New Labor Senator for Victoria Kimberly Kitching - who is she?

This is newly appointed Senator for Victoria Kimberly Kitching in her own words on 23 August 2014:

“I speak 4 languages. I have tertiary qualifications, including a law degree.

I have been admitted as a Solicitor to the Supreme Court of Queensland. 

I have been elected as a Councillor of the City of Melbourne, a Corporation that at that time had a budget of approximately $300 million.

I have worked as a Senior Advisor to the Minister for Industry and Trade, Major Projects and Information and Communications Technology; and as a Senior Advisor to the Treasurer of Victoria who with the Premier and other members of the Expenditure Review Committee sets (at that time) a $45 billion State Budget (FY09- 10).

I have been employed in private enterprise: I was an employee at LookSmart, a technology company that went on to list on the NASDAQ, and was involved in the first tranche of its capital raising; I have also been employed at Drake International, the largest privately owned human resources company globally and was responsible for their Government and Corporate Relations, and for strategic human resources advice for clients.

I have been a Director on several boards, and have been a Vice President and Trustee of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party.

In late 2012 I was studying for the entrance exam to participate in the Victorian Bar Readers' Course.”

A fairly impressive resume.

The problem for the federal Labor Party is those words are taken from the first of two witness statements tendered to the Abbott Government’s notorious  Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption in which Kitching was giving evidence concerning her time as General Manager in the equally notorious Victoria No.1 Branch of the Health Services Union. [See here and here]

Her husband past president of Melbourne University Student Union and former political blogger, Andrew Landeryou, is not necessarily seen by all as an asset to her new career in the Senate – having been associated with the health union's past power struggles and then arrested in St. Kilda at 2.40am on the morning of the July 2016 federal election for allegedly vandalising Greens and Liberal polling material at multiple polling stations from Elwood to Port Melbourne, and allegedly driving at volunteers who tried to stop them.

Already a couple of media commentators are characterising Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s endorsement of Kimberly Kitching as either “courageous” or “brave” – either way it is not meant as a compliment to Mr. Shorten’s judgment.

* Image found at @kimbakit

Quote of the Week

"Although I'd hoped he could have risen to the occasion, it's clear [he ] is unwilling or unable to demonstrate even the most basic level of discipline, character and judgement necessary to lead our great nation. He is unsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit to be president of the United States and I am withdrawing my support for him." [Former Minnesota Governor and member of the Republican Party Tim Pawlenty on the subject of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Washington Examiner, 8 October 2016]

NSW Parliament Upper House sends U.S. presidential candidate Donald J. Trump a message - you're a 'a revolting slug' unfit for public office

Notice of Motion published in NSW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL NOTICE PAPER No. 79 for Thursday, 13 October 2016:

The House agreed to the motion at 10:04am on 13 October 2016 and it was duly recorded in NSW Hansard.

It was passed without objection or need for formal vote.

Even after all these years is male bias still affecting women's chances of surviving heart disease?

It has been known for many years that there are differences in how symptoms of heart disease present in male and female patients, yet it appears that this knowledge is still not translating into better health management practices when assessing and treating women with cardiovascular disease and heart failure.

Excerpts from Australian Catholic University, Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Hidden Hearts: Cardiovascular Risk and Disease in Australian Women, September 2016:

* Executive summary/Key findings

In the absence of a true appreciation of the burden and impact of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among Australian women, coupled with a lack of consistent, Australia-wide data, we compiled this report. Using the best available information, we reveal a number of key figures that should concern all Australians:

The five most common forms of CVD are highly prevalent in Australian women aged 35 years and over with 410,000, 177,000 and 162,000 affected by coronary artery disease (CAD), the form of heart failure (HF) most commonly linked to CAD and atrial fibrillation (AF), respectively.

An additional minimum of 90,000 and 30,000 women are hospitalised due to stroke and peripheral artery disease (PAD), each year. In 2016, 21,000, 14,000, 19,000, 12,000 and 3,000 Australian women will have suffered their first hospital admissions with CAD, HF, AF, stroke and PAD, respectively – see Figure 1.

Tragically, approximately 3,400 Australian women each year will suffer a sudden and fatal cardiac event without ever reaching hospital. Every year, these five conditions provoke a minimum of 260,000 (CAD), 73,000 (HF), 122,000 (AF), 90,000 (stroke) and 30,000 (PAD) hospital admissions among Australian women – see Figure 1.

Even with hospital treatment all forms of CVD are deadly and disabling with one in nine (2,200) women admitted for the first time with CAD dead within 28-days, and more than one third admitted for the first time with HF or stroke dead within 12 months.

The annual estimated cost of hospital care for the most common forms of CVD among Australian women alone is more than $3 billion. Within an ageing population in whom levels of most risk factors are at historically high levels, the burden of CVD among Australian women is set to increase for the foreseeable future.

There is still much to be learned in best preventing and treating CVD in Australian women; particularly in vulnerable individuals/communities.

*

* It is well recognised that the natural history and profile of women with CVD are typically different from their male counterparts.

Current management guidelines reflect a male bias due to the poor representation of women in clinical trials of new therapies.

Women are more likely to display dose-related adverse drug events from CVD pharmacotherapies due to smaller body size, higher body fat, different

metabolism and more kidney dysfunction.

Disparity also exists in cardiac rehabilitation with women failing to attend more often than men in addition to clinicians tending to refer men more frequently.

* Evidence-based management for most forms of CVD are based on clinical trials that have a higher proportion of younger men and/or less complex cases.

* CVD disproportionately affects the Indigenous peoples of Australian and in particular Indigenous women who develop and die from CVD at a much younger age.

* CVD represents an enormous health issue for Australian women. It requires a dedicated response, from the community to governments to minimise already high rates of highly preventable cardiovascular events.

Women living in the Northern Rivers region should note that in 2010-2011, the leading cause of death in the Northern NSW Local Health District  was circulatory disease (which includes cardiovascular disease), which was significantly higher than for all NSW - 193/100,000 compared to 167/100,000 according to the December 2015 health fact sheet produced by the NSW North Coast Public Health Unit.

Australian Attorney-General & Liberal Party Senator George Brandis vs independent Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth Justin Gleeson: who has the most to hide?

The marked difference in degree of redaction in copies of the same official letter, submitted by both Australian Attorney-General & Liberal Party Senator  George Brandis and Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth Justin Gleeson to the Senate Inquiry into the Nature and scope of the consultations prior to the making of the Legal Services Amendment (Solicitor-General Opinions) Direction 2016, raises a strong suspicion that Brandis is attempting to massage the truth and has something to hide……

Australian Attorney-General George Brandis v Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson - SIDE by SIDE by clarencegirl on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/327282899/Australian-Attorney-General-George-Brandis-v-Solicitor-General-Justin-Gleeson-SIDE-by-SIDE

 BACKGROUND

See: http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/australias-two-most-senior-legal.html

Australians continue to increase data consumption in 2016

Australian Government Dept. of Communications and the Arts, media release, 7 October 2016:

Australian Internet activity statistics – June 2016

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the Internet Activity, Australia, June 2016 (cat no 8153.0).

This release presents key indicators on the use of the internet by business, government, and households, as collected from the Internet Activity Survey conducted in respect of the three months ended 30 June 2016. 

Fast facts include (year-on-year represents June 2016 compared to June 2015):

Internet subscriber numbers pushed past 13 million, with a year-on-year increase of 4 per cent to 13.3 million

While there was an almost 130 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of fibre based subscriptions, subscription numbers across other access types remained relatively stable both year-on-year and from the quarter ended December 2015.

Data downloaded via mobile handsets continues to grow rapidly, with a 34 per cent increase from the December quarter and a 69 per cent increase year-on-year.

Data consumption continues to grow, with 2.1 million terabytes downloaded in the three months ended 30 June 2016. There was 51 per cent growth for total data downloaded year-on-year.

See the ABS website for detailed data on the release: 8153.0 - Internet Activity.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8153.0/

Multinational gas and petroleum giant BP withdraws from offshore exploration in the Great Australian Bight - for now.

Multinational gas and petroleum giant BP plc (British Petroleum) operating as BP Developments Australia Pty Ltd (BP), in its capacity as operator of the proposed Great Australian Bight (GAB) Exploration Drilling Program has announced that:

We have looked long and hard at our exploration plans for the Great Australian Bight but, in the current external environment, we will only pursue frontier exploration opportunities if they are competitive and aligned to our strategic goals. After extensive and careful consideration, this has proven not to be the case for our project to explore in the Bight.

Concerned citizens and environmental groups can see this as a win – even if business economics and the risk profile for mega storm in the Great Australian Bight may have had a much to do with this decision as the strength of community opposition.

However, it should be noted that BP does not appear to be abandoning its offshore petroleum exploration leases in the GAB which don’t expire until 2020* and, this multinational is not the only oil and gas corporation with exploration licenses in the area - Santos, Chevron and Murphy Australia Oil received exploration permits in 2013-2015 which are current until 2020-2021, Karoon Gas has a permit current until 2022, joining a Bight Petroleum Pty Ltd presence there not due to end until 2020-21.

Petroleum exploration leases current in GAB in 2016

Nor has the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) indicated that it is averse to further mining exploration being undertaken in the Great Australian Bight.

* BP had guaranteed to undertake exploration worth about $605 million and drill four exploration wells in 2016-17 and under a “Good Standing Agreement” entered into with the federal government it is reportedly liable for that amount unless it commits to a new project within Australia or its Norwegian joint venture partner StatOil decides to exercise an option to proceed with the GAB exploration program.