Environment Minister Garrett puts his foot in it (again)

It seems that Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett is one hapless individual.

Everytime he turns around he puts a very large foot in something.

This time he is backing a government program which is badged Caring for our Country.

 

In designing Caring for our Country, we have built on the strengths of previous natural resource management programs. We also recognise that there is a highly talented, committed and engaged group of people in all sectors of the Australian community who have already been working for many years to achieve similar outcomes. Through Caring for our Country, we look forward to working with all these people to help secure Australia's future.

Caring for our Country will commence on 1 July 2008 and, for the first time, will bring together delivery of a raft of Commonwealth programs into an integrated package with one clear goal, a business approach to investment, clearly articulated outcomes and priorities and improved accountability.

 

Sounds like a good idea, but both Garrett and Natural Resource Management seem to have forgotten that their program badge is suspiciously similar to another badge Caring for Country.

 

Crikey ran an article on this yesterday which contained a copy of an unattributed email.

 

Folks

This is the first email I have received with the Commonwealth flying its new "caring for our country" banner through the text.

Despite its statement that the name has been picked up the Commonwealth "with the greatest respect", a great damage has been done to the indigenous land management movement and the great "caring for country" branding -- a branding that originated absolutely with Aboriginal people, not Government.

Now I have look twice at things to see whether they are "caring for country" or "caring for our country", two distinct brands but now branded with almost indistinguishable names.

Imagine, folks, how an entity like Toyota would feel if DEWHA had decided to call its new program "oh what a wonderfully environmental feeling!".

The Aboriginal land management movement it seems to me now MUST abandon the name Caring for Country because it is too ambiguously linked to the new Government brand.

Well, the choice is fight the feds about it in a serious way or just walk away.

It cannot be left with two brand names that sound so similar. What a bad and sad start to indigenous/AG partnerships under Kevin 07.

 

The fact that Caring for Country was removed from ASIC registered business names on an unspecified date obviously does not remove community sensitivity over the current use of a similar name by government.

Peter Garrett has a clear choice - address this issue before July or risk alienating more people.

Spivs Inc [NSW] and Developers Unlimited

Last week ABC 1 Stateline ran a segment on the recent political donations scandal, which showed footage of the NSW Parliament and Planning Minister Frank Sartor declaiming towards the Opposition benches: You look like a spiv, you talk like a spiv, you act like a spiv and you are a spiv.

 

Last night Stateline confronted the minister with evidence of alleged partial conduct favourable to a large development corporation which happens to also be a donor to the NSW Labor Party.

 

Stateline's host Quentin Dempster demonstrating remarkable restraint did not say to Mr. Sartor: You look like a spiv, you talk like a spiv, you act like a spiv and you are a spiv.

 

In front of my television I was not so restrained.

Naked man to draw attention to his raw deal

This year's Anzac Day march in Ballina in northern NSW will be something different. It will see an 89-year old man 'march' naked.

John MacGregor told The Northern Star that he will be 'marching' naked because all other efforts he has made to draw attention to his plight have produced blanks.

Mr MacGregor, dismayed and angry about having his World War II service revoked, has decided to 'march' naked riding his mobility scooter draped in an Australian flag during the Anzac Day march at Ballina.

"I've let them know in Canberra that I'm intending to do something, but I shouldn't have to do all this," he said.

"There are 15 of us, it's not just for me, two of them died on duty and they've never been recognised.

"I've been fighting all my life and I will probably keep fighting."

Mr MacGregor worked with the Postmaster-General's Department and was part of a crew that established secure telephone lines across Torres Strait and the Gulf of Papua so that General MacArthur did not have to rely on radio in 1943.

The former engineer was recognised for his war service in 2004, and has been campaigning to have a purple star awarded to himself and the 14 others on this mission.

However, he recently found out that not only will he be denied his medal, but his war service has been revoked.

"I have a Gold Card as a military person, but that is dependent on my war service," he said.

"I'm aware of the fact that if they cancel my war service they might cancel my pension."

A request for medical compensation for war injuries was denied by the Veteran's Review Board, and in their refusal they stated:

"The Board noted that Mr MacGregor has previously been considered to have rendered 'operational service' during World War II as a civilian employee of the Postmaster-General's Department, but that this has now been revoked."

Mr MacGregor said the revocation was news to him and disputes the claim he was there as a civilian.

"We were working for the Allied Forces and if the Prime Minister of the day John Curtin is to be believed, he stated in his many press releases that 'any orders coming from General MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Forces Southwest Pacific Area, were to be regarded as coming from him'," he said.

"In fact, all of us in Australia were working for the Allied Forces."

Mr MacGregor has written to the Defence Minister and requested help from Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin.

A spokesperson for Ms Saffin said the MP is making representations on behalf of John MacGregor to the Veteran's Affairs Minister, but was yet to receive a response.

RSL Sub-branch rules state that Mr MacGregor cannot march as a returned serviceman with medals without proof of overseas service, but can march as an ex-serviceman, which the RSL recognises him for.

Mr MacGregor said he may take his fight to the High Court.

"I can take it to the High Court, but I have to get permission from the Chief Justice," he said.

Veterans Affairs would not comment on his case due to privacy reasons.

Gillard's error of judgement

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a serious error of judgement when she jumped on the performance-based pay for teachers bandwagon.

Parading under false banners such as "lifting the status of the teaching profession" and "boosting students' results", "teaching quality" once again raised its head at this week's first meeting of state and federal education ministers since the election of the Rudd Government.

Gillard, like many others, just doesn't get it. Implementing teacher pay schemes that are associated with merit will not enhance the teaching profession. Competitive, cut-throat, eat-your-enemies approaches to paying teachers cannot sit squarely with a profession that is based on co-operation.

A lighthearted look at Googling

Poster found at Club Troppo.

Budget night 'donation' dinners not a good look for any political party

With so many on the NSW North Coast living on a limited income it leaves a bad taste in the mouth that, on the night of the 2008 Federal Budget, Canberra will be awash with conspicuous consumption in the name of raising a few dollars for the major political parties.

 

In The Age this morning.

 

AS Wayne Swan announces billions of dollars in budget cuts on the night of May 13, the political parties will be raking in almost $1million, with corporate high-fliers, lobbyists and party supporters paying big money to attend a parliamentary budget-night banquet.---

The budget-night spectacular comes as state governments come under fire for fundraising dinners and undisclosed donations from developers.

It's in the bag

Granny Herald told us yesterday that federal and state governments had failed to reach an agreement over the problem of disposable plastic bags.
No national ban or levy, indeed no solution at all, has been decided on.

Which sort of demonstrates the bigger problem really - at every step of the climate change response is someone who will either lose income or someone who will be forced to pay more for goods and services.
So nothing gets done with a coordinated national approach. Instead we get lots of wordy hot air, because every pollie has an industry lobbyist at their elbow or an electorate sensitive to a particular topic.

Kevin Rudd keeps going to the media with his 2020 mantra of a new way forward.
This magical date is just around the corner, but the number of life problems in which it has been held out as a goal increases every time I open the paper or turn on the television.
It seems there is nothing that can't be cured by a judicious application of 2020 twice a day.

If the plastic bag issue is any guide, then 2020 will see us no further forward than we are today and we'll all be in deep in global warming trouble before any solution is actually tried.