Cartoon found at Google Images
Tuesday 16 March 2010
The Ambitious Abbott: an authentic cunning opportunist who will say absolutely anything to get elected Australian Prime Minister
Cartoon found at Google Images
Is this an example of Rudd's future local health service delivery? GP Super Clinic causing stress in Grafton
No-one would deny that the 2007 Federal Labor general practice super clinic election promise was very welcome in the Clarence Valley. However, it has been a rather strange affair as reflected in The Daily Examiner letters to the editor columns over recent months, in light of the fact that this proposed clinic is a taxpayer-funded project though a $5 million federal capital grant for land purchase, building design, construction and equipment purchase.
One has to wonder why Rudd, Roxon and Dept of Health & Aging are allowing a private company Ochre Health (30 percent-owned by global investment bank Lazard through Lazard Carnegie & Wylie which in turn is connected with former Labor PM Keating) to set the agenda in this rather highhanded manner. After all, this clinic is supposed to provide another free health service as an adjunct to the public health/hospital system.
Even if it is apparently a joint venture agreement between Ochre and the Commonwealth, the company appears to outlay next to nothing and it will obviously be well-paid for any ongoing state-level service delivery if past contracts of over $1 million per annum are any indication and, the contracts Ochre usually has with its own doctors are based in part on expectations of the patient volume they attract with practitioners turning over to the company 40% of any Medicare bulk billing payment received.
It is understood that the property eventually reverts to Ochre ownership outright, which would mean that the land and building containing this conveyor-belt medical clinic would be able to be sold on for non-medical purposes in 2031 without penalty.
As the only consolation objecting neighbours have concerning this development is that it would provide a permanent super clinic for the local community, I wonder what they will think if any change of business type came to pass.
A brief history 29 January 2009 to 15 March 2010:
Super clinic site
Super clinic for Grafton 29 January 2009
Provider chosen to run GP super clinic 15 July 2009
Super Clinic site a secret 17 November 2009
Site announced for new GP super clinic 13 January 2010
No methadone for super clinic 23 February 2010
GP says support for local doctors needed 24 February 2010
Sth Grafton calls for medical clinic 11 March 2010
Reduced your petrol consumption and think you've covered your fossil fuel footprint? Think again
If you have made an effort to reduce your petrol consumption by limiting using the car for unnecessary or short journeys - more power to you.
However, the family car is not the only way a household consumes fossil fuels.
Yes, I hear you say - we have an oil heater and we sometimes travel by air.
But don't stop there. Start to count the myriad other ways fossil fuel products enter your home.
For instance, according to Planet Green, fossil fuel derivatives are found in:
Pillows. Aspirin. Ammonia. Toothpaste and toothbrushes. Guitar strings. Shoe polish. Tape. Rubbing Alcohol. Vitamin capsules. Solvents. Caulking. Insecticides. Deodorant. Glue. Pantyhose and other nylon products. Most chewing gums. Waxed paper and packaging. Paraffin-based candles. Many inks and crayons. Majority of hair dyes and hair shampoos. Plastic bags. Paint. Detergents. Shaving cream. Many bandages. Disposable nappies. Perfume. Insect repellents. Food wrap. Non-leather purses. Non-leather shoes/shoe soles. Rubber boots. Rubber bands. Shower curtains. Skin creams—hand lotions, facial products, etc. Mineral oil.
Now many of these products are indispensable in modern urban life but, by the same token, many also have non-disposable alternatives or natural equivalents. Perhaps it's time to try to eliminate just a few of these other petroleum products on the way to a lower fossil fuel footprint.
From the Canute Files.......
Last Friday NBN Television reported on Clarence Valley Council's attempt to turn back the coastal tides:
"The Clarence Valley Council is undertaking erosion control measures on the banks of the Clarence River at Iluka.$300,000 will be spent on the project which will involve additional sand being pumped onto a beach, riverbank stabilisation works and the construction of several boardwalks.
The work is expected to be completed by the end of the year."
Monday 15 March 2010
Science fights back at Universities Australia Climate Forum, Canberra 18 March 2010
Universities Australia is to be commended for encouraging the science community to respond to those barbarians noisily hammering at the gate.
Hopefully transcripts of forum speeches will be posted online for the wider dissemination.
From the Science In Public website:
Climate Change: bridging scientific knowledge and public policy
Thursday 18 March 2010
The Mural Hall, Parliament House, Canberra, 8.30am – 12.30pm
Universities Australia is the peak body of all Australia's universities and is committed to engaging with Parliament on issues of great national significance, and to informing social, political and commercial responses to those issues.
The UA Forum on Climate Change will focus both on the scientific evidence, and the certainties and uncertainties of that evidence, as well as the challenges of communicating the science and of bridging scientific knowledge and public policy.
The program will comprise three sessions each with a series of brief presentations covering:
Session 1: Climate change in Australia today – the evidence
Session 2: Australian research that reveals the future of climate change – certainties and uncertainties
Session 3: Responding to climate change: the social and economic impact
The speakers will include research leaders in climate science and the impacts of climate change including: Nathan Bindoff, Roger Jones, Amanda Lynch, Roger Stone, Snow Barlow, Marie Keatley, Janette Lindesay, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, and John Quiggin
Some of the issues that will be covered are:
- What are the signs of climate change in Australia today? What are the predictions?
- How are cities, agriculture and the environment responding?
- How well placed are we to adapt to our changing climate.
- What are the jobs and opportunities in responding effectively to climate change?
For more information visit www.scienceinpublic.com.au/blog/ua
For more information and to register please contact Niall Byrne, Science in Public Ph: 03 9398 1416, Mobile: 0417 131 977
Email: niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
Who's guarding the guards guarding your personal information?
Just as the Rudd Government has two bills before Parliament which would a) allow the Australian Taxation Office to hand secret taxpayer information to other government agencies to "prevent or lessen" a serious threat to public health or safety and b) establish a national database containing every citizen's personal residential and health information in the face of serious continuing doubts concerning data security and function creep, as well as intending to sanction the non-consensual handling of personal information to facilitate research in the public interest, not just for medical and health research, the Australian Law Reform Commission releases a series of recommendations which advise government to weaken criminal sanctions in certain circumstances for improperly disclosing information.
In the face of evidence that Medicare, Centrelink, the Tax Office and certain other government agencies all have a long history of spying on individual client records and that theft and sale of health information is not unknown internationally - do we really need to see criminal sanctions watered down for any form of unlawful information sharing?
Of course the principal motivation for establishing this national database is not just installing an e-Health program, it also appears to be a desire to create a backdoor citizen identification scheme similar to those proposed in relation to the Australia Card and Access Card, so this haphazard approach to the security of a citizen's personal digital information is perhaps par for the course.
ALRC media release on 11 March 2010:
The final report of the Australian Law Reform Commission's comprehensive review of Commonwealth secrecy laws, Secrecy Laws and Open Government in Australia (ALRC Report 112) was tabled in federal Parliament today. The report is the product of a 15-month inquiry and makes 61 recommendations for reform. It sets out a new and principled framework designed to reinforce open and accountable government while ensuring adequate protection for Commonwealth information that should legitimately be kept confidential......
Prof Croucher stated that a key focus of the ALRC report was to "wind back" the use of criminal sanctions, for the unauthorised disclosure of information, including the repeal of s 70 of the Crimes Act 1914, which has attracted consistent criticism over the years. "Criminal sanctions should only be imposed where the unauthorised release of information has caused, or is likely or intended to cause, harm to identified public interests."
ALRC Report 112 Secrecy Laws and Open Government in Australia
List of Participants (PDF) (RTF)
List of Recommendations (PDF) (RTF)
Executive Summary (PDF) (RTF)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Monsanto's failures come as no surprise
A genetically modified cotton produced by Monsanto is failing to control pests in four Indian states, the company said last week.
The survival of the pink bollworm in Monsanto's Bollgard brand cotton was detected in four of the nine Indian states where the cotton is grown.
A spokesman for the Creve Coeur-based company said it is taking the matter "very seriously" and will continue to monitor the situation with the help of a team of Indian-based experts. The detection has been reported to the Indian Genetic Engineering Committee, the company said.
The cotton is engineered to resist the pink bollworm, a pest that can ruin crops. However, testing was conducted to assess resistance to Cry1Ac, the Bt protein in the crop, and insects were found to be surviving it.
The company said Friday that the resistance could be occurring because the required refuge areas were not planted by farmers and some may have used unapproved Bt cotton seed.
Recently, India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said the country should be more cautious in adopting genetically modified crops.
* This post is part of the North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.