LETTER FROM CANBERRA 20 SEPTEMBER TO 8 NOVEMBER 2010 !"#$%$#"&'()$*($+,-./01#,2)$'")(/1"3$'/(,-!!"#4)/1 )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$!:CD7=9K LETTER FROM CANBERRA Saving you time. A monthly newsletter distilling public policy and government decisions which affect business opportunities in Australia and beyond. *$=C;$L;B9$756789:M@:=C$@=$!"##"$%&$'(%)"*+',$-"$=9$./-+"$$/$NO%PQ$:C8K$&)(R$:C8I5D;7$?A$:775;7 =<$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 !"#$%#&''$()*#"'#+!$!,#(%-.*!)/0*1,2(3(2#,4,%!5 3=C@B8@$*<<B:97$=<$)@B@;$=C$NA>R$UVQW$?>AAH$=9$;SB:I$X5I:;@@;YB<<B:97K8=SKB5 of land and water supplies, in defiance of opposition deductibility to the fund-raising effort. As the author of Supreme Court Justice Hartley Hanson, who was a policy. Coalition Treasury spokesman and Liberal MP Joe a purported education revolution herself, Gillard lauded Queen’s Counsel before becoming a judge 16 years ago, Hockey said he strongly opposed the idea of a registry. McKillop as an education pioneer who believed in the has been promoted to the Court of Appeal. transformative power of a good education. Handicapped Good Job In The Age, Michelle Grattan wrote that Andrew Peacock, Hope they make it… The National Breast 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]. when he said that ‘you’d have to be pretty handicapped for 14-year-old Dutch girl Laura Dekker to set sail on Tenders not to appreciate that this government is dissolving before her quest to solo circumnavigate the world and become TheLevel Government 27 wants to know how Australia should your eyes daily’. This would have been unfortunate even if the youngest person to do it. The Age reported that Kiwi commemorate101 Collins the Anzac Street Centenary. All Australians the Labor candidate for Kooyong had not been blind. adventurer Jeremy Burfoot will try to travel the 32,000 areMelbourne asked to put their ideas Vic and 3000 suggestions forward kilometres from London to New Zealand by jet ski. The to +61a National 3 9653Commission 9692 about how the Australian 51-year-old pilot will spend up to 12 hours a day astride a community can be engaged to mark the Anzac Centenary, SOCIETY jet-ski on his journey to the southern hemisphere. aperium www.anzaccentenary.gov.au.Level 11 God help her harnessing technology 60 Marcus Clarke St The Department of Health and Ageing invites Australia’s first atheist celebrated the achievementto serve of yourAPPOINTMENTS organisational, JOBS AND goals Canberra ACT 2601 Australia’s first saint when Julia Gillard told an audience applications+61 2 for 6243 the fifth 3628round of funding under the at Sydney Town Hall that Mary McKillop embodied TENDERS National Rural and Remote Health Infrastructure Program, the spirit of Australian egalitarianism, The Australian www.health.gov.au/tenders. reported. The Prime Minister was speaking at a dinner Appointments to raise funds for the celebration McKillop’s canonisation Greg Moriarty has been appointed as Australia’s next The Productivity Commission invites public participation 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 $1.5m of Commonwealth Bill Farmer, who has served in the role since 2005. Australia’s urban water sector, www.pc.gov.au. money towards the celebrations and extended tax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to 8 NOVEMBER Issue No. 29 ()*%'')#%&'*&31)@&-+)7."%)!-,**).3)&!!"'!)-+'%'&36),-)7."%).**&$').%)2&,)AB75' Special Edition Diplomatique ()*%'')$+,%-).*),00)*'/'%,0)C;!),3/)!'3,-.%!),3/)-+')*..-#,00)-',4)',$+)!"55.%-! HI*+., ,, ,<J,KLBM,;J<< ) ) )!''),0!.)0'--'%*%.4$,3#'%%,K$.4K," ()*%'')$+,%-).*)-+')*'/'%,0)1.2'%34'3-)/'5,%-4'3-!6)4&3&!-'%!),3/)!'3&.%)$&2&0) 1I.N".$,(2E2#G.,)*,, ,(**,&%!).*)A-,-'6)LM)D.00&3!)A-6)C'0#."%3')IND)OPPP INSIDE !'%2,3-!),3/)/'0&2'%7),1'3$&'! Hockey leads charge against banks Home bodies Gillard and Abbott Interest rates on hold, then up, and go to war over troop visits further speculation Another climate advisory committee 19 Two new detention centres for mainland John Howard releases autobiography, Murray-Darling Basin plan met ducks a shoe, etc with rain and rage Post election round-up 36 COAG overload Afghanistan PB Roy Morgan data shows Airline Satisfaction and Australians want to buy “Australian Made” - Pages 11 - 14 20 SEPTEMBER TO 8 NOVEMBER 2010 14 Collins Street ABOUT THE EDITOR ALISTAIR URQUHART Melbourne, 3000 Alistair Urquhart graduated from the Australian National University in Canberra, in Law, Victoria, Australia History and Politics, was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria, and remains a (non-practicing) member of the Law Institute of Victoria. P 03 9654 1300 Before that, he graduated from high school in Bethesda, Maryland, and had many F 03 9654 1165 opportunities to become aware of the workings of Washington DC. For 30 years, he [email protected] listened every Sunday evening to the late Alistair Cooke and his Letter From America. www.letterfromcanberra.com.au His early career was mostly in the coal industry, where he became involved with energy, environmental and water issues, and later in the SME finance sector. His public affairs firm works with many engineering and information technology firms, other professional Editor Alistair Urquhart association and industry groups, on a wide range of issues, in Victoria, Canberra and overseas. Urquhart Associate Editor Hamish Brooks visits Canberra regularly. He may hold the record for miles rowed on Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin. Subscription Manager Daina Astrida Advertising Manager Eddie Mior Editorial Consultant Rick Brown INDEX Design Daina Astrida IN APPROXIMATE ORDER OF INTEREST OVER THE PAST MONTH IMMIGRATION 3 BUSINESS. ECONOMY. TAX. BANK 31 FOREIGN AFFAIRS 3 DEFENCE 33 WELCOME RESOURCES 4 INFRASTRUCTURE 33 Letter from Canberra is focused on the AGRICULTURE. WATER 6 EDUCATION 34 interface of business and government, with JUSTICE 7 HEALTH 34 enough politics and bureaucracy to understand the, or any, relevant business opportunities. MR SPEAKER 7 MEDIA 34 GOVERNANCE 8 COALITION DOINGS 35 We have been publishing Letter from Canberra’s INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. EMPLOYMENT 11 SOCIETY 35 sister publication Letter From Melbourne, a public policy digest, for 16 years. Commencing CLIMATE CHANGE. ENVIRONMENT. ENERGY 12 MANUFACTURING 35 with the Kennett era corporatisation and BROADBAND. IT 29 APPOINTMENTS. JOBS. TENDERS 35 privatisation of energy and other utilities and the other fresh broom approach of a new government, where we focused on business Public policy-wise, this particular edition opportunities. Increasingly, we included matters EDITORIAL sums up many issues of Australia on the in the other states and adopted a more federal Our Part Of The World world stage: our new prime minister focus. taking her first big overseas trips, the The recent change in federal government opens We publish this magazine, each month, visit of Hilary Clinton and Robert Gates up new business opportunities, particularly the to bring together the important issues to Australia, the high-flying $A, our government’s new emphasis on climate change, and facts from a diverse range of banks and their international context, carbon trading, water, industrial relations, perspectives. You only need be on a and refugees. education, information technology and the trip to miss out on the context of an traditional sectors. important story. That’s where Letter This is the first issue since the August election, so there is some history For many years, our other publications have From Canberra comes in – we provide included the well-known federal government the facts and the context in a world wrapped around some of the items. We Departmental Wall Chart. (NOW AVAILABLE at 03 of wall-to-wall information overload. can see the new government grappling 96541300 or letterfrommelbourne.com.au)) We with some of the big issues, as it conduct seminars and informal luncheons and This issue’s Diplomatique supplement needs to accommodate its Green and meetings in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. to Letter From Canberra is the first independent parliamentary colleagues. in an occasional series, in which we seek Most people have their clipping services and a to attract readers from beyond Australia’ This editor’s dream is to be told many, range of email products/newsletters/etc. At the many times, by politicians and others end of the month, Letter From Canberra gives a shores, as well as those at home who broad overview of what has been going on, not want to venture into foreign markets. what are the details behind some of just in one industry but across all industries and the climate change options. So that he the world of business and government generally. The editor had an early introduction and the broader community might get Objective. Independent. Read it on the plane. Or to government and diplomacy as a 17 their minds into the detail as to what are at a coffee shop in New York. And then give it to a year old Australian exchange student the best options.