The Prime Minister announces a 10 billion dollar water plan and is acclaimed for his vision. It would have been vision if he'd announced it soon after being elected in 1996. In 2007 it is catch-up, necessity and a canny response to Rudd in an election year. Still, better late than ever but I have a few questions: 1. Why are vast the majority of Australians being asked to suffer water restrictions and change their shower heads to save a few litres when agriculture accounts for three times as much as household use (Aust Bureau of Statistics)???? Of course our farmers must grow our food but when so much of our food is being imported why are we using so much water to grow rice and cotton???? If we imported these two products imagine the water we would be able to redistribute. What a con job this water thing is. What I mean by a con job is that with vision equivalent to that which produced the Snowy Scheme we could harvest the oceans of water that go to waste every year in Australia's inland. We have put in place pipelines of enormous length to shift natural gas around the country. Other nations have built pipelines to carry oil thousands of kilometres. Right now huge areas of inland Australia are awash with floodwaters. By not harvesting these annual natural oceans and diverting them to the cities is like not having a rainwater tank on your house to take advantage of the next storm. If Cubby Station can catch annual overflow water in quantities greater than several Sydney harbours WHY CAN'T GOVERNMENTS DO THE SAME THING ON A MUCH GRANDER SCALE?
The Palm Island review is complete and the policeman is to be charged with Mulrunji’s manslaughter. See my aussie values blog link opposite.
The Pommies can only make 110 on Australia Day. Fortunately those great Aussie values of compassion and fair go and support for the underdog preclude a class action by those fans who, throughout the summer, have expected Test Matches to go 5 days and One Dayers to go 50 overs an innings.
Tim Flannery is (deservedly) announced by PM Howard as Australian of the Year and five minutes later sticks it into Howard for not doing something about climate change sooner. Irreverence for authority is an Aussie value that is alive and well and Flannery is to be commended for not succumbing to the sycophantic role that Howard’s spin doctors probably hoped for. Howard would most likely have preferred Shane Warne but saw an environmentalist as a more astute election year choice that might bolster his Johnny-come-lately environmental credibility.
Kevin Rudd included ‘community’ in his Australia Day list of Aussie values. I saw ‘community’ in full swing in the Buderim celebrations. A lot of hard working community minded people put on a great breakfast and then an impressive parade that featured a lot of groups that comprise volunteers who work to serve the community. No doubt Australians role up their sleeves in large numbers to provide physical and financial support for many causes. Of course I don’t know whether other societies and cultures do this to a greater or lesser extent but I suspect that when people need help anywhere there are many who put their hand up to share what they’ve got or to offer help.
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4 comments:
Hi Peter,
Blogging seems to be the way to go as far as sharing one's views of the world. I am very new to it, although a friend as of mine who has just had a major cancer operation set up a site to keep friends informed of her progress, rather that the inundation of phone calls one could get. Great idea and worked successfully, kept up to date by one particular relative.
I heard an interview with John Button the other day and he commented on the 'values' espoused by the liberal government, and asked how come the practice of these values don't apply to David Hicks. Speaking of Hicks, I have come to the conclusion (especially with the recent charge of murder) that the entire episode is really about the US making sure that little old Australia knows it is being kept in its place - and David Hicks just happens to be the pawn in the sandwich.
Re the water situation: we have no water restrictions in the Bega Valley at all. Yes, you heard me - noe at all. Everyone else in the country has some form of restriction and we have none. Tourists must visit here and think they are in heaven - fool's heaven where one can use water ad infinitum.
The council behaves rather foolishly with absolutely no vision beyond teh next half hour. How's this? In the small village of Wolumla, over the past years, many residents installed enviro-cycle to remove waste and 'care for the environment'. Now, with the installation of the new sewerage system, they aren't allowed to use their enviro-friendly systems, being forced to go on the sewerage. Oh dear, bureaucracy is having a wow of a time - from Johnny HOward down to the little folk in the Bega Valley.
OUr renovations continue and continue (seemingly forever, but my patience is improving! We have ordered our 4,500 litre tank which will be here in 5 weeks. We are mulching and chomping like crazy and the garden has a few flowers and herbs; my tomatoes are great; so were the corn and strawberries - not to mention the capsicum, chillis, celery, lettuce, aubergine and lemons. The golf continues to improve as does my watercolour painting which I love doing. (Karissa's painting is great. Good on you Karissa.)
The bookclub I am in has just done autobiography and I read Anne Summers - good read and a reminder of the major steps taken by women for women since we were in our twenties. (Did you by any chance hear Phillip Adams interview on LNL last week with the author of Infidel - amazing woman (Ali....?)
Tonight I am off to a birdwatchers meeting (yes, a twitcher!)and the person is talking about the destructive nature of bellbirds.( he has a govt grant to trap and gas thousands of them which are killing the eucalypts in this area. They somehow strip the very tall leaves...or eat the insects? However, I'll find out tonight. (sounds like a plot for Midsummer Murders....)
Great idea to have a blog - not sure I'll do it - Have I got time between renovating, walking the beach and golf????
CYA,
Carmen in Pambula
Wow!!! This is a bloody good blog.
Mick
Great Blog Peter,
Intrigued to hear views
Just remember that KEV'S TEAM was not calling for a water plan 10 years ago either.
In fact they have had a lot of trouble just deciding who the powerful unions would allow as a leader.
Howard has made a lot of hard decisions, politically problematic ones and unpopular.
Vision is in the eye of the beholder.
As for the Detainee well, he is a silly boy isn't he, maybe a real silly sausage himself.
We want hard workers, people of intelligence,vision and those who seek to inclusive.
Was he called to battle for our country, Na! just wanted to shoot someone for money. Isnt that what mercinaries do?
Perhaps we cosy up to the yanks because we are in very different hemsiphere surrounded by unstable nations with a small population and we feel the Yanks would help us out if needed.
I cant see many more nations rushing to our rescue, do you reckon Indo would come and help us??
Got that.
We need Iraq like a hole in the head.
Call Howard what you like but gutless is not one of them.
And that is the difference to the nice cosy world that Kev's team is trying to exude.
They are the warm & cuddly Dudleys who rely on popularist techniques using old rockers / ABC Journos / Bush Fire Commissioners and the like OH and the wharfies/ coal mining unions & CFMEU boys of old.
The Prime Ministers job is the biggest job in Australia.
Do you really reckon Cuddly Kev is up to it?
Its (not)" Time" again.
Not Yet ....... When the Labor Team passes maths and can get a budget right, then it maybe its time.
At present they can smell the money pot and want to spend it up.
Education is the key and lots of $ should be spent on that.
Does it matter if you send your kid to a private school, the parents just pay twice.
Its their choice they pay tax ,so the kids should get federal money if the State Systems run by Labor are failing.
Ireland spent heaps on Education in the Nineties, they are now a European tiger.
Ther is always going to be the haves and the have nots, if we educate people well then the world should be better place.
It is the key to moving forward.
WINSTON GOUGH
Thanks for the comments Winston, much appreciated. You certainly cover some ground. I guess the whole political thing is like an evolving scorecard. For the participants and for the population it's the final score that counts. I believe that come November the score will favour Team Kev. (Although the recent election in NSW shows that a tired government that's been in for ten years and is unpopular can still win.)
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