When the preselected candidate for the Federal seat of Wright was found to have kept details of a case to answer from QCAT ( Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ) of the department of Justice and the Attorney Generals office, relating to a matter where almost $2 million in proceeds from the sale of an ill man's property over whom she had power of attorney has been withdrawn from an account without satisfying the Adult Guardian that it was for the benefit of the man, caused the preselected candidate to be dis endorsed by the LNP and open the way for a new contest for what many believe is a safe seat for whom ever gains the nod to contest the election for the LNP.
Barnaby Joyce seemed to be a supporter of the initial candidate, and has been assisting her by appearing at events such as her recent wedding, and her campaign launch.
Barnaby Joyce a Queensland Senator, is currently the leader of the Nationals in the Senate and currently the shadow minister for Regional development, Infrastructure and water.
What is interesting is his push for his own chief of Staff to take over the seat of wright, and why?
We understand that a drover's dog would romp in for the LNP in that seat and it is considered a conduit seat to a career in Federal politics, and also that the new preselected candidate has run before and is quite experienced in both business and in political processes, that is not in question.
The question is why? what is it about Wright that is so interesting to Mr Joyce, why was he so supportive of the previous candidate, and why does it now seem he has put up his own candidate for preselection.
I suppose only Mr Joyce could answer, but even if he does, would we be able to understand?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Australia Card , . . . by stealth.
.
On one of the darkest days Labor has ever seen, when a serving Australian Prime Minister was politically executed by his deputy and her power base of Faction leaders and Trade Union power brokers within one night of number crunching and so seamless was the deed that the now ex PM declared the position of Labor Party Leader vacant to the caucus and did not even put his hand up as a potential candidate leaving Gillard as the only nominee and thusly elected leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party and therefore also the new Prime Minister, further business went almost unnoticed later that evening in the Senate.
LABOR'S controversial electronic healthcare identifier legislation passed in the Senate the same day as Julia Gillard did the devastatingly disloyal deed to her Party Leader, however without any of the media hysteria and against the wishes of the people in terms of it's close relationship with the Australia Card which was given a resounding no by the community.
Two bills -- Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 and Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010 -- were passed with government amendments and after several delays.
Medicare will be equipped to start issuing a unique, 16-digit healthcare identifier to every Australian from July 1. Doctors, hospitals, healthcare organisations and allied health providers will receive similar identifiers.
So what does this mean?
It means that the government will effectively own your medical information as it will all be recorded against your number and be on their system, out on the public domain of the Internet for ease of access by the relevant people. Not You.
Those in government who are pushing it say it is needed so that the waiting lists in our hospitals will be shortened because doctors will have all our information at hand and won't be wasting time looking for it, Hello! sorry but that is all done at reception , . . before you get in the line and begin the hours of waiting.
They also say that it will stop people "doctor shopping" which means people who have a dependency on prescription drugs will go to several doctors and present with the same symptoms to get several prescriptions for their drug of choice, it won't while there are doctors who accept cash or credit cards this will continue to happen.
Further they claim that our personal health is not a privacy issue because we happily present when we are ill and the doctor and staff know us and what our ailment is, wrong, they may do , but they are not the government and they are not allowed to divulge the information to anyone else.
My Theory
One of the biggest industries in Australia would love to know our personal health history, the insurance industry.
Consider that all of our information is to be entered into the system eventually (I suspect that it will be a requirement for Doctor's offices to comply with an order to get everyone who visits their office onto the system immediately and upload their complete history at that time, and eventually upload the details of every patient they have ever seen over time) and the government permits access to that information for the purpose of verifying that the insurance claim they are about to pay out for does not stem from an undeclared pre existing condition, there's the start, they may now have access to your complete medical history, these are people (bean counters) who are not in the medical profession and who have no Hippocratic oath and are not bound by the same privacy code that medical professions are.
Further I suspect that the issuing of the 16 digit number with be followed by a card with a chip, and guess what, . . .no card, no treatment!
You will now have your Australia card. Like it or not.
.
On one of the darkest days Labor has ever seen, when a serving Australian Prime Minister was politically executed by his deputy and her power base of Faction leaders and Trade Union power brokers within one night of number crunching and so seamless was the deed that the now ex PM declared the position of Labor Party Leader vacant to the caucus and did not even put his hand up as a potential candidate leaving Gillard as the only nominee and thusly elected leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party and therefore also the new Prime Minister, further business went almost unnoticed later that evening in the Senate.
LABOR'S controversial electronic healthcare identifier legislation passed in the Senate the same day as Julia Gillard did the devastatingly disloyal deed to her Party Leader, however without any of the media hysteria and against the wishes of the people in terms of it's close relationship with the Australia Card which was given a resounding no by the community.
Two bills -- Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 and Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010 -- were passed with government amendments and after several delays.
Medicare will be equipped to start issuing a unique, 16-digit healthcare identifier to every Australian from July 1. Doctors, hospitals, healthcare organisations and allied health providers will receive similar identifiers.
So what does this mean?
It means that the government will effectively own your medical information as it will all be recorded against your number and be on their system, out on the public domain of the Internet for ease of access by the relevant people. Not You.
Those in government who are pushing it say it is needed so that the waiting lists in our hospitals will be shortened because doctors will have all our information at hand and won't be wasting time looking for it, Hello! sorry but that is all done at reception , . . before you get in the line and begin the hours of waiting.
They also say that it will stop people "doctor shopping" which means people who have a dependency on prescription drugs will go to several doctors and present with the same symptoms to get several prescriptions for their drug of choice, it won't while there are doctors who accept cash or credit cards this will continue to happen.
Further they claim that our personal health is not a privacy issue because we happily present when we are ill and the doctor and staff know us and what our ailment is, wrong, they may do , but they are not the government and they are not allowed to divulge the information to anyone else.
My Theory
One of the biggest industries in Australia would love to know our personal health history, the insurance industry.
Consider that all of our information is to be entered into the system eventually (I suspect that it will be a requirement for Doctor's offices to comply with an order to get everyone who visits their office onto the system immediately and upload their complete history at that time, and eventually upload the details of every patient they have ever seen over time) and the government permits access to that information for the purpose of verifying that the insurance claim they are about to pay out for does not stem from an undeclared pre existing condition, there's the start, they may now have access to your complete medical history, these are people (bean counters) who are not in the medical profession and who have no Hippocratic oath and are not bound by the same privacy code that medical professions are.
Further I suspect that the issuing of the 16 digit number with be followed by a card with a chip, and guess what, . . .no card, no treatment!
You will now have your Australia card. Like it or not.
.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Winners are grinners, losers can please themselves.
In one of the most creative pre-emptive campaign adds, which definitely struck a chord with the electorate and was hated by Labor diehards, I think because they know it's true, the Kevin O Lemon add only had to be aired for a couple of weeks before the federal Labor was gathering this morning to dump Rudd in favour of the Deputy Leader and first female PM of Australia Julia Gillard.
The slow talking Ms Gillard has been criticised for her ambitions and for being a single woman of age. She has also been criticised for her leftist leanings and for her inability to effect constructive policy during her deputy leader role where she is seen as part and parcel of the inaction that has been one of the main factors in the downfall of Rudd.
Kevin Rudd was elected on the Anti Work Choices platform, it was a vote against the previous (Howard) government and a policy in workplace relations that put the advantage firmly in the hands of employers and left employees powerless and without union backup in enterprise bargaining.
Rudd was probably the most popularly elected PM in some many years, but broken promises and back flips ( the ETS which he described as the most important moral decision, and the government paid advertising that he claims was a cancer on democracy) have seen his standings both with the community and within the party plummet recently.
Rudd is one of a very few PM's to have been put to the knife by the Party, and quite possibly will make history as the weakest PM ever, not only deposed by the party, but in his first term, and going out by not even contesting a party poll but allowing Gillard to be the only candidate after declaring the position vacant and elected unopposed.
Rudd will not be missed, and in future episodes of "Millionaire Hot seat" there will be defeated contestants saying "oh yeah I forgot about him."
It's a sad end for one so glib, one who has revelled in his world tour with his wife at the taxpayers expense, gushing like schoolgirls and basking in their self anointed world leader of importance status which did not go down well with the electorate and has gone down the same way with the party it seems.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Budget backhander to Logan ratepayers
Whatever Logan is thinking I'll never know, with what could very be the largest rate rise of any council in Quieensland to smash working families finances without any real increase in service provision to justify it and if anything in our area cuts to services which have been evident since the amalgamations becoming thread bare if any.
The increase well over 7% is something that many ratepayers will struggle to afford and something that make you wonder how they (the council bean counters and councillors who vote for it)rationalise that we can afford to just keep on paying more rather than making council more efficient and cheaper to run.
A breakdown of the increase :
The residential general rate in the dollar has increased from 0.3076c to 0.3237c (as part of Council’s three-year
policy to counter-act valuation increases).
• The minimum general rate has increased $48 from $551 to $599.
• The increase of general rates and levies for the majority of ratepayers is $73, after discount. Residents who
also have garbage, will pay an additional $79 after discount.
The absolute slug to ratepayers, using what everyone knew would be used, the property valuation increases, as an excuse and the slug of the extra bin that no one wants will be a bone in the throat for many ratepayers who will consider very carefully how they vote next time around.
Our three representatives especially.
The increase well over 7% is something that many ratepayers will struggle to afford and something that make you wonder how they (the council bean counters and councillors who vote for it)rationalise that we can afford to just keep on paying more rather than making council more efficient and cheaper to run.
A breakdown of the increase :
The residential general rate in the dollar has increased from 0.3076c to 0.3237c (as part of Council’s three-year
policy to counter-act valuation increases).
• The minimum general rate has increased $48 from $551 to $599.
• The increase of general rates and levies for the majority of ratepayers is $73, after discount. Residents who
also have garbage, will pay an additional $79 after discount.
The absolute slug to ratepayers, using what everyone knew would be used, the property valuation increases, as an excuse and the slug of the extra bin that no one wants will be a bone in the throat for many ratepayers who will consider very carefully how they vote next time around.
Our three representatives especially.
Magistrate Rodney Crisp ; Draconian and Drunk on Power ?
.
When cases come before a magistrate it is assumed that there will be both fairness and justice albeit within the framework of the the Magistrates jurisdiction and the limited scope of cases brought before a Magistrate.
What has come to the attention of media recently is the case of an apprentice painter who came before Rodney Crisp on a matter and was then detained in custody on the draconian charge of contempt of court relating to blowing a bubble gum bubble during the case.
Mr Crisp, charged the man with contempt and jailed him for 30 days. The man has subsequently been released on appeal to the high court by his lawyers who are pursuing his rights and entitlements on his behalf.
The charge sheet alleges the man had "scandalised" the court and "challenged its authority" by looking in the magistrate's direction and deliberately blowing and popping a bubble.
This is a case, in my opinion of a magistrate drunk on power, where it seems he is so out of touch with reality that I would question his ability to be just and fair and to hold the position of magistrate at all.
In my opinion he would have served the court better to have asked an officer to remove the man to dispose of the gum, which would have made the man look like the fool he was attempting to be rather than make a mockery of the whole court by what I believe is a draconian abuse of power and a dummy spit by a flaccid and powerless individual outside of the court.
We have to rein in the costs of holding court procedures, not increase them by making more work for more lawyers and imposing costs of detainment upon the taxpayers because some pathetic magistrate looses it.
Further, the case will more than likely have to be continued which also adds to the court costs and increases the workload of magistrates and lawyers unnecessarily.
I firmly believe that the charge of contempt needs to go, there is little doubt that quite a large number of people in the community already have contempt for the legal system and this sort of rubbish from a magistrate who already has several controversial decisions to his name is not helping.
.
When cases come before a magistrate it is assumed that there will be both fairness and justice albeit within the framework of the the Magistrates jurisdiction and the limited scope of cases brought before a Magistrate.
What has come to the attention of media recently is the case of an apprentice painter who came before Rodney Crisp on a matter and was then detained in custody on the draconian charge of contempt of court relating to blowing a bubble gum bubble during the case.
Mr Crisp, charged the man with contempt and jailed him for 30 days. The man has subsequently been released on appeal to the high court by his lawyers who are pursuing his rights and entitlements on his behalf.
The charge sheet alleges the man had "scandalised" the court and "challenged its authority" by looking in the magistrate's direction and deliberately blowing and popping a bubble.
This is a case, in my opinion of a magistrate drunk on power, where it seems he is so out of touch with reality that I would question his ability to be just and fair and to hold the position of magistrate at all.
In my opinion he would have served the court better to have asked an officer to remove the man to dispose of the gum, which would have made the man look like the fool he was attempting to be rather than make a mockery of the whole court by what I believe is a draconian abuse of power and a dummy spit by a flaccid and powerless individual outside of the court.
We have to rein in the costs of holding court procedures, not increase them by making more work for more lawyers and imposing costs of detainment upon the taxpayers because some pathetic magistrate looses it.
Further, the case will more than likely have to be continued which also adds to the court costs and increases the workload of magistrates and lawyers unnecessarily.
I firmly believe that the charge of contempt needs to go, there is little doubt that quite a large number of people in the community already have contempt for the legal system and this sort of rubbish from a magistrate who already has several controversial decisions to his name is not helping.
.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
You think free speech is free, think again.
In a recent case, that wasted expensive court time , a lot of taxpayers dollars and ended up with a result not expected by the police prosecutor, the Judge found that a common term used by a citizen would have been heard by police at the very least in fact that they would have heard and used far worse, so in that regard he found the citizen not guilty of swearing at the police officer.
This decision has incensed the Police union and the humiliated the actual officer involved (who should have just hardened up and given the citizen a quiet polite word of advice and let it go at that) and also caused the police lobbyists in Queensland to go for gold with their efforts to have police able to defend their (ears) person from verbal abuse in the form of swearing.
It appears they have been successful because it looks like the police will from late this year or early 2011, have the power to issue on the spot $100 fines for swearing in public, and between $100 and $300 for other public nuisance offences which means they no longer need to carry the burden of proof of an offence and take the matter to court, just write out a ticket potentially raising huge amounts of revenue for the state government in the process.
The burden is then on the citizen issued with the infringement notice and fine to prove to a magistrate that they did not commit the offence, which will be pretty difficult unless you happen to be in the presence of several credible and motivated (so they will come to court and make a statement on your behalf) witnesses.
This is really becoming a police state when in a one on one encounter with police you can be fleeced on the strength of the officers say so that what you may have said was considered swearing in public.
So the question remains , what ever happened to free speech? did we actually ever have it or was it just something we imagined would be good?
In effect the legislation will make the spoken word up to the interpretation of a police officer as to whether it constitutes a public nuisance or not.
Now I'm no rocket scientist but I hardly think police are qualified to establish the context of a cuss, the syntax of a cuss within a sentence or distinguish swearing from a word in a foreign language, in fact they leave themselves wide open to racism allegations if they ticket an ethnic Australian who has a name or word that an officer thinks is a swear word, but in the ethnic language clearly is not.
You have to wonder at how soft police are getting when they can't get over the fact that a judge decided that they should be used to hearing words like "prick" from the general public and that it was not offencive for a citizen to call a police person by that term.
I think Bligh is on a winner with this one because people swear all the time, and think nothing of it, in fact it's part of every tradies vocabulary if you go onto a building site.
I'm not in any way advocating that we as a society accept swearing as part of our daily verbose, or that we remove the unspoken rule that we keep it for the boys, but this seems over the top and another revenue raiser to me.
.
This decision has incensed the Police union and the humiliated the actual officer involved (who should have just hardened up and given the citizen a quiet polite word of advice and let it go at that) and also caused the police lobbyists in Queensland to go for gold with their efforts to have police able to defend their (ears) person from verbal abuse in the form of swearing.
It appears they have been successful because it looks like the police will from late this year or early 2011, have the power to issue on the spot $100 fines for swearing in public, and between $100 and $300 for other public nuisance offences which means they no longer need to carry the burden of proof of an offence and take the matter to court, just write out a ticket potentially raising huge amounts of revenue for the state government in the process.
The burden is then on the citizen issued with the infringement notice and fine to prove to a magistrate that they did not commit the offence, which will be pretty difficult unless you happen to be in the presence of several credible and motivated (so they will come to court and make a statement on your behalf) witnesses.
This is really becoming a police state when in a one on one encounter with police you can be fleeced on the strength of the officers say so that what you may have said was considered swearing in public.
So the question remains , what ever happened to free speech? did we actually ever have it or was it just something we imagined would be good?
In effect the legislation will make the spoken word up to the interpretation of a police officer as to whether it constitutes a public nuisance or not.
Now I'm no rocket scientist but I hardly think police are qualified to establish the context of a cuss, the syntax of a cuss within a sentence or distinguish swearing from a word in a foreign language, in fact they leave themselves wide open to racism allegations if they ticket an ethnic Australian who has a name or word that an officer thinks is a swear word, but in the ethnic language clearly is not.
You have to wonder at how soft police are getting when they can't get over the fact that a judge decided that they should be used to hearing words like "prick" from the general public and that it was not offencive for a citizen to call a police person by that term.
I think Bligh is on a winner with this one because people swear all the time, and think nothing of it, in fact it's part of every tradies vocabulary if you go onto a building site.
I'm not in any way advocating that we as a society accept swearing as part of our daily verbose, or that we remove the unspoken rule that we keep it for the boys, but this seems over the top and another revenue raiser to me.
.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
ISRAEL, NOW ADDS PIRACY TO IT'S ARSENAL
If the reports from international and Australian journalists are correct, and I believe they probably are, then Israeli military people aboard gunship helicopters and with support vessels boarded whilst armed with automatic assault weapons, a ship in international waters, and that is piracy.
There has been video of the boarding in which the Israel military drop down from the gunship on ropes with guns in their hands onto the deck of a peace envoy headed for the coast, but still in international waters, their mission to deliver aid supplies and make the world aware of the unbearable hardship the Israeli (and more recently Egypt) Blockade is forcing upon civilians in Gaza, particularly women and children.
Reports are that there are 19 who have been shot by Israeli military personnel and of course the Israelis are claiming only 9.
There is no doubt that the Israelis went out to the ship with the intent to make an example or at the very least an incident that would deter others from doing the same.
The video is said to show soldiers dropping to the deck and being mobbed by protesters who used deckchairs and metal objects even sticks to try and force the soldiers to rethink the boarding, apparently even throwing one pathetic soldier overboard.
I have received some very nasty emails responses to my previous blogs about the Israel war on its neighbour, and have had accusations of anti semitism, of purporting a hate crime, and even of using this issue to attack a local person, all of which I strenuously deny, and to that end i removed each comment as they came and did not reply to the emails. However I defend my right to take a position as an independent observer, and report stories as they occur and unfortunately they seem to occur more about Israel attacking Gaza than the other way around.
I have to say I believe Israel's sinking to this new low, an act of international piracy, surely must have the USA looking to withdraw some of its military backing that makes the Israeli attacks on Gaza seem like Godzilla stepping on an ants nest.
There has been video of the boarding in which the Israel military drop down from the gunship on ropes with guns in their hands onto the deck of a peace envoy headed for the coast, but still in international waters, their mission to deliver aid supplies and make the world aware of the unbearable hardship the Israeli (and more recently Egypt) Blockade is forcing upon civilians in Gaza, particularly women and children.
Reports are that there are 19 who have been shot by Israeli military personnel and of course the Israelis are claiming only 9.
There is no doubt that the Israelis went out to the ship with the intent to make an example or at the very least an incident that would deter others from doing the same.
The video is said to show soldiers dropping to the deck and being mobbed by protesters who used deckchairs and metal objects even sticks to try and force the soldiers to rethink the boarding, apparently even throwing one pathetic soldier overboard.
I have received some very nasty emails responses to my previous blogs about the Israel war on its neighbour, and have had accusations of anti semitism, of purporting a hate crime, and even of using this issue to attack a local person, all of which I strenuously deny, and to that end i removed each comment as they came and did not reply to the emails. However I defend my right to take a position as an independent observer, and report stories as they occur and unfortunately they seem to occur more about Israel attacking Gaza than the other way around.
I have to say I believe Israel's sinking to this new low, an act of international piracy, surely must have the USA looking to withdraw some of its military backing that makes the Israeli attacks on Gaza seem like Godzilla stepping on an ants nest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)