Job Services Australia 2009: unemployment service providers for the NSW North Coast

From the Minister's media release:

Providers for Job Services Australia will begin operation from July 1. There will be a 12 month transition period for job seekers to Job Services Australia providers........
Job Services Australia folds seven separate employment services programs into a 'one-stop-shop' that provides job seekers with a more personalised service......
There will be 116 contracts servicing job seekers across Australia. The 116 contracts comprise individual organisations or groups of organisations totalling 141 providers. They will be supported by at least 48 sub contractors.
There will be more than 2000 Job Service Australia sites across the nation, an increase from 1800 sites under the current system.........

Job seekers will receive a letter from April informing them of changes.
If job seekers have any queries they can call the customer service hotline 1800 805 260.

List of stream services by ESA:

Clarence NSW	ACET australia	Indigenous Australians	Grafton, Maclean, Yamba
	Key Employment	People with a disability	Grafton, Maclean
	Nortec Employment and Training Limited	Generalist	Grafton, Yamba
	Tursa Employment & Training Inc.	Generalist	Grafton, Maclean, Yamba

Coffs Harbour NSW	ACET australia	Indigenous Australians	Coffs Harbour, Corindi Beach, Nambucca Heads
	Enterprise and Training Company Ltd	Generalist	Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, Nambucca Heads, Toormina, Woolgoolga
	Ngurrala Aboriginal Corporation	Indigenous Australians	Macksville, Nambucca Heads
	Nortec Employment and Training Limited	Generalist	Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, Nambucca Heads, Woolgoolga
	Tursa Employment & Training Inc.	Generalist	Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Nambucca Heads, Woolgoolga

North Coast NSW	Bunjum Employment Services Pty Ltd ABN 45102978129	Indigenous Australians	Ballina
	Jobfind Centres Australia Pty Ltd	Generalist	Ballina, Brunswick Heads, Byron Bay
	Nortec Employment and Training Limited	Generalist	Ballina, Brunswick Heads, Byron Bay
	Tursa Employment & Training Inc.	Generalist	Ballina, Brunswick Heads, Byron Bay, Mullumbimby

Richmond NSW	Job Futures Ltd	Youth At Risk	Casino, Kyogle, Lismore, Nimbin
	Jobfind Centres Australia Pty Ltd	Generalist	Casino, Lismore, Woodburn
	Nortec Employment and Training Limited	Generalist	Casino, Kyogle, Lismore, Nimbin
	Summit Employment and Training	Indigenous Australians	Casino, Kyogle, Lismore
	Tursa Employment & Training Inc.	Generalist	Casino, Kyogle, Lismore
	Yabur Yulgun CDEP Aboriginal Corporation	Indigenous Australians	Lismore

Tweed NSW	Nortec Employment and Training Limited	Generalist	Bray Park, Kingscliff, Murwillumbah, Pottsville, Tweed Heads South
	The Salvation Army Employment Plus	Generalist	Murwillumbah, Tweed Heads South
	Tursa Employment & Training Inc.	Generalist	Kingscliff, Murwillumbah, South Tweed Heads
	Yabur Yulgun CDEP Aboriginal Corporation	Indigenous Australians	Tweed Heads

It's market failure, says Senator Conroy

Australian Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy says that the Rudd Government announcement that it will establish a national broadband network costing around $43 billion (financed by government bond issues) is due to "market failure"
From where I'm sitting it looks more like a Stevo failure to me.
The Australian rightly points to Telstra as the fly in the ointment but doesn't mention that the Conroy tender process didn't result in viable bids anyway.
Having Stephen Conroy as minister when the basic plan for creating the new national network is being put in place does not bode well.
Especially as home use on the new network will be limited and much more expensive according to one analyst - which if true will alarm the average blogger
When is Kevin Rudd going to shuffle this inept minister away from a sensitive portfolio and into the obscurity he so fully deserves.
Conroy is a living example of the Peter Principle; "the theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent."

Beserker 2009

Many Australian families have stories past down through the years about life during the Great Depression.
By now some of these stories have acquired a glossy surface demonstrating the family's valiant survival and humour in the face of adversity.

However, it doesn't take much to peek below and see memories of the fear, distrust and intense dislike which existed between those without jobs or income and the agents of those that had both.

If one delves deeper one often finds examples of verbal and physical violence.
Threats, beatings; to the constant refrain of get out, get out or move on, move on.

I'm not suggesting that the world is on the brink of another world-wide depression as I write, but I am wondering how a modern affluent society used to only relative poverty since the Great Depression will cope with a prolonged global recession.

If Australia were to enter a long period of high unemployment, will our answer at an individual level be the type of violence seen in the growing number of multiple murders since the beginning of 2008 in America and elsewhere?
Or will Australian society weather the global financial crisis relatively intact?
Will our old egalitarian myths sustain us?

Photograph from The Age

XKCD on windpower - the funny side of the energy debate

From XKCD

It's not easy being Google ;-)

"Google may be mapping the streets of the Western world but the good folk of Broughton, in Buckinghamshire, England, don't want a bar of it.
The Google Street View car was blocked from filming last week by angry residents, led by Paul Jacobs, who alerted neighbours after spotting the car from his window.
"I don't have a problem with Google wanting to promote villages. What I have a problem with is the invasion of privacy, taking pictures directly into the home," Mr Jacobs told the BBC.
"We've already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it's an invitation for more criminals to strike."
Mr Jacobs called police, who arrived to find a crowd in dispute with the Google driver, but the car moved on." [Brisbane Times on 6th April 2009]

"Mr [Rupert] Murdoch also questioned whether the newspaper industry should continue to allow online news aggregators such as Google to aggregate newspaper content without being compensated for it.
"Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights?" [The Australian 4th April 2009]

"Google launched Street View in the U.S. in May 2007, soon visually documenting and uploading the streetscapes of eight other countries to the web. Later that year, crews also embarked on Canadian streets, snapping static shots from camera-mounted sedans embossed with the ubiquitous company logo.
Holding an array of cameras, each vehicle moves along public roads collecting raw images of everything that happens to be in view – including residences, passersby and any other happenstance activity that's trapped by its sophisticated lenses.
It's the 2007 photos that will be showcased in the upcoming release. The reason they're only being posted now is partially thanks to concerns previously raised by the federal privacy commissioner, who feared the easily accessible photos showing some citizens could infringe on their privacy, Denham said.
Canada's privacy laws require that the person being photographed give their consent to the pictures being published, unless they are being taken for "journalistic, literary or artistic purposes."
The company recently approached Denham's office to explain what measures it has taken to alleviate its misgivings. In post-production, Google now subjects all photos to an automated process of blurring people's faces and licence plates." [TheStar.com on 5th April 2009]

"COMPANIES that aggregate mainstream media content without paying a fee are the "parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the internet" and will soon be challenged, Robert Thomson, the Australian-born editor of The Wall Street Journal has warned.
Thomson, who was holidaying in Australia last week, said companies such as Google were profiting from the "mistaken perception" that content should be free........
"Google argues they drive traffic to sites, but the whole Google sensibility is inimical to traditional brand loyalty," he said.
"Google encourages promiscuity -- and shamelessly so -- and therefore a significant proportion of their users don't necessarily associate that content with the creator.
"Therefore revenue that should be associated with the creator is not garnered." [The Australian 6th April 2009]

"A trademark lawsuit against Google that a lower court had dismissed in 2006 has been given new life.
Rescuecom, a Syracuse, New York, computer services franchising business, sued Google in 2004, alleging that Google has seriously hurt its business by serving up competitors' ads when users search for "Rescuecom" in Google's search engine.
The suit alleges that Google and Rescuecom competitors buying the ads profit without authorization from the Rescuecom trademark, and that the practice can also confuse potential customers and franchisees, resulting in lost business.
In its defense, Google argued that the selling "Rescuecom" as a keyword to competitors that triggers their ads along with search results isn't a trademark infringement under the Lanham Act." [Computer World 6th April 2009]

Grocery Choice still limps along...

The Rudd Government's much vaunted GroceryChoice website (allowing for online price comparison across grocery retail chains) still limps along, awaiting the CHOICE revamp which is promised for July this year.

Five months to revamp a website is a long time (a task subcontracted to SMS Management and Technology) and the worry grows that in the end CHOICE will only use this website as an extension of its existing information service and not regularly deliver a more detailed level of price comparisons across retail chains in regional Australia, where consumers are often disadvantaged due to more limited shopping options.

The website disclaimer now says it all:
Although the Australian Government supports this website by contributing funding to its operation, it is not an Australian Government website and the Australian Government is not responsible for its content or operation and, to the extent permitted by law the Australian Government makes no representation and gives no warranty and accepts no liability in respect to it.

North Eastern NSW April 09 price comparisons

Byron Shire Council to grow food on public land

On April 4 Byron Shire Council launched its pilot program for growing food plants on public land.
The pilot program will be co-managed by Council and the community over six months and involve monthly working bees.

Byron Shire Council’s Sustainability Officer, Graeme Williams; ‘This project is in response to some of the more alarming global trends. ‘While this is a small trial project, something like it on a larger scale could have large economic implications by relocalising our food production systems.
‘We currently have such a disconnection with the food we consume. Hopefully walking past publicly grown food will encourage interaction and maybe motivate people to emulate the system in their backyards. ‘Growing our own food is a lost art somewhat and one we should regain given our economic and climatic situation.‘The project will address all four arms of sustainability: environmental (food miles, resource dependency), social (bringing the community together and educating people), economic (with agriculture and farming both growth industries) and lastly, governance, with our council as a local government forerunner in this area, devoting council land to develop food security projects.’

Byron Shire Council is to be congratulated for this innovative approach to public health and resource sustainability.

Hopefully other Northern Rivers councils are watching this pilot and considering how they may use the wealth of local public land which is earmaked for eventual development far into the future and which lies idle now.

Picture from Google Images