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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s electoral victory earlier this week heralds another period of weak government, hounded by internal factional jockeying. In a victory speech that was more conciliation than crowing, the Prime Minister admonished that, “it is vital that this Parliament work” and promised to work with crossbenchers “consistent with [the Liberal’s] policies”.
So, in all the election excitement, I lost my voice. But, never voiceless, I made do. Here, in illustrated format, What the election gridlock means for Australia's environmental policy. Best watched to The Pretenders, My city was gone.
Attention to national issues in Australia's federal election campaign was momentarily diverted overseas this week, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull became embroiled in the Brexit debate, pending the UK’s vote on continued European Union membership next Thursday.
The next Federal election is about nothing if not public policy. I don’t blame you for thinking, ‘Hello, Captain Obvious’. But let’s just take a moment to marinate on that. For Australia’s estimated 600,000 Not for Profit organisations, it’s ultimately not the political wranglings, the budget janglings or bureaucratic wranglings that matter. It’s the policy.
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| The NFP sector will play a central role in election issues. |
‘The business of business is business’. Or so goes
the urban legend-like paraphrasing of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton
Friedman’s famous 1970 diatribe on corporate social responsibility.
In reality, Friedman’s New York Times Magazine quote was a bit more complicated and far
more censorious. Castigating those CEOs who had committed to relatively new
practices of corporate social performance, he wrote that devotees were ‘…preaching
pure and unadulterated socialism. Businessmen
[emphasis added] who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual
forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past
decades.’
There was a collective sigh of relief throughout New South Wales and Queensland in response to energy giant AGL’s official statement that, “It has taken a strategic decision that exploration and production of natural gas assets will no longer be a core business for the company due to the volatility of commodity prices and long development lead times.”
