Again With The Baby Killing + Other Stuff

After Two Cents' repeated Andoing of themselves, they've given up and taken the blog down. I think it was for their own safety; their heads would have exploded after much more defending of their opinions. Much easier to only have them read only by people that agree with you. Better equips you to expand your mind with different viewpoints. The whole thing even scored a mention on Crikey.

Abbott Found To Be Talking Out Of Arse Once Again
...Well, at least it beats the silent treatment.

There are no reliable figures on the number of abortions being performed in Australia, the Federal Health Minister has conceded.

Tony Abbott has previously raised concerns about what he calls an "abortion epidemic", saying 100,000 pregnancies are being terminated a year.

Well done. Just... Oh, I don't know what to say to that. I want to be a politician so I can make up stories and statistics too.

Howard has stepped in and said there'd be no government-sponsored change to abortion laws. Which basically means there probably will be.

He [Howard] said it was always possible for an MP to bring forward a private member's bill, and if that happened the Coalition parties would allow a free vote.

Mr Howard said he rejected the "absurd proposition" of any trade-off between the Government toughening its attitude to abortion and Coalition MPs' support for other legislation, such as Telstra's sale.

He said if people wanted to bring forward a private member's bill, they would have to assess the views of people within the parties in Parliament.

"It's not an easy issue," he said. "I would encourage those who hold strong views on both sides of it to recognise the strength of feeling of those who support in its entirety the present arrangements - that it is ultimately a matter for a woman to decide.

"Equally I ask those who hold that view to respect the fact that people on the other side of the argument believe that they are dealing with issues relating to the termination of a life and that those views are held with equal strength".

Hmm. Interesting!

The Prime Minister has sought to cool divisions in Coalition ranks over abortion, ruling out a Government change to the law - but saying he will not block a bid by individual MPs to introduce tougher legislation.

John Howard took the middle line yesterday amid speculation that some Liberal and National MPs could introduce a private members' bill, possibly seeking tighter laws on late-term abortions in the ACT and Northern Territory as a means of pressuring the states to change their laws.

That's the SMH, with more or less the same story as The Age. They're also running an interesting story on Australia's first abortion clinic.

In Other News, Grass Is Green

"Blue or white collar, tradesperson or professional, the most important factor was whether they had a mortgage," he [ALP National Secretary, Tim Gartrell] said. "Of the 15 seats with the highest proportion of mortgages, 11 had a higher than average swing against Labor. The sentiment was best summed up by a woman in a swinging voter focus group in the middle of the campaign, who said 'I like what Mark Latham and Labor are on about, I really want a change, but I'm scared about interest rates'.

He said a second, equally potent, perception which worked against Labor was Mr Latham's relative inexperience. Many swinging voters figured they could wait three years for John Howard to go and for Peter Costello to take over as Prime Minister, before voting for a more seasoned Latham.

OH WOW. IT TOOK A MONTH TO FIGURE THAT OUT (also here but broader)?!

United States Of Australia
Howard really seems hell-bent on emulating Bush/America at every turn...

• Blind patriotism (all schools must be flying the Australian flag or we'll won't give you funding!)
• Pandering to insane right-wing religious groups (Family First)
• Tax cuts for higher income earners (last budget)
• Fear campaigns during election time (Interest rates!)
• Erosion of privacy laws (incoming anti-terrorism bills)
• Making with the wars (Iraq)
• Buying your way into Uni (incoming changes to uni laws for $100,000+ full fee-paying degrees)
• Killing off healthcare (...but... safety net!)
• Bailing on Kyoto

...And now trying to garner an international reputation of being a nation of idiots.

Universities of the future may no longer conduct research after a push by the Federal Government to establish teaching-only tertiary institutions.

The federal Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, yesterday told the vice-chancellors of the nation's 38 publicly funded universities that he wanted to amend the national protocols under which universities were established to make it easier for a diverse range of universities to exist - a move that might mean no research would be conducted at new universities, especially those in rural and regional areas.

The change is also expected to pave the way for more private universities.

It's good to see we're looking to the future.

"To be a university you must undertake research - that is the distinguishing feature."

- Carolyn Allport, President of the National Tertiary Education Union