Tuesday 15 January 2008
Federal Shadow Treasurer speaks out of turn
Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull has been rather busy lately running to the media to criticise Treasurer Wayne Swann.
As a former principal of a merchant bank which seems to have always been a law unto itself, perhaps Malcolm should keep mum on any bank's ability to raise its interest rates or otherwise conduct business.
A reminder to the Rudd Government and all state & coastal local governments
Recent wild weather and high seas have highlighted the vulnerability of Australia's coastline. Time is beginning to run out for the formation and implementation of adequate national, state and local government coordinated planning responses.
This opinion piece in The Age last Friday says it all.
"COASTAL development, rising sea levels, increasing storm surges and a vocal community are a potent political mix. The climate change debate has rightly focused on the critical need to reduce carbon emissions but inadequate attention is being given to what we need to do in terms of adaptation to climate change on the coast.
Our coastal communities face an impending crisis. Continuing development in areas likely to be inundated is foolhardy at best. For a nation skilled at emergency management when it comes to floods and fire, we are remarkably unprepared for when the inevitable storm surge hits a populated coastal area.
Coastal planning is one of those policy areas that doesn't fit neatly into one portfolio or level of government. It covers environment, urban planning and infrastructure provision, including water, housing and indigenous interests and cuts across portfolio responsibilities. With the significant risks of climate change, this now involves the Federal Government and the insurance industry, as well as state and local governments.
The Sea Change Taskforce, comprising coastal council representatives and the Planning Institute of Australia among others, has lobbied government for years on the looming problem for local councils experiencing rapid urban growth and the accompanying servicing requirements.
The Australian coastline is littered with exhausted communities battling to save the character and environment of their townships. As if this weren't enough, climate change predictions of rising sea levels and storm surge have added a potent ingredient to the mix challenging the capacity of land-use planning systems and local councils to respond. Only now have governments started to map seriously the coastal areas likely to be inundated at the scales and resolutions needed to respond effectively to the science produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the CSIRO. But this has been largely the result of individual council or state government initiatives rather than as part of a wider plan."
The Age article by Barbara Norman, past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia:
Cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down
I am old enough to have lived through the era when over-the-counter analgesics like Bex were used to alleviate stress, aid sleep and act as a pick-me-up.
Renal disease was frequently the result of longterm abuse. There was often an apparent relationship between this abuse and low-income suburbs. From memory I seem to remember that the Newcastle region featured heavily in newspaper articles of the time.
I had thought those days were gone.
Now it seems other analgesics are beginning to find their way into bathrooms, kitchen cupboards, handbags, briefcases, school bags and lives, in an attempt to ease the many problems of associated with modern life. News.com.au reports that Nurofen is now being used in an abusive pattern, causing renal problems, ulcers and organ damage.
"In the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Martin Dutch of The Angliss Hospital in Melbourne wrote that misuse of Nurofen Plus was a "significant" problem.
"Over a six-month period, two patients presented (themselves) to a community hospital emergency department with perforated gastric ulcers as the result of recreational misuse of over-the-counter ibuprofen–codeine preparations," Dr Dutch said.
"Over a six-month period, two patients presented (themselves) to a community hospital emergency department with perforated gastric ulcers as the result of recreational misuse of over-the-counter ibuprofen–codeine preparations," Dr Dutch said.
"Misuse of these medications appears to be an emerging cause of significant morbidity in patients with codeine addiction."
News.com.au report:
News.com.au report:
Widespread unhappiness and dissatisfaction manifests itself in many ways.
Are we seeing not just addiction, but another canary in the mine telling us that all is not well within our economically stratified society.
Labels:
Australian society,
health
Monday 14 January 2008
Would anyone like to sell Senators Conroy and Ludwig a Habour Bridge or Statue of Liberty? They're so obviously in the market
First Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, announced a plan to apply mandatory censorship of the Internet at ISP level.
Now the Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig, wants an e-card for all our personal medical information. Which raises worries that this might be the start of the rumoured national identity card backdown.
ZDNet Australia:
Want to bet that the next bout of Rudd Government 'me-too' will be to adopt the former Howard Government's Communications Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism Related Internet Content) Bill 2007. Which can potentially flick the switch on any or all of us.
Parlinfoweb:
None of this sounds like the Australian Labor Party. It looks suspiciously as if these senators are in thrall to a bureaucracy still wedded to Howard's paternalistic agenda. Care for an old copy of George Orwell's 1984 anyone?
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