Idea - Ministry vs Department

It's long bothered me how, at every invokation of government or cabinet reshuffle, the powers that be see fit to rebrand every department - DEVETIR becomes DITR becomes DETIR becomes DEVTR becomes ... as the mix of Departments keeps changing.

But why? Why do we waste thousands on new logo's, new letter head, new everything just to reflect a new political expediency?

My suggestion - why not leave the departments unchanged unless there really is going to be a true amalgumation. So leave them at their bear minimums. The Department of:

• Employment
• Training
• Education
• Main Roads
• Police
• etc

And then simply create political ministries that link them together:

• Ministry of Employment, Training & Industrial Relations
• Ministry of Police & Corrective Services

That way only the politicial paperwork changes but the Departmental stuff doesn't have to. From a business or citizen perspective, we don't care if the government of the day sees fit to amalgumate functions, we still want to deal with the Department.

Yes, it may not always be the case and there may be good reason for joining functions - but if that's the case then perhaps the belong together - but I think it could save us a small fortune in renaming costs.

Prediction - The Disguise of the 99-Year Lease

A quick one - these 99-year leases the libs are touting as the solution to all of Aboriginal Australia's problems.

The argument goes that by allowing 99-year leases, suddenly banks will borrow money to people living on the Dole so they can build a house.

Who are they kidding?

My guess - it's all about land rights and tenure to the land. I reckon they've had legal opinion that if the traditional owners relinguish the land via a lease, then they'll end up loosing their land rights.

Just my prediction anyhow...

Thoughts - Work "Choices"

I'm really amazed at the stupidity of people who are throwing away allowances for short-term gain. You know the deal, drop penalty rates, over-time, etc for a sizeable increase in salary.

It looks really nice upfront - until you get burnt.

I know of a recent example where exactly this occurred in a MAJOR (ASX100) employer. A bunch of IT support staff accepted a $4000 increase in salary in leui of overtime, penalty rates and on-call allowances to provide 24x7 IT support. Up front it looked fantastic.

Problem was, they received no further increases in Salary for nearly 5 years!

See the problem? That $4000 is now a $0 increase thanks to inflation - and they no longer have any penalties, overtime or on-call provisions.

People - OPEN YOUR EYES - stop looking at the short term and think long term. What appears good on paper today could well bite you in the arse in a few years time!

Howard must be laughing all the way to the polls!!!!

Suggestion - Abrams M1A1 in Queensland...

I was interested to read a letter to the editor today from Major General Ian Gordon, Deputy Chief of Army, arguing that the Abrams M1A1 was the right choice of replacement tank for the army (the fact they're second hand, too heavy and too wide).

One of his arguments is that they can be transported by rail from Darwin to other parts of the country. But lets see what that means in Queensland:

Let's compare the two beasts:

M1A1	w3.64 m	l 7.92 m	h 2.43 m	63.0 tonnes
Leopard	w3.37 m	l 9.54 m	h 2.62 m	42.5 tonnes

The concern here is the additional width (nearly 30cm) and weight (nearly 20 tonnes). In Queensland, the Leopard tanks can be moved by rail around the country - seeing a stand of flatbeds outside of the area north of Rocky is not uncommon - but with an additional 30cm to cater for, I suspect this will be too big for our loading gauge.

Which means they'll need to be moved by road - which will mean significant inconvenience on our lovely narrow highways - let alone the damage caused by the additional 20 tonnes rolling overhead.

Good idea? Not in Queensland I suspect.

Suggestion - Why's the Military on the Nose...

Much has been made recently of Mr Howard's greasy attempt to lure folk into military service. His new "gap year", "try before you buy" is nothing more than a half arsed attempt to bring National Service back in. You can see the approach - start by making it voluntary - of course, no one will sign up - then, following an electoral win, they'll tie it to the Dole, then it'll be compulsary for anyone 18-20 on a "random" selection.

Yet, I'm staggered the government is unable to see the obvious reason why military service is on the nose - namely, the politicisation of the ADF. It's been going on for a while now - firstly Tampa, then Children Overboard - both used by an encumbent government to retain power and knowingly corrupted the ADF to its end by distorting the facts and forcing them to stay quiet.

Now of course we have the Iraq debacle - sent into a completely partisan fight to suck up to Bush on a campaign clearly NOTHING to sdo with the watr on terror - resulting of course in taking the eyes of Afghanistan which is another looming basket case. Had they held their will against Bush and sent our troops into campaigns with a TRUE moral agenda, then perhaps it wouldn't be so "on the nose".

Aussie troops have long prided themselves on their humanitarian position, by befriending the locals which in turn helps to defeat the enemy combatitans. Without that, who are your friends?

So, Mr Howard, pull us out of Iraq, reaffirm our commitment in Afghanistan and pledge to commit to a fight where we have a moral position, and perhaps the ADF will have a future.

Question - The Rush to Conflict?

I'm amazed at the astounding certainty that our political leaders have regarding North Korea's recent "alledged" nuclear tests. There's been suggestion for days that it wasn't a nuclear bomb, yet from the rhetoric surrounding the event, you'd never know.

Yet, we have conflicting comments like this from the BBC which claims that "US scientists found that there were traces of radioactive gas in the air near the site of last Monday's alleged nuclear test." So, here we have the most secretative country in the world, where we're repeatedly told that no-one can get inside the country to find out what's going on, yet we can sample the air near the bomb site!

I'm not trying to argue that the event didn't occur - in fact, I'd be surprised if it didn't - but I worry at the "call to arms" that the media has jumped on a la "WMD in Iraq" or "Children Overboard". No questioning, no doubts, all certainty. When will we learn from our mistakes?

Thoughts - Who's Cashing In???

In the rash of reports (here and here) of people "cashing in" on Steve Irwin's death, and particularly on his rememberance service, I'm staggered that no-one has yet pointed to the fairly blatant "cashing in" that the Irwin empire is staging.

Despite original plans to have the service at Lang Park (or Suncorp Stadium) where it could easily accommodate the "greiving masses", it was decided (apparently at Terri's request) to hold it at Australia Zoo. Why is this "cashing in"? Well, if there were to sell memorabilia or merchandising at Lang Park it would have been "tacky" and most likely have been an outcry. Whereas, if they sell truckloads of shit at Australia Zoo, it can be done under the guise of "running a business".

I wonder if anyone will have the guts in the media to say it???

Prediction - Energy Efficiency & Sustainable Products in Housing

I recently went to an investment seminar and subsequent followup meetings. In this I was told that I should built a stock "executive, 4 bedroom" house and make a killing.

This really bugged me because I'm so tired of seeing these crap buildings (especially in our climate) because it's the current fashion in Melbourne or Sydney.

I object to this on two counts:

1. It's foul for our climate - shit, we're building low ceiling, besser block houses with no eaves and black roofs - this in a climate where Summer temps typically exceed 32 degrees! Who's the idiots building this shit?

2. It's going to be economic suicide - with the price of energy expect to rise sharply in coming years (Peak Oil, Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, etc), then it seems idiocy to be building a "stock" house made for current fashions.

On #2 alone, it would make much more sense economically to be building low impact, sustainable and energy efficient houses NOW so you can cash in when the prices start to rise. Think how much easier it will be to rent a property when you can offer a tenant SIGNIFICANT savings on expenses!

Confirmed: Israel Bombed First...

As confirmed on Democracy Now (July 14 interview with Noam Chomsky), my recollection WAS correct. Following the kidnap of the Israeli soldiers by Hezbolla, Israel conducted massive bombing in retaliation resulting in the death of some 60 people. At this point, Hezbolla retaliated - yet they are copping the blame.

Shame on us, shame on Israel, shame on the media for allowing the reverse to be peddled as truth every day...

Observation - Expensive Training = Lower Aussie Wages

We're seeing an increasing trend at the moment.

The right are pushing to fuck up the national training strategy (e.g. high Uni fees, stuff up TAFE, etc) and then pay scant regard to providing future trained resources. This is happening now.

The downstream impact of this is that we have a huge skills crisis in this country. So how are we fixing this? Are we providing more training? Are we subsidising areas requiring skills development? No (well, except for Doctors but that's thanks to radical Unionism (AMA)), instead we bring in skilled resources from overseas.

Why - obviously this is a planned strategy to force down wages across the board.

On ya Johhny - fuck the unions, fuck up Uni's and then start fucking with us ... you bastards!

Why - Ceasefire Is Not Offered?

Okay, I can understand why Israel doesn't want a ceasefire until they've sorted out Hezbollah.

But why on earth can't our leaders ask for a temporary ceasefire - perhaps a couple of days - to allow innocents to flee the area? Once it was over then Israel could bomb the crap out of the place knowing, with some legitimacy, that they'd offered people the chance to leave safely?

Who's On First?

I'd love to relive history so I can work out if Israel is telling a huge nasty. They are arguing that Israel is defending itself after Hezbollah "invaded" Israel, killed and kidnapped soldiers and started raining Katyusha rockets down on Northern Israel.

Except, my recollection (which may be wrong) is different. There's no problem with the bit about Hezbollah killing and kidnapping, but I do wonder about the rockets. I could've sworn that Israel started that by bombing the crap out of Southern Lebanon - to which Hezbollah retaliated.

I could be wrong (perhaps it just wasn't reported that way), but it would seem that they are responding to Israel's agression. Why couldn't Israel simply send in a targetted group to rescue it's soldiers?

DEBUNKED - Prediction - Terrorist In Canberra

Well, what a day.

Yesterday we had former defence minister Ian McDonald make the claim of an "agreement" between Howard and Costello prior to the 1994 spill of Downer effectively saying that Howard only wanted two (2) terms before standing aside for Costello.

By morning, Howard had blankly ruled out that a deal was ever done - end of story, or so we thought. Later in the day, Costello dropped the bomb - in his opinion there had been an agreement - and frankly, he's fucked all of them.

Why? Well, Howard's credibility is shot (honest John ain't so honest after all) and, should Howard push on, Costello has just provided Labor with it's campaign slogan - "how can you trust Howard if he lies to the closest people in his own party?". But Costello is equally stuffed because he lacks the numbers to overthrow Howard and by now openly coming out and effectively calling Howard a liar, he's not likely to gain friends quickly. So, in one swift move, Costello has killed both of their future aspirations - possibly the greatest political suicide of our generation.

My guess is that (yet another) deadline for Howard to quit has passed and so Costello has realised that if it didn't happen now, it would never happen. If Howard went to another election, by then Costello would be nearing retirement so why bother? So, he's thrown the incendery in instead, deciding to take Howard out with him...

Tonite Bishop tried arguing there was never an agreement because, as it was before they'd even reached power, there was effectively nothing to offer. What a load of shite! Clearly Costello put his own future as leader ON HOLD so Howard would go up to the party room unopposed. If a deal WASN'T done, he wouldn't have held back his nomination. Clearly this means that a deal had been struck.

We've also had some comment that Costello's credibility is shot because he's repeatedly denied rumours of a deal. But clearly Costello has denied the allegation till now as part of loyality - going far beyond and putting the party's interests ahead of his own - he put the party first for 2 elections or 5 years (I'm amazed he lasted this long).

No, this is not an attempt to yeild office from Howard - it is instead an deliberate attempt to unseat Howard ... at his own demise. Who would have thought that Australia's first suicide bomber would come from the Liberal Party?

Edit (8/5/07): Well, Howard continues to amaze as does his resilience. Currently down in the pools, I still think he's a good chance for another win (question this is, who will be PM?).

DEBUNKED - Prediction - GBRMPA's Demise...

Well, it looks like the right may have had a win over GBRMPA. After months of threats pre-election to close them down for bad decisions RE: the rezoning (which, admitted was pretty poor) comes a rumour that GBRMPA is about to be shutdown (or scaled down at least).

The following item on the ABC site was most concerning for the lack of support from Ian McDonald arguing that a "presence" would be maintained in Townsville and other coastal areas.

Presence - sounds like they're going to put shop fronts in and move the lot back to Canberra (where they can reign in all those rampant marxist scientists). But be warned, these sort of rumours have circulated before and some think that a report (as yet to be released) RE: the rezoning process is going to be scathing and will result in a massive overhaul.

Edit (8/5/07): Well, it's nearly been 12 months and GBRMPA is still going strong. Looks like I called this one incorrectly!

Prediction - QNI B-Double Drama's

For some reason, everyone seemed to miss the "50 b-doubles per day, 6 days a week" going out to QNI from the Port as a result of the latest expansion plans. No rail movement, it's all by truck.

I wonder if someone will wake up before they start? My guess it'll be a non-issue till people realise what 100 truck movements per days means to their roads....

Question - East Timor's Troubles...???

I'm still having trouble trying to work out the situation in East Timor. We're led to believe there is this huge political division between East and West - but surely this doesn't come from nowhere - there has to have been a history of it to be this bloody now - but why have we never heard about it before.

We've also heard about possible peturbations from Indonesia - trying to unsettle the country. But what about Australia? I recall hearing at one point that Alkatiri was considering a socialist state which would have pissed off our incumbent government no end - particularly after all the hand waving RE: the oil and gas rights in the Timor Sea.

So, it has me wondering - who has the most to gain out of this? Indonesia - yes, as an unsettled country makes it a target for "resettlement" so that law and order can be reimposed. But I think Australia has more to gain. If it can swing in a more sympathetic government, it could:

• Water down the Timor Sea treaty
• Knock any idea of becoming a socialist state into touch - nothing could be worse than having a marxist government on your doorstep (akin to Venezuela) who wants to look after their citizens before it looks after the interests of capital.

Which makes this article all the more interesting. Make you wonder ....

What If: We're Right about Everything...

I've often wondered if the sceptics RE: Global Warming and Peak Oil (typically the NeoCons, the religious conservatives and the generally ignorant) have ever thought "hey, what if these nutcases are right?".

It's an argument I've thought of taking with the "head in the sands" types I meet regularly and ask them - "what if I'm right? If I'm wrong, then at worse, I'm going to look like a fool. But if I'm right, then are you really willing to ignore the possible consequences?"

Just a thought...

Why - Are We All Skitso?

I've come to the conclusion that we're all a bunch of hypocritical, do one thing say the other, one minute left but thiuking right (and visa versa) bunch of fools.

Look at the things that piss us off - particularly when it involves government involvement.

We all complain about pedaphiles and want our kids protected ... but when a school bans cameras at a swim meet, we tear the organisers to pieces.

We all want affordable healthcare ... but if anyone thinks about increasing the medicare levy then look out.

We think the world is too violent ... but are aggreived that we can't carry an automatic weapon around with us (or worse, have to apply for a licence to have one!).

We think the government is too leniant with criminals ... but no-one stops at Stop signs anymore and are aghast when we're caught speeding, making all sorts of excuses why we should be excused that one time.

We become a bunch of neurotic whingers that want everything controlled and stopped ... as long as it doesn't impact on me. Yet another sign we are becoming self obsessed...

Fox News' Obsession with (Bad News) Iraq

I was stuck by a comment made by the likes of Bill O'Reilly once in the media about the "liberal" media's obsession with the bad news stories coming out of Iraq and not allowing coverage of any of the positives.

Well, recently we signed up for cable and my regular channel surfings takes my via Fox News - and all I EVER see is ... bad news Iraq stories. Coverage of bombings, terrorism, attacks, american deaths - even the positives are wrapped up in dour, depressing coverage. Yet, when I compare this to Sky, CNN or BBC - nothing. Iraq doesn't rate a mention unless something significant is happening - but on Fox, it's EVERY news break has an Iraq story.

So, is this yet another case of the wolf crying fowl?

Urban Design - Why do we get it sooooo wrong???

Brisbane and the South East corner of Queensland is slowly dying. It thinks it is a young, vibrant city - and indeed, the city of Brisbane certainly is a stunner - just a pity it has come at the cost of the urban fringe which is ensuring that it slowly squeezes the life out of the South East corner.

But why has this had to happen. Many have argued for years that this was coming - that without a suitable hand on the tiller and with careful and planned development, that Brisbane would soon become this horrible urban smear stretching from Noosa in the north to Coolongatta in the South. And, unsurprising, this horrible vision has come true - and look at the consequences:

• Core public services (water, hospitals, public transport, roads) all straining under the load
• Water at a premium
• Land at a premium

And at what cost? What of:

• The health of its citizens?
• The health of the environment?
• The viability of the entire region?

And yet, it could have all been avoided.

Brisbane faced the crossroads in the late eighties when the first signs of burgeoning growth were evident. The city was faced with two options:

1. Allow the city to continue to burst at the seams - a development at all costs approach OR
2. Encourage satellite cities to nurture the entire region.

Our proposal was simple.

1. Put a physical boundary on the growth of ALL centre's in the South East - Brisbane, Logan, Caboolture, Ispwich, Toowoomba, Esk, Beaudesert, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast
2. Establish HIGH SPEED traffic corridors between these centres (this was to mean both road AND rail - but with a particular emphasis on rail as they can be used to encourage development hotspots (its useless having a subdivision if it's not serviced by rail whereas as long as the road goes past the front door...))
3. Force each "satellite" to population limits based on resources available (water, available land, etc).
   
4. Let each centre develop and compete for development.

It seems so simple now - yet they stuffed it and look at the consequences.

Question is, how do we convince Townsville/Thuringowa to avoid going down the same path?