Kevin Rudd

Australia, Afghanistan and three unanswered questions

In an address to the Australian War Memorial CEW Bean Foundation dinner on 15 October 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd claimed that our goals in Afghanistan had been "endorsed by the United Nations Security Council." Australian lawyer Kellie Tranter asks: was the war authorised by the Security Council, is it legal, and how many civilians have been killed?

Originally published on Online Opinion on 11 Feb 10. Other articles by Kellie Tranter include The thirst keeps growing in NSW of 19 Jan 10, Show them (and us) the money! of 8 Dec 09 about the idiocy of the Rudd Government's CPRS, Government, water and an arranged marriage of 2 Dec 09, Big Australia of 30 Oct 09, which asks how Rudd plans to ensure our the food and water security of 35 million Australians, Political stupidity and hydrocommerce madness of 20 May 09.
See also: Why Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should take another look at the "image of the twin towers coming down" of 30 Dec 09.

Cost of housing and cost of dependency in Australia

The sector in Australia that has the most costly dependency ratio must be the property sector, since it costs all Australians an enormous and unreasonable amount just to cover the cost of land for housing, business and agriculture. Most of the very high costs involved are completely unnecessary, except in the eyes of greedy developers and their hangers-on. The only reason that the costs are so high is that the industry wants it that way and our state and federal governments are in cahoots with it.

We already have a "big Australia"


Kevin Rudd has expressed his desire for a "big Australia", contrary to public interests, an independent scientific assessment of our "carrying capacity", and without any population plan or policy.
Our wealth is our natural heritage.
Deliberate population growth is all about greed and consumerism and a failure to appreciate what is naturally "big" about Australia.

In Sri Lanka, Rudd has emulated Whitlam's willful blindness to the 1975 invasion of East Timor


The callous and evil slaughter and rape of ethnic Tamils last May by the Sinhalese armed forces in Sri Lanka compares with the Indonesian mass murder of East Timorese in the Indonesian Invasion of 1975 and again in the 1991 Dili Massacre.

In September 1974, in central Java, Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam told Indonesia's President Suharto that East Timor was “too small to be independent”. Thirty odd years later the Australian Government turned a blind eye to Rajapaska's Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka.

Seems Australia has quickly forgotten the lessons of Vietnam War. The late Martin Luther King is oft quoted from a sermon he delivered in 1967 on the Vietnam War "A time comes when silence is betrayal".

[This article follows on from the initial article after Rajapaksa's war crime assassinations of surrendering Tamils on 10 May 09: Tamil Tigers - hunted down and exterminated like vermin by Sinhalese President Rajapaksa [22-May-09]]

Why Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should take another look at the "image of the twin towers coming down"

On 26 March 2009 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told how the image of the World Trade Center Twin Towers coming down, which he "[could not] remove from [his] mind," made necessary the continuation of Australia's increasingly unpopular intervention in the Afghan war. Perhaps it is time that Kevin Rudd took a proper look at those images so that he could learn what really happened on 11 September 2001.

Article, including embedded video, has been adapted from material found in story "Cutter Charges in the North Tower of the World Trade Center" of 26 Dec 09 on 911blogger.com. See also: ae911truth.org, "WTC7 in Freefall", "'WTC7: NIST Admits Freefall' ...The Movie", parts 1, 2 and 3.

The Rudd-led Decultural Invasion of Australia


When Australia has an annual record 383,000 net migration this last year we have what is tantamount to foreign invasion by stealth. It is an 'immigration invasion'.

Howard started it and Rudd has perpetuated it. Australians are being pacified and re-educated into believing misleading justifications like economic growth, addressing skills shortages, multi-culturalism, being a world citizen, etc.

[This article was initially a comment to Sheila Newman's article 'Australia's governments are coordinating an unarmed invasion without your permission']

Ad hoc population growth is on-going colonisation


60% of our population growth is due to immigration. This is basically on-going colonisation!
The best estimate of the First Fleet, that we celebrate on Australia Day, is 1373 people.  Today the numbers of permanent and long-term migrants arriving in Australia to more than 500,000 a year. 
The Roman Empire, built by controlled immigration, perished under an onslaught of uncontrollable barbarian migration.
( photo source )

Illusions on the edge of a climate precipice

David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red, shows that the Rudd Government's climate change policies are a hollow pretence at doing what is urgently needed to prevent the looming global catastrophe.

Originally published in the Age of 19 Oct 09. See also: www.carbonequity.info.

More Refugees - Fewer Skilled Migrants - Sandra Kanck, SPA National President

"Mr Rudd is responsible for one of the highest immigration rates in decades so his line on the current influx of asylum seekers is simply a smoke screen to avoid public discussion on the bigger issue of the immigration blow-out."
"Were Australia a compassionate nation, it would be taking in more asylum seekers and fewer skilled migrants, according to Australia’s only environment group dedicated to lower population, Sustainable Population Australia (SPA)." (Sandra Kanck, SPA National President)

Sustainable growth is pure fiction

Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Treasurer Wayne Swan claims to be resigned to an Australian population of “over 36 million” people by the year 2050! This is an understatement. According to our present growth rate, we will have doubled today's population of nearly 22 million by 2046. The treasurer is being evasive or lacks arithmetical skills. We will be facing more than 44 million by 2046, and the numbers will keep escalating - because our government policies are designed to drive population growth upwards. And why should our lifestyles and our suburbs be a resource for developers and a growth phenomenon that is contrary to our interests?

Let it lie, Labor

Judy Bamberger asks of the Federal Government, "Instead of wasting media minutes, your effort, and my (taxpayer's) money calling for Turnbull's head, focus instead on establishing reasonable policies to help our country move toward a more sustainable life style."

Caught on tape: Rudd's climate pessimism


It was entirely predictable that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would concede that the Copenhagen summit in December would fail to reach a global emissions reduction deal. Despite his pre-election rhetoric, he is worse than a climate change sceptic and has failed even his own aims on carbon emission cuts!

Victorian Bushfires - Government gross neglect of emergency management

The way in which governments, to whom we pay taxes in order to safeguard our welfare, then expect individuals to then shoulder much of the responsibility of dealing with natural disasters is analogous to passengers on the Titanic being required to bring aboard their own liferafts.

Why we should think carefully about Rudd's $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan

Writer and ecologist, Hugh Spencer, kicks off discussion here about Kevin Rudd's proposed $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan. "The only component of the scheme that I can wholeheartedly agree with is the roof insulation - but even then, it requires a far more coherent energy target - as 'roof insulation' can mean damn near anything...."

Climate change, population growth & Oz Governments

After years of telling us that environmental impact has nothing to do with population numbers, the government admits it is the major factor. Futhermore they would rather subject us to climate change than simply downsize immigration.

Rudd dodges hard questions at a Community cabinet

On Wednesday 5 November 2008, I attended a community cabinet at Launceston, where I asked Kevin Rudd when he was going to get realistic about population and economic growth. Report by Catherine Case:

Paul Sheehan hits the nail on the head

How is increasing the population by a million people every three years going to contribute to lowering Australia's carbon footprint? Don't ask big business, or the ALP machine, both addicted to "growth" defined by corporate fundamentalism, which means higher per capita consumption and more consumers.

So says Paul Sheehan of the Sydney Morning Herald, in an unusually frank and honest article in today's edition.

Garnaut to provide cover for privatisation of Snowy Hydro?

Professor Ross Garnaut claimed in his Climate Change Review Draft Report that public ownership of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority could restrict future development and competitiveness in the national electricity market. This appears to have been seized upon by Kevin Rudd as an excuse to privatise the Snowy Hydro in spite of the fact he promised before the 2007 elections to keep it in public hands.