I had a smug sense of satisfaction today as I opened the Australian and for the second day in the row Rudd was being criticized by the press for the ALP's green credentials.  Actually I would have felt smug no matter what the criticism was (fair or not) but this one is particularly good.

And it's a sign that the Honeymoon with the press is over.

One thing I remember learning as a young impressionable journalism student is that generally the press is anti-incumbent when it comes to the government.  And now they've turned on the Milky Bark Kid, who was some what of a press darling before the election.  My only lament is that it is not really helping Nelson at all.

Whilst, unlike many other conservatives, I do have an environmental conscience, it is a moderate one.  And as always I favor actions over words.  So I do not buy into extremism when it comes to protecting the environment.  I want to see genuine discourse and a range of opinions propagated AND I don't want people to talk big and not deliver.  The Howard Government was strongly criticized for not signing the Kyoto protocol.  And this criticism was somewhat misplaced for a couple of reasons, including that they had successfully worked at reducing emissions since Kyoto was formulated AND they were also in the process of starting a carbon trading scheme.  Essentially jumping on board for no good reason.  I have many criticisms of carbon trading schemes, but the biggest one being that all the money made from them either goes to the government, traders or speculators and not towards researching and developing cleaner technology.  At the end of the day all it does is increase costs to consumers rather than help the environment.  But one thing the Howard government did do was encourage business success in all sectors.

Rudd's downfall is that he is encouraging success in the Mining sector.  As we all know, he really did believe the ALP press releases criticizing the our economic success as being wholly dependent on the Mining sector - an unfortunate mistake in terms of understanding but also improving our environmental credentials.  It is perceived that the Mining Sector is the biggest contributor to "climate change", not so much in Australia, but in our biggest customers countries such as China and India.  How can someone claim to be 'green' and then rely on the dirtiest industry in the country to prop up the economy?  It's a good question.

It's a very good question in light of the fact that environmental concerns are almost at hysterical levels.  Obviously I was not old enough to remember much of the cold war, but the hunt for environmental bogie men and the need to drastically change our lifestyle does remind me somewhat of the 'Reds under the bed' hysteria in distant decades.  So much for being more enlightened than previous generations.  Apparently we will never tire of witch trials and inquisitions.

Sadly the Australian took it a little too far for my liking criticizing Penny Wong's office having lights on during Earth Hour (actually come to think of it, the whole building may have had the lights on).  But they are doing their job.  And in turn, helping the Opposition do theirs.

My one lament is that it seems to me, this pattern of the press being anti-incumbent is much stronger in Federal politics than State.  We are in a time where most of our state governments have been in there forever and are becoming stagnant and foul-smelling.  Unfortunately in State politics the honeymoon rolled over into happily wedded bliss rather than dysfunction and discord.  But that's the stops.

Now if I can just stop feeling so confidently smug, as there are another 3 years before we all see if hypocrisy will pay off!

Just for good measure I've included a rather good article from the above mentioned paper regarding Global Warming.

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