Government

Prime Minister Rudd will soon have to make major decisions about Australia’s role in Afghanistan. America has reinvigorated its campaign, increasing the pressure for allies to contribute more forces. While Australian forces currently support soldiers from the Netherlands, the ‘lead nation’ in Oruzgan province, the latter’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is scheduled for 2010. Some Australian officials believe that the Dutch will not leave - yet it is likely that they will.

John Mathews and Sean Kidney introduce a powerful new weapon against climate change and ask: could Australia lead the way?

While the talks in Copenhagen have been holding everyone’s attention, one aspect of mitigation of climate change appears to be oddly absent from the discussion. 

It’s one thing to say that taking steps now will cost less than taking steps later, of the order of 1 or 2 percent of global GDP. But how are those steps to be financed? What are the respective roles of public and private finance?

The heated political debate concerning the standoff between the Australian government and asylum seekers onboard the Oceanic Viking dominated the federal political scene during the October parliamentary sitting period. It came on the back of a surge in boat arrivals over the past twelve months, which started a debate about so-called ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors affecting increased asylum seekers arrivals by boat.

Solving the 21st Century’s greatest challenge, climate change, is a diabolically complex task, the issue traversing political, scientific and business boundaries. These complexities were born out at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP15) where a non-binding Accord was reached stating that global temperatures should be kept below 2 degree Celsius. However, in the absence of any global CO2 ppm or CO2 mitigation targets (at this stage), existing accord commitments will lead the world down a path of a +3 degrees Celsius temperature rise by 2100.

After a year and a half in office – and potentially heading for an election sooner rather than later – Peter van Onselen marks the Prime Minister’s and Labor’s report card with lots of ticks and a ‘could have done better’.