Australia’s NBN will be aerial, not wireless; cheap not secure. Feed Senator Conroy to the Possums!

posted by David Collyer on Tuesday, August 25th 2009

Australia desperately needs the new National Broadband Network.  Our business and social communications labor under two impediments: the tyranny of distance and lousy internet speeds.  Lousy!

The cost of the NBN is staggering – $43 billion and rising; the cost of not installing it promises to be higher.  Our ability to play a meaningful role in world affairs utterly depends on the quality of our communications network.

Minister for Communications senator Conroy has found a way to cut the capital outlay:  aerial cabling.

That’s right.  Slung underneath the minimum five wires of three phase power and Foxtel’s cable that pass every house in built-up areas, will be our broadband connection.

So every street tree will have to be pruned even harder (remember the tree vandalism when the Foxtel cables went up).  With our big houses, small blocks and extensive paving, street trees are usually the most important shading and cooling feature we have available.

The US Defense Department designed the internet’s decentralized network to survive a nuclear war.  Your connection will be at the mercy of possums, tree branches, bushfires and passing trucks. This vital service will not be reliable enough.

And (Ahem!) extra aerial cabling will lower property values by reducing the amenity and aesthetics of your street.

Conroy thinks this is progress.  He is protecting the nation from wasteful spending.

Think again, senator Conroy.

We don’t have to dig trenches everywhere. There has been significant advances in laser-guided horizontal boring – you will have seen the equipment on the streets –that minimize disruption and are LOW COST.

We could underground all the electric wires at the same time.   I’d like to see that!

Jenny Mak Should Get The Sack! Australia’s Disgrace – Indigenous Intervention Failure.

posted by Scott Kane on Saturday, August 22nd 2009

Minister For Disingenuous Affairs

Click The Picture Directly Above.

It’s captured from Hon. Jenny Maklin’s website home page and makes Maka’s view of  who  “Australians” are very clear.

Yes, this is the federal “Minister for Indigenous Affairs”.  One would be forgiven for concluding Maka sees the people her portfolio is actually responsible for are “Anglo-Celtic white”, given the singular lack of ethnic diversity amongst the smiling faces basking in her reflected glory.  There’s  not a single indigenous person there!

Her portfolio needs to be renamed to better reflect the Minister’s priorities.   I envisage:  “Minister For Disingenuous Affairs.”

Out of Touch. Out of Time. Out of Basic Decency.

Northern Territory indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu says the Federal Government’s intervention has failed to improve the lives of Aboriginal people.

Yunupingu said:

“It is now three years old but it hasn’t made Aboriginal people any richer or healthier or happier,”

“It is really and truly dragging people down to create more misery.

“So the intervention that I am calling now is to close. Let’s start again.”

He’s right, of course.  Are we surprised?

There can’t be a person in either chamber of the Australian Federal Parliament who actually cares.

Because if they did we’d hear about it!

Instead, all we’ve heard are Conservatives in the Northern Territory using the issue for political point scoring.

We’ve not heard from The Greens.  Their silence speaks volumes about their “acknowledgement of the original carers”, which equates to:

“Move over, The Greens are here!

…and thanks for all the fish!“

These are Australian Citizens – not vehicles for cutesy, convenient, middle class vote scoring.  Not devices for creating surreptitious slogans  addressing voguish city dwellers.

Either do something constructive to help them NOW or…

Get out of parliament in favor of  people who will!

Millions Squandered By Bureaucrats

We have heard reports from NT that millions in indigenous funding earmarked for the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program has  been squandered in typical, heartless, bureaucratic bastardism.

Speaking of bastards – NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson vowed he’d:

“…get to the bottom” of how the $672m package was being spent.”

and the NT’s conservative opposition Country Liberal Party called for the Northern Territory and Commonwealth auditors-general to begin

“… an immediate investigation to trace the movement of money under the SIHIP scheme.“

The guidelines for this “funding” are an utter disgrace.  They are a sick, perverted joke on the Aboriginal people.  Australians should be screaming in rage – this could never happen in the suburbs:

• 40-year lease deals have been negotiated with remote communities, which receive their chunk of the money only after they have signed over partial control over their land.
• Seven lease deals have been struck, despite chronic overcrowding in most remote communities – where it is alleged up to 30 people have been known to share a two-bedroom house.
• Not one new house has been built as part of the project.

Thanks to this Minister and her Labor government,  John Howard’s Northern Territory indigenous gulag continues – further eroding basic civil rights, basic economic support and the basic civil liberties that are the birth right of all Australians.

Which under the constitution, includes the Australian Aboriginal people!

“ Minister,Resign.”

“The Westminster System Affords You An Honourable Way Out!”

Conservative Engendered Racism.

Endorsed By Labor Party White Australia Policies?

I remind you this tragedy was created by John Howard’s Liberal/National Coalition government prior to the ALP winning power and appointing “Maka the Minister For Disingenuous Affairs” .  It was supposed to address genuine problems such as child abuse and chronic health problems in the indigenous community.

Australian Democrats Senators Said This Would Fail in 2007

The Australian Democrats Senators argued vigorously against it’s implementation.  They warned it would fail.

They were right, and it did.

The Green’s Sacrificing This Issue For Ecological Communion

The cross benches  in the Senate are now filled by The Greens, who are mute on this issue.  They are too busy arguing about Climate Change and opposing every government proposal on everything.

Balance – oh plagiarising populists that you are – is about all issues of governance.  Not just your pet  – green coloured glasses – agenda item!

But Aboriginal Affairs?

They “acknowledge” them – but we all know what that’s worth!

Liberal And Labor Party Apartheid

This is a bum deal for all Australians.  Taxpayers’ money is being wasted by bureaucrats – and is not getting through to those it is intended for and who urgently need it, Australia’s indigenous people.

It is a bum deal because we Australians are inclined to sit in judgment of other nations’ human rights issues while our government makes hypocrites of us all.

It is a bum deal because the Rudd Government have  not even succeeded in conning themselves.

This government and Jenny Maklin have successfully managed, in just two short years, to create a problem that would bring tears of joy to the eyes of Australia’s second longest serving deflector of human rights –   John Howard.

The Australian Democrats have long sought to “Keep the Bastards Honest” – but it seems we are now reduced to having to “Keep the Bastards from being Xenophobes”  too?

“Please Explain?”

Scott Kane

Bob Hawke paid? Australia to be new home of world’s radioactive waste? We’re receiving a dump.

posted by David Collyer on Wednesday, August 19th 2009

Bob Hawke Wants Us To Turn Australia Into Nuclear Sewer

A former Australian Prime Minister is lining up our beloved country for a sucker punch – to be the dump for the world’s radioactive waste.

Bob Hawke makes me so angry.  And he is bringing my prediction , made in great sadness, into reality.

The world has a serious problem – there is radioactive waste stored precariously in unsafe conditions around the globe.  Scientists have warned governments they must act; populations are anxious.  A resolution is urgently needed.

Australia is ideal as a deep geologic radioactive repository: it is roomy, dry, geologically stable and politically benign. We understand the need for great caution in managing and disposing of depleted uranium.  We are honest too, so whatever facility is built will be to agreed specifications. Perfect.

News Corp today quotes Bob Hawke saying:  “It would also become a strong source of national income for Australia that could be dedicated to our own environmental and water requirements.”

Really?

This is a key problem: dumping countries will not pay Australia properly for the right to free themselves of this dirty, poisonous, dangerous stuff.

Yes, they will pay billions for their get-out-of-jail-free card.  But it wont be enough, not nearly enough.

Australia will commit itself to guarding, containing and protecting the waste for – choose a number – say 1000 years (a gross underestimate).  Other countries will willingly pay for the engineering and construction and transport, but not for 1000 year security – that wont be their problem!

This waste dump will be a magnet for crime.  Anyone with large volumes of radioactive material can hold the entire world to ransom.

Costing Trillions Of Aussie Dollars

One could do an actuarial estimate of what 1000 year security would cost Australia.  It would be trillions.  The dumping countries will want to erase this liability by negotiating it away.

I can see them all in a row, gesturing energetically, looking for a bargain and demanding a discount.

A Millennia is a very long time.  Given the quality of our political leadership, the giant capital injection we would enjoy would be frittered, inflated and mismanaged away in a generation or two.

Do we really want this responsibility?

Victorian Democrats Call On The Brumby Government To Suspend The Bushfire Royal Commission Pending Criminal Investigation by The Coroner

posted by Scott Kane on Tuesday, August 18th 2009

The Victorian Royal Commission has released it’s scathing, toothless interim report on the bushfires, while studiously avoiding the issue of forest fuel reduction.

I cannot accept that it should extend it’s scope to considering evidence around fire deaths ahead of the coroner, who has a particular statutory role in investigating the causes of death.  How can the coroner make clear-eyed recommendations and help the greiving if the evidence is muddied by a separate judicio-political inquiry?

Police officers have said they will withhold evidence from the commission where it reveals criminal behaviour by parties yet to be named, pending investigation by the coroner.  Quite right.

It is important to keep in mind that a Royal Commission negates and prevents criminal prosecution.  Yes, it does!  Those giving honest testimony receive a get-out-of-jail-free card.

It is time to suspend the Royal Commission and forward its evidence to the coroner.

The dead and grieving deserve no less.

There have been a number of serious allegations made to and investigated by Victoria Police.  These allegations can not be made public prior to court hearings.  Significantly, eye witnesses in places such as Kinglake West have not been heard by the commission – yet serious, damning statements have been made by these witnesses to police, including photographic evidence.

It is equally significant that Department of Sustainability and Environment employees were exempted from appearing before the Royal Commission.  By contrast, the coroner must hear from all parties of interest.

There are many important questions the Royal Commission has conveniently overlooked.

• Why was the Captain of a CFA station not given assistance when he called urgently, multiple times in Strathewan?
• Why is this same man still waiting for the delivery of fuel for the tanker he radioed for on that day?
• Why was he, his team and other teams not given the benefit of counselling after the fire and are still waiting?
• Why were residents of Pine Ridge Rd – now dead – sent back to their homes from road blocks to perish there?
• Why was the alleged back burning operation carried out in Kinglake West prior to fire engulfing Pine Ridge Rd where 21 Victorians died?
• Why was the Kilmore spotting tower staffed with inexperienced people in a make shift operation early that morning?
• Why was the Kangaroo Ground tower effectively ignored when it reported not only fire but deceased persons in Strathewan and St Andrews?
• What happened to the allegations naming the electricity power poles n Kilmore as a potential source of the original fire?
• Why were communities not warned of imminent fire attack – yet certain government employee families were?
• Why were the people of Marysville consistently told there was no fire and the spotting tower and relay station ignored by the Emergency Operations Centre?
• Why is a certain shire council introducing “Green policy” by-laws without a council vote on all articles?
• Why have CFA stations been stripped of their fire sirens – a simple tool to alert people to fire?
• Why have the Federal government, states and the big telcos bumbled the emergency telephone notification system across years of inaction and and futile semantics?
• Why are green groups being given the opportunity to object to Fire Danger signs in outer suburban and rural Victoria?
• Why are The Greens, including the one who ran in McEwen in the 2007 Federal election,  about to play the “civil disobedience” game to protest for the closing of Hazelwood power station yet have remained utterly mute about Black Saturday?

There are so many dangling issues.  It is essential we suspend this Royal Commission.  Now.  And let the coroner – armed with good science and 150 years of experience – do what that office does best.

With the next bushfire season looming – and predicted be worse than the last – Victorians are the victims of a sham.  While politicians like John Brumby cry crocodile tears, the tears in affected communities are genuine.  For the real people no longer with us.  I fear the grief is not yet over.

Calls to “…not look for blame.” are a travesty.  Victoria needs a clear path forward and  the families of the deceased need justice – or it will just happen again, maybe as soon as this year.  The Royal Commission cannot and is not going to deliver this.  Despite its judicial trappings, it is not a court of law.  It is a truth and reconciliation mechanism.

Fran Bailey is the Federal Member for McEwen, which covers the areas sterilized by fire on February 7th.  As the Federal Member – and in opposition to Labor -  Fran should have been all over this with a jackhammer and hard hat.  It there was ever to be an objector to the indulgences of Premier Brumby and his farcical Royal Commission, then one would expect the Hon. Fran Bailey to be screaming about justice for her constituents.  But she isn’t.  Sadly, Fran Bailey – the Pink Fink of McEwen – has flunked again.  Perhaps she’s out covering the Great Barrier Reef in shade cloth to protect it from global warming? Think I jest?  Click Here.

So while Fran’s off putting pink parasols on parrot fish, Victorians await the election in twelve months or so, and the chance to send this message to the Brumby government:

“You are MAD Premier Brumby if you think Victorians are going to let this pass.

But then, maybe his catch phrase actually is:  “What – Me Worry?”

Scott Kane

Congratulations Geosciences Victoria and Paul McDonald – there is $70 billion in Gold right under our feet.

posted by David Collyer on Monday, August 17th 2009

Victoria was founded on gold.  And it looks like we are to have another Rush!

In news reported today, Geosciences Victoria has been researching with new science* and found 80 million ounces of gold in the area Swan Hill – Hamilton – Shepparton.  The ten largest fields are each expected to contain more than a million ounces each. Wow!

What does this mean for Victoria?  A lot.

Victorian Premiers have for decades watched mineral riches underwrite other state  governments – particularly WA and QLD – and, save the now-depleted Bass Strait oilfields, saw little activity here.

For government, it means royalties, taxes and robust economic activity.

For citizens, it means lower taxes, jobs and a more vibrant society.  Before you shrug at this, consider the impact of a mere $900 given to each taxpayer earlier this year.

But we need to be careful:  beware the Dutch Disease.  Holland’s traditional industries were made uncompetitive by large gas discoveries that lifted their currency.

I recommend against going back on the gold standard – where every Australian dollar is redeemable in gold – although we probably now could.

Groan, and Western Victoria will now be covered in white miners’ pegs.

These are the not-so-hard problems of affluence.  Congratulations to Paul McDonald, Resources Manager at Geosciences Victoria and to all my fellow Victorians.

*  for the technically minded: http://www.theajmonline.com.au/mining_news/news/2009/may-27th-09/other-top-stories/victoria2019s-billion-dollar-hidden-gold

Student Services and Amenities Fee – a University Student’s View

posted by Edward Guymer on Monday, August 17th 2009

The proposed Student Services and Amenities Fee has been in the news, with the Liberal Party not liking it, the Nationals planning to divert all the money to sport and now The Greens wanting the collected funds to go through student bodies.

As I write this, the Senate is debating the legislation, without agreement.

I should mention that I am a board member of the student association at my university.

There are 4,000 students at my regional campus, so at $250 per student per year, there would be a million dollars available. Where it is spent is up to the university, under guidelines set by the minister of the day. The legislation does say that the guidelines can not direct all funds to student organisations and prohibits the funds being spent on political campaigns or donations, by either the university or the recipient body.

How do students pay the fee?  Simply, it goes on the HECS bill, like other university costs, or is paid upfront.

The money is intended to pay for the services previously funded through compulsory student unions: child care facilities, counselling services, sporting facilities, recreation areas, events and so on. Under the Howard Government, these services were cut back or taken over by the universities or by private enterprise.

Student services are still decidedly inferior to what they used to be and what they could be.

I have learned my university – and presumably most others – intends to fund services through current providers, improving some and reintroducing others that were lost.

If the Nationals’ amendment gets up, my little campus would continue to struggle with minimal funding for vital, heavily patronised services, while equipped with lavish sporting facilities.  A million dollars buys a lot of footballs.

The changes proposed by The Greens could result in more funds to student bodies than needed, leading to lopsided service provision or in student bodies having to re-establish services dropped by other providers.

On the other hand, if too low a proportion of funding goes to student bodies, it may mean underfunding the key services they provide.

Either way, both the Nationals’ and Greens’ proposals mean inferior services compared with the legislation as it stands.