Monday, 1 June 2009
Want to know which 'real' pollies are tweeting across Australia?
Want to know if the tweets you're reading are coming from fair dinkum pollies or their evil twins?
Go to ozpollietweeters (which also helpfully lists the fakes) or tweetMP*
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Want a dirty weekend next weekend?
Then get down and get dirty at the Australian Singles Marbles Championships next weekend in Brunswick Heads.
The Championships are part of the Brunswick Heads 9th Old and Gold Festival.
Players are advised that "Brunwick Heads" Rules will apply, with the Championships being played “FOR FAIR”, so all marbles will be returned to their owners.
Other significant rules include:
* Glass Marbles are to be no bigger than 3/4” (three-quarters of an inch). Agates & Steelies are banned.
* The order of shooting will be determined by “lagging”. Closest shoot or toss to designated line.
* Players can either shoot with their “TAW”(their shooting marble) off the ground or knuckled down outside or on the edge of the ring.
* Fudging is a foul shoot & next player takes turn.
* Shooters are not permitted to step/walk inside the ring.
REFEREE & TOURNAMENT ORGANISER’S DECISIONS ARE FINAL.
Click here for more information about the Old and Gold Festival.
And the Speaker of the House went like... Ck Ck Boom
With the Federal Opposition benches doing their level best to disrupt House of Representatives sitting days last week, one sometimes feels sorry for The Speaker Harry Jenkins and the obvious wear and tear his tonsils endure as those on his left act like hyperactive jacks-in-the-box.
However, The Speaker does eventually hold the upper hand when faced with the usual suspects and is not averse to showing them the door.
What a pity that MPs Abbott, Baldwin, Bishop, Dutton, Haase, Hockey, Pyne, Randall, Robert, Turnbull and Tuckey feel that wasting time on childish tantrums is a legitimate part of their job descriptions.
Their combined behaviour is now so tiresome that I feel like breaking out the popcorn whenever I hear the echo of a ck ck boom from the Chair.
Excerpts from Open Australia Hansard records:
(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Cowper will resume his seat. I have indicated that the Deputy Prime Minister is responding to the question.
(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Sturt will resume his seat—and he is warned, not because he raised a point of order but for the way in which he handled himself at the dispatch box. That was not my recollection of the question. The member has indicated that he was trying to change the question to make it in order.
The question of West Yamba
Image from Clarence Valley Council From The Daily Examiner letters column 27 & 28 May 2009: West Yamba Flooded
GIVEN the recent discussion regarding the development of West Yamba, it is timely that we have been inundated by widespread flooding.
Anyone who has ventured along Carrs Drive within recent days, the site for the proposed
suburb of 1000 dwellings, would wonder at the wisdom of such planning.
Much of the area has been submerged under water, including sections of the road.
It could be argued that these are extreme conditions and unlikely to impinge on future development. However, it is only eight years since we had cyclonic conditions in Yamba in early March 2001, with localised flooding.
Added to this are the problems of global warming, which will exacerbate severe weather condi tions such as flooding.
The costs and the inconvenience of relocating victims of flooding, as well as attendant expenses of infrastructure, landfill requirements and compromising a wetlands area, among other issues, all indicate the foolishness of development of West Yamba underscored by flooding of recent days.
S HUXTABLE,
Yamba
Thoughts on the 2009 floods
ONCE again in the North Coast we faced the danger of flood inundation and especially in Yamba the danger of being cut off from the mainland.
If anybody ventured down Carrs Drive in West Yamba last Friday they would have noticed the land flooded, this is just the area that the proposed West Yamba development be placed.
I along with thousands of others in West Yamba live in filled flood plains but those were decisions made 20 years ago.
With modern knowledge the filling in of these flood plain releases is reckless.
P STEPHEN,
Yamba
Obama and Korea: is Kim winning the latest battle of wills?
According to an opinion piece in the U.K. Telegraph last Friday President Obama is losing the PR battle on this one:
"Kim Jong-il, the charismatic and popular (if you are a Pyongyang resident and covet a life expectancy of more than 24 hours) Dear Leader of North Korea, is on his sixth or seventh missile this week. See the pretty vapour trails streak across Asian skies, in an impressive firework display to celebrate the arrival of President Pantywaist in the Oval Office.
School's out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more "reclusive" parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam's butt but didn't much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy's name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.
So, what is the response of the Messiah in the Oval Office? Really severe rhetoric, is the answer. The soundbite manufacturers have been burning the midnight oil and the auto-cue is going into meltdown. So is the confidence of Asian leaders. The word is out: the most powerful nation on earth has got itself a pussycat for a president and all the bad guys are queuing up to give him the finger."
School's out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more "reclusive" parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam's butt but didn't much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy's name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.
So, what is the response of the Messiah in the Oval Office? Really severe rhetoric, is the answer. The soundbite manufacturers have been burning the midnight oil and the auto-cue is going into meltdown. So is the confidence of Asian leaders. The word is out: the most powerful nation on earth has got itself a pussycat for a president and all the bad guys are queuing up to give him the finger."
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Conroy's 'voluntary mandatory' national Internet filtering scheme
The Australian Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy appears to be finally losing it, if this exchange posted at Somebody Think of the Children is any indication."Mandatory ISP filtering would conceivably involve legislation … voluntary is available currently to ISPs," Senator Conroy said. "One option is potentially legislation. One other option is that it could be (on a) voluntary basis that they (ISPs) could voluntarily agree to introduce it."
In response Senator Minchin said he had never heard of a voluntary mandatory system. Senator Conroy responded with "well they could agree to all introduce it".
Disability Discrimination Legal Centre is coming to Lismore & Ballina - 1 June 2009
[NRSDC June 2009 news letter]
A jaw-dropping quote of the week
"Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow's conventional wisdom."
{Ralph Peters in The Journal of International Security Affairs on 25th May 2009}
Friday, 29 May 2009
An ugly side of Yamba, Australia's Best Town
The flood brought out the best and worst of Yamba. Many people, especially SES volunteers, were superb, but some greedy business operators saw the flood as an opportunity to line their pockets.
A letters contributor in The Sydney Morning Herald has highlighted Yamba's ugly side.
Flood victims hung out to dry
Being a city bloke, I had been under the misconception that small towns pulled together in a crisis and extended a hand to those in need. It doesn't appear to be the case with Yamba, on the Clarence River, which is still cut off by the floods.
My in-laws, who are age pensioners, arrived there on Monday last week for three nights at a caravan park. Nine days later, they were paying full price for a motel room after moving from the park, where "company policy" required the manager to continue to charge full price for their flimsy cabin near the rising river.
Other guests in town are running out of money and their predicament seems to be met with "tut tut" statements from the locals. City folk like me will remember this sort of opportunism the next time we are asked to feel sorry for small-town folk.
Henry Lebovic Haberfield
Petiton against the decline of Maclean District Hospital autonomy
The Daily Examiner 13 May 2009Lower Clarence Valley residents, unhappy with the proposed loss of the positions of chief executive officer and director of nursing at Maclean District Hospital, have started a petition to the NSW Minister for Health.
This petiton can currently be signed at Yamba.
As the flood waters are receeding it is expected that from today on copies of the petiton will also be at Iluka, Maclean, Woodford Island and villages elsewhere on the Clarence Coast.
If you consider that a hospital is better run when it is managed locally then this is your chance to say so.
If you want to check where the nearest copy of the petition is, call Jim Agnew on 0419 193 525.
One American perspective on Obama's response to Korean nuclear gamesmanship
U.S. comedian Andy Borowitz takes a look at Obama's response to recent events in Korea:
One day after North Korea launched a successful test of a nuclear weapon, President Obama said that the United States was prepared to respond to the threat with "the strongest possible adjectives."
In remarks to reporters at the White House, Mr. Obama said that North Korea should fear the "full force and might of the United States' arsenal of adjectives" and called the missile test "reckless, reprehensible, objectionable, senseless, egregious and condemnable."
Standing at the President's side, Vice President Joseph Biden weighed in with some tough adjectives of his own, branding North Korean President Kim Jong-Il "totally wack and illin'."
Later in the day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the North Korean nuclear test "supercilious and jejune," leading some in diplomatic circles to worry that the U.S. might be running out of appropriate adjectives with which to craft its response.
But President Obama attempted to calm those fears, saying that the United States was prepared to "scour the thesaurus" to come up with additional adjectives and was "prepared to use adverbs" if necessary.
"Let's be clear: we are not taking adverbs off the table," Mr. Obama said. "If the need arises, we will use them forcefully, aggressively, swiftly, overwhelmingly and commandingly."
More from Andy Borowitz here.
As Carley saw it [Lower Clarence flood photos]
Clarence River lapping Maclean levee wall, May 2009
Carley Grayson has posted twenty Clarence River flood pictures at Captured By Carley.
It's hit 'em when they're down time at Fiscal Star
On Tuesday Fiscal Star released its May 2009 report on local government sustainability.
NSW North Coast councils Ballina Shire, Byron Shire, Coffs Harbour City, Richmond Valley, Tweed Shire, Lismore City, Clarence Valley, Belligen are all listed as 'unsustainable'.
This is the definition of sustainability used; "A council's existing policies are assessed as financially 'sustainable' only if any operating deficit, infrastructure backlog or excessive net financial liabilities that presently exists could be corrected without the council having to resort in future to substantial adjustments to its existing revenue-raising and/or expenditure."
Bl**dy brilliant fellas - the flood waters haven't even receded yet and our noses are being rubbed in the fact that decades of cost-shifting by the big boys in Canberra and Sydney will probably see rate hikes across the Northern Rivers in the next few years (except of course for Grafton which seems to have perfected a perfect beggar's lurch whenever it approaches Clarence Valley Council).
Still, I'm not too sure that I trust this starry research mob, as they have only bothered with what the report calls the top 100 councils and Kyogle Shire doesn't rate a mention even though this area is usually an active partner in whatever cost-sharing measures the Northern Rivers manages to establish.
If you want to read the short Fiscal Star-Dexia puff piece go here.
If you want to read the full 2009 Review of NSW Local Government Financial Sustainability go here.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Proud descendant of the Yaegl people is joint winner of inaugural Emerging and Young Artist Award
Jessica Birk
A young Indigenous artist living and born on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Jessica is a proud descendant of the Yaegl people, from northern NSW, on the mighty Clarence River.
Jessica's work was recognised on Wednesday night at the Australia Council's National Indigenous Arts Awards. At a ceremony at the Opera House, she and another printmaker, Fiona Elisala, from the Torres Strait Islands, were named joint winners of the inaugural Emerging and Young Artist Award.
Birk, 24, has exhibited her work with some of Sydney's most prominent indigenous artists, including Bronwyn Bancroft and Sally Morgan.
She met Bancroft as a child at Cromer Public School, when the artist helped the students with a mural.
"She was incredibly inspirational to me when I was a kid and when I met up with her in later life, she became a mentor," Birk says.
Like many artists, she uses her work to express her mixed heritage. Unlike many, she finds it easy to reconcile the two halves of her upbringing.
"You can belong to more than one place and more than one culture," she says.
"Belonging on the northern beaches is something I've grown into.
Belonging up there [in the Clarence Valley] was something I was born into - a gift from my ancestors and my family." SMH ( 27/05/2009)
One-off Federal Government cash payment for victims of May 2009 flooding on the NSW North Coast
The Federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin has activated the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, which is a one-off immediate payment of $1000 to adults and $400 to children.
Victims of May 2009 flooding on the NSW North Coast will be eligible for this payment through Centrelink if:
- a person is seriously injured, or
- a person is;
- the immediate family member of an Australian killed, and
- the appropriate immediate family member to make a claim for the AGDRP for that deceased person in respect of the disaster (note only 1 person can be paid in respect to each deceased person).
- a person's principal place of residence has been destroyed;
- a person's principal place of residence has sustained major damage;
- a person is a principal carer of a dependent child, and
- the Dependent Child is seriously injured; or
- the Dependent Child is an immediate family member of an Australian killed and the Principal Carer is the only and most appropriate person to make a claim for the AGDRP in respect of the deceased Australian; or
- the Dependent Child's principal place of residence has been destroyed; or
- the Dependent Child's principal place of residence has sustained major damage.
AGDRP Storms and Flooding in South East QLD and Northern NSW - May 2009 Centrelink AGDRP claim form
According to Centrelink claims for this payment can be lodged until 25 November 2009.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
