• 10:48 is.gd/Eje Brisbane’s electricity box art gets a guernsey on ABC. It includes a story about Hinchliffe getting told off by an old lady #

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• 10:48 is.gd/Eje Brisbane’s electricity box art gets a guernsey on ABC. It includes a story about Hinchliffe getting told off by an old lady #

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Peter Martin links to an interesting report regarding voting trends in Australian elections since 1987. There are some very interesting results regarding whether trade unions and big business have too much power (Page 27-28) which shows that even when Howard was campaigning on the role of the unions in society and politics that people just didn’t buy it.

Page 24 tells us that in 2007 people felt more positive towards Bob Brown than Peter Costello and on Page 23 that the Greens were seen as being on the far left but were still viewed much more favourably than One Nation. People are also wising up to the folly of cutting taxes rather than investing in social services. Interestingly, parties as a whole and their policies are more important to voters than their local candidate is. To me, this is an indication that there could be support for a proportional representation system in the House of Representatives which would allow geographical representation (maintaining an electorate based system) but focus on balancing a party’s share of the seats with their vote.

The ANU have done a stellar job presenting their findings and methodology and anyone who’s interested in finding out which party is better trusted to take care of the country on certain issues or what the level of support for abortion or the republic is ought to have a look at this document.

• 21:33 is.gd/DcG ACCC investigating greenwash. #

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Someone’s taken the time and effort to create a searchable database of parliamentary proceedings in the House of Representatives going back as far as 2006 at OpenAustralia.  It’s not a complete Hansard but it does allow you to receive email notifications whenever a certain MHR speaks.  I don’t know if I want to know what Wayne Swan says whenever he opens his mouth as he’s the Treasurer rather than a backbencher and I have a feeling I’d be wading through quite a large record when I receive my daily email.

This is a good idea because Hansard’s not easily searchable and doesn’t easily lend itself to keeping track of one particular member.  Comments can be left on the site but there’s no indication that those comments will reach the member themself (or even their office) but it does allow discussion of the proceedings.  If your local member is a senior government personality, it might be interesting to compare what they say on the floor of the House with what makes the news that night (or even what gets said in their official letters to constituents).

As Kim at Larvatus Prodeo says, it’s a shame that there’s nothing from the Senate on the site because that’s where all the interesting stuff happens.  Senate Estimates are fast becoming the only real way for governments to be questioned given Nelson’s pissweak performance as Leader of the Opposition.  It’d be great to have a searchable database for the transcripts of Senate Estimates and Committees.  That way we could see just what the ALP and Coalition Senators do to improve government legislation, how the Democrats attempt to negotiate, just what Fielding does and whether or not there’s any truth to the idea that the Greens don’t negotiate when it comes to supporting government Bills.

So you may have noticed that fuel prices are getting pretty high. They’re not going down any time soon. Here in Australia, prices at the petrol pump are likely to break the $2 a litre (US$7.18 a gallon) mark within the next few months. It’s not implausible that we’ll see it reach $2.50 (US$8.97 a gallon) by the end of the year. Prices are lower in the US, but higher in Europe, but the general trend is upwards, pretty much worldwide.

Oil production is part of the issue. A big part, but not the only part. The deliberate regulation and moderation of oil production, particularly by the OPEC countries, means we’re unlikely to see the sharp fall (and massive increase in prices) that would follow a Hubbert peak in production. That regulation, combined with the discovery and exploitation of less-conventional sources - made more economical by high prices - will more than likely give rise to a production plateau rather than a peak, lasting maybe a decade or two at optimistic estimates. If global oil production is plateauing, we’ve more than likely reached it, or will in the near future, and if it’s peaking, we’re past the peak. Regardless, the cost of production isn’t going to go down, but up, which means even if production won’t fall, it won’t drive prices down.

Speculation is getting a lot of the blame at the moment, but the problem with foisting off the blame on speculation is that people buy oil when they think the price is going to go up. And there’s little to no evidence that the price won’t go up. It’s all very well to say that speculation is driving up prices, but really, that speculation simply reflects a well-founded belief that prices will go up. The worst you can really say is that speculation is driving up prices prematurely.

So oil prices are staying high at best, which means so are fuel prices. There’s not actually much that governments can practically do to counteract this. The government here in Australia’s plan to take the WA FuelWatch system nationwide isn’t going to counteract it, but nor is it really intended to. It’s really aimed more at trying to reduce the exploitation of consumers, and maybe to slow down price increases a little. Cutting taxes, excises and other such measures isn’t going to help either. At best it’s simply a band-aid solution. At worst it reduces the economic impetus to move away from fossil fuels, which is the only real solution.

• 07:59 is.gd/BEP Apparently having policy, contesting elections and calling for Mugabe to come before the Hague is a crime in Zimbabwe. #

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In her latest opinion piece for The Australian, Janet Albrechtsen tries to build a comparison between the US Supreme Court’s recent decision in Boumediene v. Bush and the human rights complaints against Mark Steyn. The thrust of her argument is that the liberty-loving hippies who support the right of terrorist suspects to challenge their detention in court are paradoxically providing no support for Mark Steyn’s right to free speech. Not surprisingly, she fails.

• 20:14 is.gd/z95 Coalition tactics: Don’t like something? Try and get its funding pulled. Today’s cause: late term abortions. #
• 20:16 is.gd/z98 WA Lib Whip resigns after leadership spill is defeated. Buswell is still on the nose. #
• 08:00 is.gd/zMm Obama calls for investment in inter-city rail to cut down on air travel. My goodness! #

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• 07:41 is.gd/yNM Greenpeace outline coal-free Australia and how we’ll get there. #

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