The Liberal Party of Australia now a dying duck

Listening to the Liberal Party's new leader Brendan Nelson on ABC News Radio yesterday, I heard a man's fumbling attempt to use pop psychology to feebly defend his rejection of a Commonwealth Government formal apology to the Stolen Generation.

A big mistake. A huge mistake. A monumental mistake.

Nelson and his party are welded to the past, cannot reconnect with ordinary Australians and are fast dwindling into insignificance.

Even a leadership challenge will not save these political troglodytes. Dying ducks one and all.

hen house thoughts

I was over in the hen house talking to the chooks as I cleaned the roosts and nest boxes.

There were only a few still in the yard the rest were out chasing grasshoppers.

The gang of five were planning their next attack on my vegie garden, I saw a couple head of to the house verandas where they sit on the chairs and listen to the radio (they prefer ABC Classics Radio).

I hope I remembered to shut the house doors. If not they will be inside on the lounge or in the kitchen checking out the compost bucket.

The hens with me in the roosts were the tribal elders; if they were human they would have received the telegram from the Queen years ago. These girls don't travel very far from their home now, they are quite dignified in their movements no flapping and squawking for these old birds.

I babbled on about global warming, explaining to them that if the worst case scenario came to pass we will be sitting on beach front property with large areas of the Clarence Valley water logged and what that would mean for the people who live there.

They listened politely adding a few muted clucks while inspecting my cleaning efforts, then got busy arranging the new nest bedding.

As I walked back to the house I thought that the hens had the right idea, it is no use worrying about what you can't change.

You do what you can and clean up your local chook yard and pressure those in power to take their share of responsibility, all the while remembering the way you decide to live your life has a direct impact on our environment and therefore the planet.

Let's all eat whale!

The Japan Whaling Association newsletter Isana features a whale recipe page.

The latest issue recommends a whale pot dish.

Like much of the newsletter's contents, the recipe page begins with a little crude propaganda.

 

"Boiled "une" (whale ventral grooves) and "mizuna" (a green vegetable) with a little salt and whale meat sashimi with a lot of grated ginger are two of the regular menus at my home. In Kokura, Kita-Kyushu, western Japan, where I live, whales are popular food. Although I sometimes sigh over the high prices of whale meat after the commercial whaling moratorium was enforced, it is still readily available at stores. In my neighborhood, there are many fish shops that deal in whale meat. In the Tanga Market in downtown Kokura, there are two stores specializing in whale meat. Up until quite recently, there were whale-specialized stores in every market in Kita-Kyushu, and they were thriving. Why are there so many people who like whale meat in northern Kyushu?"

Isana December 2007 issue:

http://www.whaling.jp/english/isana/no34_02.html

Liberals still can't get their tongues around the 'S' word

Liberal Party Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, is urging the Rudd Government to go slow on the planned apology to the indigenous Stolen Generation.

Apparently Mr. Nelson doesn't relish the thought that he might be faced with a decision on whether or not to support a formal apology when Federal Parliament resumes in February.

 

"Whatever the attitude of Australians towards this generation, apologising for things that were done by earlier generations, you've really got to ask yourself whether this is a high priority for the Australian Parliament," he said.

The Australian article yesterday:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23121309-601,00.html

 

In the same issue of The Australian Tony Abbott, the Liberals new indigenous affairs spokesperson, echoes former PM John Howard's double talk on saying sorry.

 

"Well, this whole question of a formal apology, I think the proponents, no less than the opponents, are getting hung up on semantics,'' Mr Abbott said last year.

"Because, let's face it, back in 1999 the parliament unanimously carried a resolution of profound and sincere regret about the various mistakes that had been made in terms of indigenous policy over the years.

"So who is playing word games here? This apology ... I would like to see precisely what words the incoming Government is proposing, because finding a form of words that is acceptable to everyone is going to be an extraordinarily difficult business."

 

While that old Liberal headkicker, Wilson Tuckey, objects to even allowing Australia's traditional owners to dance at the opening of Parliament.

 

"Mr Tuckey has criticised reports traditional owners will dance at the opening of Federal Parliament next month, when it is speculated the Federal Government may make a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.

Mr Tuckey says it is not what Parliament is for.

"I'm horrified and concerned that we're going to turn the Parliament of Australia into a dance parlour," he said."

ABC News yesterday:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/28/2148258.htm?section=australia

 

I for one think that the 'S' word is long overdue. One has to admire the resilience of indigenous communities across Australia and on the NSW North Coast - they survived every misguided attempt at assimilation and retain their dignity and culture in the face of enormous social and economic disadvantage.

Not only do I support a formal Federal Government apology, I would also support a national compensation scheme.

As for Wilson Tuckey - this MP should be taken to task by his leader.

What will the the Prime Minister and Cabinet do about their carbon footprints?

In the first year of the Rudd Government the Prime Minister and his senior ministers will rack up quite a few hours in air and road travel.

Perhaps they should all give some thought to how they're going to offset the amount of greenhouse gas these trips will produce.

Leading by example is something I expect from this new Labor government.

Talking the talk has to be followed by walking the walk on global warming if they expect the rest of us to follow.

Rudd Government must address the way Australian schools are funded

The independent Australian Council on Educational Research (ACER) recently released a report Australia's School Funding System.

This report highlights ongoing problems with Commonwealth criteria for school funding.

If Kevin Rudd intends an education revolution over the next four years he cannot avoid this issue of disproportionate funding favouring private schools.

 

"This does not mean the Commonwealth

is giving less money to government schools but

rather that its funding to non-government schools

may be disproportionate to that sector's needs.20

To summarise, "average" school costs are increasingly

problematic as a means of determining adequate

funds to educate real students. Both government

and non-government schools are receiving funding

based on an "average" student even though nongovernment

schools may be recruiting a student

body with below average costs. On the other hand,

government schools appear to have an increasingly

expensive student body.

Other issues include that:

a) The system does not actually measure a

school's resources and in fact ignores a school's

capacity to generate its own income through

fees, investments, donations and fundraising in

measuring need (the stated rationale from the

Commonwealth is that to reduce funding for

schools that exceed a limit on private income

would act as a disincentive to private efforts to

raise funds).

b) The local community's SES may not reflect the

individual student's SES in a particular nongovernment

school. Some students may come

from the wealthiest home in a disadvantaged

area. Barry McGaw has recently described this

phenomenon as "relatively advantaged students

from disadvantaged communities carry[ing]

with them to a non-government school a

government voucher based on the students they

leave behind in their communities" (2007).

c) Although a formula, the SES system is not

applied consistently with scope for compromise

arrangements to alter the formula. As mentioned

above, in 2005, over half of non-government

schools received an adjusted amount because

the strict application of their SES score would

have resulted in less funding."

Full ACER report:

 http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PolicyBriefs_Dowling07.pdf

Telstra's Next G being tested by NSW North Coast resident

"Telstra raised Mr Cameron's hackles when it started telling people they'd have to switch networks fast or lose their phone number.-------Mr Cameron said he had just got a Next G handset from Telstra, which he planned to compare with his CDMA handset. He had selected 35 'marginal' locations around Goonengerry, Coopers Creek, Federal, Eureka and between Eureka and Lismore, where he gets coverage on his CDMA phone.

He had tested each location by calling his home and leaving a message on his answering machine describing the location, the time of day and the weather conditions. The next step would be to go through the same process with his new Next G phone.

"However, even if he could get clear messages through to his home phone, most of the new network's features would be wasted in the bush.

"It's really starting to annoy me," he said. "Even if we get to the point where Next G can be said to be as good as CDMA, there's still questions of why we have to go to it.

"Because of the enhanced applications, the video calls and rapid downloads, even if we can get it as good as CDMA we won't get the speed or consistency of coverage for those enhanced functions; so we're having to pay for a new $500 phone to get the same phone coverage as we had before."

Telstra, at the request of Mr Conroy, has set up a 1800 number to answer questions about the new network and the axing of the old one."

The Northern Star article last Sunday:

http://www.northernstar.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3762013&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=