Rudd Government failings vs. achievements

[bunyip]

My understanding about these diseases is that some years they can be much worse than others - although swine flu turned out to be a bit of a fizzer last winter, there's no guarantee that will be the same story this winter.
I wouldn't like to see our government become complacent on this issue. I'd much rather them be prepared for a pandemic that never eventuates, than be totally unprepared for a pandemic that does.
I'm going overseas in August and I'm damn sure I'll be having a swine flu jab before I go. Even if I wasn't going overseas I think I'd still be having it.

 

[overhang]

'The Federal Government has priority over commercial providers. This year, it ordered 4'.7 million doses of vaccine. So far, 60 per cent of the order has been delivered."
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2877743.htm This actually suggests a shortage of flu vaccines this winter. I'm uncertain which vaccination the government has on order as the original vaccination was only for the h1n1 but this years seasonal flu shot now includes h1n1 as well as the 2 common strains of flu.
Also back when the government ordered the initial 21 million it was believed that 2 vaccinations would be required per person but was later deemed unnecessary from further trials.

 

[bunyip]

Here here! ( also from a father,grandfather and great grandfather)and from someone that also voted for the coalalition government for more than 50 years when they WERE something to be trusted and respected.

I find it difficult to comprehend how anybody can regard Kevin Rudd as someone who can be 'trusted and respected', given his continued dishonesty, his grandiose plans on which he's mostly failed to deliver, his incredible stupidity in the illegal immigration issue, and his woeful incompetence on so many issues.

Trainspotter sums him up pretty well in Post 228.

 

[Calliope]

I find it difficult to comprehend how anybody can regard Kevin Rudd as someone who can be 'trusted and respected', given his continued dishonesty, his grandiose plans on which he's mostly failed to deliver, his incredible stupidity in the illegal immigration issue, and his woeful incompetence on so many issues.

Trainspotter sums him up pretty well in Post 228.

I would rather trust a sewer rat than the Rudd gang.

 

[So_Cynical]

I would rather trust a sewer rat than the Rudd gang.

I find it difficult to comprehend how anybody can regard Kevin Rudd as someone who can be 'trusted and respected', given his continued dishonesty, his grandiose plans on which he's mostly failed to deliver, his incredible stupidity in the illegal immigration issue, and his woeful incompetence on so many issues.

Trainspotter sums him up pretty well in Post 228.

Thought it would be a good time to check in with crikey.com.au and see how the online bookies are seeing this weeks political events and how they have impacted on the 2010 election betting odds.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2010/04/30/the-big-catch-up/

Looks like the Liberal spin offensive has failed dismally, Labor has had a tiny downward shift in support after the best couple of weeks the coalition have had, under the leadership of "1 vote Tony"....looks like the "greatest moral challenge of our times" spin diversion has come to nothing.
~

 

[drsmith]

Votes only count when we are having an election.

 

[So_Cynical]

Votes only count when we are having an election.

Oh com on...we are in pre election mode...have been for weeks.

Henry review on Sunday and 9 to 12 weeks for that to settle in, along with the health reform conclusion and a few other good news events, then its election time...why do you think they sat on the Henry tax review for 3 months???

Early spring election i would think, ill see if i can find any likely dates?

 

[DVEOUS]

Woeful Rudd an inept PM

· Andrew Bolt · From Herald Sun · April 13, 2010 7:57PM

KEVIN Rudd spent his first two years in power smashing stuff.

Now, in this election year, he's spending up to $1 billion of your money to fix the damage.

That's right: Rudd is spending at least $1 billion to fix the havoc he's unleashed by handing out free insulation, splurging on overpriced school buildings, relaxing boat people laws, letting in an unsustainable 300,000 people a year and more.

Oh, I know. You think I'm far too hard on a Prime Minister with the air of a particularly methodical Christian dentist. But one disillusioned day you will hear from many who now work with him that how Rudd seems is bizarrely different to how he is.

I don't just mean that this publicly prissy churchgoer is privately a foul-mouthed, arrogant, paranoid and abusive control freak, but that many of his brightest ideas swiftly flop.
The truth is his uncanny skill at spinning has so far saved Rudd's reputation as a manager.

But check the substance rather than the image and you find he already qualifies as possibly the most incompetent prime minister since World War II. And, no, I haven't forgotten Whitlam.

Take Monday's announcement that his Government will now spend another $14 million on a taskforce to tackle the massive rorting of its $16.2 billion school stimulus scheme.

This so-called "Building the Education Revolution" spendathon was always destined to be a colossal waste.

To spend so much so fast on school halls, shade-cloths and a few classrooms and libraries was to blow a fortune on fripperies that had little to do with making children smarter or more civilised.

But even I couldn't predict the scandalous rorting which followed. In NSW, for instance, builders have charged at least $800,000 a time for more than 40 covered outdoor learning areas which official state government costings say should cost just $250,000.

From Perth to Sydney, schools have complained of receiving trash for your cash - useless canteens at half the size for twice the price, libraries with no shelves or with heating that would kill if the windows were closed; single classrooms costing double what you'd pay for a package home; and fire-fighting tanks that weren't asked for.

In Victoria, even a dying school with just two children was given $150,000, and from everywhere came complaints that BER developers were charging "management fees" of up to 21 per cent.

That's all your money, folks. Blown in what some now call the Builders' Early Retirement fund.

Now the Government is spending even more of your money - $14 million - on a taskforce to stop the looting of what's left of our $16.2 billion. Or to seem to.

Why did Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard only now announce this "safeguard" when it's been clear for months that your taxes were being wasted like never before in our history?

Three reasons, all squalid. First, Channel 7 last weekend mainstreamed this scandal, running a devastating report on its Sunday Night current affairs show.

Second, it's election year, and setting up a taskforce makes it seem like you're dealing with a problem, at least for now.

And, thirdly, although Gillard refuses to admit it she has got an advance report on this BER racket from the Auditor General that is likely to be devastating, and it's a fair bet she set up her taskforce to short-circuit the criticism she'll get when it's released.

This BER rorting is the biggest waste by Rudd so far, with anything up to $8 billion thrown away. But the more graphic symbol of his incompetence - of having to spend millions to fix what he caused by spending billions - is his free insulation scheme.

Again, it didn't make sense from the start for Rudd to spend $2.5 billion of your money to install free insulation in the homes of people who thought it wasn't worth doing with their own cash.

It's even crazier now we know Rudd barged ahead even after his own department was warned in writing a year ago that rushing out these freebies could attract shysters, burn down houses and kill people.

It all happened, just as Rudd was warned, with four installers now dead, 120 homes set on fire and more than 300,000 houses fitted with potentially lethal, incomplete or near-useless junk.

TO fix the disaster and compensate the losers, the Government may now have to spend anything up to $1 billion, with the National Electrical Contractors Association estimating repairs alone could cost $450 million.

It also means taxpayers must pay millions to take out insulation that Rudd made them pay millions to put in. It couldn't get crazier.

Correction. It already has. See, Rudd meant this giveaway to "stimulate" the economy and put people in jobs.

But the day before Easter (a good time to bury bad news) his Government announced, in effect, that his insulation scheme had killed off the very industry he'd meant it to help.

The Government said it would now give insulation manufacturers $15 million to help them stockpile all the batts and foil they can no longer sell, now that Rudd's scheme has stuck the stuff in a million more ceilings.

Those stockpiles of unsaleable batts are a clear sign that these once healthy businesses have been poleaxed.

Indeed, an industry which once predicted Rudd's free insulation plan would create 4000 jobs now says its collapse has cost the jobs of 6000.

Or even 8000, says Dandenong's Fletcher Insulation, which warns that every insulation manufacturer may shut this year, at least temporarily.

That's why Rudd has spent another $41 million of your money to help retrain the people sacked from an industry he spent billions to "stimulate".

And still this lunatic incompetence doesn't end. To fix this mess before the election, Rudd has switched his entire emissions trading team on to it.

Remember them? They're the 154 public servants Rudd originally hired to work on what until this year he called "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" - the man-made global warming he told us his great new green tax on everything would help stop.

But that tax is now blocked in the Senate, and public support for it is falling like a batt out of hell, so Rudd has put "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" on the backburner, and set his $57 million-a-year team of planet-savers to work on insulation instead.

And still this comedy is not done.

Rudd last weekend froze the processing of refugee applications from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan to stop the tide of boats he unleashed by weakening our boat people laws two years ago.

Boat people were a problem John Howard had fixed, cutting arrivals to just 18 boats over six years. Rudd unfixed that problem by going soft, so he's now luring in more than 10 boats a month.

The Christmas Island detention centre is filled to bursting, and fixing this will cost hundreds of millions more of your dollars, with the 2000 people who've arrived just this year costing some $80,000 each to process.

Then there's the whole new "Department of Population" Rudd abruptly created this month to hose down the alarm he'd raised by not only letting in a record 300,000 immigrants last year, but by then happily endorsing predictions that our population will explode to 36 million by 2050.

And we still don't know how much in total we must pay for all Rudd's other failures - FuelWatch, Grocery Watch, the scrapped tender of his first broadband scheme, the lobbying for his new pan-Asian body, the botched Green Loans plan, the rorted solar hot water scheme, the "Ideas Summit" fiasco and the new nuclear disarmament body.

Still, more amazing than this waste is that Rudd retains the air of a man who knows just what he's doing, and is across every detail.

Watch him now sell his latest multi-billion-dollar plan - a health shakeup that Ken Baxter, former head of the premier's department in Victoria and NSW, warns will create a bureaucratic monster that will eat money.

But look at Rudd. See how assured and competent he seems, even as his last schemes still fall around his ears?

Amazing gift, that, and you're paying billions for it.

 

[drsmith]

Oh com on...we are in pre election mode...have been for weeks.

Henry review on Sunday and 9 to 12 weeks for that to settle in, along with the health reform conclusion and a few other good news events, then its election time...why do you think they sat on the Henry tax review for 3 months???

Early spring election i would think, ill see if i can find any likely dates?

While in front, the team you're barracking for hasn't won yet. The opposition will however need to lift it's game and quickly.

It's been a woeful performance so far from both sides.

 

[So_Cynical]

Woeful Rudd an inept PM

· Andrew Bolt · From Herald Sun · April 13, 2010 7:57PM

KEVIN Rudd spent his first two years in power smashing stuff.

Now, in this election year, he's spending up to $1 billion of your money to fix the damage.

That's right: Rudd is spending at least $1 billion to fix the havoc he's unleashed by handing out free insulation, splurging on overpriced school buildings, relaxing boat people laws, letting in an unsustainable

blah blah blah, spin spin spin, etc etc etc

Amazing gift, that, and you're paying billions for it.

Dude you just can do massive cut and pastes like that...please see this thread.

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10373

Oh and thanks for the spin.

Please do not infringe the copyright of others on ASF.

I see a lot of people reproducing whole articles and/or not posting a link to or identifying the original source of quoted material.

The ASF code of conduct states:



If you are quoting another source you must do two things.

1. Not quote the entire article as this infringes copyright. Please only quote a small portion of it (maximum 10%) as this constitues 'fair use' or 'fair dealing'. See here for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing

2. Always include a link to the original article. If the article is not on the internet you must specifically refer to the publication (title and issue/date) from which it came.

Posts may be removed or quoted material shortened by myself or one of the site moderators if this rule is ignored.

Thank you all for your co-operation.

 

[bunyip]

Dude you just can do massive cut and pastes like that...please see this thread.

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10373

Oh and thanks for the spin.

So Gullible

You can call it spin or whatever you like, but I notice you have no answer to it. Normally if someone feels they have solid grounds on which to refute something, they'll outline their reasons and then back their arguments with sound logic and solid reasoning. You have been unable to do so, preferring instead to refer to polls that show Rudd is still in favour with people like you who follow him with blind devotion despite his inept performance.

In an earlier post you claimed to be 'happy with Rudd's performance overall'.
Maybe you'd care to elaborate - on what basis are you happy with Rudd's performance overall?

And while you're at it, please feel free to refute what Andrew Bolt says about Rudd. Make sure you back your views with sound logic and solid reasoning - if you can't do that then you'll only be confirming what many on this forum already believe - that you have no substance.

 

[So_Cynical]

So Gullible

You can call it spin or whatever you like, but I notice you have no answer to it. Normally if someone feels they have solid grounds on which to refute something, they'll outline their reasons and then back their arguments with sound logic and solid reasoning. You have been unable to do so, preferring instead to refer to polls that show Rudd is still in favour with people like you who follow him with blind devotion despite his inept performance.

Sound logic and solid reasoning Hey bunyip i doubt anything i could say to you or the rest of the ASF right would be seen as sound logic and solid reasoning....i mean i couldn't even convince calliope that the Coalition defeated the ETS legislation...lol some how he doesn't think that 37 votes actually beats 32 so you can see ive no hope here.

----------------

Ok here's some Sound logic and solid reasoning for ya.....the election betting charts i keep posting point to overwhelming public support for the Rudd Labor Govt, and yet you and the ASF right keep posting pages of arguments and information and articles that point out the aleged failings and bungles of this Govt, and yet week after week and month after month the support is unwavering.

Now the betting and election projections are no illusion, there based on hard numbers and good science (lol just like the ETS was ) and so cant be argued against...there fore its safe to call the ASF right and in fact all coalition voters, a large minority...now experience and reasoning leads me to believe that when a minority feels threatened and vulnerable they can react with great venom and hostility....as we have seen here at ASF.

This hostility and delusion in the face of over whelming evidence to the contrary, logically leads me to think that the ASF right is a disillusioned fringe group that feels disenfranchised and threatened by the policy's of a progressive, reformist Labor Govt, and there ranting's here are nothing more than the ranting's of any other fringe group...and not representative of the majority.

Therefore are irrelevant...hows that for Sound logic and solid reasoning.

 

[bunyip]

Sound logic and solid reasoning Hey bunyip i doubt anything i could say to you or the rest of the ASF right would be seen as sound logic and solid reasoning....i mean i couldn't even convince calliope that the Coalition defeated the ETS legislation...lol some how he doesn't think that 37 votes actually beats 32 so you can see ive no hope here.

----------------

Ok here's some Sound logic and solid reasoning for ya.....the election betting charts i keep posting point to overwhelming public support for the Rudd Labor Govt, and yet you and the ASF right keep posting pages of arguments and information and articles that point out the aleged failings and bungles of this Govt, and yet week after week and month after month the support is unwavering.

Now the betting and election projections are no illusion, there based on hard numbers and good science (lol just like the ETS was ) and so cant be argued against...there fore its safe to call the ASF right and in fact all coalition voters, a large minority...now experience and reasoning leads me to believe that when a minority feels threatened and vulnerable they can react with great venom and hostility....as we have seen here at ASF.

This hostility and delusion in the face of over whelming evidence to the contrary, logically leads me to think that the ASF right is a disillusioned fringe group that feels disenfranchised and threatened by the policy's of a progressive, reformist Labor Govt, and there ranting's here are nothing more than the ranting's of any other fringe group...and not representative of the majority.

Therefore are irrelevant...hows that for Sound logic and solid reasoning.

As usual you exhibit the classic signs of someone who can't compete in an argument. So you attempt to discredit those who put forward the argument, rather than refuting the argument itself by presenting solid counter-arguments.
The polls show nothing more than how gullible the voting public are. It's highly unlikely that any government will be voted out after just one term, no matter how bad they are. The average voter tends to be pretty slow on the uptake - it takes him much longer to open his eyes and accept that his heroes are not up to the job.

This thread is about Rudd's failings vs his achievements. Trainspotter, Andrew Bolt and others have presented a long list of Rudd's failings. You call it spin because you know it's true and you're unable to refute it.
If the Rudd government is really as good as you think, then their list of achievements will completely outnumber and overshadow their failings.
That list of Rudd failings from people like Trainspotter, Andrew Bolt and others, should pale into insignificance beside the list of impressive Rudd achievements that you and his supporters can put up.
So let's see something of substance from you - how about you list all of Rudd's achievements and see how they stack up against his list of failings. It's that sort of information, rather than polls, that will give a more accurate picture of how good or bad this government is.

 

[gooner]

Looks as though price of Penfolds Grange will go down by $100 a bottle but cheaper wine will more than double in price.

OK for Rudd the millionaire, but hard on the rest of us

http://www.smh.com.au/national/its-shaping-up-to-be-a-great-year-for-grange-20100430-tzaj.html

 

[trainspotter]

Sound logic and solid reasoning Hey bunyip i doubt anything i could say to you or the rest of the ASF right would be seen as sound logic and solid reasoning....i mean i couldn't even convince calliope that the Coalition defeated the ETS legislation...lol some how he doesn't think that 37 votes actually beats 32 so you can see ive no hope here.

----------------

Ok here's some Sound logic and solid reasoning for ya.....the election betting charts i keep posting point to overwhelming public support for the Rudd Labor Govt, and yet you and the ASF right keep posting pages of arguments and information and articles that point out the aleged failings and bungles of this Govt, and yet week after week and month after month the support is unwavering.

Now the betting and election projections are no illusion, there based on hard numbers and good science (lol just like the ETS was ) and so cant be argued against...there fore its safe to call the ASF right and in fact all coalition voters, a large minority...now experience and reasoning leads me to believe that when a minority feels threatened and vulnerable they can react with great venom and hostility....as we have seen here at ASF.

This hostility and delusion in the face of over whelming evidence to the contrary, logically leads me to think that the ASF right is a disillusioned fringe group that feels disenfranchised and threatened by the policy's of a progressive, reformist Labor Govt, and there ranting's here are nothing more than the ranting's of any other fringe group...and not representative of the majority.

Therefore are irrelevant...hows that for Sound logic and solid reasoning.

Election betting charts are your platform? Who left the keys out for the liquor cabinet? You keep changing your position once cornered, a very Labor thing to do I notice. You reckon that the media are "alleging" Chung Phat Kluddy has made these failings and bungles ?? WTF ........ no seriously ... WTF?? These are cold hard facts of reality So_Cynical, not allegations, not a ranting fringe attack, no lunatics on the grass stuff. The truth is out there So_Cynical for all to see. The underbelly of this Government has been exposed to the public and quite frankly it has come up lacking in intestinal fortitude (no double disillusionment on ETS) and it has no backbone (backflip on child care & pink batts) ...... these are just a few examples of the failings of this Government. I have posted a very good list of the failings, waiting for you to respond to the achievements.

Me thinks you are merely trolling now as your vecture has changed from being slightly sublime in it's clarity to bordering on the ridiculous. Nay, I have changed my mind, you have lost the plot. Learn to admit defeat gracioulsy in the eyes of overwhelming odds. You are wrong. Pure and simple.

The diatriabe that you throw up is banal and the inane and repetitive comments are not helping your cause. I respect your right to an opinion. Please bear in mind my right to criticise your right.

So what if they are winning in the polls ... does this make what they are doing is good for the country? Good for the people? Sadly you would say yes to these questions because you are blinded by PM Kevin Rudd and his doctorate of spin.

Achievement - Able to brainwash apparently smart people into arguing split definitives with nonsense that is actually trolling. It's a sad, sad day when this happens.

 

[IFocus]

While in front, the team you're barracking for hasn't won yet. The opposition will however need to lift it's game and quickly.

It's been a woeful performance so far from both sides.

The opposition is the reason Labor are going so well in the betting. The real issue with Liberals is the fact there is so much dead wood still hanging around from Howard's cabinet Abbott being number one.

They bring all that baggage along with them that loss the Liberals the last election.

When you have some one putting themselves up for PM who cannot even keep their composure in public when dealing with Gillard of all people well you are not fit for the office.

Abbott has done the Liberals good service to pick up the polls but Australians wont cop him as PM.

Looking along the front bench and its bare of any potential but some from the Liberals have hope for Scott Morrison still he is a few years experience away.

Labor had the same problem after Keating i.e. Crean and Kim Beasley.

Until the power base moves from the current Howard clique its opposition for the Liberals I think no matter what Labor gets up to.

 

[trainspotter]

Liberal achievement ... allowing the Labor Party to get ahead in the polls by being inept as an opposition and failing to point score with the voting public when there is so much chum in the water

 

[Julia]

The opposition is the reason Labor are going so well in the betting. The real issue with Liberals is the fact there is so much dead wood still hanging around from Howard's cabinet Abbott being number one.

They bring all that baggage along with them that loss the Liberals the last election.

When you have some one putting themselves up for PM who cannot even keep their composure in public when dealing with Gillard of all people well you are not fit for the office.

Abbott has done the Liberals good service to pick up the polls but Australians wont cop him as PM.

Looking along the front bench and its bare of any potential but some from the Liberals have hope for Scott Morrison still he is a few years experience away.

Labor had the same problem after Keating i.e. Crean and Kim Beasley.

Until the power base moves from the current Howard clique its opposition for the Liberals I think no matter what Labor gets up to.

I agree, IFocus, including the potential for Scott Morrison who is probably the Libs' best performer at present.

Bunyip, the figures So Cynical is putting up are not polls at all, just betting odds. The actual polls are far closer.

 

[bellenuit]

Can someone explain how the DD works please.....

I was reading an article in The Australian today and the writer was on about what a gutless politician Rudd is. He mentioned that if Rudd really wanted to get his ETS, he could have called for a DD and put it to "a joint sitting of parliament" where Labor are in the majority. I am going from memory, but I think that was the way it was put.

So a DD just doesn't involve dissolution of both houses and an election called for both, but also allows both house to vote on the bill together? Is that the only circumstances that a joint sitting is allowed under?

I had assumed up to now that all the DD did was allow a new election of both houses and they would have to still get a majority vote in the new senate to get their bill passed.

 

[Julia]

Explanation here, bellenuit:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo...ad_binary/pbp961.pdf;fileType=application/pdf

And this from Antony Green, election analyst:

The mechanics of the constitution on early elections are clear in broad outline. The House of Representatives has variable terms, the Senate fixed staggered terms. Where the two chambers are in conflict, Section 57 of the Constitution is a deadlock resolution provision allowing for a double dissolution of both the House and the full Senate.

The current House was elected on 24 November 2007. Its term is for three years timed from its first sitting after the election, 12 February 2008. So if the government does not call an earlier election, the House of Representatives will expire through the effluxion of time on 11 February 2011. Under the timetable for elections set out in the Constitution and the Electoral Act, the last possible date for a House election is 16 April 2011.

However, the government can request a House election at any time. The government could request an early House election as a way of claiming a new mandate to overcome Senate obstruction. All the Prime Minister would have to do is request an early election stating his reasons, and the Governor-General would almost certainly assent to the election.

But the Governor-General could only issue writs for a House of Representatives election. The Constitution would prevent the issue of writs for a half-Senate election. Section 13 of the Constitution states that writs for a half-Senate election can only be issued in the last year of a Senate's term. This means that writs for the next half-Senate election cannot be issued before 1 July 2010. The first possible date for a half-Senate election is 7 August 2010. There cannot be a normal election for the House combined with half the Senate before 7 August 2010, only a double dissolution or separate House election.

On a technical note, the fixed Senate terms only apply for the 72 State Senators. The terms of the four Territory Senators are provided for in legislation. Their terms are maximum three years, with the terms tied to the terms of the House of Representatives. An early House election would also be for the four Territory Senators, though it would almost certainly return one Labor and one Coalition Senator for each Territory, the result that has occurred at every election since 1975.

The only way that the government can change the Senate numbers before 1 July 2011 is to call a double dissolution. A double dissolution is a deadlock provision designed to allow the House of Representatives to overcome the blocking power of the Senate. It allows the government to force the whole Senate to the electorate at once, breaking the Senate's fixed term and changing the Senate numbers.

There is little doubt the government would find this option attractive. The Coalition currently has 37 Senators, Labor 32, with 5 Greens, Senator Xenophon and Family First's Steve Fielding. On current numbers, the Coalition need to lure only one of the cross-bench Senators across the aisle to block legislation.

A double dissolution would almost certainly reduce the Coalition to 32-34 Senators, even less if current opinion polls are to be believed. Labor would probably gain Senators and stand a strong chance of gaining a majority of seats in conjunction with the Greens. Senator Xenophon would be re-elected, perhaps with a colleague from his ticket, while Senator Fielding would be unlikely to win re-election, ending his term which currently runs until June 2011.

However, by reducing the quota for election from 14.3% to 7.7%, a double dissolution could also bring into the Senate a rag-tag collection of unknown Senators from micro-parties, elected thanks to the vagaries of the Senate's preferential voting system.

The double dissolution provisions are contained in Section 57 of the Constitution. It states that a bill must first be passed by the House and then be rejected, fail to pass or be unacceptably amended by the Senate. After a period of three months, the same bill must be passed by the House and then again be blocked, fail to pass or be unacceptably amended by the Senate. This provides a trigger which allows the Prime Minister to request a DD. The trigger does not have to be used at once, but must be used before six months from the end of the term of the House. So the announcement of a dissolution for a DD must take place by 11 August 2010, meaning that a double dissolution could take place as late as 16 October 2010.

After a DD, the government must again present the legislation, and if it is again rejected by the Senate, then a joint sitting of the two Houses can be called under Section 57 at which legislation can be passed by both chambers voting together. The only time a joint sitting under this provision has been held was in 1974 when the Whitlam government passed four major pieces of legislation that had previously been blocked by the Senate.

The 'Alcopops' legislation passed the first test of the double dissolution mechanism on 18 March when it was defeated in the Senate. By trying to pass the legislation again after 18 June, the government meets the three month delay requirement of Section 57. If the 'Alcopops' bill is then defeated in the Senate, the government has a trigger to request the Governor-General to issue writs for a double dissolution. It is a trigger the government does not have to use at once but could put away to be brought out from time to time as a threat to the Opposition in the Senate, or to unveil for real in asking the Governor-General for a double dissolution.

Again it should be stressed that in re-introducing this legislation in a manner that allows it to become a double dissolution trigger does not mean the government is about to call an election. Introducing the 'Alcopos' bill in this manner increases the pressure on the Senate to pass the legislation, using the threat of an early election to force a legislative 'blink' from the Senate.

Also, if the government does achieve a double dissolution trigger, it does not mean it is about to call an early election. Yes the government is well ahead in the opinion polls. Yes the budget reveals that the economy may be in a worse position in the second half of next year when the government is due to face the electorate. But we have seen in the past that governments that call early elections have seen enormous opinion poll leads disappear as an election forces voters to focus on the real choices at hand.

An additional problem with an early election is the fact that redistributions are currently under way in both New South Wales and Queensland. This does not make an early election impossible, but does make it administratively messy.

Given an election in September/October 2010 has always been the government's preferred option, having a double dissolution trigger may actually be a useful option for the government. A double dissolution in October 2010 may be a preferable option to a normal House and half-Senate election.

Holding a double dissolution rather than a normal half-Senate election may give the Labor Party a better position in the Senate. No doubt some Labor number-crunchers have already looked at that option. But more importantly, a double dissolution would change the Senate at once, where under a half-Senate election, Labor would still be at the mercies of Senator Fielding and the Opposition through until June 2011.