Samuel's Blog

2CA Giving Away $75,000

On November 14, 1931, 2CA started broadcasting on the AM dial with a frequency of 1050kHz (they subsequently changed to 1053kHz when the industry changed from 10kHz stepping to 9kHz stepping…radio historian Wayne Mac talks about that during Samuel’s Persiflage #2)

Anyway, 2CA will be 75 years old on November 14 this year, and as such they have decided to have a birthday promotion. The prize they are giving away is $75,000. So, how does it work? Well the 2CA website explains that quite well:

“What would you do with $75,000? Pay off the rest of the mortgage? Finally take that overseas holiday? From Monday, listen out for 2CA’s $75,000 Birthday songs, as soon as you hear one, be the first caller through on 62411053 and you will be in the running to win $75,000! It’s 2CA’s $75,000 Birthday songs, on the new sound of Canberra’s 1053 2CA.

I get the distinct impression that they are just copying and pasting radio scripts on to their website, but it seems to work.

Today is Monday, so for your chance to win, tune your dial to 1053AM and keep an ear out for the “birthday songs”…I’m sure there will be plenty of promos giving you more explicit instructions.

Incidentally, John B1_B5 wrote an article, not all that long ago, about the early years of 2CA in which he stated that 2CA started off in a shop in Kingston, with a 50 watt 4 stage transmitter employing a mercury vapour Rectifier, the antenna for this device was mounted on the roof above the shop. For more information about the early years of 2CA, see this page on John’s website.

Also of interest, John Kerr was 2CA’s breakfast host from 1960 to 1965 (or 1966), he was also the breakfast host on 2GO Gosford for 13 years starting in 1973…2GO are celebrating their 35th birthday on November 19, a mere five days after 2CA’s 75th birthday. I get the feeling John will be kept quite busy and excited during that week. With any luck he will be in Canberra for a day or two…it would be nice to meet up with him here in Canberra, even if only for a coffee.

Samuel

July 31st, 2006 at 12:52pm

Is the ACT branch of the Labor Party about to implode?

Well that depends on who you ask…the messages from within the Labor party are very mixed.

A couple months ago I had a couple people from the ACT Labor Party tell me that they didn’t think Jon Stanhope would face the next election as party leader, at the time I more or less discounted this as a speculative rumour of little significance, but the events of the weekend have shown that there is more to this than I thought.

Over the weekend the ACT Labor Party held their (Annual?/Monthly?/Sporadic?) party conference, and the internal squabbles and rifts were apparent…a Labor backbencher joined a protest against school closures outside the conference, and almost half of the 196 party members who could be bothered turning up (a quote from one of my Labor Party insiders “I was going to go…but then I didn’t) voted against the school closures, including five MLAs (two of which were cabinet members).

According to RiotACT, the MLAs who voted against the school closures (or more accurately, voted to not close any schools this year and also extend the consultation period) were Katy Gallagher, Simon Corbell, Wayne Berry, and Karin Macdonald. The fifth MLA is either Mary Porter or Mick Gentleman…not that it really matters, as the real surprise is that Katy and Simon voted against the wishes of the Chief Turnip.

Katy and Simon have, up until now, been virtual mouthpieces for the Chief Turnip, and if I remember correctly Katy is also Deputy Chief Minister (The turnip title is reserved for Stanhope for now). With the opposition now calling for a full inquiry into education in the ACT, it looks like the next round of sittings of the Legislative Assembly will be most amusing and entertaining.

It was also interesting the way the Chief Turnip and his subordinates deflected the internal criticism of his “unpopular magic safety fairy” stance. The Chief Turnip was quoted on the ABC news website as saying:

We, of course, have always been aware of the range of views and the fact that this is a very emotional and difficult debate…It was a difficult decision and the issue is significant and it affects each of us as Canberrans, and certainly members of the party have a view.

Pity he doesn’t actually care about the party members’ views.

The Canberra Times had a very interesting article about the meeting:

REVOLT FAILS School closure plan survives narrow ALP conference vote
Markus Mannheim
Sunday, 30 July 2006

CHIEF Minister Jon Stanhope narrowly avoided a humiliating defeat at yesterday’s annual Labor conference when party members attempted to block his controversial plan to close 39 public schools.

The party’s dominant left faction led the revolt, which would have prevented any school from being closed before 2008.

Deputy Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and fellow left frontbencher Simon Corbell broke cabinet solidarity to vote with their faction against Government policy.

The motion was defeated by just four votes – 96 to 100 – after a bitter debate during which MLAs hurled abuse at each other.

Legislative Assembly Speaker Wayne Berry said he was embarrassed by what he described as the “shock and awe” policy of school closures, saying it left party supporters confused and upset.

“If there was one thing that rocketed Labor into office in 2001, it was education,” he said.

Brindabella MLA Karin MacDonald said that her fellow backbenchers had only been told of the policy on the morning of the June 6 budget.

She said she had still not received a full and substantial briefing to allay her concerns.

“I do not believe that this process … could have been handled any worse than this minister [Andrew Barr] has done,” she told delegates.

In response, Territory and Municipal Services Minister John Hargreaves said he found her speech disgusting.

“To find that one of our elected representatives has the temerity to stand up here and criticise the minister in such a personal attack is something that I have never experienced in all my time with the Labor Party in the ACT,” he said.

The motion had been expected to pass, but was blocked at the last minute when most of Ms MacDonald’s right-wing Unity faction decided to support the Government.

Mr Stanhope acknowledged the vote was close, but said he was pleased to have the party’s formal support.

“The issues were aired, views within the party were expressed and, at the end of the day, the branch conference has supported the Government in its school closure program,” he said afterwards.

Opposition education spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said it was now up to the five Labor MLAs who voted against the closures to do the same in the Assembly next month.

“Cabinet solidarity went out the door today,” she said.

“It shows that the Labor Party knows what it is doing is wrong, and that most caucus members know that it is wrong.”

An earlier motion criticising the Government’s funding of private schools was also narrowly defeated by a margin of five votes.

With the current state of affairs it would appear that there are enough people against Stanhope in the parliament to have an effective no-confidence motion…now that would be interesting. Perhaps that is what my sources inside the Labor Party were hinting at.

Samuel

July 31st, 2006 at 09:27am

Canberra Radio Ratings: Survey #1 for 2006

In mid-June the Canberra radio ratings were released…I then analysed the figures and promptly forgot to write anything about them. Regular readers may recall that in early May, when the ratings period started, I made some predictions. I am pleased to be able to announce that I got quite a few things right.

So without further ado, here are the results for Canberra Radio Ratings Survey #1, 2006, for Sunday May 19 to Saturday June 3 inclusive

Let’s start with the overall picture of the ratings:

As predicted, FM 104.7 lost top spot in favour of Mix 106.3, and as stated, FM 104.7 are going downhill rather quickly (largest audience loss in Canberra). It was quite interesting (and not in the least bit surprising given the quality of 2CC programming, their excellent coverage of the ACT Budget, and the ads they ran on buses) to see 2CC gain the exact percentage of the market that their direct competitor, 666 ABC Canberra, lost. 2CC also jumped into second place in their market (talk) and had the highest audience gain of any radio station in Canberra.

JJJ continued their topsy turvey results, this time they lost a few listeners, ABC Classic FM gained a few listeners (seems to be quite popular in doctors’ surgeries), Radio National lost audience as predicted…they just aren’t local enough to maintain an audience now that they podcast almost all of their useful programs.

2CA and NewsRadio were the real surprise packets of these ratings.

2CA, with no advertising, managed to gain a decent bit of the market, probably due to two factors. Firstly they have the best playlist in Canberra and the word is spreading, and secondly they are the only music station on the AM dial…the 2CC advertising helped, as some of the people who saw the ads and decided that they would check out 2CC probably didn’t like it, and then found the best music station in Canberra…it sounds similar to Mix 106.3 these days, but it is better…much better.

Daniel Gibson did very well for 2CA on breakfast, so I do find it curious that they launched a new breakfast duo right after the ratings were released, but Paul & Leighton do appear to have hung on to Daniel’s audience and then gained some more…I’m overhearing their names more and more around Canberra, 2CA are more than likely on a winner with them.

NewsRadio had a very surprising jump in the ratings…admittedly they were broadcasting the federal budget proceedings and other parliamentary excitement…but a jump of 1.5% of Canberrans? We’ll have to keep an eye on them for the next ratings.

“Other” also had a decent jump, other of course being the measurement for non-listed stations, and (I think) people who are not listening. Apparently there is a new station called Raw FM or something which is gaining popularity in the target demographic of JJJ and FM 104.7.

For the record, the top three single station gains went to 2CC (+1.7), NewsRadio (+1.5) and Mix 106.3 (+0.8). The top three single station losses went to FM 104.7 (-3.4), ABC Local Radio (-1.7) and JJJ (-0.7)

Now, the market vs market summary:

Quite interesting to see Talk closing in on Music, and “other” also making a gain.

Now the same comparison, but with station averages instead (other cannot be included in averages due to the ever-changing number of others):

Now for the overall ABC vs Commercial figures:

Everybody is losing out to the “other” category.

On average per station:

Despite the ABC category having a larger overall fall, the commercial stations had a larger average fall.

Somebody I know said the following very patronising statement in a group setting I was involved in a few weeks ago “…it’s like the “AM” button on the radio…you never use it, but it’s good to know it’s there!”

How accurate was this person I wonder?

Not very accurate by the looks of it…35.8% (and climbing) of Canberrans prefer to use the AM button.

On station averages:

So there you have it, the Canberra Radio Ratings for Sunday May 19 to Saturday June 3 inclusive. The summary from Nielsen Media Research can be found here

At this stage the date for the next ratings has not been announced.

Samuel

2 comments July 30th, 2006 at 06:24am

Save ACTION Postcards

I’ve already written a fair bit about the proposed cuts to ACTION Buses (see here and here), but RiotACT recently mentioned that the Transport Workers Union were handing out postcards for people to sign and post to Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope. RiotACT only had a tipoff at that stage, and I have been waiting to get my hands on a postcard before saying anything.

Yesterday evening on my way home from work I was very pleased to have the bus driver hand me a postcard. The postcards contain some background information on the proposed cutbacks, and even feature a reply paid address so that you don’t have to pay to send them. The postcards go to the Transport Workers Union who will then present them to the Chief Turnip.

I will be filling my one out and sending it in, but I have taken the liberty of doing a couple things first.

I have scanned the postcards for your benefit, and I have also produced a downloadable form for those of you who wish to convey your disappointment with the proposed cutbacks, but do not have access to a postcard. You will need to mail the form and pay for the postage (50 cents, surely that’s not an issue) as I’m not sure of the legalities of simply mailing something to a reply paid address if it is not officially printed. The download link for the form (in Acrobat PDF format) can be found below.

If you would like to convey your disappointment with the proposed cutbacks to ACTION, to the Chief Turnip, click here to download the form. When you have filled it in, please post it to

Transport Workers Union
PO Box 649
PARRAMATTA NSW 2124

Samuel

July 25th, 2006 at 01:19am

ASIO Apprehend Alleged Bomb Threat Emailer

I’ve received an interesting tipoff from an extremely reliable source…it would appear that ASIO (The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) recently apprehended a man they suspect of emailing bomb threats from a Canberra Internet Cafe.

My source had this to say:

recently a man was apprehended in the Barracks for emailing bomb threats to places regarding him wanting Big Brother to be taken off the air

I will stress that at this stage it is only alleged that the aprehended man emailed bomb threats, also for those of you who don’t know, The Barracks is a LAN Games/Internet Cafe in Civic.

I suspect that this was a lengthy operation by ASIO as it would be very odd for them to just swoop suddenly and catch somebody after a single email. Hopefully the operation has proven to be worthwhile.

Regular readers would know that I’m not a fan of Big Brother, but I respect the right of others to watch and enjoy it, and I strongly denounce the alleged acts of the apprehended man.

Samuel

5 comments July 22nd, 2006 at 07:26am

Hall Primary Has Asbestos?

I’ve been hearing some rather interesting claims from Hall residents over the last week or so that Hall Primary has asbestos, and that this is the real reason behind the ACT government’s proposed closure of Hall Primary at the end of the year.

If Hall Primary School really does have asbestos then it is no wonder that the ACT government haven’t mentioned it…people would expect them remove the asbestos or build a new school, both of which would cost money…it’s much cheaper for the government to close the school, citing financial or enrolment reasons.

If this information is accurate, then it casts a very serious shadow of doubt over the true reasons for the other school closures proposed as a part of the ACT Budget.

Samuel

July 17th, 2006 at 10:42am

The Transport Workers Union’s Bragaining Chip

A few weeks ago I brought you the story of proposed changes and slashes to ACTION bus services and staff. I had planned to bring you an update sooner, but information coming from inside ACTION was unusually quiet following the stopwork meeting on Friday July 7.

Thankfully the noise levels have returned to something near normal since then, and I have more information for you.

The TWU has been providing the same public statement every time they’ve been questioned since the stopwork meeting, basically they are saying they will not accept the proposed reversal of the full-time/part-time driver ratio, they will not accept cuts to services, and they will not accept cuts to pay or job security. Effectively, they reject the proposal in its entirety.

Anybody with a tiny bit of common sense when it comes to negotiations would know that this is a silly and implausible position…if you’re not willing to give a little bit then you won’t receive anything. Thankfully my sources within ACTION are all saying that the TWU’s public position does not reflect their true position, my sources tell me that the TWU plans on accepting the removal of supervisors at interchanges, in exchange for (mostly) not losing drivers and services.

Here is what I said about the proposal to remove supervisors from interchanges in the article linked above.

ACTION also plan to get rid of supervisors at interchanges, effectively meaning that drivers with faulty ticket machines will not be able to get a replacement at the next interchange and will instead lose revenue by being forced to give customers a free ride all day. A lack of supervisors also means ad-hoc cleaning services (people do occasionally become sick on busses…and you can’t expect people to use a bus which contains the end result and stench of such a thing) and various other essential services will disappear. This probably also means there will be less people on hand to assist confused passengers.

I have discussed this at length with a few drivers and I have learnt a thing or two about ACTION supervisors. Once upon a time ACTION supervisors would monitor the busses as they entered and exited the interchanges, keeping track of whether the busses were on time or not. Recently, the onboard ticket machines have taken over this role. Devices have been placed in the ground at interchanges which identify the interchange and bay number, and the onboard ticket machines record arrival and departure times on a cartridge, which is later analysed by a computer at head office.

This has relegated supervisors to the roles of customer service and general ad-hoc maintenance arrangers. Technically these combined roles could still be called “supervisor”, but in reality they would be better classified as some kind of admin person, ACTION insiders are indicating that superviosr numbers are in surplus of requirements, some will be axed, whilst the others will be redesignated as admin officers.

It looks like the TWU will agree to that, as long as no drivers are forced to retire or move to part-time shifts, and services during the middle of the day and weekends are not severely affected. This appears to be workable considering that ACTION plan on reducing driver numbers from 810 to 796. It does appear that the proposed reversal of the full-time/part-time ratio was a bargining chip from the department of Territory and Municipal Services.

At this stage there doesn’t appear to be any conclusive information about weekend and night services, but I will let you know when there is.

Samuel

July 17th, 2006 at 07:36am

Simon Corbell’s Mobile Phone and ACTPLA

It’s funny what you can see when you’re in Dickson around lunch time. I was having lunch in Dickson on Wednesday when a group of people from ACTPLA (ACT Planning and Land Authority…you may recall them from this post and this post) walked past me. Just like last time they made eye contact and seemed to halt their conversation…then as they walked directly past me they all started muttering something about the Fyshwick Epicentre debacle, they appeared to be muttering something about it being a good thing, but I suspect they were merely making silly comments in an effort to make me write incorrect information…after all, they appeared to recognise me (and not for the first time).

It was only a few minutes later that minister for planning (amongst other things) Simon Corbell walked past…about twenty questions crossed my mind, luckily for him he was talking (or pretending…it is hard to tell) on his mobile phone, and I was too interested in my lunch to be bothered asking a pointless man a set of questions to which he would only give pointless answers anyway.

I used to work for the ACT government…I’m glad I don’t work for them any more.

Samuel

July 14th, 2006 at 12:51pm

Shhhh, it’s him!

OK, who here remembers my article from late May about ACT Planning and Land Authority‘s (ACTPLA) bizzare renaming of Cooyong/Ballumbir/Coranderrk Street?

Well it would appear that it has done the rounds at ACTPLA’s Dickson office. On Thursday, when I had some spare time on one of my breaks, I went for stroll down Challis Street in Dickson, one of the buildings I walked past was that of ACTPLA where about five or six ACTPLA staff were discussing something and making a fair bit of noise in the process. As I was approaching, one of the staff noticed me and stopped talking, she started staring at me, and three of the other staff did the same, the group started mumbling to each other and watched me walk past.

When I got to the end of the block I had a look back to see what they were up to, they were continuing their discussion and keeping an eye on me. As I looked back, one of them suddenly stopped looking at me, whilst one of the older men continued to watch me.

I then continued on my way and went back to my office.

It is worthwhile noting that ACTPLA are yet to update the street signs after the name change they forced on the road I mentioned in the previous article (linked above)…how long does it take to produce ten or so road signs? Were they discussing that in that meeting I walked past? What’s the bet that they get the signs wrong when the put them up?

Samuel

July 8th, 2006 at 09:37am

ACTION Bus Outage Reminder

“Outage”…I must be reading too much at work…anyway a reminder that ACTION bus drivers are holding a stop work meeting today between 10am and 1pm. The meeting is not, as reported on the ACTION website, for “employees to be consulted on the establishment of the Territory and Municipal Services Department”, but instead for drivers, management and associated unions to work out what to do about excessive service and job cuts planned by ACTION management.

You would be well advised to find alternate transport from 9am-2pm as most services will stop operating before the meeting so that drivers can attend the entire meeting, and some services will take longer to resume than others. The meeting is apparently going to be held at the Tuggeranong depot, so services closer to Tuggeranong will resume earlier than services in Gungahlin for example.

I’ll be keeping an ear out for information about the meeting, and will let you know when some news breaks.

Samuel

July 7th, 2006 at 07:11am

What’s Really Happening At ACTION?

Regular readers would recall that in April I brought you the news that ACTION were set to shake up the timetables and driver rosters in August, and then a couple weeks later I informed you that the changes were being pushed back to September, and I made the observation that it was much more likely to occur in mid October due to school holidays.

Well a lot has happened since then, but nothing has been eminating from ACTION insiders…that is until June 24 (just over a week ago) when The Canberra Times published a story which outlined the October changes (confirming October as the month), and showed that the ACT Government’s budget crisis extends to ACTION.

In my original article I mentioned that a change to the driver rostering system was likely, admittedly this was vague and could have meant almost anything, and as such I dismissed it as being a minor detail, but the details which have since emerged are downright alarming. Here’s what The Canberra Times published:

Transport Workers’ Union official Klaus Pinkas said members had been left incensed at the proposals spelled out by ACTION chief executive Peter Wallace, and emphasised they would be fought over in bargaining during the coming months.

Of most concern were suggestions to have 60 per cent part-time and 40 per cent full-time staff – a reversing of existing ratios – end rostered days off, limit full-timers to 38 hours a week with most overtime gone, remove supervisors from the four interchanges, increase split shifts and hack away at weekend and midday bus services.

Those two paragraphs paint the picture of the October bus changes, however the keyword is “proposal”. Read into that what you will, it seems even the Transport Workers Union are a tad confused about it all, spokesman Klaus Pinkas told Mike Jeffreys on Wednesday (28 June):

I’m looking at the minutes at the moment, and all those issues that you raised were said as what is going to happen, not on the table, but this is what’s going to happen under a proposed new network…nobody’s jumping to conclusions, this is what was put to a delegations of drivers and transport officers.

Klaus was referring to the minutes of a meeting between drivers, ACTION Management, and Transport Workers Union officials. Unfortunately the transcript of what Klaus said doesn’t convey the message clearly, but Klaus was implying that ACTION plan on making these changes in October, and it is not negotiable…something ACTION drivers seem to be echoing in my discussions with them.

As it stands at the moment, ACTION drivers, for the most part, have shifts which contain overtime and plenty of it. Most full time drivers also have a “single shift”, in other words, a shift which is a block of continuous hours (8am-6pm for example). The “proposals” would see the majority of drivers move to part time roles, and quite a few take up dreaded “split shifts” (7am-10am plus 3pm-7pm for example).

In the process, the timetable would be overhauled to cut non-peak services to the bone. At present many reasonably popular weekday services are sporadic during the day, with some (the 36 for example) coming every 50 minutes during the middle of the day. Many services which have traditionally come every 15-20 minutes during the day are now coming every 30 minutes.

ACTION also has a problem servicing shift workers at the moment. Where I work I am covered by two busses which, on their way to other places, pass through the semi-town centre near my work, and travel along the main road near my house. These busses provide a good coverage during peak hours (one coming every fifteen minutes, the other every twenty minutes), a decent coverage during the middle of the day (one coming every 20-30 minutes, the other every 30-50 minutes) and a terrible coverage during my commute time for my earliest start (7am) and my latest finish (7pm). For my earliest start I have to walk to the civic bus interchange and catch an entirely different bus which goes an entirely different way at a time which is either too early or too late. For my latest finish, I have to stand out in the cold for at least half an hour before I can even catch a bus…which makes my trip home at least 45 minutes…on something which would be a ten minute drive!

And weekends? If you’re not travelling to and from a major interchange, you better have all day on your hands.

ACTION’s plan would see these services cut even further. I’m lucky where I am to have multiple busses to choose from, which means I have a better service than most of Canberra…now that’s scary!

ACTION also plan to get rid of supervisors at interchanges, effectively meaning that drivers with faulty ticket machines will not be able to get a replacement at the next interchange and will instead lose revenue by being forced to give customers a free ride all day. A lack of supervisors also means ad-hoc cleaning services (people do occasionally become sick on busses…and you can’t expect people to use a bus which contains the end result and stench of such a thing) and various other essential services will disappear. This probably also means there will be less people on hand to assist confused passengers.

A spokesman (somebody by the name of Mr. Sizzler…or something like that) from Urban Services told Mike Jeffreys on Wednesday that they would “remove supervisors from four interchanges”. He said it in such a manner to make it sound like a small number…he omitted the fact that we only have four interchanges.

ACTION also plans on reducing driver numbers from 810 to 796, whilst attempting to increase boarding numbers by 197,000 to 17.1 million.

All of this has led to ACTION drivers deciding to have a stop work meeting. Originally this was planned for last week, but ACTION management threatened drivers with $300+ fines if they stopped work (one driver said the exact figure was $680), the Transport Workers Union stepped in and somehow managed to get ACTION to agree to pay (I smell industrial blackmail) drivers during a three hour stop work meeting, now scheduled for Friday July 7 between 10am and 1pm.

The ACTION website is painting a rosy picture about the stop work meeting, it says that the meeting is for “employees to be consulted on the establishment of the Territory and Municipal Services Department .” Hmmm, I can guess which person in ACTION dreamt that up…the lady (I use the term loosely) from the ACTION’s department of information which, just like the old Iraqi one, is nothing more than a propoganda spinning machine.

From previous experience I can tell you that the stopwork meeting will disrupt services from around 9am…you can expect services from remote parts of Canberra to stop running around 9am, and for services to start terminating early at interchanges from about 9:30. Current information says the meeting will be held at the Tuggeranong depot, so for example, I wouldn’t expect to see a bus in Gungahlin after about 9:10am, and I wouldn’t expect to see one in Weston Creek after 9:40. Basically, make alternate plans between 9am and 1:30pm. (especially in areas a long way from Tuggeranong).

Two other interesting things which are currently affecting ACTION…ACTION is about to become part of the department of Territory and Municipal Services (formerly known as Urban Services), and it would appear will no longer be a semi-independent government corporation. Whether the ACTION statutory authority remains is unclear at this stage.

The other interesting things is that ACTION fares go up from tomorrow…interesting thing to do prior to a cut in services…

I spoke with Mike Jeffreys on Wednesday about the changes, click here to hear the news story about the changes and my call (3 minutes, 1.2MB) Mike raised some interesting points about convenience of cars compared to busses (and the effect on passenger numbers), and of government economics.

Here is the full story from the Canberra Times

ACTION plan to cut costs angers unions
Kanchan Dutt
Saturday, 24 June 2006

Bus services will be slashed and interchanges left unstaffed if proposals for drastic cuts to ACTION are followed through, unions have warned.
Rostered days off would end, part-time staff form the majority of employees and most overtime stopped under further considerations put forward by management to staff, the Transport Workers’ Union said.

Budget cuts have forced managers of the public transport provider to consider ways of clamping down on costs while maintaining a service that has seen passenger numbers increase.

But the severe nature of the measures outlined at a meeting of bosses, staff and unions has led to a warning that rough times are coming as the battle over conditions intensifies. One person present said, “This looks like an almighty s### fight.”

Transport Workers’ Union official Klaus Pinkas said members had been left incensed at the proposals spelled out by ACTION chief executive Peter Wallace, and emphasised they would be fought over in bargaining during the coming months.

Of most concern were suggestions to have 60 per cent part-time and 40 per cent full-time staff – a reversing of existing ratios – end rostered days off, limit full-timers to 38 hours a week with most overtime gone, remove supervisors from the four interchanges, increase split shifts and hack away at weekend and midday bus services.

“The guys are going ballistic at this stage,” Mr Pinkas said.

The plans were made public by Labor MLA Mick Gentleman during yesterday’s budget estimates hearing.

He asked Transport Minister John Hargreaves, appearing before the committee, how he intended to help ACTION maintain growth in the face of such cuts, but was told no comment could be made as negotiations were ongoing.

The minister did say, though, that across the Government, spending was being brought back to national averages having been way in front of this for long periods.

Shadow transport minister Steve Pratt said he had no difficulties with axing head office admin staff but that doing so to frontline numbers was “not on” and a “totally inappropriate measure”.

The purported blows to buses were reported after Mr Hargreaves told the committee his department was to spend $1.4 million fitting CCTV to the 80 per cent of the fleet without the cameras.

And perhaps to head off any concerns about the possible absence of staff at interchanges, he also said it was planned to put security cameras at the locations.

The ACT budget showed ACTION’s employee expenses are expected to drop by about 8 per cent, or $4million to $47.3million in 2006-07 from $51.5million in the previous financial year.

Over this same time period, the head count is to fall from 810 to 796 while the target for passenger boardings increases by 197,000 to 17.1 million for the year.

A spokeswoman for ACTION said it was not able to comment on the union claims as negotiations were ongoing.

Mr Hargreaves, whose transport role comes within his Territory and Municipal Services Department, said about 100 full-time equivalent posts were to be lost from the new ministry.

But this number was a very rough approximation as work on towards the final result was still being done.

Samuel

July 2nd, 2006 at 09:18am

Save Dickson College Update

I received the following email from the Save Dickson College mailing list last night:

Six Representatives from the Save Dickson College Committee meet with Minister Barr and two of his advisors on Tuesday 27th June

– The meeting went very well.

– The committee came across very strongly and were clear that we didn’t want to look at any other models – which he tried to get us to do.

– The committee asked did he have the answers to the questions from the meeting (and of course he didn’t!) so we gave him a list of questions (attached) and went through them. This really put them on the back foot I think and made David Peebles, Minister Barr’s Chief of Staff look silly as he promised the community he would take the questions back to the Minister.
They couldn’t really provide us with any answers or any rationale other than cost cutting.

– Minister Barr acknowledged one of the messages from the community that the 7 to 12 option at Campbell is not on, which probably means they have to keep Dickson College. But he hasn’t given us any guarantees so we need to keep the pressure up.

– Minister Barr did suggest that the community would have to work with them to increase programs at Dickson to keep it viable

– The Govt are holding their public meeting next Monday at where we can put more pressure on. The committee hope to get some questions together for people to ask at this meeting.

We need a good turnout at the Monday meeting so bring along everyone you can muster up. The hall only holds about 150 people.

The committee will meet a week or so after that and work out a longer term strategy ie. Meeting with all the MLAs, writing letters etc.

All in all pretty positive meeting for the community.

Annette Matheson
On behalf of the Save Dickson College Committee

From my reading of it, it looks like Dickson is now unlikely to close, as the silly ill conceived idea for turning Campbell High into a year 7-12 school has been acknowledged by Andrew Barr as silly and ill conceived.

The “Towards 2020 consultation meetings” are not designed to be consultative. Just about every school in the inner north which isn’t Campbell Primary has a hall which holds more than 150 people, but that’s the location for the inner north meeting. Further evidence of the non-consultation involved in these meetings can be read here and here.

Andrew Barr wants the Dickson community to work with him to keep Dickson open…sounds like a message which everybody affected by the ACT budget should take notice of.

Anyway, it looks like some ground is being made…perhaps my idea that the government don’t actually want to close 39 schools, and that number was just an inflated headline grabber, wasn’t so far off the mark after all…or am I just being too cynical? For some reason, with this government, I suspect the former.

Samuel

June 29th, 2006 at 09:12am

Jon Stanhope’s 2CC Appearance

I’ve now put Jon Stanhope’s 2CC appearance and the relevant talkback callers from after his appearance online. Jon Stanhope only gave 2CC half an hour, and insited on giving long-winded answers. There are a few interesting things in Stanhope’s appearance, although I think the callers after Stanhope left were more interesting.

All of that is online at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/Stanhope2CCDriveShow20060627.mp3 (56 minutes, 26.5MB)

Here is my summary of events including the start time of each event in the MP3:

*0:00 Mike Welsh interviews Stanhope about his budget decisions.

*5:20 Caller Caroline asks about the source of class size figures in “Towards 2020”. Stanhope rambles about not knowing exact answer and that he didn’t bring the figures with him.

*8:15 Caller Hannah puts her daughter, Ashleigh, on the phone to tell Stanhope that she wants to stay at her current school. Stanhope says he wants to ensure everyone gets a good education.

*9:10 Caller Andrew asks about reimbursement of uniform costs for people forced to change school due to closures. Stanhope rambles about consultation and doesn’t answer question, stating that the government haven’t worked that out yet.

*11:50 Caller David asks about rate rises. Stanhope tries to justify rate rises. At the end of Stanhope’s answer, David asks if Stanhope has taken a breath yet.

*16:35 Traffic report

*17:20 Caller Wendy asks how the government is addressing the issue of young children having to cross major roads to get to school if the government goes ahead with the school closures. Stanhope doesn’t answer question, but rambles about “difficult decisions”.

*21:25 Mike Welsh asks Stanhope why he thinks people move to private schools. Stanhope talks about options that the government is considering for public schools. Stanhope also says that everybody should get over their anger and accept that the government is committed to “Towards 2020”.

*25:00 Stanhope then leaves, taking the pile of emailed questions Mike Welsh received with him.

(Ad break removed)

*25:40 Caller Sharon talks about problems with school closures in Kambah

*29:00 Caller Jonathon (student at Kambah High) not impressed with Chief Minister and closures.

(Traffic update and ad break removed)

*31:50 Mike Welsh says Chief Minister has undertaken to look at all the emails he has received and that 2CC might bring Stanhope in for another segment soon.

*32:25 Caller Mark annoyed with Stanhope taking forever to answer questions and only giving 2CC and callers half an hour of his time.

(Ad break removed)

*36:20 Caller Wendy talks about how she met Stanhope at Westfield Belconnen and wanted to have a chat about school closures, Stanhope gave her a rehearsed speech, she interrupted and said she didn’t want to hear numbers and percentages and just wanted to chat about school closures and he told her that she was very rude and would stop interrupting. Mike and Wendy then talk about school closures.

*41:10 Caller Steve works in a school and talks about school closures and budget money which could be better used on other things.

(News, ad breaks and irrelevant segments removed)

*45:00 Caller Steve (a different Steve) disappointed with Stanhope. Steve annoyed with Stanhope’s arrogance, labor party school closure ads, school closures, new jail, appeal against bushfire inquiry amongst other things. Steve’s solution is to remove self government.

(irrelevant segments, news and ad breaks removed)

*50:40 Emails: Pete writes “Tell Stanhope to answer questions and not blabber on”. Hooter Boy writes “I’d rather get wisdom teeth out than listen to an hour of Jon Stanhope”.

*51:10 Caller John (aka John B1_B5) talks about Stanhope “rabbiting on” and asks who is footing the bill for the labor party school closure ads.

(Partial ad break removed)

*55:40 Labor party school closure ad. The ad says “Spoken by P. Mills, paid for and authorised by Matthew Cossey, ALP Canberra”. Matthew Cossey is the ACT Branch Secretary of the ALP, for more info about him see http://www.act.alp.org.au/people/people.html?seat=staff^Cossey^Matthew If that link gives an error, click on “People” on the left hand side of the screen and then follow the link to Matthew Cossey

For the record, between 4pm and 6pm there were 12 ALP ads about school closures, and one Australian Education Union ad against school closures.

2 comments June 28th, 2006 at 02:57am

Chief Turnip on 2CC

Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope will be on 2CC on Tuesday (27 June) at 4PM answering calls from the public. If you would like to ask him a question (and get an answer), here is your chance.

I wouldn’t be surprised if callers are limited to one or two questions as 2CC are likely to be swamped with calls during this segment. I’m also not sure how long Jon Stanhope will be on-air for, but I suspect it will be from 4pm-5pm. I will contact 2CC to clarify this.

2CC is 1206 on the AM dial, and their open line number is 62554444. Drive Show host Mike Welsh has a promo running for the segment where he says that it will be a chance for people to ring in and put their questions to the Chief Minister.

I plan on recording the entire Stanhope segment and putting an MP3 of it online. I’ll let you know once that is done. I also have plans for a live webstream for the benefit of the interstate/international audience. I’ll have more details tomorrow morning. (Although I will update this post with the duration of the Stanhope segment as soon as I have the details to hand).

Also, as a few people at 2CC read this site, this post is probably going to attract the attention of 2CC management…if you have a problem with me putting the Stanhope segment online, please contact me so that we can discuss it.

Samuel

4 comments June 26th, 2006 at 07:22am

Save Dickson College

For those of you who are interested, the Save Dickson College campaign has a website at http://www.freewebs.com/savedickson/.

There is also a regularly updated mailing list which seems to be doing quite a good job of keeping people up to date on what’s happening in the Save Dickson College campaign. To join the mailing list, simply send an email to savedicksoncollege@iinet.net.au.

Samuel

4 comments June 23rd, 2006 at 10:37am