Beazley's statement
on the cabinet reshuffle included the question;
What sort of reshuffle worked on for four months would leave Amanda Vanstone still in immigration?
That is an excellent question that should be answered and not side-stepped.
Bryan Palmer has a run-down on the changes
.
Malcolm Turnball
didn't do too well from it.
Malcolm Turnbull goes from the backbench to Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister with particular responsibility for water policy. I suspect the water policy Howard had in mind was to have Turnbull inside the tent, pissing out; rather than outside the tent, pissing in.
First stop Goulburn
. A promotion but an impossible portfolio given Australia's dearth of water.
Minchin
also got a shove forward;
Senator Nick Minchin - keeps Finance and Administration - now Leader of the Government in the Senate.
Minchin is the main Liberal advocate for
removing compulsory voting
.
Peter Costello still has not done a Paul Keating and forced the issue with John Howard. Keating was sacked by Hawke and spent six months on the back bench before managing to wrest leadership of the Labor party from Bob Hawke. Costello seems unwilling to give up his Treasury portfolio.
Australian politics has become more and more Presidential, both as a result of the way the parties play politics and how the media represents their political theatre. The Cabinet reshuffle stage act kept several Costello supporters on the sidelines;
Addendum: Capable Costello supporters, George Brandis, Christopher Pyne, Bruce Baird, and Tony Smith were passed over when it came to the promotions. (Although Brough and Bishop have also been reported as Costello supporters, and they were big winners in this reshuffle).
I could not find any commentary on the cabinet reshuffle on
the ALP website
. The Liberal Party website has
a complete list of changes and release from John Howard
. The Australian Democrats have
a spiffy looking new site
, but no mention of the cabinet changes.
The Greens'
have some commentary on the changes
.
Greens Leader Bob Brown says that Tasmania has been snubbed in the Cabinet reshuffle.
"Eric Abetz is the new minister for forests, but it's a junior ministry - he gets the timber but not the Cabinet.
But it is not much.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
