Monthly Archives: January 2015

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s surprise decision to knight Prince Philip has infuriated his colleagues, with a pair of Queensland MPs breaking ranks to criticise the decision publicly.

Several other MPs are also questioning the wisdom of Mr Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, in allowing the announcement to go ahead.

North Queensland Liberal National MP Warren Entsch lashed out at the decision, telling Fairfax Media that “for the life of me, I can’t understand why” Mr Abbott decided to honour a British royal.

But Mr Entsch, a senior MP who is well respected in the Coalition partyroom, said he was “not pushing for a change in leader, I’m looking for significant change in leadership”.

A second Queensland MP, Ewen Jones, said he “didn’t see the point” of the announcement, while Northern Territory’s Chief Minister and leader of the Country Liberal Party, Adam Giles, likened the announcement to an April Fool’s Day prank.

“I woke up this morning and read the wires and was confused between Australia Day and April Fool’s Day,” Mr Giles said, adding the decision “makes us a bit of a joke in a range of areas as I really question the motivations in doing this”.

“It’s Australia day, we are not a bunch of tossers, let’s get it right.”

In recent weeks, Mr Abbott has faced questions over his leadership and has reached out to the backbench in an attempt to calm nerves and present a more consultative style.

But the knighting of Prince Philip did not go to cabinet and was the result of a “captain’s call”, with the Prime Minister consulting only the head of the National Australia Day Council, retired ADF chief Angus Houston, and Buckingham Palace.

Air Chief Marshal (retired) Houston was also made a knight on Monday.

Mr Entsch said he had not agreed with the Prime Minister’s decision to revive knights and dames in March 2014 and “I suspect that if it had gone to the party room it would have been rejected”.

“But it was something the PM decided to do; that’s his prerogative,” Mr Entsch said. “[Former governor-general] Quentin Bryce and [Governor-General] Peter Cosgrove were very good recipients [and] Angus Houston is great, but for the life of me I can’t understand why Prince Philip. I’ve got a dozen people in my electorate, any one of them would be more worthy.”

Mr Entsch has previously criticised Ms Credlin publicly for the operation of the Prime Minister’s Office, but declined to repeat those criticism on Monday.

Mr Jones said he had supported the decision to revive knights and dames for governors-general.

“For anyone else, I just don’t see the point. On a scale of one to 10, this is about .25 per cent of what we should be speaking about. I wonder how much it matters to Prince Philip. To have Angus Houston in the same breath as Prince Philip is a bit much,” he said.

Mr Jones said the government should be focused on debates about the economy, industrial relations and other key issues.

Another Liberal MP, who asked not to be named but identified as a strong supporter of Mr Abbott and a monarchist, said the decision to honour Prince Philip  was “embarrassing”.

The MP said the decision was the latest in a series of bad decisions and that hostility in Liberal ranks towards Ms Credlin, who keeps a tight grip on government decision making, was rising.

“She has to go, he is too loyal to her. If she goes he will buy himself some time,” the MP said.

A second MP, who also identifies as a monarchist, asked why “people were getting gongs for doing their job? Are we kidding?”

The same MP asked said the knighthood for Prince Philip had taken focus from the Australian of the Year for 2015, Rosie Batty.

“Could we talk about the main game, the economy?” the MP said.

Privately, ministers are also complaining about the functioning of Mr Abbott’s office, citing delays in paperwork making its way through the office.

Mr Abbott defended his decision on Monday, pointing to Prince Philip’s “life of service and duty”.

source:theage.com.au

Supporters of Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras celebrate in Athens on Sunday as news emerges that his leftist party was set to take power in Greece. Photo: Reuters

ATHENS—Greek voters handed power to a radical leftist party in national elections on Sunday, a popular rebellion against the bitter economic medicine Greece has swallowed for five years and a rebuke of the fellow European countries that prescribed it.

With nearly all votes counted, opposition party Syriza was on track to win about half the seats in Parliament. In the wee hours of the morning, it clinched a coalition deal with a small right-wing party also opposed to Europe’s economic policy to give the two a clear majority.

“Today the Greek people have written history,” Syriza’s young leader and likely new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said in his victory speech late Sunday. “The Greek people have given a clear, indisputable mandate for Greece to leave behind austerity.”

Party name	Projected seats	Share of votes	Share of votes
Syriza	150	36.3%	36.3%
New Democracy	76	27.8%	27.8%
Golden Dawn	17	6.3%	6.3%
To Potami	16	6.0%	6.0%
Communist Party	15	5.5%	5.5%
Independent Greeks	13	4.7%	4.7%
Pasok	13	4.7%	4.7%
Others		8.6% 35%-37% approximate point of absolute victory	8.6%

A Syriza victory marks an astonishing upset of Europe’s political order, which decades ago settled into an orthodox centrism while many in Syriza describe themselves as Marxists. It emboldens the challenges of other radical parties, from the right-wing National Front in France to the newly formed left-wing Podemos party in Spain, and it sets Greece on a collision course with Germany and its other eurozone rescuers.

Within minutes of the close of the polls, Germany’s powerful central-bank chief, Jens Weidmann, pushed back.

“It is clear that Greece will remain dependent on support and it’s also clear that this aid will be provided only when it is in an aid program,” he said in an interview with television broadcaster ARD.

A message on U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron ’s usual Twitter account, meanwhile, warned that the Greek result will “increase economic uncertainty across Europe.”

Mr. Tsipras staked his campaign on resistance to the policies of fiscal austerity—budget cuts and tax increases—demanded by Germany in return for a €240 billion ($269 billion) bailout, and many Greek voters embraced him.

“Europe is self-destructing,” said Polyxeni Konstantinou, a 56-year-old public-sector worker voting in central Athens. “I voted for Syriza because I hope that it will help change the tragic circumstances that now govern Europe. Will Syriza be able to achieve everything it says? Probably not. But whatever it does achieve, then that will be good for Europe.”

It may be less positive for financial markets, which had reckoned on a narrower victory that would have tempered Syriza’s ambitions by forcing it to seek partners in a coalition. The euro slid slightly in the very earliest whispers of trading in New Zealand overnight.

“Greece is two years ahead of the curve” when it comes to politics, said Bill Blain, chief strategist at Mint Partners, a brokerage. “Other countries’ [radical parties] are all going to have their day fairly soon and it’s really about markets trying to anticipate how other countries will follow Greece.”

Europe’s financial markets are far more resilient today than they were three years ago, when troubles in Greece sent investors fleeing from government bonds of other troubled countries. Nonetheless, the specter of strained conflict in Greece could cause a selloff of riskier assets.

Mr. Tsipras has promised to roll back austerity, first with a spending package aimed at Greece’s struggling poor, and to win forgiveness of some of Greece’s towering debt.

He will have a mammoth task at home and abroad.

For one thing, Syriza is a broad coalition of the left that includes factions that believe Greece should leave the eurozone. Those factions would pressure Mr. Tsipras if he moves to compromise with Europe.

The pressure to compromise will be intense. Under the bailout program’s rigorous schedule, Greece is required to complete a review of its progress with the so-called troika of bailout inspectors by the end of February. Mr. Tsipras has said he doesn’t recognize the troika’s authority.

If negotiations to revive the bailout falter, Greece would be without an umbrella of protection. That program ensures that Greece’s government has access to a stream of cheap financing, and ensures Greek banks have access to cheap funding from the European Central Bank.

The next hurdle will be €7 billion in bonds held by the ECB that mature in July and August. Greece doesn’t have the cash to repay them, and failure to do so could ultimately lead to Greece’s exit from the eurozone.

The country is already deeply strained. In the past three months, Greece’s main stock index has shed roughly a fifth of its value, while nervous depositors have withdrawn several billion euros from the country’s banking system.

At the same time, the rest of Europe is financially healthier—even as it is mired in economic stagnation. The ECB’s newly announced program of government-bond purchases, while primarily designed to boost sagging inflation, will likely “muffle any contagion effects” by damping financial-market volatility, said Lucy O’Carroll, chief economist at Aberdeen Asset Management.

After midnight local time, with more than 98% of the ballots counted, Syriza had 36.3% of the vote, trouncing the incumbent New Democracy party, with just 27.8%. The polls also showed voters backed a handful of smaller parties—including the extreme-right Golden Dawn party and the centrist To Potami party.

But in the early hours of Monday, even before the final votes were counted, Syriza officials said a deal had been struck with the Independent Greeks—a party that shares little common ground with Syriza except for its rejection of the austerity measures. The party, which is poised to win 13 seats in Parliament, would mean the coalition would have at least 162 seats—a comfortable governing majority in Greece’s 300-seat legislature.

A meeting between Mr. Tsipras and Independent Greeks party leader Panos Kammenos is scheduled to take place Monday morning, Syriza officials said.

Since first seeking a bailout in 2010, Greece has undertaken broad economic overhauls and cutbacks that have helped mend its public finances and nudged the economy back to growth following six years of deep recession. Those cutbacks have come at a cost: Some 25% of Greeks remain jobless, while a quarter of households live close to the poverty line.

Syriza has promised to change all of that, pledging immediate relief to the poor, rolling back unpopular taxes and negotiating a debt write-down with the country’s creditors to free up spending on social programs.

source:wsj.com

Australians will be celebrating across the country with special events to be held this Australia Day.

In Sydney, the Harbour forefront and Bondi Beach are set to take centre stage.

Swimmers kick things off at 8.30am at the Sydney Opera House with the 2.2km Great Sydney Swim.

That’s followed by the annual Ferrython at 11am, as the city’s ferry fleet races to the finish line under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.At midday, spectators around the harbour will pause to sing the national anthem, before yachts and tugboats perform a precision dance.

A flagship Qantas A380 is due to perform some aerial acrobatics at 12.45pm, before the tall ships race at 1pm.

Meanwhile Bondi Beach hosts the annual Big Thong Challenge, where thousands of Sydneysiders are expected to float on giant inflatable thongs.Shortly after midday, participants will try to grab the thong in front of them, hold it for 30 seconds and break the world record for the longest chain.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is urging Australians to reaffirm their pledge to make their country a beacon of hope in uncertain times.

In his annual Australia Day message, Mr Abbott has also promised that work towards constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians will continue.

He says Australia Day is about honouring the traditional owners of the land and paying tribute to those who enshrined freedom, fairness and unity in the constitution.

It’s also about reaffirming a pledge to make the country a beacon of hope and optimism in an uncertain world.Mr Abbott says to be an Australian is to have won the lottery of life.

New Immigration Minister Peter Dutton meanwhile wants the nation to reflect on what it means to be Australian, whether it is by birth or by pledge.A group of 25 newcomers will join the Australian community at the main Australia Day citizenship ceremony on the shores of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin on Monday, one of many around the country.

Mr Dutton says Australians should support these ceremonies.’After disturbing events in the past year both in Australia and overseas, citizenship ceremonies provide a way for Australians from all walks of life to come together and stand united in our democratic beliefs and values,’ Mr Dutton says in a statement.

The 25 new Australians come from 15 countries including Britain, the US, Bolivia, Italy, Latvia, Nepal, China, Peru, Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

The Australia Day ceremonial event features the Australian Federation Guard, music from the Royal Military College Band, a performance by Eric Bogle and a flypast by RAAF jet aircraft.Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove won’t be there as he’s travelling to Saudi Arabia to present Australia’s condolences to the Saudi government and people on the death of King Abdullah.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC television, with former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer as special guest commentator.

source:skynews.com.au

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the leftist Syriza party, greets supporters in Athens. Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki

Athens: Greece’s leftwing Syriza looks set for a comfortable victory over the ruling conservatives in Sunday’s national elections.

With exit polls pointing to a strong anti-government backlash, the opposition’s chances of winning a full majority to face down international creditors and roll back years of painful austerity measures looked good.

Syriza could gain almost 40 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the conservative New Democracy party of outgoing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on 23-27 per cent, according a joint exit poll for Greek television stations issued immediately after voting ended.

A Syriza party supporter cheers as exit polls announce that party leader Alexis Tsipras is on the brink of victory. Photo: Yannis Behrakis

If confirmed, the result would be enough to install 40-year-old Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras as prime minister at the head of the first euro zone government openly opposed to bailout conditions imposed by European Union and International Monetary Fund during the economic crisis.

The poll showed Syriza could win 146-158 seats in the 300-seat parliament, with the final result heavily dependent on whether former prime minister George Papandreou’s centre-left Movement of Democratic Socialists enters parliament.

A clearer indication will come this morning when the interior ministry issues its first official projections.

“It is a historic victory, we still have to see if it will be a big historic victory,” Syriza spokesman Panos Skourletis told Greece’s Mega TV. “It sends a message against austerity and in favour of dignity and democracy.”

Financial markets have been worried a Syriza victory will trigger a new financial crisis in Greece, but the repercussions for the euro zone are expected to be far smaller than feared the last time Greeks went to the polls in 2012.

After one of the shortest campaigns in recent Greek history, voters appear to have rejected the austerity medicine prescribed during a crisis which has threatened almost 4 million Greeks or a quarter of the population with poverty.

As the biggest party in parliament, Syriza would gain an automatic premium of 50 seats, but under Greece’s complicated election rules, the number of votes it needs for an absolute majority depends on how the overall vote is split up.

The exit poll showed the centrist To Potami and the far-right Golden Dawn party tied in third place, with at least seven or eight parties set to enter parliament.

If it ends up short of an absolute majority, Mr Tsipras will have to try to form a coalition with smaller parties or reach an agreement that would allow Syriza to form a minority government with ad-hoc support from others in parliament.

Standoff with Berlin

Mr Tsipras has promised to keep Greece in the euro and has toned down some of the fiery rhetoric for which he was known, but his arrival in power would herald the biggest challenge to the approach so far adopted to the crisis by euro zone governments.

Coming after the European Central Bank’s move to pump billions into the bloc’s flagging economy, Greece’s rejection of austerity has set up an immediate standoff with Berlin, which insists the bailout deal must be respected.

Mr Tsipras has promised to renegotiate a deal with the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, and write off much of Greece’s €320 billion debt, which at more than 175 per cent of gross domestic product, is the world’s second highest after Japan.

At the same time, he wants to roll back many of the harsh austerity measures demanded by the European institutions, in addition to raising the minimum wage, lowering power prices for poor families, cutting property taxes and reversing pension and public sector pay cuts.

Financial markets have been on edge ahead of the elections, although the ECB’s massive bond-buying programme and growing confidence that a Syriza-led government could compromise with its creditors boosted confidence last week.

Syriza officials have said they would seek a six-month “truce”, putting the bailout programme due to end on February 28 on hold while talks with creditors begin.

Greece, unable to tap the markets because of sky-high borrowing costs, has enough cash to meet its immediate funding needs for the next couple of months, but it faces around €10 billion of debt repayments over the summer.

Without fresh cash, it will be unable to meet the payments, raising the spectre of an exit from the euro.

source: smh.com.au