Gender Politics !

Politics is clearly a numbers game and that game is never more brutal than when a spill of office holders is in progress  We have just seen the person holding the job of prime minister replaced by another and that involved a frantic bout of marshalling the votes of all and every party member.

Rewards were on offer to induce the key players to join alliances and it is not unusual for even the lesser perks of office to come into play.  Along with rewards there are also threats to coerce votes the way various factions are heading and some of those can be offensive.   It is a time of stretched nerves near breaking point as high office seems realistically within reach of faction heavyweights.

Sadly, Victorian Liberal Julia Banks has announced that she will not contest her seat at the next election.  She expressed concern and disgust at the bullying and intimidation employed to line up votes to decide an outcome.   This backbencher gained her seat at the 2016 election.  She will not cause a byelection by resigning immediately, but will simply not nominate when the next election is called.

The balance of women in the Federal parliament is lacking and this withdrawal will probably deter some women aspirants considering a parliamentary career. Misogynist elements will receive the news with glee because they claim women are too weak and parliament is a place for men. Women members have been steadily increasing and this will be an obvious setback for the women's movement.

Women have served in just about every major role in Federal parliament, including as prime minister. Women presently hold several important ministerial portfolios and today they serve at all levels in the civil and defence industries of this nation.  There is the expectation that eventually the gender balance in parliament will duplicate that of the Australian population.

It is unrealistic to expect that all forms of pressure and intimidation will disappear from the parliamentary process.  When a person of either gender wins a seat in parliament it comes with the right to express a vote when called for by the speaker.  Party politics is such that some within that party may equally support and oppose the action under consideration, and each members vote becomes vital.  It is part of the process to lobby each voter to cast their vote according to the needs of either supporting or rejecting groups.

Human nature being as it is, the pressure can become extreme to achieve the desired outcome.  What to some people seems a valid argument may be termed bullying by others, but at all times the voting decision remains the prerogative of that member to decide.

Hopefully, Julia Bank's decision - which is her personal choice - will not dissuade other women from throwing their hat into the parliamentary ring.  But let them acknowledge that parliament can get very unruly from time to time and that this will test their resolve.  It is a place for people with steady nerves and iron discipline - of either gender !

Licensed Tradespeople !

The Department of Fair Trading in New South Wales has suggested that thirteen licensed categories of work in the building trade should be freed from the obligation for workers in those categories to have a valid license to work on installations.  This thinking seems to revolve around the aspect of clearing away administrative burdens where the work performed is not complex and if done badly would not constitute either a safety risk or lead to significant financial detriment.

This proposal forms part of a departmental consultation paper and specifically mentions trades such as painting, glazing and the installation of shower screens and kitchen benchtops.  It is being vigorously opposed by the various trade associations.

Gaining a license in these categories involves working as an employee for a licensed tradesperson for a period of four years during which time they learn the required skills.   This is less than the apprenticeship requirements for trades with a danger factor, such an electrical work or plumbing, but it does ensure that the license carries a skill factor that is reassuring to the end customer.

Perhaps Fair Trading has not thought this through from all aspects.  Most of the trades mentioned are concerned with the final " fitting out " of a building and that is what is most apparent  when viewing the nature of the job.  An unevenly installed kitchen bench would be jarring to the eye.  A sloppy paint job would not enhance the impression of quality to a discerning viewer, and that raises the issue of rectification costs and responsibilities.

Having the certification of a trade license is an item of value to a tradesperson.  It is presently a requirement that is necessary to gain employment and it serves as a disciplinary measure.  If a tradespersons work is not up to scratch that license can be withdrawn.  It serves as an important measure in maintaining building standards.

A failure of work standards can have a long term cost effect.  One of the trades listed for installation by untrained people is shower screens.  A badly fitted shower screen will probably leak and over time leaking water will rot timber supports and cause structural damage.   If it comes into contact with electrical wiring, it can easily start a fire.  That is not a trade to be taken lightly.

Opening the flood gates to unskilled workers is not likely to increase work standards.  A person with a trade certificate would normally expect a better rate of pay than an unskilled person and if such licensing is abandoned they would have to compete with the unskilled in a race to the bottom.

Licensing delivers a form of quality assurance.  Any householder booking a home renovation job is warned to check if the service provider is licensed.  It seems a retrograde step to be talking of discontinuing licenses when this is the sole form of protection available to the public.

A Threat ? Or a Promise ?

During that week when shenanigans in Canberra were removing a prime minister and appointing another we were blissfully free of people smugglers dumping unwanted migrants on our shores.  It was a proud boast by the government that they had " Stopped the boats " and it is a recognisable fact that our coast has been free of such arrivals for more than 1400 days.

Then came the shattering news that an undetected fishing boat had penetrated our coastline and run aground in the shallows at the Daintree.  An unknown number of people abandoned this boat and swam ashore, and promptly disappeared into the crocodile infested bush north of Cairns.  That record of over four years freedom from new arrivals has been broken.

A widespread search is under way and arrests have been made, but the political instability so evidently present in Canberra was on the news screens of Asia and it was being very carefully evaluated by both the people smugglers and the teeming hordes existing in squalid refugee camps waiting for our borders to open.

It seems that some interpreted the political instability in Australia in different ways.  A leadership change suggested a change of policy might be possible and it seems that was sufficient for one refugee boat to take a chance and try their luck.  It is thought that this boat may have been from Vietnam but those waiting to come to Australia are widely spread in Asia.

This latest incursion will probably be quickly contained unless the refugees have the misfortune to get eaten by crocodiles and they will probably join the people in an internment camp in Nauru. It is the promise that no unauthorised arrivals on our shores will ever be allowed to settle in Australia that has stopped people willingly paying smugglers to lands them here.   The people smugglers are eager and willing to resume, once their customers are convinced that the risk is worth it.

We have seen what can happen in Europe when refugees from those Middle East wars and economic refugees from Africa converge in an unstoppable flow crossing the Mediterranean sea to Greece and Italy.   Packed like sardines in rubber boats they pay their money and many drown when the boats capsize or run out of fuel and founder.  Many countries have closed their borders and a vast residue of rejected people exist in squalid refugee camps with their future undetermined.

Holding the line against refugee boats arriving on our shores has been a combination of threat and diplomacy with neighbouring countries and a great deal of very questionable naval activity that have turned back boats encountered on the high seas.   It is a delicate balance that relies on a mix of goodwill and bluff.

Right now Asia is watching to see what sort of politics are evolving in Australia and how they evaluate events here is how they will interpret the message of the people smugglers.  This boat arrival in the Daintree has come at a critical time.   The comments of the various political factions could be instrumental in delivering a message.  If that is the wrong message we could see a future where migrant intake is never again entirely in our own control.

The " Hidden Hand " on the National Rudder !

A long time ago in America Teddy Roosevelt was jealous of both the British and French empires.  He reasoned that America needed one too and set out to correct that imbalance.  With the backing of a newspaper baron he agitated to usurp Spanish interests in the Caribbean and the Pacific and when an American battleship mysteriously exploded in Havana harbour that brought the start of the Spanish/American war.

America quickly gained control of Cuba, Puerto Rico and that jewel in the Spanish crown - the Philippines, but the American people declined to annex them as colonies, so the American government appointed dictators, declared themselves the " protectors " of these islands and ruled by proxy.  That continued until the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in the second world war.

Democracy is all about " free speech " and that delivers enormous power to the owner of newspaper conglomerates.  Just such a man holds a commanding position in this twenty-first century and Rupert Murdock can be said to be part of the reason that Australia has had seven prime ministers since the end of the John Howard era.

His extreme right wing view of life has encouraged individual politicians with a similar outlook to block many reforms.  His various media interests are critical to encouraging public opinions  and a similar pivotal role is being performed in America where Donald Trump unexpectedly won the presidency.  This fog horn of right wing bias tends to drown out logic debate by independent media and guides the thinking of the masses.

The laws that separated ownership of television and the print media are being constantly relaxed.  Newspaper circulation is rapidly diminishing in favour of this new phenomenon - Facebook - and as a consequence public opinion is now influenced by shadowy regimes that have the resources to fund contributing networks to keep fraudulent news stories alive in the public mind.   These can - and do - influence the outcome of elections.

Australia has just had a leadership change and once again groupings are starting to coalesce which will make if difficult to secure many of the critical changes that have long awaited decisions and implementation to modernise the Australian economy.  Some of those decisions will be unpopular - but necessary - and once again the parliamentary vote will be heavily influenced by an outside source that is answerable to no political party.

Commercial gain plays a big part in this machinations.  Power delivers money and power itself is an aphrodisiac.  Since the days of the " Dark Ages " the world has had a precarious balance between the forces of the " right " and the "left ". In the twentieth century the balance swung sharply left and we gained a shorter working week, holiday pay and the era of pensions that sustain the aged and incapacitated.  That century was a balance of wars and immensely improved individual prosperity.  The good times seemed destined to roll on forever.

We live now in uncertain times.  Remuneration for the masses is stagnant while the big end of town prospers.  China is emerging as the new superpower and the amount of CO2 in the air is fast reaching a critical level.  The world population has passed seven billion and there are doubts about this planets ability to feed the numbers which will live here by mid century.

This situation is not promising.  Few can feel certain that we will not be looking at new faces and another new government a few months from now.  Even if the voters use the ballot box to install a different political party it will still be influenced by that persuasive fog horn of outside opinion that encourages factions to divide and stifle progress.

It seems doubtful we can survive and still maintain that " free speech " mandate unless some sort of volume control is imposed.

The Long Reach of Xi Jinping !

China is a  political conundrum.  The tenet of a Communist state is public ownership of everything so that the wealth of the country can serve the citizens.  That's fine in theory, but when Russia went Communist in 1917 that promised " workers utopia " failed to materialise.  It quickly degenerated into a dictatorship with Joseph Stalin imposing his iron fist and determination to impose Communism on the rest of the world.

The early years of China's Communism were brutal. Mao's " great leap forward " produced famine and farm collectivization and the country was governed by his thoughts in a " little red book ".  The " Cultural revolution " galvanised the country when the Red Guards ran amok and tried to impose the rejection of any form of intellectual life.  Social leaders were banished to agriculture to cure them of " revisionist thoughts ".

Then came the Deng era.  " Getting rich was glorious " and China adopted a capitalist  system that saw it become the workshop of the world.  Corruption was inevitable and it seemed that a new China was emerging when Xi Jinping took control and began to gather his powers.  His future plans for China are unclear, but his new China is adopting control measures that hark back to the Mao era.

The rich in China eyed their Communist state nervously.  There was an outflow when they used their money to  create a bolt hole for their families in Australia, Canada, other parts of the world where they believed they were insulated from the oppressive hand of Xi Jinping.   They are now finding that hand has a very long reach.

Former Bank official  Lai Mingmin (67) migrated to Sydney and lived here for seventeen years before returning to China to face corruption charges in June.  State media reported his return and that he had voluntarily refunded a bribe.

There is speculation that Lai Mingmin was coerced into making that return decision by the actions of the office of  Chinas Central Commission of Discipline Inspection ( CCDI ).  This organization is noted for putting pressure on members of the Chinese overseas community.

It seems that Lai's wife and daughter took a trip to China  and CCDI targeted them and they were indoctrinated with impassioned  details of Chinas laws and policies.  It is not hard to envisage the type of decision forced on this man with his wife and daughter now under the control of the CCDI and their return to Australia in question.

It delivers a clear warning to people who are ethnically Chinese and now live in Australia with citizenship rights.  Close relatives still living in China can be used to put pressure on them to return if the Communist state wants to press corruption charges.  They and their families would need to be very wary about visiting mainland China or any state where Chinese influence is strong.  They should be very careful in voicing criticism on Chinese matters.

Theoretically Australian passport holders are protected by the rights it implies but once under the national law that applies when they set foot on Chinese territory all sorts of local laws can come into play to delay a return from that country.

Chinese Australian citizens with issues within China would be well advised to ensure that China is not a holiday destination for them or members of their family.

Our Fading Postal Service !

A few decades ago the cost of a stamp ensured that mail would be delivered for that low price anywhere in Australia.  That range of deliveries remains, but the cost of a stamp is now one dollar. That was deemed a necessity because the number of letters passing through the mail has been steadily decreasing as the age of the computer and increasing business adoption of direct payments changed the way we pay bills.

For a while, the fact that Australia Post has a post office in every city suburb and every country town made it the logical place for customers to pay utility bills.  These post offices were also an agency for the Commonwealth Bank and these services maintained viability as the delivery time for letters gradually increased.   Delivery of local mail was usually overnight and now it may take several days - and often more than a week.

As delivery time extended and the cost of a stamp increased the post office  moved into a new form of business.  They became a parcel delivery service as online shopping thinned the ranks of brick and mortar stores and the heavy discounters were to be found in China.  Perhaps the novelty of online shopping is wearing off but we have more than a million citizens of Chinese descent living in Australia and it seems to be stabilizing towards a steady rate.

The profitability index for Australia Post is interesting.  Last year this government owned enterprise delivered a 41% increase in full year profit to $134 million.   Parcel deliveries increased eleven percent for a revenue of $3.5 billion while the letter rate fell a further ten percent to deliver $2.4 billion.

That ever falling letter rate shows no sign of stopping.  It means that a man or a woman on a motorcycle needs to visit every street in Australia at least once a week to deliver mail and that service must eventually make stamp costs prohibitive or see letter delivery combined into parcel delivery with each letter treated as a courier service.

It is noticeably that many young people have abandoned Christmas cards and birthday cards.  This seems set to increase as the population ages.  The mobile phone has absorbed that function and as letter delivery slows and increases in cost it is inevitable that the service retracts the letter post as we have known it.

The fact that Australia Post is still delivering a profit will delay that inevitability, but it seems that further into this century the common cost of letter delivery anywhere in Australia will change to a distance rate and that service will be carried out by the parcel delivery team at Australia Post.  It also seems likely that those prolific post offices will become a mere service counter in a local business.  In todays world it is volume that dictates survival.

A Deadly Cell Mate !

Prisons are dangerous places but we believe that when someone serves their sentence there is the expectation that they will eventually walk to freedom - alive !    That expectation didn't eventuate for Frank Townsend when his cell mate wrapped a sandwich press in a pillow case and deliberately crashed it down on the head of his unsuspecting fellow prisoner.

All this happened in Sydney's Long Bay prison when both the murderer and his victim were contained in the aged care unit for  elderly and frail offenders in early January, 2017.  The killer was John Walsh (79) and in the NSW Supreme court he pleaded guilty to the killing.  Walsh has the expectation of dieing in prison because he is serving life sentences for murdering his wife and two grand children in June 2008.

These were senseless but chilling murders.  Walsh stabbed his wife and drowned one of his grand daughters in the bath.  He bludgeoned the other with a hammer, and when the mother returned to collect her daughters he attacked her with an axe. He is now serving another life sentence for the murder of Frank Townsend.

John Walsh shows no remorse for any of these killings. He can not give an explanation beyond the comment that " I don't work in anger.  I work in tactical - cold rage ".  He could be described as a psychopath and it seems logical that he must be kept isolated for the remainder of his life.  That could be a problem in the overcrowded state prison system.

One of the options would be to send him to the Supermax at Goulburn.  To preserve the life of other prisoners he would need to endure maximum security and the Supermax lacks a special unit for the frail aged.  The world seems to have turned its back on the death penalty but we would probably be delivering a mercy should we choose to painlessly end John Walsh's life.

One of the arguments used against the death penalty is the possibility that we might execute an innocent person.  People awaiting execution on death row have been exonerated by the discovering of fresh evidence but that argument holds no sway when the murderer freely admits his crime and the evidence is overwhelming.  There is now the expectation that John Walsh will kill again, if he gets the chance.

If nothing else, the special containment of John Walsh is going to cost the state a lot of money.  He will die in prison and that could be a decade or more in the future.  It would be interesting to see how public opinion would divide on the return of the death penalty for this sort of repeated murder. Perhaps the families of those in prison would welcome the removal of a source of harm that could  be a threat to their loved ones.

A Long Awaited Enquiry !

The name Kathleen Folbigg creates mixed emotions in public minds.  Folbigg (51) was found guilty by a NSW Supreme court jury in 2003 of the murder of three of her infant children and the manslaughter of the fourth.  She was sentenced to a thirty year prison sentence with a twenty-five year possible parole release date.   The children's deaths occurred at Singleton between 1989 and 1999.  She has served fifteen years of that sentence.

The New South Wales Attorney General has announced a new enquiry into her conviction and this has delighted her support group.  Her conviction aroused a great deal of controversy because the inquest into the death of her children revealed no evidence that they were smothered, as the prosecution alleged.  In the mind of many people it was the sheer improbability of four deaths from natural causes occurring in the one family that sealed her guilt.

This new enquiry will be headed by the former chief judge of the District court, Reg Blanch and will focus on evidence relating to multiple child deaths in one family attributed to natural causes. Medical science is forever making further progress and this enquiry will examine newly discovered causes of child death which might be applicable to this case.

It seems unlikely that Kathleen Folbigg will be granted bail and the enquiry will probably take twelve months. It is quite possible that the enquiry may not make any decision or the case could be referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal.  The important thing is that this unusual case of deaths from undetermined causes is to be reviewed in the light of what is known today.  Some legal minds believe that justice was not served because clear evidence of guilt was not presented to jurors.

In the last fifteen years we have learned of possible toxic contamination from products that were formerly thought to be quite safe.  The contamination from fire fighting foam comes to mind.  No doubt this enquiry will examine what changes have occurred in the Singleton district that could possibly have intruded into the wellbeing of small children living in that area.  While it is unusual for four deaths in the one family, it is not impossible.

It also raises the task of the judge in such matters.  The judge is the arbiter of what is legal in the presentation by both the prosecution and the defence and without any sort of evidence to decide guilt the jury had to make up their minds according to their evaluation of probability.   It is quite possible in similar circumstances today a judge may abort a trial on the grounds that insufficient evidence exists for it to continue.

It would be a travesty of justice if a woman spends fifteen years in prison for a crime she did not commit.  One of the planks of justice is that it is better for many guilty ones to go free than a single innocent person to suffer prison for something they did not commit.

Faction Fighting !

There are many vitally important issues facing Australia and it is painfully apparent that they are not getting the attention of the government members in the Federal parliament that we voted into office at the last election.  The members of the Liberal/National coalition seem more interested in factional fighting and the big issue fast reaching crisis point concerns who sits in the prime ministers chair.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been plagued by the former prime minister he replaced seeking revenge and gathering supporters to make it difficult to enact any sort of meaningful legislation. Tony Abbott is a " wrecker " whose main aim seems to be to engineer Malcolm Taylors downfall.  The government's approval rating has slipped to the point that there is mutiny in the rank and file and this led to a challenge from Queenslander Peter Dutton which was resolved in a 48/35 vote in Turnbull's favour.

That achieved nothing.  It is now a " numbers game " and there is every expectation of back room machinations to try and select a prime minister who may be able to take the coalition to victory at the next election.  It is generally thought that Peter Dutton lacks voter appeal south of the Queensland border.

This is very much a series of battles being fought rather than a single issue.  An ultra conservative grouping has formed around Tony Abbott and the Queenslanders have solidly backed Dutton.  It looks like Turnbull's days are numbered and it is likely that a new alliance will eventually pick a new face that can attract sufficient votes for elevation to prime minister.

Malcolm Turnbull lacked the strong leadership credentials needed to lead Australia.  He became a multi millionaire due to his success as a barrister and that made him " different " to former office holders.  He lacked the belligerence to browbeat dissenters and force the discipline so necessary for effective government.  His many compromises were seen as " weakness ".

It could be said that this government disarray is merely the usual Australian practice of a change of government happening.  This country traditionally swaps conservative and socialist theology between Liberal/National and Labor regimes.  A very small change in the numbers at the next election would see Labor win office.  Unfortunately, they are beset with very similar faction problems.

There is a very real danger that a disaffected public may shun the traditional political parties and opt for small " populist " groupings which dilute the formation of a strong central government. We live in a fast changing world of power politics and a coherent foreign policy is essential.  There are important decisions on our military awaiting, together with remedial legislation needed to ensure an adequate electricity supply and action to meet the global warming crisis.   Too many decisions are subjected to the indecision that surrounds factional voting.

In the distant past voting in Australia followed tribal lines.  Vast numbers voted either " conservative " or " socialist " and this propelled either into office.  The different was delivered by the small number of uncommitted voters who delivered the balance of power when they placed their decision at the ballot box.

The one thing that is painfully clear is that this factional fight within the present government is not delivering the quality of decision making demanded by the voters.

Plastic Bag Confusion.

Woolworths claims that implementing that ban on single use plastic bags has seen sales volumes slip in its New South Wales stores.  It reports that customers who arrive to shop without bringing a bag of their own have a tendency to buy far fewer items and this slows the progress through the checkouts. As a consequence, more staff are needed to open more checkouts, adding to store overheads.

Those grey coloured, single use plastic bags were usually dumped the moment we unpacked the groceries at home.  It has been the custom for years for shops to supply a free bag to contain the items purchased and we regard them as valueless.  Unfortunately, they are contaminating the oceans and being mistaken for food by many marine creatures who die as a result.

New South Wales is now the only state to make the supply of single use plastic bags optional.  A ban is in place in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT.  Victoria will ban them in 2019.  This is generating a degree of confusion about just what constitutes the difference between a " single use " and the bags that both Coles and Woolworths now sell for fifteen cents each to contain customer purchases.

This is a bigger, more heavily constructed bag with thicker wall strength and it can easily be returned to the store for another use when we shop. What seems to be confusing shoppers is that this bag ban seems to be entirely concentrated on the sale of groceries.  Exactly the same type of bag now sold by Coles and Woolworths is given free in stores that sell merchandise such as clothing, shoes and similar items, and this has been the practice for many years.

To add to that confusion, many small independent stores have what amounts to single use bags of added wall strength printed with their advertising message and use these to collate purchases and promote their business.  Apart from Coles and Woolworths, very little has changed in the average shopping centre.

We are seeing a return to those sturdy canvas green bags that were all the rage several decades earlier and that will probably become the custom of ecology minded shoppers but there is also a danger that many people will simply accept that  fifteen cent bag charge as the cost of grocery shopping and dump the bag after use in the same way that they disposed of single use bags.   We may soon see these bags over-represented in landfills and finding their way into the oceans.

What we are seeing is really just a change in the size and type of plastic bag in use.  If we are to heal the ecology we need to make more use of paper bags which can be repulped and reissued in new form.  The paper bag can ideally collate small item purchases and at the same time be kind to the ecology.  The starting point might be Coles and Woolworths offering free paper bags where purchase size suits that style of packaging.

Grenfell Tower Aftermath !

2012 is a critical date for owners of apartments fitted with the type of outer cladding that caused the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London.   In New South Wales it looks like the owners of buildings completed before that date are stuck with the entire rectification cost and that can run to millions of dollars.

This type of aluminium and plastic foam decoration is now banned in this state and that ban applies retrospectively.  Corporations can be fined up to $1.1 million and individuals up to $ 220,000 for installing it, but the building warranties in force apply.   Since this cladding is recognised as a major defect, building owners have the right to require the builder to make repairs for up to six years after completion.  It is therefore unclear if owners of buildings completed before 2012  have any legal recourse at all.

This is despite a plethora of laws that are required before a new building is signed off as meeting the required certification by council building inspectors, government officials and the fire brigades.  This cladding was not illegal at that time, but it did not meet the standards required in the building code and therefore the area of responsibility is unclear.  That is yet to be decided in a court.

The NSW Cladding taskforce has identified four hundred buildings, half of which are residential, which have this cladding and the completion dates are yet to be established.  Owners are finding insurance difficulties because this added fire risk is now a matter to be  taken into consideration when establishing the cost of insurance cover.

This is fast becoming a legal nightmare.  The cladding is present on part of one building and just 85 apartment owners are directly affected, but all 200 owners face an equal share in the rectification costs and will be served with a special levy.  Their present output of $3000 per quarter will increase to $10,000 and remain for five years.  Obviously, this will have an effect on the sale price should owners wish to sell.

Even where the building meets this 2012 demarcation the rectification depends on the builders ability to pay. Should that company go into liquidation the unit owners simply become similar to the sub contractors awaiting a distribution from whatever can be recovered from the financial wreck.   Usually this amounts to just a few cents in the dollar.

In Victoria low interest loans are on offer to help strata owners not covered by any existing provisions to pay for remedial work.  So far, the legality of costs shared by councils and fire brigades which signed off on building probity has not been tested in court.   It is very obvious that all parties concerned are ducking for cover and nobody wishes to be the litigant who may end up having to pick up the tab for the legal costs of such an action.

Death - By Button Battery !

Some of the fastest growing product segments of today are powered by what are called " button batteries ".  These are lithium batteries smaller than the fingernail on the average persons little finger and if swallowed they react with stomach acids to cause death.  This is a danger the parents of small children fear because their bright, shiny appearance is attractive to little kids who lack the ability to tell Mum and Dad what they have done.

This is a fast increasing danger.  The button battery is gaining in power and being used in an ever greater range of products which are decreasing in size.  We can now expect to find them in TV remote controls, cameras, watches - and bathroom scales.  But the biggest danger is that as they become ever cheaper they are starting to appear in greeting cards, toys and all sorts of novelties appearing in low cost imported goods markets.

That cute, talking birthday card is probably powered by a button battery and whether it is adequately secured raises a very valid question.  This novelty market mostly originates overseas and the safety aspect only becomes an Australian concern when the product passes through our customs barrier. Our safety laws allow unsafe products to be seized and destroyed where offered for sale, but often by then the damage has been done.

Those big old batteries we are used to seeing are also dangerous, but they are generally too big to swallow.  In households with kids who also share with an elderly person who uses hearing aids there is an obvious danger. Battery replacement is a frequent need and if disposal of a used battery is unsafe it can be as deadly as a fully charged one.   Elderly people suffering from Dementia should not be tasked with changing batteries in their hearing aids.

So far this year there have been  nine cases of serious injury reported in Australia and about twenty children have swallowed button batteries. About one elder each week reports in that they have swallowed a battery from their hearing aid and in every case that requires immediate hospital action. The problem is that the ever increasing use of button batteries can only increase these statistics exponentially and some deaths seem inevitable.

There is a call for a crackdown on imported goods at our customs barrier.  It will be a huge task to inspect each and every import to check that the way any battery is secured meets an Australian safety standard and that needs to be clearly gazetted in vivid detail.  Ideally, removal of a battery should require the use of a tool that would not be readily available to children.

Perhaps the most important need is to educate the public that those shiny little batteries are not harmless.  That something so ubiquitous is deadly if swallowed is not universally known and in many households they are treated very casually.  If nothing else, their packaging should carry a clear warning of that danger !

Free Speech Limitations !

One of the most desired jobs sought by articulate young people is to be appointed as spokesperson for an industry or a sport.  Such a position has that person constantly in the news and it is generally accepted that they become a " personality ".  They receive invitations to A list events and their face is familiar whenever the enter a restaurant.  It is generally accepted that they maintain a silence on all forms of controversy and only speak in support of their employer.

When that clashes with our cherished right of free speech it generally results in the matter being put before a court to decide.  Such is the situation when Cricket Australia dismissed the woman they employed as their government relations manager in Tasmania when she publicly criticised the Tasmanian government over the cessation of abortion facilities in that state.

Of course abortion has absolutely nothing to do with cricket, but the fact that the person criticising is the person who usually speaks for the cricket industry will draw a close association in the minds of many people.  The fact that she is expressing her own opinion would not be clear when her usual public personae is the Cricket Australia spokesperson.

This looks to be heading for a hearing in the Federal Court of Australia where it will be claimed that the sacking breached the Fair Work act.   The claimant has rejected an offer by Cricket Australia for her to return to work and many will see this as " activist engagement " in trying to create a legal shibboleth of free speech under all circumstances.   This same Federal Court this week struck down the long standing right of industry to engage workers in a " casual " capacity - which does not provide holiday pay - when the work is consistent and long term and identical to that performed by permanent employees.

The right to abortion is a big issue in the feminist movement and this claimant will probably get widespread support.  Cricket Australia is put in an impossible position if the person they pay to maintain good sociable relations with a state government which provides facilities for the game is at the same time openly deriding government ministers over her view that their policies are resulting in the closure of abortion clinics.  The two issues are intermingled in the publics mind.

Until now, avoiding public comment on matters that fall outside their sphere of employment has been an unwritten rule for spokespersons.  They clearly have a need to keep their social life clear of controversy and even traffic infringements can make their employers nervous.  How the Federal court deals with this may have a profound effect on how the public relations industry sees the future.

If the court finds that free speech at all times is paramount it could bring the end of " personalities "  fronting the public and a reliance of press releases to fill that gap.  The risk factor that creating an image of a person associated with a sport or business is just too great if that person can on a whim speak out on other matters and bring the public relations message into disrepute.  Many an Australian boardroom will await that ruling with more than passing interest.

" Casual " Employees.

A vast number of Australian workers are employed on what is termed a " casual " basis rather than " permanent "  and consequently they do not receive holiday pay or protection from being laid off at short notice.  Many employers prefer this arrangement because it gives them greater hiring flexibility and so we have people doing exactly the same job, year after year in the form of employment that is known as  " permanent casual ".

That is now under threat.   The full Federal Court of Australia this week handed down a ruling that a truck driver employed at a Rio Tinto mine under a labour hire agreement as a casual was not a casual because of his regular and continuous pattern of work.   This is a new ruling because the Fair Work Act does not provide a definition of a casual employee.

This has caused consternation in the Australian Industry Group (AIG) which covers the mining industry because it means the employer would be liable to pay accrued leave on the same basis as a permanent employee when this casual finally terminates his employment.  It will have many employers across Australia having a hard look at how long their casuals have been employed and what repetitive tasks they do that may be interpreted because of this ruling.

This will not put an end to casual jobs.  What it means is that jobs that have all the normal work conditions of permanency will no longer be automatically termed and paid on a " casual " basis if the employee takes it to court for a ruling.  A precedent has been set and each case will be decided on its merit.

Many industries could not operate without a floating group of casuals who can be called in to cover peak demand.  Normally, such employment is intermittent and it may be seasonal.  In the food industry many workers are required to prepare meals and serve them during the lunch rush, but are not required at other times of the day.  Often they have two jobs, working for one employer for the lunch trade, and for another for the evening dining industry.

The AIG is calling for a fixed definition to apply to casual hire.  It wants the Fair Work act to be amended to clarify that an employee engaged as a casual and paid as a casual is a casual for the purpose of the act.  The ACTU has also called for a clearer definition, even as it welcomed the Federal Courts definition.

This employment status between casual and permanent has a decisive influence on quality of life issues.  A permanent employee has a much better chance of getting a housing loan than a casual and this preference affects everything from rental approval to community standing.  The Federal court has fired a shot across the bows of industry to signal that the days of " permanent casuals "  are under review.

A Racist Bigot !

Australia came into being as a remote prison colony in the far Pacific ocean after Britain lost a war - and with that its American territories on the other side of the Atlantic.  How that evolved into the nation that is Australia today is a matter of immigration.  People from all over the world chose to come and live in this new country because they were fleeing religious intolerance, oppressive government, military conscription or just the sheer grinding poverty that the political system elsewhere inflicted on the masses.

This week a new Senator rose to make his maiden speech and we were horrified to hear a call for the return of the white Australia policy and a total ban on Muslims being allowed to emigrate to Australia.   It was a speech full of bigotry and hate, and it contained a reference to a " final solution " which was code for Hitler's imposition of the  " Holocaust  " death of Jews in Europe.

Fraser Anning is a Senator because of a peculiarity of the Australian electoral system. He was third on the One Nation ticket at the 2016 election - and got just nineteen votes.  When Senator Malcolm Roberts was disqualified because of the nationality dispute, Anning was next in line to take the seat, but he walked away from Pauline Hanson's One Nation and joined Bob Katter's Australia party, becoming its lone Senator.

The parliament - and the nation - was so shocked at the vitriol inflicted on our way of life by a person who has gained the right to sit in the Senate.  It induced the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition to discard the usual hostility of politics and to shake hands on the floor of the house to unmistakably signal their rejection of Anning's message.

Anning is a rebel rouser and it says a lot about Bob Katter's politics that he has been welcomed into the Australia party.  Some Australians do have disquiet about Muslim immigration to Australia because of terrorist cells but the vast majority are good citizens and their religion is not a threat to this country any more than the mix of religions that now call Australia home.

Bob Katter's Australia party now owns Fraser Anning and it will be interesting to see how the vote performs at the next election.  Katter has always been a maverick and it is possible his following will provide support for both but if Anning continues these diatribes the rest of Australia will simply tune out.   The shock value of a racist ideologue will quickly fade.

What does seem certain is that we need to have another look at our electoral system.   When someone gets to win a seat in the Senate and partake of both the generous salary and the other perks of office - and have a say on what legislation becomes law in this country - by winning just nineteen votes in a country of twenty-five million people then the system needs review.

We have only to look at Europe to see the disintegration of  effective government by a plethora of minor parties holding the balance of power and thwarting effective government to see that creeping into play here.   When we go to the polls it is essential that we elect a government and give it the tools to effectively govern.  If they don't perform to our satisfaction, the next time around we simply replace them !

Sins of the Church.

The writing is clearly on the wall when church hierarchy of any denomination fail to take action to bring paedophiles in their ranks to justice. The days of simply moving them to another location are over.

Phillip Wilson is the most senior member of the Catholic Church to be found guilty of concealing priest Jim Fletcher's child sex crimes.  He received a twelve month prison sentence and this week that was commuted to be served by way of home detention.  He will have to wear a bracelet that will electronically reveal his whereabouts to prison authorities and he will become eligible for parole after a minimum six months.

This is a huge fall from grace.  Wilson was the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide and he has since tendered his resignation and this has been accepted by the Pope.  Some victims of paedophile priests are angry that Wilson has not apologised for his actions and it seems likely that he will appeal his conviction.

There is no doubt that many parishioners were aware of paedophiles within the church - and said nothing.   That silence was to preserve the good name and dignity of this bastion of Christianity and it was deemed better to look the other way than bring the church into disrepute.  That attitude still exists in some congregations today, despite a more open attitude being aired by the Pope.

Phillip Wilson is an old man and he has served as the sacrificial lamb that has set an important precedent. By chance George Pell, who is high in the pecking order of Rome, will soon face court on charges that will again turn the spotlight on the church.  There is no going back to that age of silence. Victims who speak out will be listened to and the police will investigate without hindrance from their superiors.

Many Catholics think it is time the church gave new thought to its requirement that priests take a vow of celibacy.  That is an unnatural state that tends to encourage deviant behaviour and could be the reason that paedophilia is so common in priestly ranks.  There is also growing pressure for women priests.

That is a matter for the elders of the church to decide, but the mask of silence has been broken. The church hierarchy put themselves in personal peril if they fail to discharge their obligations and cover up sins within the priesthood.  This prosecution and its aftermath has sent a breath of fresh air coursing through those musty corridors.  The obligations are now clear to all.

Euthenasia !

The right to legally allow those suffering a painful terminal disease to be assisted in ending their lives has had a rocky road trip in Australia.   The first Australian jurisdiction to make that legal was the Northern Territory, in 1996 but this was quickly struck down by the Federal government.  The rights afforded to the states do not apply to both the Northern Territory and the ACT and Canberra can override territory law.

Both Victoria and New South Wales introduced bills that would make terminally assisted death legal in their state.  The Victorian bill passed and it is now a reality in that state.  In New South Wales the progression failed - by just one vote.   We have the absurdity that what is legal in one part of Australia is totally illegal to the rest of the country's citizens.

Now a new attempt is happening on the Federal scene.  Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm is introducing a private members bill in the Senate where it will be debated this week.  He is confident that he has the numbers and the bill will pass in the upper house, but to become law it must also gain approval in the lower House of Representatives.

This is far from certain. Senator Leyonhjelm claims that he has an agreement with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to allow a free conscience vote in both houses of parliament on his euthanasia bill  in a " deal " in which his vote enabled the passage of government legislation in the Senate.  The Prime Minister is under pressure from conservatives within the Coalition and may renege on bringing this legislation to a vote.

The " right to die with dignity " is fast becoming a normal legality in many parts of the world. The alternative offered here is death in a " hospice " in which pain is managed by the use of drugs, often resulting in hastening the end of life.  Even this is bordering on the edge of illegality.

Perhaps the most common wish of the average person is for a " painless death ".  We are aware that when that word " Cancer "  is included in a doctor's prognosis the end may be very painful and it would be a great relief if legislation placed ending that coming pain in our own hands.  Surely that is a decision to be made within each individual's conscience.

It is quite clear where public opinion is heading.   The only opposition comes from some of the churches but few believe that a caring and loving God would be so vengeful as to wish us to die in agony.  There is a certain inevitability in death with dignity becoming legal.  The only remaining question is why it is taking so long !

Whodunnit ?

The political assassination is over.  The task is accomplished and the deed has been done. Emma Husar will politically cease to exist when the next Federal election is called sometime in 2019. The conspirators who achieved their aim can safely wash the blood from their hands.

This seems to be a typical case of a person who has achieved the distinction of winning a seat in parliament gaining a highly expanded ego.  Tacking "Honourable " to ones name is a huge elevation on the social scene and that person is entitled to staff to assist in running their office.  It is just too easy to become dictatorial and lose sight of the fact that they serve at the publics pleasure.

All the political parties have a mix of political alignments.  They are called the "factions "and they veer sharply left and right.  In many minds this factional viewpoint is more sharply defined that the general credentials of the party they represent.  They will gladly vote down legislation that does not meet the criteria of their personal view, even if it embarrasses their party leader.

It seems that Emma Husar had a high turnover of personal staff and it became known that she had the disposition to micro-manage her office.  The distinction between her "personal "and "political " life was merged and staff found themselves tasked with doing her shopping and exercising her dog, with a demand that cleaning up its droppings laws be strictly obeyed.  She was accused of subjecting staff to unreasonable demands, practices and disciplinary methods.

To enemies with an opposing factional viewpoint this presented opportunity. Staffers who had either resigned or were dismissed were encouraged to complain to the party and this led to an enquiry being ordered.  Barrister John Whelan headed that enquiry and when he began taking confidential evidence the whole matter was leaked to BuzzFeed.

It immediately sparked media excitement.  To drive that to a crescendo, a new story emerged that branded Ms Husar a sexual deviant.  With remarkable affinity to a movie scene from years earlier she was accused of deliberately crossing and uncrossing her legs in the office of a fellow parliamentarian while not wearing underwear.  It sent the voyeurs into a frenzy and the TV vans camped outside her front door.

Emma Husar capitulated.  She will not contest her seat at the next election.  John Whelan has cleared her of that sexual matter, but found that staff complaints did have merit.  Her political party is anxious to close the doors on this embarrassment, but the fact that a confidential enquiry was leaked to the media demands that the culprits be named - and shamed.

That will not happen.  The political "leak "is as old as the system of parliament itself.  These faction fights go on inside all political parties and it is up to individual parliamentarians to ensure that they leave no opportunity for their opponents - internal or external - to base an attack that will do damage.

What is new in this case is the use of sex as an avenue of attack on a female parliamentarian.   That breaks new ground and illustrates the depths to which factional fighting will descend to ruin careers and displace opponents.  It seems that factional war - it now total war !

Personal Health Records !

Just think of a very common health scenario.  You are shopping in Sydney and a turning truck swipes you with its side mirror.  You fall and hit your head on the pavement, rendering a state of unconsciousness.   The paramedics arrive promptly and diagnose the case as critical.  You are rushed to hospital under lights and sirens.

In the emergency department the triage team quickly determine you have a skull fracture and probable bleeding of the brain.  They search your pockets and discover your driving license. Immediate surgery is imperative, but they have no access to your medical records.  They need to know your medical history.  They need to know if you are allergic to any of the drugs they may use and that is critically important when it involves an anaesthetic.

The police rush to your home address but find it deserted.  Other family members are either at work or away and the kids are at school.  To save your life the medical team has no option other than to proceed with caution.  Your life hangs in the balance.

How much better if that hospital, having discovered your name and home address - could access your entire medical record and have it on screen for the doctors to study.   That is the aim of the " My Health Record " plan undergoing construction in the Federal parliament.  The aim is to have every GP visit. Every inoculation.  Every script written to be automatically added to your personal health record from the day you were born.

Unfortunately, that is the very information that would enable a scammer to assume your identity and accrue debt in your name.  To be of use that information would need to be held in a computer data base and we are well aware that hackers are constantly discovering new ways to penetrate even the most secure data systems.   This risk factor is making many people hesitate to accept this plan.

It is suggested that access to that health information remain entirely in each persons hands.  When they change their GP or consulted a specialist they would divulge their personal ID code to enable that practitioner access to their health record.  Emergency access could only be obtained by a court order.

In the scenario described above, that would have a severe limitation.  Going to court and finding a judge willing to grant access would take time.  It has been suggested that health record access should be available to all registered doctors automatically, but this has limitations.

That depends if the doctor is working for the patient, or is the servant of a company which requires a health examination as part of the employment procedure. In this world of genetic coding health records may contain information the patient desires to keep private.  That privacy concern comes into conflict with the need for fast and easy access in the event of a medical emergency.

The only reasonable option seems a guarantee that those who opt out have a block placed on their medical records being recorded.  The vast majority of people have no objection to their health record being available to the medical people they consult and it saves them the task of filling out the history forms most doctors require.

Whether this valuable medical instrument becomes a reality seems to depend on the contradictions of politics.  Whether the scare tactics of those opposed outweigh the benefits of having the entire medical history of each patient available at the click of a mouse.

Intracies of the Law !

It is an old maxim that says " nothing is certain within the law " !  Past cases can only be taken as a guide.  Each case brings a new interpretation of the thinking that will be applied and the finding that it delivers may set an entirely new precedent.

In June, 1995 a news media story enthralled Australia. The body of Caroline Byrne (24) a model and actress was found on the rocks beneath Sydney's infamous " Gap ".  The police began an investigation to determine if she died of suicide - or murder.

The chief suspect quickly became her boyfriend, Gordon Wood who was chauffeur to controversial stockbroker Reve Rivkin.  When he went to trial the prosecution was handled by the NSW chief prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi.  It was a complicated case and there were numerous errors. Photographs of the Gap alleged to be from 1996 were actually taken in 2003 and bushes that could have impeded Ms Byrne from gaining momentum to launch off the rim were therefore misleading.

An expert witness gave evidence that Ms Byrne might have been " spear " thrown to gain momentum and land well away from the cliff base.  When the case concluded Mr Woods was found guilty and sentenced to a long prison term.  He served three years, during which he was bashed and forced to spend his time in protective custody, before having the sentence reversed on appeal - and released.

Gordon Wood commenced a malicious prosecution case against the state of New South Wales with the claim that prosecutor Mark Tedeschi had conducted a malicious prosecution against him. On Friday, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton said she was not persuaded that the prosecutor acted maliciously and found for the state of New South Wales.  She awarded the state's costs against Mr Woods.

Justice Fullerton said the flaws in Mr Woods trial "  were ultimately productive of great unfairness " and though he had not been prosecuted maliciously, he had been "prosecuted without reasonable and probable cause ".  Justice Fullerton went on to say that when Mr Tedeschi gave evidence, " he  had a persistent lack of insight into the flawed approach he took ".

Mr Woods would have expected a payout running to millions of dollars for his distress and time spent in prison, but he is now responsible for the state's cost in this failed compensation case and that could cause him having to fund a claim that runs to a six figure total.

It is possible that this long running case may see more mileage.   The issue of whether the prosecution was " malicious " has been settled, but Mr Woods did spend three years in prison for a crime the court has decided he did not commit.  Mr Woods is now 55 years old and the notoriety associated with the  Caroline Byrne case is unlikely to help him establish a rewarding late career.

Now it depends on whether the state will persist in fighting any new claim for compensation - tooth and nail - or whether it will concede that the prosecution of Gordon Wood was not their finest hour and waive those costs awarded by Justice Fullerton and contribute a fair settlement ?

The only people expecting that to happen probably still believe in the tooth fairy !

Grammar and Punctuation !

Exactly what language do we speak and write in Australia ?  It could be said that what we use is the Australian dialect formed from the language that is commonly called " English " as is written and spoken in the British Isles.

An interesting test.  Try and read - and understand - some of the letters that have survived the voyages of Captain cook.  The spelling was vastly different in that era and the style of writing  different from today. An enormous number of new words have joined the language to illustrate the developments that have taken place since Cook.   The automobile.  Flight.  Space exploration.  The computer. The nuclear age.

All that didn't change in the twinkling of an eye. This change is constant and we are probably experiencing the fastest change ever with the advent of the mobile phone.  Texting has made abbreviation an art form and the prime abbreviators are our young people.  Punctuation has been a casualty of the need for speed.

NAPLAN was a clever idea to judge the reading and writing ability of our school children and compare age levels with those in other countries.  It has been mired in controversy from the start and the latest hold-up concerns the comparison of NAPLAN tests held in written form and those performed on computers.

These tests were not identical.  The written tests contained a series of easy questions to " build confidence "  and these were missing from the computer based tests.  There was a big difference in the ratio of tests between these two methods which must complicate state to state comparisons of results.  In Canberra all schools did NAPLAN online.  In the Northern Territory, none did.   In Queensland twenty schools participated online and in New South Wales more than five hundred held the computer version.

Some states are thinking of pulling out of NAPLAN because it is failing to deliver the results promised.  We are fast reaching the stage when communication comprehension between the children of today and their parents may be facing a widening gap because they both have a very different understanding of what constitutes our common language.

The language kids use between their peers seems to be a form of shorthand based on texting.  We are seeing some kids leave school without attaining the ability to construct a letter containing the text required in the business community.  This is not helped by having the school curriculum set on a state by state basis.   English/Australian is the language of this country and without a commonality there is the risk that it can subside into a form of dialect.

NAPLAN is too valuable to be allowed to fail.  It is high time the planners put their differences behind them and sorted out the problems to get this system working !

Faction Fight !

Politics has very little to do with the platform which political parties take to elections.  The real world is the power with which the various factions control the voting strength which decides if legislation will become law- or languish miserably because it fails to get the numbers.

We are seeing just such a faction fight embroiling Emma Husar of Labor who holds the Federal seat of Lindsay.  Ms Husar has decided to withdraw from this factional fight by opting not to recontest at the next Federal election.  She will remain in parliament until that occurs so as to not require a punishing by-election which would ignite the inevitable Turnbull - Shorten contest that dogged the recent by-elections stoked by that " foreign citizenship " issue.

Ms Husar claims that she is being attacked by former staff and a powerful right wing bloc who have not accepted her since she won the seat away from a former Liberal contender.  This has consisted of a " whispering campaign " in which she is accused of verbally abusing staff, having them run errands and exercise her dog, picking up its droppings and using her electoral allowance for personal shopping.

These claims are being investigated by an internal Labor party source but Ms Husar claims that her home has become a media circus with television vans parked outside her front door and her kids have been trolled online. Her tormentors have even added a sexual gambit to whip up public interest and take the issue to gutter level.  In a strange repeat of a story line from a movie of decades earlier she is accused of deliberately crossing and uncrossing her legs in the presence of a colleague - while not wearing underwear.

Labor's leader, Bill Shorten has given her support and many in the party have misgivings about his ability to win government at the next election.  A contender is waiting in the wings and Ms Husar's decision to withdraw from the fight and not contest her seat at the next election probably saved Shorten from a messy controversy in which he would be accused of backing a loser.

On the other side of politics, Malcolm Turnbull has problems with factions within his own party. Leadership today is far changed from those earlier days when " Ming the Merciless "  arched those impressive eyebrows at any party dissenter and had him or her banished to the back bench.

The politics of today requires leaders to be constantly cajoling their factions to step in line and vote in the interest of party solidarity.  The fact that they refuse is indicative of the poor standard of governance at both the Federal and state level.  There is little evidence that this will improve in the future.

The Future ?

When todays toddlers grow up and start earning a living, what sort of city do we expect Sydney to have become ?  One thing is absolutely certain.  It will have a lot more residents that it does right now.

One of the plans being put under the microscope concerns what is called the " Waterloo Social Housing Estate ".  We are hearing disparaging remarks that this will be the " ghetto of the future ". This estate will join the " Waterloo Metro  Quarter " which is a proposed large block around the metro station.  It includes 700 apartments over four blocks which will tower skyward between fourteen and twenty-nine stories.

Adjacent to this is the Australian Technology Park, a complex that will provide 10,000 jobs in the area and the existing Green Square development which will house 61,000 people, 22,000 of whom will have jobs in this area.  All of this is near Central station which will be the hub of the transport network that radiates to all areas of Sydney.

It makes sense to group people living close to a transport exchange that can get them to jobs anywhere in the city without the need to drive there in a car. Further job development is planned for the Central Station/Eveleigh corridor to create a " technology and innovation " precinct.  What the planners are trying to put together is a combination of attractive housing that provides easy access to a big choice of job varieties and also delivers a shopping and entertainment component to suit residents needs.

When people think of Waterloo they remember three big housing towers that became synonymous with a slum.  They quickly gained a reputation for unruly tenants and unreliable lifts that kept breaking down. They quickly became the destination for welfare housing tenants who were difficult to house and these towers had frequent visits from the police.  That address on a job application became an almost certain rejection.

The big difference is that this proposed development will not be government owned, but will be a mix of affordable social housing and private housing and it will be built to keep pace with demand over the next fifteen to twenty years.  It will be one of the highest density precincts in Australia but that should not detract from its appeal if standards are kept high and facilities keep pace with modern living.

A lot will depend on what image emerges as this development commences. Critics claiming it will become the " Ghetto of the future "  are not helping and this form of criticism can quickly form an image in peoples minds.  It will be very important that early residents portray satisfaction with life style and surrounding benefits and that will only happen if the promises made achieve reality.

This development needs to stick closely to its development timeline and the support functions be put in place early.  High density living is a necessity of the future and it can be achieved with strict adherence to the standards proposed.

Unexplained Wealth !

When a neighbour suddenly buys a Maserati, takes overseas holidays and is often seen squiring beautiful women to social events there is usually suspicion that this wealth has been illegally obtained.  The drug scene is often the venue for unexplained wealth.

A new law is percolating through a Senate committee which will give new powers to investigate the source of income on a national basis in place of the mix of state laws that deliver very different outcomes.  The laws of Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales have little in common and no law at all exists in the ACT.

This " unexplained wealth " legislation will force people convicted of crimes to prove that their wealth was derived from legitimate sources, rather than the onus being on the prosecutors to prove that it came from the proceeds of crime.  Banks will be forced to hand over any information they have on the unexpected wealth of a convicted client.

The Police Federation has been lobbying for this power for decades.  Crime bosses have been exploiting the difference in criminal laws in Australia, they claimed in their submission.  Both the Law Council and Civil Liberties Australia have reservations and have expressed concern that this new law could be misused.

Civil Liberties Australia cited the issue of such a law review passed in 2017 in Tasmania.  It was not confined to use against organized crime figures but applied to anyone whose wealth was unexplained or who may have profited from crime.  They found that Tasmania's unexplained wealth laws had been used to recover amounts as low as $3000.

This proposed legislation has been approved by the Labor, Greens and Coalition Senators on the committee and will provide exemptions for unexplained wealth under $100,000 or if the court is satisfied such an order " is not in the public interest ".  This will stop it being used for what are termed " fishing expeditions " arising from a conviction for a small and totally unconnected event such as a speeding fine.

Criminals are often their worst enemy when it comes to hiding their wealth.  The outcome of a drug bust often uncovers a treasure trail of opulent vehicles and " toys for the boys " which include jet skis, yachts and trail bikes.  This is flaunting wealth in the public eye and it is very reasonable that those convicted of a crime should be asked to explain the source of their money.

High on the list will be bikie gangs.  This is organized crime at its worst and is almost a separate universe.  Few people will object to a law that exposes the high end of crime to a need to explain wealth sources so long as this does not degenerate into a probe to allow governments to harass and intrude into the private lives of ordinary citizens.

That will depend on how this law is worded, and how it is interpreted by those judges who apply our laws !

Civil Rights Enigma.

The police would be not doing their duty if they did not check out several youths sitting on a bench outside a bakery in the Blue Mountains town of  Glenbrook very late at night.  As it happened, they were waiting to be picked up and taken home by the sister of one of the group who had been attending a local house party.

One young man was actually seventeen, but looked more like twelve or thirteen at the time.  He took offence at the police approach and was heard to respond with " F--- off, dog.  C---. "   He was moderately affected by alcohol and in response the cop grabbed him by his shirt front and swung him around, causing him to drop heavily to the ground.

The teen was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest, using offensive language in public and failing to obey a move on directive.  A children's court magistrate found the offensive language charge proven, but used his power to dismiss all the other charges.  Now aged twenty-one this man  sued the state for assault and battery, false imprisonment  and malicious prosecution.  He claimed to have felt " humiliated, embarrassed and scared " by the arrest.

A District Court judge handed down a $124,000 judgement against the state.  This consisted of $25,000 for assault and battery, $30,000 for false imprisonment and $45,000 for malicious prosecution - plus interest. The judge commented that the police officer was insulted by this personal and professional slight and over reacted by arresting the youth.

A fair minded person would concede that the police had every right to question youths lingering late at night to determine if they were planning a break-in or doing public damage. An explanation that they were waiting for the arrival of a lift home would have amicably settled the matter.  Instead, this youth gratuitously insulted the officers profession and personally added an epithet that most people would consider very insulting.

The sticking point seems to have been the officer using force to respond to that insult.  Surely the arrest should have been justified on that " using offensive language in public " charge.  The fact that a Children's Court magistrate chose to drop the other charges and a District Court judge awarded $124,000 from the public purse sends a message that the police can be verbally insulted  with impunity.

Police officers are also " people " and they have just as much right to civil rights as the rest of the community.  The outcome from this case will probably see police taunted with insults that their superiors will demand they ignore.  That is almost certain to result in aggressive police using the " bif " if they think they can get away with it.

In this instance, it seems that the courts have over played their power of discretion.  The police have a right to a degree of respect.  That young man was improperly rewarded.

The Ever Present Danger !

At 2 am on January 7, Evie Amiti, a 26 year old Transgender woman who used to be a drummer in a band walked into a Sydney 7-Eleven with a two kilogram axe on her shoulder and a 18 cm kitchen knife tucked into the back pocket of her jeans.

She circled the merchandise once and stopped behind the two other customers.  One was a man buying a meat pie after a night out and the other a woman in need of coffee before catching an early flight.  Without warning she swung the axe and hit the man in the face, caving in his nasal cavity and sending him to the floor in a flood of blood.   Then she hit the woman on the back of the head, fracturing her skull.  Prior to her trip to the 7-Eleven she had posted a rant on Facebook declaring " Humans are only able to destroy, to hate - and that is what I will do ".

That might have ended very differently.  Had the police arrived before her exit they would have demanded she drop the axe and the knife and if she  refused and they felt threatened they would have shot her dead. Police are trained to shoot to kill, not to wound.

When the police did arrive they tracked her to her home and arrested her.  She was charged with " wounding with intent to murder " and this week a jury of eight men and four women found her guilty. She had defended the charge on the grounds that she was mentally ill and that her mental illness was accelerated by drugs and alcohol.  In September, a judge will hand down the sentence that she will serve for this crime.

This was an unprovoked and heinous crime.  A man will need his face rebuilt and have a degree of disfiguration and the woman spent a long time in hospital and missed her flight.   The decision made by those jurors ensures that this crime will result in a prison sentence and while in jail the offender will be under medical supervision, and the warders will ensure that she takes whatever anti-psychotic drugs that are prescribed.

She will probably be a model prisoner, and that will be taken into account by the parole board. It is likely that in a very few years she is back on the streets of Sydney, and there is no guarantee she will continue to take the medication that ensures the publics safety.   Had the jurors accepted that insanity defence she would have been placed under medical supervision - and in todays world that means sent to the secure ward of a public hospital.

That would probably mean quicker release than from jail.  Hospitals are busy places with pressure to recycle beds. Anti-psychotic drugs quickly bring stability, but that problem of continuing medication after release seems to be a predictable cause of continuing crime by the same offenders.

We are seeing medical miracles from the drug industry and one aspect has been the development of slow release medication that can be implanted.  It would be helpful if anti-psychotic drugs could be adapted to this form.   That could deliver an interesting option for judges to deliver when  pondering sentencing.

In some instances there would be a need for such drugs to be administered for life, and that would be included in release options.  Failure to report for slow release renewal would bring an arrest order and hospital presentation for that to occur.  It seems quite obvious that relying on the mentally impaired to continue taking stabilizing medication is simply putting the public at risk  !

Recycling Plastic Bags !

People driving on a 250 metre long section of the old Princes Highway in Engadine may be travelling on the answer to what we are going to do with the avalanche of plastic that is fast filling our landfills. This week that road section was resurfaced with what to the eye of motorists looks like the conventional bitumen mix that we use on blacktops.

In fact that short length of road disposed on 176,000 plastic bags, 55,500 glass bottles and toner from 3960 printer cartridges - all mixed with asphalt to form a road surface which last sixty-five percent longer that the previous bitumen mix.  The boffins who created this idea claim that it delivers a better heavy traffic tread and costs only marginally more than the old mix used  for past decades.

The timing of this innovation is fortuitous.  We used to export much of our plastic waste to China but that country no longer takes such imports.  That puts our household recycling industry at risk and leaves little other option than landfill disposal.  Plastiphalt - as this road surface is named - is the answer we have dreamed of.   The ability to convert plastic waste into a useful product and recycle it here in Australia.

Recycled plastic already has some uses here but the industry scale is not enough to put a dent in the mass being sorted through the household recycling bin system.  Road  resurfacing is the big industry that can make the difference and it introduces economy of scale.  Once the amount being processed becomes large the price for the finished product falls precipitously.  We could also be looking at export opportunities.

The Australian companies that have developed this method claim it is an improved process on a similar venture in India where 10,000 kilometres of road has been surfaced with plastic infused bitumen.   The Australian operation is technically complex and it prevents the formation of microbeads which pollute waterways and poison marine life.  The water runoff from Plastiphalt is free of that problem.

The fact that plastic waste can now be refined and turned into pellets that reinforce bitumen as a road surface opens the door to inventive minds.  What other uses can it be turned to  ?  Plastic was initially formed from a raw material and this process simply turns it into another newer raw material.  The genius that is the human mind has measured progress over the centuries by creating new ideas and these recycled pellets await their turn to mesh with society's need.

Fame and fortune are the rewards waiting for the minds that successfully turn what we term " trash "  into  " treasure "  !

" Off the Plan " Boondoggle !

When unit prices were rising on an almost weekly basis the best way for price relief seemed to be to buy into a new building under construction on an " off the plan " basis.  It offered price certainty and there was the expectation of a completion date when the contract was signed.

As many people discovered,  the building that finally emerged often had little relation to the plan and illustration contained in the promotional brochures.  More floors may have been added and the unit plans changed to delete a bedroom or face the view in an entirely different direction, and often the quality would not meet the specifications advertised.

The developer was quite happy to cancel the sale and return the deposit.  The rising price of units meant that they could be put back on the market at a higher price and the loser was the patient buyer, deprived of the home that was within their financial reach when they were thrust back into the ever rising price bubble.  In contrast, the developer achieved a profit boost.The state government stepped in to end this boondoggle.  In 2015 it passed legislation to stop developers cancelling contracts to take advantage of upward price movements.  It's aim was to prevent developers creating false or misleading work delays to take the completion date beyond the rescission clause contained in off the plan contracts.

Now a case is before the courts and permission is sought to rescind the sales contracts of twelve buyers in a sixteen unit block in a fashionable suburb.  The developer contends that after the construction started the builder went into liquidation and he was unable to find a suitable replacement or raise any more finance.   The court heard that one purchaser was told the apartments may shrink from sixty five square metres to forty five square metres and each have a smaller balcony..  Others were offered their deposit back because the building had become " unviable ".

Those off the plan buyers saw it differently.   They contend they were not only kept uninformed about the situation they were deliberately misinformed. and this was intended to cause uncertainty in the hope that they might choose to rescind their contracts voluntarily.   The site has since been sold and the new owner is described as a " commercial pirate " who decided that he wants more money and embarked on a " bizarre and extraordinary "  series of correspondence to those holding contracts.

This is fast becoming a totally untenable situation.  If the court favours the buyers it seems unlikely that the finished apartments will bear much resemblance to the plan on which the buying decisions were made.  This could easily descend into endless litigation to try and force an unwilling builder to either compensate or lower the price charged to be more in accordance with what was delivered.

It is clear that the government needs to go back to the drawing board and design new legislation to keep " off the plan " contracts on track - and on time.  The easing of home and unit prices now taking place is unlikely to eliminate this scare and delay tactic to extract additional profit by artificially delaying new building completion.  These contracts need to be legally enforceable !

Plastic Bag Surrender !

It was a noble aim to rid the planet of those pernicious plastic bags that are fouling the ocean and killing wildlife.  The aim was to train the public to bring a re-useable bag with them when they went shopping and so the duopoly which controls the greatest share of the grocery market announced the end of free plastic bags at their checkouts.

Woolworths went first with that ban coming into place in June, followed by Coles on July 1.  Bewildered customers were offered a bigger and stronger plastic bag to contain their shopping at a cost of fifteen cents each. Many simply rebelled and Woolworths began giving away those fifteen cent bags " until the concept of re-useable bags takes hold ".  By the start of August, Coles was following suit.

Strangely, that is the retail experience here in New South Wales.  Single use plastic bags are banned by legislation in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, ACT and NT.  Victoria plans to implement a ban by 2019 and that leaves this state as the only one to leaving plastic bag removal a voluntary issue.

It really boils down to the amazing power of Sydney shoppers to dictate their wishes to the mandarins who head the Woolworths and Coles duopoly.  They nervously watch their bottom lines and at the first sign of a shopper revolt hoist the white flag and surrender.  This was despite the month of June seeing an amazing number of people bringing sturdy bags to the shops and adopting the re-useable bag principle.

Unless the New South Wales government bites the cherry and brings in a statutory ban it is likely that those fifteen cent bags will simply replace those single use bags and get absorbed into the grocery cost structure.  Add a few cents here and there to items on the family grocery shopping list and that added cost is covered.

Some may even argue that it solves the problem because the replacement bags are a brighter colour and avoid the appearance of jellyfish in water, which was a problem with sea animals mistaking single use bags for food.  Hopefully, these more expensive bags are biodegradable and will not take centuries to rot away in landfills.

The fact that the single use plastic bag was voluntary in this state put Coles and Woolworths at a big disadvantage. All their smaller competitors avoided taking the plunge and they were left to take the blame from their customers.  The media gleefully recorded customer outrage at the checkouts and it is likely that the public would have fallen into line had the bag withdrawal  been allowed to continue a little longer, as it has in other states.

It is unlikely that Coles and Woolworths will try again in this state without a legislative ban. That bigger, brighter, sturdier bag looks likely to be permanently accepted as a necessity of doing grocery business, and there is absolutely no incentive for the retailers of other commodities to take up the challenge.   The danger is that pressure will build in the other states to drop the ban in the interest of uniformity.

A New Banking Code !

That Banking Royal Commission certainly dragged the banks - kicking and screaming - into the public media forum and revealed the irregularities that have plagued customers for years.  Bank chiefs have vowed the industry will be under new obligations to be more ethical and customer focussed as part of a revamped code of conduct.

It is promised that from 2019 it will be far easier to cancel credit cards, and customers will get a warning letter when any interest free periods are due to expire.  This is to be the start of a more open regime with a more sustainable banking industry.  There will be stronger protection for customers who act as guarantors on loans - and they will be given a  three day cooling off period.

This revised code of conduct will be mandatory for retail banks that are members of the Australian Bankers Association and there will be a stronger commitment to ethical behaviour.  Customers will get better information about changes to their accounts and there will be delays in offering add on insurance products. Contracts for business loans will have fewer conditions to be met.  In the past, banks had been too quick to call in loans to small business.

This banking revision has come at a critical time for the agricultural industry.  Australia is suffering the worst drought in recorded history and it is quite possible that it may extend well into next year.  In the past the banks took  a heavy handed approach.  They often downgraded the value of the property because of the drought and this brought the risk ratio of the loan into negative territory.  As a result, farmers were forced off their land and the property sold.

It is important that the people who manage rural banking have at least a working knowledge of the agricultural industry.  Farming strategy is very different from merchant banking and banks need to be very selective when deciding promotions to rural areas. A city whiz kid may be hopelessly lost in charge of a branch with mostly farming customers.

Farming presents a different risk ratio.  Droughts eventually always end and then the farms are busy restocking and the cash flow hikes.  It is very much a boom and bust business but with a steady hand on the money supply the risk evens out over a period of time.   In the distant past, the patience of both the farmer and the bank was legendary.

Hopefully, the thinking of banks will have changed.  Prior to this Royal Commission the impetus of the banks - from the top down - was gouging to deliver profits.  Ridiculous policies were put in place and their instigators richly rewarded.  There was an atmosphere of sheer greed prevailing and it became a race between the big four as to who could deliver the most bloated bottom line.   It was a day of champagne and cigar parties on the day profits were announced.

The customers will be sceptical.  Now it is up to the banks to prove that they have turned the corner and behave ethnically !

The Rain Threat !

Last year we had the hottest summer on record and this winter has been unusually mild.  The usual  end of a hot day in Australia is a thunder storm.  They are spectacular, but we mostly regard them as harmless.

 This rise in heat has produced a new phenomenon that has attracted attention on a world wide basis.  It is now delivering what is being called the " Flash Flood ".  The intensity of those thunder storms  concentrates the water delivered to a small section of the earth beneath to such an extent that there are landslides, intense flooding that sweeps away cars and houses - and people.  This is the destruction that we view on our television screens when nature delivers one of these flash floods on an unprepared community.

That has always been an eventuality, but now it is becoming more common.  We are living in a warmer world and there is the expectation that it will warm further still in the years ahead.  We need to take this into account in the way we build houses and in the planning of new estates to ensure that wastewater systems can clear this water and avoid it becoming a major flood descending on those living at lower levels.

Unfortunately, the engineering standards we are using were calculated before world warming became a new threat.  It has long been understood that the atmosphere contains about 6.5 percent more moisture per degree of temperature, but that is magnified by the storm intensity.  The fury of the storms we are seeing is now dropping a greater degree of intense rain in concentration to a smaller area below.

The demand for new housing is seeing new estates established on flood plains and new housing standards needs to apply.  Building a single level home on a slab almost guarantees a flood in the event of a flash flood event.  That would be better served by the living quarters on the upper level and the grounds floor reserved for garage parking and play areas.

More attention needs to be given to waste water disposal.  The damage from a flash flood can be mitigated if the drains are capable of quickly handling that excess water and limiting the damage.  Even  a small amount of water penetrating homes ruin carpet and destroy furniture, and usually this is not covered by insurance.  Cleaning and repairing a flood damaged home is a miserable experience.

Global warming has been a divisive issue.  There seems to be no doubt that the ferocity of thunder storms has increased and this flash flood phenomenon has become a reality.  Due to its intensity, there is now no such thing as a " flood free area ".  Our engineering standards urgently need an upgrade to accommodate this new reality.