Branson tells UQ forum not to waste money on degrees

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson used a university-sponsored lunch to tell a room full of MBAs, undergraduates and high schoolers not to waste money on business degrees.

The entrepreneur and businessman also said the Australian economy would benefit from the adoption of a formal quota system to get more women on big company boards.

Speaking as a guest of the University of Queensland Business School, Sir Richard said there was an argument to be made in favour of redirecting government funding from the tertiary system into the hands of would-be business students by way of an entrepreneurial fund.

His comments come as the Gillard Government propsoses $2.8 billion worth of cuts to universities and self education to free up funds for its Gonski school reforms.

“When it comes to things like business education, we have an interesting debate," Sir Richard said.  “[Success] is far tougher to teach at university.

“As an entrepreneur, you just need to be able to add up, subtract and multiply.  "You should be able to do that by the time you're 15.

"What matters is you create products that people really want.  "You can always get someone else to add up the figures for you.”

Mick Spencer, a young business leader and successful entrepreneur who sat with Sir Richard on the panel, agreed with the Virgin boss's appraisal.

The 22-year-old OnTheGo founder said universities teach people to become employees, not employers, and that undergraduates interning at his company often said they learned more on the job than in the lecture theatre.

"It would be better if there was more real-life experience put into universities," he said.

But Professor Andrew Griffiths, Dean of the UQ Business School and fellow panel member said that's exactly what modern tertiary institutions offered.

"Part of that is saying that as a university, as a business school, we're about lifelong learning," Professor Griffiths said.

His view was echoed by Professor Iain Watson, Executive Dean, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law from the UQ Business School who listed several of the university's programs that connected students with the “real world”.

"We pride ourselves on our educational program," he said.

"It's without question the relevance of that and the recognition of that that's really important to us."

On the subject of what could be done to improve Australia's business culture Sir Richard said now was the time to tap into the Asian market and take advantage of its geographical proximity to booming South East Asian economies.

However it was another recommendation that stirred whoops from the room. "I think that companies as a whole should embrace ... women more," he said.  "It's incredible that most boardrooms have a maximum of one or two women in them."

He says since Scandinavia "forced" businesses to include women on boards, there had been significant improvements to their business culture, society and bottom line.

"I haven't managed to get that in our own companies," he says. "I think it's something that needs to be forced through by law."

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NT Teachers slam Education Minister who wants them to work more

TEACHERS wanted to go on strike and picket outside the Education Minister's office after he said they had a lot of "down time" and could afford to look after more students.

Education Minister Peter Chandler made the comments after his Government decided to increase student-teacher ratios in senior and middle schools.  The ratios determine how many teachers are sent to a school, not the number of students in each class.

He  said on Friday: "There's quite a bit of down time for teachers.  "If there's 27 students in a class with one teacher, but you've got a teacher-student ratio of 14:1, what are all the other teachers doing?"

Australian Education Union NT president Matthew Cranitch   said teachers were "livid" and wanted to protest after they read the comments.

"It demonstrated to me, and many others, that he doesn't quite understand education and what teachers actually do," he said.

Mr Cranitch said primary school teachers were given three hours of non-classroom time a week, while middle and senior school teachers had 5.2 hours.

"In that time they've got to do all the marking, preparation, writing reports," he said.  "The list goes on and on."

Mr Chandler last week announced  middle school ratios would increase from 17 students per teacher to 20 and in high schools, from 14 students per teacher to 18.

He said it was part of a plan to improve education in the early years with transition to Year 2 classes seeing a drop from 22 students per teacher to 20.

He said there was no clear research that suggested students performed better in small classes and said fringe subjects, such as drama or languages, would not necessarily be cut because it was up to the individual school how  to distribute the teachers.

Opposition leader Delia Lawrie said the plan would see good teachers forced out of the Territory.

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Retrospective legislation disallowed

It is sometimes attempted in a good cause but is always obnoxious in principle

The High Court has ruled a 2011 law targeting welfare recipients cannot be applied retrospectively.

In a test case, Victorian single mother Kelli Keating challenged the law after Centrelink tried to prosecute her for overpayments of $6,942 in 2009.

The Federal Government had changed the law after an earlier High Court challenge over whether omitting to inform Centrelink of changes in income was criminal or not.

The law was made retrospective to 2000 to ensure up to 15,000 prosecutions since then would not be compromised.

The court has found the omission is a criminal act but not if it occurred before the new law was introduced.

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How to save the health system

This week, the CIS released the third TARGET30 report on Australia’s unsustainable health system.

The report, Saving Medicare But NOT As We Currently Know It, argues that creating a health savings-based system would go a long way in solving the affordability problems facing Medicare.

Instead of the federal government paying for medical services and medications through the MBS and PBS, these health dollars could be better used to fund contributions to personal Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which people would use to pay for their own health care.

Because they would be spending their own money, consumers would become far more cost-conscious users of health care. Overuse of heavily subsidised health services would be reduced, and as HSA balances increased, health costs would be shifted off government.

The principle of allowing people to save up to pay for health care is not as radical as it might seem, given that a similar approach has either been proposed or implemented in other ageing-sensitive areas of government expenditure.

The definitive 2012 Productivity Commission report into the challenges facing the aged care sector recommended that capital and operating costs for nursing home providers be self-financed by requiring residents to pay an accommodation bond.

The commission recognised that the only feasible way of addressing the financial sustainability challenges facing the aged care sector was to release the equity accumulated in the family home. Bonds are financed by requiring residents of aged care facilities to sell or reverse-mortgage the family home, the principal asset most Australians use to save for over the course of their lives.

Thanks to the compulsory superannuation system (and tighter means testing), Australia does not face as large an unfunded public pension liability as comparable countries in the OECD.

Only modest growth in the cost of the old age pension of 1.2% of GDP is expected by mid-century due to the self-funding of retirement incomes having reduced government responsibility for the cost of caring for the elderly.

We need to make the same transition to a pre-funded health system if health care is to be affordable in the twenty-first century.

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Homosexuality critic for the Senate?

A TOOWOOMBA doctor who has compared gay surrogacy to the Stolen Generations and claims "a gay person can stop being gay" has survived the LNP's vetting process and will stand as a candidate for Barnaby Joyce's Senate spot.

Dr David van Gend is among a dozen candidates who were yesterday named by the party as possible replacements for Mr Joyce, who will resign to contest the NSW Lower House seat of New England. Mr Joyce's replacement will be selected by the party's state council on May 25 in Mackay.

Former LNP treasurer Barry O'Sullivan has also officially entered the race, which has left some party members unimpressed.

But Dr van Gend - who was vetted by the party's "applicant review committee" over the weekend - could prove to be the more controversial candidate.

In June 2011, he wrote a column for The Courier-Mail comparing the Stolen Generations with what he called the "'gay stolen generation' of children forcibly deprived of a mother".  "The offence is the same; only the justification changes," he wrote.

"This time round the justification for separating a baby from the love of its mother is that it meets the emotional needs of homosexual men."

On March 20, Dr van Gend reiterated, via Twitter, his belief in the comparison and implied a national apology for gay surrogacy was needed.

"3 ways to force a child from her mother: #StolenGenerations; #ForcedAdoption and #GaySurrogacy by two men; a #NationalApology for only 2," he tweeted.

He has also written that "a black person cannot stop being black, but a gay person can stop being gay".

"Homosexual people are able, where motivated, to modify unwanted homosexual attractions and even achieve complete transformation to a heterosexual orientation, as documented in peer-reviewed clinical papers, such as that published by American psychiatrist Robert Spitzer in 2003," he wrote.

Other candidates running for Mr Joyce's senate position include former NSW MP Larry Anthony and Western Downs mayor Ray Brown.

Dr van Gend did not return calls for comment last night.

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Qld. Attorney-General takes fun out of youth detention centres

BUCKING bulls, jumping castles and scuba diving lessons have been scrapped at youth detention centres in a bid to take the fun out of being locked up.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has revealed he has no problem being the fun police and said even more perks for juvenile offenders could be chopped.

Mr Bleijie has asked the Justice Department for a brief on initiatives implemented to "strengthen operations" at the state's two detention centres and scope for further cuts.

Mr Bleijie said statistics showed that 30 per cent of young offenders had been in detention five times or more.  "It's not a holiday camp," he said.

The hard line follows The Courier-Mail yesterday reporting that Mr Bleijie was considering plans to force juvenile offenders to make amends to their victims.

While stakeholders were not highly critical of this, they rejected plans to remove the principle of detention as last resort.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman yesterday challenged Mr Bleijie to provide evidence that youth crime was out of control in the community.

"The President of the Childrens Court's latest report shows a 20 per cent decrease in children appearing," he said.

Mr O'Gorman said Mr Bleijie was dealing with the lives and the future of youth, and should make policies based on evidence.

Mr Bleijie said youth crime was "not going away".  "Ultimately, we want to change the culture of youth crime and reduce the number of repeat offenders," he said.

"The same report (referred to by Mr O'Gorman) shows there has been a 9.7 per cent increase in the number of offences being committed."

Youth Affairs Network of Queensland director Siyavash Doostkhah said the plan could send more youths to detention at a time when money was tight.

It costs $660 a day to house a person in a youth detention centre. As of yesterday, there were 179 young offenders in youth detention centres - 124 in Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and 55 in Cleveland Youth Detention Centre.

Mr Bleijie said if the principle of detention as a last resort were changed, it could allow courts to consider a broader range of options when sentencing young offenders.

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Australia's swamps not up to snuff, according to Greenies

Murray-Darling Basin lakes and the Coorong lagoons in South Australia would be deemed critically endangered under a new global system to rank the conservation status of ecosystems in the same way as threatened species.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS ONE on Thursday, a team of international scientists will outline the proposed system, which would act as a companion to the global "red list" of threatened species managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Under the new system, conservation ratings would be given to ecosystems - a collection of plants and animals that exist in an area of land or water that interact - from critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened and least concern.

Instead of deeming an ecosystem extinct, as in an animal, they would instead be classified "collapsed". Examples of ecosystems include coral reefs, forests and lakes.

The team studied 20 ecosystems around the world to test the ecosystem red list. Eight were in Australia, including the Coorong lagoons, the swamps, marshes and lakes of the Murray-Darling Basin, and coolibah-black box woodlands.
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The researchers found one collapsed ecosystem among the 20 studied - the Aral Sea, in Central Asia. Once one of the largest lakes in the world, the Aral Sea was drained for irrigation in the 1960s and has since nearly disappeared

In Australia, the Coorong lagoons, near the mouth of the Murray, were found to be critically endangered.

Professor David Keith, of the University of NSW, a lead author of the paper, said the Coorong scored the rating because of the pace of fish species and vegetation decline, along with a rise in salinity, during the millennium drought between 2000 and 2010.

He said heavy rains in recent years had given Australia a second chance to better manage the lagoons.

The lakes, swamps and marshes of the Murray-Darling were deemed endangered to critically endangered, while coolibah-black box woodlands were classified endangered.

Professor Keith said the new ranking system was important because not enough was known about most of the world's plant and animal species. "Globally, only 3 per cent of species have so far been assessed for their status; we don't know much about the remainder yet," he said.

"What the ecosystem assessment does is step back to a more general assessment that includes some consideration of all the species that are components of those systems.  "So it is a more general way of casting the net across a much wider set of biodiversity and the species that make up an ecosystem."

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Spiralling healthcare costs are the parasite feeding on the economy

A similar sound can be heard in Washington, Tokyo, Beijing, London and throughout the eurozone - the thrum of government printing presses as central banks try to print, print, print their governments out of political trouble. Australia is not immune to this rising global tide, so borrowing here is cheap, stock prices are rising and real estate is rebounding.

Yet Australian consumers remain cautious amid all the cheap money, because households are being smarter than their federal government.

On the eve of the Swansong federal budget, expect reminders about what Treasurer Wayne Swan promised when he introduced last year's federal budget: "In an uncertain and fast-changing world, we walk tall as a nation confidently living within its means. This budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time … The deficit years of the global recession are behind us. The surplus years are here."

This sounded dubious on the night and has proved to be delusional. Electorates do not like bombast, delusion and wishful thinking from governments (except in France, where they demand it), so the mute button seems to have been applied by millions of Australians to the utterances of Swan and Prime Minister Julia Gillard. People do not trust spendthrift politicians for guidance about what this rising ocean of cheap money means. My top preferred option is someone who has created $270 billion in market value: Warren Buffett.

He recently had plenty to say about all this cheap money during an interview with US financial channel CNBC.

"Throughout the world, decisions are being made on the basis that money is free," he said. "There is going to be a problem when they [central banks] unwind [the money printing] … How extreme it gets, I don't know. It will be the biggest economic event we've seen in a long time."

In other words, we are in bubble territory. Again.

He is especially askance at fixed-term deposits at a time of rampant money-printing.  "Interest rates are to investments like gravity is to physics," he said. "Everything goes off interest rates … The dumbest investment is a long-term government bond.".

So buying bonds with an interest rate of virtually zero is a fool's game. Speaking of fools, Buffett does not buy the nonsense coming out of western Europe that the eurozone has touched bottom.

"They still haven't worked out a sustainable system for the Euro," he said. "The inconsistency of fiscal policies of [governments] who are tying themselves to a common monetary unit [the Euro] has to be solved. And we haven't got there."

This bespeaks fundamental change. Either the eurozone has to be broken up, or democracy as it is commonly understood in Europe has to be replaced by a super-government in Brussels. Either outcome will be a political earthquake. Structural changes are coming in the major economies that will be a disaster for politicians on the wrong side of these changes.

Buffett says he will not be deterred by noise and tumult, even if it gets very tumultuous (as it will in France). He offers the calm of the long view.

"I bought my first stock when we were losing the war in the Pacific," he said. "Since then, the Dow [Jones Industrial Average] has gone from 92 to 14,000. And headlines were terrible but we have such a strong country we will overcome what 535 people [in Congress] do over time."

He feels similarly sanguine about western Europe, in the long-term, after a period of pain.

"I'm always positive about the economy in the long-range," he said. "In my lifetime, there has been a sixfold growth in [US] GDP [gross domestic product]. You have millions and millions of people trying to figure out how to make their lives better tomorrow. They create companies."

Note his use of the term "companies", not bureaucracies.

Buffett believes the greatest single threat to budget stability in the US is the rise in healthcare spending and liabilities, which is exactly the same great financial challenge facing Australian governments.

"If you go back to 1970, there were six leading economies in the world and healthcare [costs] were 5.5 per cent of GDP," he said. "Now the US is at 17 per cent and nobody else is above 11 per cent. So that is a 6 per cent of GDP cost we are bearing that our competitors are not … This is the tapeworm in the American economy."

Ouch. The same parasite is at work here, where real healthcare spending has blown out by more than 50 per cent over the past decade and multibillion-dollar obligations are being added by the Gillard government, to be funded by … fairy dust.

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Small taxpayers suffer because of bad carbon tax bet.  Lifting the tax-free threshold would have greatly helped the poor

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has confirmed the 2015 tax cut associated with the carbon trading scheme will not go ahead because of the drop in the carbon price in Europe.

Mr Combet says the Government know thinks the carbon price will not be as high as the $29 per tonne originally forecast.

He says that means there will not be a need to increase the tax free threshold as promised.

"Those tax cuts were were to be in the order of a $1.59 per week for most people earning up to $80,000 a year," he said.

"I say they're deferred, because when the carbon price rises again in the future, those tax cuts will still be implemented at that point in time.

Last month the price of carbon in Europe plunged as much as 45 per cent after the European Parliament rejected an emergency plan that would have forced companies to pay more for polluting.

Carbon permits dropped to as little as 2.63 euros ($3.34) a tonne, and German power prices for next year fell to their lowest level since 2007.

At the time Mr Combet said the upcoming budget would need to take the EU price plunge into account.

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Teachers furious over the creation of new private schools in Canberra

They don't like anyone  escaping their Leftist grip

The ACT government has approved three new private schools - two Christian and one Islamic - to be built in the ACT despite vehement protests from public education groups that they threaten the viability of government schools and could "cannibalise" enrolments.

The Australian Education Union and Save Our Schools Lobby are also furious that the government has made no public announcement on the approvals despite ACT Education Minister Joy Burch giving the green light in December 2012.

Brindabella Christian College has been allowed to establish a campus at the old Charnwood High School, while the Seventh Day Adventist-run Canberra Christian College will build a school in the new Molonglo suburb of Wright, and the At Taqwa Islamic School has been approved for Gungahlin.

A spokesman for Ms Burch said the approvals could be found on the Education Directorate website and did not warrant a press release.
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The union's ACT branch secretary Glenn Fowler condemned government "secrecy" surrounding the decision saying there had been high community interest in the outcome.

"The fact that vast sums of public money will be used to subsidise these private creations means that the public must be informed of the ACT government's decisions," he said.

Save Our Schools campaigner Trevor Cobbold said the the decision would draw enrolments from existing schools in Belconnen, add to excess capacity and threaten the future of some schools.

"The minister's approval of a new school in Belconnen defies all logic. It contradicts the government's own long-term policy to reduce excess school capacity in the region," he said. Both believed it was insulting to the public to approve a private school in Belconnen after the distressing closure of Flynn Primary School in 2006.

"Cannibalisation is the only possible outcome," Mr Fowler said. "This represents a significant shift in priorities and members of the public should have a genuine say as to whether this is the way they want the ACT to go."

Mr Cobbold said the new Brindabella Christian School campus in Charnwood would be within a few hundred metres of Charnwood-Dunlop Primary and St Thomas Aquinas Primary schools. Flynn Primary - just over a kilometre away - was closed despite public outcry because the government said there was over-capacity in the region.

Mr Cobbold said there was no case for another private school in Belconnen given there were nearly 2000

excess places in government schools in north-west Belconnen and projected population growth in Belconnen to 2021 was estimated at only 0.3 per cent a year, compared with the ACT average of 1.4 per cent.

But Ms Burch countered that the latest ACT school census showed North Belconnen enrolments had shown continued growth - up by 135 students this year. At Taqwa Islamic School's application indicated Belconnen or Gungahlin as potential sites, but approval has been limited to Gungahlin.

While Mr Cobbold accused the directorate of failing to adequately assess the impact on schools as required by the ACT Education Act 2004, Ms Burch said she followed the act's requirements and it provided "limited grounds" on which an application could be refused.

She invited the union and Save Our Schools to make submissions for changes to the decision-making process with respect to in-principle approvals of non-government schools. "The government's firm belief is the continued growth and community confidence in government schools is achieved through our continued investment … in quality teachers, and quality infrastructure," she said. "It is not achieved by stifling the growth of the non-government sector."

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A step towards justice for Roseanne Catt

Framed by two slimeballs, one of whom was a NSW cop. Amazing that after 22 years this matter has not yet been finalized. Police as a protected species responsible, I guess. Background here

A New South Wales woman who was wrongfully jailed for ten years has won her High Court bid to seek compensation on the basis of a malicious prosecution.

Roseanne Beckett, from Wollongong, was jailed in 1991 for allegedly trying to solicit others to kill her husband, Barry Catt, as well as attempting to poison him with lithium.

The charges were quashed in a 2005 appeal, but there was never a re-trial because the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to pursue the matter.

Ms Beckett had tried to sue for malicious prosecution but was told she would have to prove her innocence first.

She had asked the High Court to review the law.

Speaking outside the high court a short time ago, Roseanne Beckett has expressed her relief at the decision.

"I'm over the moon, I'm numb and it's 25 years in the making, a very hard slog," she said.  "But thank God I've achieved it what people thought was the unachievable.

"It just speaks volumes to every Australian out there, if you're passionate about something just don't leave it."

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Amazing: Federal Public service shrinks

Fiddled books, I suspect. Whole new bureaucracies have been created under Gillard.  But I guess they are not included

The federal public service shed more than 2,000 positions last year, the first time in a decade the bureaucracy has shrunk.

The latest Australian Public Service (APS) jobs snapshot by the Public Service Commission shows in December 2012 there were 165,598 public servants.  But six months earlier in June, there were more than 168,000 workers.

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood says it is due to several rounds of government cost-cutting.  "This decline in job numbers is due to the 4 per cent efficiency dividend and other savings measures," she said.

"What's happened is that agencies have run out of easy efficiencies and now we are just seeing cuts to jobs and services."

Ms Flood fears there are more job cuts to come.  "This will be the largest fall since we saw the cuts in the late '90s and obviously we're concerned about what will happen both with next week's budget, but also with what the Coalition is proposing of much larger cuts if they win government," she said.

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The Singleton/Waterhouse clash

Below are what I think are the main points to come out of the enquiry so far.  Young Tom seems to be smiling his way through it.  Unlike Leftists, I admire success and the meteoric rise of Tom makes him one of my favourite people.  And Gai is a former student of mine

And Gai can hardly be accused of poor judgment in running the horse when Singleton's own people also said it should run

The whole episode has sparked great interest among Australians as bookies are almost like royalty here.  And Tom is now the biggest bookie of them all



Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy asked Gai Waterhouse if she had relayed any information about the condition of the horse to her son.

"I'll happily swear on a Bible, the first time I made contact with my son was after the race when Mr Singleton screamed abuse at me," she said.

Mr Singleton told stewards he had not been aware there was any problem with More Joyous until race day. He accepted the advice of his racing manager, Duncan Grimley, and veterinarian Dr John Peatfield that his champion mare was fit to run but heeded Mr Grimley's advice "not to bet". Then Mr Singleton told stewards he received a phone call from Allan Robinson with some information about the condition of More Joyous and rang Johns to clarify.

"I had massive concerns when I heard Allan Robinson and Andrew Johns passed on information which Duncan Grimley said was a bit too close to the bone," he said.

The owner and trainer had a heated discussion about More Joyous's fitness earlier at the race meeting before clashing again in the mounting yard just prior to the race.

"I wasn't happy. I was what Andrew Johns would call 'agitated'," he said.

"I would say drunk," Gai Waterhouse interjected.

Mr Singleton replied: "I had two to three beers before (the race) and as much as I could after."

Just before the adjournment of the inquiry, Gai Waterhouse had a final crack: "If Mr Singleton shut his mouth we wouldn't be here."

"But the mare still came second last," Mr Singleton replied.

"She is a seven-year-old. She's old - just like you," Waterhouse said. The inquiry will resume at a date to be fixed.

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More background here.





Young criminals could be forced to make amends to victims under planned shake-up of juvenile justice system

YOUNG criminals could be forced to make amends to their victims under a new "community reparation" model that ensures juveniles take personal responsibility for their crimes.

The Newman Government's planned overhaul of the juvenile justice system has "everything on the table", including expanding orders that ensure delinquent youths help fix what they break.

And in one of the most significant proposals, the Government has revealed some Queenslanders believe they would be safer if the principle of locking up youths as a last resort was removed from the Youth Justice Act.

A proposed overhaul to the Act also includes making it an offence for a juvenile offender to breach their bail conditions, and targeting recidivist youths under a prolific offender program.

While not speaking about any individual case, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the community was fed up with arrogant repeat offenders.

"You've got to think of the victims," Mr Bleijie said. "Victims want people to be held responsible. (Repairing damage) can all be part of community reparations."

The premise of personal responsibility would be an extension of mandatory laws to be introduced this year that would force youths convicted of a graffiti offence to spend up to 20 hours repairing the damage.

Last week a 16-year-old boy walked free from court despite punching 93-year-old Harold Dickson during a violent home invasion at Inala last year.

The boy and his co-accused, Kye Thomas Nicholls, 22, were armed with knives when they demanded money from Mr Dickson and his 91-year-old wife, Ronnie.

In District Court in Brisbane on Friday, the 16-year-old smirked during the proceedings.

Nicholls received four months jail but will be free in a few months.

Mr Bleijie is now seeking information about the case from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Under the Act, police and courts assess the type of offence the youth is charged with, take into account the offending history and risk to community safety and, in the first instance, must consider options such as bail or community-based orders.

It means many violent offenders can walk free from court without serving any time.

In March, Mr Bleijie asked Queenslanders to complete a survey that will help form the Government's blueprint for youth justice, to be announced this year.

Exclusively obtained by The Courier-Mail, the results revealed that three-quarters of the 2000 respondents had been victims of crime.

Most respondents agreed that it should be an offence if youths breached their bail conditions - currently it is not an offence - and courts should be able to consider an adult offender's juvenile criminal history.

Half also agreed with removing the principle of detention as a last resort.

Mr Bleijie said that some parents admitted to him that they could not control their troubled teenage children, and "begged and pleaded" for help.

"Some parents are at a wit's end on what to do," Mr Bleijie said.

He said the private sector might be asked to help provide services for wayward youths. It could include help for those with alcohol and drug addiction.

"People still need to be held responsible for their actions," he said.

"Just because they were high on drugs should not excuse them for what they've done."

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The Curse of Government Help

"The indisposition of the aborigines to manual labor is well known; but as they can obtain work of various kinds in the country they should not only be induced to take it, but they should be discouraged from remaining in comparative idleness at mission stations, where they will certainly abide as long as they are provided with food and clothing, without some corresponding demand being made upon their labor."  - Phillip Gidley King and Edmund Fosbery, report on missions to Aborigines, 1882

It's so interesting to me that the economic debate in the USA can exist without a debate on the surge in food stamps and associated government sponsored benefits like tax credits, cell phones and extended unemployment benefits. The elephant in the room seems to be the dishonest ability to talk about people becoming lazy and unmotivated. The increasing lack of desire to work is eating away at the foundation of the nation. Unfortunately it's become a racial issue in America and when that doesn't work any detractors from the current system simply hate children.

Of course all races receive food stamps and of course it's rife with fraud and abuse.

While I think we need to take care of taxpayer funds there is an element to this situation that is even more important. It gets back to the notion of caring. It goes hand in hand with the development of the modern welfare state born of goodwill but now doing more harm than good. Take the aborigines of Australia, who somehow managed to survive for 50,000 years before the arrival of the British without a modern welfare state. The colonization of the people and capture of the land changed the old way of life.

Perhaps defeat took away something but without a doubt many wondered right out of the gate if welfare was doing more harm than good for the aboriginal people of Australia. Colonization of Australia began in 1788 and times were good from the end of the so-called Convict Era (1838) to the economic depression of 1890s (America suffered through a series of depressions and panics during the same decade). While times were good, private donations were made to help aboriginals adjust to their new country but the three main funds went bust.

Enter the government to fill the void, going from distribution of an annual blanket to being caretaker. Immediately there was debate over who should get benefits, how much those benefits should be and what the government expected in return. It was the beginning of a debate that continues to this day.

In the beginning it was clear that able-bodied men that wanted to work would always step in when given a chance, and those that would rather not work would avoid it at all costs - especially if that cost was nothing.

Literature from Stolen Generations, which chronicles life for the aboriginals, points to a trend of fewer and fewer able bodied men willing to do the work that coincided with greater and greater amounts of welfare benefits. As it turns out, the Aborigine Protection Board created, even encouraged, a proud people to become lazy and indifferent. Make no mistake, the aborigines of Australia have endured atrocities and even today sections of the nation's constitution allow government to disqualify particular races from voting and can make laws that apply to specific races.

Aborigines make up 2% of the nation's population but 25% of the prison population and have a life expectancy 17 years less than other Australians. Complicating matters is the same dilemma facing all nations that have offered generous welfare benefits for decades.

How to be less generous in the hopes of weaning people off assistance and into actually becoming productive members of society when so many entities have vested interested in people staying on government benefits. The power of each individual on the planet is transferable, much like the Faustian tale of exchanging one's soul in the afterlife for good times on earth. The deeper one gets into this arrangement the more difficult to climb out and being born into such circumstances makes escape a Herculean task.

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Funding students based on Indigeneity demeaning and wasteful

The Labor government’s education proposal adds grants for Indigenous students on top of the Gonski recommendations for increased school funding. This proposal does not take into account the overwhelming evidence that funding is not a principal constraint on educational outcomes in Australia.

Past funding increases have failed to close the COAG ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

The 2012 NAPLAN results showed that a ‘gap’ persists between the majority of students (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) who pass literacy and numeracy tests and a minority of Indigenous students who fail.

A majority of Indigenous students – at least 120,000 out of a total of 180,000 students enrolled – pass NAPLAN. These students attend a large range of mainstream private and government schools. They are mainly the children of working parents who ensure that their children attend school regularly and achieve good results. These successful students and their parents are demeaned and stigmatised by being classed as ‘disadvantaged’ just because of their Indigenous ancestry.

Some 40,000 failing Indigenous students attend schools that concentrate students from low socioeconomic and often welfare-dependent backgrounds. Employers constantly complain that these schools produce school leavers who cannot read, write or count and are not ‘job ready.’ Low socioeconomic characteristics contribute to poor attendance and behavioural problems that undermine school performance. Good teachers leave such schools. Parents enrol their children in performing schools. In the absence of strong principals, such schools become ‘residualised.’

Another 20,000 Indigenous students attend separate ‘Indigenous’ schools in remote communities that have no individual property rights and, therefore, no economy or jobs. These Indigenous schools have developed separate curriculums and teaching standards that fail to deliver literacy and numeracy. There are still 40 Homeland Learning Centres in the Northern Territory that do not have qualified teachers every school day. Although many students do not speak ‘standard’ English, unlike schools with high concentrations of immigrants, Indigenous schools do not have ESL teachers. Attendance is usually poor in Indigenous schools, and more than 90% of the students fail NAPLAN tests.

There is no correlation between funding per student and education performance. Indigenous schools already receive the highest funding, often more than $30,000 per student – more than three times the mainstream school average per student. Yet (with a few notable reformed exceptions), Indigenous school NAPLAN results are persistently at the bottom of all Australian schools.

Using ethnic characteristics to identify students who should receive additional education funding is doubly wrong: Indigeneity is not the cause of high failure rates so race-based funding will not reduce failure rates. Poor teaching, not lack of funds, is real reason for poor educational outcomes.

SOURCE

Australian Medical Association angered over claims by president of the Australian Vaccination Network

A LEADING anti-vaccination group has sparked alarm by warning parents not to trust their doctor's advice on whether to have their children vaccinated.

The new president of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) Greg Beattie says parents should instead consult books and "health professionals who maybe aren't in the medical mainstream".

And he warns parents who do vaccinate their children they may be "jeopardising their children's health".

As concerns mount that 70,000 Australian children have not been vaccinated and conscientious objection rates are rising, Mr Beattie says his advice to parents is: "Don't trust the judgement of your GP."

"If you read one good book on vaccinations you'll probably know ten times more than your average GP," he told News Limited in an exclusive interview.

"I'm not saying don't talk to your GP, I'm saying don't rely on them for your decision, you need to know they are handed their adopted stance. They are taught what to say about vaccination ... look into it yourself and then make up your mind," he said.

Australian Medical Association chief Dr Steve Hambleton expressed outrage that the AVN was "running down the skills of doctors each of whom has spent a decade in training".

While he urged parents to self-,Dr Hambleton said they should do so using trusted sources such as the Academy of Science's booklet The Science of Immunisation or the Australian Immunisation Handbook or the Immunise Australia website.

Admitting there were side effects from vaccines, Dr Hambleton said they were usually minor and far better than the death and illness caused by the actual disease.

And he conceded that no vaccine was 100 per cent effective which was why immunisation rates needed to remain high to provide herd immunity to protect those in whom the vaccine did not work.

"Doctors are trained to assess evidence and make recommendations based on risks and benefits," he said.

Mr Beattie said he refused to immunise six of his seven children after his first child was vaccinated but still contracted measles.

The AVN leader said he didn't believe that parents who don't vaccinate their children are putting their lives at risk.

"I think there is a possibility, in fact, that parents who do vaccinate their children are quite possibly jeopardising their children's health," he said.

Some children are more susceptible than others the physical deterioration after vaccination and this is "something that one day science will catch up with", he says.

Mr Beattie denies that immunisation is responsible for the dramatic reduction in killer infectious diseases in the last century.

Although a document from the Australian Academy of Science supporting immunisation clearly shows disease rates dropped dramatically after vaccinations were introduced, Mr Beattie said "the vast majority in deaths from these diseases occurred before the vaccines were even available".

His alternative explanation is that disease reduction is due to "improved nutrition, improved sanitation, improved socio-economic circumstances in general".

Mr Beattie has written two books opposing immunisation and lost a legal fight in the late 1990's against a council childcare centre that refused to admit his unvaccinated children.

He says the idea that unvaccinated children should be excluded from a social event or situation "is quite ludicrous".

The AVN has recently been embroiled in a number of legal battles over its anti-vaccination message and will next month fight an attempt by the NSW Fair Trading to force it to change its name.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek backed doctors and healthcare professionals, saying through a spokesman dismissing their help could be a serious risk.

"Doctors and health professionals are the best people to talk to about vaccination," the spokesman said.  "Ignoring their advice and relying on unscientific opinion can have serious consequences."

SOURCE






Ambulance staff furious now a groper demoted for sexual harassment will return to work alongside complainants

AMBULANCE workers are furious a manager demoted for sexual harassment will be retrained and returned to work alongside his complainants.

The Courier-Mail has been told the Department of Community Safety Ethical Standards Unit investigated allegations of "inappropriate interaction with female staff members" by the senior Queensland Ambulance Service employee.

"The QAS takes breaches of this policy very seriously," a department spokesman said.  "After careful consideration the QAS determined the appropriate penalty to be demotion to a base grade position.  This demotion constitutes a significant reduction of approximately $47,000 per annum in base salary.

"To ensure no recurrence of such behaviour other actions have been commenced including a range of retraining, formalised continuous supervision and commencement of a structured Performance Improvement Plan."

However, workers at the communications centre involved say it is outrageous the man will be allowed back to sit among those who complained about his actions.

"This is just not fair on the girls," one source said.  "There were a number of complaints and they included unwanted physical contact . . . touching of arms, shoulders and backs, as well as lewd comments."

Counselling was provided to staff following the reported incidents.

United Voice, the professional ambulance officers union, has informed QAS it will seek further discussions over the matter.

"We have concerns about the implementation of these recommendations and the impact they will have on our members," a spokeswoman said. "We have been working with members involved."

A QAS spokesman said the staff member involved had expressed remorse and formally apologised.  "The QAS is confident that appropriate action has been taken to address the concerns of the complainants and mitigate the risk of further breaches of the code upon the staff member's return."

SOURCE





A bus stop where the bus never comes



The idea of waiting for a bus that is never going to come may seem infuriating, but for dementia patients a fake bus stop reduces anxiety and wandering.

The phenomena is becoming more common, particularly in Europe, and two University of Canberra post-graduate Occupational Therapy students have just incorporated one into an exploratory garden they've built in a south coast nursing home.

Sophie Trevillian, 24, and Josie Reeves, 25, have spent the past six weeks planning, sourcing funding and materials and executing an upgrade of the garden of the Basin View Masonic Village, with the aim of providing meaningful activity for dementia patients. It includes a herb garden, fishing boat, chook pen - and a bus stop.

"When we were in the planning stages … what we noticed [was] residents were looking for the bus stop or asking what time the bus was coming," Ms Reeves said.

"[Dementia patients] go back to the activities they used to do, so a lot of them want to catch a bus. [They think] they've got to go home tonight because they've got to go to their mum's house, or they need to wait for the kids at the bus stop … so by having a physical object for them to see and not look any more for the bus stop … that makes them feel calm," Ms Trevillian added.

For dementia patients with poor short-term memory, the fact the bus never comes is irrelevant.

It's a simple solution, underpinned by an occupational therapy theory that all people, regardless of any impairment, need to occupy their time in a way that will give them a sense of purpose and enjoyment.

"What the students have done by developing the exploratory garden is really to provide some objects and opportunities for the residents with dementia to do the things they remember doing from the past, such as catching the bus, going fishing in a tinny, picking vegetables and flowers, feeding the chooks, collecting eggs," Associate Professor Alison Wicks, the students' supervisor, said.

"When they do that now it brings back that same sense of purpose and meaning and satisfaction that it did … maybe 30, 40 years ago."

Ms Trevillian, who recruited her father, his bobcat and a friend to come from Canberra to donate a week of their time, said the garden will not only stimulate memories, but also topics of conversation and interaction with visitors.

And with evidence that meaningful occupation can reduce the need for medication, the students and Professor Wicks will be documenting the process and results at a conference in Japan next year, with hopes the partnership can extend to more care facilities in the region.

SOURCE






Fiscal fixes

Everyone now agrees the nation’s public finances are in need of repair, but not on why or how. Is the problem too little revenue or too much spending?

The Gillard government wants us to believe the problem is one of unprecedented revenue shortfalls leading to unexpected deficits. But this begs the question, ‘shortfalls relative to what?’ This year’s budget was based on an estimated 11.8% surge in revenue, which was probably never realistic to start with.

The day after the prime minister’s declaration of war on the deficit using taxpayers as cannon fodder, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released new data that help shed light on the nature of the underlying problem. Yes, revenue has been weak for the last few years, but expenditure has been strong.

All levels of government combined (Commonwealth, state and local) spent the equivalent of 35.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011/12. This was the second-highest figure on record, exceeded only when the Rudd government’s stimulus spending was at its peak in 2009/10. (The 10-year average before the financial crisis was 34.1% of GDP.) Spending was far too slow to recede after the stimulus. It actually went up as a share of GDP between 2010/11 and 2011/12. Even before the stimulus spending, the size of government was excessive, leading not to deficits at that time but to an excessive tax burden.

We don’t yet have comparable figures for 2012/13, but every indication is that the fundamental fiscal problem is a size-of-government problem rather than a revenue shortfall (which is not to deny that depressed revenue is also contributing to the deficits).

In March, The Centre for Independent Studies launched its TARGET30 campaign aimed at reducing the size of government to 30% of GDP or less over 10 years. If achieved, this would not only solve the deficit problem but also create room for much-needed shrinkage of the tax burden through tax cuts, restructuring, and in some cases, outright abolition. At that time, the ABS figures were available only up to 2010/11 and revealed that the size of government was just below 35% of GDP. The 2011/12 figures show that the task has not become any easier, but remains readily achievable through a combination of spending restraint and economic growth.

SOURCE

Abbott rules out homosexual unions

Tony Abbott has doused expectations of any change on same-sex unions in the next Parliament, predicting that a significant majority of Coalition MPs will share his strong opposition to gay marriage.

Mr Abbott has dismissed speculation that he would facilitate a conscience vote in the Coalition party room after the September election, telling Fairfax Media he did not anticipate "much enthusiasm" to revisit the issue.

"I don't think anyone should expect that this is necessarily going to come up in the next parliament," Mr Abbott said in an exclusive interview.

"It will ultimately be a matter for the post-election party room if it comes up, but I am strongly opposed to any change and I imagine that a strong majority in the Coalition party room will remain opposed to any change."

In the interview, Mr Abbott also:

 * Signalled the Coalition would unveil "significant, but not scary" changes to workplace laws when it suited tactically, saying no one should assume further changes would follow in the second term of an Abbott government.

 * Recommitted himself to implementing his promised paid parental leave scheme in full in the first term should he win the election.

 * Promised a hard line on asylum seekers found to be refugees but deemed security threats by ASIO, declaring: "People should not come illegally to this country. That's the bottom line, mate."

Mr Abbott said the issue of same-sex marriage had been subject to a vote in this Parliament that was "fairly decisive".

Although the Coalition had not allowed a free vote, he believed a dozen - "at most" - Coalition MPs would have voted in favour of change. "So it still would have been pretty decisively beaten, regardless of the fact that we didn't have a free vote," he said.

"Now, an incoming Coalition government is going to have a lot on its plate, so I can't see much enthusiasm for having another go at this from the Coalition. That's not to say that others might have a go at it."

Mr Abbott conceded that his sister, Christine, who is gay, is a passionate supporter of change and that his wife and three daughters were "probably less traditional than I am on this one".

But he said they did not see the issue as a No.1 priority, and likened expectations of change to the republican debate in the 1990s. "Everyone thought a republic was inevitable as well, and no one thinks it's inevitable any time soon now."

On asylum seekers, Mr Abbott said he would be dismayed if, by the end of the first term of a Coalition government, "we hadn't substantially stopped the flow".

Pressed on which of the Coalition's three policy tools - offshore processing, temporary protection visas and turning back boats when safe - would have the most impact, Mr Abbott said: "I think all of them are important, but there's a fourth which is critical as well, and that's having much better relationships with Indonesia."

Mr Abbott would not commit to continue with reviews of adverse ASIO assessments by former judge Margaret Stone, saying: "Without wanting to say that an adverse ASIO assessment is identical to the finding of a court, almost anyone who has had an adverse finding made against that person is going to regard it as unfair and will have a story.

"Now, whether the story is credible or whether the story does in fact render unjustified the adverse assessment, well that's a matter for judgment. So, look, let's see what this process produces."

He rejected alternatives to detention for those whose adverse assessments were upheld.

"Anybody who turns up illegally in Australia cannot expect to subjected to anything other than rigorous processes," he said.

"And, if the processes produce an adverse finding, well, they've got to expect potentially a long period of detention - indefinite detention - unless another country is prepared to take them or unless they are prepared to go back to the country where they came from."

SOURCE





Woe!  Australia has not "reported" to that great heap of corruption that is the United Nations

Just Greenies at work trying to impose their anti-human values on everyone else.  To them, no proof is needed that human activity is harming the reef.  That is just axiomatic to them -- they just  want to stop everything.  There's no such thing as a happy Greenie

THE Great Barrier Reef is set to be named as a World Heritage Site in danger by UNESCO next month.

A long-awaited assessment of the reef by UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), released on Friday evening, says decisive action must be taken to avoid a listing in June.

The report claims the federal and Queensland governments have failed to improve water quality or halt coastal developments that could impact the reef.

Only one annual water quality report card has been published, in 2011, which covered 2009.  A second report card was due in early 2012, but it's yet to be delivered.

The report also says there's been no clear commitment by the either federal or Queensland governments to limit port developments near the reef.  Instead about 43 proposals are under assessment.

"The above-mentioned issues represent a potential danger to the outstanding universal value of the property," the report said.

"The World Heritage Centre and IUCN ... recommend that the committee consider the Great Barrier Reef for inscription on the list of World Heritage in Danger ... in absence of a firm and demonstrable commitment on these priority issues."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the Federal Government was committed to keeping the reef a great heritage area for the world.

"In the last couple of weeks I announced a $200 million reef rescue commitment," she told reporters in Melbourne.  "We are very committed and we'll continue to pursue those kind of commitments in the future."

But Greens Senator Larissa Waters called on Liberal and Labor to support a Senate bill which would adopt the World Heritage Committee's recommendations as law.

"The Newman and Gillard governments have continued to fast-track mega industrial ports alongside the reef," she said.  "Protecting the Great Barrier Reef must be beyond politics and all parties should support my bill."

World Wildlife Fund spokesman Richard Leck said UNESCO had put Australia in the sin bin.  "We will likely see a reef showdown this June," he told AAP.

The only other world heritage sites in danger that aren't in a developing country or an active war zone are the UK's Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City and Florida's Everglades.

SOURCE






Pedophilia hysteria:  Police investigate frolicking child

It wasn't the original plan for Emma and her grandfather Leo to head to Balmoral Beach, but the six-year-old "water baby" had set her heart on it.

"We hadn't packed her swimming costume but she was in one of her determined moods so I certainly wouldn't have dared say no," said 70-year-old Leo, who was helping Emma's busy parents last Tuesday.

When the pair arrived at lunchtime, Emma stripped off her clothes, including her T-shirt, despite Leo's suggestion she keep it on. She then happily splashed in the shallows for about half an hour while Leo kept a watchful eye a short distance away.

"She didn't stop beaming from the time she got in to the time she got out," he said.

But he was left shaken by what happened next.  "I helped Emma get dressed and then the police arrived," he said. "They wanted my name, they took my identification. They also talked to Emma and asked her name and date of birth. They informed me a complaint had been lodged."

NSW Police confirmed an anonymous call was received from a member of the public expressing concern about an elderly man "sitting with a naked child at the beach".

While it took a matter of minutes for the officers to establish that a misunderstanding had occurred, the issue did not end there.

In the days since, a bewildered Leo has questioned his own role in the incident. "Should I have insisted she keep her top on?" he asked, adding: "Would they still have complained anyway?"

His questions don't stop there: "Would this have happened if I had been a female? Would it have occurred had I been a younger man?

"I would like to meet the person who made the call. I'd like to ask why they couldn't have at least approached me, so we could have avoided all this."

But the person most affected has been Emma herself.  "When she got in the bath that night, she said: 'I did something wrong, I'm in trouble'," her mother Jessica said. "This was a child in her element. Who could have complained about that? If she was in distress, sure, people should maybe call the cops then. She was totally carefree.

"It's not long before she'll lose that and become more body conscious."

Chief executive of the Australian Childhood Foundation and registered psychologist Joe Tucci said raising community awareness about child abuse had inadvertently triggered "widespread anxiety" instead of "confidence".

"In the past, adults would turn a blind eye. These days, more people respond … but not necessarily in a helpful way. In this case, the execution is not what I would have recommended.

"Given it was so public, the person could have at least approached the grandfather for a few words. Yes, it might have ended up being a little embarrassing to both parties but at least it would have avoided that young girl's involvement and negative experience with police."

But Hetty Johnston, founder of child protection advocate Bravehearts, disagreed. "That member of the public did what, we hope, everyone now does in such situations.

"They held concerns so in the best interests of that child, they called police. It was not a malicious or vindictive move. It turned out to be a false alarm and that's great."

Detective Acting Superintendent Linda Howlett, the acting Sex Crimes Squad commander, agreed.

"It's better to be safe than sorry," she said. "If a member of the public does see something that causes them concern, we encourage them to contact police and we will follow that up."

But several days on, Jessica still cannot help but feel the situation was overblown. "It started several years ago with families not being able to take photos of their own children at swimming pools and now it seems to have progressed to scenarios like this," she said.

"As a society, I believe we have grown too paranoid. I feel so sorry for all the grandfathers who face this sort of scrutiny and persecution, simply for spending time with their grandkids."

SOURCE






Outrage at long wait for ambulances in NSW

Almost 300 patients in need of immediate medical assistance waited more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive last year, including 50 potentially life threatening cases when the patient waited more than an hour.

Sydney ambulance logs for 2011-12, released under a Freedom of Information request, show "workload" was the second-most common reason for the response times in the 50 longest "priority one" cases, in which an ambulance should have arrived within minutes. There were 279 cases when ambulances took longer than 45 minutes.

Among these cases were people who had fallen unconscious and had difficulty breathing, people with heart problems and chest pains, and trauma cases.

In one case, it took an hour for an ambulance to arrive at a Castle Hill doctor's surgery despite an ambulance station being located in the same suburb. Paramedics recorded "workload" as the reason.

An ambulance sent from Campbelltown was stuck in traffic for 83 minutes on a motorway as it attempted to reach Minto. Distance was the most common reason for delays of more than an hour.

Wayne Flint, the secretary for the Emergency Medical Service Protection Association, said trolley blockages in hospitals, and using ambulances to transfer patients between outlying and metropolitan hospitals, was tying up crews.

"They have to get vehicles to attend from much further distances," he said. "Two weeks ago Manly had to send a car from Lane Cove," Mr Flint said.

Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said the situation was clearly unacceptable.

"We have people in distress waiting too long for ambulances because they are stuck in hospitals. The real problem is bed blockage in emergency departments, which takes a third of ambulances off the road."

Paramedics are obliged to stay with patients in emergency until a bed is found, and a third of ambulances took more than 30 minutes to offload patients last year, he said.

Health Minister Jillian Skinner said reforms being made to the ambulance service included "improving rosters for paramedics to further improve response times and separating non-emergency patient transport from urgent medical retrieval".

A NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said half of the 50 worst response times were because of the long distance to reach people in the Hawkesbury area. Wisemans Ferry and Webbs Creek had some of the biggest waits.

Bunny Roberts, the manager of the Del Rio resort at Webbs Creek, has made 000 emergency calls for guests with snake bites, a brain haemorrhage, breathing difficulties and a four-year-old girl with a fish hook in her leg. Sometimes a helicopter came, but often it was an hour's wait for an ambulance. "An hour's wait if you are in a diabolic situation is a long time," Ms Roberts said.

Guests were usually "horrified".

SOURCE

Monash University 'sexist' cupcakes furore

This is an established way of  highlighting official discrimination but all the evidence shows that, other things being equal, there is NO discrimination against women in the workforce

MONASH University students are in a social media frenzy about a "sexist" campaign where men were charged 20c more than women for a cupcake.

The Student Association’s Women’s Department sold the cupcakes as part of a campaign to highlight gender wage differences.

The cakes were $1 for men, 80c for women and 60c for transgender students.

A Facebook post calling the stall sexist has received nearly 1500 likes and attracted more than 900 comments on the invite-only Monash StalkerSpace Facebook page.

Tess Gian posted: “to the ‘Women’s’ stand on clayton campus selling cupcakes … that is not feminism. that’s sexism. You want to demand equality? It goes both ways.”

A Monash Student Association public affairs officer, who did not want to be named, said the stall aimed to “raise awareness of the gender pay gaps” that exist in the workplace. It was not sexist but “positive discrimination”.

Monash University law student Louisa Ashton, 21, was among those who stepped in to defend the campaign on Facebook.

Ms Ashton told Waverley Leader many of the angry students had missed the point.

“They were selling the cupcakes to reflect the exact pay differences in society,” she said.  “I think it was quite brilliant actually. It got people talking."

But Stefan Kotzamanis was one of many who slammed the idea.  “They honestly met in a group and thought having different prices based on sexes was a good idea?”

Rachel Archie Wall-e posted: “the best thing they could think of doing was baking? to promote women's rights? i don't want to inadvertently stereotype but their choice surprises me.”

More than 180 people "liked" her post.

The stall was held on the Menzies lawn at Monash and organised by the Monash Student Association’s Women’s Department for Blue Stockings Week, which celebrates women in higher education.

SOURCE




Catholic schools worst hit under Federal Government reforms of education funding

ABOUT one in six Queensland schools will be worse off under the Federal Government's Gonski reforms, according to a letter signed by Premier Campbell Newman and sent to principals.

Catholic schools in low socio-economic areas will be hit hardest, says the letter, which contains a list of funding decreases for about 300 individual schools for the year 2019.

Queensland Catholic Education Commission executive director Mike Byrne said the potential impact on schools continued to fluctuate, along with continuing negotiations with the Federal Government, and the process was causing "a great deal of uncertainty".

Independent Schools Queensland executive director David Robertson said they had 33 schools on the list and also raised concerns about uncertainty around the details of the proposed funding model.

Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates said it was believed the State Government's list was incorrect and called on Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett to refute it.

A spokeswoman for Mr Garrett last night maintained no Queensland school would be worse off.  "From 2014-19 there will be more funding for all schools, including growth of at least 3 per cent," she said.

"Queensland schools will only be worse off if the reforms don't go ahead because the state has not committed to decent indexation or extra investment."

According to the letter sent by Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek's office, Brisbane Grammar and Girls Grammar schools, Churchie, Brisbane Boys' College and Somerville House all face losses, while remote, rural and regional state schools like Bajool, Emu Creek and Goomeri also face declines.

Schools in low socio-economic areas make regular appearances on the list, despite Gonski providing loadings for disadvantaged students.

Catholic schools have the 10 biggest decreases - most in low socio-economic areas.

In the letter Mr Newman and Mr Langbroek write "while Queensland would have been delighted to be the first state to sign up to these reforms ... we still have serious concerns".

"At this point in negotiations, the Federal Government's financial models indicate that about 300 Queensland schools will be worse off by signing up to the Gonski formula, in its present form," the letter states.

SOURCE





Contestability is the key

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman writes below

MANY of the Commission of Audit recommendations relate to the issue of contestability, which essentially means testing how services can best be delivered for Queenslanders.

Contestability is a process, not an outcome. It doesn't mean that services will be outsourced to the private sector. It doesn't mean that services will be retained.

It's about ensuring Queenslanders get the best service at the best price.

Despite scaremongering from the union bosses and Labor, contestability and outsourcing of Government services have been happening for years.

For example, public hospital services are already provided by the Mater (a non-government hospital in Brisbane) and Noosa (operated by a private provider)

It's interesting to note that under the former Labor government, outsourcing of Queensland Health services grew by more than 24 per cent from $792 million in 2008-09 to $986 million in 2011-12.

Similarly, bus services in southeast Queensland are provided by 17 different bus operators, 16 of which are private operators. Each contracted bus operator owns the assets used to deliver the services and is required to meet specific standards.

Further, nearly two thirds of the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services' budget is provided to non-government organisations to deliver services on behalf of the Government.

I firmly believe Queenslanders care much less about who is the provider than they care about access, quality and timeliness of the services they receive - as well as how much tax they have to pay.  They care about real outcomes, not bureaucratic inputs.

Today in Queensland there are Queenslanders who need services and are not receiving them because the way they have been delivered has not changed for decades.

There are public servants who want to do more for their fellow Queenslanders but have not been provided with the tools to help them to do it.

There are private sector operators and non-government organisations that have new ideas and ways of approaching problems that are not being heard.  That has to change. That will change.

The Government's response to the Commission of Audit report is about ensuring our public service is the best in Australia - efficient, effective and totally committed to delivering for the people of Queensland.

Our response is a plan for Queensland's future. It's a plan to create jobs and supercharge the state's economy, making the most of our natural resources and the talents of our people, while ensuring we enhance essential services and protect those who need a helping hand.

It's about ensuring Queensland remains a great state, with great opportunities.

SOURCE




Hunting renewed for NSW forests

Recreational hunting has been approved in 180 state forests for a further 10 years despite a cloud hanging over the governance of the Game Council NSW, responsible for overseeing the program.

The decision was announced by Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson. The review of the governance of the Game Council has delayed the introduction of hunting in the state's national parks until at least mid-June. It was prompted by an investigation into whether one the council's senior executives, Greg McFarland and a council volunteer illegally killed a goat on private land.

In March, Mr O'Farrell told parliament the report by the Internal Audit Bureau, passed to the police, revealed evidence of "alleged illegal activities". Mr McFarland, who was the council's acting chief executive, denies the allegations.

The Premier said the IAB report also identified "possible breaches of Game Council policies and procedures, information which raises questions about governance procedures within the Game Council".

National parks would not be opened to hunting until the government had responded to the review, Mr O'Farrell said.

The review, by retired public servant Steve Dunn, was initially due by May 31 but this was recently extended to mid-June.

Greens MP David Shoebridge questioned the decision to re-declare the state forests for recreational hunting: "If the government has safety concerns about the Game Council operating hunting in national parks, then how can they extend their oversight in state forests for another decade?"

A spokeswoman for Ms Hodgkinson said "the re-declaration process is entirely separate from the Dunn review." She said Game Council licensed hunters "have been assisting with feral and game animal control in declared state forests for seven years. There have been no incidents which suggest any changes to the arrangement are required."

Hunting was to begin in 79 national parks and reserves last month under a deal struck between Mr O'Farrell and the Shooters and Fishers Party to secure passage of electricity privatisation legislation.

SOURCE

Taxi drivers bar Aboriginal actors

Unsaid below is that most Melbourne taxi-drivers are Indians and that they have had huge troubles with refugee Africans robbing  and attacking them.  An Indian would be unlikely to be able to tell one black from another. The Aborigines were in other words victims of the politically correct refugee policy that imported large numbers of Africans, with their usual high propensity for crime, into Australia.  If you were an Indian taxi driver in Melbourne, you would run from black faces too

Aboriginal actors in town to rehearse an indigenous version of King Lear were repeatedly refused a fare by taxi drivers in Southbank on Monday night, and racially abused on the St Kilda tram Tuesday morning while making their way back to work.

The Malthouse Theatre is now scrambling to find Southbank accommodation for the cast, which includes eminent actors such as Tom E Lewis, star of Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Rabbit-Proof Fence star Natasha Wanganeen, Redfern Now star Jada Alberts, Chooky Dancer Djamangi Gaykamangu, and Ten Canoes actor Frances Djulibing.

Four separate cabs booked to pick up the performers from the Malthouse on Monday from 6.30pm refused the fare once they arrived and saw the passengers, according to actor Jada Alberts.

"It was a series of cabs," Ms Alberts told ABC Melbourne radio. "As one would rock up, then they would say they couldn't go that distance and drive away. It happened once they'd arrived, when they met the passengers."

Ms Alberts said that a white theatre worker was successful in hailing a cab to take the performers to their St Kilda hotel but "as she goes to usher the company into the vehicle, the cab driver gets a look at them and says 'can't do it' and drives away."

The fifth cab booked by the Malthouse did agree to take the performers to St Kilda.

This comes six months after musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was refused a fare over the colour of his skin outside the Palais Theatre last December.

Although the Malthouse issued the cast with Myki cards so they could travel around Melbourne, several of the cast members were bailed up on the St Kilda tram on Tuesday morning by a fellow passenger who yelled that "you Aboriginal people, you don't exist in this country, you don't even have tickets". The passenger then told the driver to call the police and evict the Aboriginal passengers, a request the driver ignored.

"I know that it's not a usual occurrence, for those things to happen within the space of 24 hours was pretty heart-breaking for all of us to deal with," Ms Alberts said.

Playwright and actor Jada Alberts, left. Photo: Anthony Johnson
"We are now looking at accommodation options for all the artists within walking distance of the Malthouse so that they don't ever have to deal with this again," says the Malthouse's media manager Maria O'Dwyer.

"Obviously, this has been an extremely distressing situation and we are very upset that a very vocal minority in the Melbourne community have treated our artists with such disrespect – it's quite devastating that they have been subjected to such repeated racism in 'cosmopolitan' Melbourne."

"Some [drivers] pulled over for me (I am not Aboriginal), but drove away when I tried to usher the Aboriginal actors into the taxi. I tried hailing passing-by taxis with the same result (despite their lights indicating that they were available)," she wrote.

"The assumption that we have made is that the decision not to allow these people entry to your taxis was based in racism. Although, if you can offer any other explanation, I would love to hear it.

"I invite this as I am eager not to believe that I witnessed such a hideous display of racism, and that such disgusting and shameful acts are still taking place towards Aboriginal people in Australia."

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Dispersing bat colonies is now a local council problem in Qld.

War on green tape

THE State Government has washed its hands of troublesome bat colonies by handing over responsibility for dispersing their camps to local government.

Previously councils have had to apply for a state permit to move the creatures to ensure cruelty issues were addressed.

Bats have become an urban issue since widespread clearing has seen them move in to heavily treed urban areas and the advent of two bat-borne viruses - Hendra and lyssavirus.

In March Premier Campbell Newman moved to shift blame about flying fox camps away from the Government to councils by threatening to mobilise his own bat squad to cull the native creatures, an action that would be illegal.

Mr Newman said he would charge "lily-livered councils" for the bat squad because they were not applying for mitigation permits.

The Government has already approved the shooting of flying foxes by farmers and amended laws to ensure they did not receive the same protection under cruelty laws as other native wildlife.

Environment Minister Andrew Powell said the move was in line with the Government's war on green tape.

"We appreciate the significant impact flying foxes have had on some towns across Queensland and these new measures will make it easier for local communities to minimise those problems," Mr Powell said.

Councils in designated urban areas would be given the authority to make their own decisions to disperse or otherwise manage flying fox roosts consistent with an agreed code of practice.

Mr Powell said the flying fox dispersal was a complex issue and consideration had to be given to where the animals might go once they were moved on.

"We believe those decisions are best left to ... local governments," he said.

The authority would apply for non-lethal removal and the dispersal of animals would need to comply with Commonwealth, state and local government laws.

Wildlife Preservation Society chief executive Des Boyland said the move was clear evidence that the Government was giving up on caring for native fauna.

"They've given up on caring for the environment (vegetation clearing and national park development). That's obvious. What's next 'roos?" he said.

Mr Boyland said it was ironic that the move to resolve problems with councils might see the local authorities clashing with the Federal Government's powerful Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act because it protected grey headed and spectacled flying foxes.

"I don't think anyone can move their camps without impacting on the EPBC Act," he said.

Mr Boyland said the issue should be handled on the basis of science and real amenity impacts, rather than fear or ignorance.

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Grange

I was first in the door at my local Dan Murphy's today and got  a single bottle for $669 -- JR

After months of frantic anticipation, excited previews and controversial price rises, Australia can pull the cork on the latest release of Penfolds icon Grange shiraz after it was officially unveiled this morning.

Ground Zero was Penfolds' home base at Magill Estate in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, where chief winemaker Peter Gago opened the first bottle at 7.30am to share a taste with loyal followers of the wine, which is traditionally launched every year on the first Thursday in May.

A queue of Grange fans lined up at the Magill Estate cellar door to match their first sip of Grange with breakfast treats before forking out a whopping $785 for each bottle of the much lauded 2008 vintage shiraz.

The wine was originally priced at $685 when first soft-launched to media and trade in early March, but after an extraordinary 100 points out of 100 review by the respected international review The Wine Advocate, Penfolds executives raised the price again by $100, citing unprecedented global demand after the review had put pressure on supplies.

The Wine Advocate review included the lines: "This is clearly a wonderfully opulent and a magic vintage for this label".

Other leading critics also have pointed the wine highly, with James Halliday scoring it 98 points, Tyson Stelzer 99 points, and Philip White at strong 96 +++ points , his pluses indicating it will be better in many years to come and calling it "the Grangiest Grange in many many years."

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Cheques to die within five years following 66 per cent drop in use

THE cheque has one foot in the grave with predictions it could be killed off within just five years.

It has raised fears the move could result in a repeat of the massive backlash that resulted in the UK and saw the decision to ban cheques overturned.

The Australian Payments and Clearing Association's Milestones Report released today showed cheque use plummeted by 66 per cent in the 10 years to December.

The report stated it was only a matter of time before the downhill shift saw cheques wiped out completely.

"Based on the current rate of decline and assuming no plateau in cheque use, it could be predicted that cheques will no longer be used in Australia in 2018," the report stated.

But a similar move in the UK to ban cheques by October 2018 provided disastrous and strategic business relations company RFi's director, Alan Shields said it resulted in a complete backflip.

"You have to look at what happened in the UK, the UK Payments Council said they were getting rid of cheques but there was such a backlash they had to do a 180," he said.

"They wouldn't want to go down the same road as the UK."

The UK Payments Council postponed its decision in 2011 to ban cheques following significant outrage and announced, "cheques will continue for as long as customers need them."

Mr Shields said the death of the cheque would be inevitable if businesses started to turn away cheques.

"It's going to be contingent on people accepting cheques, if they stop accepting cheques then that's going to be the biggest nail in the coffin," he said.

"The people that use them are a minority but it's not going to be an easy drug to kick."

APCA's report found between December 2011 and December 2012 the total number of cheques written fell by 12.5 per cent from 256 million to 224 million per year.

APCA chief executive Chris Hamilton said the dramatic shift away from cheque use forced its future to be seriously questioned.

"There's a lot of nostalgia, there's lot of history associated with cheques . . . but they really are quite expensive as a payment medium," he said.

"As people find good electronic alternatives and as they live more of their lives online and electronically then the cheque is just less useful.

"This is a product that's gradually phasing itself out, our biggest concern in all of that is there are still some people including older Australians or for historical reasons those people that are still very attached to their cheques."

The report said cheques volumes had fallen across the world with data compiled from 19 developed countries including Australia and found volumes fell from 34 billion in 2010 to 31.6 billion in 2011.

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A new tax!  Leftism never changes

THE federal government will reportedly announce that it's funding its National Disability Insurance Scheme with a special Medicare-style levy set at 0.5 per cent.

Fairfax reports the government decided to introduce the special tax, which in effect takes the 1.5 per cent Medicare levy to 2.0 per cent, following an expenditure review committee meeting on Tuesday.

The Australian says Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to announce details of the levy as early as Wednesday.

Ms Gillard is also expected also announce a clampdown on the disability support pension scheme when she delivers a speech in Melbourne, the paper says.

The special tax is expected to start next year and raise $3.5 billion a year towards the federal government's major share of the disability insurance scheme.

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Public servants fewer in number and made to move where most needed another major shake-up

QUEENSLAND'S public servants will become fewer in number and be made to go where they are most needed under another major shake-up proposed by the Commission of Audit report.

Treasurer Tim Nicholls would not say if more job cuts were on the cards, but said the government was expecting the 200,000-strong public service to reduce by one-third in the next five years due to natural attrition, retirement and "other options being taken up".

"You cannot continue to increase the size of the public sector because that just means more and more of the problems we face now (such as) an unsustainable deficit," Mr Nicholls said.

"Hard actions needed to be taken."

He said recommendations to give the private sector the chance to compete with the public sector for work in a wide range of areas would help make Queensland's public service the best in the country.

"What we see is an opportunity to upskill the public servants to give them the skills necessary to deliver the services that we believe Queenslanders want and need," said Mr Nicholls.

"(At the same time) we're going to be testing the opportunity for delivery of services and the best way to deliver those services."

The Public Service Act will be amended to allow employees to be appointed to a generic level rather than a specific position in the public service and the "reasonable grounds" test for transfers will be removed to allow workers to be sent where they are needed.

Temporary attraction and retention incentives will be offered to "meet specific labour market recruiting pressures" but only in "limited circumstances".

The latest planned overhaul angered Together Queensland state secretary Alex Scott who said it was clear the government could not be taken at face value on the topic of job cuts, following on from 14,000 redundancies in the past year.

"Less than four months ago, the Premier said there'd be no jobs lost as a result of the Audit Commission," said Mr Scott.

"What we know now today is that their election commitment and their statements can never be taken at their word."

He said the push to open up much of the government sector to market competition would lead to "cheaper services, not better services".

"This Government was elected to revitalise frontline services but today's report clearly indicates they will be privatising those services instead," Mr Scott said.

"The privatisation of frontline services will lead to as cheap as possible services, rather than the best possible services and Queenslanders deserve better."

John Battams from the Queensland Council of Unions predicted workers would register their opposition to the Costello report at Sunday's Labour Day March.

"We believe the march on Sunday will be one of the biggest on record," said Mr Battams.

"People are angry and it'll be a march not just by trade unionists but by members of the community who are extremely concerned about the direction in which this government is lurching."

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Bureaucratic craziness

Australian Army banned from recruiting New Zealanders

Due to an apparent anomaly in the Defence Instructions, the 648,000 New Zealanders living permanently in Australia are barred from joining either the permanent or reserve defence forces of their adopted country.

Former Kiwi soldier Duncan Sandilands, whose grandfather helped to forge the Anzac legend during a four-month stint in the trenches at Gallipoli, tried to join the Australian Army Reserve in 2007 but was refused.

"I passed all the tests with flying colours and was then told I wasn't eligible," he said.

The super fit mountaineer is now 53 years old and he has launched a campaign with Brisbane-based human rights barrister Mark Plunkett to change the rules so that he and the estimated five Kiwis a week who try and join up can be granted entry.

The Kiwi ban applies despite the fact that Defence is recruiting troops from Britain, South Africa, Canada and the US and is offering fast tracked citizenship in return.

Citizenship is granted to overseas troops after 90 days permanent or six months reserve service.

A 2008 letter from the head of defence force recruiting urged Mr Sandilands to lobby the Department of Immigration for a policy change regarding Kiwi eligibility.

Under the terms of the Special Category Visa (SCV) that applies to New Zealanders living in Australia they are prevented from applying for permanent residency and citizenship as required by Defence.

Mr Sandilands has lived, worked and paid taxes in Australia since 2004, but he can't serve his adopted country.

"Australia is now my home and I want to give something back to the country," Mr Sandilands said.  "I have a right to defend this country that is now my home.

"I will win this, I have got right on my side," he said.

Mr Sandilands said he had spent $100,000 on the fight so far and he was determined to see it through.

60,000 Kiwis came to Australia last year and more than 78 per cent of all New Zealanders living here are in full-time work compared with 60 per cent of Australians.

Mr Plunkett has written to the government seeking a ministerial direction to exempt Kiwis living here on an SCV from the requirements of the Defence Directive.

"With the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli soon to be upon us it is propitious to lift this apartheid-like ban on Australian New Zealanders living permanently in Australia from being disqualified from ADF recruitment," Mr Plunkett said.

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Fred Nile calls for clear choice on homosexuals

As same-sex marriage advocates voiced their fears about a divisive referendum, Mr Nile joined the Australian Christian Lobby in calling for the matter to be settled by the public on election day.

He said his Christian Democratic Party had been "pipped at the post" by the independent Tony Windsor in calling for a question on gay marriage to be added to a referendum, expected to be announced soon, on constitutional recognition for local government.

Marriage equality activists are concerned that what they describe as "cashed-up" church groups would bring on a pre-referendum battle that would polarise society and "demonise" gay and lesbian people. Mr Nile and Australian Christian Lobby spokesman Lyle Shelton confirmed significant resources would be thrown behind any "no" campaign.

"This is something that people are very passionate about," Mr Shelton said.

Before Labor's 2011 national conference, the group collected more than 100,000 signatures against gay marriage and Mr Shelton predicted a referendum would fail.

"I would think that if the arguments were presented in a balanced way without the accusations of homophobia or bigotry that are often put towards those who support marriage, I think there would be every chance that people would stick with what has been the status quo for millennia," he said.

The stance of the Christian groups exposed divisions in the gay marriage lobby. Fairfax Media understands that Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who has portfolio responsibility for marriage equality, lobbied leader Christine Milne to reverse her support for a referendum.

In comments that confirmed she had been forced into a U-turn, Senator Milne said a referendum would be a "distraction" and the issue should be settled by Parliament. "The only impediment is that the Coalition won't provide a conscience vote," she said.

Australian Marriage Equality national convener Rodney Croome said: "We fear cashed-up opponents of marriage equality would exploit a referendum to polarise the electorate and demonise gay and lesbian people in a way that will impact badly, particularly on young gay people."

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