An Indiana drug dealer asked a customer to pay him an extra $US25 “for gas money to deliver the cocaine,” court documents showed. With petrol retailing at about $US4 a gallon (3.79 litres), the dealer likely made a small profit on the fuel charge.
Kevin Rudd fought the election by promising “fresh leadership” that would make our lives better without involving unpopular change. Indeed, he promised to retain vast swathes of John Howard’s policies. In short, he promised change without change. The public’s slowly growing disillusionment with the Rudd Government represents its dawning realisation that change without change isn’t possible.
While the Rudd Government is unlikely to start playing down the threat of global warming, it will want to dampen expectations about how quickly and deeply Australia should try to cut its carbon emissions, at least until the rest of the world is on board.
Labor is still basking in the glow of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and burnishing its environmental credentials while pushing ahead with the task of introducing emissions trading in 2010. But there is a growing disconnect between the politics and the policy of climate change.
It is clear from the polls that voters believe Kevin Rudd promised to do something about rising petrol and grocery prices before the federal election last year. Nick Xenophon put his finger on the Government’s problem of balancing perception and reality when he said: “I just don’t think [FuelWatch is] going to do what it’s meant to do.”
The Government needs the support of the Greens and senators Fielding and Xenophon to get its legislation through the upper house. “We’re still wanting to understand how it won’t push petrol prices … up and we also want to know how FuelWatch won’t squeeze out independents,” said Senator Fielding.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said today that he was now convinced the FuelWatch scheme didn’t stack up. If the Coalition decides to oppose the measure the Rudd Government will be forced to rely on Mr. Xenophon and the minor parties to get the policy through the Senate.
Only weeks ago, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel told the ABC’s 7.30 Report that “there would be very few observers in the marketplace that would say to you, ‘Coles and Woolworths are not vigorously competing against each other.”‘ Now, in a somersault worthy of an Olympic gold medal, Samuel has concluded that “the grocery market is workably competitive.”
Compared with his slightly hysterical opponent, Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, had been making good sense on energy questions, and his recent speeches had included a menu of proposals for energy efficiency, conservation, alternative fuels and new technologies.
While focusing on alternative energy production, Senator Obama has veered in recent days toward increasing access to fossil fuels, both in seeking to tap the strategic oil reserve and in softening his opposition to offshore oil drilling.