Parking " Hogs " !

Car owners in Australia are right in the sights of the tax collectors.  Before registration they need to buy that ever more expensive Green Slip insurance policy to cover the damage their vehicle may do to other people and when they drive they encounter toll roads and tunnels.   The fuel for their car is heavily taxed and under the guise of safety various entrapment devices take a steady toll on their wallets.

Sydney is Australia's biggest city and it seems to have a love/hate relationship with the car.  Each year the morning and afternoon peak becomes just a little slower and apartment living increases as more people try and cram into the city.   Finding a parking space is tightly policed - and parking fees are becoming another headache for car owners.

Our famous Australian lifestyle is something that we treasure - and the car plays a big part in our adventures.  Caravans have become mobile luxury homes and an ever increasing number of people are taking to the water with trailer borne watercraft - and that is creating a new problem.  Where to park these " joy toys " when they are not in use ?

We now have a compounding problem in suburbia.  Not only are the number of cars per family increasing as the ratio of land sizes decrease and more families live in apartment blocks with limited under building parking, some of these cars need to remain kerbside overnight.  In recent times, lack of onsite parking space has seen caravans, boats on trailers and that old favourite from yesteryear - the family trailer used to take rubbish to the tip - permanently kerb parked.

This is not a problem in areas covered by metered parking or where timed parking is policed by council rangers, but it is fast developing as a point of friction in the outer suburbs where what is called "free parking " is the rule.  In many instances, owners choose to park boats and caravans without thought for neighbours and these block both views and parking space for neighbours own cars - and cause a lot of animosity to develop.

The law is less than helpful.  The present legislation allows for cars, caravans, boats and any sort of trailer to be impounded if it is umoved for ninety days, but of course all the owner has to do is move it as little as one metre to stay within the law.   Proving that an offence has been committed would be a near impossible task for council rangers - and so this law is unpoliced.

There are calls for a law amendment to decrease the time factor to seven days, but that ignores the question of what owners can do to comply with the law.   Most marinas have facilities for storing trailer borne boats, but at great expense and off street parking for caravans would become an entirely new industry.   There is also a big difference between parking something that may be used at very infrequent intervals, and the parking of cars which come and go on a daily basis.

In some parts of the world, registering a vehicle requires the owner to first provide evidence that he or she has secured legal off street parking.  Perhaps such a requirement could be required for the renewal of registration for boats and trailers, but that would certainly come at the risk of decimating both the caravan and boating industries.

We certainly face a growing problem.  Our streets are communal land and if we allow residents to "  hog  " available kerb space for their own use we set a precedent that leads to anarchy.  It seems certain that living space will continue to condense as the "vertical village " replaces individual homes.
The only certainty is that a law change will encourage entrepreneurs to provide the facilities to take care of such little used play equipment until it is needed - at a cost !

Rape !

Rape is an abhorrent crime that women fear.  It occurs in all strata's of society and " date rape " by drink spiking or the use of debilitating drugs is prevalent on the entertainment scene.  Many cases go unreported because of the tactics of defence counsels  in dragging the reputations of victims through the mud in court and usually the offender claims that sex was consensual.  Proving the truth often comes down to simply a clash of verbal evidence.

The courts have cleaned up their act in recent times.  The rules of evidence have been tightened and many victims do not need to physically enter the witness box and may appear via video teleconferencing - and the judiciary are handing down severe sentences to match the gravity of the crime.

Rapists serve their sentence and are then  rehabilitated into society.   They form new relationships with women and in many cases marry and gain a partner. In some cases they blame their offence on the affects of alcohol or drugs, but those that reoffend claim the urge to rape is a medical illness - and some are beyond redemption.  We will never see the end of rape as a crime.

Unfortunately, it gained a new status when it occurs in the Australian Defence Force ( ADF ) following a sordid affair where a group of young men were video taping their consensual encounters with women and distributing this widely - and there were claims that in many cases seniority was used to pressure women to accept unwanted sex in order to proceed to pass levels in their training regimen.   There were dark tales of unreported rape as an aspect of ADF life !

The ADF has certainly come down hard in enforcing protection of women in the three services but it seems there are 181 unresolved cases in which rape is claimed - and some of the alleged offenders have now progressed to senior levels.  In one case, that person now holds the equivalent rank of Colonel and the incident happened over twenty years ago.

There are also 22 cases pending court action and this raises the question of whether dismissal from the service should be an automatic part of the penalty.  An enormous amount of money has been spent training service personnel to the standard required to protect this country.  In civil cases the offender usually returns to work after serving a prison sentence and some argue that similar conditions should apply to the military.

The ADF is training those who will go on to become officers responsible for commanding others in a defence role - and that old requirement that as such they have the status of "an officer and a gentleman " certainly applied when military service was exclusively a male prerogative.  We hold military officers to a higher standard than the rank and file of society and some find it distasteful that an accused rapist should even be considered to hold officer ranking.

This conundrum is now snared both in politics and the conflicting demands of the feminist movement.  There is no doubt that accusations should proceed to court where sufficient evidence exists to reach a possible  conviction, but there is little to be gained by raking over ancient innuendo which lacks any substance to put before a court.

What is needed is a decision to clear the decks and settle the matter.  In particular, the ADF needs to be squeaky clean because the very structure of ranking puts those of lower rank at a disadvantage that does not exist in civilian occupations.   It would be reasonable for any person using their ranking superiority to coerce for sex to automatically face instant dismissal, irrespective of the rank held.

Sex is clearly a negotiation between the people concerned and both should always be on an equal footing.   That is difficult in a structured organization such as the ADF but if the rules are clear - and are rigidly enforced - both sexes can coexist in relative harmony.

It's a Mad World !

It seems we take our life in our hands every time we drive on New South Wales roads because a huge number of other drivers are unlicensed.  Every day the police book at least forty people for driving with a cancelled license and another two hundred P plate holders lose their license each week for demerit points  excess or speeding offences.   When those caught driving without a license appear before a court the usual outcome is the imposition of another fine or the extension of the driving disqualification.  Almost amusingly - failure to pay these fines results in automatic license suspension.

What seems to go unnoticed is the fact that both general car insurance and the compulsory Green Slip accident cover require the vehicle to be driven by a licensed driver for the cover to apply.  This means that ordinary people run the risk of losing help and compensation in recovering from accident injuries if the other drive is unlicensed - and that can deliver financial ruin.   Sadly, there seems no way to keep those unlicensed off the roads because in the majority of cases their attitude simply "doesn't give a dam " !     They consider getting behind the wheel a "right " - and will continue to drive nomatter what conditions a judge imposes.

Many citizens will be mystified by the events that have surrounded  what has become known as the "Margaret Cunneen affair  ".   Margaret Cunneen is a top crown prosecutor and when her son's girlfriend was involved in a minor car accident she was accused of advising her to claim chest pains to require immediate hospital attention, thus avoiding an on the spot breath test.  This claim was denied.

ICAC became relentless in pursuing this investigation and finally the matter went before the High Court, which issued a finding that ICAC had "strayed beyond it's powers " in the Cunneen matter.  One would have thought that a ruling by this country's highest judicial body would have settled the question, but ICAC then flick passed it to the DPP for further investigation and possible prosecution..

To many, this looked to have an aspect of personal animosity and settlement of grudges and as a consequence the ICAC Commission scheduled a hearing and called the head of ICAC to appear before it and answer questions.   It seems astonishing that this Commissioner is refusing to answer and claims that her bosses do not have the power to ask questions about a specific  ICAC investigation .

If the parliament of this state - which appoints the ICAC Commissioner - is deemed to have no oversight of the top investigative crime body and no right to question it's decisions - and the findings of the High Court are to be set aside and ignored - then we have a dangerous situation where a body with great powers is running out of control and is capable of pursuing it's own agenda.

The entire system of justice originated from Magna Carta and consists of overlapping reviews of all decisions reached in the various court levels.    There is the expectation that the rule of law will apply in all circumstances,  and the fact that the state is knowingly making no serious attempt to curb the vast numbers of people putting other citizens at risk by driving without a license is no less serious than a body like ICAC which ignores the law and seeks to impose it's own interpretation of justice at the whim of those directing it's actions.

We are seeing a logical outcome of the lack of constraint between the framing of rules and public expectations in the rorts being  exposed in Federal parliament.   Vast sums of public money have been expended by parliamentarians in what can only be termed junkets or "public holidays " they enjoy, accompanied by their spouses and children.    The fact that these fall within the guidelines that are applied to travel is a sure indication that these rules fall far short of the expectations of those who pay taxes to fund our government.

Now that this Pandora's box has been opened, the public will not be satisfied until firm action has been taken to restore confidence that the rule of law again applies equally - and to all !

The Long Shadow !

It is seventy years since the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan and this was instrumental in ending the second world war.  Today there are recriminations.  Some people think Japan was about to surrender and the bombing was unnecessary, but while it killed a lot of people an enormous additional death toll would have resulted from a invasion of the Japanese home islands.

It is true that Japan's leaders knew that the war was lost, but they were trying to arrange an armistice similar to the ending of the first world war that would not have involved the Allies putting an occupation force into Japan or any form of punishment for the emperor or the nation's war leaders.  That was unacceptable to the Americans - and similar to the events that followed WW1 in Europe - probably meant that we would be fighting a third world war in twenty years time.

There is a degree of horror that most of those that died at Hiroshima were civilians.   That should be judged in context with the numbers who died when the Nazi's bombed Warsaw, Rotterdam, London - and Coventry, and our air fleet battered the cities of Germany into rubble.   War now is not a battle between conventional armies on a distant battlefield.  Total war is what we are seeing in Iraq and Syria and a whole lot of other places on planet Earth - and now there is no distinction between those in uniform - and what were once quaintly termed "civilians "  !

It took a while to sink in following the heady days of victory celebrations, but the bombing of Hiroshima made many thoughtful people realise that we had just demonstrated our ability to extinguish human life on this planet.   A would nuclear war would be a catastrophe that sent humankind back to the stone age - but there was no way to uninvent the knowledge of how to split the uranium atom.

Quickly, five dominant countries armed themselves with nuclear weapons and world leaders formed the United Nations as a means of trying to hold the peace.   Those five gained elevated status by holding the power of "Veto " - the ability to remove both discussion and action on any matter that displeased them.   The world settled into two nuclear armed camps for what was termed the "cold war " !

Today - that nuclear club has been joined by India and Pakistan, North Korea and Israel, and there may be a few more harbouring weapons that have not been tested by actual explosions. A treaty seems to have been successfully negotiated to keep Iran nuclear free for at least the next ten years.

It is almost a miracle that seventy years have elapsed without nuclear weapons being used as a weapon of war - and there have been plenty of wars over that period.  Several times tensions have come to the brink, and each time wise heads have held back, because the destruction would be too terrible to contemplate.   Submarines roam the world's oceans equipped with ICBM's with multiple war heads capable of annihilating world cities and vast nuclear stockpiles stand ready in shore based arsenals.     The nuclear clock stands at a minute to midnight !

The long shadow cast by the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima has done us a favour by demonstrating just what sort of horror a nuclear war would deliver.   That could not have been conveyed by a test somewhere in a desert and the publicity on this seventieth anniversary is reinforcing in human minds just what faces us if the nuclear dragon slips it's leash.

Hopefully, world leaders will retain their sanity and continue to hold back when tensions rise, but the big danger is the sheer irrationality of those who subvert religion and embrace terrorism as a cause to deliver death to all who fail to convert to their view.   Should they get their hands on one of these portable nuclear devices there seems no doubt that they would deploy it without hesitation.

Let us hope our luck holds in the coming seventy years !

The " Education " Mess !

Australian schools are falling behind the education levels attained by our Asian neighbours and yet education costs represent a huge segment of this nation's Federal and state budgets.   NAPLAN was supposed to show us the improvements gained from teaching reform and  a better curriculum - and yet the results just in show that NAPLAN scores are flatlining.  In some instances they are even going backwards.

School principals put the blame on the new generation teachers coming into the classrooms from University.   Many of these newly minted teachers simply lack the training to teach today's phonics - which are an essential for those learning to read and write.   It is claimed that University entrance ATAR levels for teaching of 60 or lower apply and many believe that reaching an acceptable qualification needs an ATAR of at least 80 as the starting point.

Put simply, uneducated teachers are the reason the schools are turning out poorly educated kids and in the present labour market that dooms the victims to lost job opportunities and a lowered quality of life.

Putting this right is going to be a hard task because the changes needed will cross many boundaries and demolish a lot of old shibboleths that vested interests will defend vigorously.  It is obvious that if the Universities are turning out teachers who lack the skills and ability to teach the curriculum applicable in the school system - then we need to take the training regime apart and reinvent it to do the job that is needed.

The powerful teachers unions implacably resist any form of teacher evaluation and the very idea of better pay for teaching results is anathema.  Their mindset is stuck in promotion on the grounds of length of service and uniformity of pay levels.  There is a high degree of militancy and achieving the reforms needed can be expected to face stone walling at every level.

Unfortunately, giving Australia a decent level of education is entirely reliant on politics at both the Federal and state levels.  The states see education as their perogative and yet it also relies on Federal grants, and the concept of a national curriculum to cover the entire country is an essential long past implementation.

To fix this problem the education system turning out teachers needs to be completely remodelled and the teaching unions will have to accept constant teacher evaluation to keep them up to standard - and that means a fight to the death on many fronts.   The sixty-four dollar question is whether the politicians have the stamina to do what is necessary to force this change on both the universities and the schools - or whether it will simply degenerate into party politics - and go nowhere ?

For a start, the states and the Feds need to sop bickering and put together a national curriculum so we are all singing from the same song book.   That makes it easy to plan the teaching of teachers to fit in with that curriculum - and gain a national standard across the entire country.

Teaching is a noble profession and we need to attract the best and brightest if we are going to elevate the output from our schools.   As a profession, teaching needs to deliver pay levels commensurate with the results achieved and teachers need the regard showered on other worthy professions.   We need to make it clear - in salary level and standing - that teaching is not "just a job "  but a profession on the same standard as a doctor, scientist or barrister.

The only way this can be achieved -  is at the political level.  It will take legislation to force change.  As an example, look how NAPLAN has been sabotaged and derided by a teaching union and there will be violent opposition from entrenched positions. It all depends if both sides of politics has the will to agree together and implement an education system that will allow this nation to reach it's potential  !

Unarmed Cops !

Sometimes it is necessary for tradition to get a reality check !  Since the arrival of the first fleet it has been the custom for police officers to check in their firearms whenever they enter a court.  That will cease from Monday !

Most judges and magistrates fought hard against this revision and it was only agreed after nearly a year of discussion between the Police Association and court officials, but finally commonsense prevailed.  The last few decades have seen a very different world emerge.  Restricting police to only carry a baton, OC spray and handcuffs when supervising a courtroom that contains both members of the public, barristers and dangerous criminals is a recipe for disaster.

Many courts have metal detectors guarding their entrance but the public is now well aware that it is possible to "print " a workable handgun that will pass this form of detection without triggering an alarm.   The cases that go before our courts include members of criminal bikie gangs and jihadists that have been caught planning terror raids.  In many cases the public area is flooded with supporters and this obviously raises the risk factor.

Very little has changed in the format of our courts over the past fifty years.  They are venerable institutions in purpose build buildings from a distant age and security was not high on the agenda when they were built.   Today we live in an age where fanatics are prepared to sacrifice their own life to deliver a bomb to an intended target or to free a captured colleague by mounting an armed raid on a prison or a court.   It stands to reason that just such a scenario should be taken into consideration when planning the housing, transport and court appearances of high security prisoners.

We have already experienced an act of terror on our doorstep.   The Martin Place siege was a feared event that finally happened - and it ended in tragedy.   Hopefully, we have learned from that experience and when - rather than " if  " -  terror strikes on our shores a well planned and better oiled rescue operation will swing into action with the "right " people calling the shots !

Logically, our security planning is kept under tight wraps but it is highly likely than the spooks who watch over communications and the security apparatus in place to monitor the bad guys are keeping ahead of the opposition.  Several planned events did not get past the early stages and the operatives were quietly taken down.   So far, Australia has been a safe country when judged on the international scale of terror events.

What is disturbing is the fact that it took many long months of planning to implement a sane and logical need like having police armed when they have duties in court to supervise and guard dangerous people. Both bikie gangs and the terrorist networks have the advantage that when they see an opportunity they can exploit it without delay while we are faced with the onerous task of getting a new law through parliament and persuading those who will be involved that change is necessary.

We need to sharpen the command chain if we are to stay ahead of the opposition  !

Public Housing - New Eviction Laws !

One of the promises made before the last New South Wales election was a review to cleanup  bad behaviour by public housing tenants.  Legislation to achieve that is now passing through parliament and all new tenancies will in future be subjected to a twelve month probationary period and eviction will follow should the department issue three bad behaviour warnings in any twelve month period.

The department is also going after those who understate their income to gain fake rental subsidies. Continuing the tenancy will depend on an acceptable pay-back arrangement to restore the rent lost, and this will not be subjected to endless appeals to various courts.

  Perhaps the most beneficial change is the removal of the need for other tenants to personally front a tribunal and in the presence of the offender give evidence of the conduct that a bad tenant is causing.This introduces a fear factor because those giving such information must return to their tenancy with the prospect of pay-back to them and their family.  A refusal to testify usually means no action is taken - and the bad behaviour continues indefinitely.The collection of evidence will now be undertaken by Commission staff and be presented in court in video format.  The confidentiality of complainants will be respected.

One of the issues causing disquiet is the claim that rapists, paedophiles and violent thugs will  be removed from public housing.  It could be inferred that those who commit crimes that the public find repugnant will automatically be excluded from public housing when they are released from prison, and that would create new problems.  In the past some released prisoners have been hounded and driven from any residence by angry mobs and made virtually homeless.   When a prison term is completed it is complicit with the freedom gained that the ex-prisoner will return to society. In most cases, public housing is the only such option available.

It would be dangerous to exclude specific criminal convictions from the ability of access to public housing.  Our law system is based on rehabilitation and release is after automatic review by a control board.  It makes no sense to release a long serving prisoner if that person is destined to live on the streets and basically exist as a vagrant.   Vagrancy is a crime that can attract an additional prison term.

The vast number of public housing tenants are good people who live and behave in a civilized manner.  Many with criminal convictions mend their ways and become model citizens and it would be unreasonable to totally exclude the risk factor by banning them from public housing tenancy.  It is also unlikely that such a provision would survive a High Court challenge.

Strangely, the public attitude to prisons still belongs in the "lock ém up and throw away the key " era.
Outrage at the news that an escape tunnel has been discovered at our most secure prison housing the Supermax - and disgust that a prisoner at Kirkconnell Correctional centre escaped less than a day after he was housed at that institution.

Kirkconnell is a virtual "open prison " used to condition those about to be released and this escapee is a 23 year old jailed for break and enter offences.   He has demonstrated that he is not ready for release, and he will be shortly recaptured and will serve additional time for that escape - plus the remainder of his original sentence - is a high security prison.   The entire prison system is a degree of punishment and rewards.   Rewards have to be earned - and in some cases risk is necessary to test if conduct is genuine - and this seems to be one of those cases

It would be a pity if well meaning public housing laws inflicted further punishment on those genuinely reformed   !