Cows & Cows & Cows

Credits: Thanks Steve Bass of TechBite for the tip on this one. 

Original work by Cyriak Harris

Coffs Coast Advocate needs a compass

Wednesday's Coffs Coast Advocate carried a report about an incident where a motorist fled the scene of a crash near Grafton.

According to the Advocate the incident was at Clarenza, west of Grafton.

Wrong, wrong wrong!

Clarenza is east of Grafton.

Looks like a compass is sorely needed at the Advocate.

Here's a suggestion: the Advocate could run a "Wanted" ad in its classifieds section. One of its readers must have a spare compass that could be given to the paper in exchange for a free subscription.

Read the Advocate's piece, written by Matt Deans, here.

Credit: Map from Google maps

Results of Fair Trading checks in Grafton, Maclean and Yamba

Fair Trading Deputy Commissioner Steve Griffin today released the results of a recent NSW Fair Trading education and compliance campaign in Grafton, Maclean and Yamba.

Mr Griffin said results from the week long campaign showed some local traders needed to improve their compliance with Fair Trading laws.

“Between 9 to 13 August, 59 businesses were visited and Fair Trading officers carried out a range of compliance inspections, including checking licensing at motor dealers, motor vehicle repairers, travel agents, pawn brokers and second hand dealers, as well as checking business names,” he said.

“In total, 34 breaches were detected and 26 inspection reports issued.

“Notably, the level of compliance by motor dealers was disappointing, with only three out of seven traders compliant.

“A motor dealer in Yamba received two penalty notices totalling $660 for failing to have a prescribed notice signed by a customer and for not having the prescribed form attached to the vehicle.

“Another motor dealer in Maclean received a $330 penalty notice for misrepresenting a vehicle’s year of manufacture.”

Mr Griffin said local businesses and traders benefited from attending presentations focused on their areas of activities, as well as visits to their premises.

“Fair Trading staff delivered 11 information sessions attended by 360 participants, on topics including: associations, tenancy, motor vehicles and general fair trading information,” he said.

“Members of the local indigenous community participated in a Kooris and Cars presentation delivered jointly with the Roads and Traffic Authority.

“Seventy five year 9 and 10 commerce students from Maclean High School took part in a Money Stuff program where they learnt about refunds and warranties, credit and mobile phones.”

Mr Griffin said Fair Trading staff distributed 100 Seniors Guides (in PDF format: size 1.57Mb) to Maclean Meals on Wheels and more than 150 product safety kits to local pre-schools and day care centres.

“As a result of the visit, local consumers are now more aware of their rights and where to go for information and help,” he said.

Source: NSW Fair Trading

The wheel of the Australian Press Council grinds slowly but it does grind

A statistic which does not generate local pride. Out of the twenty-nine complaints adjudicated by the Press Council of Australia so far this year, NSW North Coast newspapers have featured twice.

February 2010:

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint by SANE Australia against a bylined article and two pictures in the weekend edition of The Tweed Daily News of August 22-23, 2009......
While there was a clear public interest in the publication of the report about a missing man, and the search for him, there was no justification for the publication of the photos in a form that clearly identified the man and did not adequately respect his privacy and sensibilities. Because it knew a mental health assessment was being made, the newspaper should have been more cautious in the way it treated the incident, including publication of the bylined article, which could have been written more sensitively.

March 2010:

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint by Douglas Baggaley against The Northern Star, Lismore, over an article arising from the funeral of his mother.
The December 30 article, headed Baggaleys miss Byron funeral of grandmother, reported that her two grandsons who were in jail did not attend. Half the article detailed the convictions of the grandsons for crimes committed in 2007.
Mr Baggaley said that the article belittled his family at a time of deep loss and had outraged and insulted the family, their friends and the community. He demanded an apology from the newspaper......
However the Council believes the newspaper erred in gratuitously highlighting the grandsons and their criminal records at such length and in such detail that the article was clearly unbalanced and, as a result, unduly offensive to the family, in a time of grief. The newspaper's failure to print any public expression of regret exacerbated the offence.

Telstra says it's time to move on......

In good ol' Granny Herald last Wednesday:
"TELSTRA boss David Thodey says the telecommunications company is becoming impatient with delays in finalising its deal with the national broadband network.
Mr Thodey said 18 months after the NBN project was unveiled, it was important for the country, and for Telstra, to finish the regulatory work and pass implementing legislation.
''We need to move on,'' he told reporters in Hobart yesterday."
Well young Dave knows quite a bit about moving on - just ask the 180 people in the Clarence Valley who will be losing their jobs when he closes down Telstra's call centre in Grafton.
I've stuck with Telstra through thick and thin - through numerous name changes, decreased services, increased billing charges, partial privatization and Teh Three Amigos.
But taking away that many jobs in one hit in one NSW North Coast town? It'll be Telstra which will be moving on from my house.
Any one got the Optus number handy?

Boosting the Speaker's power in the House of Representatives

The following statement may or may not be correct as to the constitutional validity of 'pairing' the Speaker of the House of Representatives, however I remain uncomfortable with the notion of the Speaker having anything but the casting vote set out in The Australian Constitution Part III s40 Voting in House of Representatives.

In one scenario predicated on the statement below:
Pairing the Speaker would nullify the vote of another member of parliament and if a deadlock was the result of such a pairing the Speaker is required to deliver a casting vote - in effect the Speaker's position would be expressed twice in this instance while all other MPs (except the paired MP who would have no vote) would have only been able to express their position once in the same division of the House.

ADVICE ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PAIRING ARRANGEMENT OF THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

22 September 2010

The Government has today been provided with advice by the Commonwealth Solicitor-General on a question pertaining to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Forty-third Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.

The advice considers whether there is any constitutional impediment to a pairing arrangement between the Speaker of the House of Representatives and another member from an opposing political party. The advice deals with a possible arrangement involving a pairing of members from opposing parties.

The Solicitor-General has advised that there are no necessary constitutional impediments in such an arrangement, subject to certain provisos.

One proviso is that the arrangement could not give the Speaker a deliberative vote nor deprive the Speaker of a casting vote. The arrangement entered into by the Government and the Opposition does not breach this proviso, as the Speaker would continue to exercise a casting vote only, consistent with the Commonwealth Constitution.

A further proviso is that adherence to the arrangement by the "paired" Member could only be voluntary. The pairing arrangements agreed to by both the Government and the Opposition are voluntary.

The Government notes the Solicitor-General's advice that there is no necessary constitutional impediment to a pairing arrangement between the Speaker of the House of Representatives and another member from an opposing political party.

The Solicitor-General's advice has been provided to the Opposition.

The Gillard Government remains fully committed to the "Agreement for a Better Parliament: Parliamentary Reform" which was adopted on 6 September 2010.

Solicitor-General's advice In the matter of the Office of Speaker of the House of Representatives [PDF 285KB]

Who is Supertintendent Pieter Poynton APM (Ret) and why is he out there in cyberspace?

On International Sweep Day this week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) swept the Internet looking for sites which scam the young.

It seems the digital highway is littered with people pretending a position or occupation to which they are not entitled in the real world or dubiously offering goods and services they may not have the capacity to deliver.

However, not all misrepresentations out there in cyberspace are aimed at scamming money. Sometimes the motives are more complex.

The prevelance of individuals who pretend a military past has seen the formation of the Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors (ANZMI) website which appears to represent a group of irate individuals intent on exposing this form of fraud.

Of course military rank is not the only rank type assumed by the wannabe brigade. Just this week I was sent a link to one intriguing persona which has surfaced - a certain 'decorated' Superintendent Pieter Poynton APM (Retired).

I look forward to seeing how this latest phantom develops and how many online and print newspapers get taken in.