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Shed A Tier, Human Rights, East Timor Concert, IR the economy and ... Savaged by A Dead Sheep
Quite a week. On Friday I gave a presentation at the 11th Shed A Tier Conference in Mirboo North with a paper entitled Universal Rights, Common Wealth and Confederacy which apparently has received some excellent feedback. It was a quite a good gathering, although small and with a few One Nation types in the audience. I spent a fair bit of time chatting in particular to Lyn Allison, leader of the Australian Democrats, and to Mark Drummond, a PhD student in mathematics who has calculated that the abolition of State governments could save public finances some $20+ billion dollars (see Australian Journal of Public Administration, December 2002).
Somehow just prior to this managed to finish the submission to the State Government on the proposed Charter of Human Rights and get it signed on Sunday. Sunday was also the day of the Melbourne Unitarian concert for the Taibessi Women's Cooperative in Dili. We had a fair turnout, about 70, and raised some $600 for East Timor Women Australia, along with signing a MoU between the two organisations. Just finish off the events of the day, two members of the congregation had a wedding! Apparently it was planned, but they hadn't advertised it.
Also managed to receive a visit from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vasco_pyjama in the past few days which was very cool. The rats were very fond of her. In Outbreak of Heresy, the noble multi-religious party were saved from some weirdos in Order of the Dragon, but no less than Francis David. RuneQuest playtest notes pour in at a rate of fifty a day, sometimes more.
Howard's industrial relations agenda to raise productivity may hit finite limits - Australian's are already working too hard. Seventeen of Australia's leading economists have also expressed their doubts that it has anything beneficial in it, least of all to the critical issues facing the Australian workplace. Viadarkstardiety, Financial Risk is being put on households as Housing prices fall. I told you so.
The third paper this week was a response to a figure no less amusing than Andrew Landeryou having a go at me on his "Internet radio" on its premier show. It is, as I say in my response "like being savaged by a dead sheep", but does raise some very important questions on the future of the Labor Party. Landeryou seems to think that Labor should surrender to the culture and infrastructure of the socially fragmented outer suburbs (which he doesn't live in, of course). I think otherwise.
Weekend looks busy. First there's Continuum including a 2600 members' birthday party and a housewarming on Saturday. Finally, I've decided not to run again for committee membership of SAGE-AU. Too much on my agenda, and some things have to be shed.
Somehow just prior to this managed to finish the submission to the State Government on the proposed Charter of Human Rights and get it signed on Sunday. Sunday was also the day of the Melbourne Unitarian concert for the Taibessi Women's Cooperative in Dili. We had a fair turnout, about 70, and raised some $600 for East Timor Women Australia, along with signing a MoU between the two organisations. Just finish off the events of the day, two members of the congregation had a wedding! Apparently it was planned, but they hadn't advertised it.
Also managed to receive a visit from
vasco_pyjama in the past few days which was very cool. The rats were very fond of her. In Outbreak of Heresy, the noble multi-religious party were saved from some weirdos in Order of the Dragon, but no less than Francis David. RuneQuest playtest notes pour in at a rate of fifty a day, sometimes more.Howard's industrial relations agenda to raise productivity may hit finite limits - Australian's are already working too hard. Seventeen of Australia's leading economists have also expressed their doubts that it has anything beneficial in it, least of all to the critical issues facing the Australian workplace. Via
darkstardiety, Financial Risk is being put on households as Housing prices fall. I told you so.The third paper this week was a response to a figure no less amusing than Andrew Landeryou having a go at me on his "Internet radio" on its premier show. It is, as I say in my response "like being savaged by a dead sheep", but does raise some very important questions on the future of the Labor Party. Landeryou seems to think that Labor should surrender to the culture and infrastructure of the socially fragmented outer suburbs (which he doesn't live in, of course). I think otherwise.
Weekend looks busy. First there's Continuum including a 2600 members' birthday party and a housewarming on Saturday. Finally, I've decided not to run again for committee membership of SAGE-AU. Too much on my agenda, and some things have to be shed.
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Given the amount of stuff you do, when do you sleep?
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In my last post I did mention I've cut back on work ;-)
Also, it's a rare time that I watch TV or videos.
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No, you haven't. You've just cut back on working for a paycheque...
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Haha.. Quite right. But things were piling up and my bank account was looking healthy enough. So I made a choice - more time, less money.
"The Podcast of Freedom"?
I assume we then give even more power to the totally incompetent councils?
There's a lot of google-ads in that Wikimirror article.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
Viewed empirically rather than anaecdotally, councils do manage their money quite well. They deliver quite a bit of "bang per buck".
There is a lot of ads in the Wikimirror. Apparently the Wikipedia articles keeps on getting graffitied. Quelle surprise.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
We could argue this for days.
You may be correct in some respects, but in others local councils (like State and Federal Governments) are dreadfully inefficent and incapable of doing anything other than picking the rubbish up on time.
{Of course, my perceptions are coloured by my long-standing dispute with my own council, and spending the end of the last decade reporting on (and hanging around with) Local Government.}
The intention is good, but too often the execution is not really there.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
Not necessarily. I have provided a reference which is part of a general consensus in public administration that the federal system is expensive.
Sure, you've seen inefficiencies in ("a" ?) local government, but that's not really indicitive of others, or for that matter of how inefficient State and Federal government are.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
Really.
We could.
I'm very stubborn.
Its okay. I can't forsee us ever scrapping the States.
The States won't allow it, and I presume the Constitution offers a significant hurdle.
Its not that I don't think a two-tier system of Federal Government and Super Councils is such a bad idea, I just don't think the system (as it operates at the moment) is ready for that transition.
It does raise an interesting question: who would get resource royalties under a two-tier system? The local councils or the Commonwealth (especially in cases where those offshore hydrocarbon resources sit within the three-mile limit?
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
Well, we could, but let's not ;-)
For what it's worth, it seems more and more politicians favour scrapping the states. The Australian Democrats have it as policy.
Section 111 of the Constitution is interesting because it allows States the right to cede territory. It's how the ACT was created.
There have been calls to cede Albury-Wadongo for example from NSW and Vic and for the Murray-Darling basin to become a single region. Managing the most important point in Australia's rather tenuous water supply with five administrations (NT, NSW, Vic, SA and Federal) is getting simply impossible. Lots of finger pointing "it's your responsibility" and little action.
Resource royalties would have to be Common Wealth, in my opinion. After all, you're not a single country otherwise.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
I don't know, I can just see it becoming a huge Sydbourne/FNQ pork barrel.
So, no difference there :)
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
Yeah, but that's where most people live, right? So why shouldn't Australians have their share of Australian wealth.
I mean if it was a separate country that would be different. The people of of Kimberly-Pilbra would be entitled to that wealth. Rather like those tiny oil states in the Gulf Region, and probably with as much political freedom as well.
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Yes, but aren't we supposed to share the common wealth?
If we divide up funding via population, I dread to think what WA or SA or the NT would be like.
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Yes, equally, and per person. Isn't that sharing?
If we divide up funding via population, I dread to think what WA or SA or the NT would be like.
I actually wonder if it would be that different really. That would involve adding up State government budgets, Federal government direct grants to local governments, plus Federal government funding which occurs in State regions and working it out on a per capita basis.
That's not the sort of data that is quickly accessible.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
*Tries to imagine what it might be like to hand over state powers to counties, shifting down one level* Y'know, that might actually WORK in the U.S.
Transitions have to be worked at... if it's not working it's worth looking into scrapping. First you gotta find out if it's working or not.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
It's interesting in the centralisation index, the US is .515 for federal, .223 for state and .262 for local. So for all that going on about the United States, the states really get a harsh deal out of it.
Mind you, that's part of the reason you had the civil war you know..
Agree with you entirely on transitional programmes. It's the way to go.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
I've heard about 3 or 4 different stories about why the civil war happened. Some say "state's rights" on the side of the confederacy, some "state's rights" on the side of union states, some say "just abolition" on either side. Some say centralization was the whole goal of the union... (I quote my crazy republican friend "the War of Northern Aggression." it goes on.
Us kids, we just wanna get over that whole damn thing and get on with our lives. Sucks to live with the heritage of the ignorant; gotta live in the now.
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
Well, as one person (
Re: "The Podcast of Freedom"?
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Bloody Goth!
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Don't you mean "Bloody science fiction fan"? ;-)
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Guests:
Neil Gaiman
Poppy Z. Brite
And Opera Macabre playing Live on the Saturday night.
I stand by my original comment: Bloody Goth!
:-)
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Oh, OK. It's GothCon then. Better wear black, right? ;-)
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Have you got any lessons?
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Lessons? In how to shed things? Nah, I just build this intricate nests ;-)
More seriously, I think I'm pretty good at combining several disparate areas of interest in single themes, so I can work on them simultaneously. Otherwise it would be quite impossible.
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Methinks the rats like you too... They were very bouncy!