Posts filed under 'General News'
Every now and then I get emails from people asking me where people who have been mentioned on this website are now, as many of them have changed job or employer since they were mentioned here, so I will go through a list of people who I would like to update you on.
Kane Bond, ex-2CC producer and presenter, recently seen in the Dickson area working for a government department (either that or he has a twin).
Person suspected of being Canberra_Boi, the person who suggested I shouldn’t worry about 2CC and then went on to make defamatory statements about various people at 2CC. Sighted on multiple occasions working for a company with an office on Northbourne Avenue, and sighted at Westfield Belconnen.
Kevin Woolfe, ex-2CC/2CA sports reporter. Now working for ACTTAB, and can be heard acting as media spokesperson for ACTTAB during the Friday edition of 2CC’s Mike Welsh Drive Show.
Robbie McGregor, ex SBS voiceover man. Not surprisingly Robbie has been in high demand since SBS dumped him (and one of their main identifying points), voicing all sorts of advertisements on all sorts of radio stations for all sorts of companies and causes.
George Gibson, ex-2UE weekend middawn announcer. George has been working for 2UE’s main rival 2GB since late December, filling in for various people, mostly on the middawn shift.
Daniel Gibson, ex-temporary 2CA breakfast presenter. After Paul and Leighton took over 2CA breakfast, Daniel took some time off from 2CA before returning to his previous night shift. Daniel is also still the Prime Television weatherman.
Greg Robson, ex-2CA breakfast presenter. Robbo is working for Fyshwick.com and parent company.
Daniel Sutton, ex-2UE news reporter. Now reporting for Channel Ten.
Samuel
July 18th, 2006 at 09:05am
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
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
“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
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
It has come to my attention (thanks to Mike Jeffreys for bringing it to my attention…it nearly slipped passed me) that Moose, the first dog to play Eddie on the television show Frasier, passed away on June 22 aged 15 and a half human years (108 and a half dog years).
Moose sitting on Frasier’s lap
Wikipedia has the following biographical information about Moose
Moose (December 24, 1990 – June 22, 2006) was a veteran canine actor. He was a Jack Russell Terrier and is most famous for his performances as Eddie Crane on the television sitcom Frasier.
Moose was born on Christmas Eve, 1990 in Florida, United States, the youngest littermate. He was the largest puppy in the litter. Like Pal, the original Lassie, the obstreperous puppy was too much for his original owner. According to an article by Lori Golden:
“In fact, chasing cats was one of the activities that led to this troubled terrier becoming one of TV’s most precious pooches. Originally owned by a Florida family, Moose was too hard to handle. He couldn’t be house trained; he chewed everything; he dug and barked a lot; and he was constantly escaping and climbing trees. Eventually given to the Florida manager of Birds and Animals Unlimited, a company that trains animals for TV and motion pictures, Moose was put on a plane at 2½ years old and sent to Mathilde de Cagny, an LA trainer working for the show-biz animal company.”
DeCagny has been quoted as saying that Moose was very highly trainable and won the role on Frasier after only six months of training. Moose had the ability to fix Kelsey Grammer with a long hard stare; this became a running sight gag on the show.
The longevity of Frasier necessitated the breeding of puppies as possible replacements for Moose. A daughter, Miko, was considered but never grew large enough (she was given to a technician); a son, Moosie, now lives with Peri Gilpin. Moose’s son Enzo was a closer match and turned out to have unusually similar facial markings; later in the series he was used as a stunt double to perform the more physically challenging tricks for his aging sire. Enzo took over the role after eight years.
Moose and Enzo also appeared with Frankie Muniz in the 2000 feature film My Dog Skip.
Moose has numerous television appearances and several magazine covers to his credit. There is an official Moose calendar and an ‘autobiography’, My Life as a Dog.
Moose spent the last 6½ years of his life in retirement in West Los Angeles with son Enzo, Mathilde DeCagny (their trainer), her husband Michael Halberg and Jill, the dog from As Good as it Gets. He passed away due to old age at home at the age of 15 1/2 years on June 22, 2006.
Moose will of course live on in the hearts of many millions of Frasier fans around the world, and in the endless reruns of the fantastic television program of which he was a part.
This has been difficult to write as I have burst into tears three times whilst thinking about what I could write about Moose and choosing a picture to place in this article. Whilst I never met him in person, he certainly appeared to be a loveable little doggy, a very talented actor, and one of the most reognisable furry faces on television. I am very sad to hear that Moose has passed away, although I must say that he had a very long and priviliged life, and it is lovely to know that he passed away of old age, and not of a medical condition.
I think it is only appropriate that Moose receive the prestigious Samuel Salute. Moose is a dog I will miss dearly, as I grew up with him, and despite the fact he lived on the other side of the world, he felt like family.
Moose in Frasier’s studio
May you rest in peace Moose.
You will not be forgotten.
Samuel
Photos: NBC/Associated Press
June 29th, 2006 at 10:57am
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
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
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:37am
Today (19 June 2006) is Garfield’s birthday. He is 28 years old. Happy Birthday Garfield!
Samuel
June 19th, 2006 at 07:26am
As planned I went along to the Dickson College Closure Protest last night. The protest was organised at short notice by a group of concerned parents and citizens, and it was very convenient that the college was having its open night as this provided a perfect opportunity to hold the protest. This small group of people did a fantastic job in publicising it, with press releases going out to media organisations, and notices being stuck on virtually every lamp post in the Dickson Shopping Precinct, with a similar notice being handed out in the college. Credit should also go to the local radio stations for continuing to run the story about the protest throughout the day.
The protest got underway long before the advertised start time of 6:30. It really got underway when multiple ABC news and current affairs crews arrived. People were filtering in from about 6pm, and this gave the ABC a good opportunity to interview some people and get footage of people waving placards (myself included on both counts) to send back to the newsroom for use during the 7pm news. The ABC did a live cross to the rally, although it had more or less wound up by then and people were talking amongst themselves and signing the multiple petitions.
The main protest attracted approximately 250-300 people (that is my estimate), many people prepared placards, roughly five people wrote songs, and some Dickson students (from memory they were year 12 students) wrote and performed a lengthy song which involved the entire protest group.
One person had the bright idea of bringing a megaphone, which was utilised firstly for a driveby support announcement (filmed by ABC crews) and eventually for the speeches. A few people had semi-prepared speeches to deliver, whilst a few of the rest of us just jumped on the microphone to add our two cents to the discussion. I made a point which I think has been overlooked in the outrage, and that is Dickson’s unique place in education for students with special needs (Secondary Introductory English Centre, Dickson College Alternative Program (now called SITE) for troubled year 9 & 10 students, etc) and what will happen to them if the college closes.
The protest speeches wound up just before the open night started, although I think the college staff would have waited (there were plenty of them in the crowd) if the protest dragged on a bit.
I was mildly disappointed to see somebody flogging “Green Left Weekly” at the protest, although it did show that even the most extreme traditional Labor/Greens supporters are coming out against the Stanhope Labor government.
The press turnout was very good also. The ABC sent two (possibly three) crews out, with resources appearing to be combined for ABC News and Stateline (ABC TV Canberra 7:30pm tonight, repeated in Canberra Midday Saturday, and repeated nationally on ABC 2 (digital) 2:30pm Saturday and 4:30pm Sunday). I wouldn’t have recognised the Stateline crew if I hadn’t spotted Stateline reporter Catherine Garrett in the crowd.
The Canberra Times also sent a journalist out. She took multiple photos of the rally and was writing plenty of notes, she also appeared to interview a couple people. I also spotted a camera man from Prime News, which was very surprising considering that they only run mini-bulletins with minimal footage, Prime obviously consider this to be an extremely major issue. I think I spotted Win News loitering as well, although keeping track of attending media was not my top priority.
I made an effort to thank the media people for attending, although I was unable to thank all of them. I would, however, like to publically thank the ABC for bringing along a very large light which helped to illuminate the protest in otherwise difficult lighting conditions.
I did make an effort to invite opposition treasury spokesman Richard Mulcahy to the rally, although in the end he was unable to attend due to what he described in an email as an “unusual late sitting of the Assembly”.
Overall the rally was very good, and I think it is going to be very helpful. At this stage I am led to believe that more rallies are to be planned, there was a suggestion from an organiser that they would try and get a list of interested helpers, although I didn’t see it actually happen.
The other protest of the day (another short notice one) attracted approximately 150 people to Flynn Primary around 1:30pm. This is extraordinary for a protest which was only publicised a few hours prior to the event. Both of these protests are, in my view, a very strong indication to the Stanhope government that the community will not accept these changes, and if they want any chance of being re-elected in 2008, then they better start paying attention now.
Although I had nothing to do with organising the protest, and merely took it upon myself to help publicise it, I would like to thank everyone that attended, your support is greatly appreciated.
I would also like to thank everyone who has been leaving comments about the budget on this site, and sending me emails. I haven’t got around to replying to all of them yet, but I am getting there, and I do appreciate both the support, and the constructive criticism.
Samuel
June 9th, 2006 at 03:00am
There will be a rally against the closure of Dickson College tonight in the Dickson College carpark 6:30pm-7pm. This will be just before the college open night.
The rally is probably going to get a pretty big turnout, and I am planning on attending. All comers welcome.
When: 6:30pm-7:00pm
Where: Dickson College Carpark, Entry via Phillip Avenue (between Antil Street and Majura Avenue).
Samuel
June 8th, 2006 at 12:50pm
The ACT budget, it’s big, it’s bad and it’s ugly, and there is a lot of ground to cover, so I think we’ll start at the all important bottom line.
Chief Turnip (and treasurer) Stanhope has announced a budget surplus of $120 Million for this financial year, and an expected budget deficit of $80 million at the end of next financial year. He has also announced a raft of cutbacks, school closures, and increased rates and taxes. This had me wondering, how can you have a surplus, cut expenditure, increase monetary intake, and end up with less money? Perhaps I should step back a bit in time to answer that.
Prior to the announcement of the budget details, information had been slipping out of the Stanhope office saying that there would be a surplus, and that the budget would be tough. The opposition were saying something along the lines of a $300 million deficit, and economic mismanagement by the Stanhope government. Yesterday morning I rang Mike Frame (who is filling in for Mike Jeffreys on 2CC’s breakfast show) to say that I was inclined to agree with the opposition about the deficit (and the implied creative accounting), as I couldn’t understand how we could have a surplus, as Stanhope was indicating, and yet need a tough budget with lots of cuts.
Since getting home from work yesterday I have spent a fair bit of time looking at budget reports and press releases, and it is now very clear to me that we do have a deficit, and a rather considerable one. At the moment the ACT government is using the “Australian Accounting Standards” accounting method, which indicates a surplus for this financial year, but the figures for future financial years (and future budgets) use the “Government Finance Statistics” accounting method, which is the standard (and more accurate) method for Australian governments. This means that the surplus figures which Mr.Stanhope is throwing at us are a furphy , and a smokescreen of good (albeit misleading) intentions. The opposition were correct when they said we have a deficit and that the government is using an unusual accounting system to make a surplus. The opposition have been saying this for many months, unfortunately it appears to have been buried in the other bad news in the budget.
Education
I rang Mike Welsh (on 2CC’s drive show) to discuss this portion of the budget yesterday afternoon, as Jon Stanhope had been on there deflecting criticism and painting a picture of himself as the unpopular magic safety fairy who knows exactly what we need, and ignores the fact that he is responsible for the mess he is cleaning up, and that his solution is awful (or in his words, responsible andneccesary ). Jon was followed by opposition treasury spokesman Richard Mulchahy who, naturally enough, raised the points about Stanhope creating the mess in the first place, but more interestingly went on to talk about how the government has run down certain services.Mulchahy raised the interesting point that his daughter is in primary school, and her class is a composite class of three year levels.
When I rang Mike I told him about primary school when I was there (1999), in which it wasn’t uncommon to have composite classes containing two year levels. This has problems, but can be dealt with as the developmental levels of the children in adjoining year levels tend to overlap. Generally mixing multiple classes of this type and sorting by skill level for certain classes where peoplenoticeable progress differently (maths for example).
Unfortunately this would not be as easy or as practicable with three year levels in one class. If I take an example of combining years four, five and six in one class (the senior primary years are more likely to be combined in my experience) then you have a mix of students who range from struggling to understand long division, through to nearly understanding algebra. Whilst it would be almost perfectlyfeasible to put a group like that in skill level arranged maths classes, it would be nearly impossible to deal with the difference in ages (from 9 through to 12 in my example) when you have sportingactivities , or the more practical science experiments. There is also a severe difference is psychology in this age range, which makes it harder for teachers to handle the class.
Whilst some of this could be attributed to smaller enrollment numbers, it also highlights the fact that the government consistently tries to get away with a bare minimum of funding, resources and teaching staff. They seem to forget that education is an essential service, and this cheapskatebehaviour , no matter how economically sensible it may be in the short term, disadvantages a generation of students, and effectively society as a whole when these students leave school and go into the workplace. It also makes it harder for students to progress on to tertiary education, as they have a harder time grasping concepts in primary and secondary schooling, which means they learn less, and have less time to practice and perfect concepts.
Unfortunately this budget takes this cheapskate behaviour to a new level. Over the next three years the ACT government plans on closing 39 schools. According to the ABC the list of school closures reads as follows:
Schools to close at the end of 2006:
- Chifley Preschool
- Flynn Preschool
- Flynn Primary School
- Giralang Preschool
- Giralang Primary School
- Hackett Preschool
- Hall Preschool
- Hall Primary School
- Macarthur Preschool
- McKellar Preschool
- Melrose Primary School
- Mount Neighbour Preschool
- Mount Neighbour Primary School
- Reid Preschool
- Rivett Preschool
- Rivett Primary School
- South Curtin Preschool
- Tharwa Preschool
- Tharwa Primary School
- The Causeway Preschool
- Weston Creek Preschool
- Weston Creek Primary School
Schools to close at the end of 2007:
- Cook Preschool
- Cook Primary School
- Gilmore Preschool
- Gilmore Primary School
- Kambah High School
- Page Preschool
- Village Creek Preschool
- Village Creek Primary School
Schools to close at the end of 2008:
- Dickson College
- Higgins Preschool
- Higgins Primary School
- Holt Preschool
- Holt Primary School
- Isabella Plains Preschool
- Isabella Plains Primary School
- Melba Preschool
- Mt Rogers Primary School
This list is quite appalling and alarming, and not surprisingly the education union has vowed to block the closures with industrial action. I’m understandably upset about Reid Preschool closing as it is my preschool, and one of the oldest in Canberra (if not the oldest). I’m also annoyed about Dickson College closing, not just because I went there, but because the plan for distributing those students is ludicrous. More on that in a moment.
Looking at that list, a lot of the preschools and primary schools are in the Belconnen area, which isn’t surprising considering that the bad idea West Belconnen Super School is going ahead.
I outlined my reasons for disagreeing with the Super School concept in the linked article, but as I look at this list I see yet another problem caused by these consolidations and closures, health, both now and in the future. Again, more in a moment.
I’m annoyed about the closure of all of these schools, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to a bad situation, which doesn’t appear to even take census data about family trends into account. I’m going to highlight the example of Dickson College closing here, as I went there, I understand the area, and it is probably one of the more ridiculous closures.
Dickson College is the only college in the inner north of Canberra, and has a student population of 558 according to the last census. This does not include the multiple specialty programs which Dickson is the North Canberracentre of, including the Secondary Introductory English Centre, which brings the English skills of new secondary aged students from foreign backgrounds, with little or no English knowledge, up to scratch for mainstream schooling. Dickson is also responsible for the SITE program (I can’t recall or find the meaning of the acronym)
which caters for year 9 and 10 students who, for one reason or another, cannot handle mainstream high school, and instead use this system to get through years 9 and 10 and progress into College. I would estimate that these students add another 50 or so students to the college, which equates to 600+ displaced students.
And the government’s idea? Expand Campbell High School so that it caters for years 7-12. I have a news flash for the government, Campbell does not have room for extra students. To start with they would need to expand the buildings…but there’s no room for that unless we plan on removing the space required to fit the students outside during breaks, or perhaps the government intend on removing the school oval, which destroys the P.E. program, and makes it even harder to fit in students. Admittedly Reid Oval is just across the (busy main) road, but Campbell has enough trouble keeping students on school grounds without requiring them to cross the road at lunch time if they wish to use the oval.
This actually looks like the beginning of the end of the college system in the ACT, as it is virtually impossible to cater for two different school attitudes (strict, formal high school & casual, student oriented and relatively relaxed college) in the one place, especially when college students have free lines and don’t need to wear a uniform, which removes the “easy to spot intruder on high school grounds” principle of high school playground supervision.
It is also impossible to realistically fit years 11 & 12 in to the existing Campbell facilities. The Gym is in use constantly with the high school students as it is, the assembly hall is not big enough to cater for the extra students…and did anybody consider how the heating system will be extended from supplying just the existing Campbell buildings to also supplying the extra buildings required with extra students.
I can guarantee you that the government forgot that students in year 11 and year 12 tend to start driving cars, and need a parking space. Campbell’s existingcarpark is only big enough for staff and a couple visitors, Dickson’s student carpark is bigger than Campbell’s existing carpark, and Campbell doesn’t really have room to build an extra carpark , especially if they are going to build extra building for the student influx. Traffic in that area is a nightmare on a good day, and I highly doubt that the Australian War Memorial will be overly impressed if it is harder for people to get in and around that area if the high school next door gains a few hundred drivers who want to use the tiny street which runs between the two and is the only entry/exit.
I was also going to mention health. All of these school closures mean more that students will be crammed into less space. In school this may make it more difficult for teachers to take expanding classes outside for some physical activity, especially as larger classes are harder to control, and mixed year level classes pose an even bigger challenge. Outside of school, combining schools makes independent sport less attractive.
For example, suppose that at the moment a student lives 15 minutes walk from their primary school, and they have soccer practice at 5pm, at a location 20 minutes drive away from their home. In this case the student may finish school at 3pm, get home at 3:15pm. A working parent may be able to get home at 4:30, and be able to drive the student to soccer practice.
Now, with a combined school system the school is likely to be further away from the student, and this may make it more feasible for a parent to drive their child to school (especially seeing as this would stretch and already stretched school bus system over the breaking point). In this case we will assume that the school is two suburbs away, and 15 minutes drive from home. In this case the parent has to be at the school by 3pm, which cuts their income as they have to leave work earlier (especially if a parent needs to drop the child off at school as well). This decrease in family income, and increase in car costs through increased distancetravelled will probably push many families to the point where they decide that they can’t afford to pay for sport after school.
The result here is children who are less inclined to be active, and therefore have more health problems when they are older, and become more of a burden on the health system than they would otherwise have been.
I’ll leave the final word on education to Clive Haggar, president of the Australian Education Union (ACT Branch), in an ABC news article.
The head of the ACT branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU), Clive Haggar, has questioned how public school teachers will be able to maintain education standards given the cutbacks.
“Tasmania is at the bottom of the pile when it comes to national outcomes in education and our schools in secondary are going to be staffed on the same basis as Tasmania, so it’s a dreadful outcome for our secondary schools,” he said.
“It is going to take us years to get over this Budget, if in fact we are ever able to do it.”
Mr Haggar says it is the worst Budget since the introduction of self-government.
“It in fact destroys all of the gains that we’ve made over the past five years,” he said.
“It certainly puts the Stanhope Government on a par with Jeff Kennett in Victoria and the damage he inflicted on the public education system down there.
“But the key point for us is how are we supposed to drive a quality system with $12 million worth of job losses in our schools?”
Rates and Taxes
Another factor which is going to make life more difficult for the public is a raft of increased rates, and new taxes. Kerces at The RiotACT had this concise summary of the increased rates and new taxes:
The revenue raisers in the budget are:
* a 6 per cent increase in rates as well as future rate rises being indexed to the Wage Price Index. Mr Stanhope said this would amount to an average increase of $1 a day per household;
* a new fire levy of $84 per year which will be included in each household’s general rates notices. It is expected this will raise $20 million a year. People on low incomes will only pay half of this;
* changing the eligibility criteria for the Home Buyer Concession Scheme (presumably meaning less people will be eligible);
* a new call-out fee for false alarms for the fire brigade of $200 per residential and $500 per commercial building;
* an increase in the ambulance levy currently charged to health funds for individuals and families who have ambulance cover. This levy will now be $85 per individual and $170 per family. People on pensions will not be charged this levy;
* full cost recovery for ACT Workcover’s services and successful prosecutions;
* a Utility Land Use Permit will be introduced for sewerage, water, electricity, gas and phone lines;
*development application fees will be raised; and
* a water fee will be introduced “through an increase of 30 cents per kilolitre in the water abstraction charge” (I couldn’t work out what this meant).
All I can add to this is “ouch”.
The Arboretum Goes Ahead
Around this time last year the Chief Turnip announced a really big tree garden (he must have a thesaurus to have found the word “Arboretum”) right in the middle of a really big drought. I rang Mike Frame (who was filling in for Mike Welsh on 2CC’s drive show at the time) to object to this silly idea, and thankfully I wasn’t the only one in Canberra who didn’t like it. Twelve months on, and the arboretum has escaped the public conscience in amongst a supposed cancellation and other bad news for the government. Unfortunately the Chief Turnip continues to show his arrogance byignoring the wishes of the public (and showing his ignorance for the term “public representative”) by committing money to the arboretum. Apparently he is going to spend $6 million over two years on it, and will even be having six different species of tree planted there in the coming months (credit to Kerces for spotting that one…many newsorganisations misunderstood the funding and thought the arboretum was shelved).
We’re not technically in drought any more, but there is still a water conservation effort being pushed by the government, and just yesterday The Canberra Times reported that Stanhope wants Canberra’s gardens to only contain native plants, which are generally less thirsty. Oddly enough, I could be sure that a big tree garden would consume a lot of water…I guess logic doesn’t come into decisions for unpopular magic safety fairies.
Health
The ABC picked a very interesting statement from health minister Katy Gallagher (loopy lady, silent g) to use in their TV news last night. Effectively she said that the government would find ways of saving money in health by removing free services and cutting spending. It’s hard to tell whether or not that was in context, or whether it was even accurate, but looking at the $752 million being given to health this year, and the various projects which that will fund (most notably $416,000 for buyingtamiflu, just in case the unpopular magic safety fairy has to save us from a bird flu outbreak). There does appear to be a lot of money being thrown around for no apparent gain. Katy pledged “additional funds” for cutting elective surgery waiting lists, but couldn’t elaborate on how they would do it. There is also $3.15 million being wasted on what looks like an advertising blitz about mental health, surely that money would be better off going to Beyond Blue or the mental health system.
Other Things From The Budget
It was interesting hearing Chief Turnip Stanhope on the radio talking about an increase in police numbers, and getting the cost wrong. The error was pointed out by Richard Mulchahy. It is also interesting to see that the budget papers seem confused about the issue as well, being unable to decide if they are adding 60 or 107 police officers.
The Turnip’s obsession with pointless public artworks is highlighted in this budget. Something in the range of $250,000 will be wasted on this. I’m sure it’s nice to have a city that has nice things in it, but wouldn’t it be better to have a good budget and working essential services?
More funding for fixed speed cameras (raises money, doesn’t solve speeding though…only mobile camera operated by police who are willing to chase can do that), more money for security cameras (hopefully these work a tad better than the ones in Civic).
500 public housing properties to be sold (although more will be bought…apparently…I just can’t trust that assurance).
Public service to shrink.
Superannuation contributions for new public servants to be lower than everywhere else in the country.
And many many things which escape me at this time.
Summary
You know something is very very wrong when the unions all come out and blast a Labor government over the same issue at the same time, and with such a wide range of subjects. Chief Turnip Stanhope has been saying that he is willing to accept that people will not be happy with the budget, and for once I agree with him. I don’t, however, agree that this is as responsible as he asserts. It isblatantly obvious that the Stanhope administration has been an economic disaster since taking power in 2001, and there is no doubt that the government is in financial trouble, but surely there is a better way than this abomination of a budget. I’m not surprised that former treasurer Ted Quinlan quit, he was always the odd man out in the Turnip government, an advocate of common sense and economic responsibility, unfortunately he was surrounded by a pack ofspendthrifts who “lived beyond their means” (to use the Stanhope quote), and now the public is going to have to pay for the mistakes.
It is now up to the public to appeal against this budget, to make as much noise as possible, and to ensure that the government know how the public feels.Stanhope may be happy to be the unpopular magic safety fairy for now, but history has a habit of repeating itself. Last time Stanhope said to blame him, he turned around and tried to derail the inquest which would probably find against him (hmmm, when are the findings due from that?), Stanhope may be happy for you to blame him for the budget now, but what’s the bet that he announces a massive cut to rates and taxes prior to the 2008 election in an attempt to wipe the slate clean, and derail the ultimate ballot box assault on his terrible leadership?
This budget is a shocker, as Clive Haggar said “It is going to take us years to get over this Budget, if in fact we are ever able to do it”. The federal government is already working to stop some ACT government legislation, and as the ACT is a territory, perhaps they would be willing to come to the rescue of Canberra over this budget. The federal government has the ability to sack the Chief Turnip and appoint an administrator…perhaps that is what this city needs.
Samuel
June 7th, 2006 at 03:43am
Over the last couple of days I’ve spotted a couple interesting webpolls, unfortunately one of them has already closed, but they are still both worth a look anyway.
One is on the John Laws website posing the question “Would you like to see a halt to the Snowy Hydro sell off?”. This one has closed but the results were fairly conclusive with 84% saying yes and 16% saying no. I’m not at the computer that I registered my “yes” vote at, so I can’t find out how many votes there were.
Slashdot also have an interesting poll running at the moment, the question is “I will obtain Windows Vista…”, the results as they stand at the time of writing this:
When I Specifically Buy It
5243 votes / 9%
As Part of a Computer Purchase
8626 votes / 16%
Illegally
17304 votes / 32%
Never!
17785 votes / 33%
CowboyNeal Has My Copy
4860 votes / 9%
Total votes: 53818
Incidentally my vote is “Never!”
Samuel
June 2nd, 2006 at 02:14pm
It is with a heavy heart that I must bring you the news that race caller Tony Campbell, the legendary stalwart of horse racing and associated sports in Canberra and surrounds, has died of cancer, aged 58. Tony passed away yesterday morning just before 8am.
I really don’t know what to say, it’s just very hard to believe that he is gone, especially when he looked so well only two months ago (as seen in the picture above).
Oddly enough, Telstra Bigpond Sport covered the sad news fairly well, so I will leave the words to them.
The NSW racing industry is deeply saddened with the news this morning that the ‘Voice of Canberra Racing’ Tony Campbell passed away just before 8am today after a courageous battle with cancer.
Tony Campbell, 58, had been associated with the Canberra Racing Club for 29 years in roles that range from Nomination Clerk to Master of Ceremonies. But, of course, Tony was best known for his role as racecaller for Canberra for 26 years.
During this time Tony called 25 consecutive Black Opals and is well known for his thrilling call of the 1992 Black Opal in which his great mate Frank Cleary’s Clan O’Sullivan became the first locally-trained winner of Canberra’s premier event.
Whilst Tony was well known as one of Canberra racing’s best ambassadors, he was also a passionate Canberra Raiders supporter and was the ground announcer at many of the Raiders home games in the early days of the Raiders.
In a long career Tony regularly called many Sydney races for the ABC and occasionally as on-course broadcaster for the AJC. Tony skills were very diverse, as demonstrated by the fact that he also called harness races including three Miracle Miles at Harold Park.
Tony was also a great community man giving up countless hours to entertain the residents of numerous Canberra nursing homes belting out some of his favourite old tunes on the piano. Tony always made himself available to charity organisations helping with many roles such as MC and was always happy to provide animated phantom calls when requested, and even acted as Santa Claus on the odd occasion.
Chairman of Canberra Racing Club, Howard Powell, said: “Canberra Racing and the Canberra community have lost one of their greatest ambassadors today. We are deeply saddened of Tony’s passing.
“Tony was known as ‘The Voice of Canberra Racing’ for 26 years and not only have we lost a great supporter of racing we have all lost a dear friend. Tony will be sadly missed; his passing will leave a void in our industry”.
While details are yet to be confirmed, it is likely that the funeral service of Tony will be held at St Brigid’s Catholic Church, Cnr Bancroft & Whilshire Streets, Dickson, on Friday, 26th May 2006 commencing at 10am, followed by a private burial, and Queanbeyan Racing Club will host a wake following the service.
At Canberra Racing Club’s meeting this Friday jockeys will wear black armbands and a minutes silence will be observed. The Canberra Racing Club Committee will announce a fitting tribute to honour the contribution that Tony made to Canberra Racing in coming weeks.
I suppose the best thing I can do for Tony is to award him with a Samuel Salute, quite possibly the greatest honour I can bestow on someone.
Rest In Peace Tony, you will be missed.
Samuel
May 23rd, 2006 at 06:26am
It’s Mike “not quite in the plane” Frame’s birthday today (21 May), so happy birthday Mike.
Mike, it would appear, was merely filling in for the period of time between Andrew “Pye in the sky” Pye leaving for Wollongong, and Dennis Lee (could be any number of alternative spellings) taking over traffic completely.
I like Dennis, he reminds me of the stereotypical busy major capital city traffic reporter.
But I digress, Happy Birthday Mike! You must be happy that you’ve finished breakfast traffic before winter sets in.
Samuel
May 21st, 2006 at 12:45am
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