An open thread where, at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like. (Belated due to a scheduling snafu)
(Prefer to join a more focussed discussion? Try our recent roundtables for recent lively discussions or browse our archives for topics of interest)
To the stars
Well, it’s been a very busy week of protests in the federal electorate of Batman against Martin Ferguson’s spy-on-the-protesters campaign recently reported by Philip Dorling in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
On Thursday, the Say No to NOSIC protest by Occupy Melbourne caused Ferguson to close his Preston electorate office, reportedly due to “occupational health and safety” concerns – despite a very healthy atmosphere of democratic, public interest protest, apart from the needless and excessive presence of Victoria Police and the AFP.
The protest focused on the Government’s use of a private firm, the so-called National Open Source Intelligence Centre (NOSIC), to gather what they claim is publicly available information about green protest groups.
Now a new project has been proposed to open-source Marin Ferguson himself, this time in the public interest.
The Ferguson Open Source Information Links (or FOSsIL) project is calling on protesters to pool their knowledge of genuine open source links to information about Martin Ferguson’s climate policies and decisions through the use of the Twitter #FOSsIL hashtag.
Among the the sources so far are OpenAustralia’s page on Ferguson’s parliamentary speeches, and the Wotnews page of the latest Ferguson coverage.
I’m interested to hear what people think about this idea. If you’d like to read more, have a look at my post, Open-sourcing Martin Ferguson:
http://northcote-independent.blogspot.com/2012/01/open-sourcing-martin-ferguson.html
Cheers, Darren
I think today I will complete the transformation of my screen name from sg to faustusnotes. You have all been warned! (Well, you will be when the moderators fish this comment out of the bin).
Watching with great interest Bob Brown’s decision to walk out of weekly meetings with Julia Gillard over Tasmianian forests. My suspicion is that the PM’s office may feel that its in their interests to see this dispute drag out publicly for a while, at least until February Newspolls come out.
I also noted that Andrew Wilkie was making much of his recent meetings with the PM, suggesting that he may have secured a preference deal with the ALP in Denison.
Some subtle yet significant shifts in political tactics in Julia Gillard’s office seem to be occurring with the arrival of The Scotsman has her new Chief-of-Staff.
Election day. Off to a polling booth and then to watch the vote count with other observers.
http://nottspolitics.org/2012/01/14/five-things-to-look-for-on-election-day/
Kevin Rudd comments noted by Lowy:
http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2012/01/13/Rudd-weighs-in-on-the-Taiwan-poll.aspx
Darren – I went to the Keeping an Eye on Martin Ferguson action. I wasn’t really needed as it wasn’t a demo as such but a tight and quite well run spoof with young men in suits, trilby hats and dark glasses. I was given a sign to hold and watched the spies do their stuff. Blogged about it here – that reminds me I should post a couple of Quit Coal’s photos of the action, which are better.
Of course, “here”should have included a link… http://bit.ly/z2iW3H
Thanks for your first-hand account of the “covert operation”, Helen!
Yes, it was a very effective piece of theatre, and, thankfully, for everyone’s amusement, it was filmed. Listen for the hilarious punchline at the end (need to scroll down to see the video):
http://quitcoal.org.au/2012/01/big-brother-ferguson-is-watching/
It was a bit sad, however, to see the police officers there not to repel what is a purely imaginary threat from protesters, but to defend and protect a real one – the threat posed by Martin Ferguson to the global climate.
I blogged the Thursday Say No to NOSIC demo here:
http://northcote-independent.blogspot.com/2012/01/thats-pretty-clear-no-to-fergusons.html
Cheers, Darren
Back to London tomorrow … argggh!
Well, things are getting well odd again. Here we have Hugh Morgan sympatising with those receiving a pittance in employment benefits.
Of course he thinks that any increase in said allowance should be “done in conjunction with cutting the costs of employment”
Christ almighty, these people have no shame.
From Wiki “Morgan is a politically vocal member of the Liberal party. He is sceptical of global warming, opposed to the Kyoto Protocol and, as a member of the Greenhouse Mafia and president of the Lavoisier Group, was central to a campaign to prevent the Federal Liberal Government from acting to cut emissions.”
Just goes to show how reprehensible is the Labour government’s asinine refusal to lift unemployment rates when a piece of work like that finds a soft spot in his heart for the unemployed.
“people are made to be loved and things are made to be used.
the confusion in this world is that people are used and things are loved”
from https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Idealist/212514318782022
@ Salient Green..
From Terry Pratchett – “And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
Truth is where you find it
Partick….there is an article here examining why unemployment is going up.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/labors-big-jobkilling-machine-20120115-1q15f.html
Shorter version, for those on lower wages still hanging on to penalty rates and paid overtime….for the good of the country now is the time to sacrifice those.
tssk,
Is that Paul Sheehan clown the full quid? Never heard of him before but I couldn’t get past the first two paragraphs. A couple having to work in their own restaurant (the shame of it all!) and clearly due to poor management won’t be opening a second restaurant, but that’s the govt’s fault. I wouldn’t mind one.
Gotta love right-wingers privatise the profits, socialise the losses.
Darin, thanks for that. I am a fan of Pratchett.
Darren Lewin-Hill -re. open source file on Marn. It’s his job to ensure that the mining sector feels that it is getting the government it paid for. I mentioned your proposal to a 12 year veteran Federal ALP adviser who replied “that’s an excellent way to deal with the pr*ck”. Good work.
Jacques. The thing is in the current economic environment employees need to learn that there’s more to life than money and that passion for excellent service will get them so much further. Call it miracle water for the soul.
Oddly enough these sacrifices we’re asking low paid workerson the weekend to make should not apply to bankers and executives as that would apparently hurt the economy.
Apparently Paul Sheehan has crook figures in that piece.
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2012/01/12/morgan-face-to-face-54-46-to-coalition/comment-page-43/#comment-1126804
I am strongly in favour of penalty rates for working back shifts. However, there are potential benefits for those near the bottom of the pile, from trading off penalty rates in return for increases in base rates that are large enough to avoid reductions in the wage bill:
1. Growing penalty rates are part of the reason for the difference between average and minimum wages. In 1960 the drillers I worked with got a 25% loading for O/T. Now it is more likely to be 50% or higher.
2. For many workers the OT and weekend penalty rates are a critical part of their earnings. (10 hrs at double time adds 33% to weekly wages.) Consequences:
a Stronger financial pressure on workers to work longer than they want to and to be away from families when parents should be spending time with children.
b Workers are less likely to be willing to share the work with those who desperately need a job when what this means is giving away time on penalty rates.
c. Incomes are more variable because cutbacks in hours = cutbacks in time on penalty rates. Unexpected cutbacks can put families under financial strain even if the job is not lost completely.
Unions often argue that high penalty rates push employers to share more fairly. I would put it that the converse is true.
We have also moved away from a world where the recreation of most workers is tied to weekends. We would make better use of our resources and suffer less traffic congestion both business and time off was spread over 7 days/week. There is a logic for people averaging 3.5 days work a week.
joe2, Sheehan always has crook figures (or some major category error). He’s a lot like Blot, except he’s from Sydney and works for Fairfax.
Good to see Balibo screened on ABC-TV last night. Congratulations to all involved in its making.
Happy New Year ALP(green+ind) you still stink.
2pp 46-54.
It’s like their in a limbo comp.
I dunno, jumpy, I reckon this is actually the best government we’ve had in my lifetime (despite a lingering fondness for Gough). At least they get stuff done (after talking to the adults). I just hope Gillard doesn’t give the JuLiar folk fuel by reneging on the pokies deal.
Wilkie has caved.
Can’t see him winning next time round. Once he is gone, then so is his baby.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillard-retreats-on-pokie-reforms-20120117-1q4sw.html
Holy crap! The ALP caved again!
So how long before we have before Abbott is PM? I’d be really really pissed if I was in the hospitality industry relying on weekend rates right now as I’m guessing that will be the first to go.
Yep – If Wilkie gets any legislation up that is even 90% of his proposal – Mandatory Precommitment and through Parliament before the budget – I’ll be extremely suprised.
Poor old ALP – now they’ve broken promises with the Greens, the Independents and 70% of the electorate. Anyone missed out yet?