Rudd takes tough stand on boat people

This is not entirely new. Beazley (former Labor leader) also supported Howard over the Tampa incident. The workers who still vote Labor are generally hostile to illegal immigration

Labor leader Kevin Rudd says he will take a tough stance on border security, including turning back boat people. In an interview with The Australian on Friday, Mr Rudd said a Labor government would take asylum seekers rescued from leaking vessels to Christmas Island, but would turn back seaworthy boats. He also said Labor would not lift the current intake of African refugees. The measures bring Labor broadly into line with the coalition's policies.

"You would turn them back," Mr Rudd said of boats approaching Australia. He said Labor believed in an orderly immigration system enforced by deterrence. A Labor government would aim to deter asylum seekers by using the threat of detention and Australia's close ties with Indonesia. "You cannot have anything that is orderly if you allow people who do not have a lawful visa in the country to roam free," he told The Australian. "That's why you need a detention system. I know that's politically contentious, but one follows from the other. "Deterrence is effective through the detention system, but also your preparedness to take appropriate action as the vessels approach Australian waters on the high seas."

Mr Rudd's stand comes as a boatload of Indonesians were pulled from a leaking vessel in the Timor Sea earlier this week.

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Environment Minister Peter Garrett gagged on climate change

Former Greenie gets no respect from his colleagues. Not knowing what you are talking about does sometimes matter. The signal clearly is that the new government will be only light green, with tokenism being its main Green feature

First Peter Garrett had the crucial issue of climate change yanked from his new environment portfolio, now the new minister has been sidelined from answering questions on the matter in parliament. In a further embarrassment for Mr Garrett, it was yesterday revealed he will not represent Climate Change Minister Senator Penny Wong during Question Time in the Lower House. Questions in the House of Representatives about Senator Wong's role will instead be fielded by Treasurer Wayne Swan.

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said the extraordinary move showed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had no confidence in the gaffe-prone Mr Garrett's ability as a minister. "I fail to understand why in fact Prime Minister Rudd does not have the confidence in Mr Garrett to be taking questions on climate change," Mr Nelson said. "It was always very interesting to see Mr Garrett attempt to answer questions."

Ms Wong leapt to Mr Garrett's defence, saying he had not been gagged: "Peter has a very clear voice in government, he is a Cabinet minister." She argued that climate change was as much an economic issue as an environmental one. "I think it's quite a good thing, if we reflect that in our representing arrangements - but I wouldn't read too much into it."

The Government yesterday defended sending a quarter of its Cabinet to the climate conference in Bali. Mr Rudd and a record four frontbenchers will attend the UN conference, which will attract delegates from around 190 nations and is designed to establish a road map for international climate change action. Ms Wong said the large Australian delegation highlighted the nation's moment in the sun on global climate politics following the Government's historic decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. "That gives us a leadership position and we intend to use that," she said. "There are meetings specifically for the trade and finance ministers of the world."

Mr Rudd will lead Australia's delegation. He will be joined by Ms Wong as well as Mr Garrett, Mr Swan and Trade Minister Simon Crean, who will attend separate trade and finance meetings over the next fortnight. "We recognise this as an extremely important conference - Australia has signalled its intention to play a leadership role," Ms Wong said. "That really reflects the fact the world is coming to the view that this is an issue of international economic significance." The new Government has also committed to introducing a green car fleet.

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Australian economy grows 4.3 per cent

A great credit to the economic management of the former Howard government. This is one of the highest growth rates among the mature economies. What will it be like in 12 month's time?

The economy grew by a seasonally adjusted 4.3 per cent over the year to September, keeping pressure on interest rates, analysts said today. Over the September quarter, gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 1.0 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today. That compared with a downwardly revised rise of 0.7 per cent in the June quarter. The median market forecast was for a quarterly rise of 1.0 per cent and an annual growth rate of 4.8 per cent.

Household final consumption expenditure rose 1.2 per cent in the quarter and was up 4.5 per cent over the year to September, adjusted. Total investment in dwellings increased 1.4 per cent in the quarter, adjusted, to be up 4.8 per cent in the year to September. Domestic final demand grew 0.8 per cent in the quarter and was 5.5 per cent higher over the year, adjusted.

JPMorgan economist Jarrod Kerr said the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) was still likely to raise interest rates in February. "We're still growing at the pace that will be above potential which points to pressure in the pipeline," he said. "We think the RBA - while they left rates on hold today and there's uncertainty in the global outlook and the financial sector - we think they'll have to remain vigilant on inflation. We think their job's not done yet and there's another tightening in February."

The Reserve Bank today left the official cash rate unchanged at 6.75 per cent though it warned of rising inflation. Mr Kerr said economic growth was still growing despite capacity constraints. "Economic growth (annually) is at 4.3 per cent. That's a great number when you consistently grow at 3.25 to 3.5 per cent," he said. "We've had economic growth uninterrupted for 17 years. There's capacity constraints, food prices rising and petrol prices are also surging. The cost of wages are expected to increase. There's inflation coming through on all fronts."

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Crooked Victoria police do their best to betray an informant

POLICE have spent an estimated $2 million in a failed legal battle lasting more than a year to force a key underworld witness in the case against slain gangland boss Mario Condello out of the witness protection program. The $2 million is double what Victorian police had agreed to spend on the witness, known only as 166, under its original deal, which was negotiated when he first entered witness protection in 2004. Victoria's Court of Appeal late last week rejected a Victoria Police application that the force be indemnified against having to pay 166's legal costs, believed to be more than $400,000. Police command will also have to pick up the force's own legal bill, estimated at about $500,000, for a string of Supreme Court hearings.

The legal fees are on top of more than $1 million estimated to have been spent by police after they were ordered by the Supreme Court to reinstate an around-the-clock guard on 166 and his partner at a safe house for more than 12 months while the court cases were heard. 166's successful battle to stay in witness protection was the first legal challenge of its kind in Victoria, and highlighted serious flaws in the state's witness protection laws.

166, who was working as a police informer when Condello allegedly tried to hire him as a hitman to murder underworld rivals Carl and George Williams for $300,000 in 2004, was reinstated in the witness protection program in September on the orders of the Office of Police Integrity. 166 and his partner were first told in June last year, four months after Condello was gunned down outside his Brighton home on the eve of his trial on conspiracy to murder charges, that they were being terminated from the witness protection program because they were no longer at risk. But 166 argued that he continued to be a potential target for breaking the mafia's code of silence and turning informer, claiming there was a six-figure bounty on his head.

Around-the-clock protection was withdrawn in June last year, but was reinstated on the orders of a Supreme Court judge while 166 first appealed to Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon and OPI director George Brouwer against his termination. When those appeals failed, 166 mounted a Supreme Court challenge to the decision. He lost that challenge in March, but successfully appealed against the decision in June, with the Appeal Court ordering the OPI to reconsider its decision to terminate 166.

When the OPI upheld the termination in July for a second time, 166 successfully appealed again to the Supreme Court, which ruled the OPI should reconsider the case for a third time. Mr Brouwer ordered in September that 166 and his partner be reinstated, after taking into account new information.

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