Whatever issues there might be with Bob Carr’s consultancy to the Macquarie Bank or Gillard’s catapulting of him into the senate and foreign affairs ministership ahead of Stephen Smith or any other sitting member, he has surely got to be a very good person for her to have at close call.

This is why: He has a long-held deeply sincere belief that rapid population growth is disastrous, that high immigration is absurd in Australia, and that we need to get right away from continuous rapid expansionism and head decisively towards a sustainable society, which is precisely the stuff that I have been most expressive about on OLO over the last six years.

He is unique in this regard amongst our Federal or State politicians, except for back-bencher, Kelvin Thomson. Not even any members of the Greens are concerned about population growth or true sustainability, so it seems!

And he is EXACTLY what Labor needs, what our political system needs and what our country needs…. a bit of basic commonsense at the top level of decision-making and future planning.

Here’s what he had to say at the launch of Mark O’Connor’s book; Overloading Australia….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNh6ApXa_KM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FtoSqStdTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9S9XzEYI_0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvDLddVUCs

Ludwig I will be proud till death of a photo I have with Bob.
Proud of his total life achievements.
And highlight his holding a party together in NSW.
He may well be an inspiration,some one ,so far hidden, may well have looked at the wreckage of the Rudd/Gillard war, that is what it was.
And in a brilliant move saw a peace maker leader, Carr if given the top job, can mend the ALP.
He has no past history in the war, that put personality's before the party.
You will see the barbs and arrows but most who fire them are uninformed, this man is a statesman.

Sorry Ludwig, I'm afraid you are suffering a "the friend of my friend is my friends" syndrome moment.

The fact that Carr has one or even two sensible thoughts does not make him smart, or good for Oz. He was an unmitigated disaster for NSW, which is still suffering from, & will continue suffering for some time from, the mess he made of most things he touched.

I don't think there is a better example of a do as I say, not as I do exponent in the country. So be careful what you wish for. Stopping population growth by most any means should be a good idea. However starving everyone would not be too good. With his lack of sense, & rather doubtful ethics, he could just possibly come up with such a plan.

Any one who does not drive a car, but requires a car & driver for every journey is not someone who is careful of resources, just arrogant.

The truly remarkable, but informative thing about this Ludwig.
Is the condemnation such as hasbeen place on Carr.
From other than NSW most, wrongly think he led the lemming march to destruction the ALP became in my home state.
NO! todays polling, 15% for a clean leader, a massive vote for Liberals, was earned by others.
Bob Carr achieved much, he fought against the control of some, but it was after he left the party died.
It did just that, it breaths again, but in a state once more often Labor than any other, those others leave us to ten years at least of rebuilding.
Carr, even among Conservatives, will have earned respect by mid year.
And as you know, our refusal to see his population policy's as the only path to sustainability is going to hurt us all, grow if we must, but in time it is going to hurt.
To my fellow travelers, those condemning me for reminding all of our folly.
Remember party first.
And not only in respect to our War dead should we never fail, to remember and require better.
My party is no mans toy.

Crikey Hasbeen, you’ve got the knives out for poor old Bob real bad!

I can’t see that his record as premier was all that bad, when you compare it to all other premiers around the country over the last thirty years and when you consider that he was re-elected what three times and was the longest continuously serving NSW premier.

Anyway the important point is that he is right in there at the top echelons of our national decision-making hierarchy, in amongst a mob of total ratbag continuous growth addicts!

With his high level of respect, he WILL be listened to. But of course whether it makes a hoot of difference remains to be seen.

You agree that << stopping population growth … should be a good idea >>

I think you’d agree that it is an enormously important factor in our future wellbeing. So let’s give Bob a go and support him like crazy whenever the media reports any comments from him about growth.

Belly, it is great that you support Bob so strongly.

You wrote:

<< …our [Labor’s] refusal to see his population policy's as the only path to sustainability is going to hurt us all, grow if we must, but in time it is going to hurt. >>

I’m very pleased that you see it this way. It makes you an unusual man within Labor ranks.

What Labor needs is more grass-roots members like you to get right in there are strongly express this sort of sentiment.

.... to get right in there AND strongly express this sort of sentiment.

Rrrrgh!!

Ah, Ludwig,
I hope you are correct. I share your concerns but wish he looked less like a caricature of himself.

From Mark O Connor on the Pop Forum:

A Productivity Commission survey (PC, 2011a.) of nearly 16,000 people
revealed that 64% of the Sydney community would not like an increased
population, 9% would like it and 27% did not know or did not care;
Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: Planning, Zoning
and Development Assessments, Productivity Commission Research Report Volume
1, p.28, April 2011; Source. Available from
http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/108840/planning-volume1.pdf

This clearly indicates a big majority of support for curtailing population growth in Sydney. Presumably most people concerned about this would also be concerned at a regional, state and national level and would be highly inclined to vote for Gillard if her government espoused limits-to-population-growth policies.

If Labor would just get their act sorted out and strongly, consistently and sincerely push a genuine sustainability-oriented policy platform, they’d zip ahead of the Libs in the polls, without doubt.

Now that Bob Carr is right in there, this has got to be real possibility.

Well…..here’s hoping at least.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/carr-backs-away-from-png-sanctions-comments-20120316-1v9o4.html

Not a good start.

Bob needs to control his motor mouth.

No, totally taken out of context. Too many people are ready to jump on him at the slightest opportunity.

Crikey, you have to be so careful about what you say when you’re in a position like that. Pffff!!

Sorry Shadow Minister, my response was a bit impersonal.

I appreciate your input. Cheers.

Ludwig,

With all due respect, Bob's public utterances are now considered to be indications of Australia's foreign policy. Ill considered comments (even if true) can cause offence and problems in dealing with our neighbours. To have completely unnecessarily triggered a spat with PNG within 48hrs of assuming the role is a record.

As our premiere diplomat, he should be "diplomatic".

In all truth Shadow Minister your shots at any ALP matter are weak.
Sir I charge you with inability to see your own side.
Like spin doc, recently for me any way, uncovered for what he is, you seem even more committed to a task.
SPIN
In that mater I say well done.
You do it so well.
But as Bob Carr proves to be a great man, he in fact always was, you as is your habit, will neatly side step your comments.

Belly,

You are getting predictable. Whenever your side has stuffed up royally, you inevitably avoid the issue and attack me, usually for being one sided.

Well sorry, this was entirely self inflicted, and the Bob Carr, introduced with much fanfare, is busy back peddling over a threat of sanctions to PNG. The new look Labor front bench looks like a bunch of amateurs.

I agree Belly, about this government.
As always, the only elected representatives who seem to genuinely care about the environment, population, equality and fairness for all Australians, decency in relations with others, caring for people with problems.... all the things we say we're in favour of, AND HAVE POLICIES TO IMPLEMENT THESE SORT OF THINGS... are the Greens. Yet they're always treated as if they're not all there. Why?

Ybgirp, I’m not so sure that the Greens do really care about some of that stuff. Certainly not population growth and therefore not real sustainability.

Bob Carr does. Check out the youtubes from my opening post.

Welcome to our new poster, had a bit of difficulty with your name.
Do not try to remember some, no offense just the way it is for me.
You grant the greens, a minority radical party hiding behind a green name, too much.
Not being nasty, just give my thought consideration, as they become even more radical 88 out of every hundred would NEVER VOTE FOR THEM.
That is as it should be, in my opinion.
If given a chance, I think Australia would vote to get rid of upper houses just to rid ourselves of what I see as an infection known as greens.
SM do you ever get giddy? all that spinning.
Queensland voters will get it right if that is ,and it will be a LNP government so be it.

Dear SM,

You describe the new look Labor front bench
as a bunch of "amateurs" even though their
qualifications, experience, and ability
to get things done in a toxic environment
has been well and truly tested.

However,
despite all that you still call them "amateurs".
Then perhaps the appropriate word to describe
the Coalition's front bench (quid pro quo) would
definitely have to be - "useless!"

That would be fair enough.

Yes Lexi,

Labor has been tried and tested, and found wanting.

Their major reforms to the economy are debt and taxes.

Dear SM,

Our taxation system is badly in need of reforms.

As are other areas such as health, education, infrastructure,
and so on - which was badly done by the previous government
and now needs fixing.

It is time however that the Coalition did more than just
use scare tactics to try to attract votes. They need to come
up with something more positive in order for the voters to
see a reason to vote for them at the next election.

Lexi,

The previous government was Rudd. The "reforms" that labor have put in place have yielded no improvements, and simply increased costs with additional layers of bureaucrats.

So far so good. Bob Carr seems to be doing well at sticking to his long-held guns about population and getting the message out there:

From The Punch:

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/carr-wants-to-hit-the-brakes-on-our-ballooning-population/

And Lateline:

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3461709.htm?site=&source=rss>

Quote:

CARR:

... Yet we are the largest emitters of carbon pollution per head of
population. And I can't talk as I did yesterday to ambassadors from poor
countries, from Africa, from the Caribbean, from the South Pacific and urge
them to take action on climate change unless I can point to Australia's
record as a rich country taking serious action.

With the passage of this legislation under the Gillard Government we've now
got that and we've got iron-clad credibility when we talk about climate.

TONY JONES: Let me ask you this: as Foreign Minister have you been forced to
put aside your fundamental objections to the idea of a big Australia?

BOB CARR: I will stay patron of sustainable population Australia. I believe
in the cause of linking population growth to our key environmental
indicators.

TONY JONES: Won't that be in conflict with Government policy which is to
increase immigration exponentially?

BOB CARR: No, I remind you of what Prime Minister Gillard said when she took
her office. She moved Australia away from what I see as an old-fashioned
notion of simply force-feeding population growth.

We've got a different economy from the one we had in the 1950s and 1960s
when you had car plants in just about every Australian city, when we were -
we needed more and more blue-collar workers.

We haven't got that old kind of old-fashioned manufacturing economy today.
We've got a smarter economy and we need a different approach to population
growth and we've got to respect the environmental limits of this strange and
fragile continent. We've got to respect its environmental limits and
population policy has got to be tailored to that.