A word about bureaucratic corruption in 2009

Next week Brisbane is hosting the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2009 over four days from 28 July to 31 July.

It is held in Australia every two years, and is a joint initiative of the Crime and Misconduct Commission (QLD), the Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW), and the Corruption and Crime Commission (WA).

This is a significant opportunity for Australian and international public officials to learn about contemporary anti-corruption trends and strategies, and to network with senior representatives of leading Australian public sector agencies. This year's conference will also be of particular interest to health administrators, tertiary institutions and agencies providing services in remote locations, with sessions focussing on each of these areas.

Given the vastly enlarged data bases that the Rudd Government is envisioning as vital for the so-called digital information age, one has to hope that some senior public servants attend this conference on behalf of the Federal Minister for Medical ID Cards in 2010, Chris Bowen and the Minister for Let's Revive Howard Government Lame Ideas, Nicola Roxon.

Let us also hope that local government bureaucracy receives more than just a mention in the last day's hijinks:

The conference will conclude with Kerry O'Brien hosting an entertaining and informative hypothetical with an anti-corruption bent exploring the topic 'Queensland — beautiful one day and desperate for the developer dollar the next!'

Bring that Resources Minister under control!

The Australian Greens have found a novel way of hitting back at the planned expansion of uranium mining in this country and they are looking for 87,930 signatures for the mass mail out to the Batman electorate.

If you would like to draw Martin Ferguson's attention to the possibility that the Rudd Government's
desire to create more uranium mines may not be supported by his fellow Australians, then hit the links in Scott Ludlum's letter and tell the minister so.

Dear friend,

Would you allow a secretive US arms company to mine uranium in your backyard? Neither would we!

So help us tell our politicians that Australia doesn't need more uranium mines.

It's easy to approve a new uranium mine when it is out of sight and out of mind – but just because we don't see a place every day doesn't mean that we should risk ruining it forever.

That's how the Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson are able to approve environmentally destructive projects like General Atomics new Beverley 4 Mile mine, 500 kilometres north of Adelaide.

We need your help to send a backyard message to Minister Ferguson, in his home electorate of Batman.

If this acid leaching mine opens, Australia will have five uranium mines either working or approved, with more in the pipeline. Along with the expansion of other mines it adds up to a potential trebling in Australia's uranium exports - three times the waste, three times the worry, three times the risk.

The Australian Government allows our uranium to be sold to nuclear weapon states such as China. Uranium sold for nuclear power frees up uranium for nuclear weapons so our exports directly or indirectly fuel growing nuclear instability and intensify threats across our region and around the world.

That's why it's important to let our politicians know, in their own backyards, that this massive expansion of uranium mining must stop.

With your help, we are proposing to send the postcard below to every voter in Batman, the backyard of the Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.

All you have to do is sign on to our Backyard Message to Batman campaign to get the message out.

For every signature that we receive one postcard will be sent to a voter in Batman asking them to bring their local member under control.

It's as simple as that.

Help send a backyard message to Batman's 87,930 voters – that should get Minister Ferguson's attention...

Yours sincerely
Scott Ludlam
Australian Greens Senator for WA and spokesperson on nuclear issues

P.S. After you've added your name, don't forget to forward the message to your friends to spread the word even further.

If you want to show Peter Garrett that he can no longer trade on his old Oils cred you can email Peter here.

Excuse me while I turn my head and barf

The U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is less than five months away, and with no benchmarks set to measure compliance the world's leaders recently decided to agree to keeping global warming at no more than 2 Celsius - practically guaranteeing massive environmental degradation across Australia.

Now I find that in their wisdom the organisers of this conference have paid out good money for a dinky little website called Hopenhagen at which we are supposed to lodge a 10-word expression of what gives us hope.

WTF? How can the world have hope if all its leaders are doing is playing at finding solutions for climate change instead of actually doing something right NOW.

L'll
Coffs Harbour

How many acute care beds are there in NSW North Coast hospitals?

North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) covers an area of 25,570 square kilometres extending from Port Macquarie in the south, Queensland in the north and westward to the Great Dividing Range and there are over 480,675 people living within these boundaries according to the area health service.

Also according to the NCAHS website in 2005 there was a total of 21 public hospitals, with approx. 1384 acute care beds offered at the public/private hospitals in the Area.

Which works out at no more than 2.9 acute care beds to every 1,000 North Coast residents and, even less available to patients without private medical insurance if one was able to extract private hospital beds from the bundled NCAHS 2005 figure.

In 2007 Peter Roberts and Paul Cunningham told a NSW inquiry that NSW had only 1.1 acute care beds in private hospitals per 1,000 population and 2.7 acute care beds in public hospitals per 1,000 people.

Now Professor Peter Collingdon informs us in 2009 that:
In Australia we have 38% less beds than in 1981 when there were 6.4 acute care hospital beds for every 1000 people. There are now only four beds per 1000 people available. Only 2.7 of these beds are available in the public sector -- where the sickest patients are looked after. [Crikey.com.au,20 July 2009]

Which indicates that little is changing for the better in health services when it comes to bed numbers.

Given the relentless NCAHS cost-cutting, staff and bed reduction drive of recent years, perhaps Chief Executive Officer Chris Crawford could favour us all with details of the current ratio of acute care beds in NSW North Coast public hospitals to every 1,000 head of population.

Damning praise and rough criticism for Peter and Malcolm

From the pen of Howard apologista Peter van Onselen in his The Australian article The good oil: Peter Garrett knows his job.

If Garrett doesn't have a line in the sand, he is a sell-out, make no mistake. But if he does, and so long as he hasn't crossed it, he has become a pragmatic politician holding on to a few convictions along the way. Howard would be proud.

Ouch!

Liberal Party Senator Wilson Tuckey assessing the quality of his leader, Malcolm Turnbull in a Herald Sun article on 22 July 2009.

"The issue of the arrogance and inexperience of our leader on the issue of the emission trading scheme has to be addressed"

Double ouch with pike!

The Ugg Boot trademark fight goes on and Deckers does not cover itself in glory

I'm sure everyone will remember that protracted legal battle over who had rights over the term Ug, Ugg or Ugh boots, in which little Aussie battlers were able to convince the Registrar of Trade Marks that these terms in themselves were generic and therefore beyond trademark in Australia by U.S. Deckers Outdoor Corporation (with the exception of one particular graphic representation of a certain trademark incorporating the word UGG).

In the initial Registrar of Trade Marks decision in 2006 it was stated:

34. The evidence overwhelming supports the proposition that the terms UGH BOOT(S), UG BOOT(S) and UGG BOOT(S) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods which should innocently come to the minds of people making this particular style of sheepskin boot. The terms thus lack any inherent capacity to distinguish the particular goods. The Yellow Pages®, Internet, magazine and dictionary uses of these terms make it quite clear that these terms are generic – they are the most immediate and natural ways in which to refer to a particular style of sheepskin boot.4 They are terms which are required by other traders without any improper motive to describe those boots. The terms, (as opposed to the registered trade mark), are in all senses analogous to the terms SCHOOLIES - Sports Break Travel Pty Ltd v P & O Holidays Ltd, (2000) 50 IPR 51 or CAPS THE GAME - Powell v Glow Zone Products Pty Ltd (1997) 39 IPR 506.

IP Australia now has this fact sheet on its website explaining the current situation as it interprets it, with this particular rider:

The Internet provides easy access to global markets and takes no account of national borders. If you are trading on the Internet you need to understand the laws of the country into which you are selling goods or services. If you place an offer for sale on the Internet in Australia that invites purchase from overseas, this can amount to trading overseas and could leave you vulnerable to legal action and expensive litigation. Likewise an overseas proprietor selling goods in Australia via the Internet may infringe an Australian trade mark.

Decker Outdoor Corporation was such a bad sport about its Australian loss that it apparently attempted to scare away Internet trade from the small Australian company, which led opposition to its attempt to expand the Decker trademark, by creating www.uggsnrugs.com (it's winter here in Australia, so if you have a little cash to spare why don't you click onto the real Aussie site www.uggs-n-rugs.com.au owned by West Australians Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall and order a pair of Ugg boots to keep those feet warm).

The company also took out additional overseas trademarks using the word UGG, of which some are included in a rolling list of 33 marks in the United States alone.

It seems that in July 2009 the ever-litigious Deckers now has Google Inc in its sights and its legal team is demanding that the Internet search engine cease index listing over thirty websites displaying and selling ugg boots.

Thankfully, it appears that Google is not rushing to obey the dictates of this international marketplace bully as the named websites and goods images were still visible at the time of writing this post.

Graphic from Google Images

Biodiversity Summit in Canberra 8 August 2009

Biodiversity for Climate Protection

Biodiversity Summit 2009, with keynote speaker Dr Rachel Warren.

Aiming to better understand the connections between biodiversity and climate, and why protecting natural ecosystems is essential to tackle the climate crisis .

The climate crisis is transforming biodiversity policy, demanding rapid fundamental change to protect and restore the natural environment. The Biodiversity Summit 2009 will review how natural ecosystems contribute to mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, including the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the global carbon cycle and carbon storage and the contribution of biodiversity to the resilience of natural ecosystems, particularly in the face of climate change. The Summit will also analyse the policy implications flowing from the need to protect and restore natural ecosystems for climate change mitigation and adaptation and discuss implementation strategies and tools.
The program for the day will include presentations, workshops and discussion. Participants will have an opportunity to offer workshops; and round table sessions will cover issues like how to 'frame' the policy debate, identifying key issues that need to be addressed, and how the policy agenda is to be taken forward. Everyone interested in biodiversity and climate will find it relevant – researchers, lawyers, land managers, policy-makers, activists and individuals.

When: Saturday, 8 August 2009, 9am to 5pm
Venue: Canberra Institute of Technology, K Block, Constitution Ave, Canberra
Registration fees: Standard $95, low income $55

List of speakers