Rising Rates Bill !

One third of the local councils in New South Wales have applied to to the ratings regulator for permission to hike their rates for the 2015/16 year above the general level set for all councils.  What will alarm residents struggling with static pay levels is the extent of the rises sought.  Nineteen councils want a rate rise from sixteen percent - to a whopping fifty percent - and the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal ( IPART ) has set the general  rise for the coming financial year at just 2.4%.

There has been pressure for councils to achieve economies by amalgamation, but in the vast majority of cases this is being resisted, and yet sheer logic says that it is inevitable.  Originally, what are now suburbs were individual villages and each had a council responsible for maintaining local roads and footpaths, collecting rubbish and removal of what was quaintly termed "night soil "- before the era of sewage systems.

Over the years, both state and Federal governments have dumped a host of responsibilities back onto councils.  They now provide libraries and health centres.   They have health inspectors who check hygiene wherever food is prepared and sold. Off street parking and policing of parking restrictions are council responsibilities and child care facilities have been added to the list.  Most now lack the land to provide a local landfill and have to freight their rubbish to an out of town facility.  Most are drowning in a sea of costs and face an ever lengthening list of essential maintenance postponed because of lack of funds.   Many claim that the wolf is at the door - and bankruptcy is threatening.

Residents also hate the idea of amalgamations.  They fear the loss of jobs and the ability to talk directly with the people who can achieve results.  Many in older suburbs fear that their rate money will be squandered in creating new housing estates elsewhere and their services will suffer.  Amalgamation is a touchy subject - and politicians handle it with great care.

Getting elected to council has been a pathway to both state and Federal politics.  Each councils mayor reaches a pinnacle of social standing and will be regularly featured in the media.  Becoming an elected councillor brings elevation - and invitations to social events.   Unfortunately, it sometimes encourages gradiose ideas far beyond the financial realm of a small council and these can become a burden on ratepayers.

Merging councils into sensible economic units would reduce waste and achieve the better use of costly mechanical equipment.  There is no doubt that amalgamation would see a reduction in the work force needed, but we are in an age of labour saving devices replacing the old days of pick and shovel maintenance - so contraction of numbers is inevitable.   It is also the only way that costs can be contained.

It seems that both councils and the government are between a rock and a hard place.  Council finances are going backward and eventually some bankruptcies will be inevitable unless a better system evolves.   It is unlikely that amalgamations to achieve economy of scale will be achieved by consensus.   It will take brave politicians to apply the legislation needed to make this happen - and they will face a backlash from both residents, councils and the unions involved.

In the meantime, worried residents will be sweating to await the decision IPART hands down on those rate increase requests !

The " Live Baiting " Issue !

It seems to be an over reaction to suggest that Greyhound racing be banned in New South Wales because some trainers have been caught "blooding " their dogs by tying live rabbits or other small animals to the lure.   This form of cruelty is banned - along with cock fighting and dog fights on which bets are placed on the winning animals.

Unfortunately, when gambling and sport come together it opens the door for all sorts of malpractice. It is up to the sports administrators to impose strict rules and usually the ultimate penalty for the most serious infringements is to ban the person concerned from participating in that sport for life.   That would be a more realistic punishment in this "live baiting "case than shutting down a sport with a huge following and which employs thousands.

It is said that horse racing is the "Sport of Kings ".   It certainly takes immense amounts of money to buy, train and field a race horse and this is clearly the prerogative of wealthy people.  In contrast, Greyhound racing is said to be the "Sport of Battlers ".   Very ordinary people buy a promising dog and often feed it better than they feed themselves, spend countless hours in the wee small hours of the morning exercising the animal to race fitness - and if they are lucky - produce a champion that brings in lucrative winning cheques.

Racing Greyhounds is different to most other animal sports.   The aim is to get the dogs to compete with others and race around a track for a given distance - and to do that they require something to chase.  In this case, it is a mechanical lure - usually referred to as the "Hare " - and quite clearly the intention is to fool the dog that it is chasing some sort of animal.   In the distant past, many trainers considered that the only sure way to get a dog excited enough to consistently compete was to allow it to catch and tear apart a real live animal as bait.   This was referred to as "blooding "the dog and it drew the ire of many people and was legally banned.

It is suspected that some trainers substituted "road kill " to overcome this ban.   Placing a dead animal on the lure certainly allowed the dog to taste victory during the training regime and it technically circumvented the law, but it would also be repugnant to many people.   Greyhounds are a breed feared by many.  They are required to be muzzled when exercised by long walks on public streets and because of their training they sometimes attack other dogs or cats they encounter.   There are also limits on how many Greyhounds can be exercised in a bunch by a single trainer.

Greyhound racing is a national sport and is widely covered by the media.  Betting facilities are provided by both the TAB and bookmakers and the industry is supported by a range of government inspectors who take blood samples from dogs to check for illegal stimulants.  Racing takes place at racing tracks dedicated to that particular sport and the annual turnover amounts to many millions of dollars.

Old folklore remedies die hard and some old hands are adamant that a Greyhound must taste blood to create the excitement to beat others in chasing the hare.   It seems that in this instance a minority have broken the law and brought the industry into disrepute.   If sufficient evidence can be obtained, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and serve at least a lengthy suspension from further  participation in Greyhound racing.   That would be the expectation of followers of this sport.

To simply ban Greyhound racing because of the actions of as small minority makes no sense !

Enforcing a Religious Lifestyle !

Australia does not have a state religion.  We were originally a Christian country, but we welcomed those of other faiths and our laws specifically demand that all people have the right to follow the religion of their choice under the protection of the law.   Different religions have a very wide interpretation of what is just and moral under their teachings and all are tolerated, provided they remain within the conformity of how laws are framed in this country.

The Roman Catholic Church is proposing to insert an "Ethos" clause into new enterprise agreements which will apply to those employed as teachers in Catholic schools.  Basically, this is a requirement that not only will such teachers promote Catholic values in their style of teaching but they will also live their personal lives within the boundaries of Catholic religious law.

Not all teachers in Catholic schools belong to the Catholic faith and even those that do are horrified. It seems that this seeks to arbitrarily impose all the restrictions of church outlook and teachings as a condition of employment - and this comes into conflict with many Australian laws and what is commonly accepted practice within the Australian lifestyle.

The church deplores those couples who live together without the sanctity of marriage.  It totally forbids abortion, even to save the life of the mother.  It is opposed to in vitro fertilization for infertile couples.   It rejects gay rights and same sex marriage - and it is irrationally totally still opposed to all forms of contraception.

It seems that the Vatican is demanding the right to hold sway in the bedrooms of all it's employees and dictate the lifestyle they must maintain as a condition of employment.  Of course the church elders will dismiss this claim as an over reaction and insist that no teacher will be dismissed because they are in a de facto relationship or are using the contraceptive pill as a means of family planning.

What is not so clear is the effect that lifestyle outside of Catholic morality will have on promotion prospects.   Will a " straight "teacher who openly supports gay rights be denied elevation because of those beliefs and will secretive investigations into an applicants private life become part of the hiring practice for new teachers ?

The authority of the church various widely from country to country.  In some places the law of the church is also the law of the land.  In Australia, a sort of "smorgasbord " approach is embraced by many Catholics.   They accept the majority of church dogma and simply reject the parts they choose to discard.   As a result, the majority of young Catholic women openly use the pill, embrace in vitro procedures to counter infertility - and sometimes resort to abortion.   It seems that this "ethos "clause is an attempt to crack the whip and bring the congregation into line.

It is curious that this imposition of morality as espoused by the church is directed at the teaching profession.  Catholic schools are an institution in Australia and are widely used by non Catholic families - and in fact there are 58,000 pupils from other religions in NSW Catholic schools.   The fees charged are usually lower than other private schools and teaching standards - and results - are claimed to be higher than in the state school system.

Non Catholic parents accept that their children  will be exposed to Catholic dogma as part of this tradeoff with the benefits that the Catholic education system brings and it has long been evident that Catholic schools are much more disciplined - and many believe that this plays a big part in the good education results they achieve.

Many will see the hand of Cardinal George Pell in this attempt to impose church authority on all who depend on it's payroll.  He is of an authoritarium nature and was recently elevated to a position of greater power in the Vatican.    This attempted imposition clearly crosses both secular and legal jurisdictions - and will most likely be finally decided in the High Court.

Fact ? Or Fiction ?

Residents on the New South Wales Central coast are alarmed that Gosford Council is proposing to "sterilise " their homes by imposing restrictions they claim are necessary because of rising sea levels. They will simply draw "danger zones " on maps and refuse building permits - or even allow existing homes to be renovated, and many with beach outlooks carry a five million dollar price tag.

The problem is inconsistency. Gosford bases it's action plan on an assumption that sea levels will rise by 40 cm by 2050 - and 90 cm by the end of this century.   Other councils up and down the coastline expect more moderate rises in sea levels and the respected  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts a modest 25 cm rise.

The only inescapable fact is that there will be some sort of rise in sea levels, but the exact nature is impossible to predict.  The worst ecology zealots are spreading alarm and our best scientists are divided in their predictions.  It certainly seems premature to virtually reduce the value of people's homes to near zero by enacting draconian legislation on the basis of a worst case scenario.

In the Gosford area more than four thousand home owners will find themselves stuck in a time warp if this goes ahead.   Those who purchased recently and have a long mortgage repayment will face an impossible situation.  It would be inevitable that values would drop precipitously.  By a stroke of the pen, the council would impose financial ruin on many.

It also seems to show a defeatist attitude.   There seems to be an assumption that low lying land will not be protected - and that flies in the face with what has been done in Holland.  More than half the entire country is below sea level and the Dutch have lived with that problem - successfully - for hundreds of years.

One of the encouraging things about global warming is the fact that it is incremental.  We are not going to wake up one morning and find the tide has swallowed half the country.  Our best minds are going to be applied to building the necessary defences and it is not impossible to predict that global warming may be reversed.   Planet earth suffered several ice ages and we are well aware that when volcanoes go on the rampage the particles they emit pollute the atmosphere and filter the heat of the sun across the entire world.   Some sort of artificial shield of that nature may be within the reach of science.

The very nature of rising sea levels is something that will eventually have to be tackled at a national level - if the worst case scenario proves to be correct.   It is quite possible that the city of Sydney could become a number of densely populated islands with all of the lower level suburbs under water. We might even be forced to abandon this city - and start again at a much higher level.   That is a problem that may never arise - and if it does - it will concern the people and their government at that time.

There is danger in allowing individual councils to implement action plans based on their own interpretations of coming events.  This reeks of inconsistency and surely if hardship is to be imposed it should apply at the national level.   At this stage, science has not produced the smoking gun evidence of what sort of future we face to conclusively convince the population to accept draconian legislation that will drastically change the lives and fortunes of the multitude.

Food Security !

Packs of mixed berries are being removed from supermarket shelves and the public are advised to dump any suspect brands they have in their freezers because of a health scare.  Several Australians have contracted Hepatitis A and this has been traced back to contamination in mixed packs of Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries imported into this country.

Hepatitis A can be fatal but it is expected that our health system will result in full recoveries.  This incident has thrown the spotlight on food standards that apply in countries exporting food to Australia.   Where Hepatitis A is involved the cause is usually sewage coming into contact with the food or a person infected with the disease being involved with it's preparation.

In this instance, the source was from China and it seems that the various berry components were grown in different parts of the country and shipped to a central point where they were collated, processed  and packed.  This will make it hard to specifically discover where the hygiene breakdown occurred.

It is quite possible that in a country as vast and as populous as China old farming methods may still be used in remote areas. In past centuries it was quite common to use both human and animal waste untreated to nourish crops.  Just a single farm growing one of these berries could be responsible for their small input contaminating a vast amount of export food being mixed together at a central point - and it also only takes one person infected with Hepatitis A involved in food processing to do similar damage.

That is one of the risks that come with globalization.  Our diet has expanded and both air transport and freezing products have freed us from the restrictions of seasonal crops.  We now draw a continuous supply because it is always peak growing season somewhere in the world and global trade encourages exports to balance economies.

Considering the contribution made to the world food supply from small farming communities in Asia and the remote parts of Europe and South America, it is remarkable that similar forms of contamination are not happening more frequently.   This incident will be a serious embarrassment to the Chinese government and they can be expected to back track the supply chain to find and eliminate the problem.  It is likely that this scare will result in a sharp drop in the sale of all forms of berries here in the short term - and probably take many months to recover.  It is also likely that the contaminated product has been distributed more widely than just Australia, and the implications  on the brand names involved could be terminal.

In this instance Hepatitis A has passed to a mere handful of people and the source was quickly identified.  The public was warned when it became the prime item on the national news and it was quickly withdrawn from sale across the nation.   That will eliminate risk from the main supermarket chains, but there is still a chance that it will escape detection in some of the small grocery stores scattered across the country.   In some cases their proprietors do not speak English - and may be unaware of the recall.

From a security point of view, it would be ideal if the sales records of all foodstuffs from distributors  to even the smallest retailer could be instantly available to the health people in an emergency.  It is well within the capability of computer programmers to isolate a particular brand and pack size and nominate where and when that item was sold.

It is unlikely that anyone will die from this Hepatitis A contamination, but should something instantly deadly slip through the safety net - and warrant forcible seizure by the health authorities -  that list of where sales have occurred would be critical.    Having that information in place would be a timely precaution - because accidents do happen !

The Lost Arts !

Purists lament that society is fast losing the ability to do "in the head " mathematics or even put together a coherent sentence using a pen or pencil.  In today's world,  those tasks are taken care of by the new breed of cash registers that handle money transactions and by the keyboard which has replaced old fashioned writing instruments.

Even coin and banknotes are fast being replaced with the electronic chip.  The inconvenience of having to put a card into a machine and then tap in a PIN has been replaced by a tap on the terminal with the card completing the transaction, and of course the scanner has replaced  collating items by hand.

The first bulky old computers came with a keyboard and this resulted in the entire population developing at least some basic typing skills, but now the development of - first the mobile phone - and now it's replacement by the "Smartphone "have shrunk that keyboard to fit in the palm of ones hand and with that has come cyphers - a single word that conveys what previously took a long sentence to explain to the person receiving that message.

The days when primary schoolkids were meticulously taught "script "writing are long gone.  That was a graceful form of calligraphy with thick and thin strokes and arching loops, but the type face alphabet interacted more closely with the printed world - and the development of the ball point pen  removed the writing innovations possible with a pen with a nib and ink.

It seems strange that we now have little reason to write on paper.  A lot of the communications between people takes place on social media such as Facebook and Twitter and individual messaging between people is usually done by text between their mobile phones or tablets.   This is the electronic age.   The computer and the tablet first invaded the high school system but now it is fast becoming the mode of learning from the early days in kindergarten.

Long gone are the days of massive cash registers in which pressing on keys threw numbers in the viewing window for all to see - and the cashier was expected to calculate and proffer the correct change between the tender received and the price charged.   Transactions in the average coffee shop are mostly by some form of debit or credit card and when there is an occasional cash settlement, the cashier enters the amount of the banknote proffered -- and the machine calculates the change needed. We now allow our mechanical aids to do the thinking for us.

Unfortunately, convenience comes with a price.   The principle of "use it - or lose it " applies.  Whenever a malfunction results in power loss in a city centre we are completely helpless and unable to cope without the electricity to run our serving machines.  Supermarkets and department stores are obliged to usher shoppers into the street and close their doors.   Worse - such a power loss leaves petrol outlets unable to pump petrol - and the ATM goes down and will not allow us access to funds to pay for any goods that are available.

Change has always been with us - from the days when the horse was the means of transport - to the day we managed to cross continents using air travel.   The difference now is the speed of change.
The time factor that applies to new forms of innovation often is measured in months or even weeks before an upgrade delivers an improved version.   The giant strides being made in artificial intelligence will drive this further and as it encompasses new realms the consistent casualty is the jobs of human beings that it replaces.

We face the prospect of eventually making ourselves redundant in the age of the machine !

Growing Shark Menace !

Decades ago a shark attack would automatically result in banner headlines in the nation's newspapers. It was a rare event, but today it merely gets a mention on one of the inside pages.  Sharks deaths in Australia took a toll of thirty two lives between 1982 and 2011 - but last year the figures jumped to six deaths in that one year.   The reason for this raised figure is unclear.

The Green movement is quick to blame it all on global warming.  Perhaps warmer oceans are affecting the great gulf currents that wash by our shores and causing bait fish to congregate close to shore - and this is attracting sharks.   Others see a correlation between the return of huge numbers of whales using what is termed the "Humpback Highway " along our shores for their annual migratory travel   Whales, seals and Sea Lions are traditional fare for the big sharks - and whale numbers are growing exponentially since the whaling industry contracted to just the Japanese and a handful of other nations.

Shark deaths have certainly triggered a volatile debate between the ecology people and those demanding shark nets and drum lines to kill big sharks that venture close to our beaches.  When we swim in the sea we are encroaching on the territory of the shark and as they are at the top of the marine food chain our fisheries would collapse if they were completely eliminated.  Many people accept that argument, but still demand a cull to keep our beaches safe.

Having a swim at the beach is still a safe habit - provided we take reasonable precautions.  Nobody has ever been killed on an Australian beach when swimming in a patrolled area and remained between the flags overseen by the surf lifesaver movement.   The people most at risk are surfers who wait for a wave offshore, particularly if they are alone or in a very small group.  It seems to be a fact of life that there is safety in numbers.

Strangely, the majority of surfers accept this situation and those who have had an encounter with a shark - even those who have suffered shark bite injury - are usually keen to get back in the water.  They have a philosophical outlook when it comes to sharks and the very conditions that make their sport so enjoyable puts them at most risk of all water users.

For the average swimmer a few simple rules will seriously reduce the risk of becoming a shark victim.   Under no circumstances swim at night.   A human thrashing about in the water could easily be mistaken for an injured seal by a prowling shark - and in the dark the eyesight of both is far from helpful.

Do not share the water by swimming with dogs.  It is known that the swimming action of dogs acts as a signal to sharks and they probably have a sense of smell as well.   Avoid swimming on dull, cloudy days and remember what most keen fisherpeople know - that the fish are usually biting well first thing in the morning or towards early evening.    Perhaps that meal routine applies to sharks as well.

Despite last years sharp increase in shark attacks, most Australians are at far greater risk driving to the beach than actually getting eaten by a shark.   Provided they take reasonable  precautions and stick with the patrolled areas their risk drops to near zero.    That safety in numbers credo applies, but if they take up the sport of offshore surfing, the risk rises accordingly.

Managing that risk is entirely a matter for each individual !