Albanese sends out a parliamentary wrap up on legislation passed

Federal Minister for Infrastructure & Transport and Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese, is quite pleased with how the Gillard minority government is coping so far according to his 29 October 2010 media release:

After three full sitting weeks the evidence is clear: the new, reformed Parliament is functioning well and getting on with the job of passing legislation, providing new opportunities for MPs to express the views of their local communities and keeping the Government accountable.

Yesterday the Government supported the first Private Member's Bill to be passed by the House of Representatives in more than a decade, Andrew Wilkie's Evidence Amendment (Journalists' Privilege) Bill 2010.

As well as giving individual members more opportunities to raise issues and put forward legislation of their own, the new Parliament has also been busy debating and passing the Government's ambitious reform agenda.

In just three sitting weeks, the House of Representatives has passed 29 government bills, with 11 of them having passed both the House and Senate and on the way to becoming law – see below........

Bills passed House, Senate and both houses

(as at 28 October 2010)

Passed the house (29 bills):

· Airports Amendment;

· National Health and Hospitals Network;

· Sex and Age Discrimination Amendment;

· Australian National Preventive Health Agency;

· Radiocommunications Amendment;

· Social Security Legislation Amendment (Connecting People with Jobs);

· Autonomous Sanctions;

· Australian Civilian Corps;

· Corporations Amendment (No. 1);

· Defence Legislation Amendment (Security of Defence Premises);

· Fisheries Legislation Amendment (No. 2);

· Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Weekly Payments) Bill;

· Therapeutic Goods Amendment (2010 Measures No. 1);

· National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme);

· Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measure) Bill;

· Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill;

· Superannuation Legislation Amendment;

· Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Amendment;

· Protection of the Sea Legislation Amendment;

· National Security Legislation Amendment Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement;

· International Tax Agreements Amendment (No. 2);

· Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment;

· Tradex Scheme Amendment;

· Carer Recognition;

· Civil Dispute Resolution;

· Food Standards Australia New Zealand Amendment;

· Telecommunications Interception and Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment;

· Veterans' Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures).

Passed the senate (16 bills):

· Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2010;

· International Tax Agreements Amendment Bill 2010;

· National Measurement Amendment Bill 2010;

· Service and Execution of Process Amendment (Interstate Fine Enforcement) Bill 2010;

· Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Amendment Bill 2010;

· Protection of the Sea Legislation Amendment Bill 2010;

· Native Title Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2010;

· Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010;

· Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill 2010;

· Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment Bill 2010;

· Veterans' Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010;

· Food Standards Australia New Zealand Amendment Bill 2010;

· Carer Recognition Bill 2010;

· Tradex Scheme Amendment Bill 2010;

· Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Amendment Bill 2010;

· Law and Justice Legislation Amendment (Identity Crimes and Other Measures) Bill 2010.

Passage completed through both houses (11 bills):

· Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2010;

· International Tax Agreements Amendment Bill 2010;

· Protection of the Sea Legislation Amendment Bill 2010;

· Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010;

· Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill 2010;

· Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment Bill 2010;

· Veterans' Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010;

· Food Standards Australia New Zealand Amendment Bill 2010;

· Carer Recognition Bill 2010;

· Tradex Scheme Amendment Bill 2010;

· Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Amendment Bill 2010.

Yet another power hungry richardhead who wants to hold two elected offices at once

Stone the crows! It must be in the job description that pollies have ego enhancements, ethic removals and full-frontal lobotomies before standing at elections in any tier of Oz government.
Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson is the latest to put up his hand to keep that mayoral role if he stands as an independent and gets elected to the NSW Parliament in March 2011.
Just what the Valley needs - a jack of all trades and master of none as he ping pongs between Macquarie Street and Prince Street.
To top it off, we also have Tweed Shire Mayor Kevin Skinner thinking of throwing his hat into the ring next March and an unwelcome rumour that former Maclean Shire Mayor Chris Gulaptis may return to the NSW North Coast in pursuit of a state seat after he was firmly trounced in Page at the 2007 federal election.

U.S. Mid-Term Elections underway 2 November 2010 - links to count coverage

Note the gun-toting supporters of a Tea Party candidate in this American election campaign advertisement, run in the lead-up to the U.S. mid-term elections which commence this evening around 10pm AEST (Sydney) or 11am GMT (London).



For those interested in these mid-term elections - the vote count can be followed at:
Politico 2010
CNN Politics Election Center
Election Projection 2010
USA Today Politics

Telstra gives out 23,500 silent number details to perfect strangers - says Oopps!

Telstra advising customers of mail-out issue

Media Release 27 October 2010

Telstra will today start contacting customers affected by a recent mail-merge error involving a letter explaining upcoming fixed line price changes.

An error in a mailing list has meant around 220,000 letters with incorrect addresses were mailed out, including 23,500 letters involving customers with silent lines.

As soon as the error was identified, the mail out was stopped.

The letters, which were delivered to the wrong address, went to consumer customers and some business customers and contained the customer name, their telephone plan, phone number and, if applicable, reference to their Telstra Pensioner Discount.

No billing or call record information is contained within these letters.

The error concerns nearly 10% of more than 2.3 million letters sent to customers in the past week.

Telstra is taking this issue very seriously. An urgent and thorough investigation is underway to examine how this occurred and to stop it happening again.

The company is directly contacting affected customers to apologise for the error.

Customers who have received multiple letters are requested to securely destroy them or return to sender.

The Privacy Commissioner, regulatory authorities and consumer groups are being provided with information to assist customers who may call them and Telstra will cooperate fully with these bodies on this matter.

Any concerned customer should call Telstra on 1800 307 987.