Liberals still can't get their tongues around the 'S' word

Liberal Party Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, is urging the Rudd Government to go slow on the planned apology to the indigenous Stolen Generation.

Apparently Mr. Nelson doesn't relish the thought that he might be faced with a decision on whether or not to support a formal apology when Federal Parliament resumes in February.

 

"Whatever the attitude of Australians towards this generation, apologising for things that were done by earlier generations, you've really got to ask yourself whether this is a high priority for the Australian Parliament," he said.

The Australian article yesterday:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23121309-601,00.html

 

In the same issue of The Australian Tony Abbott, the Liberals new indigenous affairs spokesperson, echoes former PM John Howard's double talk on saying sorry.

 

"Well, this whole question of a formal apology, I think the proponents, no less than the opponents, are getting hung up on semantics,'' Mr Abbott said last year.

"Because, let's face it, back in 1999 the parliament unanimously carried a resolution of profound and sincere regret about the various mistakes that had been made in terms of indigenous policy over the years.

"So who is playing word games here? This apology ... I would like to see precisely what words the incoming Government is proposing, because finding a form of words that is acceptable to everyone is going to be an extraordinarily difficult business."

 

While that old Liberal headkicker, Wilson Tuckey, objects to even allowing Australia's traditional owners to dance at the opening of Parliament.

 

"Mr Tuckey has criticised reports traditional owners will dance at the opening of Federal Parliament next month, when it is speculated the Federal Government may make a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.

Mr Tuckey says it is not what Parliament is for.

"I'm horrified and concerned that we're going to turn the Parliament of Australia into a dance parlour," he said."

ABC News yesterday:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/28/2148258.htm?section=australia

 

I for one think that the 'S' word is long overdue. One has to admire the resilience of indigenous communities across Australia and on the NSW North Coast - they survived every misguided attempt at assimilation and retain their dignity and culture in the face of enormous social and economic disadvantage.

Not only do I support a formal Federal Government apology, I would also support a national compensation scheme.

As for Wilson Tuckey - this MP should be taken to task by his leader.

What will the the Prime Minister and Cabinet do about their carbon footprints?

In the first year of the Rudd Government the Prime Minister and his senior ministers will rack up quite a few hours in air and road travel.

Perhaps they should all give some thought to how they're going to offset the amount of greenhouse gas these trips will produce.

Leading by example is something I expect from this new Labor government.

Talking the talk has to be followed by walking the walk on global warming if they expect the rest of us to follow.

Rudd Government must address the way Australian schools are funded

The independent Australian Council on Educational Research (ACER) recently released a report Australia's School Funding System.

This report highlights ongoing problems with Commonwealth criteria for school funding.

If Kevin Rudd intends an education revolution over the next four years he cannot avoid this issue of disproportionate funding favouring private schools.

 

"This does not mean the Commonwealth

is giving less money to government schools but

rather that its funding to non-government schools

may be disproportionate to that sector's needs.20

To summarise, "average" school costs are increasingly

problematic as a means of determining adequate

funds to educate real students. Both government

and non-government schools are receiving funding

based on an "average" student even though nongovernment

schools may be recruiting a student

body with below average costs. On the other hand,

government schools appear to have an increasingly

expensive student body.

Other issues include that:

a) The system does not actually measure a

school's resources and in fact ignores a school's

capacity to generate its own income through

fees, investments, donations and fundraising in

measuring need (the stated rationale from the

Commonwealth is that to reduce funding for

schools that exceed a limit on private income

would act as a disincentive to private efforts to

raise funds).

b) The local community's SES may not reflect the

individual student's SES in a particular nongovernment

school. Some students may come

from the wealthiest home in a disadvantaged

area. Barry McGaw has recently described this

phenomenon as "relatively advantaged students

from disadvantaged communities carry[ing]

with them to a non-government school a

government voucher based on the students they

leave behind in their communities" (2007).

c) Although a formula, the SES system is not

applied consistently with scope for compromise

arrangements to alter the formula. As mentioned

above, in 2005, over half of non-government

schools received an adjusted amount because

the strict application of their SES score would

have resulted in less funding."

Full ACER report:

 http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PolicyBriefs_Dowling07.pdf

Telstra's Next G being tested by NSW North Coast resident

"Telstra raised Mr Cameron's hackles when it started telling people they'd have to switch networks fast or lose their phone number.-------Mr Cameron said he had just got a Next G handset from Telstra, which he planned to compare with his CDMA handset. He had selected 35 'marginal' locations around Goonengerry, Coopers Creek, Federal, Eureka and between Eureka and Lismore, where he gets coverage on his CDMA phone.

He had tested each location by calling his home and leaving a message on his answering machine describing the location, the time of day and the weather conditions. The next step would be to go through the same process with his new Next G phone.

"However, even if he could get clear messages through to his home phone, most of the new network's features would be wasted in the bush.

"It's really starting to annoy me," he said. "Even if we get to the point where Next G can be said to be as good as CDMA, there's still questions of why we have to go to it.

"Because of the enhanced applications, the video calls and rapid downloads, even if we can get it as good as CDMA we won't get the speed or consistency of coverage for those enhanced functions; so we're having to pay for a new $500 phone to get the same phone coverage as we had before."

Telstra, at the request of Mr Conroy, has set up a 1800 number to answer questions about the new network and the axing of the old one."

The Northern Star article last Sunday:

http://www.northernstar.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3762013&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

Time for the Nats to give Libs the boot

Last Saturday Liberal Senator Nick Minchin joined the national conservative chorus calling for one united right-wing political party in Australia.

I particularly loved his comment in The Herald Sun "that internal party factions were "evil in the wrong hands" and repeated calls for a united conservative party to effectively compete with their "great political enemy".

Yeah, just what Australia needs - narrowing voter choice in an already narrow political spectrum.

If the Nationals had any spine they would split with the Liberal Party and form genuine policy platforms to take to the next federal election.

They have been a 'tag along' party for too long. If they stay with their demoralised and disintegrating partner the Nats may disappear from the federal stage within the next few years.

Time to tell the Libs to get on their bikes. The only smart move that party machine has made in recent years was to refuse Liberal Party presidency to Lazarus-with-a-triple-bypass when he lobbied for it within weeks of losing his seat.

telephones

I rang Telstra to inform them that my phone is suffering from phonopause ( the telegraphic equivalent of menopause) and to see if they could help.

A very nice young man patiently listened to the list of symptoms I described;

• sometimes the phone will not ring and sends all incoming calls to message bank
• one ring then message bank
• rings loudly, no one there
• only one half of the conversation can be heard, I can heard the caller talking and they can't hear me or visa versa.
• sometimes only parts of the conversation can be heard, this has lead to some amusing and annoying conversations. From what I'm hearing I think the conversation is about Soya futures when the other person is talking about store cattle prices.
• other times the phone is obviously bored with the conversation and just hangs up
• even when both parties can hear one another there are many and various noises heard, the most common is a loud clicking. Is the phone going to blow-up?
• the fastest I can get a download is 3.1 kbts, and this only for a few minutes. I think the phone then takes a Valium and has a nice rest before it decides if it will perhaps do a little bit more. With this attitude it can take hours to download virus updates.
• we have had a fair bit of rain here so is that why some callers sound as if they are under water?

The young man said he had the answer to all my problems, the Next G network had a larger footprint than the old CDMA system and was vastly superior in many ways and all of this I could enjoy as soon as I purchase a better handset then all my problems would be solved. When I informed him I was talking about a landline and that we never had CDMA reception out here I didn't hear the rest of the conversation. The phone decided that it had enough and hung-up. It refused to work for the rest of the day.

I think I will just have to bred a race of carrier ducks, it's too wet for pigeons.

North coast hospitals to cut 86 beds

It appears the annual silly season has been extended in northern NSW.

How else can the ridiculous decision that will see fourteen public hospitals on NSW's north coast lose a total of 86 bed be explained?

The Age reports that North Coast Area's health chief executive Chris Crawford announced the decision in a memo.

What is Mr Crawford's real role with NCAHS? Rather than serve as a health administrator, Mr Crawford is yet again portraying himself as a bean counter who's acting on behalf of a state government that continues to fail to deliver the necessary resources public health so desperately needs.

Does the Sydney-centric not understand the demography of northern NSW?

Read The Age article at: http://news.theage.com.au/north-coast-hospitals-to-cut-86-beds/20080127-1ode.html