I guess that we should all be thankful for small mercies on finding that the North Coast Area Health Service debt of $9 million is the fourth lowest across New South Wales.
Still, the total picture clearly shows that it is time for the Commonwealth to resume total responsibility for the provision of public hospitals and health services.
Unfortunately, all Kevin Rudd promised in the lead up to the 2007 federal election was that he would take over the running of public hospitals if the states did not agree to a national reform plan by mid 2009.
Hardly the answer to so mammoth a problem, when the debts keep mounting and the states (especially New South Wales) are so obviously incapable of solving the financial and workforce crises in health services.
Debt List:
Sydney South West Area Health Service $0
Hunter New England Area Health Service $0
Children's Hospital at Westmead $4.5m
North Coast Area Health Service $9m
Greater Western Area Health Service $10m
North Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service $22m
Greater Southern Area Health Service $22m
South East Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service $24m
Sydney West Area Health Service $26m
NSW Health owes $117.5 million to creditors
(Debt figures according to The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2009)
Saturday, 31 January 2009
North Coast Area Health Service debt in 2009
Friday, 30 January 2009
Are we there yet? Senator Conroy's neverending search for an ISP-level filtering trial
It seems that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is still having trouble herding enough ISPs into his Internet filtering trial and we are about to enter February without any clear indication of when the trial will actually begin.
An unidentified spokesperson for Senator Conroy reportedly tells us that the trial is imminent, will involve up to 16 applicants and ISPs will be clustered in the trial, which will mean that the original six-week test period is likely to drag on over months.
Along the way the Minister appears to have decided to rename his trial as the ISP-level objectionable content filtering trial, if Suzanne Tindal reporting on ZNet yesterday is any indication.
An obvious expansion of his original title which was the plainer Internet Service Provider level filtering trial.
Meanwhile..........
- GOOGLE has unveiled a plan aimed at letting computer users determine whether ISPs are inappropriately blocking or slowing their work online.
- On the last day of 2008 the Bergman Institute for Internet & Society at Harvard University released the Final Report Of The Internet Safety Technical Task Force To The Multi-State Working Group On Social Networking Of State Attorneys General Of The United States.
While all investigations of this nature will have flaws, there are three telling statements in the Executive Summary that Senator Stephen Conroy should note as he and the Prime Minister relentlessly drive Australia towards a national Internet censorship scheme.
Bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face, both online and offline.
and
The Internet increases the availability of harmful, problematic and illegal content, but does not always increase minors' exposure. Unwanted exposure to pornography does occur online, but those most likely to be exposed are those seeking it out, such as older male minors.
and
Minors are not equally at risk online. Those who are most at risk often engage in risky behaviors and have difficulties in other parts of their lives. The psychosocial makeup of and family dynamics surrounding particular minors are better predictors of risk than the use of specific media or technologies.
Barnaby Joyce eyes off the seat of Page?
Letter to the Editor published in The Daily Examiner on Thursday 29 January 2009:
So Queensland Liberal National Party Senator, Barnaby Joyce, is considering the poisoned chalice (thrust towards him by John Howard) and may yet abandon the Senate and seek election to the House of Representatives.
If there was one thing pointing to this politician's foolishness it would be the fact that he is reportedly considering such a move with one eye on the seat of Page in the NSW Northern Rivers.
He must have the shortest of memories himself or think that people in the Clarence Valley have such faulty recall that they would fail to remember that he supported the Howard-Turnbull push to dam and divert water from the Clarence River catchment.
Yes, baying at the back of that particular water raider's pack came Senator Joyce, who sat on the Senate RRAT Committee inquiry into additional water supplies for south-east Queensland where he made it plain that he was not adverse to any proposal to steal Clarence freshwater so that his Queensland mates could continue their unsustainable irrigation practices [April-August 2007].
He also voted against The Greens motion in the Senate which read in part:"That the Senate:....(b) calls on the Federal Government to: (i) abandon plans for damming the Clarence, Tweed, Richmond and Mann Rivers;" [C'wealth Hansard,Senate,proof issue,19 August 2007,p.p. 33-34].
As late as the middle of last year he was still including mention of the Clarence catchment in his discussions on water supply:"You can't create water with money. That means you have to think about bringing it from somewhere else, like the Gulf or the Clarence." [The Land, 13 August 2008]
Voting for Barnaby Joyce to fill a federal seat anywhere on the NSW North Coast would be allowing the water raiders to once again get a foot in the door after Northern Rivers communities had so firmly slammed that same door shut in 2007.
Yours faithfully,
JUDITH M. MELVILLE
[Taken from A Clarence Valley Protest]
Oz - a picture of the nation
Thursday, 29 January 2009
The baby kissing effect begins to fade for Obama?
Thanks to Clarrie Rivers for the photoUS President Barack Obama scored a 68% approval rating for the first three days in office according to Gallup and 69% for the next three days.
John F. Kennedy is the single modern president who appears to have started his presidential life with a higher approval score, but his popularity was not polled so early in his presidency.
However, Obama scored a whopping 83% approval rating during his president-elect transition period so this latest poll (with its 14 to 15 point drop) while clearly showing that his honeymoon with the American people is not yet over does indicate that it may be on the wane.
Strangely the main stream media appear to be largely silent on this rather dramatic plunge in the polls except to characterise it in an historical context or refer to it as normalising the figures.
Only Iran Press TV and The Daily Mail pointed out that the new figure actually represented a decline, though a small number of news blogs also mentioned the percentage as a drop in approval.
In the U.S. Real Clear Politics tells us that across six polls conducted over 11-24 January, between 52-79% of those polled believed America was heading in the wrong direction.
What we need here is Possum Comitatus to decipher the apparent change in voter sentiment after Obama's comfortable election win.
Woodford Dale Public School has a blog!
Woodford Dale Public School seen across a field of cane.There are over one hundred islands and islets in the mighty Clarence River on the New South Wales North Coast.
Many of these are populated - sometimes by just a single farm house and sometimes by small village communities.
One of the most enduring examples of island life is Woodford Island, home to approximately 6,000 people.
Its school Woodford Dale Primary School (established in 1867) now has a blog.
A very big welcome to the blogosphere to all its teachers and pupils.
Most inappropriate new awards in 2009
With 2008 seeing the financial mismanagement tsunami roll across international borders and devastate national economies, there are going to be few nominations of any merit to consider.
Indeed, with corporate misfortune striking so quickly it is likely that some nominees are no longer among those considered successful.
With only little more than a month to go, only five contenders for awards are listed in the Readers' Award section.
Bet Lionel Barber is a bit sorry that TFT agreed to partner this now.
Never mind, cobber - you can always catch a flight back to England to hide from any temporary embarrassment.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Will Sandy Holloway turn out to be one of Peter Garrett's biggest mistakes?
In October 2008 the Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts took a step sideways with regard to Australia's official opposition to the continuation of commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean which is thinly disguised as 'scientific' research by the Government of Japan.
Peter Garrett did this by appointing Sandy Holloway as a Special Envoy for Whale Conservation.
Mr. Holloway was CEO of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and although the Sydney Games were highly successful, the fact remains that he operated within an International Olympic Committee philosophy which was historically less than transparent, less than corruption free and nakedly cynical.
With recent media reports indicating that Australia (courtesy of Holloway) may have given an indication that it would agree to Japan continuing whaling in the Southern Ocean and even expanding its operation in the Pacific, matters have taken a turn for the worst for Minister Garrett as over 21 years of diplomacy and active international lobbying appear to be morphing into open appeasement.
In The Australian earlier today:
EVIDENCE of a Federal Government offer to Japan over whaling has emerged as Canberra insists it is totally opposed to the hunt. Australia was ready to "seriously consider" Japan's priorities, and a "reduced" total take of Southern Ocean whales, according to a US State Department memo written late last year.
And as recently as last weekend, Australia was among a select group of nations that met confidentially to refine a compromise package for International Whaling Commission (IWC) approval.
The Government came under attack yesterday after it was disclosed that it was involved in developing the package for the commission chairman, William Hogarth, who is working to bridge the deep divide between pro and anti-whaling nations.
Australia was part of a small group that last December put together the Hogarth package. This proposed letting Japan expand North Pacific kills through coastal and high seas whaling while also limiting, or phasing out, its Antarctic hunt.....
"(Mr) Hollway has travelled to Tokyo and Washington in recent weeks, explaining that Australia is ready to seriously consider Japan's priorities in the IWC (if not actually support them) and simultaneously secure reductions in the larger Antarctic whale quotas that Japan grants itself," said the memo.
Japan's aim to re-establish commercial whaling is well-known.The Holloway trade-off is a farce and allows Japan to keep all its whale hunting options open, and further, apparently allows it to proceed with its annual kill with little or no increase in formal oversight or monitoring in the hunting grounds it has chosen.
A supposedly green approach to the Sydney Olympics may have given Peter Garrett a faith in Sandy Holloway which is sadly misplaced, because Holloway obviously sees whale conservation and protection more as a matter of commerce and trading partner compromise.
Peter Garret's weakness and Kevin Rudd's reluctance to take a very strong stand will see Japan continue to exploit the situation to its own advantage despite widespread community and international opposition to commercial whaling.
Malcolm Turnbull opens his mouth and emits CH4
Federal Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, chose the Young Liberals Conference in Canberra this weekend to announce his party's new climate change 'policy', A Green Carbon Initiative.After waiting months to hear what Turnbull would put up against the Rudd Government's climate change policies and proposed emissions trading scheme, we now find that he has laboured hard to produce a little gas.
It seems that all that is really needed to save Australia from the ravages of climate change is for the Liberal Party to promise delivery of the near-mythical Clean Coal, a little biochar in the soil, converting a building or two to greater energy efficiency and a few renewable energy odds and sods thrown in for good measure - all leading to a carbon reduction equivalent of 150 million tonnes annually.
That's around 7 million tonnes for every man, woman and child across the nation.
All in the name of 'risk management', because after all (according to many Liberals) there is a chance that human-induced global warming may possibly not exist after all.
As for emissions trading. Well never you mind about that just yet - we haven't prepared a policy response at this time.
If this effort is the best that the Liberal Party can do in 2009 then they are clearly not ready for government.
According to Stock and Land farmers are not too happy with Turnbull either:
While the Nationals are less than enthusiastic with his foray into biosequestration either.
Turnbull's A Green Carbon Initiative is found here.
Image from http://www.roberthkeller.com/
The ugly face of Australia Day on the NSW North Coast
While elsewhere on the NSW North Coast backyard barbecues were fired up, small street parties got underway and people travelled to see their local heroes honoured; young hooligans in the Coffs Harbour area drank too much and got into drunken fights for all the world to see on the teev nightly news.
Yelling insults and wildly swinging their fists while draped in the Australian flag - acting like prize nongs that their grandmas would disown if they could've seen them.
When did our so-called national day take on such an ugly face across the land?
Why do our youth appear to equate patriotism with violence or racism?
Do the young feel free to act like this because they grew up in the Howard years or is it something even darker?
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Volunteers need help too...
We are all aware of our volunteer organisations and the splendid job they do; SES in storms and floods, RFS in the case of fire, NSW VRA and wilderness rescue, Life Savers on our marvellous beaches and many others.
It has come to my attention that St John Ambulance Australia has a Clarence Valley Division.
It has only been in operation for the last 2 years and is the latest in a proud 125 years of St John Ambulance service in Australia.
The organisation through its volunteers provides outstanding first aid services and also training for groups.
If you have been to a local community event, like the Surfing the Coldstream Festival, you may have seen them in the background providing this first aid.
Many events within the valley could not happen without St John’s attendance.
Like interschool sports days, local shows, polo cross and hockey carnivals - not to mention the Jacaranda Festival and many others.
This small band did over 1,000 hours of volunteer service last year.
It has also been brought to my attention that they are desperately in need of a new vehicle to transport their equipment to the many jobs they do in the Clarence Valley and beyond.
They were lucky enough to have been given the St John at Lismore’s old vehicle, but it has reached its use by date.
So if any reader would like to help this self-funded charity how, about donating to this worthy cause?
You can contact them at:
St. Johns Ambulance
PO Box 742
Grafton NSW 2460
or ring the District Officer Graham Waterbury on 66422734.
Maybe one of the local clubs would like to make this their fundraising project for this year?
Google Cache to save Australia?
Leaving aside the fact that Senator Conroy refused to answer seven vital questions in SQON0834 and gave nonsense answers in 831, 832 and 833 where it was politically convenient; one interesting fact emerged - Google Cache and Google Translate will not be subjected to ISP-level filtering according to the minister.
As most sites indexed by Google appear to be cached and all websites would have the ability to activate the cache function, this would virtually render most filtering ineffectual if one established a connection with an international version of a search engine.
So does this mean that the Rudd-Conroy plan to impose the Great Firewall of Australia is really an expensive piece of political theatre aimed at appeasing the religious right and certain lobby groups?
Or is Senator Conroy telling yet another political lie?
And why has the senator refused to give assurances that ISP-level filtering will not be used to block political, activist or creative content from view on the Australian Internet?
Answers to Questions On Notice:
| sqon0831 Answer.pdf | 395.8 KB |
| sqon0832 Answer.pdf | 267.3 KB |
| sqon0833 Answer.pdf | 488.45 KB |
| sqon0834 Answer.pdf | 846.65 KB |
We have less than a year to save the world? 'The Road to Copenhagen' Seminar, 3 February 2009, Ballina NSW
From The Northern Rivers Echo:
We have less than a year to save the world.
That’s the dramatic claim being made by many scientists and environmentalists in the lead-up to the major global climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen this December.
On Tuesday, February 3, the Ballina Environment Society and Ballina Climate Action Network are joining forces with the Northern Rivers office of the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO) to present “The Road to Copenhagen”, a public seminar on Australia’s role in responding to the rapidly escalating climate crisis.
It is timed to coincide with the Climate Summit in Canberra, a community initiative that will culminate in a human chain around Parliament House on the same day, the first day of sitting of federal parliament for the year.
The seminar will hear from Mark Byrne, the EDO’s Education Officer, and Dr Chris McGrath, a Brisbane environmental law barrister trained by Al Gore to give his multimedia climate change presentation.
“The government has set a target for emissions reduction of 5 per cent by 2020, or 15 per cent if a global agreement can be reached this year. But the science tells us the reduction needs to be at least 25 per cent. There are other problems with the government’s plan that will make it unlikely to reduce our national emissions,” Mark said.
As well as informing people about the latest science, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the progress of international negotiations, the seminar is intended to be a forum for local people to discuss how they can be involved in responding to this most urgent issue. School students will also tell the meeting about what climate change means to them.
The seminar will be held from 6-8pm in the Richmond Room, Regatta Ave Ballina.
Monday, 26 January 2009
G'day g'day on Australia Day
G'day
Came the Dreamtime, came the Black Man, came the Serpent, came the Dingo
Came the Tears down from the Moon to give the Life.
Came the Emu, Kookaburra, came the love for one another
Came the White Man, came the Heartbreak, came the Strife.
Came the Sunshine, came the Harvest, came the Nation, came the Battle
Came the Famine, came another world-wide war.
Came the Migrants, came the Good Life, came the Power, Came the Present,
Come the Treaty. Unity for ever more.
So here we are in the two thousands and there's more of us than cows
And over half of us have come from foreign lands.
Jews and Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Bondi sheilas with big bosoms
And there's still one mob or two don't understand.
Multiculture as a standard means you must be even-handed
Say g'day and give a bloke a go.
You can lend him your lawn mower, if you think that he's a goer
And if you really truly like him let him know.
Ask him where he used to come from, before he was an Aussie
Fill your head with knowledge from his side.
Get to know him like a brother, till you're used to one another
And you'll find you'll start to feel good, deep inside.
Have him over on a Sunday, sit and watch as all the kids play
'Cause they're the answer to the game you see"
They don't know the past from Adam, knew no Hitler, Stalin, Saddam
As far as they're concerned the world is free.
But make sure in what you're doing, that those kids know what to do
In times when Hatred raises its great head.
Tell them stories of the Anzacs and of Auschwitz and the Race Acts
Say the Age of Evil Deeds is never dead.
Tell them; always keep a vigil, or the ghosts of Lone Pine Ridge will
Come to haunt them in the hour before the dawn.
We must keep the watch fire burning as the years keep slowly turning
'Lest We Forget' and darkness be reborn.
Tell your kids they share a great land, nurtured by the mighty Koori
And the Dreamtime is our true Eternal Flame.
Tell them thanks for all the wonders, in this wonderland Down Under
And say, 'Sorry that we once denied your name.'
Keep the billabongs and ridges far removed from kitchen fridges
Use the power of the wind to light your way
Guard the land with all your passion; make things plastic out of fashion,
Let the healing powers of Nature have their way.
Share this land with all who dwell here, let the world know we are well here
In this place of promise and diversity.
Shout 'G'day' and 'Howyagoin' 'neath our flag that's proudly blowing
O'er this land of peace and love and liberty.
Written by Bruce Venables who is one of Australia's most noted film and television writers.
Mike from Brooms
* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak@live.com.au for consideration.
A lesson for Senator Conroy perhaps?
The Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, likes to think that the world is on his side when it comes to the 'rightness' of Internet censorship.
However, the real world has a habit of intruding..................
According to Computerworld: the voice of IT management this week:
The US Supreme Court has refused to resurrect a law requiring Web sites containing "material harmful to minors" to restrict access based on age, presumably ending a 10-year fight over whether the law violated free speech rights.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal by former President George Bush's administration, which asked that the court overturn a lower court's ruling against enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA). In July, the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit struck down the law, saying it was a vague and overly broad attack on free speech......
Opponents of the law, including the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Nerve.com, Salon.com, the Urban Dictionary and the Sexual Health Network, argued the law amounted to government censorship and was so broad that it would affect many Web sites, including those that included information on sexually transmitted diseases.
Opponents of COPA have successfully challenged it in court several times. In 2000, the 3rd Circuit upheld a lower court's injunction against the implementation of the law, and in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the injunction but sent the law back to U.S. district court. In 2003, the 3rd Circuit ruled that the law violated the U.S. Constitution.
Inconvenient facts also keep emerging in Australia...............
According to Crikey on Friday:
"Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there has never been any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content," intoned Senator Stephen Conroy on Tuesday.
Yet the very next day, ACMA added a page from what's arguably a political website to its secret blacklist of Internet nasties.
The page is part of an anti-abortion website which claims to include "everything schools, government, and abortion clinics are afraid to tell or show you". Yes, photos of dismembered fetuses designed to scare women out of having an abortion. Before you click through, be warned: it is confronting. Here's the blacklisted page.
Mandatory Internet filtering, says Senator Conroy, is only about blocking the ACMA blacklist. The blacklist, he repeatedly insists, is "mainly" child-abuse and ultra-violent material. He's protecting us from ped-philes, stopping terrorists, that sort of thing. It's like the regulation we have for TV, films and books. Except it's not. It's not even close.
