eBlah! http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/ http://www.eblah.com en Abortion laws http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1286879944/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1286879944/#num1


Quoted Text
It's hard to believe this is happening in Australia. As you read this email a young couple from Cairns are on criminal trial for attempting to have an abortion.

Tegan was just 19 years old when she was charged under archaic 111 year old laws that classify abortion as a criminal 'offence against morality'. If found guilty, she faces up to 7 years imprisonment.

How can this happen in Australia? Because in Queensland, and in other states, abortion is still illegal in the criminal code. And despite the fact that 90% of Australians believe early-term abortions should be legal, an extreme minority has our politicians scared into inaction.

An anti-choice organisation has organised a petition in defence of these archaic laws, with over 6,000 signatures. The opposing petition, calling for the laws to be scrapped, has less then 3,000. Let's fix that right now, so that no politician has an excuse for inaction. Please add your name and forward this to friends before the petition is printed in huge newspaper ads later this week:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/my_choice_is_no_crime

As a result of this case, public hospitals in Queensland have started refusing abortions - even to women whose pregnancy is due to sexual assault.

Doctors fear criminal prosecution and up to 14 years imprisonment for providing advice and treatment, leaving young couples in impossible situations.

How on earth could this happen in Australia? The Queensland Parliament has failed to act, because MPs have been flooded with phone calls and emails in support of these archaic laws.

Some extreme anti-choice activists have even thrown flaming molotov cocktails at Tegan's house. We can't stand for this in Australia.

Please add your name to the national petition for choice today, and forward it to friends and family:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/my_choice_is_no_crime

Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, said she would support a bill to repeal the laws - but won't introduce one herself. She says there isn't enough support - and her colleagues in Parliament have been silent so far.
]]> Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:39:04 Dara Same Sex Marriage - For or Against? http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1282469054/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1282469054/#num1 Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:24:14 The Nanny Australia Votes 2010 Poll http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1282298788/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1282298788/#num1 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:06:28 Candy Election 2010 http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1279331855/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1279331855/#num1 So, it's August 21st.  Until 3 months ago I was a swinging voter.  Now I am not.  Why? Because of the comments of certain  forum members (not necessarily here).  As a former fee paying member of the Liberal Party of Australia, I now understand why I am no longer one.  

Game on for winter election

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed Australians will go to the polls on August 21.

In her first press conference of the campaign, Ms Gillard repeated the message she has been pushing since she became Prime Minister – that she wants to take Australia forward.

Ms Gillard has been in the top job for less than a month after the overthrow of Kevin Rudd, who won the 2007 election for Labor.

Her opponent, Tony Abbott, is also a relatively new leader having ousted Malcolm Turnbull as Coalition leader late last year. Both are seeking the support of the Australian people for the first time.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/?WT.svl=mainNav#justin=sa]]> Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:57:35 Paula 2010-your vote for in the next Fed Election? http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1277619715/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1277619715/#num1 ]]> Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:21:55 SuziH The New Prime Minister of Australia http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1277342231/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1277342231/#num1 Labor figures plot to dump Kevin Rudd - report
From: news.com.au June 23, 2010 7:32pm

ALP figures are reportedly secretly canvassing numbers for a move to dump Kevin Rudd and replace him with Julia Gillard.

Powerful party figures have been involved in talks with a view to ousting the Prime Minister, the ABC reports.

But the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard had so far rebuffed the advances.

The reports come during Parliament's final sitting week before the winter break.

Sky News reported the move was coming from the party's Victorian right faction.

The Australian Workers' Union is now backing Ms Gillard to take over the Labor Party's leadership.

A senior source said that the AWU had switched their support from Mr Rudd to Ms Gillard.

However, Ms Gillard's office said her position had not changed.

Ms Gillard has repeatedly denied she wants to wrest party leadership from her boss.

Last month, she said there was "more chance of me becoming the full forward for the Dogs (AFL team the Western Bulldogs) than there is of any change in the Labor Party."

However, Ms Gillard's office has confirmed she was meeting with the Prime Minister in his office this evening.

Nine News reported that NSW senator Mark Arbib, Victorian senator David Feeney and parliamentary secretary Bill Shorten told Ms Gillard earlier today that they had lost confidence in Mr Rudd and wanted her to run.

She gave no answer.

The news of a potential leadership spill comes after Tony Abbott today declared Kevin Rudd "unfit" to be prime minister.

The Opposition Leader ran through a litany of "failures", including the pink batts program, the shelved emissions trading scheme and the biggest "crime" of all, the resource super profits tax.

"A prime minister who has so misjudged a decision of this magnitude ... is a prime minister he is no longer fit to govern this country," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Rudd's leadership has been questioned over his handling of the proposed mining super profits tax.

Earlier today Mr Rudd would not confirm reports his government was planning to reshape the 40 per cent tax in a bid to end a damaging row with the mining industry.

"A lot of the negotiations have been very, very good," Mr Rudd told reporters in Canberra.

Mr Rudd is due to fly out to Toronto on Friday for a meeting of G20 leaders.

http://www.news.com.au/feature.....frfllr-1225883383543

Why Julia Gillard decided it was time to dump Kevin Rudd
By Simon Benson From: The Daily Telegraph June 24, 2010 8:26am

THE final straw for Julia Gillard came early yesterday.

Angered by a morning newspaper report leaked from the Prime Minister's office, questioning her loyalty, she called senior powerbroker and fellow Victorian MP Bill Shorten. She wanted to know what to do.

"It p***ed everyone in the caucus off," said a NSW senior factional leader.

"And it p***ed her off, too. She has been nothing but loyal. And to have that happen was not only stupid but unwarranted."

Just before Question Time at 2.30pm, the Deputy Prime Minister sounded out a select group of Cabinet colleagues. What should she do?

They had been giving her that answer for weeks.

Challenge him.

By late afternoon, Shorten, fellow Victorian Senator David Feeney, NSW MP Tony Burke and South Australian right wing factional leader Don Farrell went to see Ms Gillard in her office.

They had been conspiring for the past week and they wanted her to challenge.

"I'll consider it," she said.

The dice was rolled.

Shortly after 7pm, Ms Gillard's office called the Prime Minister's Office and told them that Ms Gillard wanted to see the PM.

The pair had been due to have dinner later in the evening at the Lodge. Mr Rudd was called back from a function to celebrate the 20th anniversary of parliamentary service for Senator Nick Sherry, around the corner from his office in the Ministerial wing of Parliament House.

With Ms Gillard was Defence Minister and fellow left-wing factional heavyweight John Faulkner, a NSW senator.

She informed the PM that she intended to challenge him for the leadership. She wanted a ballot. The pair remained behind closed doors for almost two hours.

As the two were locked in an intense negotiation, interrupted twice by Rudd loyalists Anthony Albanese and Lindsay Tanner, the factional leader from NSW Mark Arbib hit the phones.

Shorten, dining in the Canberra suburb of Kingston with colleagues including Sports Minister Kate Ellis, was also glued to the phone.

They still had no idea what Ms Gillard had decided.

But by 9pm, they were confident they had the numbers to swing behind her should she decide to do it.

The answer was revealed at 10.20pm when the PM called a press conference and revealed he had been visited by Ms Gillard, and confirmed that the challenge was on.

This morning, at 9am, she goes into a special caucus meeting with the bulk of the members of the NSW Labor Right, the Victorian Right, the South Australian Right and the Victorian Left behind her.

Queensland right-wing powerbroker, Senator Joe Ludwig, was also on board. The deal was that Treasurer Wayne Swan - the man who voted against Rudd in the spill against Kim Beazley - would be Ms Gillard's deputy.

The Victorian Right had been courting Gillard for the past two weeks, urging her to challenge. "We can't win with this bloke," they told her.

Arbib, the NSW numbers man who put Rudd into the leadership in 2006, had been sounding out support among select MPs for a change.

The internal polling provided by the party's national secretary Karl Bitar was worse than the public polling, which had already put the Government in a losing position. But Gillard's loyalty prevented her from doing the unthinkable.

She was refusing to act.

And they were unwilling to tap the Prime Minister on the shoulder themselves.

Factional leaders said the nail in the coffin for Rudd was a dinner on Tuesday night in Parliament House for the country's business leaders.

"His speech was pure anger and venom," said a minister who witnessed the event.

"It was bizarre. The cream of the country's business community were there. And they were stunned. So were we."

http://www.news.com.au/feature.....frfllr-1225883474357

Labor's Julia Gillard is Australia's first female Prime Minister
From: news.com.au June 24, 2010 11:12am

JULIA Gillard says she is "honoured" to become Australia's first female Prime Minister after she won a stunning leadership contest against Kevin Rudd this morning.

"I feel very honoured and I'll be making a statement shortly," she said.

Ms Gillard is expected to make a full statement at 11am (AEST).

In a historic decision, Labor MPs decided to oust Mr Rudd who will go down in history as the first Prime Minister ever to be turfed out by his party within his first term of winning power.

The leadership handover occurred without a ballot after Mr Rudd decided not to force his supporters into declaring their support.

Ms Gillard's victory was assured last night after most of the Rudd government ministers, including Treasurer Wayne Swan, decided to end his run as the Labor leader.

A confident Ms Gillard, flanked by the Treasurer who will become her deputy, walked into the Caucus meeting, certain they had the numbers to defeat Mr Rudd.

At 9.36am (AEST), Caucus spokesman and New South Wales Senator Michael Forshaw emerged to declare Ms Gillard would become Australia's next Prime Minister.

"The new leader elected unopposed is Julia Gillard, the new deputy leader is Wayne Swan," Senator Forshaw said, outside the Caucus room.

Ms Gillard, and the man she ousted as national leader, addressed a dazed Labor partyroom.

Mr Rudd - who won power in 2007 with a popular Kevin 07 campaign - bowed to pressure from his colleagues and withdrew from the contest, assuring Ms Gillard's ascension to the leadership.

Mr Rudd's decision to stand aside came as he lost the backing of key factional brokers and powerful unions including the Australian Workers Union after ALP powerbrokers formed the view that the Government was heading for defeat unless it changed leaders.

A suite of Ministers, including Sports Minister Kate Ellis and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, decided to back Ms Gillard.

Heading into the Caucus meeting, senior factional leaders claimed Ms Gillard had at least 70 votes from a Caucus of 112.

Mr Rudd's defeat represents the most stunning political turnaround imaginable, for a leader who just a few months ago was rivalling Bob Hawke in the popularity stakes.

But a series of political mistakes including ditching the emissions trading scheme and rolling out a new 40 per cent "super" profits take on the mining sector, saw a collapse in Mr Rudd's and Labor's vote.

The historic vote of confidence for Ms Gillard will see her installed as Australia's 27th Prime Minister.

Mr Forshaw said it had been a difficult time for both Mr Rudd and the Labor Party.

"He led us to victory in 2007, a victory that was achieved when many people thought that we would still be spending more years in Opposition.

"That is a great achievement, he did that with Julia Gillard as the Deputy Leader."

Mr Forshaw said he is now looking "confidently forward to the next election", led by the new team.

Mr Rudd ignored questions from reporters as he left the Caucus room.

He was accompanied by senior ministers John Faulkner and Kim Carr and Queensland backbencher Jon Sullivan.

Labor's new leaders have left the Caucus room without speaking to reporters.

Frontbencher Craig Emerson said Mr Rudd was "not as happy as gay" as he left the meeting.

"Julia Gillard is Prime Minister and we will all completely and fully support her," he said.

http://www.news.com.au/feature.....frfllr-1225883620482

]]> Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:17:11 SuziH State and Fed. Govt.'s raise the cost of living. http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1275098940/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1275098940/#num1 States fight law on power bills
By Natasha Bita and Rosanne Barrett From: The Australian May 29, 2010 4:45am

THE states are baulking at a national consumer law that would let electricity companies disconnect customers too poor to pay their bills.

The Queensland Government yesterday approved a 13 per cent rise in electricity prices from July 1, boosting the average bill to $396 a quarter - a 40 per cent increase over four years.

But NSW and Victoria declared they would refuse to sign "watered-down" consumer protection laws to be considered by the Ministerial Council on Energy in Melbourne on June 11.

Victorian Energy Minister Peter Batchelor insisted his state's standards were better for consumers. "We aren't prepared to lower our standards to the suggested national framework," he said.

"We want to ensure the wrongful disconnection payment scheme and financial hardship policies continue to deliver real protection against disconnection for customers who find themselves at risk."

NSW Energy Minister Paul Lynch said the national legislation must mirror NSW's safeguards for householders in financial strife.

"If the current protections are not maintained, we will not be part of the national framework," Mr Lynch said.

West Australian Energy Minister Peter Collier said his state was not obliged to commit to the new energy consumer law. "Any future discussion to adopt it will include careful consideration of the benefits to the state."

And Queensland Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said there were strict legislative requirements that retailers must meet before disconnecting power.

"I will be ensuring any national reforms do not compromise these protections for consumers in Queensland," he said.

NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman Clare Petre revealed a 47 per cent rise in the number of complaints about high electricity bills last financial year, including 597 households disconnected for non-payment, and another 877 threatened with having the power cut off.

Ms Petre said she was concerned the proposed new legislation would remove consumer protection for small businesses such as takeaway food shops.

"They might be small and unsophisticated but happen to use a lot of power," she said.

"They'll be classified in the same way as a mine or a big business, and that's our concern."

She said the new law would make it easier for companies to rapidly disconnect customers with a record of non-payment, many of whom were in hardship.

http://www.news.com.au/national/states-fight-law-on-power-bills/story-e6frfkvr-1225872789161

]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 12:09:00 SuziH International Catastrophes & Disasters http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1275097676/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1275097676/#num1 BP's 'top kill' begins again as effort to plug Gulf of Mexico spill continues
By staff writers From: AFP May 28, 2010 11:42am

BP's 'top kill' to cap the Gulf of Mexico oil leak will last at least another 24 hours, a BP official said, after re-starting the procedure following testing.

"I should stress... that this operation continues," BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles said, referring to a risky bid to try to cap the leak spewing from the Deepwater Horizon well.

The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, engulfing it in fire and killing 11 workers. The rig sank two days later.

New oil flow estimates by scientists studying the blown-out well make the leak the worst in the nation's history, far bigger than 42 million litres that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.

US Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt says the results were preliminary, but two teams using different methods determined the well has spilled between 64 million litres and 148 million litres.

Mr Suttles said BP had stopped pumping a mixture of heavy drilling fluids known as "mud" into the fractured pipe to drown the oil flow in the early hours of Thursday, in order to monitor the results before resuming the work late in the day.

"Nothing's actually gone wrong or unanticipated," Mr Suttles stressed, saying it was important for engineers to keep checking pressures as robotic submarines carry out the complex operation nearly a mile (1.6km) down on the seabed.

"We reinitiated a second round of pumping and drilling mud late yesterday evening and continued that to just before midnight, when we stopped pumping operations. We then suspended activities overnight while we monitored the well,” he said.

Since the pumping had been halted "we have been assessing the first - results from the first portion of our top kill efforts," Mr Suttles said.

"We restocked the vessels that were offshore and we have developed the next phase of the top kill operation. We should begin pumping operations some time a little later this evening."

He stressed the flow of oil had not yet stopped and that the operation "may take longer" than anticipated.

Disaster is a ‘wake-up call’

US President Barack Obama unveiled tough moves to suspend new oil drilling and exploration following the Gulf of Mexico disaster, while denying the Government was too slow to tackle the crisis. After reviewing an Interior Department report into the massive oil spill, Mr Obama outlined four steps to prevent such an accident from happening again including suspending 33 deepwater exploratory wells being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico for six months.

"If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wakeup call," he said.

Planned exploration in two locations off the coast of Alaska was suspended, and "we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia," he said.

Mr Obama said the disaster showed the need to develop renewable energy sources, but dismissed charges the Government had acted too slowly in the crisis.

"This notion that somehow the Federal Government is sitting on the sidelines and for the last three or four or five weeks we've just been letting BP make a whole bunch of decisions is simply not true.

"This entire White House and this entire Federal Government has been singularly focused on how do we stop the leak and how do we prevent and mitigate the damage to our coastlines."

But the US President said that "more than anything else this economic and environmental tragedy, and it's a tragedy, underscores the urgent need for this nation to develop clean renewable sources of energy". He said it was time to move forward on legislation to promote renewable energy sources.

"It's time to accelerate the competition with countries like China who have already realised the future lies in renewable energy and it's time to seize that future ourselves."

http://www.news.com.au/world/b.....frfkyi-1225872318733]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 11:47:56 SuziH The Philippines http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273477659/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273477659/#num1 Deadly violence mars Philippines election

Elections in the Philippines have been marred by violence with six people killed, while voters have expressed frustration at problems with vote-counting machines that led to long queues.

More than 40 million Filipinos were expected to turn up at polling stations across the archipelago to elect a successor to president Gloria Arroyo, whose near decade-long rule has been tarnished by allegations of corruption.

Noynoy Aquino, a 50-year-old bachelor, is the favourite to win the presidency.

But violence that always plagues Philippine politics, as well as problems with the nation's first effort at using computers to count votes, fuelled longstanding concerns about the whether the election would be credible.

More than 17,000 positions are at stake - from president down to municipal council seats - and local politicians are infamous for using their own "private armies" to kill rivals or intimidate voters.

At least two civilians were killed as a series of battles raged in the flashpoint southern province of Maguindanao, where 57 people died in an election-linked massacre late last year.

The army, which had deployed thousands of troops to Maguindanao in a bid to minimise the violence there, said soldiers engaged in a series of fire fights with unknown assailants.

Voters fled polling booths to escape the violence, while the military reported the two civilians who died were killed elsewhere in clashes between the private armies of rival candidates for a vice-mayoral post.

Another four people were killed in other parts of the restive southern Philippines this morning.

Mr Aquino's main rivals are former president Joseph Estrada, 73, and property magnate Manny Villar, 60.

Two major independent surveys gave Mr Aquino voter support of between 39 and 42 per cent, a two-to-one lead over his challengers that places him on course for the biggest win in Philippine election history.

Another candidate for the lower house is Imelda Marcos, 80, who gained global notoriety when thousands of her shoes were found in the presidential palace after her late husband Ferdinand's overthrow in 1986.

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/10/2895297.htm]]> Mon, 10 May 2010 17:47:39 Paula The Greens http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273477411/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273477411/#num1 Border protection protocols failing: Greens

The Greens say there needs to be a public inquiry into how the Federal Government responds to asylum seeker boats.

Five asylum seekers are presumed to have drowned in waters north-west of Australia after the boat they were in ran out of supplies and they decided to swim for help.

The remaining Sri Lankans have been rescued and taken to Cocos Islands.

The Federal Government says it was aware of the boat at least a week and a half ago.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says there needs to be an investigation.

"Obviously something is not working right when we know a boat was there and two weeks later five people are dead," she said.

"We need to take some responsibility for looking at our own protocols - what we do when we find a boat, what we do in terms of the interception - and those protocols must be made public.

"It seems fairly clear that if we knew that this boat was in the waters, coming towards Australia with vulnerable people - asylum seekers on board - that we should have been monitoring it better.

"How has it come about that five of these people are now presumed dead?"

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul says the response by authorities appears inadequate.

"It does seem that there has been a real lack of responsibility by the authorities not to have sent a boat out immediately," he said.

"They knew it was in trouble, they knew it was without food, they knew it was without fuel. To have left people on the sea in those conditions is inexcusable."

Customs officials say they were advised the boat carrying 64 asylum seekers had run out of fuel, food and water while heading to Cocos Island on April 30.

They say a passing merchant ship provided assistance and reported they were in good health and their vessel was seaworthy.

Customs spokesman Phil Mayne says the boat was expected to arrive at Cocos Island last Wednesday, but a search was launched when it failed to turn up.


Controversial ad

Meanwhile the Greens are appealing to the Opposition to withdraw a television advertisement which refers to asylum seekers as "illegals".

The ad was launched over the weekend and includes Opposition Leader Tony Abbott saying the Coalition would take real action to stop illegal immigration.

Senator Hanson-Young says the ad is appalling and relies on fear mongering.

"I'm quite concerned about the impact that these ads will have and I appeal to the Opposition to pull them immediately," she said.

"I also think that it's time that the Advertising Standards Board consider the ads as well as ACMA [the Australian Communications and Media Authority]."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/10/2894944.htm

]]> Mon, 10 May 2010 17:43:31 Paula