Federal Parliament had echoes of 1970's children's TV this week, with John "The Fonz" Howard and Kevin "Donald Duck" Rudd competing for the same audience - State Premiers - as the water debate continued.
Federal Parliament had echoes of 1970's children's TV this week, with John "The Fonz" Howard and Kevin "Donald Duck" Rudd competing for the same audience - State Premiers - as the water debate continued.
WA Business News gives you the run-down.
Water Water Everywhere,
Prime Minister John Howard held a summit of state and territory leaders on his $10 billion plan for the Murray Darling Basin, which would see the Federal Government take control of the country's largest inland river system.
The Thursday summit failed to reach an agreement, with Mr Howard announcing the leaders would meet again in a fortnight, at which time he hoped to finalise the deal. He had already won the support of NSW Premier Morris Iemma, providing the PM addressed the states' concerns.
Meanwhile, WA Premier Alan Carpenter told reporters on Thursday that he had secured a guarantee the Commonwealth would not take control of WA water resources, and that he expected to receive federal support for the Gnangara mount aquifer recharge project, which would see treated wastewater pumped into the Gnangara aquifer north of Perth.
Not to be outdone, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd held a working breakfast with state leaders on the same issue this morning, saying he hoped to play a positive role in seeking a national resolution to the issue.
Climate Change
The key environmental issue for the ALP (as well as being the potential best point-scorer against the government) is climate change, which Mr Rudd announced this week would be the central topic of his own summit - to be held in late March or early April.
It's not a subject that has prompted a great deal of sympathy from the government, with new Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull labelling it a "cramped political theology" and a "heresy of scepticism".
While political pundits were expecting a battle for the ages when Mr Turnbull faced opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett to debate the issue in a televised interview on the ABC's 7:30 Report on Thursday, not a lot of point-scoring transpired.
Instead both men, performing in a remarkably softly-spoken manner, preferred to state their party's respective positions and engage in the time honoured political tradition of proving deaf to the interviewer's questions and challenging their opponent's credibility.
Also having slight problems with deafness this week was the Prime Minister, who answered "the jury is still out on the degree of connection" to what he thought was a question of the link between greenhouse gas emissions and drought.
When it transpired that the question related to the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, Mr Howard returned to the chamber to clarify his position.
It nonetheless had shadow Attorney-General Kelvin Thompson asking whether the PM had had what he called a "Fonz moment".
"If you remember 'Happy Days', there was Arthur Fonzarelli who could never say the word 'wrong'. The Prime Minister is unwilling to admit he got it wrong over climate change and that we have had ten wasted years as a result," he told media on Wednesday.
While many Liberal backbenchers came to the defence of their leader, who may or may not have had hearing difficulties from a young age, by Friday they were returning pop culture fire with references to Donald Duck comics.
Mr Rudd had used the term "brutopia" to describe the nature of the Prime Minister's conservatism in an article published in The Monthly in November last year, before Mr Rudd was opposition leader.
According to Liberal frontbenchers, Brutopia was also the name of the enemy of Donald Duck, his Uncle Scrooge and market capitalism in comics published in the 1950s.
It drew howls from the government, particularly Treasurer Peter Costello, who accused the ALP of drawing inspiration for its economic analysis from the comics.
"This is the evolutionary cycle of the Labor Party - we have now moved from Mark Latham's roosters to Kevin Rudd's ducks," he said.
The Flying Kangaroo
Of course, Mr Costello has been focusing a lot on things that fly recently, having to quell concerns from the Liberal backbenches over the Qantas sale, telling them the deal would be vigorously scrutinised by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
"The government will not allow Qantas to go into majority foreign ownership," he said.
Yet he did confirm yesterday that Qantas low-price subsidiary Jetstar was not protected from foreign ownership in the same way as Qantas, because it is not the national airline.
Japan
Meanwhile the Prime Minister's private jet will be getting another workout with the Government announcing Mr Howard would fly to Japan in March to sign a defence agreement that could see Japanese soldiers training on Australian soil and the two countries taking a joint approach on issues like North Korea's nuclear program.
Announcing the proposal, Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer acknowledged the arrangement could create concerns for China, but stressed the deal was not similar to the ANZUS treaty, that that Australia would not go to Japan's aid in case of war.
"There's no need for them to be upset. It's not directed at China," he said.
"We believe the more we engage China bilaterally, within our region and beyond, the better that is".
David Hicks
Someone else who might also look forward to a bit of engagement with the government is David Hicks, who remained in the spotlight for another week after a new charge was sworn against him on Saturday.
The charge, which will not be formally laid against him for at least two weeks, is of "providing material support for terrorism and attempted murder in violation of the law of war", a charge dismissed by the Hicks legal team and members of the opposition as insubstantial.
Mr Hicks had been previously charged with conspiracy, attempted murder by an underprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy in 2004, but the charges were dropped when the US Supreme Court ruled the US military commissions he was charged under were illegal.
Nonetheless, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock told the party room this week the US Government would likely return Hicks to face an Australian court if it were asked to.
"I think it's quite clear that we do have a special relationship with the United States and while any decision that would be taken, would be taken by the United States, it is reasonable to assume that if the prime minister made such a request, there would be a probability that people would want to accede to it," Mr Ruddock told reporters in Canberra.
However, he said the government was unwilling to make such a request because he cannot be charged in Australia over his alleged activities in Afghanistan, the government being unwilling to pass a retrospective law making them illegal.
Soon after the announcement, the government used its Senate majority to block an Australian Democrats bid to force it to release its advice about the legality of the US military commissions set to try Mr Hicks.
Identity Card
Another subject facing opposition in the Senate is the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007, which Human Services Minister Ian Campbell says is an enhanced Medicare card, with the potential to replace 17 cards currently distributed by the Federal Government.
However government backbenchers and ALP members have raised concerns about the scheme, saying it could be a precursor for a multi-purpose identity card - and raising fears about the potential future use of personal information by the government.
ALP human services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek indicated Labor might oppose the card legislation because of inadequate protection.
Western Power
Inadequate protection is what the family of a 26-year old woman who died in a Toodyay bushfire are saying resulted in the clashing power lines which were identified by the Office of Energy Safety this week as the cause of the blaze.
Western Power chief Doug Aberle said the utility had maintained the infrastructure, and would not be providing compensation unless it had been negligent.
However reports indicate that local farmer Malcolm Turnbull had unsuccessfully asked Western Power to fix sagging power lines in November, a delay both Energy Minister Fran Logan and Deputy Opposition Leader Troy Buswell labelled as unacceptable.
Education
Also labeled unacceptable this week were the standards of teaching in the public school system, with Prime Minister John Howard saying students were being taught "incomprehensible sludge".
The comments came after Education Minister Julie Bishop threatened to withdraw Federal Government funding from state governments if they did not adopt her recommendations, which she says will deal with declining academic standards.
These include providing a public database on which schools would reveal staff qualifications and turnover, academic scores, suspension and retention rates and satisfaction statistics, as well as introducing performance-based pay for teachers.
WA Education Minister Mark McGowan condemned the proposal, saying it would create unnecessary levels of bureaucracy and disadvantage schools in low socioeconomic areas.
The final word
While this week's Newspoll put Labor's primary vote up three points to 47 per cent, with the Coalition's unchanged at 38 per cent, the final word must go to former Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, who made her first move as a "prominent backbencher" this week with news of her patriotic ode to Australia - "Under Southern Skies."
The song, which reports indicate has taken the South Australian senator six years to perfect, was intended to have sufficient gravitas for school functions and other formal events.
And tunes don't come with much more gravitas than the one she picked, Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, also known as Land of Hope and Glory - which is also the song played by England when victorious at the Commonwealth Games.
While Arch can't see the average Australian belting out the Senator's song to an English victory anthem, it shouldn't stop the Minister trying to apply the lyrics to another melody.
Arch suggests songs by two other English imports - John Farnham and Jimmy Barnes - may be appropriate, though perhaps the sentiments behind "Take the Pressure Down" or "Working Class Man" may not be what she had in mind.
