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Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

January update 2026

Posted in A writer's life, tagged , , , , , , on January 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The new year is done. The many January birthdays are celebrated. The cake is eaten.

I’ve been doing grandma stuff with my youngest granddaughter. She went back to her mum yesterday. As a result of all this activity and due to spending time in Sydney with granddaughter, not much writing got done. Yeah.

My wall planner fell off the wall. This may be ominous. I have not sat at my desk until now to spy on my desk planner either. However, it is a long weekend in Canberra this weekend and I have good intentions!

World politics tend to distract me. I listened to Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum. I passed the link onto my partner and friend. I tried talking about it to Matthew (partner) but burst into tears. Basically, Carney summed up what has been brewing in my gut for a while. The rules-based international system is broken. It’s not coming back. We need to do something different. I listened to Macron and to Von Der Leyen’s speech and Trump’s. I’m going back to listen to a few more. It helps me to know that other world leaders are planning and taking action.

But you couldn’t write this stuff. This is worse than a bad dystopian SF novel. But I have hope, even though uncertainty is really gut wrenching.

Appearances

Meanwhile, I am looking at events…

Some of my books are for sale at Cancon this weekend at Epic at the CSFG table. I’ll be doing a shift at 12 noon on Monday so I’ll be there.

I’ll be at the Romantic Rendezvous in Sydney on March 22nd. Link to info and tickets Here.

I’ll be at Books and Beyond on April 12 in Ourimbah, on the central coast.

I’m hoping to get a table at the Geek Expo in Canbera during July but I’m currently hunting up expression of interest forms.

September I will possibly be at Books and Beyond again.

And for some reason I have three events 10 October, Once Upon a Fairy Tale indie book event in Campbelltown.

Hopefully I’ll have a stall at the Goulburn Steampunk Victorian Faire on the 17th. Noting certain as of yet, but I’ll be there in any case.

Books in Sight, Canberra Rex, on 23rd October

I shall post again if anything else comes up. I’ve put in for things.

Travel

In between everything else, I am travelling a bit. NZ in Feb, then in March doing a tour with a visitor from the UK, I’d like to fit in a trip to Singapore for at least a month and possibly to Adelaide in April. I was hoping to go to Canada with my sister in October but I have a lot going on then.

Writing

Matthew has three big projects this year so that will limit travel somewhat. But it also means I will be encouraged to write also.

Meanwhile Gentleman Magician is at just over 12000 words.

Reading

I’m going to keep a spreadsheet of my reading this year. I don’t read enough these days. I listen to audio books more.

PS I got my hair done today. Totally pink. It looks floofy in this photo.

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A few words on the Australian Government’s stance on climate change

Posted in Climate, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , on October 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I don’t comment on politics often but this has been on my mind.

We have protests. We have affirmative action from the people. We have solar power and wind power. Why does the Australian government not understand or seem to act?

It comes down to economics and coal. Coal the core of our trade and how can the government say coal is bad and keep selling it? Basically it can’t. If they stopped the coal industry tomorrow our economy would collapse.

I get that but I’m not happy about it.

What the Australian government needs to do is look for new industries for Australia to have at its core and start the move away from coal. That might take fifty years but we should start now. Successive governments have had decades on decades to more our economy from a commodity base to more dependable footing say manufacturing, finance, technology and ideas. But I can’t see any attempts at that. Now, we have our backs against the wall. We have a lot of coal but soon we aren’t going to be able to sell as much of it as we used to. Coal creates greenhouse gases and as other economies get on board with this, they will change and we should be changing ahead of the game. For example, China buys coal and burns coal. In Shanghai you have to wear a mask in the winter due to the coal burning power stations and I believe Beijing is the same. China are investing in solar energy and that’s probably where my solar panels were manufactured.

What I’d like to see is for the Australian government to support climate change action. Listen to the voices of the people who want recycling, who want less waste, who want less plastics in the environment. We want support for electric cars so we aren’t contributing to more greenhouse gases. Supporting climate change action doesn’t have to mean economic loss, but it does mean the government acknowledging the will of the people when it comes to climate change action.

The government talks about banning protesters and Morrison PM says that kids are too young to worry about such things. Scott Morrison you are being an ass and Dutton, your dopey comrade, is just too ridiculous for words, calling on the police to sue protestors because the courts won’t punish them. Cue eye roll. Ever heard of the separation of powers?

Australian government start talking about a positive future and about where Australia will be in fifty years or even one hundred years’ time. Plan to have a no coal future and build us an economy that can support us and where we can actively reduce greenhouse gasses and still live.

Not all Australian governments are blind and stupid. Canberra is moving to phase LPG (gas) out by 2030, I think. Besides being pricey LPG  contributes to greenhouse gases. Canberra is set to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, which is great but there’s more to be done obviously.

The Australian Government missed the boat on a future fund based on the mining and petroleum sectors. I mean the then Labor government did try, but it brought the government into disarray. Rich mining moguls have way too much money and power! One day all those minerals will run out and Australians will be turning out their empty pockets and will need to go begging. But that’s the greed culture for you.

I have included a few links. The one in the Conversation talks about how the statistics say one thing but if you include the downstream industries that mining is fifty percent of the economy and is pretty interesting about economics generally.

Warning the Mining Council can be a bit right wing.

https://minerals.org.au/coal-community

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/5204.0Feature%20Article12017-18?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=5204.0&issue=2017-18&num=&view=

http://theconversation.com/australias-five-pillar-economy-mining-40701

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