The Humiliation of Tony Abbott

Hosting a G20 summit is supposed to be prestigious.  You get the leaders of the world's largest economies to come to your country, to gather in your town, to discuss the great problems of the day.   As host you even get to set the agenda for the summit.  You get to steer all those big wigs and they're supposed to follow your lead.

Now, following the G20 pow wow in Australia, we may have come away with the "Brisbane Rule."  This applies in the situation where the host is a total dick. It operates to override the host's prerogative on setting the summit agenda.  It's sort of like saying, "Look, we didn't come here to put up with childishness."

Case in point.  Tony Abbott, inveterate fossil fueler that he is, struggled and strained mightily to thwart any discussion of climate change.  He resisted every request to place climate change on his agenda.  He had the backing of Canada and Saudi Arabia.  Three peas in a pod.  Nice one, Canada.

And so the grownups at the summit introduced the Brisbane Rule and discussed the climate change issue anyway.  To avoid completely humiliating their host they agreed their discussions would be behind closed doors.  All of this set the tone for the leaders' communique, a process one official described as "trench warfare."

Over the objections of Australia, Canada and Saudi Arabia, the communique calls for phasing out of "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."

The communique included references to taking practical measures to combat global warming and an explicit endorsement of the climate fund.

As revealed by Fairfax Media, the communique includes a line: "We reaffirm our support for mobilising finance for adaptation and mitigation such as the Green Climate Fund."

The inclusion of a detailed passage on climate change comes despite the issue not being on the formal agenda of the G20 summit and Mr Abbott's insistence that the focus of discussions should be on economic reform.

Mr Abbott has said previously he opposed any financial contribution to the climate fund, which was reportedly described in a Cabinet document as a measure that amounted to "socialism masquerading as environmentalism".

The Green Climate Fund aims to assist poor nations combat climate change and relies primarily on funding from governments and private firms in industrialised countries. US president Barack Obama announced the US would devote $US3 billion to the fund, before he made a rallying call on Saturday for global action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Japan pledged it would contribute $US1.5 billion to the climate fund on Sunday, taking the total commitment of nations so far to about $US8 billion. The fund wants to raise $US10-15 billion by the end of the month. 

What a novel idea, "polluter pays."  Yet even the paltry amount proposed for the Green Climate Fund sends miscreants like Abbott and Harper reeling.

It's a safe bet that Tony Abbott wasn't sad to see his visitors leave Australia.  The writing's on the wall.  It's not just environmentalists and the young any more. Now even their peers see Abbott and Harper as pariahs. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Simpson writes that, for Harper, international opprobrium is just water off his oily plumage.

Harper Chasing Votes Down Under

"Get Out of Ukraine."   "Get Back in Your Closet, Tubby."

His supposedly blunt message to Vladimir Putin reveals how Steve Harper really knows how to work a room when there's an election in the offing.

Walking up to Putin at the G20 summit, Harper's aides claim he said this:  "Well I guess I'll share your hand but I only have one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine."

Missing, naturally, was the "or else" part because for Harper, with his defunded military in decline, there is no "or else."  Talk, however, is cheap except as it relates to vote-getting, in this case the Ukrainian-Canadian vote.  Then it's priceless.

Oddly enough, all the pictures of this supposed showdown encounter reveal Harper positively beaming at the little Russkie he knows could care less about dire warnings from Canada's clown prince.

Dear Tony, You Can Kiss Our...

A group of Australians gathered on Bondi Beach to bury their heads in the sand in protest of their prime minister's fossil fuel fetish.

More than 400 protesters stuck their heads in the sand on Australia’s Bondi Beach on Thursday, mocking the government’s reluctance to put climate change on the agenda of a G20 summit this weekend.
Prime minister Tony Abbott’s perceived failure to address climate change is all the more galling in the wake of an agreement between the United States and China on Wednesday to limit their carbon emissions, they said.

“Obama’s on board, Xi Jinping’s on board, everyone’s on board except one man,” activist Pat Norman, 28, bellowed into a megaphone on the Sydney beach.

“Tony Abbott!” the protesters shouted back (presumably before they stuck their heads in the sand).

Harper Caught in G20 Scandal?

CTV is reporting that a leaked draft of Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report into the Harper government's G20 spending claims Harper misled Parliament.  The spotlight is on Tony Clement and some $50-million lavished around his riding apparently with very little at all to do with the summit.  Fraser is said to recommend that Clement's largesse be investigated.

The news story comes out just one day prior to the English-language leaders' debate.  Here's hoping Ig-Lay are able to use it to effect.

Reminds one of the Zaccardelli/Goodale smear that springboarded Harper into power.  There is, however, no suggestion that Fraser was involved in this leak. Her report was to have been tabled April 5th but was put on hold due to the election.

A G20 Lament

The G20 summit has come and gone but without solving the currency crisis that absorbs the developed world, the latest spasm in our global meltdown.   We've heard endless theories about what is really wrong with the system but here's a fresh, and compelling, explanation from renowned academic David Harvey.   He takes a Marxist scalpel to dissect the beast:



If David Harvey's perspective has left you in a funk, take heart.  The fiscal wizards remain alive and well.   Here's a British take on the subprime collapse.   This will cheer you up:

Isn't Screwing Up Canada Enough? What Does Harper Have Against the People of the G20?

His lard arse sprawled comfortably atop his holier-than-thou perch, Stephen Harper is wasting no time exhorting G20 leaders to fight their economic battles on the backs of their most vulnerable. This ridiculous ponce with his well-demonstrated failed grasp of economics demands that they plunge into the abyss of austerity budgeting to halve their deficits by 2013.

Steve, you theocratic sphincter, you haven't a clue about the economic dilemma facing these countries. Then again, your Liberal predecessors and the relatively brief period you had to subvert their fiscal prudence, saved you from plunging Canada into the very same mess. Like all radical doctrinaires, you're a gasbag.

Paul Krugman, writing from Berlin, explains why everything Harper is saying is utter crap:

Suddenly, creating jobs is out, inflicting pain is in. Condemning deficits and refusing to help a still-struggling economy has become the new fashion everywhere...

...Many economists, myself included, regard this turn to austerity as a huge mistake. It raises memories of 1937, when F.D.R.’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.

But despite these warnings, the deficit hawks are prevailing in most places — and nowhere more than here, where the government has pledged 80 billion euros, almost $100 billion, in tax increases and spending cuts even though the economy continues to operate far below capacity.

...In America, many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites, pure and simple: They’re eager to slash benefits for those in need, but their concerns about red ink vanish when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy. Thus, Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can’t afford $77 billion in aid to the unemployed, was instrumental in passing the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.

German deficit hawkery seems more sincere. But it still has nothing to do with fiscal realism. Instead, it’s about moralizing and posturing. Germans tend to think of running deficits as being morally wrong, while balancing budgets is considered virtuous, never mind the circumstances or economic logic. “The last few hours were a singular show of strength,” declared Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, after a special cabinet meeting agreed on the austerity plan. And showing strength — or what is perceived as strength — is what it’s all about.

There will, of course, be a price for this posturing. Only part of that price will fall on Germany: German austerity will worsen the crisis in the euro area, making it that much harder for Spain and other troubled economies to recover. Europe’s troubles are also leading to a weak euro, which perversely helps German manufacturing, but also exports the consequences of German austerity to the rest of the world, including the United States.

We've got a billion reasons to know how important it is to Steve to host this 3-day gabfest, but his demonstrated grasp of economics isn't something he need draw attention to. He inherited a substantial budget surplus, defunded the treasury, introduced Canada's own subprime mortgage regime, left the country vulnerable to a recession steamroller he didn't see - or hear - coming, did a mini-bank bailout capped off with the most pointless Pinata stimulus/recovery budget imagineable that will ensure Canadians will in the future have all the burden but none of the benefit they deserved from that reckless spending. And this jackass is going to tell other leaders what they need to do? Breathtaking.