Australia's 'kingmakers' urge new era after poll debacle

Australia's 'kingmakers' urge new era after poll debacle

Australia's 'kingmakers' urge new era after poll debacle

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:07 AM PDT

By Andrew Taylor

CANBERRA: Australia's "kingmaker" MPs called today for a new era of consensual politics, sweeping aside a century-old adversarial system, after disillusioned voters snubbed both major parties at weekend polls.

The three MPs, expected to decide Australia's next government in the first hung parliament since 1940, dismissed the traditional model pitting Labor against the Liberal/National coalition as "two dogs barking".

Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter, an unlikely trio representing rural areas, laid out the ambitious plans ahead of talks with caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard and coalition chief Tony Abbott.

Spoiled ballots were up sharply in Saturday's election and the environment-focused Greens won a record share of the vote as electors turned away from the dominant parties after lacklustre campaigning with few new initiatives.

"One of the things we've done in this country is probably create one of the worst examples of the Westminster system, where it's actually become too confrontational," Windsor told the National Press Club in Canberra.

"There's an expectation, and even within the media, that it will be the two dogs barking, and that's what the reporting is made of."

The independents have been thrust into the spotlight after Australia's closest election in decades failed to give either Gillard's Labor or the coalition a majority, leaving them relying on unallied MPs.

The Australian Electoral Commission's running tally gave Labor 71 seats and the coalition 72, both short of the 76 needed for a majority, with counting set to continue into next week.

The Greens won one seat, their first at national polls, while a fourth independent appears to have been elected in Tasmania. Three seats are undecided with the ballot coming down to postal and absentee votes.

"The people of Australia have spoken and they've decided that other people are going to have a say here. It's no longer a Coles-Woolworths democracy," Katter told journalists, referring to Australia's supermarket duopoly.

Surprise meeting

The independents signalled their intent by demanding a surprise meeting with the heads of Australia's Treasury and finance department to work out a detailed cost analysis of pre-election promises by both parties.

And Windsor warned he would not support either party if he did not see enough "goodwill", potentially sending Australia's 14 million voters back to the polls in a matter of months.

"If there is no goodwill displayed by both leaders and their party members, and if we can't see a future in terms of some longevity... of the parliament itself, I won't support either of them," he said.

Katter, a renegade known for his forthright style, wants greater protection for banana and sugarcane farmers, while Windsor wants better water supplies in his parched electorate and Oakeshott favours carbon trading to ease pollution.

But all three have expressed a desire for stable government and better broadband Internet, which could favour Labor and its project to wire 93% of homes with high-speed fibre-optic cable.

"I've bought and sold cattle for a large portion of my life, and I'd like to think I could drive a deal," Katter said.

Greens MP Adam Bandt said his party's achievement in winning about 11.5% of the vote showed voters wanted a carbon trading scheme, which Labor promised at the last election but failed to deliver.

Australia has been ruled by Labor and the Liberals or Nationals since World War II. The country last had a crisis on this scale in 1975, when the queen's representative dismissed an elected prime minister.

The poll was held just eight weeks after Gillard replaced elected leader Kevin Rudd in a Labor party revolt, becoming Australia's first woman prime minister.

- AFP

Australian teacher rapped over terror assignment

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:05 AM PDT

SYDNEY: An Australian teacher was reprimanded after giving students an assignment to plan an extremist attack designed to inflict maximum casualties, officials said today.

The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School class in Western Australia were told to plot against "an unsuspecting Australian community", with the goal "to kill the most innocent civilians in order to get your message across".

The students, aged between 15 and 17, had to explain their choice of victim, location, time and weapon, as well as describe the effects their method would have on the human body.

The assignment, which was designed to test pupils' ability to apply what they had learned about terrorism in a society and environment lesson to "real life", was quickly withdrawn after an angry backlash from parents.

"It was certainly an inappropriate method of exploring the issue of conflict and had the potential to offend and disturb parents and impressionable students," said Western Australia state education minister Liz Constable.

Sharyn O'Neill, head of the state's education department, said it was "inappropriate, it was insensitive and rightly, people are upset".

She apologised to one family in particular with a girl in the class who had lost a relative in the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

"We are very sorry for the pain and discomfort that this situation has caused," said O'Neill. "Certainly no ill was meant by this assessment task."

School principal Terry Martino said the teacher was "relatively inexperienced" and it was a "well-intentioned but misguided attempt to engage the students".

- AFP

Philippines probes blame for botched hijack bus rescue

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 01:09 AM PDT

MANILA (Reuters) - Commanders of a botched rescue of a hijacked Philippines tourist bus have been ordered on leave and weapons from the raid tested to determine responsibility for the deaths of eight hostages, police said on Wednesday.


Suicide truck bomber kills 11, wounds 34 in Baghdad

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 01:09 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide truck bomber killed at least 11 people and wounded 34 others on Wednesday in an attack on a police station in the Iraqi capital, security sources said.


SPECIAL REPORT: World's workshop heads to inland China

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 01:09 AM PDT

ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters) - In a vast muddy cornfield scarred with the tracks of heavy vehicles, two young engineers pore over a construction blueprint showing a grid of 100 rectangular factory blocks.


China survivors heard 'jolts' before crash

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:18 AM PDT

The flight recorder from a plane that crashed in northwest China has been found, the state news agency Xinhua has said.


11 killed in suicide attack on police in Baghdad: ministry

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:50 AM PDT

BAGHDAD, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - A suicide attacker blew up his vehicle at a police station in northeast Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 11 people, including women and children, and wounding dozens, security and medical officials said.

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Former US president on rescue mission to N.Korea: reports

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:49 AM PDT

SEOUL, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - Former US president Jimmy Carter was heading to North Korea Wednesday on a mission to win the release of an American serving eight years of hard labour in the isolated communist state, media reports said.

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Prada Japan hits back at ex-employee over harassment lawsuit

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:48 AM PDT

TOKYO, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - The Japanese unit of Italian fashion house Prada has launched a countersuit claiming defamation against a former employee who is suing the company for alleged sexual harassment and unfair dismissal.

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Life is sacrosanct and must be venerated

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:43 AM PDT

Venerate life and care for it. Only by doing so, can we see the beauty of life and cheer for it.

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Proton upbeat new models will boost sales

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:29 AM PDT

National carmaker, Proton Holdings Bhd, believes the new model that will replace Proton Waja and the facelift model to be launched in December will boost proton car sales this year.

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Axiata records higher Q2 profit

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:28 AM PDT

Axiata Group Bhd has reported a higher pre-tax profit of RM970.97 million for its second quarter ended June 30, 2010, compared to RM878.62 million in the same period last year.

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Company loses suit against Umno

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:27 AM PDT

A merchandise supplier which sued Umno for RM218 million for non-payment over the supply of election paraphernalia during the 2004 general election, lost its appeal to reinstate its civil suit against the party.

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Panning for gold

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:15 AM PDT

A gold prospector searches for gold in a river in the Napf Area in Switzerland. Gold panners typically dig up buckets full of grit from the riverbed, which they then run through a sluice before the heavier sediments trapped in the metal contraption are slowly washed out in a pan, separating out the gold specks.

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Suicide car bomber kills 11, wounds 34 in Baghdad

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:37 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed at least 11 people and wounded 34 others on Wednesday in an attack near a police station in the Iraqi capital, security sources said.


It's time to speak up

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 11:53 PM PDT

If we do not speak up against tyranny and oppression, then the freedoms that we enjoy will eventually disappear.

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Hostage debacle latest black mark on Philippine police

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 11:28 PM PDT

MANILA, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - Blunders in the deadly end of the Philippine's hostage crisis are just the latest black mark for its police force, which has long been hounded by accusations of torture, murder, corruption and ineptitude.

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Schools reopen in China mudslide disaster town

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 11:26 PM PDT

BEIJING, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - Primary and middle school students in a mudslide-battered area in northwest China began classes Wednesday, three weeks after the disaster that killed more than 1,400 people, state media said.

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N.Korea's military swears oath of allegiance

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 11:25 PM PDT

SEOUL, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - North Korea's military leaders have sworn an oath of allegiance this week at a highly symbolic site connected with the dynastic succession of the communist country's ruling family.

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Hong Kong Filipinos fear backlash over hostage bloodbath

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 11:24 PM PDT

HONG KONG, Wednesday 25 August 2010 (AFP) - Hong Kong's Filipino community on Wednesday voiced fears of retribution following the bloody end to a hostage drama in the heart of Manila this week.

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