Coalition position worsens as Howard history resurfaces

Liberal leader Brendan Nelson's listening tour is turning into a running joke with Crikey's sale of I brake for Brendan Nelson's hair bumper stickers, Nationals leader Warren Truss is morphing into the invisible man due to lack of media attention, former Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran is dishonouring his contract with the Gippsland electorate and jumping ship because he doesn't like being on the opposition benches, and now the Maritime Workers Union (MWU) appears likely to get its hands on non-embargoed government documents which may go some way to proving that the former Howard Government breached its own industrial relations law in order to break Australian waterfront workers.
Matters do not grow any easier for a Coalition out of government and out of favour.

John Howard was prime minister at the time and defended his handling of the dispute.
"It was my government that changed the law to make it possible for the monopoly on the supplier of waterfront labour by the Maritime Union to be broken," Mr Howard said.
"It is important to understand that the Maritime Union of Australia is attempting to defend the indefensible."

If the MWU is successful with another freedom of information application, the Liberal Party in particular may learn what it means to live in interesting times. If Julie Bishop's response is any indication, party members are afraid of what will out.

Ringing in the changes - that Nimbin pot debate again

It's almost become a way to mark the change of seasons on parts of the NSW North Coast, marijuana is in the news and being debated again.

 

Yesterday The Northern Star featured this article.

 

THE police raids on Nimbin's Museum and Hemp Embassy on Tuesday have sparked calls for the North Coast to lead a trial to develop a model for decriminalising marijuana.

Hemp Embassy President Michael Balderstone made the suggestion on ABC radio and the idea was widely supported by talkback callers.

Byron Shire mayor Jan Barham said she had discussed the idea with Mr Balderstone in the past.

"We've discussed a planning model and how you would go about it. You'd have to do a trial with a risk analysis. The idea of having only one location is not a good way to trial something, so it would have to be done regionally so you don't create a honey pot situation," she said.

"Hypothetically, if you were going to move beyond the current situation, you'd have to do a trial and if there was any region in Australia (where it could work) then the North Coast is where you'd think to do it because of the situation here. People have an awareness of its use and think beyond the constraints of it being a criminal issue."

Mr Balderstone said he had had several 'off the record' conversations with police officers who didn't agree with the current drug laws.

Brendan's road diary appears to have taken a detour

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson had a beaut idea about his 17-day Listening Tour of Australia. He'd keep an internet diary on the road.

The diary ran for three days and then disappeared yesterday.

Was it something the blogosphere said, Bren?

Total Environment Centre goes to bat against NSW Planning Minister Sartor's poor policy

MEDIA RELEASE – 3rd April 2008

Planning reform groundswell:
104 groups reject Sartor's changes

Over 100 peak and regional environment and community organisations have today written to the NSW Premier outlining 6 key areas where the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) must be reformed to restore (EP&A Act) must be reformed to restore community participation in the planning process.
The letter also tells The Premier that changes to the NSW Planning System, proposed by Planning Minister Sartor, will only serve to further alienate the community from the process.
"There is a growing sentiment among the general community that the NSW Government is going too far and the Premier would do well to listen to these concerns," said TEC Director Jeff Angel.
"Since the introduction of Part 3A into the EP&A Act, the balance has shifted from an Act that guarantees public participation and environmental assessment to one that hands developers more exemptions and less accountability.
"The planned reforms will only see an increase in the number of loopholes developers can jump through to avoid scrutiny. They also open the door for unhealthy relationships to form between developers and private certifiers.
"What is required is an EP&A Act with strong principles of ecologically sustainable development, contains genuine environmental assessment provisions and reinstates genuine public participation."

Contact: Jeff Angel or Leigh Martin on 92613437
TOTAL ENVIRONMENT CENTRE INC.
LEVEL 4, 78 LIVERPOOL STREET, SYDNEY, NSW 2000
Ph: 02 9261 3437 Fax 02 9261 3990
www.tec.org.au

Young Liberals: deluded, dangerous and at university

I would like to think that this piece in The Sydney Morning Herald was a leg pull. Unfortunately it isn't. The Young Liberals have started a campus witch hunt worthy of Salem.

The black posters started cropping up on university campuses early this month. A gagged, wide-eyed youth stares out from the top corner. "Record biased lecturers," the posters scream. "Scan biased textbooks. Report incidents of bias. Education. Not Indoctrination."---
"Lecturers and tutors are brazenly forcing students to agree with their political or ideological views and we want to catch them doing it," Noel McCoy, president of the Young Liberals, told reporters at the recent launch of the campaign.
Collating evidence of bias is the first step before asking the university senate to conduct an inquiry, McCoy says.

Ah, conservative uni students. Those poor (only a figure of speech because those coming from true comparative poverty rarely progress to higher education) deluded souls who always kick and buck when their own inherited world views are even mildly challenged.

This quadrangle tantrum would be barely tolerable if most were attending lectures in the pursuit of knowledge and informed debate, but all they are chasing is that piece of paper which allows them entry into a lucrative profession.

Modern professions of course demand a demonstrable degree of conformity of thought or practice to gain entry to what is sometimes almost a closed shop, so before Noel McCoy begins to make some tutor's life miserable he might like to consider the possibility that he is/was at university to be 'trained'.
Mr. McCoy would be the first to cry foul if he found the university hadn't provided him with this guild handshake.
Any knowledge or exploration of ideas that may come a student's way in pursuit of a degree are icing on the cake and deeper exploration of any subject must ultimately be on his/her own initiative.

Oh so earnest Young Liberals, here's the reality - you are not brighter than the average bear, you possess no unique pearls of wisdom, neither are you in some way special. You just happen to be there.

So try to at least leave your alma mater as you found it - still attempting to hold its head above the black pall created by Joe McCarthy's putative heirs and John Howard's tertiary education funding parsimony.

North Coast Area Health Service 'surge beds' issue still not resolved

The NSW Nurses Association is still waiting for the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) to release an explanatory statement concerning its introduction of 'surge beds' in local public hospitals.

Surge beds are by definition additional inpatient beds which become available during epidemics, natural disasters and bioterrorism events.
Though in the case of NSW Health and NCAHS it appears that the label 'surge beds' is being used to withdraw existing hospital beds from daily use and reduce staffing levels.

After the fact consultations with the 14 hospitals involved do not appear to have engendered confidence within medical circles.
Which leaves many North Coast residents concerned about the present focus of regional health planning, if word games and bean counting are considered more important than people.

After twelve long years Brendan Nelson discovers Australia

Now into the fourth day of his 'listening' tour and Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has discovered that the average Aussie is struggling with grocery bills, petrol prices and interest rates.

Hello? Drop a stone down that well and see if there is water at the bottom.

We've all been struggling for years, mate. Years and years and years.

So why wasn't Nelson all that concerned when he was part of the recently deceased Howard Government.

Little Brennie has been buzzing like a blue ar*ed fly around Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia in quick succession and the superficiality is beginning to show.

Leader of the alternative gov'ment - don't make me laugh.