Not just the poorest families of Australia, who may have to pay substantially more just to shop for their food, other people are upset too.
Rudd, whose strings are pulled in China, has turned a blind eye to the suffering of those with family and friends in Tibet.
Does one need to have family and friends in a locale to be upset over indiscriminate murder and mayhem?
Communists don't approve of religion, and the Buddhists are doing it tough. Only last year, Chinese soldiers were sniping at Buddhist Nuns. This year, they are closer to the source.
It's good that Rudd's agenda so closely matches the Chinese Government's wish list.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The People Rudd Ignores
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Embassy egged, car hit in protest
from news.com.au
MORE than 100 noisy, flag-waving protesters have demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Melbourne today.
Some protesters have thrown eggs and water bombs towards the consulate's front gate in leafy Toorak in Melbourne's east.
The protest began at 10am (AEDT) with speeches by rally organisers, singing of the Tibetan national anthem and chanting, denouncing China and its alleged human rights abuses.
What began as a quiet, peaceful protest, quickly degenerated into a loud demonstration as those outside the consulate chanted anti-Chinese slogans, including "Who's the butcher? China''.
At one point, a car driven into the compound by a Chinese man was rushed at by demonstrators who threw eggs and hit the vehicle with flagpoles.
Police held several emotional demonstrators back after they surged toward the compound's tall fortified black metal gates.
One woman slipped past the police line and into the compound behind the car, but she was quickly apprehended and frogmarched out before being cautioned.
About a dozen police, two mounted on horseback, were at the scene.
Today's Melbourne demonstration follows the arrest in Sydney yesterday of four pro-Tibet activists during a protest outside that city's Chinese consulate.
Peter Garret embarrassed on plastic bag charge
from news.com.au
THE cat was out of the bag on a proposed plastic bag tax despite federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett's denials, Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says.
Mr Garrett rejected reports shoppers would be forced to pay up to $1 for plastic bags last week.
But Dr Nelson said it seemed Mr Garrett's own department had prepared proposals of a shopping tax of at least 25c on every plastic bag.
"Now the cat is now out of the bag. Mr Garrett is obviously a man who doesn't know whether he's coming or going,'' Dr Nelson said in Perth.
A tax on plastic bags would hurt fair dinkum Australian families, who were already battling with high petrol and grocery prices, Dr Nelson said.
"Apart from the economic madness of this, what are people going to do with their dustbins, their dirty nappies and their dog poo?
"Mr Garrett might live in a different part of Australia but for the rest of fair dinkum Australia we know that these plastic bags are really important ...''
Labor went to last year's election promising to phase out plastic bag use but Mr Garrett said last week a levy was not the way to achieve this.
Garrett embarrassed
But, after The Sunday Telegraph presented Mr Garrett's office with transcripts of his own departmental officials outlining the plan, an embarrassed Environment Minister yesterday conceded the supermarket slug on shoppers was on the table.
The transcripts, from Senate Estimates hearings on February 19, reveal his department had undertaken detailed costings of the plan.
Mr Garrett sought to shut down the story last Sunday by issuing a press release, saying the Government would not be introducing any Commonwealth "levy".
But the transcripts show the Government has been considering both a levy, or tax, and a checkout charge of 25c to $1 a bag to fulfil its election pledge to phase out single-use plastic shopping bags "using economic instruments".
While Mr Garrett was trying to pretend no such plan existed, it was being confirmed by Environment Department officials at the Senate Estimates hearings.
The Department's First Assistant Secretary in the Environment Quality Division, Mary Harwood, told the hearings four options were on the table for the environment ministers' council meeting on April 17.
She said: "They (the four options) are: a litter amelioration strategy; banning plastic bags outright; applying a mandated retailer charge, or a Commonwealth levy on bags."
Given Mr Garrett has ruled out a Commonwealth levy, and that the litter-reduction plan would not meet Labor's election promise, the Environment Minister is left with two proposals: an outright ban, which is regarded as impractical, or a checkout charge for each bag.
Major retailers have calculated a minimum 25c charge would add an annual $650 million to the national shopping bill - or at least $156 for each shopper.
The NSW Government is known to have discussed a charge of as much as $1 a bag.
Ms Harwood confirmed to the Senate committee that, no matter what decision was made, eradication of plastic bags would cost consumers.
After being presented with Ms Harwood's testimony, a spokeswoman for Mr Garrett confirmed a checkout charge was on the agenda for the April 17 ministerial council meeting.
"All environment ministers - state, territory and commonwealth - will sit down on April 17 to consider these options and the associated benefits and costs," she said.
"The Minister will not speculate on what the outcomes of that discussion will be, but he's made it clear this Government will not support or introduce a Commonwealth levy on plastic bags," she said.
"We don't favour a Commonwealth tax or levy. We don't see the phase-out of plastic bags as a revenue-raising exercise for the Commonwealth. Working families want a sensible approach that delivers for them and for the environment.
"The fact is, plastic bags have a documented impact on the environment and we have a ready replacement in re-usable green or calico bags."
The Australian National Retailers Association has condemned the plan for a checkout charge.
"Imposing an extra cost on consumers for bags they already use responsibly can't be justified," ANRA CEO Margy Osmond said.
Britain last week moved to implement its own plastic bag charge. Finance Minister Alistair Darling said legislation would be introduced to impose a charge on single-use carrier bags unless retailers took action voluntarily.
China declares 'people's war' in Tibet
from news.com.au
TIBET'S Government has declared a "people's war" to erase support for the Dalai Lama and end any independence aspirations of the people there, Chinese state media said today.
The blitz will involve both security and propaganda campaigns to counter the message of the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader, the Tibetan Daily reported.
The people's war call was made during an emergency meeting of Tibetan political and security chiefs yesterday, the report said, following deadly protests a day earlier against China's 58-year rule of Himalayan region.
"This grave outburst of fighting, destruction, and burning was planned by reactionary separatist forces both within and outside our borders to smash the social order with the ultimate goal of an independent Tibet," a statement from the meeting said.
"We must wage a people's war to beat splittism and expose and condemn the malicious acts of these hostile forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai Lama group to the light of day."
The unrest first erupted early last week when Buddhist monks led demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule that forced the Dalai Lama into exile.
Tibet's government-in-exile says at least 30 people died in the unrest and authorities have since imposed a heavy security clampdown.
Eyewitnesses reports have said protesters were chanting support for independence and the Dalai Lama, who remains revered by the Tibetan Buddhist faithful.
Authorities plan to attack this support with a propaganda push, the Tibetan Daily said.
Meanwhile, in another state media report today, a Tibetan spiritual leader picked by China's rulers condemned what he called "lawless riots" in his homeland, saying a tiny minority was to blame.
"The rioters' acts not only harmed the interests of the nation and the people, but also violated the aim of Buddhism," the Panchen Lama said, according to Xinhua news agency.
"We resolutely oppose all activities to split the country and undermine ethnic unity," said the 18-year-old Panchen Lama, nominally Tibet's second highest spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama.
"We strongly condemn the crime of a tiny number of people to hurt the lives and properties of the people," he added, using language steeped in vocabulary favoured by Chinese propaganda departments.
He said he hoped the situation in Lhasa could calm down soon, and that "peace and stability would return to the people and the Buddhist followers", according to Xinhua.
The Chinese Government enthroned the current 11th Panchen Lama in 1995, rejecting another boy that had been selected by the exiled Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest spiritual authority.
The esoteric enthronement ritual is part of a Tibetan Buddhist tradition where youths that pass certain religious tests are selected as the reincarnation of previously departed spiritual leaders.
The Dalai Lama's choice for the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, disappeared from public view in 1995 aged six and is believed to have been under a form of house arrest ever since.
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