Australia's new, "relaxed" illegal immigrant policy having the predictable effect already

The illegals have resumed coming. This is the second boatload in a week. The flood is resuming now that John Howard's conservative policies have been abandoned and replaced by incautious Leftist feelgood nonsense

A boatload of suspected Middle Eastern refugees has been discovered off Australia's north-western coast. A boat carrying 17 people pulled up alongside a floating gas facility and oil tanker owned by Australian Energy Development in the Timor Sea, about 200 kilometres off the Kimberley coast, about 10.30am yesterday.

The incident comes after 14 people, including nine Afghans, were intercepted by the Royal Australian Navy off the Kimberley coast last Thursday and has fuelled concerns that changes to immigration policy by the Rudd Government will trigger a wave of people smuggling.

The Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Chris Evans, said the people had been moved onto a navy vessel and would be taken to Christmas Island, where they would be placed in immigration detention and undergo health, security and identity checks. He said the nationalities of the group and the reason for the voyage was unknown at this stage. It is understood those on the vessel were mainly Afghans but included three Indonesian crew, a woman and a teenage boy.

Senator Evans said it was the second unauthorised boat arrival in Australian waters this year; there were five cases last year. But the Opposition immigration spokeswoman, Sharman Stone, said the Government's approach to abolish temporary protection visas had encouraged asylum seekers to "test the waters".

Yesterday's arrival came hours before the Red Cross warned that more than 200,000 people in the north of Afghanistan could be forced to flee their homes this winter because of drought, insecurity and rising food prices.

A crew member from the tanker, who did not wish to be named, said one of the Afghans said the boat had been at sea for 10 days. "They had a little flag which had 'help' written on it. They were in distress . they were very glad; they had smiles from ear to ear when they come alongside us." The crew member said the wooden boat was about 10 metres long with little room for everyone. It was leaking, and those on board were bailing water out he said.

Source





Another government computer system disaster

When will these stupid bureaucrats realize that they must buy software entirely "off the shelf" if they want it to work well. There are very few people in the world -- Bill Gates and a few others -- who can make a large computer program work. And "adapting" a program written by someone else is even harder

An internal spoof video made by Tasmania's besieged Motor Registry office has been made public on internet website YouTube, severely embarrassing the state Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources. The video, in song form, features all 15 staff at the Motor Registry office who worked on its new $20 million computer system bemoaning its defects and continuing problems in the rush to take the system "live" by late August.

Last week, Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges admitted the five-week-old car registration and licence renewal computer system was badly malfunctioning. More than 3000 duplicate driver's licences have been mailed out in error across Tasmania and Service Tasmania staff are experiencing difficulties and delays renewing car registrations. Police have also wrongly fined motorists for supposedly driving unregistered vehicles or when unlicensed, when their renewals have simply not been processed correctly.

The five-minute YouTube video features a motor registry team member, "Steve", who used to work as a contract specialist on the troubled computer system, singing a specially written song We Will Go Live to the tune of Gloria Gaynor's hit single I Will Survive. Pictured wearing pyjamas, the video details how the Motor Registry team had to delay the launch of the new computer system from June 10 to August 25 because of multiple defects in the software platform purchased and adapted from interstate......

The clip was posted on YouTube as a "tribute song" to the lengthy and troubled computer system testing process endured by the team. "The Tasmanian Motor Registry system has been under major redevelopment recently," writes "Steve" on his YouTube entry. "Most of us have been working 12-hour, seven-day weeks and while the new application was due to go live in June 2008 it was put back to August. "Here is my tribute to the testing process we endured - We Will Go Live."

Mr McIlfatrick said although he would have preferred the video had not appeared on YouTube, he did not feel it had embarrassed the department or Mr Sturges. He also assured Tasmanians the "teething problems" in the computer system were starting to be worked out. Staff have a good idea of where most of the 3000 duplicate licences were mailed, and have written to recipients asking for their return.

Source. See the video here






Parents concerned about literacy levels in South Australian schools

PARENTS are raising "serious questions" about school students' basic literacy levels because they say too many are failing simple national tests. The concerns have been raised after the state's peak school parent group viewed examples of tests given to students around the country earlier this year. Parents have described questions put to Year 9 students as "primary school standard" and want a review of the curriculum following South Australia's average results in the national literacy and numeracy tests. But primary principals want the curriculum further simplified while teachers and the Education Department have defended what is being taught in schools.

The South Australian Association of State School Organisations, which represents the parents of about 90 per cent of state school students, said the test results were more worrying in light of the "not challenging" questions. "If this is the level of question, you've got to wonder why anybody would fail to meet the minimum standard," Association director David Knuckey said. "Exactly where are the 20 per cent who have just met the minimum standards? "It raises serious questions about the basic literacy levels of our high school students (in particular)." Other parents Mr Knuckey spoke to said they remembered more difficult testing when they were at school.

The Australian Primary Principals Association wants guidelines for teachers simplified when a national curriculum is developed. President Leonie Trimper said the primary curriculum "is far too crowded".

In May, about 80,000 South Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 took part in the first national uniform testing of school students. The results, released last month, show up to 10.5 per cent of students failed to meet the minimum national benchmarks and up to 21.8 per cent just made the grade. SA students recorded scores below the national average in 15 of 20 categories and the state also had the highest proportion of students allowed to miss the test.

South Australian English Teachers Association president Alison Robertson said the standardised tests covered "a very narrow part of the curriculum". Flinders University senior lecturer in education Lyn Wilkinson agreed "more is being taught than is being tested" and felt most children were challenged further in class. "This (test) is really where you expect all Year 9 and all Year 7 kids to be. If they're not then there's cause for concern," said the specialist in basic skills testing.

Education Department chief executive Chris Robinson disputed the bar was set too low. "We don't believe that it's the curriculum that's deficient," Mr Robinson said. "The tests are designed by experts to work out what students should be able to do at their year level. The parents, with all due respect, may not be in the best position to judge what the standard of the test is." Mr Robinson said the department continually reviewed the curriculum.

The federal Education Department said the national tests were devised by state and federal governments, the non-government sector and independent experts.

State Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith yesterday said she expected this group "will use feedback to improve the tests in future years". At the time the results were released, Dr Lomax-Smith promised a raft of initiatives including intervention plans for every student who did not meet the minimum standards and coaches for principals and teachers at 32 of the state's most disadvantaged schools as part of a federally funded, $4 million two-year trial.

Opposition Education spokesman David Pisoni expected more children to score better, considering the standard of testing. "I certainly wouldn't say they (the questions) were difficult, if you were an average child you would have got about 90 per cent (correct)," he said. "If there are children that didn't meet the national benchmark, especially at Year 7 and 9 level, we've got to ask questions of the education system."

Source






Proposed Warmist laws will cost a million Australian jobs

BIG business will put more pressure on the Rudd Government to delay its emissions trading scheme - predicting a million jobs may be lost if it goes ahead. The Australian Industry Group's formal response to the Government's green paper has recommended a "gentle start" to an emissions trading scheme, with low administration costs.

In a move that was likely to fuel Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's assault on the Government's intention to start an ETS by 2010, the Ai Group warned that industries such as smelters, manufacturers and cement makers could be forced to move offshore. Its submission warned of dire consequences and comes just weeks after the Business Council of Australia predicted many businesses would go bankrupt and others would lose up to 63 per cent of their earnings under the proposed ETS.

"Ai Group believes the advantages of starting in 2010 are, as yet, ill-defined," the report said. "Ai Group's consultations suggest the benefits of taking an extra year to improve the design of the scheme could easily exceed the cost of delaying the start by a year. "Businesses accounting for well over 10 per cent of national production and around a million jobs will be affected by significant cost increases and will be at risk of carbon leakage (where companies move to countries without an ETS)." Ai Group also argued the Government shouldn't help motorists cope with rising petrol prices when an ETS started.

The Government has said it would cut the fuel excise for every cent it rose under an ETS. But the Ai Group has joined other critics who argued the burden should be shared across all sectors. "The proposal to reduce fuel excise ... should be withdrawn, and after providing appropriate additional funds for low-income households, the surplus funds should be channelled into more farsighted measures, including in support of abatement," it said.

It demanded the Government come clean about its ETS review and release the findings. The review has determined whether existing green incentives are complementary to an ETS or will cost consumers extra.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong meanwhile warned Australia's $2.1 billion commercial fishing industry was at risk from climate change. Her warnings came after the CSIRO released a report which found prawns, mud crabs and barramundi in Queensland and the Northern Territory could be affected by changing rainfall patterns.

Source