farmdoc's blog post number 332

‘All over, red rover’ is a croquet term. The red rover’s the last hoop. I first came across this saying, which I’ve used in a previous post, when Felicity Kennett said it to a waiting media pack the day her husband left politics in 1999. Last Monday morning as I left for work at 8:30, the echidna’s soil mound remained undisturbed. So it must have had a sound night’s sleep sheltered from the rain and wind. And it slept in. At least longer than I did. At 3:15 when I returned home, the first thing I did was look at the mound. But there was no mound. The echidna had neatly de-roofed it and decamped. As the photograph shows, it made a doughnut-shape depression. Very artistic. I thought that when it went, it’d go in the night. But self-apparently it felt safe enough to venture out in daylight. So folks, for the time being at least, the echidna story’s ended. If there’s more, and I doubt there will be, I’ll let you know. That’s my life here in Mole Creek. Sweetheart Vivienne comes and goes, wombats come and go, and now this echidna – whom I’ve named Rover – has too. Though a cliché, it’s nonetheless true that all good things come to an end. Rover’s brief visit was a good thing. No doubt. For me, anyway. 

farmdoc's blog post number 207

In December 1967, Sweetheart Vivienne and I honeymooned on Hayman Island. Propriety forbids me divulging details, but based on my meagre experience of one honeymoon, they’re sublime but nothing like real life. Governments have honeymoons too. The Rudd Government’s began almost a year ago – on 24 November 2007. No honeymoon lasts that long, so Rudd’s is all over, red rover. And my post-honeymoon impression of Rudd is disappointment – because his Government exudes style over substance, say over do. Take climate change, which Sir David King, UK’s former Chief Scientific Advisor, called ‘the most severe problem we’re facing today’. What’s Rudd done about it? Ratified Kyoto, introduced carbon trading to start in 2010 with concessions to major carbon producers, and means-tested the solar rebate. Pedestrian policy, methinks. What should he do? Much more. For example a really good idea from Thomas L Friedman, in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is a floor price for petrol at the pump. Currently the Melbourne pump price is its lowest in a year – 121.7 cents/litre. That’s great for politicians but not our planet. The lower it goes, the less the investment in clean energy. A floor price of say 150 cents, indexed, would stimulate such investment, and if the true price falls below the floor price then the additional revenue would subsidise clean energy investment. The honeymoon’s over, Mr Rudd. Get to work. Please.