen promoted to of the Liberal Court of Appeal.Premier Tony Rundle and figures to the wider Australian audience that most transformative power of a good education. (1996-1998)Handicapped Health Minister Peter McKay was also Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council.Good Job The Labor governments of Jim Bacon, Paul people do not know what the debate(s) is/are all about. Lennon andIn TDavidhe Age, MichelleBartlett Grattan (1998-2011) wrote that Andrew all had Peacock Legislative, Hope Councilthey make ‘based’ it… Treasurers, David Crean Theand National Michael Breast Aird. Cancer Foundation seeks a chief back in his old electorate of Kooyong, committed a howler The Herald Sun reported that courts cleared the way executive officer [email protected]. The prime minister’s speech to the nation on Sunday when he said that ‘you’d have to be pretty handicapped for 14-year-old Dutch girl Laura Dekker to set sail on July 10, Securing a Clean Energy Future: the Australian Tenders The Legislativenot to appreciate Council that can this block government government is dissolving bills before and her occasionally quest to solo circumnavigate does so. In the July world this and yearbecome it refused to pass a law proposed in the House of The Government wants to know how Australia should Government’s Climate Change Plan, came as she or her Assembly toyour block eyes daily’. canal This estate would have developments been unfortunate in even Tasmania. if the youngest person to do it. The Age reported that Kiwi commemorate the Anzac Centenary. All Australians government hit 27 percent in a Newspoll taken prior to the Labor candidate for Kooyong had not been blind. adventurer Jeremy Burfoot will try to travel the 32,000 are asked to put their ideas and suggestions forward the speech. Things even worse in the next poll. kilometres from London to New Zealand by jet ski. The The Tasmanian Legislative Council could be said to be generally pro business and opposed to the greento a National agenda Commission that dominates about how the the State’sAustralian 51-year-old pilot will spend up to 12 hours a day astride a discourse. Interestingly the Greens, despite electoral success in the House of Assembly for over 20community years, have can be neverengaged had to mark a memberthe Anzac Centenary, elected to the The climate change debate and how to tackle it has been SOCIETY jet-ski on his journey to the southern hemisphere. Legislative Council. www.anzaccentenary.gov.au. going on seriously or fiercely, for five years now. People God help her = have mostly made up their mind, with their prejudices The Department of Health and Ageing invites Australia’s first atheist celebrated the achievement of APPOINTMENTSGreg, Barns JOBS isAND a barrister and columnist with the Hobart Mercury. He was and the lack of information available to them. Ignorance, Australia’s first saint when Julia Gillard told an audience applications for the fifth round of funding under the Senior Adviser to Tasmanian Liberal Premier Ray Groom from 1994-96. frustration, anger, mind made up, mind closed, who and at Sydney Town Hall that Mary McKillop embodied TENDERS National Rural and Remote Health Infrastructure Program, what to believe, other issues are more important. the spirit of Australian egalitarianism, The Australian www.health.gov.au/tenders. reported. The Prime Minister was speaking at a dinner Appointments The Productivity Commission invites public participation to raise funds for the celebration McKillop’s canonisation Greg Moriarty has been appointed as Australia’s next Continued Page 2... on October 17. The audience of Catholic eminences were ambassador to Indonesia, replacing career public servant in an inquiry into the case for microeconomic reform in pleased when Gillard pledged $1.5m of Commonwealth Bill Farmer, who has served in the role since 2005. Australia’s urban water sector, www.pc.gov.au. money towards the celebrations and extended tax !"#!$%&#' DE,F.)2'G$ 8&-0'))) ))9,4')) ) ) ) ) ))))) :%1,3&!,-&.3)))))))))))) (//%'!!))))))))))))) ))))));.!-$./')) ) ))))) ;+.3'<=,>)))))) ?4,&0)))))) H2E0.+),F.)2'G$ plus... 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