Mission & Justice

Ian Munro; 27/9/08

Amid conflicting reports about the progress of Washington’s finance industry rescue, demonstrators laid siege to Wall Street yesterday demanding that the finance industry be left to fend for itself. Their message was that taxpayers should not have to rescue the free-spending moneymakers, who awarded themselves seven-figure bonuses until the economy was on the point of collapse. They shouted slogans such as “You broke it: you bought it” and “No deal for Wall Street”, and claimed that “financial terrorists” were worse than al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

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Nick McKenzie; 27/9/08

Up tp $12 billion in illicit drug money is flowing out of Australia annually — an amount up to 30 times greater than official estimates — according to the nation’s most powerful crime fighting agency. The Australian Crime Commission’s estimates suggest authorities are drastically underestimating the quantity of drugs crossing the nation’s borders without detection.

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27/9/08

A lawsuit filed by two Iraqi widows against AWB has been rejected by a US court, with the judge ruling the matter should be heard in Australia. District Court judge Gerard Lynch agreed with lawyers representing the Australian wheat exporter that “Australia is an adequate alternative forum”. “The interests of the parties, of judicial economy, and of Australia and the US are better served by adjudication of this dispute in Australia,” Judge Lynch said. The class action lawsuit was one of five filed in the aftermath of the AWB kickback scandal.

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John Wiseman; 27/9/08

Kevin Rudd’s co-operative federalism was flung aside yesterday as tensions over the stricken Murray-Darling triggered a slanging match between the leaders of the key basin states whose farmers and irrigators depend on the river system. The brawl was sparked by Victorian Premier John Brumby, who lashed out at NSW and South Australia for not meeting water savings targets under the Living Murray initiative, which aims to restore the river system to good health. Premiers Nathan Rees and Mike Rann both rebuked their Victorian counterpart, with the row culminating in Mr Brumby being accused of indulging in “voodoo economics”.

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Ian Munro; 27/9/08
Amid conflicting reports about the progress of Washington’s finance industry rescue, demonstrators laid siege to Wall Street yesterday demanding that the finance industry be left to fend for itself. Their message was that taxpayers should not have to rescue the free-spending moneymakers, who awarded themselves seven-figure bonuses until the economy was on the point of collapse. They shouted slogans such as “You broke it: you bought it” and “No deal for Wall Street”, and claimed that “financial terrorists” were worse than al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

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Kai-Alexander Schlevogt; 27/9/08

Markets are said to outperform central planners, but ironically central planners are routinely called in to rescue markets. In the immediate aftermath of the financial turmoil on Wall Street, which has shaken the world, the US treasury secretary asked for dictatorial economic powers. This despite the fact that he has already nationalised his economy faster than many socialist countries that he strongly dislikes. A former chairman and CEO of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which curiously so far has been spared significant hardship, he requested $700 billion, equal to 5 per cent of the GDP, from Congress. He also demanded the right to spend it on any financial assets he fancies without any court intervention. Those include toxic assets, which even the most risk-friendly speculators are shunning and if marked to market, would trigger even more spectacular bankruptcies. And the whole package, outlined on only two-and-a-half pages and portrayed as the only way out of the crisis, was to be approved within days. The lack of transparency, accountability and control invites corruption. Politicians in the future will love to have access to such a large pool of money to be spent on their pet projects.

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26/9/08

Controversial logging giant, Rimbunan Hijau (RH), is facing a stiff threat from forest owners and the Gulf governor to shut down its operations in the province or face a legal battle. The provincial government and the landowners want the company to ship out so they can conserve their forest for future generation and also capitalise on the lucrative carbon trade. They called on Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, who is a staunch advocate of carbon trading, to step in and help them fight the battle. Governor Havila Kavo told the Post-Courier yesterday he would do anything to get rid of RH after claiming the Malaysian company failed to fulfill its landowner obligations such as building roads and other infrastructures in an agreement over the past years.

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26/9/08

Australia clinicians are afraid of coming to Papua New Guinea because of a high number of people from Thursday Islands and the Western Province that they are seeing with tuberculosis. Of this, two to three are presenting resistant TB which cannot be treated with the current drugs available in PNG. World Health Organisation TB specialist in PNG Dr Rajendra Prasad-Yadava said this at Ela Motors head office in Port Moresby on Wednesday during the launch of the Ela Motors’ workplace policy on TB, Drive TB Out of PNG. Dr Prasad-Yadav was on the previous day in Australia, attending an international TB conference along with the Health Department’s national TB manager Dr Paul Aia.

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Jeffrey D. Sachs; 26/9/08

In recent years, the United States has been more a source of global instability than a source of global problem-solving. Examples include the war in Iraq, launched by the US on false premises, obstructionism on efforts to curb climate change, meagre development assistance, and the violation of international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions. While many factors contributed to America’s destabilising actions, a powerful one is anti-intellectualism, exemplified recently by Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s surging popularity. By anti-intellectualism, I mean especially an aggressively anti-scientific perspective, backed by disdain for those who adhere to science and evidence. The challenges faced by a major power like the US require rigorous analysis of information according to the best scientific principles. Climate change, for example, poses dire threats to the planet that must be assessed according to prevailing scientific norms and the evolving capacity of climate science.

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Noah Barkin; 26/9/08

Germany blamed the United States yesterday for spawning the global financial crisis with a blind drive for higher profits and said it would now have to accept greater market regulation and a loss of its financial superpower status. In some of the toughest language since the crisis threw Wall Street banks into financial disarray earlier this month, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck told parliament the turmoil would leave “deep marks” on both sides of the Atlantic, but called it primarily an American problem. “The world will never be as it was before the crisis,” Steinbrueck, a deputy leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), told the Bundestag lower house. “The United States will lose its superpower status in the world financial system. The world financial system will become more multi-polar,” he said.

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