WA to secede?

It is interesting that in my 18months in Australia I have heard quite a few times about WA thinking it gives more than it gets and wanting to become its own country.

I will be honest and say I thought it was banter rather than loosely based on fact, so I found this article today on the abc website very interesting, I found this quote, from the disgruntled retiring MP most humorous and shortsighted

“Increasingly, the states are becoming simply service deliverers of Commonwealth government policies because the Commonwealth has the money,” he said.

“And, the money will be provided to the states provided they carry out the policy direction of the Commonwealth.”

He said WA should be prepared to break away if it cannot mitigate Canberra’s growing power.

“The only way that the state can control its future if it wants to, is to secede,” he said.

There is an apparent belief that WA and the mining boom make it a great powerful player on the world market, as surmised

He has been a long time advocate of secession, previously saying WA would be one of the most successful countries in the world if it was a separate nation.

I find this so incredibly hard to believe. Yes WA brings in a fair bit of dollars into the Governments coffers and yes it has helped Australia through the GFC. But what happens when you dig shit out of the ground? Eventually it runs out! So one day WA will be in a far poorer economic situation than it already is.

I have mentioned before I do not fully understand why more powers are not dissolved from a state to federal level, the cost savings alone could be phenomenal. I have heard anecdotally in the public service that many country-wide initiatives have been held back by WA wanting to maintain solidarity and resistance to nationalisation. In the days of the EU, the ASEAN network etc why would you not want the power of truly working as one powerful nation?

Universities in Western Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Was I wrong? The skywhale saga ptII

Did I get my tits in a tangle over nothing? did I boob up? Did I make a giant whale of a mistake? Am I full of hot air? Or am I simply ignorant of ‘art’?

Okay, so if you didn’t get it yet I am referring to the skywhale. If you believe the media defendants and Robyn Archer the Skywhale is a huge success. Firstly it is apparently a beautiful piece of art, I am yet to see how a whale with tits would ever be a piece of  art, let alone the massive stretch that is trying to link up with Canberra.

But the second part I am really starting to believe is that all news is good news! The amount of international media

is undeniable, and apparently not even totally measurable. I read one article saying that it could bring millions into the area with the soft marketing! I thought I would link just some of the huge amount of articles if you felt like a read.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/in-defence-of-the-skywhale-20130517-2jroo.html

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/floating-in-wonder-with-skywhale-20130519-2ju9n.html

http://www.metafilter.com/127994/Up-in-the-sky-Its-a-bird-Its-a-plane-Its-aSky-Whale

http://designtaxi.com/news/357696/Artist-Creates-A-Whale-That-Can-Float-In-The-Sky/

http://blogs.abc.net.au/canberra/2013/05/sollys-satirical-sing-a-long-skywhale-work-of-art-or-eyesore-.html

http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/act-news/canberra-centenary/the-centenary-of-canberra-skywhale-20130510-2jbq7.html?selectedImage=3

http://www.neatorama.com/2013/05/18/Sky-Whale/ 

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/act-news/canberra-centenary/the-centenary-of-canberra-skywhale-20130510-2jbq7.html

http://www.thevine.com.au/life/art/in-defense-of-the-skywhale-canberras-wonder-of-the-world/

http://cybergazing.wordpress.com/tag/sky-whale-at-canberra/

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/whale-of-an-evolutionary-time/2003867.article

http://www.darkmatterfanzine.com/dmf/sky-whale-with-ten-teats-is-piccinini-taking-the-piss/

http://blog.gessato.com/2013/05/13/the-sky-whale-by-patricia-piccinini/

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/photogallery/act-news/canberra-centenary/the-centenary-of-canberra-skywhale-20130510-2jbq7.html

http://the-riotact.com/meet-the-skywhale-here-to-join-the-centenary-celebrations/103412

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-10/skywhale-could-cost-up-to-300k/4681892

http://canberrahub.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/udderly-delightful-sky-whale-destined.html

http://the-riotact.com/johnboy-crowned-skywhale-king-at-in-canberra-tonight/104384

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-centenary/skywhale-tale-grows-by-at-least-100000-20130510-2jc68.html

http://www.news.com.au/travel/australia/look-up-in-the-sky-its-what-is-that-thing-skywhale-balloon-marks-canberra-anniversary/story-e6frfq89-1226638931846

http://hifructose.com/2013/05/14/video-patricia-piccininis-sky-whale-hot-air-balloon-sculpture-takes-flight/

 

 

 

So is the skywhale a success? In my very humble opinion I would give it a half mark! Half points for bring some media to Canberra, because all media is good media apparently. But end of the day… still ugly

 

 

 

Car Seats, Aus vs Sweden

Our little 10 month old is exactly that, little!

I could not imagine having her front facing yet, luckily she is very happy rear facing and pretty good all round in the car. I understand that some kids start hating not being involved in whats going on and pretty much demand to forward face. Now all the advice out there is that young children should rear face for as long as possible, they do not have the ability to control their movement well enough in a car crash and are at risk when/if you crash.

The hard thing is most children grow out of capsules at between 6-12 months, our daughter is likely to make it to the at least 12 months at this stage, being prem sure makes her a midget! After the capsule stage the rear facing options are very limited, which is kind of average when statistics show that rear facing your kids reduces injuries by a whopping 90percent! In fact I find this kind of sad

- International Standards Organisation Fixation child seats, which allow children up to four years old to face the rear of a vehicle, are not available in Australia.

Well why the hell not! In Sweden it is all but law that children are rear facing till 4years. ‘All but law’ as in it is not actually law but very much frowned upon not to, nothing like public flogging!

How does Sweden keep young children so safe in cars?  How come fatalities and serious injuries are close to zero for young children? This is a common question among foreigners. Ask a Swedish parent and the answer will be a shrug, parents feel like they are doing nothing special. The answer to our safety record is a very simple and affordable approach which is very effective in keeping the little ones safe in cars.

Sweden started focusing on car seat safety in 1960′s, decades before other countries.  We realized early on that many children were dying in traffic and that almost all of these fatalities could easily be prevented by simple and affordable mesures regardless of country.  In the 1960′s we also discovered how amazingly safe rear facing was, something which has saved the lives of a large amount of children since then.

Child fatalities in traffic has decreased but is even in 2010 a common reason for children dying in modern countries.  Traffic accidents in USA are for example the number one cause of death among young children.  Thing about that for a minute.  Traffic is the largest killer of children in the country, far more common than any desease, drowning, etc.  Almost all of these fatalities are easily preventable with simple and affordable measures.

Is it not time for Australia to stand up for those that do not have a choice? Mandate rear facing child seats and put them on the market. If you need more convincing maybe this graphic below will help? Another good article from drive.com.au

Related articles

• An appropriate child restraint is one which: (globalkidsworld.wordpress.com)
• The Risks Faced by Unrestrained Children in Car Accidents (cheapcarinsurance.net)

Good news for Trans-Tasman travellers

Good news today for travellers between New Zealand and Australia, a further hurdle in Qantas and Emirates alliance has been cleared. The Minister for Transport in NZ (Gerry Brownlee) has given permission for the alliance to fly into NZ for the next five years. While some may say it reduces competition I hope that increased flexibility in flight times will work well for the average customer, especially those flying on packages from further abroad. Tourism is an important earner for our little plot on the map in the far southern oceans, so anything that may work positively in that regards is a plus in my books!

 

The airlines’ request to extend their alliance to the trans-Tasman market was the most contentious part of the deal, which is mostly focused on routes to Europe via Emirates’ base in Dubai.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has already imposed conditions on Qantas and Emirates to maintain the level of capacity on trans-Tasman routes that they had before March.

Mr Brownlee said in a statement on Wednesday that travellers and exporters would benefit from “strengthened connections with Emirates’ international network”.

“Trans-Tasman competition will be maintained through existing carriers on the route and the threat of entry by new carriers,” he said.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand are also seeking approval from regulators for an extension to their own alliance on the trans-Tasman.

Air New Zealand, in which the New Zealand government has a 73 per cent stake, said on Tuesday that it expects a decision from regulators by September.

The Kiwi flag carrier and Virgin have a market share of more than 50 per cent on the Tasman.

 

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/qantasemirates-deal-gets-final-clearance-20130515-2jlef.html#ixzz2TK73WH2w

 

 

Related articles

• Qantas – Emirates alliance authorised (national.org.nz)
• Govt ticks Qantas-Emirates trans-Tasman tie up (stuff.co.nz)

Autumn has finally arrived

We had magnificant weather over the weekend in Canberra, lots of sun contrasting the beautiful Autumn colours. We even took our daughter out to an outdoor concert on Saturday afternoon and for a mothers day picnic in the park on Sunday. It was lovely to sit outside this late in the year and enjoy some rays and some fresh air.

But Autumn said hello to us yesterday with a decent (and much needed) rainy day, with another cold start today. The farmers, and my garden, will be hoping for some more rain in what has been a very dry Autumn so far.

Canberra region farmers say they are preparing for a dry winter, with the lack of autumn rain causing some to reassess stock levels.

As Canberra creeps towards winter, the Bureau of Meteorology forecast shows a low of minus 1 degree for Sunday, after a week of expected frosts and showers.

Canberra is expected to record between 5 to 10mm of rain by Tuesday morning, but it may be the last significant rainfall for a while, Weatherzone meteorologist Ben McBurney said.

Weatherzone: ACT storm tracker

“In terms of winter, by the time you get to June, the average daytime temperature drops to 12 degrees.”

He said the average lows recorded for June and July in Canberra were 1 degree and zero respectively, with the snow season expected to be delayed by around a fortnight.

There is a chance of snow in Canberra by July and August.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/weather/frosty-mornings-expected-as-winter-hits-the-capital-20130513-2jgwz.html#ixzz2TDCh5N9q

Maybe it is mother nature getting us in the mood for Wayne Swan’s budget

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful Mums out there.
Especially big hugs go to the most important Mum in my world, my wife! Celebrating her first Mother’s Day and after a serious health scare bringing our daughter into the world, well done, love you and enjoy your day!

A whale with boobs!

Well okay more like udders, but good Lord is it ugly!

I have always found art very interpretative, and in my opinion sometimes hard to get. But someone designs a hot air balloon to look like a whale I get a picture in my head of what it should look like, heck I imagine you do too! Well read this article, turns out a whale looks like a fish with boobs!

My turn Aaron

I have made a point on not commenting on the Aaron Gilmore outburst that has been bouncing around mainstream and social media.

The main reason being, as some of you well know, I almost stood for National a few years back and I would love more than anything to be a Member of Parliament one day. I believed that it was inappropriate for someone with such strong ambitions to become an MP to bag out a backbencher from the party you aspire to represent.

But, I have been pondering over the last week on this. I have strong opinions on why what Aaron did (on the night and afterwards) was sooo wrong and while this post may get me in trouble with the party I feel saying nothing is saying Aaron’s actions were okay, they weren’t So I hope this post does not reflect badly on me, I love the National Party and I hate to see the far left use this as fuel in their belly for their Tory hating-business first-workers last- out of touch rhetoric that this serves to add too.

Two things I want to reflect on, and this is not the night at the restaurant, I think the media has covered this well enough already. So first of all, why the hell was Aaron not at the dinner? Ele eluded to this in a post earlier today, why was Aaron not at the Mainland conference. Having attended in Oamaru a few years back as a volunteer I know the huge reward we felt in having our MPs there to talk to, bounce ideas off and most importantly learn from. One of my most momentous times while involved in the Dunedin South Electorate Committee was meeting Bill English in private for a chat at the National Conference in Auckland, I also know the expectation from the party is that all MPs should be attending these events.

My second reflection is on my experience as a volunteer on the Dunedin South Electorate Committee for National. We were a very small team and I had been involved for five minutes when it fell on me to organise some MPs to speak to the electorate. These kind of talks usually fall when MPs are in the area for other reasons, say visiting the University or a local company etc. I organised two separate speaking/meet the MP sessions with Nikki Kaye and Aaron Gilmore. I was fresh, I am not going to deny it I was probably also out of my depth, so organising these events was very tough and daunting for me. I worked with the MPs, their electorate officers and their parliamentary secretaries. I don’t want to get into mud slinging match so won’t talk about the problems I had trying to organise Aaron’s event but Aaron was very hard to deal with and was nowhere near as engaging when he came, he also talked about how he earned way more in the private sector. We hosted Aaron in the incredible Dunedin Club, a treasure on Dunedin’s map. Nikki on the other had was beautiful (as a person) and sat in a cafe with and talked to everyone there. She was down to earth, considerate, engaging and inspiring. Nikki reinforced my want to be in the National Party.

Nikki is now a Minister in John Key’s Government, a powerful Auckland MP and really going places. Aaron is a lowly ranked list MP who many not have a job for much longer. All makes sense to me

 

 

 

 

Poor Wellington, even Celia thinks more should be done….

John Key used a poor choice of words in order to discuss the big shift of Head Offices from Wellington to Auckland saying Wellington was a dying city, this may be true, but not the best look for a PM.

Even worse in my opinion was the weak and lost response from Wellington’s mayor Celia Wade-Brown. A half decent mayor would have responded with something like Wellington has x, y and z and this year is bringing a, b and c to the table. But instead her response was pretty much ‘we could do better’

More needed to be done to promote Wellington, but to suggest it was dying was ridiculous, she said.

“Maybe if John Key was out of the Beehive more often he would see it’s all alive and well.”

A mayor admitting more needed to be done was a big white flag waving moment is you ask me!

It is true that unlike Canberra Parliament and the City are far from best friends, working on this and promoting businesses to be home based out of Wellington seems to be a no brainer.

Wellington is my favourtie North Island city, I had the best time training there and love everything about it. Not sure it is dying, but definitely sure it is not developing anything near as fast as Auckland.

 

Related articles

• Capital a dying city says prime minister (stuff.co.nz)

Moving country’s is pretty tough

When my wife and I moved to Australia almost two years ago packing our life into a container was pretty tough, trying to decide what to take, what to leave behind and budgeting for it all was terrible.

So when I read this article in the Canberra times this morning about the digger boys I decided my case had nothing on them, imagine trying to move 5 million items!

A dusty yard on Kandahar Airfield base in Afghanistan’s south is cluttered with the detritus of a long war. A couple of crates of used military boots awaiting shredding sit by rolls of never-used barrier material, to be sold or given away.

Nearby are the more valuable items, a cluster of 16 Bushmaster armoured vehicles that are waiting to be scrubbed for quarantine and shipped home. The mighty ”Bushy” has served Australian soldiers well – not one Digger has been killed in a Bushmaster.

The material in the yard is among an estimated 5 million pieces of equipment that the Australian Defence Force must lug home, sell, destroy or give away as it closes the main base at Tarin Kowt and brings most soldiers home. Operation Slipper is giving way to Operation Nostos, Greek for ”homecoming”.

http://images.canberratimes.com.au/2013/05/05/4247985/art-353-bushmaster-300×0.jpg” />A Bushmaster drives through Tarin Kowt town during an operation to inspect a new road in Oruzgan province. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Australia is estimated to have spent more than $8 billion on the war. The military hardware is just one part; much of the war effort lies with the support to keep the operations going. Australia must shift or offload about 1300 shipping containers, 2700 buildings and pieces of infrastructure and more than 5000 computers and other electronic equipment.

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One of the more ambitious possibilities is to have contractors transport cheaper, non-military equipment overland through Pakistan to the port at Karachi. A trial run was done recently. Between corruption, theft, loss and a dozen other risks, the ADF would have to count on up to two-thirds of the material never getting onto a ship, said Major Nigel Bellette, commanding officer at Kandahar. ”We wouldn’t want to send anything that we’re not prepared to lose through that ground route.”

Defence began packing up at Tarin Kowt in November. They have 34 weeks left to meet the year’s end deadline. Right now, the base is one big work site, with Afghan contractors pulling down building frames. One coffee shop has shut down and the other has downsized to a temporary building.

The shift is producing mixed feelings. Tarin Kowt has become to the soldiers what Nui Dat was to the Vietnam generation.

”The changes on the base just in six months are massive,” said Captain Darrin Tyson, 37, of the brigade advisory team. ”These guys [the Afghans] are ready for us to go … There’s a lot of blood and investment in this place. We’ll never take that away. But it’s time to go.”

All major military equipment will be brought home. Surplus ammunition will be taken to the British Camp Bastion, west of Kandahar, and melted down into alloy ingots for sale as scrap metal.

In some cases there will be a neat handover – Camp Russell, the base within the base that is home to Australia’s elite SAS and Commando regiments, will be taken over by Afghan special forces.

Major Bellette says the ADF has learnt from previous deployments.

”After Timor we brought just about every single item home. It would come back and then it would be destroyed and it was just an absolute waste of money to put it on a plane and fly it home,” he said.

The man most directly in charge of the move, Brigadier Andrew Bottrell, intends the pack-up to be clean, on time and environmentally friendly. ”The way we leave this country is how we will be remembered,” he said. ”We don’t want that legacy to be an ugly picture of rusting buildings and a huge pile of [barrier] waste sitting there for years to come”.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/packing-frenzy-as-diggers-prepare-for-home-20130505-2j1bb.html#ixzz2SSODo9Sx

 

 

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• ADF faces $47m clean-up bill in Afghan (bigpondnews.com)