new Australian Anthem

Especially if you live in a fast developing area, you can see this more clearly

They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parkin' lot

...

I don't wanna give it
Why you wanna give it
Why you wanna givin it all away
Hey, hey, hey
Now you wanna give it
I should wanna give it
Cuz you're givin it all away, no no

the example of Adelaide

our politicians are complaining we don't listen to them when we fail to accept the message they are trying to sell.

Perhaps they should stop regarding us as kids who must eat what we're fed?

The Big Australia is an excellent bit of such garbage.

It was interesting to read that a recent study found that Adelaide was now ranked top of the most livable cities in Australia ... gosh that's a change. Perhaps quite a lot has to do with the crowding there.

Crowding is not just something which "happens" it comes from growth. Lets look at growth of the mainland state capitals since 1901



So, looking at ABS data shows the familiar kick in growth caused by changes in immigration in the 1950's and also that some time around 1970 Brisbane started to join Sydney and Melbourne in growth while Adelaide slowed in growth (resembling more the growth trends in major European cities). Brisbane was once a most livable place, but is now quite crowded and congested. Perhaps its time the Politicians started listening to us instead of saying we're not listening to them .

essential skills in short supply

In this mornings Australian, Jennifer Westacott of the Business Council of Australia argues that skills in Australia are in short supply.

I would argue that this is especially the case in the upper levels of Governance and Planning in Australia.

So unless the target of migrant intake is to get rid of politicians who sell off our assets, reduce our capacity and saddle us with ridiculous water infrastructure management (with little done about providing infrastructure itself) well I can't agree.

take for example this figure:

New job creation is running at about 30,000 a month

which is quite implausible as anyone looking for work knows. What this figure certainly included is jobs which are such as construction. This may create a job for 6 months and then it goes away.

So unless you're going to have migrants who come for 6 months and go away its blatantly false to argue this case.

she goes on to argue that

The rate of growth has fallen to 1.6 per cent, its lowest in four years.

thank God ... its been insane for years.

She momentarially pulls her head out of the sand with this:

three-pronged strategy is needed for a sustained increase in the skilled workforce: investment in education and training, commitment to a sizeable, permanent skilled migration program and greater use of temporary skilled migration visas.

which contains the single good point of investment in education and training but is likely to be subjugated to the skilled migration program and greater use of temporary skilled migration visas which will make more profit for business and leave more Australians underemployed.

She rightly points out that:

Well-managed population growth will require a commitment to effective long-term planning of our transport, energy and water infrastructure needs, fast-tracking of key infrastructure projects and policy settings that support private investment and efficient delivery of large projects.

but to date that is not what we've seen ... with the majority of spending on the infrastructure to dig it up faster and ship it out faster ... see this ABC article to support that.

A new report on infrastructure spending says investment in Queensland continues to be led by resources projects

So if you think that the multi billion dollar spending on stuff such as Allconnex has brought a single extra drop of water to your door then perhaps you'll think this is a good idea. To what I see it just appears to be good for providing more for those making money out of us and nothing better for us.

Police

The attitudes of colonialism where it was the rough wild land which needed to be tamed for the King (now Queen) are still pervasive in the Police. They still display the attitudes of bosses who enforce the will of the King rather than anyone how is protector for the people.

No better example of this can be found in the display of heartlessness and callous disregard to people in Toowoomba recently in their "freak" flood event.

I would encourage you to read the ABC news item here. Essentially the emergency phone operator berates victims of the horrific flood event and shows no compassion or displays the dispassionate non-judgmental attitudes which are needed in this circumstance.

The operator, Senior Constable Jason Wheeler in the communications centre of the Toowoomba police station, replies: "Why did you drive through floodwater?"

A distressed Ms Rice replies, "It wasn't this bad then," to which Senior Constable Wheeler replies, "Yeah, well".

Senior Constable Wheeler asks her the model of the car but her safety was not inquired after.

Well Constable Wheeler, perhaps your ill-informed opinion of the circumstances was wrong. Perhaps it was not a flooded creek which was driven though, but rather an event you could not comprehend? Perhaps you could and should be better trained to grasp that "you do not know all the facts" and "you should be professional"

Chilling and disturbing, but in light of this the police attitude is "its all ok"

But police have defended their handling of triple-0 calls made at the height of the city's flood crisis.

Sergeant Bob Coleman, who was in charge of police communications on January 10, says the switchboard was swamped with life-threatening emergency calls.

He told the inquiry he is satisfied with the way they were handled under the circumstances.

clearly there is a rotten judgmental uncaring culture which needs to be weeded out.

We are supposed to trust these people?

---

PostScriptum

reading in the SMH later today I find the following reasonable sounding defense.

QPU president Ian Leavers said chaos in the Toowoomba emergency call centre on the afternoon of January 10 highlighted the dire working conditions of regional call centre operators.
"I have repeatedly said that under-resourcing and under-staffing of the police service by government is really affecting how police can do their job," he said.
"The call centre in Brisbane is brand new, but as soon as you go past Caboolture to the north, Logan to the south, and Goodna to the west, the police call centres are third world standard.

...

Senior Constable Wheeler, who took Ms Rice's call at 1.49pm, said he had no appreciation at the time that she was in major danger.
“There was no panic or distress in her voice, no,” he said.
Senior Sergeant Wheeler said minor flooding had occurred at the same intersection in the past, and her request to him to call a tow truck did not suggest a sense of urgency.
However he said he reported himself to a welfare officer a day or two after the call, expressing concern that he did not keep his frustration in check.
“You self-evaluate, 'how can I do the job better?',” he said.

but to me the general assumption by Police remains "you're guilty and or wrong"

migration pressure - knock on effects

Australia since the creation of a colony by the English has been as a bloody great place to come over to and see what you can rip up and take away. Some people started doing this back in the earliest days of the colonial period of Australia.

Recently I wrote about the effects on population created by changes in immigration



Its interesting to see that at the same spot where the population growth started to ramp up we see another trend observed by the researchers at Australian Bureau of Statistics ... that up until the 1940's Australia was increasingly populated by people born here. Then, after that point in time, ramping up the migration rate meant that less and less people who call themselves Australian are Australian born.

ABS has a very interesting page
click to read larger version

So at the moment around one in four Australians are born here ... and looking at the modern end of that curve, the trend seems to be continuing and perhaps increasing.

Now, its interesting to note that the real growth of interest in conserving and protecting (as opposed to chopping down digging up and outright exploiting) came from about the time when most Australians were born here. Its also interesting to note that there is a decrease in interest in environmental issues, and that the environmental party (the Greens) has become subverted away from the environment and become some sort of radical urban based party.

I put forward that this is caused by the increase in immigration. We have less and less people who really understand Australia and an increase in the changes to what Australia is.

By having an increasingly itinerant population is it any wonder that noone gives a rats arse that your home is being degraded?

interesting points in the paper

two interesting points raised here:

10,000 tonnes of Australian iron ore exported five years ago could buy 280 imported dishwashers. Today it buys 1400 dishwashers. "On any measure, we are living through a boom," she says.

...

First, with Australia's terms of trade at their highest level in at least 140 years, the budget should be well in the black by now, not limping into a small surplus in two or three years.

so why aren't we? I'd put forward the staggering cost of our staggering growth as the reason.

Do you have any other to suggest?

Queensland Environment Minister

I was just watching something on the ABC and noted some quite young blond girl fronting up a policy which is supposed to make a difference in land fill amounts (no idea how, but that's another story)

It seems that the Minister is Kate Jones ... I was stunned that someone so young who sounded so inexperienced. So I looked her up. When I accessed www.qld.alp.org.au I got the following information:

• At 29 Kate is the youngest member in the Bligh Cabinet


• Before running for State Parliament, Kate was a Senior Media Advisor to the Queensland Minister for Public Works, Housing and Racing, Robert Schwarten
  
• Kate is a member of a number of local community groups, including the Ashgrove Historical Society, The Gap Community Association, Ashgrove Meals on Wheels, Enoggera Respite Centre Management Committee and environmental group Save Our Waterways Now. She is also Patron of The Gap Little Athletics and the Ashgrove Rangers


• Kate firmly believes in education for all and has a strong interest in environmental policy


• Kate is also a member of Amnesty International and The Fred Hollows Foundation and supports World Vision

So why was she chosen as our environment minister?

I don't see anything in the least which gives any indication that she has any experience or qualifications in the role.

apart from perhaps having a strong interest in environmental policy ...

?