Despite signs of being a fairly decent human and hopes of a departure from the worst of his predecessor, Kevin Rudd may actually be a mindless populist, judging by this kind of oil-related crazy talk:
Realising that oil is an incredibly rare, fundamentally valuable commodity that is running out fast, and therefore too valuable to keep on burning, would be what a responsible politician would do at this point.
Bitching about OPEC refusing to flood the world with one last wave of cheap oil is the popular, irresponsible option, and the one Kevin Rudd chose to go for...
"OPEC need to open the production lines to a greater extent, increase global oil supply.Anybody who has spent twenty minutes reading about the dynamics of the oil market - and I am assuming Mr Rudd has - would know that "applying to blow-torch" to OPEC to get them to "open production lines" (whatever the hell that means) will achieve absolutely nothing.“They've done it a bit in response to representations from President Bush.
“The G8 provides an opportunity to apply the blow-torch to the OPEC organisation and its time that happened.”
Realising that oil is an incredibly rare, fundamentally valuable commodity that is running out fast, and therefore too valuable to keep on burning, would be what a responsible politician would do at this point.
Bitching about OPEC refusing to flood the world with one last wave of cheap oil is the popular, irresponsible option, and the one Kevin Rudd chose to go for...
Indeed such a push is disappointing. Just as bad as Brendan "let's cut the excise tax" Nelson back at home.
At least it seems his mind is not totally broken. Just yesterday he's redeemed himself a little by announcing in Japan efforts to push for nuclear disarmament.
"KEVIN RUDD will try to invigorate efforts to curb the growth of nuclear weapons and push for eventual nuclear disarmament through the establishment of a new international commission to be co-chaired by Japan and Australia."
Yeah, I'm sure the raw power and influence of Kevin is going to convince Pakistan, Israel or China to abolish their nuclear programs....
What the fuck is the Australian prime minister doing swanning around with no-hope non-issues like this? Doesn't the country face some slightly more pressing issues closer to home?
"Doesn't the country face some slightly more pressing issues closer to home?"
yes and no. In these last two weeks Rudd has seen his first two public challenges since being elected. First, he went in too hard on the Bill Henson/child photos affair, second he has been challenged to magically produce an answer to a problem that is affecting a large number of countries.
Short answer: yes, Rudd needed to create the image that he was 'acting' on petrol prices, no matter how futile/irrelevant his actions were. Mainly to shut Nelson up and appease those who receive their news from channel 10 or Today Tonight.
The non-issue I was talking about is the nuclear disarmament, not oil, which is clearly an issue.
and if saying blatant untruths that you know are lies, just to "appease those who receive their news from channel 10 or Today Tonight" is what Kevin Rudd thinks action is, then what makes him better than Howard?
Check out what Malcolm Turnbull has written in SMH today. Gave a serve to Rudd (similar to what you said Tom) but without really offering any alternatives. He also gave an interesting argument about the need to include petrol in emissions trading.
Also, whilst nuclear disarmament might not be on anyone's agenda right now, I think it can hardly be called a non-issue. With many hailing nuclear power as an answer to global warming, the US upgrade of its missiles and the continual debate about missile shields, it is bound to become a hot topic again at any time.
Of course the timing is a little odd. Why start yet another 'initiative' right now?