The Age has a newsflash that the Indigenous Leader Geoff Clark has been found guilty in his civil trial for a rape committed in 1971.
The plaintiff is getting $20,000 in damages which won’t amount to much once she pays her legal bill.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it’s had enough of ISPs making ludicrous speed claims about their services.
In a last-gasp attempt to play nice with the industry the ACCC has released an information paper outlining the difference between theoretical speeds and what can realistically be advertised.
Kevin Rudd and Steven Smith have launched another plank in Labor’s “education revolution”.
This time they’re going to halve the HECS (implying they’re going to revive HECS in favour of the current HELP?) on studying maths and science and then halve that debt for maths and science graduates who make use of their degree professionally (discouraging the great nursing scandal of the 90s where many many students started a HECS-free nursing course before switching in the last semester to a more rewarding non-nursing career).
One wonders why, if there is such demand for scientists and mathematicians, the financial rewards in these professions has not kept up with other career choices?
Will HECS remissions come to be seen as the kiss of death for career remuneration prospects?
Yesterday the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet helpfully outlined the public policy priorities of the Government to the Cook Society.
So here’s the rather handy list in order of priority to the Government:
â– national security and global engagement
â– economic modernisation and reform
â– ensuring government services meet the needs of an ageing population and changing society
â– establishing sustainable use of national resources
â– maintaining national unity, social cohesion and our egalitarian spirit
So now we know.
AAP, via Yahoo, reports that as the floodgates open to bring new migrants to Australia those of us who were already here are making for the exits at a rapidly increasing rate.
“almost 180,000 people permanently settled in Australia in 2005/06, but almost 70,000 people permanently left the country.”
And it’s not just the recently arrived heading off, over half those departing were born here.
[First filed: January 31, 2007 @ 11:14]
APC Magazine’s Angus Kidman was not impressed by the launch of the new Windows operating system, Vista, yesterday. Apparently the big midnight launches at Harvey Norman were not well attended either.
Aside from eye candy and some bundled cross promotional junk the only real change is the end of Times New Roman as the default font for Word documents. A triumph for graphic designers over readers to echo down through the ages.
UPDATE 1: The Register has an eye popping account of the efforts Microsoft has gone to launching Vista in Sadville (aka Second Life) particularly in erotic venues.
“I guess they want to convey the idea that Windows Vista is sexy . . . but not free.”
Reuters reports that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has ridden his tide of anti-american machismo to complete executive dominance, gaining decree powers to nationalise industry.
“If passed as expected, the vote will empower Chavez for 18 months to issue decrees expected to overhaul the OPEC nation’s economic landscape by imposing state controls over such sectors as energy, mining and banking… The move is part of a strategy to centralise power around Chavez, who is closely allied with communist Cuba. He has vowed to use his mandate to strip the central bank of its autonomy, eliminate presidential term limits and form a single party from the dozens of groups supporting him.
And as long as the oil money flows in who cares what damage is done to the body politic?
Chris Ellison has announced that the Australian Federal Police are shipping off two of their number to Kabul.
“Two AFP agents will be based in Kabul and their role will be to mentor senior police and act as high-level advisors to the Afghan National Police (ANP). Another two AFP agents will work in advisory roles with the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) in Jalalabad, in the eastern part of the country. The CNPA manages all major drug investigations in the country.”
The best of luck to them, they’ll need it.
HIV surge
The SMH reports that the numbers of HIV infections is surging, particularly in gay men. The Government loves nothing as much as an advertising campaign, so is going to splash $10 million around.
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Death trap trains
The Age is concerned by claims Melbourne’s train operator Connex is risking lives by persisting in using Siemens trains. The Herald Sun is accusing Connex of baking the figures on the numbers of late trains they run.
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Sogavere
The Australian leads with an Australian tied up in a plot to assassinate the Solomon Islands PM, Manasseh Sogavare. This isn’t a simple story. Sogavere wants to re-arm his own police as he’s heartily sick of the only people with guns in his country being Australian. To that end he sacked his Australian close personal protection unit in December, ostensibly because he didn’t trust them to protect him, more likely so that he could get a core of armed police as his bodyguard. Taiwan at first agreed to do the weapons training for them but have since been leaned on by Canberra and have desisted. The 61 year old William Ernest Johnson could easily have been ensnared by Sogavere’s people looking to demonstrate his need for armed Solomon Islanders. It seems unlikely Australia would need to hire a drunken old veteran to carry out a hit like this.
Defence has announced that the fleet of new Armidale class patrol boats has been grounded again with engine trouble.
“The Maritime Commander Australia, Rear Admiral Davyd Thomas has re-established operational restrictions for the Navy’s Armidale Class Patrol Boats following a recurrence of a potential safety issue with the ship’s main engine fuel system… Rear Admiral Thomas said a recurrence of a problem with water contamination in the fuel system was very disappointing but the safety of personnel remained the first priority.”
[First filed: January 30, 2007 @ 15:57]
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has released the list of legislation proposed for introduction in the current Parliamentary Sitting.
UPDATE 1: Here’s the urgent legislation it’s a very thin list suggesting a Government with very little left to do:
With news this morning that the Swedish Government is building an embassy in the Second Life environment (aka Sad Town for the residents there escaping their real lives with equally dull online lives perked up only by sordidly vicarious intimate encounters) the SMH now reports that Telstra and the ABC are also planning to waste vast amounts of time and money on an audience more interested in what other people are wearing.
Telstra is planning on building a naff OZ themed amusement park for reasons passing understanding while the ABC (which at least actually has content people might want to see and hear) is up to shadowy doings:
“There are few details about the ABC venture beyond the fact that the corporation has purchased an island in Second Life. Access to the region is restricted, but the island - in the shape of the ABC logo - is clearly visible from an overhead view of the area.”
You can’t buy publicity like Linden Lab is getting for what will be a very short lived fad.
But hey, loads of nerds in big organisations are finally able to spend their day doing what they love. One only hopes the surf nazis can keep track of exactly what they’re doing.
Happy times for the protest industry!
John Howard has announced that The Devil Himself, no, wait, sorry about that, the Vice President of the United States of America, Dick Cheney, is going to visit Australia from 22 to 27 February.
Five days? That’s an intriguingly long period to spend away from the corridors of real power. We can expect some serious policy shifts out of Canberra in the wake of the visit.
Plenty of time to do some trout fishing though if he can find a river with some water in it, maybe that’s what it’s all about? (one doesn’t imagine he’s game to go shooting).
The Herald Sun is carrying concerns by the Queensland brothel industry that their profitability is being threatened by backpackers picking up some work on the side while they see the country.
The next step for the sex industry is to demand a levy when consenting adults get together and cut them out of the deal.