The Victorian Government’s Climate Change White Paper is one of these cases.

Victoria now leads Australia in terms of Climate Change policy and action. Whilst it could always go further, the massive increase in renewable energy investment and the decommissioning of Hazelwood are both long over due.

In many ways the efficiency measures outlined, while a little weaker, are probably more important because the issue is not where we get our energy from, but how much we use.

Whilst I support Victoria (and Australia, and the world) running on 100% renewable energy, those that expect this to happen immediately are probably being a little naive. To turn off Hazelwood tomorrow would mean power shortages across the state – something we’d all be pretty frustrated with. We need to reduce out energy demands as quickly as possible and start the switch on renewables as quickly as possible, but this takes time.

And time is the thing we’ve squandered the most.

As for criticism that Brumby has exposed Gillard, I desperately hope it means that she will have to finally take some action.

For the record, in principle, a consensus on climate change is a really good idea. But a “citizen’s assembly” will do absolutely nothing to build a consensus.

What we need is leadership which is what is missing.

I can’t remember the last time I walk out of a film thinking: ‘that changes everything’. The Matrix? Maybe.

Whatever the case, it was a 2 and a half hour film that I didn’t want to end and will probably go and see again while it is playing at the cinema – something I never do.

I rushed home from the cinema to catch the leader’s debate. The contrast could not have been more stark. Moving from something so exciting, so engaging to the most uninspiring, pedestrian leader’s debate I can remember. The only loser in the debate was the Australian public. Does that mean that both leader’s lost?

Waleed Aly said early on in the piece that this election was about nothing. My immediate reaction was ‘oh, about nothing is a bit harsh, it’s about… it’s about… it’s about’.

He’s right and that is really depressing. I’ve never been this disenfranchised with Australia’s political process.

Given our leaders inability to provide me with anything even vaguely resembling intellectual stimulation, I’ve turned to podcasts in a big way. My regular cycling commute has become full of thought provoking material which I’m loving. The podcasts I’m currently loving include:

• The Bugle (funny and informative)
• In Our Time (probably haven’t bonded with this one as much as others)
• NPR: Fresh Air Podcast
• NPR: Wait, Wait… Don’t tell me (a quiz show that keeps you up to date with news as well)
• ZDNet: Patch Monday (fully of tech goodness – and Australian!)
• Tank Riot (too me a little bit of listening to start enjoying but now I’m hooked)
• This American Life (my favourite – just so interesting)
• WNYC’s Radio Lab (shorter episodes and very interesting)

Feel free to share your thoughts on podcasts below. Any recommendations?

While riding in to work this morning, listening to a podcast, there was an interesting confrontation on the road. A scooter rider was going a long in the bike lane. This really bothers me. It’s illegal ($50 fine – no demerit points) and dangerous. As a motorcyclist I would never ride in the cycling lane. I knew how much it bothered me when I was cycling and I actually think that it is a much more dangerous thing to do than ‘lane split’. You should always avoid passing on the left… especially when there isn’t actually a lane there as it is the last place a car will look as any cyclist can attest to.

Anyway, on this particular morning a cyclist decided to take issue with the man on the scooter… to the point where he actually tried to push the guy off his scooter. I’m not one for the ‘cyclists-should-behave-well-so-that-cars-are-nice-to-us’ types. I’m all for cyclists being assertive, but this was just going too far.

This week I started doing website support for Prosper Australia (including support for Earth Sharing). I can’t see it being too much work but it’s a bit of fun as they are eager to implement some good changes and it’s always nice when you’re doing some work for someone eager for change that has faith that you can just get it done for them. It also means getting stuck into Pordpress themes and plugins which is something I really enjoy as the API is fantastic.

Unfortunately though, that work meant that I couldn’t get the changes to Sommelier.net.au done that I would have liked to. A few upgrades are coming though and I’ve got a good sense of the next couple of improvements which I’m looking forward to overhauling.

21 weeks to go.

(an informative graphic from Indexed).

As we all know, 3 weeks ago Julia the Great became leader of the Labor Party. At the time I experienced the familiar wave of excitement I experience every time we get a new leader of the Labor Party. I become so full of hope and optimism. She’s from the Left, she’s done the hard yards, has important links to the Union movement and is Australia’s first female prime minister. How could this go wrong?

This time I really tried to ‘curb my enthusiasm’. I reminded myself of the ongoing disappointment that the Labor Party has left me with and that I’m sure to be disappointed again, but I can’t help myself, I got a little excited. I was even telling some German friends that I met up with how Gillard’s rise was great for Australia. I rushed to revise my position a few days later though as the policies rolled out: we will still be getting an Internet filter; an increasingly inhumane approach to asylum seekers; a absurd population policy; poor response to Climate Change and so on.

I began to get that other familiar feeling… betrayal.

At times I’ve heard myself say: ‘If Malcolm Turnbul was leader of the opposition I would consider putting the Libs above the ALP on my ballot paper’. That’s utter crap of course. Whilst I’m attracted to the progressive liberalism of the Liberal Party’s ‘Wet’ faction, the reality is that with the Libs in power there will be less spending on Health and Education, not to mention a further regression of Industrial Relations. My comment is really intended to point out that there isn’t much difference between the two major parties.

So how can I support a party that conforms to the popularist crap that the ALP does? I can’t. The problem is, that unless the ALP does conform to said popularist crap then they won’t be re-elected, which means having Abbott as PM which means I’m leaving the country (actually, I’ll be doing that anyway, but I’ll blame Abbott if I can).

Being the inner-city intellectual type, I’ve actually got a pretty good local (ALP) member (Kevin Thompson). There’s another dilemma: if the ALP lose Thompson there will be one less moderating voice in the ALP.

So once again, I’ll be voting Green’s this election and I’d encourage you to do the same. Not because I’m a particularly big fan of the Greens, I actually think they are conservative on a few issues, but because they are the party that most closely represent my views. In fact they are often the only ones that speak with any sense.

I’m depressed.

(On a slightly more encouraging note, it is good news for all that the Greens and the ALP have done a preference deal. I may also have a small crush on Bob Brown.)

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In my mind, there is no doubt that there is a direct correlation between the systemic corruption found in the Labor Party and this decline into management politics.

By management politics, I mean a political style that is gear towards managing the electorate to ensure that you are re-elected. It’s about politics for the sake of staying in power, rather than to improve the state or nation. It leads to popularism and a lack of leadership or conviction and panders to the lowest common denominator. It’s a politics where Government doesn’t bother having the debate and convincing the electorate, it just rolls over. The Federal Government’s rollover on asylum seekers is one example, the Victorian Government’s ban on suspended sentences is another.

There doesn’t seem to have been a lot of talk in the media about the Victorian Government essentially adopting the Opposition’s policy on the banning of suspended sentences which is disappointing. It’s a difficult and complex issues that is easily made highly emotive by victim’s groups and knee-jerk reactions lead to poor assumptions.

John Champion has an opinion piece in The Age today:

It needs to be clearly understood that sentencing is more often than not an extremely complex process. Judicial officers are expected to impose sentences that properly reflect the gravity of the offending by providing appropriate punishment and denunciation of the offender, deterrence to the offender from future offending, or towards other like-minded potential offenders, while providing opportunities for the offender’s rehabilitation. The process that involves the synthesis of these and other factors must be reasoned, totally transparent, and capable of standing up to scrutiny and a sense of satisfaction from many different sources, not least of which is the victim and his or her family and friends, the offender, the community, and relevant courts of appeal. Judges and magistrates often say sentencing is the most gruelling and heart-rending part of the job they do.

The characterisation of judges as ‘soft’ on criminals is just wrong and to legislate a judge’s discretion away is to pander to reactionary attitudes rather than stopping and having the discussion about the merits of suspended sentencing.

The greatest victims of crime are often criminals themselves. If we are to have any chance of rehabilitating people so that they don’t offend again, then gaol is the worst place for them.

Gaols are criminalgenic – few people leave gaol and become law abiding citizens. Whilst I accept that prison is occasionally the only real option for someone, we should be doing all we can to keep people out of prison. Our prisons are expensive to run and already over crowded.

The Brumby Government needs to show some leadership on this issue and have the debate. They need to make sure that the population understands that a suspended sentence isn’t a ‘soft’ approach at all, but a carefully measured one that ensures that the needs of all parties, including the victim’s, are met.

But there is no doubt that the proliferation and normalisation of pornography is directly linked to it being available through the Internet. I think pornography is damaging to both women and men. It is even more damaging when it becomes normalised and is no longer challenged the way it should be.

Many opponents to the filter are saying that this money would be more effectively spent on educational initiatives. Teach ‘the kids’ how to avoid this sort of material. Increasingly I think that idea is also laughable. Young people are intuitively better at using computers and the internet than older people because they have always had it and just ‘get’ it.

What needs to be taught is respect for women and respect for yourself. Young people need to understand that pornography is not healthy and need to be given the tools to negotiate the mountains of contradictory and confusing emotions and responses they are experiencing. They need to be given guidance on how to deal with these feelings and thoughts and how to channel them in a healthy, constructive way which includes an intimate awareness of the role gender plays.

Sure, the Internet has made pornography freely and easily available. But it’s not the Internet’s fault, the internet is inherently neutral. It’s the patriarchy that is to blame and needs to be challenged and no amount of filtering the internet will do that.

It’s a piece of art that I’ve always loved. Aesthetically, I find it really striking. How can such chaos be so well balanced? The acquisition of Blue Poles also symbolises a sort of coming of age for Australian. To top it all off, it is incredible that such an abstract artwork of such renown could be painted in an era that is known for its conservatism, the 1950s.

It got me thinking, are we getting more conservative? I have a feeling we are.

There seems to be a resurgence in traditional gender roles. People are getting married more readily, we’re having a mini baby boom and Melbourne continues to ballon as people seek their quarter acre block in increasingly distant suburbs.

Are growing divorce rates simply a reflection of a growing number of people feeling the need to get married and therefore rushing into it?

I also get the feeling that the moral minority (the christian right) have a stronger hold on government than they have had for a while. The ALP has always had a strong catholic contingent (the SDA, among others, is a staunchly catholic and powerful Labor affiliated union). It feels like this influence is the strongest it’s been for a while. The Prime Minister and senior cabinet minister, Stephen Conroy, both strongly identifying with christianity. That’s not to mention the strong influence that conservative christianity has on many opposition members, not least of which is their leader, Tony Abbot. Then there is Steve Fielding was elected thanks primarily to ALP preferences – a scary thought – and the DLP has it’s first seats in the Victorian Government for god knows how long.

Then there’s the ANZAC phenomenon, where young people are flocking to dawn services around the country. I’ve very mixed feelings about ANZAC day. I do think those who gave their lives in these wars should be remembered and honoured, particularly considering the role Australia’s working class has played. However, I’m deeply uncomfortable with the associated glorification of war and the damage that war continues to have on so many with the loss of live, injury and the psychological damage that reeks havoc on soldier’s families – the silent victims in all of this.

My mixed feelings also come from the fact that I just don’t have any tangible connection to anything military. My Grandfather fought in in Papua New Guinea during WWII but never spoke of it, never marched and never really had an interest in doing either.

Finally, there’s the growth in Australian Nationalism. People used to bemoan the lack of nationalism in Australia, now it seems to be everywhere, complete with southern cross tattoos. Nationalism terrifies me. Not only is it inherently conservative, it necessarily creates an ‘other’; which for an immigrant nation is a dangerous thing. But to start that discussion these days elicits a highly emotive response. What could possibly be wrong with flying the Australian flag? This is the greatest country in the world.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that we aren’t getting more conservative – the daily bombardment of highly sexualised images is a case in point. But I suspect that things are getting more conservative around here.