International Day of the Girl Child 2013

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. For its second observance, this year’s Day will focus on “Innovating for Girls’ Education”.

The fulfilment of girls’ right to education is first and foremost an obligation and moral imperative. There is also overwhelming evidence that girls’ education, especially at the secondary level, is a powerful transformative force for societies and girls themselves: it is the one consistent positive determinant of practically every desired development outcome, from reductions in mortality and fertility, to poverty reduction and equitable growth, to social norm change and democratization.

While there has been significant progress in improving girls’ access to education over the last two decades, many girls, particularly the most marginalized, continue to be deprived of this basic right. Girls in many countries are still unable to attend school and complete their education due to safety-related, financial, institutional and cultural barriers. Even when girls are in school, perceived low returns from poor quality of education, low aspirations, or household chores and other responsibilities keep them from attending school or from achieving adequate learning outcomes. The transformative potential for girls and societies promised through girls’ education is yet to be realized. [United Nations 2013]

How Asia sees the Australian Abbott Government?

The Standard (Hong Kong) 2 October 2013:

Gaffe-prone Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been accused by the opposition of “back-pedalling at 100 miles an hour'' on his hardline asylum-seeker policies during a diplomatic visit to Indonesia this week.
Abbott, who is presiding over an anemic economy and rising joblessness, visited Jakarta promising to “Stop the Boats'' a center piece of his campaign.
His policies, which include turning people-smuggling boats back to Indonesia, pre-emptively buying up rickety fishing vessels and paying villagers for intelligence, were coolly received in Jakarta, and Abbott appeared to waver on the key points after talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, AFP reports.
Striking a more conciliatory tone, Abbott insisted Australia had never said it would tow boats back to Indonesia but “turn boats around when it is safe to do so'' and his vessel buy-up “was simply the establishment of some money that could be used by Indonesian officials working cooperatively with their Australian counterparts.’’
“The important thing is not to start a fight, but to get things done,'' said Abbott.
He was criticized by center-left Labor, with interim leader Chris Bowen saying it showed “ill thought-out sound grabs from opposition are proving unsustainable in government.’’
“Tony Abbott is now back-pedalling from his ridiculous buy-the-boats policy at 100 miles an hour, as he should,'' Bowen told the Australian Financial Review.
“However, it is embarrassing for Australia that it took Indonesia to tell us that it wasn't on, and Tony Abbott didn't just realise himself that it was a ridiculous policy.''
Separately, Abbott was criticized in Indonesia for barring local journalists from his major press conference during the trip and restricting entry to Australian media.
Umar Idris, from the Alliance of Independent Journalists, said it was the first time he was aware that such an exclusion had been made.
Abbott's government has come under fire at home for limiting the release of information about refugee boats to a weekly briefing, even when a vessel sank last week off Indonesia, killing at least 39 people. 

Joke of the Year

Liberal Party apologist Tim Wilson (far right) is a freedom fighter with the right-wing Institute of Public Affairs?

George Brandis has a book or two

"Attorney-General George Brandis has defended as within his rights spending nearly $13,000 of taxpayer funds over the past four years on his personal library....
A Fairfax Media analysis of Senator Brandis' expenses, following a report from blogger Stephen Murray, shows that he has spent $12,808.35 on publications between July 2009 and December 2012."

The mainstream media refer to Senator Brandis' growing library as a personal one.

Personal it most definitely is as Brandis declared it (for what appears to be the first time) as a private asset, along with his own car, in his 2011 Statement of Registrable Interests:

Readers will notice that he declares the library to be a professional one. Presumably tax deductible in some form or other at the end of each financial year.

Perhaps the good senator is amassing an apparently extensive range of taxpayer-funded books to add to this library in anticipation of consultancy work once he retires from Parliament?

The Hon. Anthony John Abbott, Prime Minister for Toned Abs, Anzac Biscuits, Wimmins 'n' Rorts

The real situation of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as he tries to negotiate his way through the first thirty-one days of his term in office........

...always two seconds away from a dunking in muddy water.

* Photograph found at Google Images

Richmond Dairies joins move to oust Metgasco Limited board members

Fast Freeze International Pty Ltd trading as Richmond Dairies was one Casino-based company which patiently waited for Metgasco Limited to make good its undertaking to supply gas to Northern Rivers businesses – and waited and waited and waited.

On 27 September 2013 Richmond Dairies showed its hand and joined with other disaffected shareholders seeking to change the composition of the Metgasco board and unwilling to support the Remuneration Report and the award of performance-based shares to Mr Peter Henderson in his role as Managing Director.

Letter to the Metgasco Company Secretary 27.09.2013