Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard gets an A plus on report

The Australian Graduate School of Management released the report to mark International Women's Day. Gillard is Australia's first female prime minister.

The School gave her an A plus for conflict management, legislative change, and her relations with the public service. The report applauded Gillard for her ability in managing a minority government and being able to pass a great deal of legislation in a short time in spite of being in a minority.

However many are critical of Gillard. Her handling of a mining tax and carbon tax have been widely criticized. The report said that Gillard was judged more harshly than her male counterparts.

Recently Kevin Rudd resigned from the government and plans to run against her for leadership of the Labour Party. I doubt he would give Gillard an A plus. He wants to give her the boot! For more see this ABC article .

Australian French Leaders stress support for Afghan mission

This is from yahoo. I assume the US will welcome this. NATO is pushing hard for more support and declarations of support. It is not clear if Sarkozy is going to let French troops serve in more dangerous areas though. The mission is not popular in France. Kevin Rudd seems to be moving more towards the same sort of support of the US as Howard did except for the Iraq mission. Although Rudd signed on to Kyoto that is about all he has done on the environment. It seems he is mollifying Bush in his support for the Afghan mission.

Australian, French leaders in Kabul to stress support Sat Dec 22, 2:02 PM ET



KABUL (AFP) - The leaders of France and Australia paid surprise visits to Afghanistan Saturday, stressing support for efforts against terrorism after the bloodiest year of a Taliban-led insurgency.



French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met their Afghan counterpart separately in whistlestop visits and also held talks with the commander of a NATO-led military force, US General Dan McNeill.

Sarkozy told journalists who travelled with him from Paris that the international community could not afford to lose the "war against terrorism" in Afghanistan.

The various nations with troops here must be united and committed in their efforts to build Afghanistan so it can withstand insurgents linked with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, he said.

"It is absolutely necessary that Afghanistan does not become a state which falls in the hands of terrorists, as we saw with the Taliban," he said.

The Taliban were removed from power in late 2001 in a US-led invasion weeks after the September 11 attacks by the Al-Qaeda network, which had training camps here and is still allied with the Afghan militant movement.

Sarkozy said his visit, on which he was accompanied by his defence and foreign ministers and other officials, was to assess the situation in Afghanistan.

France would "take a number of decisions" in the coming weeks, Sarkozy said, adding it would "reinforce" the personnel it has here to train the Afghan army and police.

France has about 1,600 troops serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that is involved in efforts to defeat a Taliban-led insurgency and build Afghanistan's security forces.

Australia has about 900, most of them in the south-central province of Uruzgan -- one of the most volatile in Afghanistan and a former Taliban stronghold -- where Rudd started his trip before travelling up to Kabul.

He told reporters after talks with Karzai that his country was committed to Afghanistan for the "long haul."

"Over the next several months, I would also be encouraging other friends and partners and allies in NATO to continue their commitments to this country and where possible extend them," he said.

Australia has denied media reports last weekend that it would keep its troops in Afghanistan longer than the scheduled end of their mission in August next year, saying no decision had been made yet.

But Rudd's Labor Party had "indicated for some time that they would consider further reasonable requests for military assistance in Afghanistan," a spokeswoman said then.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is expected in the coming days, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates also visited in recent weeks.

The flurry of trips comes at the tail end of the bloodiest of the Taliban-led insurgency, with around 6,000 people dead -- most of them rebels -- and a spike in suicide and other bombings.

The Australian, a daily newspaper, reported Monday that Rudd's new government had warned NATO and its allies that they would lose the war against hardline Taliban forces unless they urgently changed tactics.

The United States has also announced that a review is under way.

Karzai has been calling for more focus on militant bases outside of Afghanistan, notably in Pakistan, while there has been increased emphasis this year on training the Afghan forces and promoting reconciliation.

A NATO summit in Bucharest in April is set to review efforts to help Afghanistan end the insurgency and establish democracy

Australia urges US to sign on to Kyoto

The US may be the only industrialized country to refuse the binding targets of Kyoto but Canada has signed on only to do nothing much under the Liberals while emissions rose and now under the Conservatives we have a follow the US lead backwards regime. At least Australia has signed on to Kyoto and not followed the US lead as Howard did.
It seems that while the US and other developed countries want the developing countries to sign on to emission reductions they are unwilling to provide the clean technologies or cash to help them adjust to climate change requirements.

Rudd urges the United States to ratify Kyoto
The Associated PressPublished: December 5, 2007




BALI, Indonesia: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia urged the United States on Wednesday to follow his country's lead and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, as divisions emerged over what a future international climate change pact should look like.

Rudd signed documents this week to formally adopt the Kyoto accord, reversing a decade of resistance and leaving the United States as the only industrialized country to refuse its binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

"Our position vis-à-vis Kyoto is clear cut, and that is that all developed and developing countries need to be part of the global solution," the newly elected prime minister told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network in Australia.

"And therefore we do need to see the United States as a full ratification state."

His comments further put the United States on the defensive at the Bali Climate Change conference, where nearly 190 nations aim to launch two years of serious negotiations on a future regime to head off dangerous climate change.
Birth centennial of Lin Biao, once second only to Mao, a nonevent

Scientists warn that a strong new deal is needed to ward off everything from severe droughts and floods, to melting ice caps and rising sea levels, to deaths linked to heat waves and disease.

The 175-nation Kyoto Protocol of 1997 requires 36 industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of "greenhouse gases" - carbon dioxide and some other industrial, agricultural and transportation byproducts - by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The United States says it wants to be part of the negotiations on a follow-up accord but refuses to endorse mandatory cuts in emissions favored by the European Union.

Although the Bali conference is in its early days, differences already are emerging mostly over what should go into the "Bali road map" which will lay out the subjects for discussions. Japan, for one, offered up a proposal that does not include targets, while the EU has come out with a detailed wish list that includes demands for industrialized countries to take the lead in cutting emissions.

Meanwhile, delegates and activists say that poor countries led by the Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, have been kicking up a storm over demands that rich countries provide them with clean technologies and funds to adapt to the impacts of global warming.

Rudd's Labor Party swept to power last month, ending more than 11 years of conservative rule under former Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally of President George W. Bush.

Signing the Kyoto documents was Rudd's first official act. The policy switch was greeted by applause at the Bali conference when it opened.

New Australian PM signals Iraq pullout.

I don't know why Rudd would be called a Tone Clone. Perhaps it is his Third Way policies modeled after UK labor. However, Rudd will pull out from Iraq and will sign onto Kyoto moves that will hardly please Bush et al. I doubt that Blair is a republican. I expect that he supported the monarchy!! This is from the Times on Line.

New Australian PM signals Iraq pulloutPaul Ham, Sydney
AUSTRALIA’S new prime minister Kevin Rudd will mark his arrival on the international stage by announcing the withdrawal of his country’s combat troops from Iraq and signing the Kyoto treaty on climate change.

Rudd, a republican and former diplomat, swept to power as his Labor party stormed to a landslide victory in yesterday’s elections.

Official figures showed Labor had won more than 53% of the vote, compared with just under 47% for the ruling Liberal coalition of John Howard, who had served four terms as prime minister but lost his seat. Computer projections forecast that Labor would secure 86 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

Rudd, 50, who has been called a “Tone Clone” for his similarities to Tony Blair on policy, told cheering supporters that the electorate had decided to “write a new page in our nation’s history”.

Howard, who dominated Australia’s political scene for more than a decade, was accused of misreading the mood of voters who wanted change despite a booming economy.

Clearly shaken by the scale of the defeat Howard, 68, told demoralised supporters that he may soon retire. “This is a great democracy and I want to wish Mr Rudd well,” Howard said. “We bequeath to him a nation that is stronger and prouder and more prosperous than it was 11½ years ago.”

While Howard is a monarchist, Rudd favours a plebiscite on the question of whether the Queen should remain head of state. As one of his first acts, Rudd plans to bring home most Australian troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, both deeply unpopular wars.

Gordon Brown telephoned from the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, to congratulate Rudd, who emphasised his determination to reverse Australia’s long-standing resistance to the Kyoto treaty

and told Brown he would work hard to achieve a fresh agreement at an international climate change conference in Bali next month.

Rudd’s deputy prime minister will be Julia Gillard, 46, who emigrated with her parents from Barry, South Glamorgan, 41 years ago.

The daughter of a retired policeman, she trained as a lawyer and first came to public attention as leader of the Australian Union of Students. She is now the most powerful woman in Australian politics.

Australia's PM-elect Rudd vows better global ties

Perhaps Rudd will better ties with some other countries but the US ties may be strained to say the least. Rudd will sign on to Kyoto and withdraw troops from Iraq. Domestically he will have more pro-labor parties. Labor is also in power in the six Australian states.


Australia's PM-elect Rudd vows better global ties
Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:02 PM EST



By Rob Taylor

BRISBANE (Reuters) - Incoming Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, has pledged closer Australian ties with overseas allies and unity at home after ending 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard.

Rudd, 50, presented himself as a new-generation leader by promising to pull about 500 frontline Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, further isolating Washington on both issues.

"To our friends and allies around the world, I look forward as the next Prime Minister of Australia to working with them in dealing with the great challenges which our world now faces," he told cheering supporters at a victory party late on Saturday.

The surge to Labor left Howard battling to win even his own parliamentary seat, which he has held since 1974. He was in danger of becoming the first prime minister since 1929 to lose his constituency.

As part of Rudd's promised "fresh thinking," he also teamed with a female deputy, former lawyer Julia Gillard, who will be Australia's first woman deputy prime minister.

"King Kevin the new conqueror," said the Sun-Herald newspaper in Howard's home town of Sydney on Sunday. "It's Labor in a Ruddslide," said the national newspaper the Australian.

Up to six government ministers, including Howard, looked likely to be ejected in only the sixth change of government since World War Two. Labor is set to hold up to 86 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

Rudd is expected to forge closer ties with China and other Asian nations and has said he wants a more independent voice in foreign policy, with past Labor governments more supportive of an energetic United Nations and global organizations.

U.S. TIES

But he has also promised to maintain Australia's close alliance with the United States as the cornerstone of Australia's foreign and strategic policy.

"Rudd will have to open negotiations soon with the United States about the withdrawal of Australia's combat troops from Iraq. This is a delicate operation because it will be Labor's first testing of the alliance," veteran political commentator Michelle Grattan wrote in the Sun-Herald.

President George W. Bush congratulated Rudd on his election victory, and praised Howard's leadership.

"The United States and Australia have long been strong partners and allies and the president looks forward to working with this new government to continue our historic relationship," the White House said in a statement.

Rudd promised to sign the Kyoto climate pact immediately and lead his country's delegation to next month's U.N. climate summit in Bali, which is expected to kick-start talks on a post-Kyoto deal to slash greenhouse gas emissions globally.

He also pledged unity at home, vowing to shut down controversial offshore detention of illegal immigrants and to take care of Aborigines in the wake of a conservative intervention to seize control of remote indigenous communities with troops and police.

"I will be a prime minister for all Australians, a prime minister for indigenous Australians, Australians who have been born here and Australians who have come here from afar," he said.

Family Minister Mal Brough, responsible for the Aboriginal intervention to stop rampant sexual abuse of children and "rivers of grog" in remote outback towns, was a high-profile casualty of the Labor win, losing his Queensland seat.

HOSTILE SENATE

But Labor could be frustrated by a hostile upper house. The conservatives will have a Senate majority until July next year, possibly delaying Rudd's agenda and his promise to dump unpopular labor laws which supercharged his victory.

Centre-left Labor will have to negotiate with diverse minor Senate parties including the left-leaning Australian Greens and the conservative, Christian values Family First party.

The election was fought mainly on domestic issues, with Labor cashing in on anger at labor laws and rising interest rates which put home owners under financial pressure at a time when Australia's economy is booming.

The result puts Labor in power nationally and in all of Australia's six states and two territories. The lord mayor of the northern city of Brisbane is now the senior-ranking elected official in Howard's Liberal Party.

Outgoing Foreign Minister Alexander Downer glumly said it had been hard for the conservative government to present itself as fresh and new after more than 11 years, despite 16 years of economic expansion and unemployment at 33-year lows.

"I think at the end of the day, people just thought it was time for a change," Downer told local television on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by James Grubel in Sydney, editing by Roger Crabb)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.

Australian Election Report

This is from AFP via Google. If the polls continue to reflect the gap between Howard and Labor, Bush will lose one of his most loyal running dogs. He will also find Australian troops being withdrawn from Iraq and another country signing on to Kyoto. Of course at the same time Bush already has a new soul mate in Harper, although Harper started off yelping as if hurt by Bush's treatment of Arar.

Australian PM debates Iraq, climate change with challenger Rudd


SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday engaged in a testy debate with his Labor Party opponent Kevin Rudd on Iraq and climate change in their only face-off before the November 24 election.

After more than 11 years in office, Howard is fighting for political survival against the centre-left Rudd, who has taken a commanding lead against the conservative incumbent in opinion polls.

Howard and Rudd faced 90 minutes of questions from journalists and each other at Parliament House in Canberra in the only scheduled debate of the six-week election campaign.

The debate was expected to centre on the crucial issue of tax cuts, with Howard promising to deliver 34 billion dollars (30.4 billion US) in cuts against Rudd's offering of 31 billion dollars in sweeteners.

But the war in Iraq and the problem of climate change, two key points of divergence between the parties, were the most hotly contested issues of the wide-ranging debate.

Howard, a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush who committed troops from the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq, danced around a question on whether Australia's involvement in the war had increased the terror risk.

He said he believed the threat was "very real" and there was no escaping it anywhere in the world as terrorists have no respect for religion, nationality or anything else.

"That's why they will attack whether we are in or out of Iraq," Howard said.

Rudd, who has committed a future Labor government to a staged withdrawal of troops, said the case for going to war in the oil-rich country was never strong enough.

"On the issue of Iraq itself, it stands as the greatest single error of Australian national security and foreign policy decisionmaking since Vietnam," he said.

Rudd, a former diplomat who has accused the 68-year-old Howard of lagging behind on the issues of climate change and broadband technology, renewed his pledge to sign the Kyoto Protocol if elected.

"How could it be that we're one of the only two developed countries in the world to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?" he asked.

"I don't understand, I just don't get it."

Howard, a previous climate change sceptic whose government has refused to ratify Kyoto saying it would put Australia's economy at a disadvantage, said a new framework was needed to combat the global problem.

"At the moment, Kyoto doesn't effectively cover the United States and China -- that's a bit like having an international World Cup in cricket without Australia and India," Howard said.

The debate was initially polite but 35 minutes in, the contenders engaged in a slanging match over Australian education funding with Howard arguing that figures contained in a recent OECD report, and quoted by Rudd, were not up-to-date and terming one of Rudd's responses "pathetic".

After accusing Rudd of trying to mislead the public, Howard told the Labor leader: "You were wrong and you knew it and you shouldn't have said it."

Rudd, 50, had argued for a series of debates throughout the six-week campaign as new policies are revealed, but Howard insisted that only one televised debate be held.

The latest polls have Rudd, who needs to win some 16 seats to gain control of the government, ahead of Howard by 54 percent to 46 percent.

But the Labor leader maintains that winning the top job from the man who has won the past four elections would be akin to climbing Mount Everest.

"This will be a really tight race... it will go down to the wire," he said ahead of the debate.