Women keep going working

Women keep going working. The steady growth in the number of women participating in the workforce continues. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for November out today put the female participation rate at a record high of 59.3%. Back in February 1978, the earliest figure given in the ABS publication, the rate was 43.5%.

For men over the same period the participation rate has gone the other way — from 79.5% in February 1978 to 66.1% in November.

Overall the participation rate in November 66.1% was 0.2 percentage points higher than in October. That increase reduced the impact of the 54,600 new jobs created during the month on the monthly unemployment figure which was down 19,500 (0.2 pts) to a rate of 5.2%.

A goose not a duck. The problem Kevin Rudd has in dealing with the United States is not that they doubt his capacity to allow criticism to flow off his back but they think he is a goose rather than a duck. And as for what the Chinese diplomats think of him, well, it is not hard to guess.

If Australia’s two most important relationships are those with the USA and China then surely this man can not be allowed to continue for long as our Foreign Minister.

And as for Mark Arbib! It can only be called gross disloyalty. If the Prime Minister keeps Mark Arbib in her ministry she is admitting that she is prepared to sacrifice every principle of good government to cling to power.

One little reward. From the MP’s travel list:

MARK ARBIB, ALP, NSWJune/July, 2008: trip to Washington DC for Australia America Dialogue conference, accommodation and return Qantas business class fare.

Time to take a similar view? Well America’s little pet has knocked off the $45 million on the failed World Cup bid so perhaps it’s time to let bygones be bygones. Sports Minister Mark Arbib should now follow the example of British MP Roger Godsiff and move something similar:

The battle begins. The guerrilla war of the internet has begun. Midday’s report from the front as the supporters of WikiLeaks attack the financial institutions that have caged in to pressure from the US Government: