Stephen's Progress

The Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy continues with his plan to censor the Aussie Internet, creates a skeleton for the national broadband network without any real cost-benefit analysis of the $43 billion infrastructure project, is paying Monopoly money for senior NBN Co Limited people to shine the seat of their pants while there are no on-the-job staff in the fledgling company yet, has put out a call for eHealth, education and emergency services project funding applications before a national broadband network is up and running in even one state (with only 25 days to lodge expressions of interest) and before the capabilities of the final configuration of any national network is known.
He crows loudly that placing patient records online will deliver about 12,000 more jobs.
The Minister can't guarantee the broadband speeds he quotes, can't get fibre to the node broadband to every town in the country and refuses to come clean on projected take-up rates for those who are able to connect.
Senator Conroy is offering wireless connection to those towns which cannot be connected to broadband but doesn't appear to understand the security implications for eHealth data in those circumstances.
As recent red faces at the Australian Federal Police testify - it would be impossible for him to give a promise that any data base is secure and files won't fall off the back of a truck courtesy of an industrious kiddie scripter, mobile scanner or disaffected staff.
Stevo, mate - you are fast disappearing up your own fundament.

UN tells Australia: If it has feathers, looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - then it's a duck!

Today the United Nations told Australia that, yes, it is that peculiar breed of duck - a country of entrenched racism and discrimination:

Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya, as he concludes his visit to Australia

CANBERRA/GENEVA - The Government of Australia is to be commended for taking significant steps to improve the human rights and socio-economic conditions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, as well as for its recent expression of support for United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and for its apology to the victims of the Stolen Generation. After several days in Australia listening and learning, however, I have observed a need to develop new initiatives and reform existing ones—in consultation and in real partnership with indigenous peoples—to conform with international standards requiring genuine respect for cultural integrity and self-determination.

Over the past 11 days, I have met with Government authorities, representatives of indigenous communities and organisations, and others, in Canberra, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. I have visited a number of indigenous communities in both remote and urban areas, and have collected information from several sources. I would like to express my appreciation for the support of the Government and to the indigenous individuals and organisations that provided indispensible support in planning and coordinating the visit. I would also like to express my appreciation to the United Nations Information Centre.

While I must now take some time to review and analyse the substantial amount of information I have received, and to follow up with further exchanges of information with the Government, indigenous peoples of Australia, and other sources, I would like to provide here a few preliminary observations.

During my time in Australia, I have been impressed with demonstrations of strong and vibrant indigenous cultures and have been inspired by the strength, resilience and vision of indigenous communities determined to move toward a better future despite having endured tremendous suffering at the hands of historical forces and entrenched racism. It is clear that these historical forces continue to make their presence known today, manifesting themselves in serious disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous parts of society, including in terms of life expectancy, basic health, education, unemployment, incarceration, children placed under care and protection orders, and access to basic services.

Given these disparities, the Government has developed and implemented a number of important initiatives in order to "close the gap" of indigenous disadvantage within a wide range of social and economic areas, with a stated emphasis on women and children, and these programmes must continue to be improved and strengthened. I would also like to stress that I have learned of numerous programmes in place by indigenous authorities and organisations at the local, regional and national levels that have been working effectively to address the many problems that their communities face.

Aspects of the Government's initiatives to remedy situations of indigenous disadvantage, however, raise concerns. Of particular concern is the Northern Territory Emergency Response, which by the Government's own account is an extraordinary measure, especially in its income management regime, imposition of compulsory leases, and community-wide bans on alcohol consumption and pornography. These measures overtly discriminate against aboriginal peoples, infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already stigmatized communities.

I would like to stress that affirmative measures by the Government to address the extreme disadvantage faced by indigenous peoples and issues of safety for children and women are not only justified, but they are in fact required under Australia's international human rights obligations. However, any such measure must be devised and carried out with due regard of the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to be free from racial discrimination and indignity.

In this connection, any special measure that infringes on the basic rights of indigenous peoples must be narrowly tailored, proportional, and necessary to achieve the legitimate objectives being pursued. In my view, the Northern Territory Emergency Response is not. In my opinion, as currently configured and carried out, the Emergency Response is incompatible with Australia's obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, treaties to which Australia is a party, as well as incompatible with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Australia has affirmed its support.

I note with satisfaction that a process to reform the Emergency Response is currently underway and that the Government has initiated consultations with indigenous groups in the Northern Territory in this connection. I hope that amendments to the Emergency Response will diminish or remove its discriminatory aspects and adequately take into account the rights of aboriginal peoples to self determination and culture integrity, in order to bring this Government initiative in line with Australia's international obligations. Furthermore, I urge the Government to act swiftly to reinstate the protections of the Racial Discrimination Act in regard to the indigenous peoples of the Northern Territory.

Beyond the matter of the Northern Territory Emergency Response, I am concerned that there is a need to incorporate into government programmes a more holistic approach to addressing indigenous disadvantage across the country, one that is compatible with the objective of the United Nations Declaration of securing for indigenous peoples, not just social and economic wellbeing, but also the integrity of indigenous communities and cultures, and their self-determination.

This approach must involve a real partnership between the Government and the indigenous peoples of Australia, to move towards a future, as described by Prime Minister Rudd in his apology to indigenous peoples last year, that is "based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility," and that is also fully respectful of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples to maintain their distinct cultural identities, languages, and connections with traditional lands, and to be in control of their own destinies under conditions of equality.

Given what I have learned thus far, it would seem to me that the objectives of the closing the gap campaign, the Emergency Response, and other current initiatives and proposed efforts of the Government will be best achieved in partnership with indigenous peoples' own institutions and decision-making bodies, which are those that are most familiar with the local situations. It is worth stressing that during my visit, I have observed numerous successful indigenous programmes already in place to address issues of alcoholism, domestic violence, health, education, and other areas of concern, in ways that are culturally appropriate and adapted to local needs, and these efforts need to be included in and supported by the Government response, both logistically and financially. In particular, it is essential to provide continued funding to programmes that have already demonstrated achievements.

I did observe a number of Government partnerships with local initiatives that appear to be succeeding, but I also heard many accounts of situations in which Government programmes fail to take into account existing local programmes already in place, hampering their ultimate success. In this connection, I am concerned about any initiatives that duplicate or replace the programmes of Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders already in place, or that undermine local decision-making through indigenous peoples' own institutions. In addition, international human rights norms, including those contained in the United Nations Declaration, affirmatively guarantee the right of indigenous peoples to participate fully at all levels of decision-making in matters which may affect their rights, lives and destinies, as well as to maintain and develop their own decision-making institutions and programmes. Further, adequate options and alternatives for socio-economic development and violence prevention programmes should be developed in full consultation with affected indigenous communities and organisations.

It is also necessary to ensure the meaningful, direct participation of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples in the design of programmes and policies at the national level, within a forum that is genuinely representative of the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. In this regard, I welcome the initiative that is supported by the Government to move towards development of a model for a new national indigenous representative body and emphasise that indigenous participation in the development of this body is fundamental.

At the same time, I would like to echo the statements I have heard from indigenous leaders of the need for indigenous peoples themselves to continue to strengthen their own organisational and local governance capacity, in order to meet the challenges faced by their communities, and in this connection I note the importance of restoring or building strong and healthy relationships within families and communities.

I would also note a need to move deliberately to adopt genuine reconciliation measures, such as the proposed recognition of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples in a charter of rights to be included in the Constitution. I am pleased that the Government has expressed its willingness in this regard, and I urge it to provide a high priority to this initiative. As has been stressed to me by the indigenous representatives with whom I have met, constitutional recognition and protection of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples would provide a measure of long-term security for these rights, and provide an important building block for reconciliation and a future of harmonious relations between indigenous and non-indigenous parts of Australian society.

Furthermore, it is important to note that securing the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands is of central importance to indigenous peoples' socio-economic development, self-determination, and cultural integrity. Continued efforts to resolve, clarify, and strengthen the protection of indigenous lands and resources should be made. In this regard, government initiatives to address the housing needs of indigenous peoples, should avoid imposing leasing or other arrangements that would undermine indigenous peoples' control over their lands. I also urge the Government to comply with the recommendations concerning indigenous lands and resources made by the treaty-monitoring bodies of the United Nations, including the recommendation of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to advance in discussions with Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders about possible amendments to the Native Title Act and finding solutions acceptable to all.

Finally, I would like to reiterate the importance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for framing and evaluating legislation, policies, and actions that affect the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples. The Declaration expresses the global consensus on the rights of indigenous peoples and corresponding state obligations on the basis of universal human rights. I recommend that the Government undertake a comprehensive review of all its legislation, policies, and programmes that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in light of the Declaration.

UNiTAB, please explain! If punters cannot win they shouldn't risk a loss.

While many readers may have thought, "silly b*gger!" when they read about the betting agency operator who plunged $50,100 on a panlicker at the Ballarat greyhounds on Wednesday night, a few very fortunate punters are thanking their lucky stars.

Race 4 on the Ballarat greys' program was nothing out of the ordinary. It was The Lion Quality Products Stakes over 650 metres for 4th and gth graders.

A strange chain of events started when a mug punter bet $100 with a corporate bookie on Sweet Keeping which was starting from box 3. Rather than carry the bet, the bookie decided to "invest" it on the tote with UNiTAB where the dog was paying a very attractive $9.80 for the win. But, rather than punch in $50 and then replace it with $100, the bookie found himself holding a ticket that said "$51000 for the Win on Dog Number 3".

You don't need to be told the punch line, but here it is anyway. The dog ran second ... that's right, second ... it didn't get the chocolates.

Prior to the bookie's foray into the race's betting UNiTAB was holding about $2000 in its win pool. When the dogs started the pool had swollen to a miraculous $53216. The winner of the race, Rocks Back, paid $44 on UNiTAB. The lucky few punters who dabbled on the winner are still smiling.

To put things into perspective, the winner paid $2.30 on the TAB in NSW and $2.80 in Victoria.

But, the story doesn't end there. IF, and that's a mighty big IF, Sweet Keeping had won the race winning punters on UNiTAB would have queued up and received their money back. Punters betting with the TAB in NSW stood to collect $3.80, while in Victoria they would have collected $6.

UNiTAB has a policy of paying only $1 (money back) when a runner is very heavily supported and is carrying most of the pool money.

That's not right! Punters stood to lose (and they did) but they didn't have any prospects of getting anything more than their money back if they had won.

There should be a law against this!

How's this for a suggestion?
When punters don't stand a chance of getting anything more than their money back if their selection should win, then they ought to have it refunded irrespective of whether it wins or runs stone-motherless-last.

And to think that some people think he's premier material. They have to be joking.

NSW Minister for Health John Della Bosca just doesn't get it.

Della Bosca visited Lismore on Thursday and announced 11 new positions for the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS). Yes, that's right, e-l-e-v-e-n, 11 positions. No, he hasn't been misreported.

What a hide the bloke has! He has more hide than Jessie the elephant.

Sorry, John, but northern NSW doesn't need any more sick attempts at comedy by persons supposedly responsible for at least maintaining if not improving public health services in that neck of the woods.

Only nine months ago, and under the stewardship of the NSW Ministry of Health, the NCAHS embarked on a program to slash 400 full time equivalent positions from the region's health services.

Ironically, NSW Health has just released a media statement titled Caring Together for Lismore Base Hospital to announce that recruitment is under way for the clinical support officers and pharmacists at Lismore Base Hospital.

And who is the Health Department's first lieutenant on the ground in northern NSW? It's none other than Chris Crawford (pictured below).


Crawford, NCAHS's CEO, has wielded a big stick as he has gone about the demolition job that's being done on local health services. Truly, listening to the bloke on local radio as he goes about attempting to defend the cuts to health services is enough to make you sick.

And where is the NSW Opposition? What does it have to say about what's going on in relation to this sorry saga involving north coast health services?

Sadly, the Opposition is AWOL - there's not a bleep on the radar to indicate that lot is in tune with public sentiment that's running red-hot on this important issue.

It's not as if the Opposition isn't at least faintly aware of the fiasco. One of its front benchers probably hears a bit about it over the breakfast table.

The shadow minister for climate change and environmental sustainability, Catherine Cusack (pictured below), is married to Crawford.

Perhaps Ms Cusack and the current shadow minister for health Jillian Skinner should swap jobs.

Daily Examiner editor leaves the building: don't slam the door on the way out

When Peter Chapman took over as The Daily Examiner editor little was known of him locally in the Clarence Valley except that he hailed from other climes in recent years, was a former television sports commentator and had been rapped over the knuckles by an ABC TV Media Watch program in the 1990s.

I think I can safely say that a number of residents looked forward to having a new editorial voice at the helm of their only local daily newspaper on the grounds that a change was as good as a holiday.

So at first some Daily Examiner readers were puzzled by the odd discordant notes hit by Chapman in his early articles and comments.

Puzzlement quickly turned to something close to outrage in certain quarters, as those odd notes turned into frequent reports and opinion pieces which attempted to either demonise and marginalise segments of the Valley community or blatantly bag various small towns, villages and community facilities.
While an increasing number of so called news reports, whose raison être seems to have been advertising goods or services, tried the patience of many.

What wasn't widely known at the time was the fact that Chapman was using an APN News and Media running sheet benignly called Readers First. [APN version Ewart version Press Council version]

This publishing philosophy calls on editors and journalists to report news which is more responsive to and reflective of the needs and interests of a newspaper's readership, to make advertising an important part of the editorial/news team and have journalists give a less detached account of events or embed themselves in their stories.

However, in Chapman's rather clumsy hands this meant that The Daily Examiner abandoned editorials, began to pander to perceived community bias and prejudice, published blatant advertorials and allowed hearsay or downright gossip to form the basis of a significant part of the news in some issues (with a tinge of racial profiling or chauvinism often thrown in for good measure).

The Clarence Valley reacted in various ways - by simply shrugging shoulders as they turned the page, challenging the editor in the letters column, phoning him directly to refute some of his more outrageous assertions, complaining to senior management, contacting watchdogs, stopping any engagement with the newspaper or laughing outright at claims that newspaper circulation was rising rapidly rather than merely marking time as it has done since the turn of the century.

It was noticeable that some of the goodwill garnered by the 150 year-old newspaper was being needlessly dissipated under the Chapman editorship, but a few locals still tried to support this North Coast icon with news tips even when personal irritation levels were high and rising higher.

After less than fifteen months as editor Peter Chapman officially left The Daily Examiner this week as far as I can tell.
He is heading back to Queensland to take up the position of editor at yet another APN masthead, the Fraser Coast Chronicle.

When Telstra upsets a journalist......

The Daily Examiner, 24 August 2009
Click on image to enlarge

Not only in print but online goes the complaint when Telstra can't get its billing right and then charges for the bungle:

But the really galling part of this is that Telstra, having had us jump through hoops, is going to bill us for the privilege of paying our bill. It is sick.
I believe this move started months ago when Telstra sent me a beautifully crafted letter saying how kind it was of them to change their billing period from three months to one. We were quite happy with the three monthly billing and had no choice about the change.
So now we are being billed monthly and being charged $2 a shot to pay the bill over the counter or a percentage of the bill if we pay electronically.
Someone said to me over the weekend it was like a shop advertising an item for $100 but when you went to pay for it you had to fork out an extra $2 for the privilege.
Maybe if enough people complain about this unfair imposition the giant might be forced to change.

In the national media Telstra fares slightly better as it is reported that Telstra post-Truijillo is a much more customer friendly place and, elsewhere that complaints have leveled off (rather confusingly citing that in 2007-08 Telstra received 19,364 customer complaints).

One has to suspect that hard-pressed metropolitan journalists haven't gone much further than the media releases.

According to the Telecommuncations Industry Ombudman's own report, between January and June this year Telstra recorded a total of 62,541 complaints (37.3% of all telco complaints issues), with some recorded along these lines:

You will see in the pages of notes I’ve taken over 4 months that I have made hundreds of calls and spoken to approximately 70 customer service representatives. On one occasion, I was
on the phone to different departments from 9.30am until after 5pm. But to this day we still do not have the landline service that is so paramount, given our child’s situation. I have received conflicting information from Telstra’s representatives. Conversations have ranged from, ‘That staff member is not trained appropriately…’ ‘They shouldn’t have told you that…’ ‘Why
did they do that?’ to comments such as, ‘Don’t panic, there is no reason why we can’t connect you today.’ At one stage I was on a conference call with two Telstra staff from two different
departments, both disagreeing about the information they were giving me.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's January-June 2009 public report on Australian telecommunications companies here.

It appears that Telstra is not the only telco which still has a long way to go in balancing service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Hartsuyker gets negative press in his own Cowper electorate

Apparently the Nats are really getting desperate over their lack of relevance and absence of policy impact.
Federal Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker literally resorted to megaphoning his message to the Rudd Government last Tuesday.
Which put a number of his constitients offside, as well as apparently offending the mayors of two local goverment areas who had undertaken coordinated lobbying on behalf of February-March 2009 flood victims in the Coffs and Belligen districts.
It seems that The Coffs Coast Advocate readers are swinging away from Hartsuyker as well.
When I last looked Luke was polling badly when it came down to this local issue.

Snapshot from The Coffs Coast Advocate 27th August 2009