As Andrew Bolt points out
Rudd wants to select simply the “best and brightest” but also make them “reflect the diversity of the Australian community”, which is another goal completely. After all, the full diversity of our community include babies, criminals, the sick, the insane and the completely indifferent.
===
Rudd has been caught behind in all of the areas where he promised he had a plan, but failed to outline one in time for the election. But, what of the Opposition, who had plans which worked, and were only narrowly removed from office? A quick turn around to please the antagonistic press? In fact, the conservatives are reflecting the fact that the media driven 'debate' was won by the antagonistic media, and now they have to fight to restore the parity where the decent policy of the past was allowed to work. So, in the short time, border security must fall to inept weak kneed reaction. Budget prudence gives way to ALP trough feeding and service gets rorted to the criminally over indulged.
Rudd’s women trouble
ReplyDeleteAndrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd scrambles to feminise his ideas summit “boy’s club” after including only one woman in the 11 convenors:
But Mr Rudd yesterday announced the “co-chairs” for the different areas of responsibility, including six of the Government’s highest-profile women. The “co-chairs” include Julia Gillard, Penny Wong, Nicola Roxon, Tanya Plibersek, Jenny Macklin, and Maxine McKew.
Six out of the 10 co-chairs are now Labor women. Is that really reflective of the talent in Rudd’s government, gender wise?
Or is this just one more bit of tokenism to dress up a token debate? Here’s a clue:
Mr Rudd said the selection criteria of the 1000 participants would be based on finding the best and brightest Australians.
“To achieve this goal the Steering Committee will ensure that the 1000 participants at the 2020 Summit reflect the diversity of the Australian community,” the Prime Minister said.
Rudd wants to select simply the “best and brightest” but also make them “reflect the diversity of the Australian community”, which is another goal completely. After all, the full diversity of our community include babies, criminals, the sick, the insane and the completely indifferent.
No, some rigging is going on.
Bye bye to principles
ReplyDeleteAndrew Bolt
John Roskam on the Liberals’ decline:
It’s no wonder that the Liberals are doing some soul-searching. In the space of a few months the federal Liberal Party has reversed or abandoned its position on five out of six of the central policy issues of the Howard era....
Good policy doesn’t turn into bad policy overnight. If key policies can be ditched so quickly after what, in the end, proved to be a relatively narrow election loss, voters will inevitably ask whether Liberal MPs ever believed in those policies in the first place.
One of the next to be ditched, says Roskam: the opposition to a republic.
A good election could fix it
ReplyDeleteAndrew Bolt
With fixed terms and an election more than three years away, this is bad news for democracy as well as for NSW:
MORRIS Iemma woke yesterday to a new poll that showed his popularity had plummeted to 34% — the lowest approval rating for a NSW premier in 10 years.
But what was more frightening for the Premier than the 18-point drop since last year’s election was the timing of the Nielsen poll.
It was taken before the Wollongong council sex and corruption scandal engulfed his Government, which raises the question: How bad is it now?
Nelson too loyal
ReplyDeleteAndrew Bolt
Sounds true:
Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he was cut from this month’s ABC Television program on the Liberals’ election defeat because he refused to sink the dagger into former prime minister John Howard.
If a few more of his colleagues had done the wise same, the ABC would have been left with nothing to show.
Token summit still not token enough
ReplyDeleteAndrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s ideas summit first excluded the Jews by being scheduled on Passover. Now it’s attacked for excluding women:
The new Federal Government needs to move swiftly to redress its oversight in selecting nine men and one woman to head its 2020 Future Summit.
Claire Braund, Executive Director of Women on Boards, said the Summit was an opportunity to send clear message that Australian thinking, culture and values are the domain of all Australians - not just middle aged, white Anglo Saxon men…
Braund said that the idea of nine men on a committee of 10 is totally at odds with and a forward thinking vision for Australia’s future summed up in the ALP 2007 election slogan ‘New Leadership’.
“It smacks of 11th Century paternalism not 21st Century engagement,” Braund said.
The master of tokenism is snookered by a mistress of it.
UPDATE
The twice-excluded Eva Cox of the Women’s Electoral Lobby protests:
When I looked at the list this morning I felt slightly sick in my stomach about it...
UPDATE 2
Readers below protest that other minorities haven’t been included by token appointments, either. Not so: One of the 10 is Kelvin Kong, the first Aboriginal surgeon.
While his story is inspiring, and the man himself may have great sense, it’s also true that he qualified as a surgeon just two years ago. That said, I’d much rather have him there than one of the usual rent-seeking representatives who have for too long dominated Aboriginal politics.
UPDATE 3
Reader Ruth says Eva Cox hasn’t felt this sick since the last war:
Q: What was your reaction to Israel’s recent invasion of Southern Lebanon?
”It made me feel sick, literally.”
$165K donation reaps $200m land deal
ReplyDeleteBy Joe Hildebrand
A PROPERTY developer who donated more than $160,000 to the NSW ALP has been given a $200 million windfall in a land rezoning deal – despite the Government's own expert panel warning Planning Minister Frank Sartor against the move.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the Village Building Company has donated $164,900 to the NSW ALP over the past five years and hired a former Labor minister to pressure the State Government to rezone 2000 lots of land.
The Government did – turning the company's estimated $4 million investment in a rural lot into an estimated $200 million worth of residential property. The company, run by Bob Winnel, has also donated thousands of dollars to Wollongong City councillors – including independent Mayor Alex Darling – and more than $10,000 directly to Police Minister David Campbell, who has already been dragged into the ICAC sex-for-development scandal.
The site, next to the ACT in an area called Tralee, is under the Canberra airport flight path and was deemed unsuitable for habitation by an expert panel chaired by respected former public servant and businessman Brian Gilligan.
The independent report, which was commissioned by the Government, told Mr Sartor in 2006 not to rezone, saying residents would suffer from aircraft noise.
A visit by The Daily Telegraph to the site revealed planes roaring overhead as they came in to land.
Canberra airport has also warned that noise in the area would be unbearable as it increased its air traffic. The ACT Government and Federal Labor also condemned the move.
Yet despite this, Mr Sartor approved the land release in April last year after extensive lobbying from the company, which donated more than $100,000 to the ALP in the past three years alone.
The revelation comes amid the beleaguered Government's move to overhaul the donations system and a Daily Telegraph online poll showing 82 per cent of respondents believe developer donations should be banned outright.
Mr Gilligan yesterday said he was unaware of the ALP connection and he stood by his findings that the area should not be inhabited.
"I think they are very clear," he said.
Labor's federal transport spokesman at the time, Martin Ferguson, also raised concerns.
Lobbyist was former Labor minister
The principal lobbyist for the company was Paul Whalan, a former ACT Labor minister and friend of and campaigner for state MP Steve Whan.
Both The Village Building Company and Mr Whalan's firm Endeavour Consulting have also donated thousands of dollars directly to Mr Whan.
Mr Whan confirmed that Mr Whalan repeatedly approached him urging him to support the development.
"Of course," he said. "I don't say no to anybody."
Mr Whan said he was aware the company was an ALP donor but denied that was why he supported the development.
He said he had long supported development in Tralee and that while his campaign had received money from the company, he did not stand to make any personal gain from the development.
Mr Sartor told The Daily Telegraph he had been lobbied by Mr Whan and had seen Mr Whalan at party fundraisers and other events.
However, he said he made the decision based solely on planning merits and the needs of the local area.
Mr Sartor said he did not want only one developer being granted the release, as would have been the case under the panel's proposal.
He also said he had doubts about just how bad aircraft noise would be.
Mr Sartor said he was unaware that The Village Building Company was a major donor to the ALP.
"That's the first I know of that," he said.
Mr Winnel and Mr Whalan could not be reached for comment.
NZ PM visits Rudd
ReplyDeletefrom news.com.au
NEW Zealand prime minister Helen Clark will make an official visit to Canberra today for discussions on trade and regional security.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he welcomed this opportunity to meet Prime Minister Clark so soon after their last meeting in December.
"A close cooperative relationship between Australia and New Zealand makes each of us stronger," Mr Rudd said.
"Australia and New Zealand enjoy a strong and robust bilateral relationship founded on a unique shared history and international outlook. Probably no two societies in the world are as similar as New Zealand and Australia."
Mr Rudd said 2008 marked the 25th Anniversary of the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement, one of the world's earliest free trade agreements and one of the most successful.
He said New Zealand was Australia's sixth biggest trading partner and the largest for manufactured goods.
It's our third largest destination for investment overseas, he said.
"I look forward to discussing with Prime Minister Clark ways we can continue to grow trans-Tasman relations," he said.
"Our close cooperation on regional and international issues, including climate change and the Pacific, will also be important matters for discussion."
DOCS an 'unworkable monster'
ReplyDeleteBy Bruce McDougall
THE NSW Department of Community Service's disastrous system of mandatory reporting of children at risk – which has clogged caseworkers' in-trays and potentially cost lives – will be changed.
The embattled department has conceded that the system, which is creating almost 300,000 notifications a year, has become an unworkable monster in its current form.
DOCS has recommended to the special commission of inquiry into child protection services that a "higher standard" should be required from those reporting cases in future.
In a bid to stem the flow of unnecessary reports police, health workers, teachers and other groups will have to produce "reasonable evidence a child or young person is exposed to risk or harm".
DOCS has also suggested it might reduce the $22,000 fines slapped on people who fail to lodge a report.
Pressure on the department is intensifying as the Ombudsman's Office investigates the deaths of 114 children known to DOCS in 2006-2007.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that primary school principals are among those who have admitted to "reporting excessively out of fear of legal consequences".
The Public Schools Principals' Forum said cases of child neglect were often overlooked because of the heavy emphasis on physical and sexual abuse.
"Reports of neglect and allegations of physical abuse no longer receive high priority or early intervention from DOCS," the forum said in its submission to the special inquiry.
"Principals perceive that the bar has been lowered significantly. DOCS personnel are so overwhelmed with notifications they are unable to cope.
"Long waiting lists for investigation have resulted ... the unintended outcome is that the children most urgently in need of assistance are frequently lost in the thousands of reports."
DOCS director of legal services Roderick Best said it was expected changes to the standard required for mandatory reporting would reduce the number of unnecessary notifications.
Currently anyone else who works with children must report any child at "risk of harm".
But the criteria is so open-ended that referrals may be made for children who turn up at school without their lunch or with dirty clothing.
"The system has created a mindset whereby professionals do not feel free any more to use their judgment," an insider said.
'Drowning in paperwork'
Retiring DOCS director-general Neil Shepherd has warned that caseworkers are drowning in paperwork.
A decade ago DOCS received 72,800 reports on children feared to be in harm's way.
In 2006-2007 there were 286,033 reports - 5501 per week and a 19 per cent increase over the previous year.
By DOCS' own numbers, 22 per cent of NSW children have been subject to a notification.
Ombudsman Bruce Barbour has described the quality of the department's work as well as its failure to properly deal with its workload and liaise with other agencies, as "unacceptable".
Public school students missing out on uni
ReplyDeleteBy Milanda Rout
PUBLIC school students are those most likely to miss out on a university education as competition for places intensifies.
More applications for fewer tertiary spots at Melbourne's prestigious universities have led to government school leavers and poor students being pushed out of the second-tier universities.
A Monash University study found the proportion of Melbourne state school students who received a university offer dropped from 54 per cent in 1996-97 to 47 per cent in 2003-04.
Researchers found entrance scores to Melbourne's least popular or most accessible institutions, such as Victoria and La Trobe universities, had risen over the past decade and left many students from government schools and financially disadvantaged areas out in the cold.
Researcher Daniel Edwards found scores that had allowed students to scrape into La Trobe and Victoria now were not enough to get in because of increased competition for places at all universities.
He called on the federal Government to increase the number of HECS places at Victorian universities to cope with the added demand and to ease the educational disadvantage placed on struggling students.
"The continuing erosion of opportunity for disadvantaged students in school education may mean that a desire to compete in such a tight market may wane, thus creating additional crises in relation to Australia's relatively low education participation rate," Mr Edwards said.
"Until governments (both state and federal) address the core issue of declining opportunity, the educational prospects of many disadvantaged students will not improve."
Higher education equity expert Richard James said responsibility for making sure students from a low socio-economic background and government schools had access to university went beyond the tertiary sector.
"It is not just a university problem, it is one for the broader community and the school sector," Professor James said.
"The challenge for Australia is how do we lift school retention rates and school achievement for these people."
Professor James, based at the University of Melbourne, said the data also showed there was a decline in the number of students from a low socio-economic background getting into the prestigious Group of Eight universities.