Calvary polling

The Little Company of Mary have done some polling on the proposed sale of Calvary. They say that almost two thirds of Canberrans support the ACT Government's purchase of Calvary. This was an Auspoll survey of 600 residents.

Jeremy Hanson, the Liberal Health spokesman says that the poll was biased. He says that the questions were asked in such a way as to generate certain results. Jeremy and Libs are continuing to oppose the hospital transaction.

We're polling in a non emotive way on the 2CC website. Our simple question is this....'Should the sale of Calvary go ahead ?" At this stage the results of our poll fly in the face of the LCM survey. At the time of writing, 71% of respondents suggested that the sale shouldn't go ahead, 19% say it should and 9 percent are undecided.

You can participate at www.2cc.net.au

Another quarter of a percent coming up.

There is more talk this morning about an interest rate rise in December. Self funded retirees are over the moon about it. Home owners not so much.

There's new date kicking around suggesting that the business community is more confident now than they have been at any time since 2002. They're hiring and they're spending and that probably spells another quarter of a percent rise next month.

A lot of it will depend on the employment figures out tomorrow, but certainly according to some of these independent reports including the NAB's October Business Survey, in the medium term, we're heading for good times.

Stanhope's report card

The next ACT election is still 3 years away but this morning it seems the ACT Government is in election mode. Jon Stanhope is trumpeting the success of his Government in the 12 months following last years election. There's a release in my email inbox this morning all about the wonderful success of Stanhope Labor. Apparently, this last year has been punctuated by more jobs, better health and smarter education and it's all because of Jon and his team.

The so called 12 month report card was tabled in the Assembly yesterday. Jon tells us that he greatly enhanced health services to Canberrans by opening three new operating theatres with 11 more to come, surely all dependent on the sale of Calvary. On the health front, they're also talking about the public diagnostic breast imaging service, the mental health assessment unit and funding for an integrated cancer centre. They're all great things, but those surgery waiting lists are still far too long which didn't crack a mention in the report card.

Bernard Salt spoke earlier in the week about the 'Manhattan Effect' in Canberra...the creation of a city for the super wealthy where the workers are squeezed out of the housing market. I'm sure his words gave the Chief Minister some pain. He continues to suggest that based on wage figures this town is one of the most affordable cities in Australia, but yesterdays report card did include social housing and the fact that the Government has funded 352 new dwellings.

The report also mentioned the new clean diesel buses in the Action fleet and an additional 70 teachers in public schools.

They didn't give themselves a score....a grade as it were, but the way Jon's talking, I'm thinking he'd mark his Government with an A.
'
What would you give them ?

How about C+. I think that's what I'll give them. Do they get a pass mark with you ?

The Greens and the trees

Hey, what do you think about the current tree felling program around town. I'm thinking that maybe we're being a little heavy handed. There are concerns from Griffith residents about some big old trees that are coming down in and around Captain Cook Crescent. We spoke to Gary Rake yesterday about NCA plans to take down around 600 trees in the parliamentary triangle because they're old and are apparently posing a risk to the public. But are they ?

I don't think enough thought has gone into this. In quite a number of cases when these trees come down closer inspection reveals that they were actually in good health. I understand that these trees don't last forever and at some point we have to take action, but I think we might be jumping gun in far too many cases.

The ACT Greens are of the same mind, or at least they believe that the situation requires closer scrutiny. They're calling on the Environment Commissioner to investigate the tree felling program. They're also calling for greater community consultation on urban tree removal.

I guess when it comes to saving the trees, you'd expect the Greens to be making waves.

Are they cutting them down around your place ? Let me know what you think about it.

Long Hot Summer

Worried looks among Victorians this morning. Today it's going to be hot in Victoria. The hottest day since 'black Saturday.' You can understand them being worried. We all remember the first summer after January 18th 2003. An event like that changes your life forever. Combine that with the fact that Melbourne is experiencing it's longest run of November heat in more than 80 years and you can understand the concern.

They desperately need some more rain before the summer really sets in, but with or without it, it's going to be another potentially catastrophic fire season. There are some dry thunderstorms forecast tonight in parts of a parched Victoria. Country Fire Authority Chief Fire Officer Russell Rees isn't getting much sleep. I guess he can sleep in May

There are fires burning already in Victoria. They've got an 800 hectare blaze going in far east Gippsland and is still burning. There was a blaze near Mallacoota but that's now well and truly under control.

Things are quickly drying out here in Canberra and today and the rest of this week will quicken that process. It's going to be a long summer.

ACT Australian of the year finalists

We're a fortnight away from knowing exactly who is going to represent the ACT at the Australian of the Year awards in Canberra on Australia Day next year. Overnight the finalists have been announced and it's a diverse list of high achievers, some of whom we're familiar with and some who are new to us.

Dr Patricia Easteal who is a humans rights advocate is among those announced as a finalist for the main award. She's with the University of Canberra and she's had a huge impact on many lives here in Canberra and elsewhere. Michelle Grattan, Fairfax politcal journo is among the nominations as well. We don't think of her as being a Canberra resident but rather as a part of the visiting federal political circus, but she's a genuine Canberran.

Climate Change warrior Professor Tony McMichael is also a finalist for the major award. He's with ANU. He works with the World Health Organisation, among others on climate change issues.

The other finalist in the major award is Colin Slater from Sing Australia. Colin has been recognised for his efforts in getting people from all walks of life to sing. Well done to him on his nomination.

The finalists in the other categories are as follows.

ACT SENIOR AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR
Barry Barnes - Basketball coach (Evatt)
Dr John Buckingham - Breast cancer surgeon
Gabrielle Jarvis - Teacher and volunteer (Kaleen)
Bill Rowlings - Civil libertarian (Fisher)

ACT YOUNG AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR
Caroline Buchanan - BMX Champion (Kambah)
Michael Galluzzo - Indigenous leader (Acton)
Pierre Johannessen - Basketballer and humanitarian (Isaacs)
Dr Thomas Ward - Medical engineer (Curtin)

ACT LOCAL HERO
Dr Gordon Carmichael - Soccer administrator (Chapman)
Andrea Clifford - Choir leader (Pearce)
Julie Grehan - Disabilities volunteer (Higgins)
Deborah Masling - Musical educator (Kaleen)

All of our finalists look to be genuine leaders in their fields. Tough to pick a winner in this field.

Has Bart Cummings trained any of them finalists I wonder.

Chief Minister Stanhope will make the announcement of the ACT winners on November 25.

ACT School uniforms

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Andrew Barr's first foray into political life was as a student agitator at a Canberra High School, I think Lyneham High over school uniforms and in particular that he had been penalised for failing to wear his. I may be wrong on that, but that's the version that sticks in my head.

This morning we learn that the Education Minister is pushing Canberra High School students to wear school uniform next year....but it's not going to be compulsory. Canberra High School students will be urged to wear them....in the same way that you might urge them to eat spinach or to do their homework.

As a part of the plan, the students will, in many cases, be given more of a say into what their uniform actually is. This is going to make them want to wear the uniform, you see.

I reckon they all should wear school uniforms and it should be compulsory. It does provide a sense of school identity and of unity. I'm sick of us promoting indivduality. I reckon, you can be an individual after 3pm. When you're at school, you're a part of that community and I'd be more than happy if a uniform was a compulsory part of that. It takes of pressure of parents in terms of sartorial choices. It takes the pressure of students to outdo their peers in the clothing stakes. It means that when students then appear outside of the school, you instantly know which school they're from, and I think that's important to the rest of us...and it should be important to those students.

Andrew Barr will never make uniforms compulsory in ACT Schools...but he should.

Big week ahead

A new week is here. What will it bring on the asylum seeker front ? The 78 Sri Lankans on the Oceanic Viking are still there this morning. They're anchored off Indonesia and not going anywhere. Finally, this week we're going to start talking with the Sri Lankans about the problem. I daresay, it should have been the first port of call, but better late than never.

The Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is off to Colombo to speak with his counterpart there about how we can patch the flow of blood from the wound itself. It comes at a time when Australians are generally not pleased with the way that the Prime Minister has dealt with the asylum seeker issue. It means that Kevin Rudd's meteoric personal approval figures have come back closer to earth but it hasn't had much effect on the party polling figures.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the week will in part dominated by reaction and investigation into the Ford Hood massacre. What the hell was going on there ? President Obama will attend a memorial service for victims tomorrow. Then he's off to Asia for his first visit to the region since becoming Prez. He's off to Japan, China, South Korea and the APEC meeting in Singapore with his buddy Kevin.

Closer to home, the worlds best golfer arrives in Australia today. He's set to play the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne. It'll be the first time he's played here in a decade and at this stage you cannot buy a ticket to see him. The Wallabies set to play Ireland this weekend after defeating the Poms and Canberra United in the W League will be trying to stay in the hunt for a finals berth with a clash against Perth at McKellar.

It's a Legislative Assembly week. They'll be sitting in the 3 ring circus tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. And we're expecting more employment figures this week. They're due out on Thursday. The unemployment figure will probably edge closer to 6 %

A big week ahead.

Cashless society...yeah whatever

When I was a teenager going to High School in York in Western Australia, I was often inspired by Mr Davies, our Science teacher. He was one of those eccentric types who wore socks with his sandals, but he seemed to know everything and he was a wonderful communicator. In the late seventies and early eighties he talked to us with much excitement about the coming computer age. He waxed lyrical about a time when virtually everyone would have their own computer which they could hook up to a big network without any wires. He was right. He suggested that we'd all have mobile communication devices like phones that we could take anywhere. He was right.

Here are the three things he was wrong with. He suggested that as this computer age grabbed hold, we'd see the creation of the paperless office. Now, that hasn't worked out. If anything, we use more paper now because it's so easy to print everything out. He also suggested that come 2010 we'd all be working 15 and 20 hour weeks because computer would be doing all of our work.

That one didn't quite work out either. Computers have created more work for us and working hours continue to escalate.

He also said that by early in the 21st century we would become a cashless society because all of our transactions would be done by computer.

Sorry Mr Davies, but you were wrong again.

This morning a new report from Bankwest shows that the amount of cash in Australians wallets, pockets, money jars and shop tills is at an all time high. We've never had as much cold hard cash as we do right now.

That's a bit of a surprise isn't it ?

A record 46 billion dollars worth of notes and coins is changing hands across Australia every year. That's the equivalent of $2,092 for every man woman and child in 2009 compared to $1,222 ten years ago.

Why the hell would that be.

Some have suggested that Australians started hoarding cash with the onset of the GFC. Maybe it's because of the easier access to cash because of the growing numbers of ATM's across the country. There are now 27,108 ATM's across Australia.

Not suprisingly cheque transactions have continued to decline. It's fallen 36% in the last 5 years.

Strength and decisiveness.

I'm astounded that there are swag of obviously intelligent well informed commentators in the world who genuinely see Australia as the 'bully' in this diplomatic stoush with Fiji. Scott MacWilliam is one of them. Now, Scott know's a helluva lot more about Fiji than I do. He's with the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and he was with the University of the South Pacific.

Scott is very critical of the language used by our Prime Minister. He's put the boots into Kevin Rudd for referring to Commodore Frank Bainimarama as 'this guy'. His assertion is that this description by our Prime Minister shows disrespect for the interim Prime Minister and the people of Fiji. He's adamant that one of the big problems here is a lack of respect, a lack of awareness and a general insensitivity.

I think Mr MacWilliam may have missed the biggest point.

This is about the Commodore's lack of respect for the concept of democracy. You can't just decide to be the leader of a democracy. That's the biggest thing that dominates this diplomatic stoush. 'This guy", is not the legitmate leader of Fiji. That's not a reflection on the Fijian people, because they didn't choose him to lead them. I understand that there are many positive things that the Commdore has done while in the office of Prime Minister, but this country is supposed to be a democracy...and clearly it's not at the moment.

It's no surprise that Commodore Bainimarama has descended to the level of expelling people from the country who disagree with his version of the truth. This is about power. It's about saving face with the people.

It's fascinating that both Prime Minister's...that is Rudd and Bainimarama are using the current stand off as a way to show strong leadership to their people. Mr Rudd is very keen to have any international story take the spotlight away from growing stream of asylum seeker boats. He wants to show the Australian people that he's a strong and decisive leader when it comes to international affairs. As far as the interim Fijian leader....well his whole life has been about displaying to those around him that he's a strong, decisive uncompromising leader.

I'm sure there'll be more strong, decisive, uncompromising language today from both sides.