Swearing on National White Ribbon Day 2010

Today is National White Ribbon Day 2010 when all Aussie men are encouraged to think about the following:

In Australia, one in three women will be assaulted or abused in her lifetime. These women are our mothers, our girlfriends, our wives, our daughters, our colleagues and our friends. How have we allowed this to occur?

Not only is it unacceptable for this violence to take place, it is unacceptable that we allow certain behaviours and attitudes to go unchallenged.

Some of us experience violence first hand. Others hear stories of violence against women. Others observe it or look on from afar. The worst part? We remain silent.

If we are to move our society forward and prevent violence against women from occurring, we must speak out. We must take action to challenge attitudes and behaviours. We must not remain silent.

And make this commitment.......

I swear:
never to commit violence against women,
never to excuse violence against women, and
never to remain silent about violence against women.
This is my oath.
Swear now

Help spread the word

In the real world of gender inequality in Australia 2010

It would appear that in the real word of unequal wages based on gender in a country where women on average earn around 82-84 cents for every dollar earned by men (often when doing identical work) and its first female prime minister is ambivalent on the issue, it literally pays for women to collectively bargain in the workplace.

This week the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations released its report AGREEMENT MAKING IN AUSTRALIA UNDER THE WORKPLACE RELATIONS ACT: 2007 TO 2009 which stated in part:

A total of 24 156 collective agreements were approved under the WR Act between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2009. This was a 14.7 per cent increase from the 21 057 collective agreements approved in the previous three year reporting period.

Twenty-nine per cent of employees had their pay set by a federally registered collective agreement during the reporting period. This was a slight increase from the 28.5 per cent of employees who had their pay set by a collective agreement during the previous reporting period.

Employees whose pay was set by a collective agreement earned, on average, more than those whose pay was set by an individual agreement.

The average hourly ordinary time earnings of non-managerial employees on federally registered collective agreements was $29.00 in August 2008, compared with $28.60 for employees whose pay was set by a federally registered individual agreement.

For female employees, the difference was slightly larger, with $27.10 under collective agreements compared with $26.00 under individual agreements.

At the same time the department also released TRENDS IN FEDERAL ENTERPRISE BARGAINING JUNE QUARTER, 2010.

• HISTORY – Equal pay for work of equal value and Equal Pay Day and Saffin MP November 2010 media release

Snapshot of GetUp! wage calculator

Of bats and B52s

Bats are still a favoured topic in letters to the editor found in the Old Egg Timer of Grafton on the NSW North Coast.

Clarence Plague

A NEW disease has been discovered in the Clarence Valley, which is believed to be associated with bats.

It is thought to be a virus, and rednecks, halfwits, and National Party politicians are especially vulnerable to the virus.

It is particularly virulent in the Cowper Electorate.

Symptoms include ranting, raving, frothing at the mouth, chest beating, and a type of flatulence that results in copious amounts of hot air issuing from the mouth.

Other symptoms include a morbid desire to seek media attention, and those afflicted will be seen standing near high schools, hospitals or roads trying to get their pictures taken.

Another manifestation of the condition is the writing of irrational letters to the local papers advocating all sorts of strange anti social behaviour, including discharge of fireworks in public places.

Those afflicted who are also gun nuts, become obsessed with the idea of putting on their camouflage fatigues and roaming around discharging firearms.

Medical authorities think that the condition is incurable and the most humane option would be to euthanase the sufferers.

Bio-ethicists are concerned that this might be construed as a form of eugenics which is against the Geneva Convention and The Hague Protocols.

Of more concern is the worry that if the local authorities don't get the outbreak under control soon, it will attract the attention of the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, and the Americans will fly a B52 over and drop a 10-megaton warhead on the Cowper Electorate, to stop the spread of the contagion.

The bats say however, that they are the victims of a vicious smear campaign and the virus got into Australia via racehorses from Abu Dhabi, or banana imports from Ecuador.

M. CASEY

Grafton

Some background here from our local political wonderkind in clogs - Hartsuyker’s strengthens Maclean bats Bill to end bureaucratic buck passing and remove Federal Minister from the process

North Coast fishermen and cane farmers oppose any Clarence River water diversion

Excerpt from The Land article Clarence River can’t ‘spare a drop’ on 19 November 2010:

While North Coast primary producers have a lot more sympathy for the plight of inland irrigators than they do for the Queenslanders in population overdrive, they say that despite the image most people have of the massive Clarence the reality is the river cannot spare a drop.

The fresh water flushes during floods are the lifeblood of the region’s fishing industry, the biggest supplier of seafood in NSW, sustaining 140 wild harvest commercial fishermen.

Professional Fishermen’s Association executive officer, John Harrison, Maclean, said the fresh water flows brought nutrients and the opportunity for fish growth and there was “no room for a single drop” to be taken from the system without a detrimental impact on the fishing industry and environment.

Beef producer, Elizabeth Fahey, who has double frontage to the Clarence on her Brahman breeding property at Copmanhurst, said there were times during dry spells when she could walk across parts of the river without getting her feet wet.

“The practicalities are that the expense of setting up the infrastructure required to allow inland producers to utilise water in times of high flow would not make the scheme viable, when the access to water would not be all the time,” she said.

While sugar producers in the Clarence don’t irrigate, NSW Canegrowers chairman, Vince Castle, said the region could not do without its fishing industry and the overwhelming feeling among cane growers was “utter opposition” to the concept.

True words tweeted in jest?

BernardKeane

Australian politics: the asinine versus the inept, reported by the facile. I swear to dog it's enough to make you move to NZ.

via TweetDeck

Free EarthScan webcast "Reconnecting Nature and Culture", Wednesday, November 24, 2010 4:00 am Sydney AEDT

A hatip to Margi Prideaux over at Wild Politics for alerting the blogosphere to this event:

Earthcasts are monthly free one-hour interactive web events from Earthscan

In November the subject is:

Reconnecting Nature and Culture

>> Understand the concept of biocultural diversity
>> Learn how to integrate cultural and spiritual values into conservation, tourism and heritage management practices
>> Discover how embracing the values of local people can dramatically increase the success of conservation and sustainability efforts, for the benefit of all

Tuesday 23rd November 2010
17:00 (UK time – GMT), 12:00 (EDT), 9:00 (PDT)

Click here to register