I Fight Like A Girl

Destroy The Joint‏@JointDestroyer

#BraveGirlsWant to fight like a girl pic.twitter.com/cgYhpz4j2B

2:25 PM - 3 Jul 13

Advice to the Australian business sector doesn't get any blunter than this

The war of competing memes begins to escalate....

Labor and Greens at odds over O'Farrell Government's Local Land Services Act 2013

On 28 June 2013 Carol Vernon, The Greens candidate standing in Cowper at the forthcoming federal election, expressed some satisfaction with the final form of the O’Farrell Coalition Government’s Local Land Services Bill which was passed by the NSW Parliament on 27 June.

NSW Labor’s Steve Whan was taking a very different stance on this piece of legislation in a letter to the editor published in The Daily Examiner on 12 July 2013:

Farmers sold out

As some or your readers might be aware, the State Government's Local Land Services (LLS) legislation has passed the NSW Parliament. As of January 1 next year the LLS will replace the current Livestock Health and Pest Authorities and Catchment Management Authorities.
The NSW Labor Opposition has opposed the LLS for a number of reasons. The first is that the new bodies are already hamstrung by mass sackings of frontline and DPI staff and huge ongoing budget cuts to services for farmers.
As shadow minister I have serious reservations about whether a single entity can incorporate the work conducted by the LHPAs and the CMAs - two completely different organisations. Labor attempted to amend the LLS legislation to make its role clearer on both farm services and catchment management operations - the government did not support these changes.
Another major problem we tried to resolve was the balance between locally elected representatives and ministerial-appointed representatives on LLS boards.
Farmers made it very clear they did not support the model proposed by the government of four appointed and only three elected board members.
I attempted to make the boards 50% elected by local land holders and 50% by ministerial appointments - to ensure that local farmers and ratepayers had a direct say in the farm "face to face" services. These proposed changes were defeated by the government and the Nationals.
Unfortunately the Nationals once again have sold out rural NSW by failing to support this amendment and by meekly complying with the decimation of the face-to-face extension officer network.
Because the Nationals have let rural NSW down again there are now less on-farm services, less local specialist agronomists than at any time since Labor set up the extension officer network in the 1940s.
Over the past decade the NSW Nationals have made a deliberate effort not to preselect farmers for State seats and it is now starting to show. The few older backbench Nationals in the Parliament said very little in this debate. The "new breed", with no primary industries experience, just parroted the lines the Minister gave them.
History shows us that the Nationals in government are great at blaming other people but hopeless at delivering - this Government is unfortunately even worse, they are actively ripping out services from agriculture and rural communities.

Steve Whan MLC

Shadow Minister for Primary Industries  

In your guts you know he's nuts

Tony Abbott in all his intellectual glory

Tony we’ll all be rooned Abbott continues to prove Albo right – “In your guts you know he’s nuts”.

“This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It's a market, a so-called market, in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.” {Tony Abbott during doorstop interview on 15^th July 2013}

''Tony Abbott's insistence that Labor's emissions trading scheme is an expensive exercise in buying and selling an ''invisible substance'' has drawn derision from climate experts and industry.------Professor Richard Dennis, an economist at the Australian National University, said Mr Abbott should make it clear whether he thinks radiation was harmful or not. ''The notion that something now has to be visible to be valuable or harmful is an entirely new concept in Australian politics and one that will concern and confuse many,'' he said. ''If Tony Abbott is concerned about people paying for invisible things, then anyone who owns intellectual property should be very concerned, likewise people in the futures and financial derivatives market.'' {Granny Herald on 16^th July 2013}

“Abbott's "invisible substance" line appears to have been lifted almost word for word from this UK Telegraph column. http://bit.ly/a60yoH “ {@bencubby at Twitter on 16^th July 2013}

Hartsuyker jumps on Murdoch misinformation bandwagon and rest of mainstream media fall in line behind him

This was Denis Shanahan and Jared Owens writing an ‘exclusive in The Australian on 17 July 2013:

In a rush to spend as much money as possible in marginal seats, the Rudd government has given surf lifesaving clubs 72 hours to apply for funds for "shovel-ready" projects to be announced before the election campaign…….

This was the Federal Nationals MP for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, hopping on the bandwagon at ABC Regional News 17 July 2013:

The Nationals member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker said the surf club grants are blatant pork-barrelling.

"The real issue here whether this is an appropriate use of tax payers money or whether this is actually corrupt conduct," he said.

This was Luke Hartsuyker again making sure his electorate got the news on Page 5 of The Daily Examiner 18 July 2013:

Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker came out swinging after he heard lifesaving clubs would only have three days to lodge funding applications.

"Funding for surf lifesaving clubs should be provided on the basis of need, not on the basis of getting Kevin Rudd re-elected," Mr Hartsuyker said.

"Now we have Kevin Rudd saying he will provide funds to surf lifesaving clubs on the basis of a club's location, without any consideration to a club's need or its capacity to service the local community.

"A 72-hour timeframe for all funding applications to be lodged is not the way to govern Australia."

There is one small problem with this story – it was incorrect and Surf Life Saving Australia informed the media of this at 4.27pm on 17 July 2013.

Something The Australian had to admit the next day on 18 July 2013:

SLSA released a statement confirming chief executive Greg Nance spearheaded the push "of his own initiative". "SLSA is not aware of any official federal government grant programs other than those already in the public domain," the statement said.

Mr Nance was unavailable to be interviewed.

SLSA spokesman Guy Britt declined to explain what federal funding was being sought, why the deadline was so short or whether the submissions were transmitted last night as indicated.

UPDATE:

Of course it is possible that the Member For Cowper is assigning to the Rudd Labor Government the very same motives which drove the former Howard Coalition Government (of which he was a member) in the lead up to the 9 October 2004 and 24 November 2007 federal elections.

The Sydney Morning Herald 16 November 2007:

THE Coalition used a controversial grants program to make a flurry of election-eve handouts and has funnelled millions of dollars into projects in marginal seats against departmental advice, an audit has found.

A scathing report on the Regional Partnerships Program by the Australian National Audit Office outlines a litany of grants made without proper paperwork or explanation, including many that were fast-tracked just before the last election. It found:

■ The 10 electorates that received the most funding were all held by the Coalition.

■ 55 per cent of 2004 election commitments went to marginal electorates.

■ Of 43 projects that were approved despite the department not recommending to proceed, 38 were in Coalition seats.

■ In a 51-minute spending spree in the hours before the government went into caretaker mode in 2004, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the program, De-Anne Kelly, approved 16 grants worth $3.349 million.

A long-serving official in the auditor's office told the Herald yesterday: "This is the worst thing I have ever seen."

The audit found the three ministers overseeing the program were more likely to approve grants that were not recommended by the Department of Transport and Regional Services if they went to projects in Coalition seats. Projects that were recommended by the department were more likely to be knocked back if they were in Labor seats.

Clarence Valley Council denies duty of care and blames lack of money for its failure to maintain local timber bridge

Dr Ann Collins (centre in the yellow jersey) during the Sydney to Gold Coast charity ride.

 

 

The Sydney Morning Herald 14 July 2013:

 

Ann Collins lies strapped to a plastic medical gurney as a helicopter winches her into the sky.

Far below the prone body of the Sydney surgeon stands the Bluff Bridge, a rickety wooden structure spanning the Orara River south of Grafton on the mid-north coast.

Two hours earlier, Dr Collins was happily taking part in her 10th Sydney-to-Gold Coast charity bike ride, but then her front wheel lodged in a rut in the bridge surface, sending her flying over the handlebars.

''Instead of falling onto the ground I hit the side railing,'' said Dr Collins, who is 65.

''I somersaulted off the bridge. I remember the timber planks were very crumbly, because I was trying to grab onto them as I fell down into the rocky ravine.''

The oral and maxillofacial surgeon was stunned by the fall, before realising her legs were crossed in front of her at strange angles.

Dr Collins suffered numerous injuries, including two compound fractures to her left leg, a compound fracture to her right leg, and a fracture and dislocation of her left elbow.

It took major surgery, four months in hospital and many more months of rehabilitation before she could begin to function normally again.

Five years later, Dr Collins' bicycle stands, somewhat incongruously, in the NSW Supreme Court.

Having tried unsuccessfully to mediate a settlement with Clarence Valley Council - the body responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the bridge - she is suing the council for injury, loss and damages totaling about $800,000.

She claims that, by failing to safely maintain the surface of the bridge despite knowing it was in a state of disrepair, or to provide a sign instructing cyclists of the need to walk rather than ride across, the council was negligent and breached its duty of care.

The case is remarkable because the council's defence includes the claim it simply cannot afford to properly maintain the many ageing timber bridges in the Clarence Valley municipality.

In its defence statement, the council says it ''did not owe the plaintiff a duty of care, because its functions are limited by financial and other resources … having regard to the extent of roadworks for which the defendant is responsible; and the resources available''.

Dr Collins rejects the council's arguments, but the case highlights the looming crisis over local infrastructure in NSW…..
Dr Collins said that in her case a simple sign would have prevented the accident from occurring.
''It only cost them $190 to put up a sign saying walk your bike over the bridge after the accident happened,'' she said. ''If that sign had been there, the bridge would still have been unsafe but the accident would have been avoided.''....