Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth among the world's most liveable cities

I have seen a fair bit of cities overseas and some do have their charms but I always feel like kissing the ground when I arrive back in Australia -- so I concur with the judgment below that Australia's State capitals are hard to beat for livability

One has to laugh a little bit, however,  over the fact that the people doing the rating were Engish  -- because 8 out of the top 10 cities were in either Australia or Canada, places in which English people tend to feel very much at ease because of similar language and customs.  You even keep the Queen as your Head of State when you move from Britain to either Australia or Canada!  But given U.S. crime rates, I am not surprised that no American city rated highly

FOUR of Australia's capital cities have been named among the world's most liveable - with Melbourne once again being named the best.

And in another coup for southerners unassuming Adelaide has overtaken Sydney in the fiercely contested rankings.

Melbourne outperformed 140 rivals to receive the Global Liveability Survey gong for a second year in a row with a near perfect score of 97.5 per cent.

It only lost points for climate, culture and petty crime.

Sydney dropped one place to seventh position despite an unchanged score, while Adelaide rocketed three places to joint fifth thanks to infrastructure improvements.  Perth was ninth, down one place.

Economist Intelligence Unit survey editor Jon Copestake said just 1.6 percentage points separated the five Aussie cities surveyed.

"Australian cities continue to thrive in terms of liveability not only do they benefit from the natural advantages of low population density, but they have continued to improve with some high profile infrastructure investments," Mr Copestake said from London.

"In Adelaide, projects completed in recent years under the Strategic Infrastructure Plan for South Australia have been enough to move the city above Sydney, whose score is unchanged," Mr Copestake said.

"Melbourne may claim national bragging rights (in topping the rankings), but four of the five Australian cities surveyed are in the top 10 of the global index, and are separated by just 1.6 percentage points," he said.

Elsewhere in the world the impact of the Arab Spring, and the fallout from the Euro zone crisis, are still being felt.

Many cities in the Middle East and North Africa have seen downward revisions of their scores due to civil unrest.

The ongoing civil war in Syria saw the capital, Damascus, fall furthest as violence intensified, dropping 13 places to 130th and into the very bottom tier of liveability with a score of 46.3 per cent.

London, which recently hosted the Olympic Games, saw a drop in score as a result of riots that took place in the UK last year, causing it to fall two places to 55th in the ranking.

Dhaka in Bangladesh has the unenviable title of being the least liveable location surveyed.

The global liveability report surveys 140 locations around the world to assess the best or the worst living conditions.

It originated as a means of testing whether human resource departments needed to assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.

It has since evolved as a broad benchmarking tool used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test locations against one another.

Cities are scored on political and social stability, crime rates and access to quality health care.

It also measures the diversity and standard of cultural events and the natural environment; education (school and university); and the standard of infrastructure, including public transport.

SOURCE




Pervasive anti-man attitudes

NEWS that Virgin Airlines asked Sydney fireman Johnny McGirr, 33, to change seats on a flight because it was company policy that men not be seated next to unaccompanied minors, prompted a public backlash that has forced Virgin to review their stance.

A number of child abuse experts have come forward and denounced the policy, claiming it's an over-reaction and potentially discriminatory.

That Jetstar, Qantas and Air New Zealand share these guidelines was something Virgin was quick to point out last week.

What is significant about this entire situation is not that it's a reflection on these companies so much as it is on a society that persists in demonising men.

We live in a world where "stranger danger" is a catch phrase, but it's become a gendered/sexed term that constructs men almost exclusively as potential predators or, as McGirr bluntly stated in relation to the Virgin fiasco, potential paedophile(s).  In other words: guilty until proven innocent.

We've allowed fear to govern common sense and now inform policy - and at the expense of men.

Don't think for a moment this type of unfair reckoning is only happening in our skies. The notion that men can cause sexual and physical harm to children anywhere, anytime, is firmly grounded in our culture. You've only to talk to male schoolteachers (a vanishing breed) to discover how much aspects of their professionalism, for example, is curtailed on a daily basis purely because of their sex.

Men (and some women) of my acquaintance often express how uneasy they feel that they can no longer offer comfort to a child in distress, start conversations, coach, play with, be alone in a room or, God forbid, enjoy a light tussle, for fear of how their actions will be read.

The prevailing attitude that men are predators needing to be policed and leashed is affecting relationships everywhere - from the classroom to the family room.

The Virgin policy is simply a manifestation of this invidious creep in attitude towards men, one that has some women and mothers able to declare quite openly and without risk of being called to account, that they feel comfortable with Virgin's stance.

How can anyone be comfortable that an entire sex is basically maligned for the actions of a few depraved brutes? How can we accept that we're altering our behaviours and perceptions of others because of this?

Would these same women be comfortable if their intentions regarding their own and others children were called into question?

As McGirr stated, this kind of approach ignores the good that any male does regardless of his standing in society.

Sadly, no matter what measures we put in place, there will always be monsters who abuse children. I know, because I survived the sick attentions of one. Every day between the ages of nine and 11, my mother's then male partner sexually abused me.

In many ways, what happened to me reflects the statistics of abuse and that is, overwhelmingly, it's someone close to the child and the family (usually a man) who is the abuser - not a stranger.

Regardless of this awful statistic, abuse is not the norm. Yet, as a society, we allow the minority of sick and perverted people to govern our lives and, lately, the opportunity to form new connections as well.

Children need positive male role models. But if we keep construing men as potentially unsafe, how are children to discover them? How are good men to be given the chance to be these role models?

And let's face it, there are some evil women too - you can't let an entire sex off the hook here.

We make rules and laws to protect our children (and ourselves) from something that most likely will never happen. We regard men and strangers with suspicion, second-guess their intentions; look askance at their professional and personal conduct. Consequently, we develop a toxic and unhealthy relationship with each other.

We suffer the little children and turn them and those we silently accuse into victims of crimes that have never been committed, thus giving us all life sentences.

SOURCE





Child Safety Inquiry hears at-risk children in Queensland Indigenous communities has no easy solution

More children being "stolen", it seems

THE problem of poor parenting in Queensland Indigenous communities is rapidly getting worse, with four in ten kids removed from home coming from Indigenous households.

The Child Safety Inquiry heard this morning the problem of at-risk children in Queensland Indigenous communities had no easy solutions.

Commissioner Tim Carmody said 40 per cent of out-of-home care was needed by Indigenous kids who were staying there longer and "at significant cost to government."

Mr Carmody said Queenslanders had a right to ask what was happening to the millions of dollars in funding designed to remedy the problem.  "People who pay taxes have expectations, not unreasonably, that their money is well spent," Mr Carmody said.

Former Director General of the Communities Department Linda Apelt said the high rates of removal of Indigenous kids mirrored a serious social problem.  "It is a reflecion of what is going on in our communities," Ms Apelt said.  "Indigenous groups in Queensland continue to be some of the most marginalised, disadvantaged groups in Australia."

Ms Apelt said the troubled Indigenous community of Palm Island off Townsville had created a local group making positive steps in protecting vulnerable kids.

The Palm Island Community Company  was looking after at-risk children on the island using well trained local people, she said.

A safe house allowed children to be temporarily protected from violence and other dangers:

"There is absolutely no doubt now that children are better cared for than being picked up by a helicopter in the middle of the night and taken to some strange place elsewhere in Queensland," Ms Apelt said.

SOURCE




ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ROUNDUP

Three articles below

Coalition will back Nauru, Manus centres

Tony and Julia stared one-another down and Julia crumpled first. She needed to.  It is a great triumph for Abbott's political judgment.  The new scheme won't work under Labor but it gives Tony the tools to make it work when he gains power next year

URGENT government legislation to reinstate offshore processing of asylum seekers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea will have the support of the federal opposition.

"We've been asking the prime minister to do this for four years," opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison told ABC television on Tuesday.

But the coalition won't back any attempt to resurrect the Malaysia people-swap deal through the "back door".

The legislation, likely to be rushed into parliament on Tuesday, will not nominate specific sites for offshore processing.

Instead that will be done by ministerial regulation, a measure that could be overturned by a vote of parliament.

Mr Morrison described the Malaysia deal, quashed by the High Court last year, as a "purely hypothetical" option.  Immigration Minister Chris Bowen welcomed Mr Morrison's support.

The man who headed an expert panel on asylum seeker policy options says processing centres in Nauru and on Manus Island in PNG will not operate as detention centres.

"It will be quite different to what was set up last time," former defence force chief Angus Houston told ABC radio.  "These will be much better conditions for people to live in."

However offshore processing would still act as a deterrent to people risking their lives at sea.

"We believe spending time at Nauru or Manus will reduce the attractiveness of the option of trying to come to Australia on a leaky boat," Mr Houston said.

SOURCE

No 5-star treatment for refugees: Abbott

ASYLUM seekers who may be stuck in tents on Nauru under new laws to revive offshore processing cannot expect five-star or even three-star treatment, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

New legislation before parliament, modelled on the recommendations of former defence chief Angus Houston's expert panel, is still being debated after a marathon session into Tuesday night.

It means offshore processing on Nauru and Papua New Guinea will be allowed to proceed with coalition support.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has conceded asylum seekers initially may be living in tents.

Mr Abbott says Ms Gillard could have had the centres ready by now.

"If they got cracking on Nauru at Christmas time, as they should have, the centre would be done and they wouldn't be living in tents," he told the Nine Network on Wednesday.

However, Mr Abbott said if people were living in tents, "so be it".  "People who arrive illegally by boat need to be treated humanely, but they can't expect five-star treatment or even three-star treatment," he said.  "The important thing is we have rigorous offshore processing.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne does not believe it is humane to house people in tents.  She also says it's costly to set up the tents and the army doesn't have the resources to man the centres.

"It just highlights, on the one hand Angus Houston is saying people will be treated better this time, and in the next breath we are going to be setting up these huge, temporary tent camps, and we are taking away people's human rights," Senator Milne told reporters.

Mental illness programs will be needed to deal with people who have been "driven to despair" by the situation, she said.

Nationals senate leader Barnaby Joyce says asylum seekers will regard the prospect of living in a tent as a better alternative than losing their life at sea.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon wants a robust parliamentary debate about the government's plan.  "It ought to be debated thoroughly, it ought not to be gagged," he told reporters.

SOURCE

Processing to start in weeks but detention to last years

THE first asylum seekers will be processed on Nauru and Manus Island within a month but kept there for years under plans by the government to speed up the establishment of detention camps on the islands.

The government said today these could include some 200 asylum seekers who have been picked up since 4.45pm on Monday, the cut-off time set by the government for being guaranteed processing on Christmas Island and resettlement in Australia.
The Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers comprised by Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston c Professor Michael L'Estrange R and Paris Aristotle

With legislation to re-establish a harsher version of the "Pacific solution" set to pass the House of Representatives today, and the Senate by the end of the week, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will send a team of defence officials to each location on Friday to scope out sites for new detention facilities.

These will take several months to build, but Ms Gillard said the first people sent there would be housed in temporary accommodation, such as tents.

She reaffirmed that those sent there would be subject to "no advantage" principles and would be resettled no sooner than if they were in a refugee camp in Malaysia, Indonesia or elsewhere. The government would discuss with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees a suitable time but estimates range as high as four to five years.

The government is acting after an expert panel, comprising the former Defence Force chief Angus Houston, the refugee expert Paris Aristotle and the former diplomat Michael L'Estrange, issued 22 recommendations.

It said until a long-term regional solution was reached, short-term circuit breakers such as Nauru and Manus Island were needed. They also said the Malaysia plan was integral to stopping the boats but it needed further negotiated safeguards for vulnerable asylum seekers sent back to Malaysia before it should be implemented.

Ms Gillard rang her Malaysian counterpart yesterday to get talks under way, but even if a deal is reached, the Parliament would never allow Malaysia, meaning Nauru and Manus Island will become the centrepieces of the new policy.

Ms Gillard phoned the President of Nauru, Sprent Dabwido, and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O'Neill, yesterday to request the use of their territory. They agreed but last night a Papua New Guinean politician, Powes Parkop, protested against the use of Manus Island.

The opposition has agreed to pass the legislation enabling the "Pacific solution" but was merciless in in its attacks on the government yesterday for abandoning the policy four years ago.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said Ms Gillard bore responsibility for the 22,000 "illegal immigrants" who had arrived in that time, the almost 1000 who died trying to reach Australia and for the $4.7 billion hit to the budget.

Mr Abbott said he was not blaming Ms Gillard personally for the deaths but "the government's policy failures gave the people smugglers a business model".

"Let us thank God that after four years the government has come to its senses and admitted that it was wrong," he said.

Ms Gillard refused to engage but said as either Prime Minister, deputy prime minster or just an MP: "I accept responsibility for my actions".

Mr Aristotle said adopting the recommendations would not blow the budget but save money.

Presently, the government has budgeted $5 billion over four years to accommodate 450 boat arrivals each month but this figure would have blown out because about 1800 a month are arriving at the moment.

The panel was advised by the Department of Finance that all its recommendations, including Malaysia, would cost $4.6 billion over four years.

SOURCE

"Hate speech" to be unsympathetic to illegal immigrants?

The article below refers to "boat people"  -- mainly Afghans and Pakistanis who fly from Pakistan to Indonesia aboard  commercial airliners and then undertake a rather risky trip to Australia aboard Indonesian fishing boats.  They are clearly not refugees but rather illegal immigrants.  The Australiian government, however, refers to them as "asylum seekers" -- but they are basically frauds relying on a Leftist government's sympathy for lawbreakers.

THE Jewish community should not be misled by compassion from the Holocaust into supporting Muslim boat people, the owner of The Australian Jewish News has argued in an article condemned by some as hate speech.

In the latest edition, under the headline "Curb the compassion", Robert Magid said Jews tended to want to appear more compassionate than others because of their history of suffering oppression and persecution, but "the Jews who fled the Holocaust fled certain death. I doubt there is a single boat person in that situation."

Mr Magid said "unscrupulous" illegal immigrants pushed genuine asylum seekers down the queue and that immigration in other countries had led to ghettos and calls for Islamic law. He suggested that hiding among Muslim boat people who had destroyed their documents would be an ideal way for al-Qaeda to smuggle a terrorist network into Australia.

The backlash came quickly. An open letter on Facebook by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society had attracted nearly 400 signatures last night, while liberal and conservative religious leaders united against Mr Magid.

Leading Orthodox Rabbi Ralph Genende wrote that although he was scared of Islamic extremism, there were no limits to compassion, and most fears about Muslim immigration were unfounded.

Jewish author Arnold Zable said: "Refugees and asylum seekers are only doing what we would do in their shoes, what Jews did in the immediate post-war era as they sought a way to a better life, and what Jews have done for centuries - including the massive emigration in the wake of the 1880s pogroms in Russia."

Last night, Mr Magid said he stood by every word. "I think the majority of people agree with me but they are not willing to come out and say what I am prepared to say. It is a very cogent statement." He said he was neither xenophobic nor racist.

SOURCE






Julia caves in on "asylum seekers"

Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants asylum seekers to be processed on Nauru and Manus Island with the government to introduce legislation to parliament tomorrow.

Family reunion for boat arrivals will also be scrapped as a matter of urgency and all 22 recommendations from the Houston panel report adopted in principle by the government.

Ms Gillard said she wouldn’t claim a “victory” in the asylum debate.

The panel’s recommendation dealt a blow to the government’s Malaysia people swap, deeming the deal not yet up to protection and security standards needed.

After more than a year of clinging to the deal and refusing to adopt Nauru without the people swap, Ms Gillard said she would move immediately to reinstate the Howard government processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island.  “I will compromise in order to enact the recommendations of this report,” Ms Gillard said.

The government has accepted recommendations that more work be done on its Malaysia deal.

SOURCE





Patients reject eHealth

Or does it reject them?  I tried to register but the system bombed in the middle of the very lengthy process concerned

Only 5029 people have joined the federal government's controversial $466 million eHealth system since it was launched on July 1.

Figures obtained from the Department of Health and Ageing show that each individual to take up the personally controlled electronic health record system has so far cost the government $92,662.

Patients can volunteer to join the system, which stores all their health information, including test results and prescriptions, in a national database. It is the first time patients will be able to access their medical details.

The Coalition's eHealth spokesman, Andrew Southcott, compared the slow adoption to the government's problems with the Building the Education Revolution program and pink batts installation.

"The government's own target and benchmark was 500,000 sign-ups in the first year," he said.

"At the current rate, if they maintain this pace they will get approximately 60,000 so well short of the 500,000 and they are anticipating 6.8 million within four years.

"The low take-up shows that doctors and patients don't see it as being of much value at this point in time. This is the government that brought us school halls [BER refurbishment] and pink batts and lost control of our borders."

Dr Southcott said the Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, was avoiding talking about the scheme.

"The government doesn't want to be associated with another disaster," he said. "They championed it before the last election but they don't really seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for it now."

A spokesman for Ms Plibersek said the service's introduction was a "marathon, not a sprint".

"That's the sensible way to deliver this significant reform," he said.

The Department of Health and Ageing said the implementation of eHealth was always going to be a staged process. "We are delighted that without any fanfare or publicity that so many Australians have already registered, and a constant daily growth in registrations, the vast majority online," a spokeswoman said.

The Australian Medical Association's national president Steve Hambleton said the sign-up figures were evidence the government should have made inclusion in the eHealth system automatic and let patients choose to "opt out".

Dr Hambleton said the medical profession supported a one-stop source of medical information, but a critical mass of people was needed for it to function properly.

"There is no health information on the system yet anyway and GPs, for example, still haven't got software in their computers that lets them talk to the system."

Of the 5029 registered so far 89 per cent of them had registered online while the remainder registered by phone, in writing or in person at a Medicare shopfront.

SOURCE





Male nurse 'humiliated' by Qantas policy

A nurse was made to feel as if he had a sign that read "kiddie fiddler" over his head after he was moved away from a young girl on a Qantas flight, he said.  Daniel McCluskie said he had a similar experience to a firefighter on a Virgin Australia flight when he was made to switch seats with a woman because he was sitting next to an unaccompanied child.

Qantas has defended its policy, saying it is consistent with that of other airlines around the world and reflects parents' concerns.

Mr McCluskie, 31, is a senior nurse at the local health district in Wagga Wagga and was flying from the city to Sydney in June when he said he was humiliated by the cabin crew.  He was seated in the second last row of the flight next to a girl he estimated to be 10 years old.

After the safety demonstration, a flight attendant asked a woman on the opposite side of the aisle to swap seats with Mr McCluskie.

After the plane was in the air and the meals had been served, Mr McCluskie said he went to the back of the aircraft to ask why he had been moved and was told it was the policy of Qantas not to have men sit next to unaccompanied children.

"There were people that looked during the actual move, people looked at me or looked around because there was a bit of a ruckus at the back of the plane," he said.  "And then the man in front of me throughout the flight kept looking at me and obviously my sense of paranoia was heightened, if you want to call it that, because of what had occurred.

"After the plane had taken off, the air hostess thanked the woman that had moved but not me, which kind of hurt me or pissed me off a bit more because it appeared I was in the wrong, because it seemed I had this sign I couldn't see above my head that said 'child molester' or 'kiddie fiddler' whereas she did the gracious thing and moved to protect the greater good of the child."

Mr McCluskie said he has working-with-children checks almost yearly and told the flight staff he found his treatment and the policy insulting and discriminatory.  He asked to speak to a manager when the plane landed in Sydney and was told there was no one available on the weekend who could talk to him.  Instead he was given a customer care card to fill out with his feedback.

Mr McCluskie said he did not hear back from Qantas and followed up his complaint with an email more than a week ago but still did not hear back from the airline.

It was not until he tweeted about it last Wednesday – two days before the news broke of Virgin's treatment of one its male customers – that he got a response.  "They got back with a semi-sympathetic apology, if that," he said.

"I was just told it was the policy and it was what people who send unaccompanied minors on flights want and it's not their fault, which I disagreed with at the time ...  "I think it absolutely sucks; it's totally and utterly discriminatory in my mind. It's a complete and utter generalisation ...

"You don't know who the person is and it's highly unlikely [that a child will be harmed on a flight]. If a child is going to be harmed or hurt it's probably going to be by someone closer to them than a stranger on a flight.  "I was absolutely fuming. I couldn't have been angrier at Qantas."

Mr McCluskie said he would like to see the policy either scrapped completely, have parents fly with their children if they were really concerned or have Qantas chaperones fly with children and look after them.  "I hate to say this but it is a sign of that reverse discrimination that occasionally exists out there," he said.

Virgin Australia announced a review of its policy on Friday after a backlash to the story of fireman Johnny McGirr, who was asked to move seats away from two children on a Brisbane to Sydney flight in April.

A Qantas spokesman confirmed the policy, but said it was rare that a passenger was asked to swap seats after boarding the plane.

"Qantas's policy is consistent with other airlines around the world and is designed to minimise risk," he said.  [What risk? Are males automatically risky]  "The policy reflects parents' concerns and the need to maximise the child's safety and well-being. 

"In most instances unaccompanied children are allocated seats prior to boarding and there are no issues.  "On the rare occasion where a male passenger is seated next to an unaccompanied child, airlines need to take care when moving passengers to ensure this is done discreetly and respectfully."

Qantas policy states that unaccompanied minors must not be seated next to an adult male customer or in an exit row and in some circumstances, a window seat.

Where possible Qantas aims to seat children near crew areas or next to an empty seat.  "We try to pre-seat children in the most appropriate areas. However, due to late bookings we will sometimes need to move the child to seat them in a more appropriate area," the spokesman said.

In 2010, British Airways changed its policy that men travelling alone could not sit next to unaccompanied children after they were taken to court for contravening the Sex Discrimination Act.

British Airways now seats unaccompanied children in their own area after businessman Mirko Fischer sued the company when flight staff asked him to move away from a child after he had switched seats with his pregnant wife.  BA denied its policy was discriminatory but admitted to sex discrimination in Mr Fisher's case and agreed to pay him £2161 in costs and £750 in damages.

SOURCE





Cushy public servicejobs going in Qld.

Flowers were delivered to the women whose public servant temporary contracts finished, George Street desks were cleared out and many tears were shed.

But sacked public servant "Graham Smith"* had just one question for Premier Campbell Newman: "What impact will our job losses have on your jobs target?"  "The first thing I will be doing on Monday is going down to Centrelink and registering as an unemployed person," Graham said.

"Campbell Newman has his four per cent election promise and with thousands of jobs going today and thousands more going in the coming months, it is important that people are registering as unemployed," he said.

"So I am going to make sure that I am being counted as an unemployed person ... so that the premier knows the impact that this is really having on the economy and the unemployment rate."

"Graham" is bitterly frustrated. His particular skill makes him readily identifiable in the public service.

The temporary research job he took in February was his dream job, and his boss personally wrote to his director-general and pleaded for his job to be continued.  "They didn’t even read it he said," Graham said.

In January this year, then-LNP leader Campbell Newman promised to cut Queensland’s unemployment rate to 4 per cent over six years and create 420,000 jobs.  In May, Queensland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 5.1 per cent to 5.7 per cent in May, according to figures released on June 7.

Around 3000 temporary, casual and contract postitions finished in the Queensland public service.

Mr Newman has already indicated the Queensland public service is employing around 20,000 more public servants than it can afford.

The State Government on Thursday night reduced the retrenchment notice period from six months to four months for permanent public servants.  And on Thursday, brisbanetimes.com.au confirmed that Mr Newman had set up a formal group to look at future public sector job and budget cuts for government departments.

Yesterday, Mr Newman said he did not know how many positions finished on Friday, a point scoffed at by public service union boss Alex Scott.

"Director’s-general are reporting on a fortnightly basis to the director-general of Premiers (Department) about employment levels and what is happening with temporaries," Mr Scott said.  "The politicians needed to only ask one person and they would have had an accurate figure."

Meanwhile, Queensland’s leading business organisation said the types of jobs being shed from the public sector could be absorbed in the private sector.  Queensland’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry president David Goodwin said there was work in the administration, information technology, planning and research areas.  "There is ready made equivalents in the private sector," Mr Goodwin said.

He said many private sector operator believed the public sector had swollen during the last term of the Bligh government.  "We had 28,000 new public servants taken in the last term of the Bligh Government," he said.

Mr Goodwin said he did feel for public servants that lost contracts yesterday.  "Many of them who were on contracts were paid very well for a number of years," he said.  "They were paid well over market rate.  "They have had their good years and my hope is that they have put away for those years when they don’t have that job security."

Mr Goodwin said some individuals might find it hard, but said most people recognised the private sector - the media and banking sectors - were two areas really shedding staff.

"I really do think there is nothing sacred about being a public servant. There is a financial reality that applies to the private sector as well as the public sector."

Centrelink is offering financial help to public servants who have unexpectedly lost their positions.  "These include support services, such as social workers and financial information officers, who can provide free financial information to help people maximise their financial situation," media spokesperson Kevin Room said.

SOURCE

There is something good in the Anglosphere

Our Foreign Minister can be very emphatic. Bob Carr told an audience last month it is "too risky" for Australia "even to glance in the direction of talk of an Anglosphere".

That is, to even think about talking about the deep relationship we have with the English-speaking world would be international relations suicide - we would offend our neighbours and lose our friends.

It was clear who Carr was criticising. His speech didn't mention the Opposition Leader, but Tony Abbott is a big fan of the Anglosphere. Earlier this year, Carr's predecessor Kevin Rudd was explicit: Abbott's belief in the Anglosphere is one reason he must be kept out of government.

But Abbott is right. Our heritage is not something to be ashamed of. It is not a coincidence the oldest surviving democracies are in the Anglosphere. Or that a tradition of liberty, stretching back to the Magna Carta, has given English-speaking nations a greater protection of human rights and private property. We ought to be proud, not bashful. Sure, it's more fashionable to talk of the "Asian century". But the Anglosphere will shape Australia's cultural and political views for a century. It's a shame only conservatives feel comfortable talking about it.

To accept that old relationships should endure isn't to close us off from the Asian century. Instead, the acceptance will allow us to engage that future more confidently.

Because the Anglosphere is not about the language. It is about a collection of values - individual liberty, the common law, parliamentary democracy and open markets - we share with Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the US. It recognises that different nations are joined by a common political culture. Carr and Rudd can protest all they want: the existence of that common culture is beyond question.

Yet in his speech, Carr threw every barb he could at the Anglosphere, dragging up the spectre of Pauline Hanson. This is a standard trope when anybody raises our English-speaking heritage - a suggestion that conservatives are not so much interested in the Anglosphere, per se, but the Anglo-Saxon race.

That charge is total nonsense. The English-speaking world includes the most successful multicultural nations. All but Britain and Ireland are built almost entirely on immigration. And their success is entirely due to their institutional heritage - a liberalism that says all people, regardless of background, can peacefully coexist under a legal system that treats them neutrally. It is thanks to our inheritance that Australia's multiculturalism functions as well as it does. We must not forget the former while we pursue the latter.

And spruikers of the Asian century ought to be cautious. A highly praised book was published in 2005 titled Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century. That didn't work out. Likewise, the Asian century may turn out very different from what our best and brightest predict.

For instance, if China's economy takes a dive, the region may well be led by India - a country almost as big, certainly more free, and more closely integrated with Australia.

Geography is less important than ever. And regions are less important than ever. Globalisation, technology, and near-zero shipping costs have taken care of that. The 21st century will be about relationships and ideas, not proximity.

The Labor Party's intellectuals have said for decades Australia must assert its independence. You know the drill. We must not play deputy sheriff for the US. We ought to pursue a strong, self-sufficient foreign policy. We must be confident in our identity.

So it's bizarre to hear our Foreign Minister claim that Australia should downplay its historical relationship with the English-speaking world - not because that relationship doesn't exist, but because simply stating it might offend our neighbours.

You would think that was the opposite of what a confident nation should do

SOURCE






Welcomed with open attitudes

By Eliza Sum

I LOVE the disbelieving reactions from Australians when they find out that I'm not one of them and have spent half my life elsewhere.  A common response is: "What? But you're more Aussie than I am!"

It's true. I'm an alien - albeit a legal one - and spent more than half of my life growing up in tropical Singapore before moving to suburban Geelong as a 15-year-old.

But despite my red passport and inherent love for laksa, I feel more welcome Down Under than in my birth country.

This, it seems, puts me at odds with Dr Stanley Chiang, the Victorian Chinese Community Council president, who believes Asians are still treated as foreigners.

"As soon as people see your face, they say, 'Where do you come from?'," he was reported as saying in yesterday's Herald Sun.   "Unfortunately, in Australia people still tend to think you're not Australian - if you look Asian you can't be Australian, which is not right," Dr Chiang said, adding the attitude could be traced back to the White Australia policy.

I've met hundreds of people from varying walks of life through high school, university and my work as a journalist, and can confidently say that Dr Chiang's views go against most of my experiences with Australians in the past nine years.

Almost all my friends and colleagues are Caucasian. So I like to think I have a pretty good handle on the Aussie lifestyle and outlook, which has been nothing but warm, cordial and embracing regardless of my skin colour.

Despite the perceived racism in this country, I've never been called a "chink" (not to my face, anyway), and have even been dubbeda "true-blue Aussie" on occasion.  That's pretty welcoming, don't you think?

I still remember my first day of year 10 public school as an awkward tomboy - it was already the early noughties, but I was one of only two Asian females in the entire student population.

A group of girls in my year level went out of their way to befriend me, even though I was shy, quiet and hyper-aware of my foreign accent.

As we grew closer, they gently ribbed me about my inability to pronounce the "th" sound, (froth became froff, three was tree), but it was all in jest.  I gave as good as I got, teasing them when they failed to stomach spicy food and couldn't use chopsticks at my family's dinner table.

Still, life as an Asian in a mostly Anglo regional town wasn't without challenges and the occasional insensitive, ignorant comment.

One day at school, a boy I'd never met asked if I arrived on a boat. Naively, I asked a classmate: "Does that mean they think I'm poor and can't afford a plane ticket?"

That was especially awkward, confusing and hurtful, but I moved on from it.

Today, I write for a regional newspaper, barrack loud and proud for the mighty Cats and love feeling the sea breeze in my hair down at Bells Beach.

I've travelled to every mainland state, panned for gold at Sovereign Hill and trekked around Uluru.

I adore Australians and their unique sense of humour and chronic inability to take anything seriously.

And even though I haven't developed a taste for beer or Vegemite, and can't stand on a surfboard to save my life, I feel more at home in Oz than anywhere else.

Yes, I still identify with being Singaporean but just don't see any point in the us-versus-them mentality that so many Asians have adopted, especially among older generations.

"My father says the Aussies will always treat us as second-class citizens just because we're Asian," an international student once friend moaned.  "He would never let me work here."

Sure, I can't change my skin tone, eyes or the colour of my hair, but I can control the way I behave - I don't feel like a foreigner because I don't act like one.

I'm comfortable in this country whether I'm screaming like a banshee at Kardinia Park while rifling into a bucket of hot chips, or tucking into a delicious yum cha lunch in Chinatown with my parents.

People occasionally ask where I'm from, but I don't get shirty when they do.

Of course, the odd idiot who lets fly with puerile remarks will still exist, but my experiences of good Aussies outweigh any fleeting moments of racism.

My fellow Asians, it's time to let go of the identity insecurity, educate the ignorant ... and maybe even share a laksa or two with them.

SOURCE




Tasmanian trade-off: jobs or trees

These are good times for Tasmanian trees but less so for Tasmanians.

Gunns, formerly the island state's biggest company, this week all but ended its eight-year battle to build a $2.3 billion pulp mill in northern Tasmania. With it goes potentially thousands of jobs.

And tomorrow, state and federal ministers meet yet again to try to salvage a $276 million "peace deal" between loggers and conservationists to end three decades of the "forest wars."

Although unrelated, the two events highlight the challenges facing Australia's least populous and poorest state, unkindly dubbed by one West Australian MP "the Greece of Australia".
Advertisement

While comparisons to Europe's crisis epicentre may be stretching it, the economic gulf between Tasmanians and the mainland has lately been growing deeper and wider.

July's figures out today show the island's 6.5 per cent jobless rate is the nation's highest - albeit a sizeable improvement on a much worse showing in June at 7.4 per cent.

In the most recent full-year national accounts, covering 2010-11, Tasmania's growth lagged all but flood-hit Queensland. The 0.8 per cent expansion rate was barely a third of Victoria and NSW, which like Tasmania, share little direct benefit from the mining boom.

The median Tassie household generated weekly income of $948, according to the 2011 census, roughly three-quarters of the national average. That gap would have been greater if the Commonwealth hadn't been funding about 60 per cent of the Tasmanian state budget, roughly double the rate in Victoria and NSW.

The demographics aren't encouraging, either.

For years, younger Tasmanians have flocked interstate in search of work and education, while older Australians headed to the island for retirement, leaving Tassie with the highest average age.

Along with the ageing population, about one in four claim some form of disability, the country's highest ratio, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics....

Few dispute Mr Eslake's call for Tasmania to move from low- to high-value products and services. Many, though, question how fast such a transition can be made.

Speed, in other contexts, may be the problem, says Neil MacKinnon, chief executive officer of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He says Tasmania's government is "rushing too fast" towards environmental agreements and "locking up" too much of Tasmania's dormant wealth.

If too much forest is quarantined, "it's an asset turned into a liability”, Mr MacKinnon argues.

"There's very large assets there. One of the concerns... is if those assets are not going to be able to be managed profitably, the eventual outcome will be degradation as nobody will be able to look after [the forests]."

Mr MacKinnon questions an assumption in some political quarters that Tasmanians can replace their jobs in old “brown” industries with new “green” ones.

"One of the concerns is that people will have been employed in the forestry industry for many years and it's difficult for them given their education levels and age to convert out of what you might call heavy industries to high tech.

“I think there's no doubt that we are in a transition period but it needs to be a sensibly staged transition... That might be over a generation. In the meantime we need to take advantage of existing standing assets. There's minerals to be mined ... there's opportunities for the commodity industries."

Conservation proponents, though, argue that protecting ancient forests preserves them for future generations and retains important carbon sinks. And they remain important attractions for mainlanders and overseas visitors.

The proposed forest pact also guarantees sufficient timber supplies for industry's needs - some say, too much.

Another emerging flashpoint is the push to save most if not all of the Tarkine wilderness in the state's north-west. The region holds a range of minerals that mining companies are clamouring to extract.

Gunns pushing up roses?

Somewhat ironically, it was the decision by Gunns, the state's major processor of native forest sawlogs and woodchips, to exit native forestry - after years of battles with conservationists - that served as a key prompt for a state and federal push to restructure the industry.

Gunns, founded in 1875 and one of the country's oldest companies, had pinned its future on developing a pulp mill that it said would create as many as 3100 jobs. Since it would use plantation timber, it no longer needed access to great swathes of forests.

While securing most of its environmental permits, though, Gunns has failed to arrange the necessary finance.

Its own viability has not been helped by what it described this week as the "substantial decline in stumpage prices" that will force it to cop a $700-$800 million write-down.

The wording on its statement implies that the high dollar and low global pulp prices make the mill unviable. So much, in other words, for value-adding.

Whatever the outcome of tomorrow's talks over a forest pact, Tasmania will need to look beyond the trees for viable job creation.

One sure bet, then, is that while there are trees to be chopped and minerals to be dug - and not enough alternative work - passions on both sides of the issue are unlikely to subside.

SOURCE





Cairns Base Hospital condition critical

ALMOST 800 patients at risk of bowel cancer are being forced to wait up to 10 months for a procedure at Cairns Base Hospital, despite a recommended wait time of no more than 30 days.

Cairns and Hinterland Health Service District CEO Julie Hartley-Jones said there were 791 Category 1 patients waiting to have an endoscopy or colonoscopy, which checks a person’s stomach or bowel area for cancer or other disease with an endoscope. Cancerous polyps can also be removed via an endoscopy, if detected early.

The wait exceeds a Queensland Health recommendation that any Category 1 patient undergoing an elective surgery should only wait up to 30 days.

Ms Hartley-Jones said overcrowding pressures on the hospital had forced the extensive wait times.

"The delay is due to the sheer volume of referrals for endoscopies including a surge of referrals from the highly successful bowel cancer screening awareness program," she said.

The hospital was able to send 83 endoscopy patients to Cairns Private Hospital for treatment to ease waiting list pressures after receiving special funding. She said the board would meet next week to discuss the situation as part of its review of service priorities for the State Government funding of $3.75 million.

A reader of The Cairns Post, who asked not to be named, alerted the paper to the situation after her husband, a Category 1 patient, was told by hospital staff he would have to wait up to eight months. However, because of his condition, he waited only six weeks.

The reader also raised concerns about the way in which patients recovering from endoscopy surgery were managed.

"It was seven o’clock at night in a clinic only set up for day patients and the queue of beds with inpatients was running up the corridor waiting for the last day procedure patients to finally wake up and come out of the tiny recovery area," she said.

"It was organised ‘people soup’, with an army of porters with equipment and bedding on trolleys queuing to come in with stuff needed for the night. The whole lot goes in reverse as the sun goes up."

Ms Hartley-Jones said the endoscopy recovery day unit was used by inpatients for overnight stays, but the planned 12-bed flex-bed unit would help prevent this in future.

She also said the overnight stays did not affect the number of endoscopies performed.

Senior Medical Staff Association secretary Paul Howat said the waiting list was a serious issue for patients as well as hospital staff.

"If you have a long waiting list and some of those patients have cancer, then there’s obviously a delay in diagnosis and a delay in treatment," he said.

Dr Howat said Townsville Hospital had four full-time gastroenterologists compared with Cairns’s one, despite both cities having similar populations.

"We don’t blame the administration, they’re given a budget and that’s all they can do," he said.

"It largely comes down to one person trying to manage a very large problem, rather than three or four specialists."

Dr Howat said the hospital could increase the operating hours of its second endoscopy room from two to five days a week, if funding and extra staff were available.

There are 65 endoscopies performed at Cairns Base Hospital each week.

SOURCE






Top schools ban homework on weekends and holidays

Probably a reasonable balance

AT least two of WA's top private schools have banned homework for younger children at weekends and during school holidays "to allow kids to just be kids".

The policies are in line with international expert Phil Beadle, author, trainer, speaker and a former UK Teacher of the Year, who says the traditional form of homework is akin to abuse for primary school children.

Presbyterian Ladies' College has ruled out homework at those times for Years 7 and 8, and Methodist Ladies' College does not advocate "traditional" homework for primary pupils.

Mr Beadle, who is in Australia as a teacher-in-residence at Sydney's Knox Grammar School, told The Sunday Times this week: "We blithely accept homework as an intrinsic part of schooling, despite the fact that everyone (teachers and students) hates it.

"No educator is in receipt of hard, incontrovertible evidence that homework is entirely necessary. However, any parent will tell you that at certain ages it has an enormously destructive effect on family life."

PLC principal Beth Blackwood said homework remains "an area for debate".

"For every piece of research that says homework is beneficial, there's another piece that says it's not," she said. "I think there are other benefits of homework not just achievement orientated.

"It's about developing good study habits and skills, developing self-direction, organisational skills, independent problem-solving, and it's also about parents getting involved in the schooling process.

"With that research in mind, we did look at our homework policy for the middle school. We were trying to strike a balance between the benefits of homework and having some homework but also allowing the girls to just be girls, and to have down time, and family time and time for recreation."

Ms Blackwood said she expected Year 12 students to complete at least 18 hours of homework and study each week, but expectations on younger students were not so high.

"It is not that effective in primary school and yet parents will judge schools by the amount of homework that is given," she said. "I think the most important thing is getting that balance." At MLC, based on research indicating that traditional homework does not work in younger years, primary school students are encouraged to read every day and engage in 30 minutes of nature play or outdoor activities.

"Our main objective is to move away from the negative connotations of home learning and celebrate true learning," the school said. "The second objective is to challenge today's technocentric society and move children away from spending too much time watching TV, playing computer games or surfing the internet.

"We want students to learn because it's enjoyable, stimulating and worthwhile. We have designed a new approach towards home learning that encompasses our philosophy of nurturing academically able and emotionally confident young women."

For students in Years 7 to 9, MLC recommends one, 1 1/2 and two hours of study each weeknight respectively, but homework is not set over long weekends or holidays, and a 24-hour deadline is usually avoided.

Mr Beadle said homework for primary school children should be illegal. He believes children would benefit more from "developing a love of reading and writing for fun", than homework.

"I think all children have a right to leisure and joy," he said. "Making their after-school life one in which they are compelled to obey the dictate to slave for something that is almost entirely intangible could be argued to be abusive.

"Yes, after a certain age, you will be unable to complete the essay in class time. Yes, after a certain age you will need to broaden your knowledge at home but really the most important thing you can receive at home is love and care and perhaps a love of reading.

"Spending your home life, constantly engaged, at the age of seven, in compulsory acts of negligible benefit should be illegal."

Education Department statewide services acting executive director Martin Clery said every public school set its own homework policy and there was no "blanket rule".

Many schools encouraged younger students to read every night with their parents to boost literacy and develop a joy for reading, but it was not technically considered homework. However, the department expected homework, when set, to relate directly to school work and "increase accordingly" throughout the year groups.

Education Minister Peter Collier said "primary school aged children don't need to be doing hours of homework each night" but it should be balanced with family time and revision of school work.

SOURCE

An unempirical Asian languages debate

It takes an enormous effort for an English speaker to learn an Asian language and Australia has about a million people of Chinese origins anyway, many of whom do speak a Chinese language.  So we already have all the intermediaries to China that we could want

A recent article in The Age typifies the unempirical nature of the debate about Asia literacy.  The article cites Professor David Hill from Murdoch University as warning of the ‘dismal educational, economic and security consequences’ that will result from the ‘decline in the number of students studying Asian languages.’

Given how bold such a claim is, one would expect details of what these ‘dismal consequences’ might be. No such explanation is offered.

Later, Professor Kent Anderson, Pro-Vice Chancellor (International) at the University of Adelaide, is quoted as saying that Australia needs to improve its language education because we compare poorly with Asian and European countries, where they teach students the ‘mother tongue, plus two foreign languages.’

The article fails to note Professor Anderson’s key omission: As well as not offering as much language education as Asian and European countries, Australia does not have as much of a need to teach languages. Unlike most Asian and European countries, Australia’s national language is also conveniently the world’s lingua franca.

Those in favour of teaching more students Asian languages need to provide a sound educational rationale. Failing that, we should not let an unempirical debate about Asia literacy scare us into thinking that current language programs need to be expanded.

SOURCE






Queensland Attorney-General to try and overturn legal decision on motels having to host prostitution services

THE Queensland Government will try to overturn a legal decision in favour of a sex worker who claimed a ban on her operating out of a regional motel was discriminatory.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal found the operators of a Moranbah motel had breached the Anti-Discrimination Act by denying  a sex worker a room.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the government had concerns about the decision and had requested Crown Law advice.

"The Government stands on the side of business owners and supports their ability to make decisions about what does or does not occur on their premises," said Mr Bleijie.

"If a conflict exists between the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 and the Liquor Act 1992, the Government will change the laws to ensure this inconsistency is resolved.  "This will also give certainty to our business owners that they are in control of their establishments."

He said he was seeking legal advice on whether the government could intervene in any appeal the motel owner may wish to make, or appeal the decision directly.

SOURCE




Labor government puts web surveillance plans on ice

A CONTROVERSIAL internet security plan to store the web history of all Australians for up to two years has been stalled by the federal government until after the next election.

Security bureaucrats have drafted legislation to expand internet surveillance and security powers, but Attorney-General Nicola Roxon decided to first refer a discussion paper to a parliamentary committee.

Senior intelligence officials, who have been pushing for the increased powers, complain the legislation will be delayed until after the election due next year.

The national security discussion paper released last month by Ms Roxon canvasses proposals for compulsory internet data retention, forcing people to give up computer passwords, streamlining telecommunications interception approvals, and enhancing stop and search powers for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

A senior national security official told Fairfax Media yesterday that Ms Roxon's decision to refer the proposals to the parliamentary joint committee for intelligence and security was symptomatic of "the risk adverse character of the government".

"These reforms are urgently needed to deal with a rapidly evolving security environment, but there isn't much appetite within the government for anything that attracts controversy," the official said.

National security community dissatisfaction with Ms Roxon comes as Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced a long delayed review of federal and state counter-terrorism laws introduced after the 2005 London terrorist bombings.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday a committee led by retired NSW judge Anthony Whealy, QC, would review legislation governing control orders, preventative detention and "certain emergency stop, question and search powers held by police". The review had originally been scheduled to commence in 2010.

Attorney-General's department briefing papers released under freedom of information legislation show that when Ms Roxon took office as Attorney-General last December, her department had already prepared an "exposure draft" of amendments to Australia's security and intelligence laws.

Subject to Ms Roxon's agreement and consultation with the security watchdog, the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, it was proposed by her department that the draft legislative package be considered by the National Committee of Cabinet in February, and the full cabinet in May.

However, the department also warned that amendments to surveillance powers "usually draw media and public attention" and that "the scale of changes being developed will mean that it is highly likely that there will be significant public interest".

In a recent interview, Ms Roxon said she was "not yet convinced" about the merits of the proposal for compulsory data retention that would enable intelligence and security agencies to examine a person's internet usage.

A spokesman for Ms Roxon has confirmed she rejected the approach of her predecessor, former attorney-general Robert McClelland, who had approved the development of the legislative package.

SOURCE






Carbon tax price hike jolts Anglican Church Grammar School electricity bills

THE carbon tax has begun hitting Queensland small businesses, including a Brisbane private school which faces a $70,000-a-year hike in its electricity bill.

Six weeks into the carbon tax regime, price hikes are starting to hit hip pockets as power bills drop into letterboxes.

Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry president David Goodwin said the "weird distortions" were becoming apparent.

"We are finding that ordinary supermarkets like the local IGA may be up for up to $15,000 on the carbon tax alone if they have to re-gas their giant refrigeration system," Mr Goodwin said. "Somehow these guys are going to have find ways to cover these extra costs."

The Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) faces a 30 per cent increase in electricity for the month of July, well above the 9 per cent increase predicted by the Federal Government.

Headmaster Jonathan Hensman said Churchie had struggled to become energy-efficient, employing everything from external louvres to power factor connection mechanisms to stop power leakage. Now he estimates the school will have to find an extra $1400 a week to meet the cost of the carbon tax.

"Given what we have done it's a bit disappointing," he said.

He said that in the post-GST environment, passing on the cost to parents through higher fees was not an option.

Electricity broker Peter Phillips said several schools were reeling from the steep increases.

A spokesman for federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the average rise would be 9 per cent, and consumers had been compensated for businesses that passed on the cost of steeper rises.

The carbon tax component for Churchie for the month of July is $5600 - about 15 per cent of the entire bill of $38,000.

The school negotiated low-cost power through Mr Phillips, but now estimates it will have to find about $70,000 a year extra to cover the tax.

Mr Phillips, owner of Mantel Solutions, said many high-end users used brokers to secure cheap electricity discounts of up to 50 per cent over the average householder. But brokers could not secure concessions to the carbon tax.

The Federal Government predicted businesses may face steeper hikes and had compensated households, the spokesman said.

"That is why we are providing households with tax cuts, higher family payments and pension increases to meet the increase in the cost of living, which Treasury estimates will be an increase in the CPI of 0.7 per cent," he said.

"Businesses concerned that they are being charged too much for electricity should consider shopping around for a better deal."

Queensland Energy Minister Mark McArdle seized on the bill as an transparent example of how the carbon tax impacted commercial electricity bills.

"For most domestic customers the price of the carbon tax is hidden in the total cost of the electricity tariff," Mr McArdle said. "In the case of market contracts, such as this, each of the components that make up a bill is clearly identified.

"It shows that off-peak energy is attracting an 80 per cent increase directly related to the carbon tax."

SOURCE






Electric car sales lose spark around the world and in Australia

SALES of electric vehicles have been so slow that Mitsubishi has temporarily halted production of two cars.

The slow global take-up of EVs has been mirrored in Australia, with only 18 sold privately this year and 45 sold to government and business.

After sales of less than 1000 each, Mitsubishi has now temporarily stopped producing the Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn, which are rebadged versions of its i-MiEV. In Australia, Mitsubishi has sold only 12 i-MiEVs this year and none last month.

This follows disappointing global sales for the Nissan Leaf, which has sold 51 here this year, and the Chevrolet Volt, which goes on sale next month with a Holden badge.

While many blame high prices  Mitsubishi i-MiEV retails at $48,800, Nissan Leaf at $51,500 and Holden Volt at $59,990  Australian industry figures point to a lack of government subsidies.

Fuel economy campaigner and former Australian Rally champion Ed Ordynski said the issue of subsidies for electric vehicles was "way too bogged down in politics".

"I don't think we'll see changes until there is a shake-out of local manufacturers," he said, pointing out that local manufacturers had no plans to produce electric vehicles, although several Australian companies are converting conventional cars to electric power.

"I don't think the government will offer incentives to produce locally, so subsidies for electric vehicles would only be for full imports and that isn't going to happen."

BMW Group Australia boss Phil Horton said government incentives would be a "relatively easy thing to do" and not necessarily expensive.

He suggested incentives such as cheap or free tolls, use of transit lanes, cheaper parking spaces and discounts on registration and stamp duties.

"Unless they take some steps to encourage electric vehicles, people won't buy them," he said.

BMW is about to release its ActiveHybrid 5, followed by a 3 Series model later this year, a 7 Series early next year, with  a full electric car, the i3 in  2014 and a plug-in hybrid i8 after that.

"But there doesn't seem any interest from the government to do anything to encourage their take-up," Mr Horton said.

The BMW ActiveHybrid 5 will be among the highlights of a GreenZone Drive today on the Gold Coast.

SOURCE

Airline's insulting and discriminatory seating policy causes storm

I don't normally post anything on Saturday (my Sabbath) but I am a bit fired up about this excreta.  The guy below should lodge a formal complaint.  This was patently illegal. Queensland has anti-discrimination legislation that explicitly forbids discrimination on the basis of sex.  See Section 7(1)a of the ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ACT  of 1991. No-one deserves to be publicly humiliated for no reason the way this guy was

In his inimitable way, Boris Johnson (now Mayor of London) had a story  about this some years back.  He was harassed on a British Airways flight for sitting next to HIS OWN SONS.  British Airways  ended the policy concerned a couple of years ago so Virgin are  prehistoric about this

Virgin Australia has promised a review after facing a firestorm of criticism from men outraged at its policy of barring males from sitting next to unaccompanied children.

The company was today widely criticised after a Sydney fireman reported his experience of being asked to swap seats because he was sat beside two unaccompanied boys.

After this morning defending its policy, the airline this afternoon announced via Twitter it was reviewing its stance.  "We understand the concerns raised around our policy for children travelling alone, a long-standing policy initially based on customer feedback," @VirginAustralia said.  "In light of recent feedback, we're now reviewing this policy. Our intention is certainly not to discriminate in any way."  [Except that they do]

A Virgin spokeswoman said the policy was shared by Qantas, Jetstar and Air New Zealand.

Earlier today Fairfax Media reported the story of Johnny McGirr, 33, who said he was flying home from Brisbane in April when he took his seat next to two boys he estimated to be aged between eight and 10.

He was assigned the window seat but sat in the aisle seat so the two boys could look out the window.  However, a flight attendant approached him just as passengers were asked to put on their seatbelts, asking him to move.  Mr McGirr said when he asked why, he was told, "Well you can't sit next to two unaccompanied minors."

"She said it was the policy and I said, 'Well, that's pretty sexist and discriminatory. You can't just say because I'm a man I can't sit there,' and she just apologised and said that was the policy.

"By this stage everyone around me had started looking."  Mr McGirr said the attendant then asked a fellow female passenger, "Can you please sit in this seat because he is not allowed to sit next to minors."

"After that I got really embarrassed because she didn't even explain. I just got up and shook my head a little, trying to get some dignity out of the situation," he said.  "And that was it. I pretty much sat through the flight getting angrier."

Mr McGirr pointed out that he works as a fireman in Newtown in Sydney and was trusted in his job to look out for the welfare of children. "[The attitude of the airline] is 'we respect you but as soon as you board a Virgin airline you are a potential paedophile', and that strips away all the good that any male does regardless of his standing in society, his profession or his moral attitudes," he said.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Australia this morning confirmed the policy and said while the airline did not want to offend male passengers, its priority was the safety of children. [So all men are unsafe near children?  What an insult!] "In our experience, most guests thoroughly understand that the welfare of the child is our priority," she said.

The spokeswoman said staff usually tried to keep the seat empty but, when that was not possible, a woman was seated next to the child.  "Virgin Australia takes the safety of all guests very seriously and, in the case of unaccompanied minors, we take additional steps to ensure their flight is safe and trouble free in every respect."

Mr McGirr, who wrote to Virgin to complain, said the policy was flawed.

"[It's] blatant discrimination that just because I'm a male I can't sit there," he said.  "They apologised that it happened on the flight and said it shouldn't have happened then but my issue is not with the mistakes made there; my issue is with the policy in general.

"The majority of sexual assaults are [also] committed by men. Does that mean that we can't sit next to women? Should we just have a seat by ourselves and that way women and children will be protected?"

Mr McGirr said he understood the children were vulnerable when not with an adult but said that fears about crimes committed by a small minority of people should not rule society.

Mr McGirr said Virgin should either allocate a chaperone for children to sit with them for the entire flight, have staff do regular checks on the children to see if they were all right or ask parents to purchase the seat that is vacant so it is always left empty.

Among other Australian airlines, budget carriers Jetstar and Tiger Airways do not accept unaccompanied minors on their flights, though the two airlines have different definitions of what constitutes a minor.

Qantas, which does allow unaccompanied minors over the age of five to travel on its flights, has not returned calls requesting information on its policy on seating male passengers next to unaccompanied children.

Online outcry

Criticism of the airline swelled online today, with the story attracting more than 700 comments across Fairfax Media news sites by 4pm.

More than 44,000 readers nationwide responded to an online poll asking whether the airline’s policy was fair, with 87 per cent agreeing the rule was  "sexist and suggests all men are potential pedophiles".

Twitter users were quick to voice their poor opinion of the policy under the hashtag #VirginDiscrimination, while Facebook users also responded with criticism.

One person wrote on Virgin Australia's Facebook page: "As a male school teacher, it saddens me that men are turned away from being a positive role model for children, because people have the attitude ‘male = potential molester’."

Another Facebook user wrote the policy was "disgracefully discriminatory", while another user said it was a "stupid load of nonsense" that insulted half the country’s population.

However, some on Facebook jumped to the airline’s defence, with one mother saying she appreciated the policy.  "I do recall once at check-in the seats being changed around so that my children were not seated beside a man. But it was done very discretely [sic] and you know what, as a mum I was comfortable with the decision," she wrote.

While Virgin Australia was adamant that it was not alone in implementing such a policy, Qantas has not responded to repeated attempts to clarify its position from Fairfax Media today.

However, the BBC reported Qantas and Air New Zealand had a similar policy in 2005, after a businessman successfully sued British Airways on the grounds of sex discrimination after he was moved away from an unaccompanied child on a flight.

SOURCE

The death of ethnic humour

After Muslims "energetically" protested cartoons about themselves, the attack on humor seems to have gained a new lease on life.  As the episode below illustrates, any jokes at the expense of a minority come under huge attack and are rapidly censored.

The story below concerns jokes about Australian Aborigines, a group of  people virtually unknown outside Australia. Ethnic jokes of course center on characteristics widely ascribed to the group concerned so non-Australians would simply be puzzled by most of the jokes.

Nonetheless there was a worldwide pile-on to the jokes concerned by the Left-dominated media, resulting in the jokes being taken down by Facebook, their host.

To assist informed debate, I think I need to give examples of what was censored.  Via a Google image search, I have recovered some of the cartoons but putting them up would be futile as any image host would undoubtedly take them down again.  So what I will do is reproduce just some of the texts without the accompanying illustrations.

Back in my day meth was a drink

Methylated spirits is ethyl alcohol with a small amount of poisonous methyl alcohol added, akin to rubbing alcohol in the USA. It is used for cleaning etc. but Aborigines have been known to drink it for a cheap high.

"I think we're out of petrol" says white car driver.  Aboriginal in back seat says "Sorry"

Petrol is gasoline.  Petrol-sniffing is a pervasive form of  substance abuse among young Aborigines

"Sense of ownership is so white".  Complains when white folk take his land

Some Aborigines do say both those things

"Been here 40 thousand years.  Invented a stick"

Aborigines were still very primitive when white men arrived.

Oh!  You're Aboriginal.  Please tell me more about how I'm a white c*nt"

Words put into the mouth of a white comedian.  Aborigines are in general exceptionally polite but such utterances can be heard from Aboriginal activists, who in general have only a small amount of Aboriginal ancestry

As almost any evening  of viewing TV advertisements will show you, it is perfectly permissible  to mock white men as stupid, clumsy etc. so why not mock other groups in similar ways?  Why the double standard?  Answer:  There is no standard.  The Leftist aim is to  tear everyone down a similar low level and anything goes in pursuit of that.  And the media are solidly onboard with that discriminatory aim.

An excerpt from one of the media reports follows:

Facebook exploded yesterday, with users angrily reporting a page called "Aboriginal Memes" that makes racist "jokes" about Australia's indigenous people.

The page, which has over 4000 Likes, shows pictures of Aboriginal people with supposedly "funny" captions that reference petrol and begging.

In spite of reports pouring in from angry users, though, Facebook's response was to do just enough to show that it doesn't actually care.

After 5pm GMT +10, Facebook started emailing reporters with the following message:

Thanks for your recent report of a potential violation on Facebook. After reviewing your report, we were not able to confirm that the specific page you reported violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

However, the Facebook Community Standards document clearly states:

Facebook does not permit hate speech. While we encourage you to challenge ideas, institutions, events and practices, it is a serious violation to attack a person based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.

At approximately 9.30pm GMT +10, Facebook removed any posts linking to the page, and the page itself disappeared — only to reappear around two hours later, with its name changed to "[Controversial Humor] Aboriginal Memes". [And that is down now too]

More HERE

Note that the jokes were NOT in breach of Facebook rules in that no individual was targeted.





Little Green Lies

Introduction to a new book from Australia







Fibre network does the usual shuffle for a government enterprise

Escalating costs and delayed completion

OPPOSITION communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says delays and blowouts in the next stage of the national broadband network (NBN) project show the federal government has let taxpayers down.

NBN Co chief Mike Quigley and communications minister Stephen Conroy on Wednesday released an updated plan covering the three years to mid-2015.  It showed construction costs will rise by 3.9 per cent to $37.4 billion, leading to a six-month extension in the construction timetable to June 2021.

Mr Turnbull said the plan, which updates the initial program laid out in December 2010, showed more investment would come from the Commonwealth.

"Labor's national broadband network is falling disastrously behind every benchmark the government has set for it except one - the amount of taxpayers money being spent," he said in a statement.

An increase in "indirect" operating expenses - primarily staff costs - from $3.7 billion to $7.8 billion was "even more insulting to taxpayers", Mr Turnbull said.

"NBN Co may not be able to put together a budget or roll out a network, but it knows how to take care of itself," he said.

He said NBN Co should be given a definitive budget and stick to it.

"And the Productivity Commission should be asked to conduct a thorough cost benefit analysis to assess the most efficient means of upgrading Australians' broadband as quickly as possible," Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull has said previously a coalition government would deliver broadband services through a cheaper and quicker plan, albeit at slower speeds, through a mix of copper, fibre, wireless and satellite technologies.

SOURCE




Whites who gain advantages by claiming to be Aborigines

Discussion of Indigenous identity on SBS’s Insight program this week drew attention to one of the worst kept secrets in the country.

A fierce debate is underway within the Indigenous community concerning who the ‘real Aborigines’ are with respect to who should and shouldn’t be entitled to the range of benefits available to address Indigenous disadvantage.

The bitter exchanges that featured on Insight exposed the legal persecution and silencing of Andrew Bolt for raising these issues in his newspaper columns to be a ridiculous example of shooting the messenger.

One can understand the sensitivities of people who identify with their Indigenous heritage ‘but don’t look Aboriginal.’ It is also easy to understand the resentment generated when some are suspected of identifying as Aboriginal as a flag of convenience to gain educational and employment advantages.

The problem is that the rules governing Aboriginal benefits treat aboriginality as a proxy for need. Affirmative action-style programs were designed to address the institutional and casual racism and prejudice that impeded Aboriginal social advancement.

Many of the increasing numbers of people who identify as Aboriginal have mixed heritages, face few institutional or casual impediments to rising on their merits, and many (as Helen Hughes has repeatedly pointed out) are generally doing as well as other Australians living and working in major population centres.

Clearly, identity alone can no longer be the basis for awarding Indigenous benefits. For people to qualify for Indigenous-specific entitlements, some kind of disadvantage test is needed.

This might mimic the points system used to assess potential immigrants. A list of the factors that establish need would have to be compiled and given appropriate weighting. Living in a remote community, being raised by welfare-dependent parents, low quality schooling, poor English literacy, chronic health problems, and a history of child abuse – all (lamentably) spring to mind.

SOURCE




Dodgy Islamic school

A clothing company that supplies school uniforms has applied to wind up Malek Fahd Islamic School in Sydney because of its alleged failure to pay debts of $286,303.

Duboke, trading as Oz Fashions, made the application, which will be heard by the Federal Court on August 17.

Documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show that Duboke and Malek Fahd's parent company, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, share the same business address at 932 Bourke Street, Waterloo.

Court documents allege that Malek Fahd has failed to pay 11 invoices dating from January 18 to February 14 this year.

The application was made on July 19, which was 11 days before the NSW Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, wrote to the school asking it to repay $9 million in state government funding.

Mr Piccoli said the school had breached funding requirements, which prevented it operating for profit. He said the school was transferring money to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils without receiving any services in return.

In his letter to school principal Dr Intaj Ali, Mr Piccoli said he had instructed the NSW Department of Education and Communities to terminate the school's funding.

He also wrote to the Association of Independent Schools of NSW to terminate its National Partnership funding. The school receives more than $1 million in annual funding for disadvantaged students through the five-year national partnership agreement between state and federal governments.

Mr Piccoli said that, for the school's state government funding to be reinstated, it would need to provide credible evidence that services were being provided in return for the money being transferred to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.

"I continue to have serious concerns about other financial transactions at the school, including the systemic lack of record keeping and documentation," he said.

Mr Piccoli also wrote to the federal Minister for Education, Peter Garrett, saying that he had referred the matter to police and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.

The federal Department of Education commissioned an independent audit of the school last December to find whether it was spending its public funding on the education of students.

Mr Garrett has said that definitions of what it meant for a school to be operating for profit needed to be tightened.

He has said that while the vast majority of non-government schools are doing the right thing with taxpayers' money, vigilance was needed to ensure public funding was being properly spent.

In a statement, Dr Ali said he disputed Mr Piccoli's findings that the school was operating for profit and he intended to challenge the decision to terminate the school's funding.  "The school will take the appropriate steps to have this decision reviewed and is confident that ultimately the correct outcome will be achieved," he said. "Malek Fahd wishes to reassure all parents, students, staff and the wider community that its focus remains on the delivery of quality education for our students and it will continue to work with both the NSW and the federal Education Departments."

The Herald was unable to contact Dr Ali for comment today.  The Herald also sought comment from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils which declined to comment and Duboke's solicitor Marc Ryckmans, who did not return calls.

Adam Shepard has been appointed to act as liquidator to Malek Fahd if it is made insolvent.

The school has a history of excluding year 11 and 12 students who are not high performers. The Herald revealed some of its past students were forced to complete HSC subjects at TAFE because they were not achieving high marks in those subjects.

Dominic Bossi writes: Malek Fahd Islamic School has become one of the leaders in Islamic education in Australia and its reputation has convinced families to relocate interstate so their children can attend. Its potential closure has now shocked parents of pupils who have made significant sacrifices for their children's schooling and has left families with few viable alternatives.

"I actually wouldn't know where to go. I moved from the Gold Coast for this school. That was the only thing that was sending me back to Sydney because I wanted my kids to have a good education. When I got a spot here, I ran back [to Sydney]," Said Diane, a parent of a year 1 student.

"This school isn't just about religion, it's about what they're teaching them and what us parents teach their children. I can't even express what I feel, and what I would feel if this school closes down. I probably would [leave Sydney]."

While there are other Islamic schools in Sydney, most parents said they were proud of the balance between religious and academic education offered at Malek Fahd and would not be satisfied to relocate their children.

"My older one is doing medicine now and she got 99.6 per cent from this school. Its [potential closure is] really saddening for me," Seema Mahmood said. "I'm really satisfied with the performance of this school, religious as well as academic. I don't know; it's really shocking. I'm really shocked. It's a big worry for me now if it's closing."

SOURCE

Cafe sign 'joke' slammed as racist slur




The core of the joke is the very low educational level of Aborigines and there has been any amount of media reports about that.  Many Aborigines are functionally illiterate.  But we are not allowed to allude to that, apparently.

The "stolen generation" is a myth created by Leftists, using the fact that abused children taken by social workers from Aboriginal homes were sometimes relocated to white homes

A Caboolture cafe is at the centre of a brewing storm after numerous people branded a sign outside the Queensland shop as racist.

Caboolture man Ranald Link said he was disgusted when he saw it at Tarmac Takeaways, in Aerodrome Rd, on Friday and further angered when staff refused to remove it.  Mr Link, an Aboriginal man whose grandmother and great grandmother were members of the stolen generations, said the message was disrespectful of the pain they experienced at being taken from their families.

Mr Link said the sign also stereotyped Aboriginal people as thieves.  "We don't go around saying every white person is a thief... so why should they stereotype us?"

There have been more than 90 comments on his Facebook page since he posted a photo of the sign on Sunday.

Mr Link said he had also received more than 300 other messages.

The shop's owner, who wanted to be known only as Janelle, said the "joke" was something her daughter had seen on Facebook and was not something she had made up to cause offence.

Janelle said she had been putting jokes about various groups, such as blondes and New Zealanders, outside her shop for 10 years and this was the first time someone had complained. "I'm not actually having a go at them," she said.

People who contacted the Northern Times were outraged by the sign.

Cassy Stewart said: "Shame on Tarmac Takeaways... . There is no place for racism anywhere."

Sharlea Nicholson from Bribie Island said it was "disgusting".  "This is just a step backwards for the Aboriginal community in Caboolture," she said.

Some who commented on Mr Link's Facebook page were fired up, but older people urged calm.

Janelle said she would be more careful in future.  "I'll definitely not put anything like that out again. I'll keep it pretty bland," she said.

SOURCE





Motels not allowed to keep out prostitutes

No right to say whom you will have on your own private property?

SEX workers were last night celebrating a stunning victory in their battle against motel owners in the booming mining towns, after the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled in favour of a prostitute who complained of discrimination after being told she could not rent a room.

The decision is likely to have ramifications for hotel and motel operators across Australia, who could now find themselves in breach of the anti-discrimination laws that exist in every state if they try to turn away prostitutes.

Prostitutes have descended upon small towns near the large mines in record numbers over the past few years, determined to take a slice of the mining boom.

They advertise their arrival in town in the local newspaper and see up to 10 clients a night. Motel owners claim they deter other customers.

But when the owners of the Drover's Rest Motel in the mining town of Moranbah, which services the Peak Downs mine in Queensland, tried to turn away a sex worker known as "Karlaa" she sued in the tribunal, using the Anti-Discrimination Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of lawful sexual activity.

She argued her use of the bed was no different from somebody who checked into a motel and used the phone or internet for business. Prostitution is legal in Queensland.

Karlaa told The Australian yesterday: "At the end of the day, it's not acceptable to discriminate against people. What I do might not be to everyone's taste but it's legal, and it's how I make my living.

"Not everyone would choose to do the job I do, but it's not right that they can treat me like a second-class citizen. They wanted me to go away, but I am a tenacious little terrier and I would not give up."

The full judgment has not yet been released, but QCAT confirmed Karlaa's victory. She is seeking $30,000 compensation.

Accommodation Association of Australia chief executive Richard Munro said the industry would have to examine the judgment before deciding whether to appeal "but in general terms, we say that it should be up to the owner, the proprietor, the licensee, to protect the amenity of their business".

"People go to motels to sleep, to enjoy the premises, and if they can't do that because of the activities of another guest, the motel owner should be allowed to protect their business."

SOURCE




Buffalo milk hits red tape

SYDNEYSIDERS are missing out on a global super milk, and its value-added products, with buffalo milk farmers weighed down by legislation and restrictive permits that deal with feral pests.

Buffalo milk production in the Asian-Pacific region exceeds 45 million tonnes annually, with more than 30 million tonnes produced in India alone, and it is much sought-after in Italy for mozzarella cheese.

Despite the demand, just a few hundred head of buffalo produce milk in Australia.

Kim and Ian Massingham, who fell in love with the product during a trip to Italy, have 14 head of buffalo at their East Kurrajong property and another nine in Bathurst. They are forced to use milk from Cairns to make their artisan AusBuff Stuff cheese and gelato, plus lean meat products, as their property is not registered for milk production.

Water buffalo fall under non-indigenous species 3B and the Massingham's pay a three-year licence fee to keep the animals behind electric fences. Owners must have a permit to keep water buffalo as they are considered an introduced pest similar to camels.

Only recently a $100 transport fee, between farms or to the abattoir, was dropped.

The Massinghams said buffalo milk had a far lower cholesterol level than cow's milk, 11 per cent higher protein, 9 per cent more calcium, 37 per cent more iron and more phosphorus.

Buffalo also metabolise all dietary carotene into vitamin A, which is passed into the milk.

The presence of higher levels of immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, lysozyme, lactoperoxidase also make buffalo milk suitable for special dietary and health foods.  Lactose intolerant people rarely have a reaction to buffalo milk.

As opposed to the feral beast in northern Australia, domestic buffalo, in human care, are placid and patient.  "There is definitely a pecking order,"Mr Massingham said.  "If we were doing a business plan it would never happen."

The Massinghams hope to move to a more suitable property and set up their own buffalo dairy.

While they do not need pasture and can live off feed, buffalo produce about half the milk of normal dairy cows.

SOURCE




Elderly South Australian woman waited two hours in the open for an ambulance after breaking hip

Aren't "free" government services wonderful?

AN elderly Elizabeth North woman has been forced to wait nearly two hours for an ambulance after falling and breaking her hip.   Irene Derby, 81, was found by her husband about 12.20pm on Tuesday afternoon after falling on their concrete driveway.

SA Ambulance is now reviewing their response to the case, apologising to the woman's family and admitting a higher priority should have been assigned to the call.

Ambulance pager messages show the call to the Elizabeth North property was listed as a priority five. Priority one is the highest level or urgency.

SA Ambulance spokesman Keith Driscoll said a large number of calls in the area at the time of the incident extended the delay.  "We had quite a number of cases occurring in that area during the timeframe," he said.  "What we didn't do well was that we didn't upgrade the case when it started to get protracted because she was out in the open.

"It's obviously less than satisfactory, we're not happy with the situation. We need to look at what caused it and then look at ways of ensuring that it doesn't occur again."

Mr Driscoll said senior clinicians in the call centre were in contact with the family throughout the wait.  "We had one of the senior clinicians in the comms room call them a number of times and asked them to let us know if anything changed with the patient's condition," he said.

"Each time we rang we re-assessed the patient to ensure there were no life-threatening issues occurring.  "If the patient's condition had changed we would have upgraded the case and immediately deemed a lights and sirens response."

The woman's husband, Jim Derby, told Channel Seven he and a neighbour made seven calls to emergency services but an ambulance did not arrive until after 1pm.  "I kept telling them she's in agony. Can you do something about it," he said.  "They said we'll be there as soon as we can."

When crews arrived a paramedic told Mr Derby she would report the delay, which she agreed was unacceptable.

Mrs Derby will undergo surgery today.

SOURCE