Under Tony Abbott's government the military are crossing a dangerous line

News.com.au 14 March 2014:

AUSTRALIA’S top ranking officer, Defence Chief General David Hurley, has warned Tasmanian Senator-elect and former soldier Jacqui Lambie against using the media to criticise the military.

In an unprecedented political intervention by a serving military officer, General Hurley wrote to the Palmer United Party Senator-elect after she issued a media release alleging that abuse was an “intractable problem” in the forces.

The 10-year army veteran has demanded the government extend the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce (DART) indefinitely to enable all those affected by abuse to come forward.

“It’s clear from information that’s become public and information I’ve received privately that abuse, including sexual abuse in Australia’s Defence Force is an intractable problem, which is far more serious than most people would have realised,” her media release said.

She also said that a high level and “poisonous” culture of cover-up within Defence had stopped abuse victims from speaking out.

In his unsolicited letter, General Hurley said he was alarmed by Ms Lambie’s use of emotive language to make accusations against senior military officers.

“I encourage you in future to provide me an opportunity to address any matters of concern you may have rather than becoming aware of them through a media release,” he said.

“Such an approach will go a long way to building a productive relationship between you and the ADF when you assume your position in the Senate.”…..

#MyBroadbandvReality: turning an online survey into an effective political tool

On 20 February 2014 blogger and tweeter Noely Neate posted an online survey which sought readers views on their own broadband connections.

Clever Noely just didn’t tell the blogosphere and twitterverse about the survey results – she, along with Paul Davis, Pascal Grosvenor, Caitlin Neate and others, turned these results into an effective political tool which contained the voices of over 800 Australians.

What the survey revealed about the New South Wales broadband experience:

Credit: Paul Davis @davispg

Other state and territory graphs can be found here.

It wasn’t too long before this move began to be noticed by the political caste in Canberra:

Transcript extract from Senate Select Committee public hearing, Sydney NSW,12 March 2013

Along the way Noely et al demonstrated to the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network that the Internet is not just used for downloading movies, playing games or looking at funny cat videos and, that ordinary people across the country use it in increasingly sophisticated ways:

In fact this submission was collaboratively edited across three time zones, two continents, in real time: Paul’s in Tokyo, Pascal’s in Sydney, and Cait and Noely in QLD, with other collaborators from across Australia assisting with reviews; collaborative creation made possible by using cloud-based Google technologies. This submission is an example of productivity gains through availability of Broadband, noting Noely’s broadband connection dropped numerous times during this process.

The submission (No 52):

#MyBroadbandvReality (PDF 2833 KB)  Attachment 1 (PDF 1054 KB) 

March In March: Australians United For Better Government. In the Northern Rivers on Sunday 16 March 2014 - Part Two

Byron Bay

Coffs Harbour

All photographs found on Twitter and Facebook.

Part One of this pictorial record can be found here.

One Clarence Valley resident did the sums which NSW Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis had apparently avoided

Letter to the editor in The Daily Examiner on 13 March 2014:

Jail plan pilloried

In response to the front page article: Gulaptis says Grafton jail could house 'one punch' thugs (DEX 8/3).

Referring to proposed mandatory sentencing for offenders who throw lethal coward's punches while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, Mr Gulaptis suggested there "was plenty of room" at Grafton to accommodate offenders like Thomas Kelly's killer Kieran Loveridge.

"As far as I am concerned, these thugs can be locked up in the Grafton jail ... this is an opportunity to reopen the jail to accommodate these thugs," Mr Gulaptis said.

So I googled the Australian Bureau of Statistics which says that 90 people have been killed by single punches in Australia since 2000.

That works out at less than 10 people a year, and Chris Gulaptis wants to reopen Grafton jail to house how many people?

Ridiculous.

Marnie Brown

Coutts Crossing

March In March: Australians United For Better Government. In the Northern Rivers on Saturday 15 March 2014 - Part One

Lismore

Grafton

All images found at Twitter and Facebook

SA Liberal Opposition Leader tells electors to "vote Labor" when they go to the polls in the state election

It would be impossible to dream up such a political gaffe….

http://youtu.be/NDmBvYMMTmo