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John Quiggin 
JQ. Reprise? Job offer. Polite no? Or have you entirely moved on?
“It’s the first thing that we could actually do – to reinstate the funding and the scientific credibility of the Climate Change Authority,” Dr Phelps told Fairfax Media. “It’s very important that we do have an independent authority looking at the evidence and providing advice to governments.”
https://johnquiggin.com/2017/03/23/my-resignation-from-the-climate-change-authority/
A commenter in the resignation thread suggested;
“It’s about time we did what the Dutch did and sue our Government”
Does anyone have any idea if suing the government is feasible or happening?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/24/dutch-government-ordered-cut-carbon-emissions-landmark-ruling
But but atmosphere!
Chernaik v. Brown, will be presented before Oregon Court of Appeals. “With respect to the atmosphere, the court questioned “whether the atmosphere is a ‘natural resource’ at all.”
http://climatecasechart.com/case/chernaik-v-kitzhaber/
If the court questioned whether the atmosphere is a natural resource perhaps they need to explain how it came to be.
It would seem we still have a long way to go before all our natural resources are protected for the common wealth. And if this our top -5 – court actions in Australia, the law needs changing. A bill of rights would help. http://envlaw.com.au/top-5-landmark-environmental-legal-cases-in-australia/
” Documents such as court pleadings show how the lawyers representing the parties framed the case. Expert reports, maps and pictures that were central to the trial process are typically not reproduced in the court judgment.”
Thanks for envlaw Dr Chris McGrath, LLB (Hons), BSc, LLM, PhD, a barrister in Queensland practising in environmental law and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute.
The minister wants a “National Interest” test for academic grants. How, pray tell, is a minister qualified to examine a grant for this? Say I applied for an academic grant to study evidence of earlier arrival of Aboriginal people to the Australian continent than is currently accepted; would that pass the national interest test? Or, consider the government’s rather militant resistance to climate science and its findings with respect to Anthropogenic Global Warming and its causes; would further such research pass the national interest test? These are rhetorical questions, I fear.
The minister wants a “National Interest” test for academic grants.
This is a sure sign of a government in an advanced state of decrepitude. Can’t progress a policy agenda with a big election loss looming? No worries, just do the culture war on wrong-thinking academics. The late Howard government also did this, with the terminally ill Paddy McGuiness appointed as the Czar of academic grant applications. PPMcG got to spend the last months of his life venting his prejudices and accumulated resentments and the minister (I think it was Brendan Nelson) go to indulge himself as well. Simon Birmingham is on the same path. All that remains is for him to appoint Bettina Arndt as his adviser.
Dan Teehan not Birmingham.
Australian Treaty National Interest Analyses 1996 to 2018
https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/nia/
9 NIA’s done this year re International treaties.
Search without treatises and everything has national interest attached at austlii.
Fun fact: duckduckgo put henery kissingers ‘national interest’ as first links. Google… today’s news and relevant articles.
Attn tech heads, geeks, nudgers. History tomorrow at 2pm esdst.
abc.net.au/news/2018-10-31/mit-launches-halloween-game-where-internet-controls-real-person/10443768
https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/beeme/overview/
Amazing. And scary.
20yrs ago id be on to this. I had one of the first vr machines (driven by 2 amigas in paralell) and first colour copier compositing digital photos. Anyone reading this and not informing those young tech heads will be reprimanded at the next chrismas party for not informing them of this event.
Advert for my take on the election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil: ******samefacts.com/2018/10/international-affairs/the-queen-of-hearts/
Brazilians abroad can vote. Even those in Australia, insulated from Brazil’s economic crisis and crime wave, voted for him.
Interesting post here:
http://econospeak.blogspot.com/
What happens when people realise the money has no backing?
Ross Cameron has been sacked from Sky News for making racist comments.
I don’t know what he said but it would have to be pretty bad to get sacked from Sky News.
Ross Cameron used the expression “slanty-eyed, yellow skinned Chinese”.