2009 NAIDOC Awards

Awards encompassing Elders, youth, art, education and training, and sport were announced at the National NAIDOC Ball in Brisbane on Friday night.

Professor Larissa Behrendt (above, left) was named 2009 Person of the Year while Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue (above, right) received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The other award winners were:

* Doris Eaton of Perth and Elsie Heiss of Sydney - Female Elders.

* Frank Lampard from Adelaide and Reginald Knox of Brisbane - Male Elders.

* Chelsea Bond (below, left) of Brisbane - Scholar of the Year.

* Gemma Benn (below, right) of Darwin - Youth of the Year.

* Danny Sebasio of Thursday Island - Apprentice of the Year.

* Andrew McLeod of the AFL Adelaide Crows - Sportsperson of the Year.

* Wayne Quilliam of Melbourne - Artist of the Year .

Image credits:
http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/cie/community/Alumni/alumni.html
http://www.crcah.org.au/educationandtraining/chelsea_bond.html
http://www.koorimail.com/
http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/generations-torn-apart-by-indifference/2007/02/16/1171405447732.html

A warning sign for the Rudd Government?

Choice online poll status 11 July 2009

Choice the consumer advocacy group is running a poll on the question; Do you think the government is doing enough to drive competition in the grocery sector?

With straightened economics time still ahead of us all, it might be wise for the Rudd Government to take heed of community sentiment.

The now defunct GroceryChoices as set up by government may have been doomed to disappoint the consumer, but that doesn't mean that the big supermarket chains should be able to continue dominating market/pricing policy in the same manner as they have in the past.

If Choice goes forward with its reported 'war' on Coles and Woolworths, I suspect that it will quickly garner more sustained support than these corporate giants and, a wise politician would be looking now to effect a compromise that would allow an non-industry based price comparison website to go ahead with some government funding involved.

Save the Children says no to Rudd Government's Internet censorship plan

Cute Kittehs from The Hughes Family

Save the Children (Australia) celebrates its 90th anniversary this year and has joined the National Children's and Youth Law Centre, Civil Liberties Australia, Australian Library and Information Association, Dr Alex Byrne FALIA, UTS University Librarian, GetUp!, Liberty Victoria, National Association for the Visual Arts, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and the QLD Council for Civil Liberties in opposing the Rudd-Conroy scheme to impose a national mandatory ISP-level Internet filtering scheme which will censor Australian access to the Internet.

Joint Statement on Internet Censorship
We oppose the Government’s plan to censor the internet through mandatory ISP-level internet filtering technology.
While we wholly support measures that effectively prevent the distribution of material refused classification under laws that properly respect free speech, this proposed filter does not meet that aim.
The proposed filter fails to meet the test of an effective child protection measure that respects the rights of children. Mandatory internet filtering curtails our human rights without offering any effective protection for children.
The proposed scheme will also block a range of material that it is perfectly legal to view both online and offline. It will be shrouded in secrecy: there will be no effective oversight of the secret blacklist of banned material. The content to be blocked is currently sites that are ‘refused classification’; it could easily and covertly be expanded to include any material that a Federal Government wishes to suppress.
Any limits on the rights and freedoms of Australians must be accompanied by rigorous transparency and scrutiny; this proposed system does not allow for either.
The filter will be easily circumvented by those with even a basic understanding of information technology or the content providers. It will also miss the vast majority of unwanted content, normally shared using email or file-sharing networks – not through web traffic.
We argue that the tens of millions of dollars that such a scheme will cost should instead be diverted to appropriate child protection authorities and police to prevent the abuse of children, and towards effective community-based education strategies that give children and parents the skills to protect themselves.
Further, PC-level filtering software should be promoted to and provided to parents that wish to protect their children from inappropriate internet content.
No other Western democracy has mandatory ISP-level internet filtering. Australians should not have to sacrifice their freedoms to make Australia a world-leader in ineffective Internet censorship.

Save the Children opposes internet filter

ICANN says Web filters will "embarrass" Aussie Govt

Final departures

Letter writers in The Oz have put THAT event held in the U. S. of A. this week in perspective.

The phony cacophony

I THOUGHT the world had gone mad but was reassured when I read so many letters (Most Talked About, 10/7) questioning the ridiculous adulation of Michael Jackson and the phony cacophony heard in much of the media. Graham Pascoe’s letter was interesting; I thought I knew just about everything about Bing Crosby, until I read how quietly he departed this world. It was a similar situation with his buddy Bob Hope. No fanfare, just resting in hospital at the end, in the presence of his wife Dolores. A comic to the end, his reply to his wife’s question “Where would you like to be buried?” was a simple, “Surprise me”.

Frank Bellet
Petrie, Qld

Okay, so you'd like to know what Graham Pascoe had to say in his letter. Read it below.

THE Hollywood-style hoopla surrounding Michael Jackson’s memorial service contrasts with another Hollywood funeral almost 32 years ago. Great as he was, Jackson’s accomplishments are dwarfed by Bing Crosby, who had the most number one pop music hits ever (38), was the number one movie box-office attraction five years in a row (1944-48) and in the top 10 a total of 15 times and was a major US radio star from 1931 to 1954.

Believing a man had a right to “die in privacy”, Crosby was buried at 6am (when the blue of the night meets the gold of the day) on October 18, 1977. Only his immediate family and closest friends were allowed to be present. Crosby revolutionised popular music in the 1930s but is now largely forgotten. Will Jackson’s achievements suffer the same fate?

Graham Pascoe
Bathurst, NSW

Source: The Australian

It's Enrol To Vote Week across Australia from 27 July - 2 August 2009

From Australian Electoral Commission media release on 30 June 2009:

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is encouraging more secondary schools to register for national Enrol to Vote Week to be held from 27 July to 2 August this year.

Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said over 1550 secondary schools and colleges across Australia had already registered to participate in Enrol to Vote Week and there was still time for other schools to get involved.

"Enrol to Vote Week involves the AEC working in partnership with Australian secondary schools to encourage 17- and 18-year-old students to enrol to vote."

Mr Killesteyn said Enrol to Vote Week last year received strong support from over 1700 participating schools, with over 20,000 enrolment forms collected as part of the initiative.

"Currently one in five 18 to 24-year-olds is not enrolled to vote, increasing to around one in two 18-year-olds not enrolled. In addition, many 17-year-olds are not aware that they can enrol now so they are able to vote as soon as they turn 18," he said.

"This year the focus of Enrol to Vote Week is to encourage and assist 17-year-olds to enrol so they are automatically able to vote as soon as they turn 18. Our message is that enrolling to vote is not something you have to wait until you're 18 to do."

Mr Killesteyn said AEC officers would be available for in-school visits during Enrol to Vote Week and would support students in completing their enrolment forms at school.

Schools can register to participate in Enrol to Vote Week 2009 by visiting www.enroltovoteweek.aec.gov.au or by calling 13 23 26 and selecting the Enrol to Vote Week option.

The website has more information about the initiative, as well as a search feature to enable anyone to see which schools in their local community are participating.

Website: http://www.enroltovoteweek.aec.gov.au/
Hotline: 13 23 26 (select the Enrol to Vote Week option)

For all those who grew up in 1950s Australia and.......

.......had a little difficulty reconciling Beatrix Potter's cute anthropomorphized English rabbits with the annual rabbit drive down on the grandparent's farm.

The distance of years rekindles the enchantment.

LOL from I Can Has Cheezburger

Clarence Valley Council's 'man in the kilt' retiring

Happy retirement, Bob!

The Maclean office of the Clarence Valley Council just won't be the same after today. Its happy meet-and-greet face, aka Bob Nicoll, is taking his leave from that place today.

Bob is well known for his work attire - in fact he is very readily identified because he dons a kilt. Well, Maclean does claim to be Australia's Scottish town!

Bob's attention to local ratepayers and other visitors to the council's Maclean office has been A-1 and he'll be sorely missed.

Well done, Bob!

Read a piece about Bob in The Daily Examiner here.
Images from The Daily Examiner.

Lower Clarence Art & Crafts Spectacular

The Lower Clarence Art & Crafts Association presents its
44th open competitive original arts and crafts exhibition.

Art & Craft Spectacular 2009

at the Maclean High School
9am- 4pm, 17-19 July 2009
Refreshments available
Admission $3.00
Children under 16 - no charge

For further information, contact LCACA on (02) 6645 3700 or

http://www.ferryparkgallery.org.au/

Indigenous peoples and climate change

From the Australian Human Rights Commission Native Title Report 2008 - Chapter 5 Indigenous peoples and climate change:

Indigenous peoples have a 'special interest' in climate change issues, not only because through their physical and spiritual relationships with land, water and associated ecosystems, they are particularly vulnerable to climate change; but also because they have a specialised ecological and traditional knowledge relevant to finding the 'best fit' solutions.

How many local government shire and city councils across New South Wales have made serious approaches to traditional owners and the organisations who manage their land holdings?

Tells us what you think invites News Limited. Oh, the temptation!

A rather obscure website called the News Limited Reader Panel came to my attention this week.

Make a difference....Have your say and help shape the future of your newspaper is the invitation on offer.

After News Ltd Ceo John Hartigan's recent foray into newspaper phantasy land, the temptation is almost irresistible!

By Email: support@readerpanel.com.au

By Phone: 1300 736 100

In a galaxy far, far way..........

Sometimes when meandering down the digital highway one comes across the trace of a Google search by another intrepid traveller.

Last week I stumbled upon one lonely soul in Chevy Chase (Washington DC) who in the wee small hours of the morning appeared to be idling wondering if Australian Senator Eric Abetz was a nastie type.

As Senator Abetz was a postwar baby who arrived in Australia at a very young age he can hardly be blamed for the actions of Nazi Germany. So perhaps his demeanor when travelling overseas is so similar to his bullying behaviour during Senate inquiries that it gives rise to this sort of speculation?

Something from the "What were they thinking?" file

Last Wednesday I was emailed this copy of a Queensland Government advertisement concerning state-wide electricity rebates which was published on page 8 in The Daily Examiner that day.

Now this newspaper has a catchment which is some hundreds of kilometres south of the NSW-QLD border and a daily circulation of around 17,000 copies.

So what on earth was the Queensland Government doing spending good money to advertise so far from its intended target population and with so little effect?

Plucky little Bundanoon and the Rees Government to ban bottled water from the premises

At last New South Wales is getting serious about the amount of one-off use, energy intensive, disposable containers for bottled water which are ending up in landfill or too frequently litttering our waterways and streets.

Much of this commerically packaged water is drawn from springs and aquifers already under pressure due to the gradual drying of the southern half of the Australian continent over the last decade.

According to a Radio Australia report it takes two litres of water to manufacture one litre of bottled water.

The small town of Bundanoon in the NSW Southern Highlands and now the NSW State Government are set to ban bottled water, the former from all town shops, cafes etc. and the later from government departments and offices.

Well done, Bundanoon - you are a real trail blazer.

Turnbull's recycled debt truck shows a lack of imagination

A recycled debt truck for heaven's sake!
It's hard to believe that Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is so desperate at the moment that he would revisit 1995-96 and risk aligning himself with the unpopular ghost of former Australian PM John Howard in this way.

This revamped debt truck is likely to breakdown long before in reaches the Hume Highway.

Turnbull continued to put his foot in it when on his blog on 7 June 2009 he posted the Launch of the Debt Truck and sent the same out on Twitter.

In that particular post he stated Mr Rudd is fond of doing media stunts while wearing hard hats.

This gem is on the very same blog page which shows him wearing a hard hat during his recent visit to West Australia.


Definitely a pot calling the kettle black.
Who looks foolish now?

Local doctor shows a surprising level of intolerance - wonder how full his waiting room is this week?

Lengthy waiting times to see specialists practicing on the NSW North Coast and longer waiting lists for surgery are apparently not the fault of an ailing public health system, it's really the patient who is to blame.

Here are a few quotes from the owner of Iluka's Wellness Centre in How to avoid the long hospital queue:

"Diseases like diabetes, bowel cancer, heart disease and the affects of smoking are illness that are often brought on because people made bad choices,"....

"People are entitled to eat junk food and smoke cigarettes, and sit on their backside and not exercise but if you want really good health I believe you've got to make some contribution yourself.

"And because this is such a lovely place to live we've got a huge influx of people coming here, and the queues to see specialists are getting bigger and bigger.".....

"The other thing important since I graduated is life expectancy. It has probably increased 20 years," ....

"So those people who aren't attending to health issues now aren't going to have a very pleasant last 20 years."....

"If you can afford to smoke and eat sausage rolls and fish and chips, then you can afford private health insurance."

To be fair The Daily Examiner also reports:

Dr Richards said the medical industry in the 20th century promoted dealing with the symptoms instead of preventing the illness in the first place.

He said this was convenient for doctors who were more concerned with 'paying off their mortgages'.

Still, it irks somewhat to find that this Iluka gentleman appears to believe that all would be well with the health system if there were either less people using it or more people paying to use it.

As to his claims about the affordability of health insurance - single aged pensioners in Iluka (with no other assets) who rent their homes for around the current average weekly cost and who get maximum rent assistance will still only have about $142 to $162 left each week to provide themselves with groceries, clothing, footwear, travel, medicines, et cetera even if they manage to keep their utility and telephone accounts at or below the low government subsidy.

Providing themselves with rather basic health insurance is likely to reduce that weekly amount in the pocket by another $15 to $30 per week and would likely see such pensioners have to do without a range of healthy foods or adequate clothing.

It was with some amusment that I noted the absense of alcohol consumption from the doctor's list of unwise lifestyle choices. But then quite a few in his profession are known to like a quiet drink or two.....

Image from Wikimedia