Links of the week

Although the result in Balmain has finally been sorted, the race for the last seat in the NSW Legislative Council is still ongoing. Antony Green tracks the progress. I'll post my wash up of the results when this contest is finally decided.

Despite the Greens poorer than expected performance in the State election Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann argues what the party needs to do to become a party of government in a generation.

Sean Nicholls in the National Times argues that that Barry O'Farrell's honeymoon may almost be over. Although much has been made of the restructure of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water there has been very little media interest in the broader departmental reshuffle. The only department that remains untouched is Transport with many other departments are undergoing changes as big as that of DECCW and some senior public service executives have already been given the sack. (If you feel like some reading the full administrative order detailing the restructure is here) In particular few commentators have worked out that the majority of the public service will be spending the next few months implementing the restructure as opposed to policies and programs. This has very real implications for a government trying to look like they're achieving results. It's telling that the big ticket items in Barry O'Farrell's 100 Day Plan are to be implemented by the departments that are undergoing fewer changes.

More on the climate change debate. Paul Griffiths and Mark Colyvan on The Drum examine how difficult it is for the public to work out who is speaking with the authority of science. Also on the Drum Darren Osborne shows how science actually works - your opinion should follow the evidence, not the other way around - in preliminary results of a new analysis of global temperature data. On the front of solutions New Scientist reviews research suggesting that large scale implementation of wind power could have unintended consequences and Jessica Irvine in the National Times discusses how the economics of a carbon tax is supposed to work.