Brendan Nelson hoist with Liberal Party's own petard

I found this The Sydney Morning Herald take on Brendan Nelson's reluctance to fully support an apology to the Stolen Generation a perfect example of where semantics and pedantry have led the Liberal Party of Australia.

 

"Nelson has argued, however, that we do not claim credit today for the heroics at Gallipoli so why take responsibility for taking children from their families?

These themes last met seven years ago when the Howard government scaled new heights in pedantry by using mathematics to deny the existence of the stolen generation. In a submission to a Senate inquiry, the then-minister John Herron argued fewer than 10 per cent of Aboriginal children were taken from their families, either wrongfully or "for good reason".

Therefore: "There was never a 'generation' of stolen children."

Three weeks later, John Howard was in Turkey for the 85th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

"Thus we come to this place at this hour on this day to observe not only a dawn but a dusk," the prime minister said in his dawn service speech. "For dusk has all but fallen on that great-hearted generation of Australians who fought here."

Demographic statistics for 1915 were not as detailed as they are today but, back then, Australia's population was about 5 million. Based on the best information available, slightly more than 1 million were aged between 15 and 35 years. During the nine months of the Gallipoli campaign, between 55,000 and 60,000 Australians were landed on the peninsula, neither 10 per cent of the whole population or those of military age.

Based on the then-government's logic, there was never a Gallipoli "generation" either.

Try mounting that argument and see how popular you'd be."

 

The Liberals are fast becoming a laughing stock for their convoluted reasoning.

Poll on Rudd's 2020 vision

It was great to see Rudders come up with the notion of a national summit to map out an agreed national direction for Australia beyond the next electoral cycle.

It appears that I am not alone in approving of the Australia 2020 Summit.

Granny Herald ran a poll yesterday which showed 75% of those who answered thought that Kevin Rudd's summit was a 'great idea'.

Let's hope both he and co-chair, Melbourne Uni vice-chancellor Glyn Davis, have a workable outcome to show us all by the end of April.

Leader of the Opposition Brendan 'we'll all be rooned' Nelson as usual is fence sitting and hasn't decided if he will attend this summit.

NSW North Coast Area Health Service tries 'the cheque is in the mail' routine

CEO Chris Crawford and the North Coast Area Health Service are obviously having problems colouring in between the lines of the recent announcement that some public hospital beds would be withdrawn from daily use and nursing shift numbers would be decreased.

 

"AT 5.10pm yesterday members of the New South Wales Nurses Association were still sitting by their fax machine waiting for an explanation from the North Coast Area Health Service on its plans to reallocate 86 North Coast hospital beds, including 12 from Grafton and Maclean, as surge beds.

They didn't get it.

Nurses Association organiser Susan Pearce said she had been told the Health Service had sent the material electronically about 4.45pm, but it hadn't arrived by the 5pm deadline set by a disputes committee.

"They were going to implement this plan on Tuesday, so I wouldn't have thought it would take them that long to send us the material," she said."

The Daily Examiner article on Saturday:

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3762539&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

 

Ms. Pearce is being diplomatic here. This was so obviously local health policy on the run, that I doubt whether anything was in place except the most rudimentary moves to close down beds and reduce shift numbers. 

Why is it that only ratepayers and local government are responsible for disposal of all wasteful or inappropriate packaging of consumer goods?

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief. It doesn't matter who buys that soft drink or hamburger on the NSW North Coast. Eventually the throw-away bottle, styrofoam box or paper bag will be disposed of in landfill, using the resources of local government and money collected from local ratepayers.

So why is it that the manufacturers of food and drink are not responsible for the enduring forms of packaging that they use?

That bottle or styrofoam container lasts well beyond its immediate purpose, and either litters our streets or adds to our landfill refuse volume.

 

Clean Up Australia's Ian Keirnan has the right idea when he calls for the introduction of a national drinks container refund scheme.

It has always been frustrating to watch the successful refund scheme operating in South Australia and know that there was no such scheme available to us on the North Coast.

 

"The organisation's annual rubbish report, for 2006-07 "showed nearly 40 per cent of the 8000 tonnes of rubbish collected on Clean Up Australia Day was used drink bottles and cans.

Chairman Ian Kiernan said climate change meant Australia had to change its ways, with recycling reform an important part of that."

 

So how about it, Prime Minister Rudd, are you up to tackling the multinationals over packaging rubbish?

Is there no-one brave enough to send Peter Garrett to the backbenches?

Peter Garrett attracts bad press like a magnet and almost appears to go out of his way to create conditions for the political gaffe.

Under fire for his volte-face agreement with the Coalition on Gunn's pulp mill proposal during the election campaign, he then went on as the new Environment Minister to endorse another disaster in the making - Port Phillip Bay dredging.

In between, he managed a large and very public foot in the mouth over Labor's future policy intentions.

Somewhere in all this he also cocked-up his part in organising Australia's monitoring of this year's Antarctic whaling season.

Now it seems Garrett thinks he can finalise the Bay dredging issues by looking at documents "over the weekend". At the same time putting Gunn's mill to bed by approving the environmental plan in stages, while hoping Australia doesn't notice by announcing it after 5pm on a Friday night.

The man is shaping up as Federal Labor's great galah. Gawd knows what will happen to this minister once February 13 comes around and he has to get to his feet in the House of Reps.

By then he'll have probably brought Labor's entire environmental platform crashing down.

Especially as Rudd has just given him responsibility for community and household climate change action, greenhouse gas abatement and energy efficiency.

What on earth was the Prime Minister thinking?

Morrie wants to sell the farm and Sussex Street gets very nervous

The NSW Labor Government is still pushing ahead with the privatisation of power supplies in the state.

It's rumoured that sitting government MPs are rather irate at the voter flack that Morris Iemma has brought down on their heads.

The Sussex Street party machine is also worried about surviving the next state election, if the voter mood remains the same.

They should all be worried, every man-jack. This has to be the stupidest political move that Iemma and Costa have made, in a growing list of stupid moves.

I hear that the Opposition is down on its knees every night praying that privatisation goes ahead, as they see it delivering votes and cash when they win government.

  

Bundjalung artists exhibit this month at Ballina

Two Catfish Nesting by Noel Kenneth Caldwell. Photograph from The Northern Rivers Echo.

Indigenous artists from the Jambama Art Shed in Casino are taking their art to the coast for a special exhibition at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina, aptly titled Branching Out.
As well as traditional canvas paintings, there are painted boomerangs, clap sticks, sculptures, pyrographic pieces and designer wall hangings. There are also sewn items including bags, place mats and cushion covers, all with original hand printed designs.
Branching Out opens at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina on Friday, February 1, and runs until February 24. Artworks are also on display at the Jambama Art Shed Gallery Space in Casino, which is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm."