Do your bit for bees

Have you seen any of the Australian bee species in your garden? 

Have bees been disappearing from your yard over the last ten years? 

Time to look into making your garden bee friendly.

“Plant a variety of species native to the area,” advises Heard. Gum trees are great for larger backyards. Palm and grass trees are more suitable for smaller gardens. Most flowering native shrubs, including grevillea, tea tree, and bottlebrush, are an excellent source of food for bees. • In terms of introduced plants, try lavender, thyme and salvias. A broad variety provides a steadier supply of nectar throughout the seasons. • Avoid pesticides and seeds that have been coated with systemic insecticides such as neonicotinoids. • Experiment with companion gardening, partnering high-nectar flowers with vegetables that need pollination. • Provide refreshments. Malfroy recommends “a shallow tray with a bit of timber or leaves floating in it, or a pond with some aquatic plants. Something the bees can sit on while they’re drinking”. • Let areas of your garden go wild. Dead stems, tree hollows and undisturbed soil provide nesting places for native bees. See more at: http://www.greenlifestylemag.com.au/features/2794/bees-backyard#sthash.H4sGFwpe.dpuf

From aussiebee.com.au

For this introductory guide we have chosen ten major groups of Australian native bees. The states and territories of Australia in which these bees have been found are shown in the following Location Table. Click on the name of each bee in the table to read a brief account of its nest and behaviour.

(More detailed information about these fascinating species can be found in Native Bees of the Sydney Region: A Field Guide and in Aussie Bee bulletin. And visit the Aussie Bee Photo Gallery for more photographs of our colourful native bees!)

Tony Dum-Dum strikes again

Yet another commentator exposes Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s kindergarten-level understanding of demographics, economics and the national tax system……

Microbusiness 22 August 2014:

Tony Abbott has spoken-out against Treasury Secretary, Martin Parkinson’s, claim last night that the Government had failed to sell the case for tax reform, noting instead the following:

“I’ve been saying on many occasions that tax reform starts with scrapping the carbon tax and scrapping the mining tax. It certainly doesn’t end there and that’s why we’ve got a white paper on tax that we will be publishing towards the end of next year.”

No, Prime Minister. Tax reform involves broadening the tax base and replacing inefficient taxes with more efficient ones. The scrapping of the carbon and mining taxes do neither and will push the tax burden further onto Australia’s diminishing pool of workers – hardly a sensible approach given the ageing of the population (not to mention adverse impacts on the environment).

One of the reasons why there is a need for the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption

The Sydney Morning Herald 16 November 2012:

FROM barrister to barista, John Hart managed to put his past as a defender of petty criminals behind him to reach the summit of Engadine's culinary scene.

He emerged from an investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 2010 to buy the favourably reviewed Jack of Harts and Jude cafe in an arcade off the Old Princes Highway last year.

But the allegations that were the subject of the ICAC inquiry - judge shopping, false promises to clients and the extraction of a dubious payment - are nipping at his heels.

The ICAC made adverse findings against Mr Hart and sent the brief of evidence to the Department of Public Prosecutions.

Police have now charged Mr Hart with 11 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

ICAC prosecution outcomes updated 26 August 2014:

The Department of Attorney General and Justice commenced proceedings against Mr Hart for 10 counts of the offence of acting with intent to pervert the course of justice under section 319 of the Crimes Act, and one count of the offence of obtaining property with false pretence under section 179 of the Crimes Act. On 18 November 2013, Mr Hart pleaded guilty to five section 319 offences.

On 22 August 2014 Mr Hart was convicted and sentenced to 2 years 9 months imprisonment with a non parole period of 1 year 10 months.

Coincidentally, a John Hart (chair of the Liberal Party’s North Sydney Forum, vice-chair of Restaurant and Catering Australia's NSW/ACT state council and a Federal Government’s National Centre for Vocational Education Research board member) is also to appear before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption Operation Spicer investigation. Although he has twice been removed from the witness list schedule for the week beginning 25 August 2014.

Tony 'I live to freeload' Abbott and the public purse

Remember when Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a great show of rejecting an alleged 2.4 per cent increase to his $507,338 per annum parliamentary salary – even though the remuneration tribunal had made it clear he was never getting an increase in 2014 in the first place?

Well, the Remuneration Tribunal Determination 2014/16: Members of Parliament –Travelling Allowance has been published and it seems that from 31 August 2014 he still has a rather generous allowance for those many nights staying in a self-contained flat at the Australian Federal Police training college in Canberra:

Prime Minister shall be provided with accommodation and sustenance up to a limit of $560 for each overnight stay in a place other than an official establishment or the Prime Minister’s home base. Accommodation and sustenance at official establishments shall be provided at government expense…..

In exceptional circumstances, the Commonwealth may pay the accommodation and sustenance costs incurred by the Prime Minister

where those costs exceed $560 where:

(i) those costs are incurred in respect of overnight stays in a place other than an official establishment or the Prime Minister’s home base; and

(ii) the overnight stay is occasioned by official business as the Prime Minister

Abbott already takes full advantage of his prime ministerial travel allowance:

Snapshot from The Canberra Times 27 August 2014

UPDATE

Unfortunately for Abbott, his pork pies to his senators have also come back to haunt him as those leaks to the media continue.

The Sydney Morning Herald 28 August 2014:

Tony Abbott broke with tradition and skipped an annual black tie dinner held for government senators when he attended a party fund-raiser in Melbourne on Monday night….

Almost every government senator attended the dinner at the Boathouse restaurant in Canberra. The leader is always invited and usually attends, Fairfax has been told.

This year Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop and Nationals Leader Warren Truss were the Coalition star attractions.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said Mr Abbott "receives a lot of requests to attend functions. Unfortunately, he can't accommodate them all".

The spokeswoman said "none of the dates proposed for the Coalition senators' dinner could be accommodated".

The dinner is always scheduled for the first Monday night of the first sitting week after the winter break.

One source said Mr Abbott's absence from the dinner was partly behind Senator Macdonald's decision to publicly question the Prime Minister's priorities.

They expressed surprise that the Prime Minister would choose to attend a fund-raiser instead of spending time with senators, some of whom have openly opposed the leadership on budget measures, the Racial Discrimination Act and the planned parental leave scheme. 

The Australian 28 August 2014:

LIBERAL and Nationals senators were gathering for their annual black-tie dinner on Monday night when a whisper went around the room that Tony Abbott wouldn’t be coming. As they chattered over drinks at the Boat House restaurant in Canberra, the senators heard the Prime Minister had to skip the event this year to attend to national security matters.

Only the next day did they learn they had been rubbed out of their leader’s diary so he could get to a fundraising dinner in Melbourne the same night….

Whether the grievance is a dinner cancellation, a late arrival or an overnight policy switch on racial discrimination laws, the backbench sees a recurring problem: a lack of respect for party colleagues…..

Tuesday’s meeting heard a rebuke about the “brains trust” in the Prime Minister’s office that keeps springing surprises on the backbench, while several MPs warned about the unpopularity of budget measures including the $7 copayment on GP visits.

Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent challenged Education Minister Christopher Pyne on the $5 billion cuts to university funding.

NSW Liberal Russell Matheson questioned whether key ­policies were being neglected by merging portfolios such as health and sport and aged care.

Queensland Liberal National Party MP Warren Entsch was sharply critical of the way MPs would first learn of decisions by reading about them in the newspapers.

That point was drummed home when one MP stood to complain about the way Abbott abandoned the amendments to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act without any consultation with the backbench.

“We may as well not exist, that’s what it comes down to,” said one member of the party room yesterday.

The argument from MPs is that if they are consulted they have some ownership of the outcome. Right now, they feel, they are being denied the opportunity to be even seen to contribute to a decision, let alone get the ear of the leader.

As usual, some of the concerns focus on Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, who is blamed for the “command and control” style of government.