My Latest Twitter Updates

Gillard: 4 million low income households will get a buffer. #auspol #
Gillard: The modelling shows less than a 1% impact on the CPI. #auspol #
Gillard: Tax reforms include an increase in the tax-free threshold from $6000 to $18000 per year. #auspol #
Gillard: Support for important industries like coal, steel and manufacturing… #auspol #
Gillard: An important focus on the land sector… billions of dollars of new resources for renewable energy… #auspol #
Gillard: It's Sunday, a day of rest and respite for families… they're wondering what it means for them… we're moving from words to deeds #
Greg Combet, Climate Change Minister: 4 key elements – carbon price, renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon storage… #auspol #
RT @abcnews: #CarbonTax details revealed: http://bit.ly/qE6gqg #
Combet: Carbon price will apply to around 500 companies… #carbontax #auspol #
Combet: The govt does not prescribe to businesses how they will reduce emissions – a market based scheme does that. #carbontax #auspol #
Combet: Companies will need to buy and surrender to the govt a permit for each tonne of pollution they produce. #carbontax #auspol #
Combet: The number of permits issued each year will be capped. #carbontax #auspol #
Combet: The parliament will still retain the final authority for setting the number of pollution permits. #carbontax #auspol #
Combet: $1.3 billion of support for the most affected coal mines. #carbontax #auspol #
Combet: Some assistance to electricity generators… Jobs and Competitiveness Program for trade-exposed industries. #carbontax #auspol #
Treasurer Wayne Swan: An important economic and environmental reform… we can't allow our country to become a backwater. #carbontax #auspol #
Swan: Aust can't power ahead without clean energy… to be a powerhouse in the 21st century, you must be a clean power economy. #carbontax #
Swan: 0.7% increase in prices in 2012 from the carbon price. #carbontax #auspol #
Swan encourages everyone to look at the Treasury modelling on the carbon price… #carbontax #auspol #
Swan: There are tax cuts for everyone earning below $80,000. #carbontax #auspol #
Swan: Over one million extra Australians will not have to lodge a tax return. #carbontax #auspol #
What do you say to people who may think this is too good to be true, Gillard is asked… #carbontax #auspol #
RT @latikambourke: The Carbon Price will be $23/tonne of CO2 in 2012, $24.15 in 2013 and $25.40 in 2014 – floating price in 2015. #
RT @NationalTimesAU: Labor's carbon price policy is complex but also pretty mild. http://auspol.info/nmL302 – Lenore Taylor #
Gillard: The govt has not given up on carbon capture and storage. Martin Ferguson will continue with this… #carbontax #auspol #
Gillard: A reduction of 160 million tonnes of carbon pollution by 2020. We have a lot of work to do to catch up with rest of world. #
Gillard: The 160 million tonnes reduction is the equivalent of taking 45 million cars off the roads… #carbontax #auspol #
Official government website: Clean Energy Future http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/ #carbontax #auspol #
Gillard: Advertising campaign will start in the weeks and days ahead… #carbontax #auspol #
RT @DanielleCronin: #cp wrap by @rosspeakeCT … Two rounds of tax cuts http://bit.ly/r3FLuH #
Today's new slogan: "There is no money tree" #carbontax #auspol #
Gillard: This package values work… #carbontax #auspol #
Bob Brown: This is a world-leading outcome. #carbontax #auspol #
@Louiseontwitr It's fine for me… #
Rob Oakeshott: This has been a pretty unique Cabinet process… #carbontax #auspol #
Tony Windsor: It is much larger than just a tax and putting a price on carbon… enormous opportunity for regional Australia. #carbontax #
Tony Abbott: As the Productivity Commission said, this is a world first. No other country is implemented an economy-wide carbon tax. #auspol #
Abbott: Millions of Australians will be worse off, even under the government's own modelling. And emissions won't be cut. #carbontax #auspol #
Abbott: 10% of households get nothing, 60% will be worse off or line-ball. #carbontax #auspol #
Abbott: This tax is going to go up and up and up… #carbontax #auspol #
Abbott: Even on the govt's own figures, our emissions will go still go up… businesses will have to purchase $3bn of abatements from abroad #
Abbott: There is a fiscal hole beyond the government's forward estimates… #carbontax #auspol #
Abbott: This is socialism masquerading as environmentalism. #carbontax #auspol #
Abbott: This is a package of economic pain for no environmental gain… sets up the next election as a referendum on the carbon tax. #auspol #
Abbott: Why won't the PM fight an election on this, soon? #carbontax #auspol #
Hockey: When we introduced the GST, there was a price-watch mechanism in place. There's nothing like that here. #carbontax #auspol #
Abbott: This is a bad tax. It can't be fixed, it has to be fought. We will be opposing all the government's legislation. #carbontax #auspol #
Fixtures and fittings is all that is left at Borders Carlton http://twitpic.com/5nywvq #
A cold East Melbourne street and I've parked to watch my leaders on my iPad. That's citizenship for you… #
@StephenMinas Has he been bailed out yet? #
For Years, the Tabloids' Sting Kept British Politicians in Line: http://auspol.info/nIAu1W – Murdoch as Citizen Kane? #
Building the Education Revolution? http://auspol.info/py7HyQ – and only $75 million. #
The Art of the Interview: http://auspol.info/nq4rDx – on Janet Malcolm and 'Iphigenia in Forest Hills' #
Nicholas Kristof's 10 triumphs of fiction: http://auspol.info/oUU6ae – All Quiet and Grapes of Wrath my personal favourites. #
@rod_benson Haven't read that one. Also reminded that I've never got around to Scoop. #
Channel 10 replaying the Gillard broadcast… excruciating. #
"I've decided…" #
@yossi_01 1.7% of the maximum rate increase – $177/year, paid in lump sum May/June 2012. #
@samanthamaiden Huh? #
I should watch Ch 10 more… Bob Katter will be co-host of The 7PM Project this week… #
@yossi_01 Link here: http://auspol.info/nRAmLT #
Ch 10 replaying Abbott's broadcast. I know I might be on my own here, but those leather bound Parliamentary Debates are really very nice… #
@samanthamaiden They don't fake things on television or in politics, do they? #
@belinda_josey They used to be green once… #
@samanthamaiden They're definitely Hansards… even if they're fake… #
@argumentalist I think his opponents couldn't stand him but the cringe factor with Gillard is bipartisan in my experience. #
@belinda_josey I'd prefer some blue debate, now that you mention it! #
Voice of the people: "It's gonna cost me a motza." #
"I only know that Gillard lady said she wasn't going to do one, then she did one." #
@dfg77 Yes, used to be green and red. The TV experts are telling me it's all trickery. #
@Cracked_Canoe Can't locate one but it might bob up tomorrow – perhaps on the ALP website. #
'Murdoch's malign influence must die with the News of the World': http://auspol.info/nESSG0 – The Observer editorial (via @GreenJ et al) #
Observer, not Independent… #
@St_KiKi I doubt it. #
@Cracked_Canoe Actually, http://a-pac.tv is showing replays of all the press conferences. Not sure if it's geo-blocked. #
It's time to move: http://twitpic.com/5o31z7 #auspol #
Friends in Hobart email to say they just stepped outside to enjoy the silence and the whiteness of snow covering their verandah. #
RT @DanielleCronin: From The Guardian: Australian government unveils radical carbon tax plan. http://auspol.info/pkhZdP #
July 11, and Gough Whitlam is 95 years old today. #
@acaderama Nonsense. Read the history and look around you. He shaped the country you live in. http://auspol.info/j6RJYJ #
Paul Kelly: ""This is Julia Gillard's finest achievement as a political fixer." http://auspol.info/qq6y92 #
@acaderama That's why the record matters and needs to be told and retold. #
@acaderama Myths. The same Libs who now praise Hawke/Keating in order to vilify Rudd/Gillard were virulently hostile when they held office. #
@acaderama Whitlam polarises but there's a generation who lived through those times who know the difference he made. #
@acaderama I know women who were educated late in life because of him. My best friend only attended uni because Whitlam abolished fees. #
@acaderama Tanner's article sets out the breadth and scope of the policies. Most of it survives. #
@acaderama Sure, the governance model scared them off for a time. But not the policies. #
@acaderama More myths – Whitlam began the process of deregulation, promoting competition, reducing protection, etc. #
@acaderama Not blind to political failings by any means but to have lived through those times is to have been inspired. #
@acaderama JG won't change the way people feel because she isn't leadership material. Vacuous in comparison to Whitlam. People know it. #
@acaderama He polarised for sure. But he got things done even against the odds. And he never gave up along the way like this lot did. #
@acaderama And we loved him for it! #
@acaderama Well, we can never know. Kelly calls her a fixer in his column today and that's right. An ideas person, forget it. Careerist. #
@acaderama Whitlam took a sclerotic party, restructured it, gave it policies and took it to power for first time in 23 years. He's a giant. #
@acaderama My problem with Gillard is she doesn't compare to Whitlam or Hawke or Keating. All in different ways. #
@acaderama Menzies won 5 elections (1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1958) before nearly coming unstuck in 1961. #
@acaderama Look, I agree. I don't worship anyone! But all those people had courage and smarts that the current lot don't. #
@acaderama Yes he did! He's one of the greatest fixers of all. And cynical. Petrov. Banning of Comm.Party, etc. #
@acaderama Up to a point, sure. And she's good at negotiation by all accounts. But her problem is a perception of nothing at the core. #
@acaderama It isn't just a conservative line to say that no-one knows what she believes in. She's created that perception herself. #
@acaderama Bugger that, you can make me Chief of Staff so I can be the power behind the throne. #