You can put my absence over the last couple of weeks down to a combination of a lack of time and a lack of effort…so anyway, I’m back, and I missed me so I’m going to assume that you did too. But enough about me.
The title on this post “welcome to winter” makes me wonder, how much colder can it get? Today, the next couple of days, and even the last few days are quite balmy compared to the cold temperatures we have been experiencing of late. We had that extraordinary run of temperatures down in the negatives at the start of May, including the day on which it got as low an -6.9°C. In fact, I count 18 days which had a negative overnight temperature and 21 days which were below Canberra’s May average overnight low of 3.2°C. The days were also quite cold, with 16 days having a maximum temperature at or below the May average maximum of 15.5°C.
So, in many ways, it felt like winter came quite early this year. No surprise then, to see this:
Canberra has recorded the coldest autumn in 27 years, while the month of May has been the coldest since 1975 according to meteorologists from The Weather Channel.
The average minimum temperature over autumn of 5.7 degrees is a full degree below the historical average, and daytime maximums have also been half a degree cooler than average.
(h/t Canberra Times’ Hamish Boland-Rudder)
While it is true that weather is not climate is not weather, at some point the average of the weather becomes the climate, and while it is also true that we are only now coming out of a La Nina cycle which one would expect would bring some colder temperatures, the fact remains that we just had a pretty cold autumn, which does fly in the face of the current “the world is getting so hot that we have to tax the air” line emanating from the government.
In the aforementioned article, Ms. Roze from The Weather Channel does go on to say that our winter will probably not be colder than average, in fact she expects it to be ever so slightly warmer than average based on current ocean temperature (read: end of La Nina) trends.
This all goes to prove something which has been blatantly obvious for longer than I care to count. The notion that humans have caused warming of the planet through carbon dioxide emissions, when it is so clear that natural cycles produce such great variations in the temperature from one year to the next, is downright arrogant. Even more so when you consider that, historically, carbon dioxide levels have followed temperature, not led it. It is even more arrogant, even ludicrous, to suggest that a tax on this carbon dioxide will reduce the temperature.
Oh, and did I mention that the government’s climate expert chief architect of socialist reform Ross Garnaut played the government’s hand yesterday. The carbon dioxide tax is not about the temperature at all, rather it is a giant redistributionist scheme:
Under his plan to distribute carbon tax revenue, Professor Garnaut recommended 55 per cent be given to households, about $6.3 billion under a $26-a-tonne carbon price that raised $11.5bn. Thirty-five per cent of compensation ($3.9bn) would be devoted to business assistance and 10 per cent ($1.5bn) to innovation, of which $750 million is already contained in the forward estimates.
So, 90% of the tax will be given back to the people, and only ten percent of it goes in to the stuff which the government claims will help to keep the temperature under control…make that five percent, because five percent is already in the forward estimates and is presumably coming from somewhere else in the great money cycle of the government, which leaves five percent of the tax unaccounted for. That almost certainly means that it goes towards “administration”, better known as “flying politicians and public servants to pointless conferences about mythical-man-made-warming on carbon dioxide emitting aeroplanes”.
And if you still need convincing that this tax has nothing to do with climate change and everything to do with social change (to borrow a line from Jim Ball), we can go back to the article:
the tax-free threshold for low-income earners would rise almost $9000 to $25,000 under recommendations now being considered by the Gillard government.
Julia Gillard’s chief climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, who handed his final report to the government yesterday, has called for compensation to be provided only to those on incomes up to $80,000, while higher income earners would have their tax rates or thresholds altered to ensure they did not receive any benefits from the increase in the tax-free threshold.
(h/t The Australian’s Sid Maher).
Or to put it simply, the “poor”, those earning under $80,000, pay less tax and get more handouts from the government, while the “rich”, those earning over $80,000, foot the bill. It’s called socialism, and it doesn’t work. It stifles productivity through the entitlement mentality, meaning that less wealth gets produced overall, resulting in less tax revenue and the collapse of the whole system.
If the government really feels the urge to play with the tax system, then something they can do which would have a positive impact is the abolition of automatic income tax deductions. That way, rather than having your income tax automatically deducted so that you don’t really notice that it’s gone, you get to keep the money and do with it as you please throughout the year, increasing the amount of money which is flowing through the free market and the amount of productivity which it creates. At the end of the financial year, you simply fill out your tax return as normal, and pay whatever amount of tax you owe. It would be advisable for you to set some or all of this money aside during the year in a savings account or similar, much like many people do for their other bills…but this allows you to earn extra income from interest, which is derived from the money the banks make in investing your money in the free market economy.
This would, of course, also abolish the tax refund, but this is a good thing because that “refund” is really your money which the government has been hanging on to for the better part of a year. This would also have the benefit of making the government more accountable, as they would no longer have rivers of gold pouring in to their coffers every week. Instead, they would have to budget around when money would actually arrive for them to spend, much like the rest of us do. Ultimately, they would probably receive more tax revenue as a result of increased private sector activity due to this scheme, but rather than being able to waste it as soon as it comes in, they would have to carefully plan how to spend it…who knows, it might even make them spend it on stuff we actually want. Now that would be a change.
At long, long last, Canberra has been saved from the wrath of Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope. Stanhope resigned today, leaving the cyclonic one in his wake.
ACT chief minister Jon Stanhope is retiring.
Australia’s longest serving government leader, who turned 60 last month, was elected to the top post in November 2001.
Which would make his tenure ten years…so not the longest, but anyway, we continue…
Mr Stanhope described the jobs as a privilege.
“I would like to thank the people of Canberra for the opportunity they’ve given me to represent them,” he told reporters on Monday.
“I consider it a privilege to have been granted this role.”
He also thanked his successor Katy Gallagher for her unstinting support and friendship.
“I quite simply could not have more faith in Katy’s capacity,” he says.
Mr Stanhope thanked voters in his ACT electorate on Ginninderra, in northern Canberra, where he lives with his wife Robyn.
“I particularly acknowledge and express my deep gratitude to the people of Belconnen and my electorate of Ginninderra, the community which Robyn and I have lived for the last 37 years and where we brought up our children,” he says.
The same people he told to be quiet when he was talking to them at Belconnen Mall because they were silly and didn’t understand the issues? Well I suppose they did vote for him…I will never understand why.
Anyway, the article just gets stranger from there. We start with Stanhope’s bizarre dreams (and you thought mine were odd).
“I’m confident that with the splendid leadership which Katy can provide, the territory … will ultimately achieve if not statehood, constitutional equality with the states.”
Will never happen, and rightly so. We are a territory of the federal government based on land which originally belonged to New South Wales. A decent chunk of our land is controlled through a love/hate relationship between the federal government’s National Capital Authority and our own Legislative Assembly. Realistically we should have one or two local councils running our territory rather than the psuedo-state government that we do have…maybe then we wouldn’t have a grossly oversized public service of the ACT Government, assisting them to do wasteful jobs which should never have been done by them anyway.
And then the article continues…apparently Jon wants to hang on to the one thing which worked well for him during his time at the top.
Mr Stanhope acknowledged many Canberrans were still coming to terms with the 2003 bushfires, which killed four people and destroyed about 500 homes.
“The government, I believe, responded well in the face of this crisis,” he says.
On the day…well no, they were slow to act when they knew the threat was coming. We had the whole debacle of them driving to the Nolan Gallery to save paintings long before they even bothered to tell Canberrans that something might be wrong. The media were on the ball that day, the emergency services did what they could, but the government was found wanting. Still, on the back of the publicity which Jon Stanhope got for jumping out of a helicopter and saving a drowning man around that time, and his supposed decisiveness on the day (we only found out later how big a lie that was), he was popular for quite some time.
Stanhope’s government has been riddled with budgetary mismanagement, incredible delays, his trademark “consultation” process where he talks to nobody and makes his own decision (decisiveness is good, pretending to consult and then blaming everyone else for the eventual mess is not), and a gazillion public artworks which are completely unnecessary and an eyesore to boot.
On Facebook, 2CC have asked “Should we commission a piece of art to honour the work of ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope?”. My answer sums up what I think of Stanhope’s reign of terror. “No, we should pull down all the ones he put up and send him the bill for their removal, and perhaps for their original construction as well.”
I’m not really looking forward to having Cyclone Katy as Chief Minister (the turnip badge is reserved for Stanhope)…but at least now that we have the inexplicably popular Stanhope out of the way, Canberra might, maybe, perhaps, if we’re lucky, see fit to elect Zed Seselja and his far more competent team to clean up the mess next year. One can hope.
In case you haven’t already heard, ACTION bus services in Canberra will be severely lacking on the weekend, and may be a tad underwhelming on Monday morning as well. Territory and Municipal Services are blaming a different union this time around.
Due to industrial action by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), there will be disruptions to this weekend’s bus services, James Roncon, Director, ACTION, announced today.
“The AMWU has placed a ban on overtime work which means that buses cannot be maintained or re-fuelled this weekend which cripples the bus service,” Mr Roncon said. “In order to minimise any disruption to Monday services a decision has had to be made to run a Sunday timetable on Saturday and cancel Sunday services.
“There may also be reductions in the number of wheelchair-accessible buses which run on Saturday due to difficulties in re-fuelling them.
“While ACTION management will themselves assist with re-fuelling buses on Sunday evening to try and meet the Monday morning peak, it is simply not possible to run bus services on Sunday and not impact on Monday’s services.
[..]
Mr Roncon said that ACTION will do its best to minimise disruptions on Monday.
“Due to the action we are taking over the weekend, we are not expecting significant disruptions on Monday however there will be some buses off the road. We will ensure school runs operate and that any dropped services are on bus runs which are quickly followed by another bus. For more information on ACTION services please visit www.action.act.gov.au or call 13 17 10.”
So this time around it’s not the bus drivers, but rather the bus maintainers which are going on strike, so this strike doesn’t fit in with the regular-as-clockwork Transport Workers Union vs ACTION fights when the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement needs to be renewed, and if we’re going to see regular Australian Manufacturing Workers Union vs ACTION fights as well, then the question has to be asked: what can be done to make the contract negotiation process less disruptive to the public?
The answer seems fairly simple to me. At the moment, there is very little incentive within ACTION or the ACT Government to prevent these things from happening. ACTION will exist come-what-may; their TAMS overlords are public servants who will just end up somewhere else in the government during the next reshuffle; and the politicians have no real need to be concerned this far out from an election. On the other side, the unions have come to acknowledge that the only consequence to them from a strike is a small public backlash which is offset by public sympathy when the strikes are few and far between, especially when the TWU’s Klaus Pinkas is the man so effectively heading their public relations campaign. The strikes work well for the unions because they know that the public will ultimately blame the politicians and not the unions, and so the politicians will issue “fix it” directives to the public servants which, if the unions can hold their nerve for long enough, will result in a union victory, for the most part.
The trouble is, now that the AMWU have gotten in on the act, the strikes will become more regular. The couple of strikes once every few years at the behest of the TWU were tolerable…but doubling the frequency of strikes and making the effects last longer by adding another union in to the mix will just anger the public and lessen their sympathy for the unions. The public will demand corrective action from the politicians to prevent the regular strikes…and once it gets that far, the only two options are to either gut services so that less people rely on the service and therefore less people will be angered by strikes, or to sell it off and make it somebody else’s problem to deal with.
The latter option, privatising the bus service, is the more sensible option. From a political perspective, it’s better than minimising services, and from an operation perspective, it gives the new operator an incentive to prevent strikes as strikes equal lost revenue.
The government doesn’t really care about ACTION’s income as they are deliberately running it at a loss…and in a way, not running buses for a day or two saves them money, but for a private operator, the service is designed to make a profit, and when there is a strike, there is no income but the administrative overheads still exists, so they make a loss. These administrative overheads exist for the government as well, but they form part of the cost of running the government and don’t count in the equation.
The other benefits of a private bus service are that the bus service would actually have to meet the needs of the customers in order to turn a profit, and would therefore be more likely to run services which are wanted and needed instead of a gazillions indirect routes to distant locations via half the places in between. And then just to make the system even more responsive to customer needs, the government could issue a licence to bus operators and adjust the cost of their licence renewal based on factors such as on-time running and dropped runs. Additionally, multiple bus providers could compete for business within Canberra and/or focus on certain areas are types of services.
Having private operators instead of a government monopoly on bus services in Canberra is clearly the best option for both minimising the number of strikes and service disruptions, and for making the bus service a more desirable service by more closely meeting the needs of the people.
I know how quickly these things can spread, so I’m going to clarify this one now to avoid any possible unnecessary confusion, concern or alarm.
Yes, there was a serious accident on Horse Park Drive in the early hours of this morning. No, it wasn’t mine.
I did run off the road while avoiding a kangaroo on Horse Park Drive in the wee hours and my car has sustained some damage which is now the insurance company’s problem, however I was unharmed in the incident, thankfully. I expected the whole thing to end very badly, and given the location and exact events, it could have been much much worse, so I’m thankful and lucky. The short version is that, in the process of avoiding the kangaroo, my car slid off the other side of the road, turned 180 degrees and skidded backwards for quite some distance through the grass and bushes, somehow (thankfully) avoiding the larger bushes and trees.
I feel very sorry for the people involved in an accident on the same road about an hour or two after me, as detailed by the Emergency Services Agency:
5:45am Saturday 19 March 2011 – Serious motor vehicle accident in Gungahlin ACT Ambulance Service and ACT Fire Brigade are on scene at a single vehicle accident on Horsepark Drive Gungahlin.
Intensive care paramedics are treating a total of three patients including one trapped by confinement in the wreckage.
Firefighters are currently working to free the person.
6:15am Saturday 19 March 2011 – Update – Serious motor vehicle accident in Gungahlin Firefighters have extricated a male from the wreckage following a two car collision not single vehicle as first thought.
He is being treated for suspected chest and leg injuries.
Two other females patients from the same car have been stablised on scene by intensive care paramedics with suspected abdominal injuries.
All three patients will be transported to the Canberra Hospital in a serious condition.
The occupant or occupants of the second vehicle left the scene before ambulance and fire brigade arrived.
I would be interested to know where exactly on this road the accident occurred as mine occurred in the stretch of road which has been rather poorly resurfaced recently, creating a very loose and somewhat slippery surface…not good for avoiding animals on a road which is notorious for crazy wildlife.
My thoughts and prayers are with the people involved in the serious crash. It is certainly not a good morning for that road.
Canberra seems to have been a busy little place overnight.
I’m hearing unconfirmed reports of an explosion in a toilet in one of the nightclubs (Update: I’m now hearing that it was inside Meche Nightclub) on Northbourne Avenue injuring one person. My sources say it was a small bomb. There are multiple fire brigade units including Hazmat on the scene.
Up on Antill Street in Dickson there were two single vehicle accidents within the last couple of hours, both of which happened around the same time. Firstly, a car took out one of the traffic lights at the corner of Cowper Street, and then up the road near the Phillip Avenue roundabout another car took out a tree (or part thereof, it’s hard to tell). Both cars had to be towed. I have no information on the state of the occupants.
There was also an explosion in a house in Isabella Plains around 7pm. An aerosol can exploded when it was left near a stove. Two men were taken to hospital, one with burns and the other for smoke inhalation.
Update: The police have issued a press release saying that they shot a man who tried to attack them with a knife and a meat cleaver in Wanniassa around 5am. It certainly was a busy night last night. End Update
A large storm is making its way through Canberra at the moment. It appears to be affecting southern Canberra more severely than northern Canberra. The weather bureau cancelled their severe storm warning at 9:40pm which was a silly thing to do. The storm is bring some pretty heavy falls.
The storm appears to have caused a power surge, which occurred while it was still a fair way out of Canberra so I suspect that lightning has struck a power line somewhere. When this happened, it killed off transmissions from Telstra Tower and, presumably, the transmissions for surrounding areas which generally feed off the tower.
The storm is moving fairly quickly, so it should move out of the area soon. If you need help in the storm, call the SES on 131 500.
With TV and FM radio broadcasts currently off-air due to the issues up at Telstra Tower, my little hobby transmitter on 99.9FM at home is the only FM station still on air in the area. I suppose I can take some pride from that. It also carries a responsibility and I’m breaking in to programming with storm updates. I don’t expect that anyone is listening, but I’m there just in case somebody has checked the dial for a signal.
Update 1:14am: That storms seems to have passed, but there’s another concerning storm about to pass through Canberra. This one appears to be travelling slightly north of the last one. Again, I’d suggest being prepared…it sounds angry. End Update
Update 1:23am: TV and radio services on Telstra Tower have mostly been restored. Main radio stations are back, some smaller stations not on the main antenna still don’t have carrier, but some of the bigger stations seem to be transmitting dead air which could be studio or link related. On the bright side, at least Telstra Tower is back.
Bad news is the second storm cell is just about upon us. North Canberra and suburbs nearish to the lake take care. End Update
Update 1:34am:It’s here. Baton down the hatches NOW! Reminder that the SES can be contacted on 132 500. End Update
Update 1:55am: That should be it for Canberra. The storm is just about out of our hair now, but Queanbeyan residents should probably keep an eye on it for another 10-20 minutes. Another reminder that the SES can be contacted on 132 500 if you need help cleaning up from the storm. I took a couple video clips of the storm passing over my area…I’ll upload them shortly. End Update
Update 2:03am: Actually, I’m seeing another small storm cell which should pass to the south of Tuggeranong, maybe scraping the edges of civilisation down there in about the next 20-30 minutes. Tharwa and Michelago residents should be on alert for this one, but it looks like problematic than the two bigger cells which have already passed through the region. End Update
Final Update: Here are a couple videos of the view of the second storm cell from my place.
This first video is from the height of the storm. The window is closed in this video but the rain is still clearly audible. Note the frequency of the lightning…the last time I saw lightning that frequent was in the lead-up to the great hail storm of 2007…thankfully we didn’t have hail like that this time.
I shot this second video a tad later on when the storm had died down a bit and I had finished talking with 2UE’s John Kerr (the end of the call is audible in the background as I had the 2UE webstream on which has about a 45 second delay on it). The highlight of this one is that a lightning bolt is directly visible, rather than just a series of flashing clouds.
And speaking of that call to John Kerr, I ran a tape (tape? OK, maybe I just fired up Cool Edit Pro, which reminds me that I’ve been meaning to upgrade to Audition for yonks) over the 4BC webstream because I wanted to hear how loud the rain sounded in the background…not as loud as I thought, but loud enough.
Certainly an interesting night in the nation’s capital. End Update
Another update…Monday January 3: For the record books, the reason the TV and radio signals from Telstra Tower vanished is that the generator did not kick in. Apart from the power surge, Telstra Tower was one of the parts of Canberra to also suffer from a power failure. Unfortunately their backup generator did not start, and so the entire tower, including the transmission equipment lost power. End Update
I had reason to get up to the flood-affected Captains Flat this morning (and did I regret that or what? I spent most of my time up there wondering if I’d be able to get back) and on the way back stopped off at the flood-affected Queanbeyan, although to get there I had to take the long way via Fyshwick as the main road through town was closed due to the flood.
I got some video and photos of the flood, although I wasn’t the only one by a long shot; I was actually quite surprised to see just how many people were standing around near the water either watching it, filming it or taking photos of it. Seven’s Jodie Speers turned up with a cameraman as I was leaving and, based on the footage they’ve put to air, the water rose a fair bit after I got out of there.
First up, here’s my video of a crane plucking a caravan out of the caravan park which was slowly flooding.
And my photos. This is why I was worried about getting back from Captains Flat. Captains Flat Road about 23KMs out of Captains Flat was flooded. It was passable, but only just. The water had risen slightly and the flow was faster when I came back through.
Jerrabomberra Creek was very close to flooding Canberra Avenue between Fyshwick and Narrabundah this morning. Apparently it did partially flood the road later on after I had left the area. Quite extraordinary for a creek which is normally a mere trickle.
Riverside Plaza in Queanbeyan became River Plaza.
The carpark was inundated.
Meanwhile downstream from Captains Flat and Queanbeyan, Lake Burley Griffin was copping the debris.
My best wishes go out to everyone who was and will be affected by the floods, both here and in other parts of the country. Hopefully the forecast upcoming week of sunshine comes to pass as I don’t think anyone can really take much more of this.
The RiotACT brings word that the Gungahlin Drive Extension’s 2nd stage bridge, which is currently under construction, has collapsed on to the Barton Highway.
Thankfully nobody has been seriously hurt. One person was trapped and had to be freed with up to ten people being taken to hospital. (Update: In one breath the Emergency Services Agency says that there were no serious injuries, and in the next says that “The injuries range from limb to suspected spinal”. That sounds pretty serious to me.)
I’m sorry, but I can’t mince words here. Regardless of what may or may not have happened on-site, I have no doubts that the people ultimately to blame for this ar e the loopy greenies and socialists from Save The Ridge, the very people who caused delays and massive budget blowouts in the original GDE construction, which effectively prevented the second lane each way from being built at the time. If it weren’t for these people, the bridge in question would have been built at least a couple years ago, and would therefore have not collapsed during construction today.
“But it could have collapsed back then!” you say? Well, no, I don’t agree. Data from Darren Giles’ Gungahlin Weather Centre (which is closer to the bridge collapse than the Bureau’s airport measuring devices) shows that over the last few years we have had: 2006: 366.8 mm of rain 2007: 499.0 mm of rain 2008: 503.2 mm of rain 2009: 390.2 mm of rain 2010: 328.8 mm of rain to the end of yesterday (225 days of the year, which once extrapolated to a full year gives us 533.39 mm.
This makes this year our wettest of the years in which construction has been undertaken on the GDE. Rain can severely affect the integrity of setting concrete, and it is reasonable to say that, had the bridge been built in a previous year, it would have had less chance of being adversely affected by rain. Therefore, the delays caused by Save The Ridge are to blame for this bridge collapse.
Just another reason why we can’t let people like this be in charge of important infrastructure projects.
Some days some ads bewilder me:
(click image to enlarge)
Sure, it’s probably a good strategy to name your business after the place in which it is located…this probably cuts down on confusion, but in terms of the location itself, I don’t really see what is so great about an industrial area which enjoys traffic jams every morning and night of every weekday, much more so than any other industrial area in Canberra.
If it was a military installation like HMAS Harman, remotely located on Canberra Avenue between Canberra and Queanbeyan, then I might understand why it would be considered a “strategic location”…but in this case, I think it’s just false advertising.
Senate candidate Lin Hatfield Dodds says she’s not environmentally irresponsible for owning a V8 Toyota Landcruiser.
[..]
Ms Hatfield Dodds told The Canberra Times that poor public transport options forced her family to buy a second car about two years ago. The other family car was a Toyota Echo. The 4WD was chosen to take the family on monthly camping trips.
”I’m not at all worried about driving a four-wheel drive I’ve always said I don’t fit the mould of what people often perceive a green to be,” she said.
Well Lin, that’s just because most Canberrans don’t realise that the Greens’ socialist utopia inevitably involves the almighty administrators living a much more luxurious life than the rest of the population. It’s sold as “being nice to the environment” and “equality”…but you and I both know that this is not the case.
Back to the point though…monthly camping trips? Really? Aren’t those campfires bad for the environment or causing global warming or something? And if the rest of us are supposed to give up our large vehicles, how come you can’t lead by example. There are plenty of places to camp which do not require a four wheel drive in order to access them.
This is exactly the sort of “do as I say, not as I do” mentality that led to the delays and blowouts in cost of the Gungahlin Drive Extension. Admittedly the Stanhope government shares the blame for this by ineptly not simply overruling the cuckoo activists when they had the chance…however the Save The Ridge mob, supported by the Greens and the Socialists were the main cause of the delays in construction, the resulting blowout in costs, and the necessity to increase overall costs further by making the second lane a “we’ll just have to do that at some later stage” proposition for the ACT government. How is this a “do as I say, not as I do” issue? Because the Save The Ridge nuts use the GDE.
We can’t allow these people to take control of our government. We can’t risk having proponents of large central government in power when they pretend to be interested in “fairness”, but really just want to increase their own personal power and thrust some delusional socialist doctrine upon us. If they can cause a GDE fiasco at a local level, imagine what chaos they could cause at a national level. If you thought the Building the Education Revolution disaster was bad…you ain’t seen nothin’ (to borrow a quaint phrase) until you’ve seen Bob Brown as Dear Leader.
By the way, I love how The Canberra Times (aka The Fyshwick Guardian) not only tries to justify Lin’s hypocritical use of a V8 4WD with details of her carbon offset program (memo Lin: offsetting is not the same as reducing) but also seems to think that the only members of the Legislative Assembly are Greens:
Of Canberra’s four MLAs, three drive a Toyota Prius and the fourth has a Smart Car
I’m sure life would be much more in-line with the ideological standpoint of The Fyshwick Guardian if this were the case…but unless I missed something, the Hare-Clark proportional voting system hasn’t extended itself to removing all but the representatives of the party with the fewest elected members. Do the journos know something about the plans of the Greens that we don’t?
(with thanks to Jeremy Hanson MLA for the link to the article…seeing as I’ve mentioned Jeremy’s name, I should probably point out that my views do not necessarily reflect his)
With the Australian Electoral Commission having today announced the candidates for the seats of Fraser and Canberra in the federal election, and the candidates for the ACT’s two senate seats, it’s time for me to publish a preliminary how-to-vote card. This is all subject to change, and a finalised version will be published either on election day, or once I have cast my vote if I decide to put in a pre-poll vote.
There are a few objectives in the how-to-vote card. Firstly, I acknowledge that for the House of Representatives at least, it’s a safe Labor seat, so whilst it’s important to try and replace Labor, it’s also important to try and reduce the margin and make it less safe for Labor if they do retain the seats. In the Senate, the main objective is to maintain at least one Liberal seat…the other objective is to keep crazy people like the Greens out of the Senate. The idea of a returned Gillard government with a Greens balance of power in the senate is downright scary.
Fraser
1. MILLIGAN, James Keith (Liberal Party) — obviously he must come first
2. HEDGES-PHILLIPS, Quintin (Secular Party of Australia) — I find a bunch of their policies to be quite scary, especially ones about climate change, mining taxes and illegal immigrants etc, but they have minimal chance of gaining enough seats in parliament to do much of anything, so I’d rather have them than the Labor party. He also has a job which I can respect (Television Presentation Co-ordinator…and he’s not an ABC person!) and isn’t a career politician, which is more than I can say for many people from the other parties.
3. LEIGH, Andrew (Australian Labor Party) — this is tough, do I put an economist with the poor sense to join Labor ahead of the business owner with the poor sense to join the Greens? In any place other than Canberra, the answer would probably be no, but I can’t risk giving the Greens enough votes to take the seat of Fraser. Without an incumbent, this is a real possibility, so as hard as it is, a Labor economist (hopefully one with more brains than Wayne “traffic jams cause inflation” Swan gets third spot.
4. ESGUERRA, Indra (The Greens) — she might be a business owner, but she’s a Green, and I can’t support the socialists and their global warming alarmism.
Canberra
1. JONES, Giulia (Liberal Party) — “Giulia with a G” would have been a great addition to the Legislative Assembly, so hopefully we can get her in to the federal parliament.
2. BRODTMANN, Gai (Labor Party) — Another case of “I’ll put Labor ahead of the Greens just to keep the Greens out”.
3. ELLERMAN, Sue (The Greens) — No comment required here.
Senate
The senate is tougher to work out because the field is, at first impression, quite poor. There’s a couple good people in there, but they’re the minority. I’m tempted to simply vote above the line for the Liberals here, because they’re the only ones who are worth a vote, but this exercise wouldn’t be much fun if I didn’t try to work out the order in which the remaining rabble should receive preferences.
1. HUMPHRIES, Gary (Liberal Party) — I like Gary personally, although I find him to be less conservative than I would like…this has probably saved him in the strangely left-wing ACT though. That said, he has been a good Senator and will be receiving my vote again. I was tempted to give him second preference and give the other Liberal candidate the first preference, as this tactic helped me to get both Jeremy Hanson and Zed Seselja over the line in the ACT election, but given the nature of the ACT, I can’t risk Gary missing out on his quota, and he must therefore get my first preference, with the other Liberal candidate receiving my runoff.
2. WATTS, Matthew (Liberal Party) — See above
3. GLYNN, John (Independent) — From here on, the field devolves significantly. I know almost nothing about Mr. Glynn, however if, like much of the ACT, he is relatively left-wing, at least he will be an independent left-winger rather than part of a socialist party machine, like all of the following candidates.
4. LUNDY, Kate Alexandra (Labor Party) — I chuck most of her pamphlets in the bin after spending a minute staring at them in bewilderment…but I’d rather have her stay in her seat, than see her displaced by a Democrat or a Green
5. CHURCHILL, Darren Mark (Democrat) — This is where I start getting desperate, trying to work out which socialist is less dangerous than the next socialist. Darren is a casual relief teacher…if I can keep him away from indoctrinating teaching children, well that’ll be something. I also think the Democrats are less dangerous than the Greens.
6. DAVID, Anthony John (Democrat) — If he can keep a Green out, that’s wonderful.
7. PARRIS, Hannah (Green Party) — Of the two Greens running in this race, Hannah has made less scary press statements.
8. MATHEWS, David (Labor) — David disqualified himself from getting a higher ranking in the preferences by dishonestly appearing in a photo of supportive locals in one of Mike Kelly’s (incumbent candidate for Eden-Monaro) pamphlets, and then tried to defend his position on WIN News last night by claiming that, as he supports Mike Kelly, he is entitled to be in the photo. David, you’re not a local unless you live in the electorate. The only reason you’re not coming last in the preferences is because of the scary woman who follows.
9. HATFIELD DODDS, Lin (Green Party) — I can’t believe that the Greens have found a local who is scarier than Kerrie Tucker. Kudos to them for doing so. Now can they please hide this person away in an office where we never have to hear from them ever again?
As I say, the order may change a tad between now and the election, but this is how I see it for now, and how I would vote if the election were to be held today.
Now that we have a finalised list of candidates, I’ll send some interview requests to the candidates who interest me. This will not be all of them…in fact it will probably not be most of them. I may expand my scope a tad and seek interviews with some interesting candidates from outside the ACT as well. Stay tuned!
That wet stuff falling from above makes your car harder to stop. Please slow down a tad. I know that you want to protect your car from the rain…but you should be more concerned about protecting it from a crash.
Over the next two weeks on Canberra’s roads you can expect a temporary increase in random breath testing, most likely in the form of large roadblock-style breath testing operations. “Why?” I hear you ask…well that’s simple, the police have new recruits and for whatever reason, all new recruits get stuck on traffic duty for two weeks.
Twenty-one new ACT Policing officers were officially sworn in as Constables of Police at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) College in Barton today.
[..]
The new officers will be deployed to stations within ACT Policing after completing a two week rotation with Traffic Operations.
As I understand it, the way this generally works is that a Sergeant will get stuck with supervising them all in one large group (the official wording for this might be that “the new recruits are assigned to an experienced senior officer”) and will be told to take them out on the road for some practical experience in dealing with people who probably don’t want to encounter the police, such as drink-drivers and people in stolen cars. Presumably they do it in this manner so that the recruits can handle a few angry people in a large enough group to contain trouble if it erupts…so that their first real experience of restraining an angry, violent drunk is not when there’s only two of them out on the beat.
I suppose it also helps with their confidence in asserting their authority over civilians by requesting licences and samples of breath etc.
Regardless, they’re out there, and you’ll probably find yourself in a car near them at some stage in the next two weeks here in Canberra.
The regular four-year cycle of ACTION staff rostering has made a full revolution a few months ahead of schedule. On Friday, ACTION’s drivers will be on strike all day. Funnily enough, the reasons for this strike are pretty much the same as the reasons for the last strike. The biggest difference that I can see though is that this time around, the strike is being conducted with a few days notice rather than a few hours…otherwise we seem to be going around in ever-repeating circles.
As I said to 2CC’s Mark Parton a few weeks ago, this ongoing pattern seems to be mostly due to ACTION being a government department which, like all other government department, shuffles all of its decision makers around as often as possible so as to prevent anybody maintaining any corporate knowledge, and therefore causing the new bosses to make the same old mistakes all over again each and every time the pay negotiations come around.
Case in point, the big boss at the time of the last strike, Mike Zissler, has long since escaped the public service and the man now at the top, James Roncon, was the general manager of Cowra Shire Council as recently as last year (scroll down linked page about three quarters to see the article). In other words, today’s boss wasn’t even in the ACT to see the news articles, let alone receive an in-depth inside understanding of the issues at play when we last went through this circus. To make matters worse (and exemplify my point) James didn’t even start off in Canberra at ACTION…last year he worked for the Land Development Agency (page 11).
Unlike the last strike, I won’t be working when this one occurs as I have Friday off, however I will admit that things like this did then, and do now, make me thankful to have access to a car. The fact that I often finish work after midnight makes me even more thankful for this. I do, at the very least, hope that the advance warning of this strike will allow people to plan ahead more than they were able to do last time.
And on that note, I leave you with The ACTION Song, to the tune of Herman’s Hermit’s No Milk Today.
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The busses are just fine, but there’s a picket line
No ACTION today, the drivers are on strike
But people at the stop, don’t know the reason why
How could they know that there is a strike
There’s no signs around, media just catching up
How could they know that there is a strike
They’re all stuck there, at the bus stop
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
the shifts on offer are, very very poor
But all that’s left is a bus stop filled with people
looking very con-fu-used
They’ll all need to arrange other transport
Like a taxi
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The drivers might be fined, but they don’t really mind
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
Services could be halved, but the drivers won’t take part
Stanhope’s regime has caused this
massive budget cuts, and lots less busses
How will people get from A to B
If there’s no bus, in the middle of the day
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The drivers are on strike, fighting the good fight
All they want’s a decent roster
without split shifts and poor service
They want people to use the busses
And keep them in a job
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
Things are looking up, the talks have resumed
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The split shifts are gone, the union is pleased
Who knows what might be next
What tricks are left, and who will win
Will we have another strike
Only time will tell, we shall wait and see
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
We play the waiting game, and let the talks go on
Who knows what might be next
Will services be intact, and who will win
Who knows what might be next
Will services be intact, and who will win
Who knows what might be next
Will services be intact, and who will win
There is currently a fire at the Bega Flats in Reid. The Fire Brigade have used a crane to evacuate residents from the block. Cooyong Street is currently blocked in both directions between Boolee Street and Akuna Street while the Fire Brigade work on extinguishing the fire, which appears to be contained to the inside of one unit at this time.
I have some dodgy photos from my phone, and am about to head back with a real camera. More details and photos shortly.
Update: The fire is out and nobody was hurt. The fire appears to have been in a unit on the lowest of the three floors and appears to have been unoccupied. The block of units is cordoned off while the fire brigade check each unit, and Cooyong Street remains blocked at this time, with diversions in place at the Akuna Street and Boolee Street intersections.
Somewhat amusingly, the press corp arrived just as I was leaving. They missed out on all the excitement.
Photos to follow in a few minutes. My phone needs a quick charge before it will be up to the task of handing over photos. End Update
Update: The security guard may have led me astray. It turns out from a more credible witness that the police tackled and arrested somebody before I got there the first time. I can’t work out whether it was one person or multiple people. I also don’t know if the arrested person(s) is/are the occupant of the unit. End Update
Update: Photos. Unfortunately the photos taken on my phone were the only photos from when something interesting was happening, and unfortunately those photos are awful. The photos from my real camera are fine, but not much of interest happened in those photos.
Starting from the top, and the first shot is of the scene from the carpark entrance between Akuna Street and Ainslie Avenue. The floodlight on the Fire Brigade truck was not helpful.
Some onlookers, most from nearby blocks, standing on Cooyong Street.
A pretty bad shot, partially due to smoke. A fireman on a ladder getting somebody out of one of the units above the fire.
The overview of the scene from Glebe Park. There are more fire brigade and police vehicles behind the wall, and along Cooyong Street out of shot. Around this time, a fireman came over and connected a hose to a ground-level fire hydrant on the Glebe Park block.
The crane is lifted.
It was at this point in time, with my phone battery dying and an inability to get a decent photo, that I rushed back home with Nattie, collected my real camera and drove back to the scene. Unfortunately by then, the excitement was over, however I was able to get some more decipherable photos.
The scene looking down the Bega Flats carpark from the Boolee Street entrance.
Cooyong Street from near the Boolee Street intersection.
The crane.
The crane and a conference of firemen..
As far as I can tell, the fire was in the unit at the lower right of the this picture.
The scene from a bit beyond the Akuna Street intersection.
The scene from the Ainslie Avenue end of the carpark.
The best I could do to get a shot of the building from this side without the floodlight getting in the way. Yes, that is the head of a police officer behind the wall.
It’s hard to tell without a better overview of the entire block of apartments, but I think the crane is pointed directly at the unit which contained the fire.
Another shot from the Boolee Street end of the Cooyong Street median strip.
The scene from the other side of the building. The lower-left unit is the one which I believe the fire was in. On the stairs, some firemen can be seen going to one of the other units to inspect it.
Firemen leave the building and discuss things with their colleagues.
They’re not the best shots in the world, but there wasn’t much to photograph. As usual, fair use applies to these photos. You may use them for whatever purpose you see fit, provided you attribute the photos to me, Samuel Gordon-Stewart. If using them online, a link back to this blog would be appreciated, but is not mandatory. If you wish to use these photos without attribution, please contact me and I might be willing to provide permission.
8:00pm Monday 3 May 2010 – Update two on fire in Reid The ACT Ambulance Service has taken a middle aged female and a young male to Calvary Hospital in a stable condition with minor smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is to be investigated.
7:20pm Monday 3 May 2010 – Update on fire at Reid Fire in a first floor apartment extinguished with extensive damage to the unit and smoke damage to the surrounds.
A total of 18 apartments were evacuated with firefighters using ladders and the Bronto for some occupants.
ACT Ambulance Service Intensive Care Paramedics assessing a number of people for smoke inhalation.
6:45pm Monday 3 May 2010 – Fire in apartment complex in Reid The ACT Fire Brigade is on scene at a fire in the Bega Flats complex in Kogarah Lane Reid tonight.
Firefighters have evacuated residents from the building.
Update to follow.
It will be interesting to hear what the cause of the blaze was. For now though I’m just glad that everyone is (relatively speaking) OK. End Update
