NZ: Rudd's envoy to clarify 'EU idea'

September 03, 2008

Prime Minister Helen Clark was the first stop for Kevin Rudd's special envoy to test his idea of a closer Asia Pacific community around 20 capitals in the region...

Helen Clark is thought to be a little sceptical about the announcement of such a major undertaking and that was evident yesterday when she described Mr Rudd's approach.

"I guess to coin a phrase you could put it down to overexuberance and enthusiasm for the task."

Faith in liberal democracy to withstand potential ‘clashes’

August 22, 2008
Chris Berg

I admit to being very uncomfortable with those supposedly free market advocates who oppose immigration, for whatever reason. Too often the objections are so strained as to be suspicious. The idea that we should stop an individual from searching for work beyond the national borders of their birthplace simply because we believe that their culture is somehow incompatable with ours is a deeply illiberal position to hold. Our existing skilled migration scheme discriminates on the basis of education, and, by implication, wealth. That is, to my mind, already unconscionable; ‘liberals’ who propose further group discrimination on the basis of culture are even more worrying.

How does the free movement of people differ in any significant way from the free movement of goods or services? Surely we have enough faith in the strength of liberal democracy - and the persuasiveness of liberal civil society - to withstand potential ‘clashes’ of culture? The only concrete thing we ask of migrants is that they obey existing laws - and in this concern we already have an elaborate mechanism to monitor and assure compliance of all those on Australian shores regardless of their birthplace.

This is not merely apologetics. I suggest that not only is immigration practically beneficial, but we have a moral obligation to accept into our borders those who want to come. For individuals born in under-developed countries, simply crossing into the developed world can dramatically increase their potential salary, as well as allow them to experience the historically unprecedented living standards that we already enjoy.

The objections to expanded immigration seem nationalistic or economically illiterate at best, and immoral at worst.

Wow, Chris Berg sounds like a high priest of liberalism, a master of prostration, with an astounding level of faith in the persuasiveness of liberal civil society to prevent conflict. The free movement of people is no different from the movement of goods? Where does this faith come from? Does it come from history? Does it come from current affairs? Nobody knows. "Surely" you do?

Our nation better than One Nation?

August 22, 2008
Steve Lewis

Dr Nelson ... his populist stance against a Pacific guest worker scheme ... is outrageously shrill and just a tad racist. He's exhibiting elements of Hansonism as he panders to the lowest common denominator.

A guest worker scheme makes sense, not only for the positive effect it will have in easing acute labour shortages in the bush.

It should also pave the way for a pan-Pacific economic and trade pact...

Rudd's employment scheme, which will initially allow 2500 "guest workers" into Australia, is the first tranche of an eventual Pacific "common market"...

The smouldering mess that is Fijian democracy suggests a new Pacific path is needed to give nations a viable future.

Dr Nelson is barking up the wrong tree as he chastises the Rudd Government for putting foreign workers ahead of Aussies...

Offering Pacific islanders a temporary place in the Australian labour market is good policy, part of a new strategic vision.

Instead of playing the politics of fear, pandering to those who backed One Nation when its dumbbell leader Pauline Hanson was running amok, Brendan Nelson would be better placed offering constructive support for the Government's new foreign policy agenda.

The common market leads to neither Our Nation or One Nation, but to No Nation. The common market means the free movement of labour, as in the European Union. Regarding Fiji, what's the cause of that smouldering mess? The ethnic tension between Fijians and Indians. Indians who where brought there, ironically, as guest workers and then immigrants. Which is exactly where our guest worker and record immigration programs are headed - down the road of ethnic conflict. Steve Lewis and Labor will repeat Fiji's "smouldering mess" here in Australia.

Ford to cut 350 more Victorian jobs

August 22, 2008

Ford workers have pleaded for governments to assist the ailing car industry after another 350 job losses were announced at the company's Victorian plants.

The job losses, sparked by a downturn in demand for the large six-cylinder models produced locally, will take effect in November at Ford's Geelong and Broadmeadows plants.

A disappointed Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said this would bring the number of job losses in Victoria's car industry over the past three years to 4,500.

The AMWU also said there had been 100,000 manufacturing jobs lost across Australia in the past 10 years.

Rudd tries to right Australia’s Pacific sins

18 August 2008
Hamish McDonald (Sydney Morning Herald)

For most of their careers, Rudd and like-minded others in our Government and society have been working to reverse one of the great wrongs of Federation, the white Australia policy enforced in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, the first substantial law passed by the Commonwealth Parliament.

In Niue, Prime Minister Rudd is expected to start redressing the other big wrong of Federation, in the centenary year of its completion.

This was the deportation between 1904 and 1908 of 7078 “kanakas” working on the Queensland cane fields, the remnants of the mostly Melanesian indentured labour recruited in the dubious “blackbirding” trade...

Rudd will start the process of getting Pacific island workers back onto the farms, orchards and vineyards of Australia, if not the highly mechanised cane fields...

This is a region we can help - and help ourselves - only by a more open embrace, a wider involvement, and more people-to-people contact. This requires us to overcome our phobia and see the Pacific as a human resource, and an economic extension rather than a drag for Australia.

It’s a world that will get harder to shut out anyway. The solutions of the 1970s that seemed to get the region off our plate - independence, liberation thinking, foreign aid - are failing under the weight of population growth, urban drift, unemployment, crime, corruption, disease and climate change...

But we need a more layered view of where the Australian home stops, moving incrementally to a more regional approach where Pacific people can use the “main islands” of Australia and New Zealand to lift their lives, through seasonal labour, education and some settlement.

Oh, so not only do we also have to say 'sorry' to the Islanders, but we do this by surrending our country to them as well. I see it now: for most of their careers, Hamish and like-minded others in our media and society have been working to reverse one of the great wrongs of Federation - Australia.

Fair deals a Pacific pipedream

21/08/2008

Labour mobility may be in the headlines but as Kevin Rudd talks the talk at the Pacific Islander Leaders' forum in Nuie, he'll have one thing on his mind; trade.

Allowing Pacific workers to plug the holes in Australia's labour market is certainly a priority for Australia's farmers. But the real gain for Rudd lies in the bargaining power the scheme will give Simon Crean as he moves into the second phase of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement negotiations, the free trade agreement Australia and New Zealand are negotiating with the Pacific countries.

At $5 billion, annual trade with the Pacific is relatively small from Australia's perspective. But for most Pacific countries, Australia remains their largest trading partner. Its dominance in the Pacific, however, is increasingly under threat from Asia's emerging economies and most recently by the European Union's efforts to establish an economic partnership agreement in the Pacific.

In an area traditionally considered Australia's ''backyard'', this has caused some concern and made the agreement a key priority for the Rudd Government.

The Pacific countries, however, are wary of the agreement, and with good reason. Reducing tariffs will make it difficult for local producers to compete alongside Australian imports, especially on products such as textiles, clothing and footwear...

Using such a scheme to pressure the Pacific countries into a free trade agreement opposed to their interests is only likely to increase resentment in the region.

Farmers' suicide rates double national average

Aug 19, 2008

... a study by the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention has found the rate of suicide among farm workers, including farm owners and employees aged between 15 and 65, is more than double than that of the rest of the population...

The study used data from the Queensland Suicide Register between 1990 and 2004.

Ms Hawgood says the study proves the problem of suicide in farming communities is real, and needs to be addressed...

In recent years, farmers - particularly in the eastern states - have had to contend with tough conditions, including drought...

But there others in the agricultural sector who think the problem is far more complex.

"Farmers and farm workers live in a very isolated position, they are both physically and socially isolated from others, so if their thinking is getting shifted and they are under this stress or they are suffering any mental health condition, it's not so readily picked up by others," ...

Seems the rural community got left behind by globalisation. Community Supported Agriculture?

Chinese giant's $600m coal bid

29/07/2008

A GIANT Chinese coal company is apparently prepared to pay about $600 million to explore for coal near Gunnedah, outbidding BHP Billiton, Xstrata and at least four more Hunter coal companies in the process.

The China Shenhua Energy Company bid for the Watermark exploration area has stunned the coal industry...

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan expressed concern recently about the amount of Chinese investment into Australia's resources sector, and the China Shenhua bid for Watermark is but one of these potential investments.

Watermark is next to the Caroona exploration area, where about 300 farmers and their supporters ran a blockade last week to keep BHP Billiton from drilling on private property.

Reducing car tariffs 'makes no sense'

August 15, 2008

REDUCING tariffs on Australian-made passenger cars does not make any sense, the union representing manufacturing industry workers says.

The Bracks car industry review, released publicly today, recommends reducing tariffs on passenger motor vehicles from 10 per cent to 5 per cent by 2010.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union said no other vehicle-building country in the world was considering lowering tariffs on their locally-made cars.

Cherry growers must improve or miss out on export market

13/08/2008

That's the message brought by American cherry field officer John Morton, from Oregon, who's visiting growers across Australia this month...

"The quality bar has been raised. We've seen this in America and Europe through the last number of years and Australia's just on the verge of having to do the same thing," he said.

"They've got to grow bigger, better fruit for the market." ...

"We've been through this in America. We're just five years ahead, that's all. We can't sell poor quality fruit in the market any more."

Will they also miss out on the local market, thanks to the Chile free trade agreement?

Chile free trade agreement angers cherry growers
09/08/2007

As their biggest competitor, growers say Chile will squeeze them further out of the international market...

"Chile [is] our biggest competitor within our own time zone," he said.

"Their fruit ripens when ours does, it has huge American dollars behind it.

"We can't work out the driver behind it."

Pacific Island guest worker scheme: 7:30 Report video

14/08/2008

Plans for a controversial Pacific Island guest worker scheme to address crippling labour shortages in Australia's horticultural sector, are about to be unveiled by the Government. The move has already sparked a backlash from some trade unions and the Federal Opposition, who say the jobs should be going to Australia's unemployed.

The video says that labour shortages are stunting growth and expansion. So is it a labour shortage, or a farmer greed problem?

Rudd's vision for an Asian Australia

August 12, 2008

KEVIN RUDD has unveiled his vision for Australia to become the most "Asia-literate country" in the West.

In a speech in Singapore today, the Prime Minister pledged to boost the investment in the study of Asian languages and culture in schools and universities...

"The rise of China in particular represents the great unfolding drama of this new century,” he said.

"Will China democratise? How will China respond to climate change?

"And how will Chinese culture adjust to the array of global influences now washing across its shores directly and through the agency of the greater Chinese diaspora?”

Mr Rudd said how China responded to these forces "would radically shape the future course of our country".

All these forces washing, rising and unfolding - Rudd's a follower of trends who stands for nothing. He's happy to be washed, unfolded and shaped with whatever force happens to ebb or flow - liberalism or sino-fascism - hey, whatever unfolds, we'll be riding it.

More to the point, how will Australia react to the Chinese influence washing over our country. Sinophobia rising.

Australia, South Korea to discuss FTA

11th August 2008

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reached agreement with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak to open preparatory talks on a free trade agreement (FTA)...

Rudd called for cooperation in the liquefied natural gas sector, while Lee urged more cooperation in mineral resources and energy.

South Korea is Australia's fourth-largest export market, behind Japan, China and the United States. Australia's top exports include crude petroleum, iron ore, coal and beef.

Rudd in hot seat over car tariffs

August 9, 2008

EARLY in John Howard's prime ministership, he made a significant transition from hard-bitten economic ideologue to political pragmatist by choosing to freeze the car industry tariff.

Roll forward 11 years. Steve Bracks has reviewed the position of the car industry and opened up a fresh debate about protectionism in the sector. Kevin Rudd's response to Bracks will define him in the same way the tariff debate in 1997 helped frame perceptions of Howard...

Kevin Rudd can derive little political utility from softening his image in the way Howard did 10 years ago. Rudd may have styled himself as an "economic conservative" but is no economic hawk in the way Howard was in Opposition. The problem the Rudd Government faces, not on a metric of substance but in terms of public perceptions, is it talks a good book but hasn't achieved much. What Rudd decides to do on tariff reform in the car industry is a key symbolic test for the Prime Minister, even if in historical terms the tariff debate, given automotive industry tariffs started out at 57% and are now down to 10%, is quite marginal.

Govt to push for trade deal at islands summit

7 Aug 2008

The Federal Government will use a Pacific Islands summit to push for open trade to help promote economic growth in some of the world's smallest countries, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will join leaders of 15 other South Pacific nations in the tiny country of Niue for annual talks on August 16, amid concerns island nations continue to lag the world in economic development...

During his visit to Niue, Rudd is widely expected to announce a trial guest worker plan, to allow Pacific Islanders to come to Australia for seasonal work, in a major shift in immigration policy.

NAB to help China's ADB in rural operations

August 09, 2008

NATIONAL Australia Bank and the Agricultural Development Bank of China have struck a deal to share rural banking expertise and training staff...

The banks -- Australia's biggest rural lender by assets and China's sole rural policy lender -- would probably expand their co-operation in future into areas including trade finance, agricultural infrastructure finance, and the development of banking products, National Australia Bank chief executive John Stewart said.

Under the deal, Agricultural Development Bank would gain knowledge of Australia's rural sector and its rural banking market, bank president Zheng Hui said.

FTAs crash into Australian car makers

August 4, 2008

THE Bracks review of the car industry is expected to urge the Federal Government to take a stronger line in negotiating free trade agreements after the review's hearings became a flashpoint for dissent over the Thai free trade agreement (FTA).

The local manufacturing industry is concerned about the burgeoning automotive trade deficit between Thailand and Australia, describing it as "one way" and "lopsided".

Downer says trade talks failure point new world order

By ALEXANDER DOWNER, August 04, 2008

If you reduce tariffs it means consumers pay lower prices for imports which leaves them with more disposable income to spend on other things - including services, many of which can't be imported. Lower tariffs also means investment goes into the most productive sectors of Australia's economy and that maximises growth and therefore prosperity.

Ask yourself this question: Is there any country on earth which eschews free trade which is rich? ...

The problem worldwide is there is a lot of resistance to free trade.

Again there is no mention of the social costs of the massive, and constant, restructuring that destroys endless small businesses in the process of globalisation.

More money for displaced Iraqis

July 28, 2008

Senator Evans announced last week that Australia would spend an extra $6.45 million on international aid projects to ease the plight of refugees who have fled war and persecution in their home countries. This brings the Government's overall commitment to more than $16 million in 2008-09.

Part of the money will be used to help Iraqi women in Syria who fled sexual violence.

Services on list for Japan trade talks

July 26, 2008

SERVICES and investment will be centre stage during free trade negotiations with Japan next week, as Australia tries to ease the way for professional services and telecommunications firms seeking to set up shop in Japan.

Agriculture will be high on the agenda during the Tokyo meetings.

Japan imposes huge tariff and quota barriers on Australian exports including beef, dairy, grains and sugar, but has so far sought to exclude the key commodities from the agreement.

A senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official said an agreement on agriculture was still a long way off.