New PM needs a new idea for a new Australia

“The Rise and Fall of Kevin Rudd” could be the title of a novel or the headline for an obituary, except that our former Prime Minister is still alive, making the latter impossible and as events of Thursday were true, any tale of fiction would be just that.

Without discussing the rights and wrongs of the Labor Party’s switch to the former deputy PM, Julia Gillard (right), it’s worth noting that this change, as with any change in our lives, from personal to public, is an opportunity.
People of every stripe, from all walks of life, are presently grinding through the equations to determine what opportunity they can seize from this seismic change in Australia’s political landscape.
Politics is a little like removing your hand from a bucket of water as once the ripples fade, you can’t tell were your hand had been. Politics and those involved in it just keep flowing along.
That is not a criticism of Rudd (bottom right) or an endorsement of Gillard, rather an observation that the wider populace is rarely affected by such happenings, unless such a change fundamentally alters the structure of their lives.
Questions abound, but those that really need to be asked, but won’t be because they will be divisive and unpopular and so not even whispered in parliament let alone asked, discussed and decisions made.

Climate change is a reality and moves to counter it should have been common in our communities ten years ago rather than being allowed now to fade away, referred again for report from another committee or further opinion sought from Australian communities.
Peak oil, that moment when the world’s accessible oil reserves are half gone, which happened, according to some authorities, this year means fuel will become more expensive as each year passes and many items, such as food, will become rarer.
Julia Gillard faces many challenges and the first, and most important, she needs to devote her time and energy to, is the re-structuring of Australian society, psychologically and physically, to prepare it for a life so different from what we have now that few understand what is ahead.

Busy week, alarming realities

This week has been wonderfully busy, but within that equally alarming.
On three occasions it become clearly evident that two people, unquestionably highly qualified, entrenched in the decision making echelons of our society and therefore people of undoubted influence, were not aware of peak oil and didn’t understand it complications.
Also, one fellow could not, or would not, advance an opinion and to worsen matters, that same speaker, who in my view should have had a definite opinion, avoided my question about nuclear power.
The first moment arose during a meeting involving members of the Victorian Urban Design Forum, many architectural and design people and several from the Victorian State Government organization, VicUrban.
That meeting held in the new VicUrban offices helped those attending understand something about four major community re-establishment sustainable projects within Melbourne – one at Maribynong, another at central Dandenong, Avondale Heights and the re-development of Harbour Esplanade at Docklands in central Melbourne.
At the end of the presentations, those at the meeting were able to ask questions and one about peak oil, directed at no-one in particular, but which seemed to fall upon VicUrban landscape architect, Mark Haycox, drew a response that seemed to indicate that he was at least confused only to see fellow VicUrban employee, Lynn Sweeney, quickly answer that peak oil was the reason the projects were being pursued.
The following evening, Wednesday, the University of Melbourne presented the free lecture – Unnatural disasters, the fractured science and politics of climate change – featuring Professor Barry Smit (above) from the University of Guelph in Canada.
He opened his presentation with a self-penned song about climate change that he sang to the Beatles tune of “Let it be”.

Arriving early at the lecture theatre, I filled in the time reading David Strahan’s 2007 book The Last Oil Shock that is about what he describes as “the imminent extinction of petroleum man” and in pre-lecture conversation with Prof Smit I asked for his view on peak oil.
He said it was not something he knew enough about and encouraged me to continue my reading.
Following his presentation, he is a truly personable man with extensive knowledge about climate change, questions from the audience brought many including one from me in which I mentioned that American Dr James Hansen, who works for the government and is described by some as “the grandfather of climate change”, has advocated for nuclear power to end our reliance on coal fired power stations and in answer to his thoughts on nuclear power, Prof Smit had no opinion to offer – it was a staggering response our dependence on coal-fired power, a process that Dr Hansen believes is the major contributor to climate change.
Prof Smit, a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, was at the Melbourne University as part of a speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand in a program organized by the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand.