Apology to all our readers

Due to the fact that Blogger.com had been experiencing difficulties, went offline to fix same, temporarily removed current versions of its hosted homepages and did not replace all the missing posts as promised; in the last twenty-four hours North Coast Voices has not been able to display all its posts.
To replace one of these missing posts accurately North Coast Voices Administration had to rely on its Blogotariat feed. Hat tip to the folks over at that blog aggregate site.
Hopefully, all is now well.
North Coast Voices apologizes for any confusion this may caused our readers.

Centrelink will be helping Page pensioners switch to digital TV in 2012

Below is a 4 May 2011 media release from Federal MP for Page, Janelle Saffin, explaining eligibility for help converting the signal received by analogue televisions into high definition digital images and also what pitfalls to avoid while waiting for this assistance to become available on the NSW North Coast next year.

PENSIONERS in Page needing Federal Government help with making the switch to digital television in the second half of next year, should wait until Centrelink writes to them early next year.

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin said eligible households will receive a letter from Centrelink about six months before Northern New South Wales is due to switch over, inviting them to participate in the Household Assistance Scheme (HAS).

Ms Saffin confirmed that this week’s Federal Budget would provide $308.8 million for the HAS to install, free of charge, high definition digital set-top boxes in New South Wales and other states until December 2013.

“Households are eligible where at least one resident is receiving a maximum rate of the Aged Pension; Disability Support Pension; Carer payment; Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) service pension; or the DVA income support supplement payment,” she said.

“Under the HAS, the Government has already provided assistance to more than 38,000 households in regional South Australia and Victoria.”

Ms Saffin said suitably qualified contractors would supply and install these set top boxes, and demonstrate how they will meet specific needs of the elderly and people with disabilities.

“People should not go out and purchase any equipment from retail outlets, expecting a reimbursement under the scheme,” she said.

“And they should not accept any approach from door-to-door salespeople or other advertised schemes. Centrelink will make the initial contact and organise everything from there.”

More information on the timetable for digital switchover is available from the Digital Ready Information Line on 1800 20 10 13 or from http://www.digitalready.gov.au/

Country Arts Support funding for the Northern Rivers in 2011

Country Arts Support Program 2011- Northern Rivers

· $2,550.00 to Ocean Shores Public School P & C for Ocean Shores Community Arts Project. A series of arts and craft workshops, performances by local musicians and a public art project to be held as part of the Ocean Shores Public Arts and Craft Festival in August 2011.

· $2,197.00 to Byron Bay Community Association Inc. (Byron Community Centre) for Arts Classic Artist in Residence. Mosaic artists Turiya Bruce and Pyari Cau will be engaged as artists-in-residence at the Byron Community Centre over five days during the 2011 Byron Arts Classic in January 2012. After a period of public consultation with members of the Byron community, the artists will conduct daily three-hour public participation workshops to create a mosaic artwork at the Centre.

· $1,000.00 to Coraki Rural Transaction Centre Inc (Coraki Art Prize) for Painting and Printmaking Workshops. A series of printmaking and painting workshops for young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists in Coraki, focusing on expression of identity and personal storytelling through art.

· $1,588.00 to Clarence Valley Council for Kami Shibai. Performer Kyoko Miyauchi will conduct a series of traditional Japanese storytelling theatre performances and origami workshops for school students at outer regional primary schools in Baryulgil, Coutts Crossing and Herani during term 2, 2011.

· $1,560.00 to Platypus Gallery (Richmond Valley Council) for MINDLE. For the month of September the gallery will host an exhibition exploring the local Indigenous language of Junbung, during which time two local Indigenous artists will be in residence at the Gallery. The artists will interact with the public and demonstrate their working process and techniques, giving insights into both artistic practice and indigenous culture.

· $1,392.00 to Caringa Enterprises Ltd for Colour Theory Wall Mural. An artist in residence program with local artist Pamela Denise, during which severely disabled participants (with support workers) will create a 50m square mural at the Day Program Centre in Grafton between April and July.

· $1,480.00 to The Creative Peoples Collective Inc for Standing Now - Finding our Feet. Free workshops over July-August 2011 for young people at Coraki Youth Hall, in which the aim is to create a contemporary dance piece. Participants will then have the opportunity to perform alongside professional artists in the production 'Standing Now'.

· $2,000.00 to Tropical Fruits Inc. for Illumination 2011. An artist in residence program with local artist Martin Pedder, in which he will work with members of the local GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer) community to create illuminated installations, props and backdrops for the Tropical Fruits 2011 Festival.

· $2,255.00 to On-Focus Inc for Dhinawan Dreaming at LINCS. Workshops and performance presented by local indigenous artist Mick Baker of Dhinawan Dreaming, run as part of the Casino Day Program for Indigenous people throughout 2011. The sessions will cover storytelling, dance and visual arts.

· $2,110.00 to The Unity Festival for The Unity Festival, a multicultural dance, music, food, art and craft event. Dancers representing the cultural traditions of the Phillipines, India, Torres Strait and Aboriginal Australia will be engaged for public performance. Held in Murwillumbah in October 2011, the festival aims to create opportunities for greater social interaction amongst community groups, and encouraging tolerance.

Yeah, that's the answer Uncle Joe! Put more people out of work.

Uncle Joe and The Rabbit in The Canberra Times on 11^th May 2011

Now I’ve heard everything! Joe Hockey’s answer to the Australian Government’s 2011 Budget is to say tax concessions shouldn’t be taken from those rich enough to be into income splitting, family trusts and the like and other concessions and income support shouldn’t be frozen for the next four years for those singles or families earning $150,000 or more a year – instead he insists that 12,000 people should be sacked from the public service and be directed towards the dole line.
Onya, Uncle Joe. You’re the tosser giving us all a perfect example of the very class war you’re accusing the Treasurer of conducting. At least Swanee isn’t into mass layoffs to bring the federal budget into surplus.

In his call to support those earning a comfortable living, Joe ignores the fact that in August 2010 there were 9.8 million employees in this country and a good 50% of these earned less than $46,020 a year. Even if these people lived in households where their partners worked for similar wages, they would still come nowhere near having the combined incomes of Abbott & Co's newly discovered middleclass battlers. Who, incidentally, have also for many years been growing their disposable incomes at a higher rate than the less well off.
Here on the NSW North Coast it would be a safe bet to say that half of all households would have annual incomes which fall below $46,020 and a great many of these would be old age pensioners, so Hockey's plea to save the middleclass from the wicked Gillard Government falls on deaf ears in many a local home.

Here's a profile of Abbott and Hockey's 'battlers' (who appear to make up around a mere 15% of all households according to the Herald-Sun) courtesy of The Tele on 11th May and The Australian of the same day:
Family No.1 A young couple (with one small child and a high maintenance dog) whose combined incomes are more than $150,000 per year, both have successful, high-paying professional careers, own a modern McMansion in a popular suburb, with two cars in the garage as well as flashy plasma in the lounge, and yet still they loudly complain that their family income is not enough to support their preferred lifestyle.
Family No.2 A young couple (with two young children), he's in the building industry and she's an associate director in a recruitment firm, they have a combined income of around $200,000 per year, pay 18% tax, live in a decent house in an established suburb and had considered employing a nanny if the Gillard Government froze middleclass welfare rather than raising it to meet the family's expectations.
Anyone seen where I put the smallest violin in the world? I feel a sad, sad sonata coming on....

Australian Federal Budget 2011 - now let's get a few facts straight before panicking

Ever since Wayne Swan gave his 2011 Budget Speech and released those budget papers the mainstream media has been bellowing. One cry is that this budget is hard on the 'deserving' middle class and an alternative cry is that it is unfair to all welfare recipients on parenting payment, unemployment benefit or disability support pension.

What is not pointed out (by either politicians being interviewed or journalists doing the interviewing) is that not all these reforms are universal across specific cash transfer categories, many do not commence until the 2012-13 financial year and some take the form of trial roll-outs with an identified end date.

So let us look briefly at some of the groups mentioned in those claims.

Firstly, teenage mothers. They are not all going to be made to attend Centrelink when their baby reaches six months of age, according to Part 2: Expense Measures Education, Employment and Workplace Relations:

Teenage parents accessing Parenting Payments for the first time from 1 January 2012 in 10 targeted Local Government Areas (LGAs will be required to attend six‑monthly interviews with Centrelink once their child turns six months old. Once the child is one year old, this interview will be used to develop and implement a participation plan, which will include activities to improve education outcomes for themselves and their children.

Secondly, the mature unemployed and young unemployed are not all going to have to face every new participation requirement to claim unemployment benefits:

The Government will …..introduce new participation requirements and support services for parents who have been on income support for more than two years or who are under 23 years of age in 10 targeted Local Government Areas (LGA's). Parents will be required to attend compulsory workshops and interviews with Centrelink to set personal and family goals. They will also be assisted to access services to overcome pre‑vocational barriers to employment, engage with their community and improve health and education outcomes for their children. The new requirements and support services will commence on 1 July 2012 and will be available in 10 targeted locations.

Currently a job seeker is required to undertake an approved activity for six months in each year they are in the Work Experience Phase. From 1 July 2012, very long‑term unemployed job seekers who begin a second year in the Work Experience Phase will be required to undertake work experience for 11 months of the year.

The 10 targeted LGAs are:

Playford (SA)
Rockhampton (QLD)
Hume (VIC)
Burnie (TAS)
Bankstown (NSW)
Wyong (NSW)
Logan (QLD)
Kwinana (QLD)
Greater Shepparton (VIC)
Shellharbour (NSW)

Thirdly, those with a disability. Individuals already on a Disability Support pension will not all have to meet the new requirements (some of which are voluntary agreements) and indeed they gain some additional concessions, according to Part 2: Expense Measures Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs :

The Government will introduce participation requirements for new and existing Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients under the age of 35 with some work capacity from 1 July 2012……[those] who have a work capacity of less than eight hours a week, or who are already participating in open employment, an Australian Disability Enterprise or the Supported Wage System, will be excluded from the participation requirements.

From 3 September 2011, Disability Support Pension (DSP) claimants will need to provide evidence that they have tested their future work capacity by participating in training or work related activities. This activity test will not apply to claimants who are clearly unable to work due to, for example, profound disability.

extends portability where a DSP recipient with a severe disability has a carer who is posted overseas for work and wishes to continue their supporting responsibilities. In these circumstances, the DSP recipient will be entitled to continue to receive their pension for the period of their family member's posting, from 1 July 2011.

The Government will allow all Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients to work up to 30 hours a week and remain eligible for a part‑pension for up to two years.

A $2,000 one‑off tax‑exempt payment will be also available to children of families living in outer‑regional, rural and remote areas to help meet some of the costs of accessing services.

Finally, families. The majority of families with legitimately dependent children are not being cut off welfare payments, but indexation of family payments is frozen between 1 July 2011 and 1 July 2014:

The Government will defer the implementation of Paid Paternity Leave by six months from 1 July 2012 until 1 January 2013.

The Government will, from 1 January 2012, limit the eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A to children up to the age of 21 years, recognising that young people aged 22 and over are considered independent. When a child turns 22 years of age, parents will no longer be able to receive FTB Part A for that child. However the child may be eligible to receive Youth Allowance subject to usual means testing and academic progress rules. This will bring FTB Part A in line with the Youth Allowance age of independence from 1 January 2012.

The Government will pause indexation of the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A and B supplements for three years. The FTB supplements will be fixed at the current 2010‑11 levels of $726.35 per annum per child for FTB Part A and $354.05 per annum for FTB Part B until 1 July 2014.

The Government will pause indexation of family payment higher income thresholds and limits at their current level until 1 July 2014. The following higher income thresholds and limits will remain fixed until 1 July 2014: Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part B primary earner income limit, which will remain at $150,000; the income limit for receiving the dependency tax offsets, which will remain at $150,000; the Baby Bonus eligibility limit, which will remain at $75,000 of family income in the six months following the birth or adoption of a child, equivalent to $150,000 a year; the Paid Parental Leave primary carer income limit, which will remain at $150,000 in the financial year before the birth or adoption of a child; and the higher income‑free threshold of FTB Part A, which will remain at $94,316 of family income, with an additional $3,796 provided for each child after the first.

The genuinely bad news is that income management for welfare recipients will be extended (presumably allowing government access to increased interest accrued from cash transfers held in trust in a central managed account) beyond existing declared areas into the following new areas from 1 July 2012 until 30 June 2015:

Bankstown, New South Wales
Logan, Queensland
Rockhampton, Queensland
Playford, South Australia
Shepparton, Victoria

In this single aspect, the Gillard Government (like the former Howard Government) is determined to see the once honourable welfare safety net system morph into a shameful food stamp allowance for those living in comparative poverty.

Sometimes the young make my heart sing

Snapshot from COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF filed on 4 May 2011 in U.S. Supreme Court in Washington

Snapshot from COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF filed on 4 May 2011 in U.S. District Court in California

Lawsuits and administrative actions have been filed against the U.S. federal government and all fifty States in an effort to ensure reduction of carbon emissions and prevent climate catastrophe, with the applicants being young people using the Public Trust Doctrine to advance their concerns as "the youngest living generation of beneficiaries of the Public Trust"" who have ""rights to a liveable future".

Having no right to vote because of their ages, this is the way chosen to make legislators and industry take notice.

PDF file of complaint lodged in the Northern District of California

Also online at Our Children's Trust are legal actions commenced in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, and Washington

Think Australia's going to the dogs? Well think again

Had been reading too many gloomy headlines lately and was feeling that Australia was going to hell in a hand basket.
Got a tip from Clarencegirl which pulled me up by the bootstraps.
She told me to look at the Australian Bureau of Statistics Voluntary Work Survey 2006.
Sure nuff – the numbers show that 57% of the Australian population regularly provides some sort of unpaid assistance to someone else who doesn’t live under their roof.
Now that’s mateship. Well done, Oz!
It just happens to be Voluteers Week 2011 all this week.
If you don't have time to join a group, then do something nice (or a chore) for someone living alone near you and you can hold your head up high when volunteering next gets a mention.

Sydney Morning Herald readers set an impossible task

Every week the Herald ask readers who belong to its Insider Team a number of questions about items in the news and publishes the results of the surveys on the letters page on Saturday.

Usually, the questions are relatively straightforward. However, things aren't that way this week. The question below created a real headache.

Fancy being asked to choose just one name from that list! This reader reckons three of those named dead-heat for equal first. (Clue: The three I have in mind don't include Clover Moore and The City Rail announcer.)

Australia submits case to The Hague citing Japan for alleged breach of international obligations concerning whaling

According to Australia’s Attorney-General Robert McClelland, Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd and Minister for Environment Tony Burke on 9 May 2011:

The Government has announced that Australia will file its written submission in the Whaling Case against Japan at the International Court of Justice later today in The Hague.

The filing of the Memorial is the next step in the case to stop Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling program for good.

The Australian Government believes Japan’s whaling activities are contrary to its international obligations, in particular, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

Despite Australia repeatedly calling on Japan to cease its illegal whaling activities, Japan has refused to do so. That is why the Australian Government has taken this case in the ICJ.

The decision to commence proceedings in May 2010 was not taken lightly. The Government disagrees with Japan’s decision to continue whaling and this is the proper way to settle legal differences between friends.

Australia will argue that Japan is in breach of the general prohibition under the Convention on commercial whaling as well as a prohibition on such whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, also established under the Convention.

Japan has sought to rely on an exception to the Convention concerning whaling ‘for purposes of scientific research’.

The Government believes the whaling carried out by Japan is commercial, not scientific, and does not fall within that narrow exception.

The decision to take legal action demonstrates the Government’s commitment to do what it takes to end whaling globally.

The Memorial will remain confidential until its public release is ordered by the Court, which is likely to be at the first oral hearing of the case. Japan must file its Counter-Memorial by 9 March 2012.

In March, the ICJ accepted the nomination of Professor Hilary Charlesworth AM as Australia’s ad hoc judge in the Case.

There has been little reaction in the Japanese media to this latest move by Australia. Which is understandable given Japan's necessarily internal focus on recovery after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

However, earlier this year, the Daily Yomiuri Online reported that the Government of Japan is considering ending Antarctic whaling:

Asked at a press conference Friday about the possibility of the country ending research whaling entirely, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano replied: "We can't say anything definite about that."
According to ministry officials, however, discussions have already begun behind the scenes about ending Japan's Antarctic whaling.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one high-ranking ministry official said five alternative scenarios have so far been studied:
-- Have the whaling fleet escorted by Japan Coast Guard vessels or others.
-- Build new whaling vessels capable of traveling at high speed.
-- Replace research whaling with commercial whaling.
-- Continue with the current whaling arrangements.
-- End whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.
The first option, whaling accompanied by escort vessels, was discussed in the government from around 2007, but was scrapped because there are no escort vessels that could travel all the way to the Antarctic.
The second alternative is "almost impossible," the official said, due to the government's severe fiscal condition.
Concerning the third option, Japan sought to bring about an IWC accord to resume commercial whaling at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in June 2010. However, the meeting broke down when the gap could not be bridged between whaling and antiwhaling nations........
The ministry official said, "With the suspension of research whaling, there is no possibility of whaling continuing from next season as it has in the past."

'Research' whaling is still being conducted in waters off Japan in 2011.

Photograph The Daily Telegraph

Bolt on 10 was a big yawn

I tried to watch the first episode of The Bolt Report on Channel 10, I truly did - but it was so painfully boring that I had switched off by the time the interview with Abbott began.
I attempted to watch the show online later and couldn't stay the course as it's always a bit embarrassing watching someone (even a contrarian like Teh Bolta) make a fool of themselves on national television.
Think Tim Dick over at Granny Herald said it best:
"Not having seen every attempt at television current affairs in Australia, it is impossible to judge The Bolt Report the worst. But surely it comes close.
Andrew Bolt’s Sunday morning shift from panellist on ABC Insiders to his own show on Network Ten has brought talk-back to TV, but it didn't bring a pulse. It is named for Bolt, hosted by Bolt, and dominated by the Boltian worldview. It featured white middle-aged men talking about Boltian fundamentals - namely, the great climate change con and those refugees taking over the country - with a surfing Afghan refugee beamed in to be scolded for high unemployment among his compatriots.
The most interesting aspect of the first instalment is whether there will be a second. In its favour is that there are so few people who watch TV on Sunday mornings, it doesn't really matter what is on the screen. Perhaps Ten could try the test signal next week for a livelier program."

The political whoppers Abbott tells.....

Every man and his dog knows that basically a federal budget is calculated to cover operations over one financial year and this year the 2011-12 budget handed down tonight will be no different.
So why on earth was Opposition Leader Tony Abbott rabbiting on like this yesterday:
“Now, obviously tomorrow night is the budget night. All the indications are that this will be a budget with a hole in its heart because it won’t include the carbon tax, even though the carbon tax is at least the biggest tax change since the GST. I say to the Government it is not too late to pulp the document and to reproduce it with the carbon tax in it, because let’s face it the Treasury has done the modelling and it could be and should be included, and without the carbon tax in it this budget will not be worth the paper that it is printed on. It will be a completely misleading and incomplete document.”
Carbon pricing is not due to commence until 1 July 2012 at the earliest and therefore falls within the 2012-13 federal budget - there is no "hole" in this year's budget. So either Tones doesn’t understand or he is deliberately telling pork pies.
Tony Abbott lie? Is the Pope a Catholic!

Spooner's cartoon of TAbbott found at ABC Artworks