Greens MPs

I've just seen this excellent video that I felt was worth posting. It is from Van Jones talking about his new book, The Green Collar Economy, putting a concise argument for spending half the money that was spent on the Wall St bail-out on delivering an economic and environmental boom.

This article by Christine Milne was published in New Matilda on 24 September

In one of those perfect ironies, Prime Minister Rudd's announcement of his $100 million push to make Australia the global coal hub last Friday came on the same day that yet another so-called "clean coal" project, Santos' Fairview operation in Queensland, was scrapped.

The Fairview collapse "was to do with getting the funding balance right", according to a Santos spokesperson quoted in the Australian Financial Review last Friday. That, of course, is code for "we want more money from governments", tactfully argued by a company whose last half-year profits were $304 million and whose project has already been handed $75 million in taxpayer funds.

(Between Rudd's rhetoric on Indigenous Australians and budget commitments)

This has taken a while, but we finally have Christine's Budget Reply Speech up on YouTube and postable to the blog. Those of you who have enjoyed reading or listening to it may be interested in watching it.

In five parts.

Part one

Instead of replying to the details of the Rudd-Swan Budget, I
decided this year to use their backward-looking, future-phobic
presentation as the launching pad for a broader discussion of what we
might do if we had a Government with the vision and guts necessary to
take on the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil.

Crikey published this piece from me today, in the lead up to my Budget Reply speech tonight, which I will post to the blog as soon as the Hansard is available.

Tonight's the night that the Rudd Government deliver their first federal budget, and the Greens are currently in lock-up, pouring over every detail and analysing every last line.
Keep an eye on this spot - after 7:30 tonight, when the doors open, we'll have more details live blogged here.

There is an old political adage that the Budget is the clearest possible view of a government's soul - laying bare its priorities for all to see.
So, now that the day of the Rudd Government's first Budget has arrived, what can we expect?

Treasurer Wayne Swan wants community input into next year's federal budget, and is asking for submissions by January 18.