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Double Standards on Parks

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:03:00 +0000

The City of Yarra wants to charge personal trainers around $40 an hour to use our parks. Meanwhile, people are welcome to park two tonnes of steel all day in the Yarra Park for a peppercorn fee of $8. In terms of damage to the grounds, exclusion of other uses, maintenance, visual amenity and public safety there's no doubt that half a dozen people in a circle flailing their arms and legs around has far less impact. The Council says it's going after the trainers because they're running a business aimed at getting people fit. But if your business is to get people to scoff pies while watching others exercise, it seems you enjoy steeply discounted mates' rates. If we're going down this path, let's have some fairness and transparency in the Council's cost-recovery model.

"Public Privacy" and Google's Street View

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:16:00 +0000

The Australian Privacy Foundation is attacking Google's new Street View service on the grounds that photos taken in public may invade someone's "public privacy". This is one oxymoron society does not need. If someone is unhappy about his public urination being observed or photographed then surely the answer is for him to abstain. Banning others from looking is silly, wrong, impractical and against community expectations. No one complained about Brendan Fevola's privacy being invaded when he was caught and recorded urinating in a public street. By contrast, people were up in arms when Southbank management tried to ban photography there.

Public spaces are just that: public. Attempts to control what other people see in public amount to privatisation of the public sphere. We have precious few public spaces as it is without poorly thought through notions like "public privacy" eroding them further.

Keep on the Level

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:40:00 +0000

I fear the Victorian Government is about to bullied into doing something rash about level crossings. Grade separation for even a fraction of the state's road and train crossings would cost billions. In any analysis, this is primarily a problem for motorists, not public transport users. Cars and trucks that don't stop at crossings will slam into trains (or into the paths of trains) resulting in death and injury. Motorists who wilfully drive around boom gates and get stranded on tracks face a similar fate.

Taking money away from public transport projects to make it harder for motorists to do this is iniquitous and unfair. Claiming money spent on level crossings as public transport investments is misleading to say the least. Please, if level crossings are to be upgraded, ensure it comes from the roads budget. In light of the $1 billion myki fiasco, Victoria's public transport system simply can't afford any more unwanted projects.

Unexceptional Circumstances

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:50:00 +0000

We can't go on calling it "exceptional circumstances" when billions are spent year after year across half the farms. Instead, it should be the "Real Aussies Preservation Program" and run out of the Heritage Department.

Proximity No Measure For Compassion

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 03:06:00 +0000

I reject Prime Minister John Howard's assertion that we should show the same "level of compassion" to Australian victims of drought as to victims of the Boxing Day Tsunami. That terrible tragedy in 2004 killed over 200,000 people, leaving a further 1.7 million people displaced. Whole villages were literally wiped off the map. Many of those affected live in extremely poor areas where their governments lack the capacity to support them or help rebuild their lives. Quite simply, the scale, intensity and relief required are of an entirely different character and order of magnitude.

For John Howard to equate that with a few thousand Australian families facing temporary financial hardship is nationalistic and insular. Of course, these citizens will be looked after by our well-resourced governments. But in our global age, the days when physical proximity, skin colour and accent dictate our levels of compassion are long gone.

Media Reform and Public Choice

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:16:00 +0000

The paucity of debate on media reform has thrown up an ugly prospect: local content and diversity are goals only for policy wonks, journalists and National Party backbenchers. The rest of us just doesn't seem to care. Even that famed reader of the public sentiment, Prime Minister Howard, regards this as a "second-order issue".

It's worth remembering that the present regulation is only necessary if you believe that the public, if given its druthers, is unwilling to pay for the diversity and local content it deserves. Maybe Australians just don't wish to pay for more newsrooms and "live and local" radio with increasingly frequent ads and higher subscription fees? Is that not a valid public choice?

It's easy to dismiss the Chicken Littles' concerns as special pleading - journos want more employment opportunities while agrarian socialists want any subsidy, grant, special allowance or political favour going. But if there are real concerns that go beyond ideology or private interests, then we need to hear about them. Monica Attard on Media Watch has gone some way to highlighting problems in regional cities. Let's hear more examples of why diversity and local content are worth the steep price.

Socialise The Losses ...

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 05:43:00 +0000

Frost-afflicted fruit farmers will share in a $5M government payout (The Age, 29/9/2006), rewarding them for not taking out crop insurance. Does this mean all Victorians can look forward to Bracks underwriting their busineses?

Bailing Out Rural Businesses

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 04:30:00 +0000

The Age opines that frost-affected stone-fruit farmers took "the sensible, and expensive, precaution of watering the ground" (The Age, 28/9/2006). What about that other sensible precaution - buying crop insurance. Too expensive? Or not taxpayer funded?

Commercial Risks in Agribusiness

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:36:00 +0000

What a study in contrasts. Premier Bracks denies 138 tobacco farmers access to taxpayer largesse on the grounds that the decision to cancel their contract with BATA is "a commercial arrangement" (The Age, 27/9/2006). Meanwhile Federal Agriculture Minister McGauran promises that farmers hit by losses of $70M from frost-affected stone fruit crops are "likely to receive help" (The Age, 27/9/2006).

Frost is a very common event. As such, farmers' losses stem from their reluctance to insure their crops, not the frost itself. Isn't that decision to self-insure a "commercial arrangement" too? Or perhaps they just cannot buy insurance at a price they'd like? This is, after all, how Mr Howard justified the Federal Government bail-out of farmers in Queensland after Cyclone Larry hit their uninsured banana crops. Of course, farmers won't take out insurance when they know the Federal Government will step in and use taxpayer funds to underwrite their businesses.

This social agrarianism is further evinced in the state Nationals' bid for several billion dollars worth of taxbreaks and pork-barrelling under their proposed "Country First Fund". We should demand healthy, happy and prosperous rural communities. This means rural businesses should be viable without taxpayers picking up their insurance bills or letting them shirk their tax obligations. Conservative politicians have let farmers cash in on the rural gerrymander with debilitating long-term consequences.

Having a Spray on Water Reform

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:47:00 +0000

Arrant nonsense and unfair representations are acceptable in scathing sarcasm, as long as the point gets made. Or, at least, it's a funny read. Professor Sharan Beder's ugly spray on water reform (The Age, 21/9/2006) achieves neither. Instead, she makes spurious and unsupported allegations about the calamity that would ensue if market-based reforms were adopted. Could politicians, regulators and consumers tolerate water being "harvested from gutters" (including "syringes and doggy poop"), industrial waste water (with heavy materials) being "poured down the drain" and partially-treated sewage being sold unknowingly to consumers "at five times" the price? These are not just mischievous rhetorical flourishes, but agitprop deliberately designed to spread fear and muddy the debate.

What's really going on? Professor Beder clearly wants to continue the present regime of subsidies to farmers (regardless of how efficiently they use water). She also wants to subsidise poorer households by keeping water artificially cheap for everyone. Market-based reforms will get in the way of those goals. It's fine to support the status quo, but Professor Beder needs to explain how the present system is both socially fairer and more environmentally sustainable. Exploiting fear of change and willfully poisoning public opinion is a disgraceful way to advance her cause.

Doctors' Fatigue Kills

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 05:09:00 +0000

The suicide of young doctor Chanh Thaow, following a similar case last year with Lachlan McIntyre, is tragic (The Age, 12/9/2006). We need to question the ability of the medical fraternity to deliver necessary reforms for doctor training. Many friends of mine have come through this process, and I'm sure I'm not alone in being gob-smacked at the ridiculous hours they work and the extreme pressure they're placed under. I doubt any other workers would tolerate the treatment afforded to young doctors.

To an outsider, the medical working environment, with its rigid heirarchies and absolute control, seems a throwback to the 19th century. It's like they're trapped in a bubble. Indeed, the arrogant and dismissive reaction of one small part of the system - the College of Surgeons - to outside scrutiny speaks volumes about their capacity to change (The Age, 12/9/2006).

These entrenched attitudes don't just affect doctors' welfare. Last financial year, The Age reported on 122 "sentinel events" (or serious medical errors, 34 resulting in death) in Victoria's hospitals (The Age, 31/5/2006). It's reasonable to attribute at least some of these mistakes to the stress and fatigue borne by young doctors.

For too long the medical fraternity has had carte blanche to regulate itself like no other group in society. It's time to for them to open up.

Water-Saving Tips or Rinse and Spin?

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 04:48:00 +0000

The Age is to be commended for the handy guide to how Victorians can save water (Focus, The Age, 1/9/2006). Sadly, domestic usage comprises just a few percent of our state's water consumption, with many times more used in irrigation.

In the interests of water-saving, rather than spin, we should have seen "Lobby your MPs to remove wasteful subsidies to farmers, implement market-based measures (such as water trading) to ensure water gets to where it's best used and create incentives for businesses to invest in water-saving infrastructure."

Farmers won't cover their irrigation systems while they're getting artificially cheap water. And Victoria won't become drought-proof by shaving another couple of percent off state consumption.

The ACCC and Compulsory Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:10:00 +0000

Just as well Graeme Samuel and the ACCC are looking out for my interests by blocking the roll out of a fibre-optic network. Telstra's refusal to build it is nothing more than a unreasonable dummy-spit. What business could be unhappy about a couple of bureaucrats with a spreadsheet setting prices for competitor access to its investment? Without the ACCC's steely intervention, Telstra could have tricked me into handing over monopoly rents for a high-speed internet connection!

In this same spirit of competition regulation, I look forward to picking up a cost-controlled Subway sandwich from McDonalds' drive-through network, The Bulletin in next weekend's Age delivery (at government-set prices) and a DVD from the regulator-mandated "Blockbuster Booth" at the back of my local Video-Ezy.

Outsourcing and IT Careers

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 02:59:00 +0000

It would be a shame if young Australians reading your report on outsourcing/offshoring (The Age, 21/8/2006) concluded that there are no longer careers in IT. On the contrary, when an input to business (like the IT function) gets cheaper, businesses will buy more.

Writing software and monitoring hardware can be done overseas, but the analysis, project management, design, integration and other high-value work will continue to be close to the client, right here. Further, Australia is paid to educate thousands of Indian IT professionals. The global trade in services is not a zero-sum game but an opportunity to bring people together and enrich lives.

Just The Facts, Ma'am

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:23:00 +0000

Of course history requires interpretation! When astronomers are debating (and voting on) a bald fact like the number of planets in the solar system (The Age, 17/8/2007), surely we can handle subjectivity around supposed facts like "Australia was discovered in 1770" or "Australia fought in Vietnam to stop communism".

I doubt that the educated, conservative politicians who push the idea of a "neutral" view of our past are really that naive. More likely, they are seeking political advantage by exploiting suspicion of teachers.

Commercial Tendering of Political Access

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 04:35:00 +0000

I object to The Age headline "Bracks ministers sold to business leaders for $7500 a head" (The Age, 15/8/2006). This is misleading and unfair - those ministers were rented out at a competitive daily rate, in a transparent commercial transaction. Victoria's taxpayers had every opportunity to submit a rival bid.

AFL And Fair Comment

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:55:00 +0000

If the AFL is so concerned about having its brand "trashed", why doesn't it look at coaches' reluctance - or inability - to sanction players for off-field misbehaviour and criminality?

The Prescription For Medical Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 04:17:00 +0000

It's difficult to imagine that repeated, international, multi-billion dollar marketing initiatives routinely fail - yet that is what doctors ask us to believe when they claim immunity to infection from "Big Pharma's" spin. This over-confidence (and unreliable self-diagnosis) is expected, since doctors are experts in human physiology and disease, not business, psychology or the pathology of this insidious strain of advertising.

What's more worrying is the lack of self-awareness or understanding of their own susceptibility. This means that many doctors unwittingly expose themselves to dangerous exposure levels without taking reasonable precautions.

The remedy? Since the contagion is so deeply ingrained, simply cutting it out would jeopardise the entire system. Without surgery, we'll have to fall back on early broad spectrum inoculation for trainee doctors, ongoing monitoring of the population and, if wanton recklessness persists, quarantining the carriers.

Eddie's Performance Management

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 03:38:00 +0000

Eddie won't be "boning" Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson; they'll have to play on since they "owe" fans and the club. In other news, Family Feud, Dancing on Ice and Business Sunday will air indefinitely in prime time, since they "owe" viewers and advertisers.

A Vision for Docklands

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 04:25:00 +0000

In the past, wandering around down at Melbourne's docks would give you an insight into the workings of our entire nation: bails of wool going out and bolts of cloth coming in, along with grains, livestock, manufactured items, fresh produce, all manner of people bustling about. An interface, a place of connection, with commodities shipped in from across the whole world and more heading out, drawn from across the continent.

For our future, we could have a "digital docklands" or "neural hub", where people can likewise wander around and experience our "creative commons" as it unfolds, with live feeds piped in from around Australia. With so much of our content already online - or soon to be - there's no shortage of digital goods in transit to draw on. A place to showcase a modern nation's cultural artefacts, with contributions from the arts (gigs, exhibitions, multimedia installations), academia (lectures and seminars), commerce (presentations and meetings), politics (interviews, hearings and Parliamentary sessions) and, of course, families and individuals (websites, podcasts, blogs and photo galleries).

This would be the challenge for our architects, planners and designers: to provide an accessible physical space in which visitors and residents could navigate this constantly-changing cacophony of audio, video and text. Melbourne's Docklands would be restored as the place where people can experience Australia connecting with the world.

Henry Kaye's Legal Broking Business

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 02:50:00 +0000

So Henry Kaye wanted to start a legal broking business (The Age, 28/7/2006)? Makes sense. He has a lot of experience with broken laws and making other people broke, resulting in broken marriages and broken lives.

Gambling, Taxes and Fair Bets

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:15:00 +0000

I welcome the Liberals joining the Greens in having a policy of fewer pokies (The Age, 24/7/2006). However, the raw number of machines is not the issue, it's the profitablity of the industry. As long as two or three big businesses (and the state) can make abnormal profits (and taxes) by milking the punters, we'll have inadequate policies to grapple with problem gambling.

That's why I support the introduction of BetFair and its ilk; online, highly-competitive, person-to-person gambling drains the industry of these profits (and taxes). This means the Government will again be able to act in the wider public interest, not just for the gambling companies.

Collective Punishment for Lebs

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:41:00 +0000

Embassy support is reserved for real Aussies. Those Lebanese-Australians didn't seriously think they were going to shirk collective punishment for what they did in Cronulla last year, did they?

Fair's fair, mate.

Grossi Miscarriage of Justice

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:59:00 +0000

A high-profile Melbourne restaurateur got pissed and tried to drive home. He went to court and lost his licence (The Age, 18/7/2006). The Age soft-peddles this crime with whimsy, bonhomie, a sympathetic ear and cute kitchen puns.

Publicists must be up in arms at this journalist's blatant incursion into their profession. Can we assume that The Age editorial staff won't be seeing any bills at Grossi Florentino?

Australian Embassy Under Siege

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 04:13:00 +0000

Some have criticised Australia's embassy in Lebanon for "pulling out" at the first sign of trouble. Sadly, this is to be expected since Beirut is now extremely hazardous.

So we can surmise that Foreign Minister Downer had either a) credible intelligence that Israel was deliberately targeting the Australian Embassy (unlikely), or b) a well-founded fear that Israel's policy of systematically bombing and shelling anything and everything in Beirut jeopardised our officials (likely).

In which case, why isn't Downer publicly decrying such wanton and reckless destruction as illegal and immoral? Speak up, Mr Downer! If it's unacceptable for Australia's diplomatic corps to be exposed to such risks, then it's unacceptable for the defenceless citizens of Lebanon.