We note with a certain sadness the troubles besetting Canada’s First Nation Peoples, and believe that we, with our proud history of helping our own First Nation peoples here in Australia, can help our Canadian brothers. The following is a transcript of a speech made at the recent Pacific Rim Partnership summit held in Toronto, in which the Minister for Indigenous Affairs offered assistance to the Canadian government in the thoughtful integration of native Americans into mainstream societies

Mal Brough. Progenitor of the ‘Ideas Boom’, outlines the benefits of the Intervention and the trickle down effect in Parliament.

The former Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians. (The look says it all).

‘It’s time the “ideas boom’ demonstrated more than just rhetoric and it is with some pride that the Australian Government announced today a far reaching programme to internationalise our world ranking in dealing with the vexed problems of indigenous suicide, imprisonment and life expectancy. What we have here is an opportunity to do some heavy lifting on the global stage.

The free trade deals we’ve signed are just not far reaching enough, and as the indices prove, the public just don’t get the benefits of working harder for less. We cannot expect the public to understand the contribution made by shareholders in selling off our manufacturing, agriculture and natural resources so that they may benefit from the trickle down effect. It’s a concept too remote for them to appreciate.

Yet, on the subject of remoteness, we share many similarities with other great economies. And they incidentally share with us the capacity to generate wealth from vast underpopulated tracts. Tracts which until recently have been largely undeveloped. Canada, as cited, has a problem with their first nations. The message is clearly not getting through that governments are here to help them, and to make them SAFE! With first nation imprisonment at only 25 percent of the population, and burgeoning youth suicide, they’re clearly not going far enough to demonstrate a co-ordinated approach to tackling these decisive issues.

‘Once again, we are doing the heavy lifting, and by incarceration of both male and female first Australians we’re keeping them safe. Safe from themselves, and safe from their natural tendency, to suicide’ .

On the recent issue on youth suicide there are, (and the extreme weather conditions may have something to do with this), just not enough NGO’s on the job to ensure that the youth understand fully that government is there to help. Clearly in Canada, they’re not utilising to the full potential of public and private mechanisms. And sadly they haven’t integrated healthcare, youth, education, and employment into a one stop shop. In our remote communities we have literally dozens, of NGO’s on the job. In any remote community it’s impossible to move without bumping into them. They’re wall to wall, chock a block. NGO’s assisting in everything from maternal care, youth outreach programs, and citizenship initiatives that ensure that all members of the first nations are duly processed and indexed according to the most up to date standardised benchmark. Prison.

Let the statistics speak for themselves. In the U.S, allegedly the world leader, there are seven hundred persons per one hundred thousand in prison. Whereas in the NT we have over nine hundred in prison, per one hundred thousand, and of those nine hundred we’re proud to say that over eighty six percent are first Australians. Once again, we are doing the heavy lifting, and by incarceration of both male and female first Australians we’re keeping them safe. Safe from themselves, and safe from their natural tendency, to suicide .

‘the beneficiaries post intervention of the biggest upgrade in corrective, educative and health orientated services since federation’

Suicide is destructive, and demonstrates a resoluteness to end suffering. In Australia we’ve progressed beyond this ‘integration adjustment phase’, to the state defined by our experts as the ‘torpor of apathy’. In most of our communities, we’ve got to the situation where no one can be bothered with suicide. Only the extremely young and feeble suicide. The rest are rendered emotionally depleted by our service provision to just exist. It keeps them safe. Safe, from themselves.

And why would they bother with suicide? After all we’ve done for them, and the consistent efforts by NGO’s to assist them in reaching goals that the other vast majority of Australians take for granted. We have rendered them carefree! They are the beneficiaries post intervention of the biggest upgrade in corrective, educative and health orientated services since federation.

We gift Canada the Intervention! Bold decisive action is good for service growth. Good for the economy and great for the shareholders. That’s why we propose exporting the intervention to our friends in Canada so that their first nations can benefit from the bounty that follows. A bounty that provides certainty for all, and the surety that with the proliferation of services that follow, they’ll be literally dying to became part of a stronger future. So they too can share in the bounty of the trickle down effect.

There remains one last residual problem. We’re working on that one. And that is, after all we’ve done for them, why can’t they be just a little bit more grateful?

The P.M Malcolm Abbott leading the Ideas Boom; ‘finding the missing piece to Melbourne’s Transport jigsaw’.

The Prime Minister Mr Malcolm Abbott today announced a radical upgrade of Melbourne’s rail infrastructure. Unveiling a bold new transport plan at the Property Council of Australia headquarters he likened the initiative as ‘finding the missing piece to Melbourne’s Transport jigsaw’.

‘This is proof perfect of the “Ideas Boom” providing practical solutions to all Victorians. For years the State government and Federal government have been at loggerheads on developing workable infrastructure. And I know you the public have been sceptical about our commitment to rail infrastructure and in particular public transport. There’s been plans, counter plans, and no end of discussion and we just weren’t getting anywhere. And I’ve gotta tell you as the ‘Ideas Boom” P.M the process has been a little bit de-railed, (howls of laughter) by the complexities of red, green and brown tape. And there’s always been the problem of finding a shovel ready greenfield site to establish the all important link. That’s why, (before selling them to our friends in the Property Council) we looked into grey-field sites and brown-field sites.

By thinking beyond the square we’ve come up with a plan that unites our synergies in what we do best, development of real estate, and a proven capacity for long-term private public partnerships that shift the burden of funding infrastructure from the government to the taxpayer. I’m very happy to say that at long last common sense has prevailed. We now have the privelege to announce a stand alone airport rail link!!. (Thunderous Audience applause)

‘Overseas examples, what was on offer in Paris, Rome, London, the Bahamas, Panama and the Virgin Islands were investigated. We looked at rail integrated into the freeway, rail stand alone, and existing rail upgrade. None of them suited. They just didn’t have the right mix. Until, in discussion with the Property Council and the UDIA we made the ultimate decision.

Artists impression of the Chaddarine Monorail Link

To link the airport by MONORAIL!!

Upgrade of Airport arrival by Monorail.

And I can say unreservedly it is with considerable pleasure to have standing beside me, centre stage, The CEO of Westfield Mr Frank Lowy. Frank will be the very first to cut the ribbon on this an exciting new chapter in rail infrastructure. The very first privately owned and operated public transport initiative. ‘The Chadd-arine Monorail Link’. It’s futuristic, innovative, and this is the most exciting part, it is 100 per cent free. There is no cost to the user, other than those outlined in the terms and conditions we have signed with Transfield.

Yes indeed, Westfield, leads the pack in retail, and with its new superstore integrated into Tullamarine Airport it gives certainty to the Airport Corporation into the next millennium. For years we’ve been plagued by the lack of decent affordable parking, and the absence of creature comforts. The Chadd-arine Monorail link will give customers the very best in integrated shopping experience.. The journey begins at Chadstone. Platinum Class passengers (those who have purchased $5000.00 or more before boarding) get on absolutely free!!! They (and this is the exciting part) will then have every opportunity to purchase additional goods en route to the airport.

The Chaddarine sky tower will be visible from Geelong

From Chadstone, the monorail snakes its way to Eastland, Southland, Northland, and then via Northland to Highpoint. A shopping experience at each stop. And then, with a brief stop at Watergardens, (as a very last chance) will make its way to the bold new facility at Tullamarine. If clients have purchased over 500 dollars worth of material from any of the stores other than Chadstone they will be entitled to a gold pass, which offers the a free trip upon return to any of our stores. And not only does it link our expertise in retail, but any unreserved crown land linked by the monorail is value added by conversion into real estate.

‘Ideas Boom in action’

An Infrastructure solution so simple you’ll wonder why no one ever thought of it before’.

(Thunderous Applause. Mr Lowy cuts ribbon, walks backwards and falls of stage.)

The Federal treasurer insists that ASIC is a; “tough cop on the beat”.

There is no need for a Royal Commission into the banks as a consequence of consistent unethical, fraudulent, misleading and criminal actions by individuals working within the sector. Dodgy banking practices will be thoroughly investigated. Maintaining a strong principled stance that Asic, is the best vehicle to ensure that the banks are investigated, the Federal treasurer insists that ASIC is a; “tough cop on the beat”.

A practical demonstration of corporate ethical responsibility. Using both hands to siphon from the system.

Responding to criticism that over 120 million dollars of funding have been ripped from Asics budget, a spokesman for the treasurers department responded by citing several recent examples of hard hitting investigation undertaken by the corporate watchdog. ‘The vocational training scams and general rorting of the  schemes and their publicly funded enrollment incentives are been rigorously pursued by Asic. Most recently we sent several angry letters to training colleges and dodgy education sector operators asking them to clean up their act. We’re really determined to root out this systemic rorting of the federal government private college finding scams by hunting them down, and bringing them to account. Though the vast majority of letters were returned to us, “unknown at this address” our investigators were able to track them down in a process of diligent and far reaching investigation. And i’ll let you know, a new series of quite severely worded letters have been sent to their new corporate headquarters.

We believe, (shock) that in spite of their recent closures, phoenix operators are still at it, obtaining federal funding for signing up the poor, the vulnerable and dispossessed into schemes they cannot possibly afford. Though the vast majority of new letters have been re-directed to Panama, we believe it’ll send a shockwave through the sector. Proof perfect that were serious about corporate crime.

Kelly O’Dwyer, member for Higgins.

Asic is the perfect vehicle for investigating this behaviour as it has proved in the past in thorough examination of the banks, miners, corporate off-shore transactions that we’re really serious about tackling corporate mis-behaviour. Not that there’s anything illegal in what these organisations are doing, it’s just that it’s understandable as they rort and rip and rent-seek, the electorate gets a little shirty. With Asic onto them, it looks like were really doing something.

‘signing up the poor, the vulnerable and dispossessed into schemes they cannot possibly afford’.

We’re doing something about political donations whilst we’re at it. And very glad to announce that the NAB will be sponsoring our fundraiser for Higgins. Can’t tell you how much they’re giving us, but elections are expensive. Prohibitively expensive! Great to demonstrate that the NAB is happy to do the heavy lifting, and offer the same to Labor. That’s bipartisanship at its purest. Banks you can trust. They fund our little fundraisers, because they want to demonstrate that at the core they’re not interested in profit, rent seeking and anti-social behaviour, because they care about people. Well….. a select group of people I’ll admit, those that can afford a $1200 to $2500-a-table breakfast. Really high quality fruit juices and very nice coffee is inclusive in the price!

And by holding the fundraiser at the Palladium room at Crown Casino, it demonstrates we’re all pretty serious about regulating gambling, and gaming and its effects upon the wretched, the poor and the disaffected in our community as well. The “premium corporate tables” at the event cost as much as $2500. It shows were serious about banks doing the right thing, casinos doing the right thing, and anonymous party donors doing the right thing. Not that there’s anything illegal about it. It demonstrates Asic is well and truly on top of it.

Society works with co operation. That’s why in association with “Enterprise Victoria’, the Liberal Party’s business networking arm and anonymous donations from the banking sector, the development industry, and anyone else who needs a bit of lifting, we’ll make it quite clear, that with Asic on the job, were ‘Open for Business’!! It’s all about due process within existing legal frameworks loopholes and section 18b of the sanity clause to ensure that Asic looks after our national interest to ensure that the community at large are give what they well and truly deserve.

Today we have a poem, ‘Harmony‘ from Ali Cobby Eckermann‘s award winning novel ‘Ruby Moonlight‘  

Harmony

in warm afternoon light
a family group rove the plains
murmur delight as
landscape becomes familiar

parrots surge their welcome
at the old meeting place
a young woman gathers
wild fruit and berries

her husband the spear maker
admires her supple body
dancing a parody of love
his older brother teases his idolism

his own wife is still lithe
an aged Law holder
the young woman
her only child

in the shade of gum trees
the old woman sings clan songs
as the cooking fires begin
a wombat gifts his soul

sated now the women
dissolve down a cryptic path
under the moons glow
gratitude and joy are danced

Ali Cobby Eckermann
Ruby Moonlight
Magdala 2012

Herewith is the current dispatch

Hi OMs, YLs and XYLs,

Consulting that modern suppository of wisdom (to paraphrase our favourite former Prime Minister), Wikipedia, I find that the word ‘compassionate’ evolved from the Latin ‘compassio’ (co-suffering) a word embodied in the Golden Rule: “do onto others as you would have them do to you”. With the notable exception of masochists, this isn’t a bad rule to aspire to live by.

The word ‘communication’ also evolved from Latin. ‘Communicare’ (to share).

Billy Bragg, Do unto Others… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdxBdl0JTyQ

Humanity has raised communication to highly sophisticated and complex heights, the same can’t be said for compassion. Before eliciting pedantic comments, let me make it clear that these are generalisations.

To my mind the crowning glory of Humanity’s evolution is the incredible and wonderful cultural/linguistic diversity. Sadly (here comes another generalisation) this diversity is far from given the appreciation and importance it deserves. Smart bombs (as in contrast to ‘stupid’ bombs) and those euphemistically named “area deprivation devices” (land mines) and “Improvised Explosive Devices” (IEDs or roadside bombs in plain English) are way down my list of Human achievement.

A Dispatchee sent me this:
http://videosift.com/video/British-Reporter-Loses-His-Shit-And-Reports-The-NEWS  
We all need to let off a bit of steam on occasions. This is an example of how it should be done. Well worth three minutes of your time.

One form of communication that gave me great pleasure, was (and hopefully will be again) amateur radio (“ham” radio). Yuendumu had a very low QRM (static interference) level compared with any urban location with its swarm of motor vehicles, motors, electric cables etc. that generate radio frequency ‘noise’. It also had very low QRN (interference from other radio stations) for the simple reason that the density of radio transmitters was very low. From memory there were only 28 or so licensed Amateur radio stations in the Northern Territory. The Wireless Institute of Australia issued a “worked all states” certificate to overseas Amateurs who could prove they had ‘contacted’ someone from every State and Territory in Australia. They proved this by submitting a batch of QSL cards (postcard sized verification cards exchanged with other amateurs with details of radio contacts- date and time, band, signal strength etc.). My favourite radio frequency band was the 20-meter band (14 Mhz), which under the right sunspot conditions enabled communication with the whole globe, by either the short or long path. Yes folks, the world is definitely round.

I recall that there were 350,000 radio amateur stations in Japan, many of whom needed that VK8 (Northern territory call-sign prefix) QSL card to complete the set to enable them to claim the WIA certificate! Thus if I called CQ and had my antenna pointed at Japan, it was reminiscent of those old documentaries that show pole fishing for tuna. “Kon ban wa Katsu-san, anata-no signal reporto five and seven, watashi-no antenna-wa twenty meters high desu. Watashi no QTH-wa Yuendumu-desu….” …“ Arrigato Frank-san please send me your QSL card”

“ It is very crowdy in Japan today” I can’t recall a single contact in which I was told that Japan wasn’t ‘crowdy’. I had visions of a heap of friends, neighbours and family surrounding Katsu-san in a tiny radio shack in Osaka, while he spoke with me. Very crowdy indeed. I was able to almost invariably tell my Japanese friends that in Yuendumu (“I cannot find this on the map Frank-san”) we had clear skies (‘Yoyi tenki desu’, I think is what it was called). The Maori name for New Zealand is ‘Aotearoa’ which means ‘the land of the long white crowd’. I think Japan should be named ‘the land of the eternal crowd’ (in more ways than one!)

Which brings me to a poster emanating from the Central Desert Regional Council:

Southern Tanami Kurdiji (Mediation + Justice)
Compassionate Communication TRAINING (their capitals)
Mediation Centre- Wednesday 6 April 2016- 5pm start
Tribal Elders, Directors and Executive Members are all invited to attend this training with CSP staff to learn about Compassionate Communication for a more peaceful community.

Which for some unexplainable reason prompted me to look up the Wiktionary definitions of ‘patronise” and ‘patronizing’:

“To treat as inferior unduly, talk down to, treat condescendingly”
and
“speaking or behaving towards someone as if they are stupid or not important”

When it comes to communication between Mainstream and Indigenous Australia it all amounts to a massive Communication Breakdown…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRwHtmOA2E&nohtml5=False  (Led Zeppelin).

As for Compassionate Communication, I won’t bother to go there.

73’s
VK8FB

 CSP=‘Community Safety Patrol’ the new name for the Yuendumu initiated Night Patrol.

The Q-code evolved from the pre AM (Amplitude Modulation) and SSB (Single Side Band) morse-code days. It enabled people that spoke different languages to do a fair bit of communicating. A bit like written Chinese whereby people that speak a different Chinese language and/or dialect can communicate with each other.

73 is –…  …– (dah,dah, dididit….. dididit, dah dah)  in morse and means ‘good bye’

Another piece from Paddi-O.

Telephone to glory, oh, what joy divine!
I

can feel the current moving on the line.

Made by God the Father for His very own,

You may talk to Jesus on this royal telephone.

Burl and friends

The dulcet tones of Burl Ives used to croon this little number over the radio when I was a boy. There was something comforting about the idea that Jesus was always there to listen, like the Easter Bunny ready to leave chocolate eggs at the end of my bed, or the Tooth Fairy ready to leave sixpence for a baby tooth, or the big one, Santa Claus – much more helpful than Jesus even.

(Ed). Always found more solace in Catweazle and his mystic, ” Tellingbone”

We grow up. Some nasty kid tells us that the Easter Bunny isn’t real, or that Santa is a fake, and that the tooth fairy is just your Dad or Mum. You hang on to the lies for a bit, in case fessing up will stop the cargo cult and the sixpences, the chocolate eggs and the presents will stop. Eventually the nods and winks give way to reality. Remarkably having been lied to you lie to your own and tell your own kids the same fairy stories. Religion is the same. Christians believe that Buddhists believe in fairy tales, Muslims believe that Jews are infidels all faiths reject all other faiths. Sincere atheists venerate the Dreamtime or excoriate Christianity while defending oppressed Muslims. And the whole lot leads to bloodshed, wars, atrocities, and hate.

Dear reader could only find the teeniest icon- sized miniature of Michael Digges. But as Paul Kelly famously sang; ‘From little things big things grow”. It’s all part of being small-minded.

So when a secular business, that has advocated publicly for reform to the Marriage Act to remove discrimination that makes the secular, state sponsored, contract between two people to share property and responsibility for any children they may have exclusive to heterosexual couples, bows to pressure from the Catholic Church and removes their public support for change, something is very, very wrong.

This week we learned TELSTRA did just that. Michael Digges, Archdiocese of Sydney business manager wrote to TELSTRA noting that they had publicly supported marriage reform and implying that the Church would cancel all its contracts with TELSTRA. Incredibly TELSTRA backed down, and in a weasel decision said while it supported reform it would not take a public stand in the debate. This is despite its business rivals publicly endorsing the same reform. So in one act of bullying, the Church has effectively silenced the whole telecommunications sector.

So what gives the right to the Church to do this? The Marriage Act (No. 12 1961 as amended up to Act No. 13 2013) authorises Ministers of Religion to be registered to give effect to the contract that is marriage, and makes clear that the power to remove such registration is retained by the State. It does not state that Marriage is a Religious monopoly as anybody who has attended weddings performed by civil celebrants would know. The clause introduced by John Howard reads: marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life. This is a secular clause, in a secular piece of legislation, for which the Catholic Church or any other entity does not have special claim. It was enacted by parliament and can be changed by parliament, itself a secular institution bound under the Constitution: Ch 5 § 116 The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

The Church can express an opinion, which it has, and clearly TELSTRA fears the commercial implications of that opinion, but it does not own marriage. This awful outcome presages the proposed plebiscite on marriage reform. As we witnessed over the debate on Safe Schools this will release more bile, lies and hate, much of it in the name of Jesus, and the Catholic Church. If TELSTRA has folded at the first bullying threat, how much hope can we have?

Central’s never busy, always on the line,

You can hear from heaven almost any time

.
’Tis a royal service, built for one and all,

When you get in trouble, give this royal line a call.

Again, a scintillating piece from ‘Paddi-O’ in which he takes the scalpel to the latest thought bubble from Malcolm, (the rich) Abbott.

(Ed).. So glad we could have another crack at the fat controller. Working on a close up for the sight deficient in which we see the febrile mind of Malcolm Abbott, our P.M for lots and lots of ideas having a big think about railways!!

‘Very fast cash Blink and you’ll miss it.

Dear reader, we are shocked that in this poster depicting the benefits of the latest piece of innovative thinking, the P.M’s department for IB”s, (Ideas Boom) has got the Spelling of Sydney wrong. Carelessness such as this will be the end of this country.

The promise of a very fast train, not the train itself, that is rarer than the Tasmanian Tiger. Not that politicians have noticed. In the dying days of the second Rudd government before the glorious dawn of the Abbott government, Kevin flanked by Anthony Albanese promised a Very Fast Train to link Melbourne to Brisbane in three hours. On election the cash set aside for yet another feasibility study was a victim of the yet to be passed first budget of the Abbott-Hockey era of sound economic management. Now in the era of living within our means, that all wise usurper of the popularly elected but proven by Newspoll (who needs an election?) Tony Abbott, he of the harbour-side mansion and user of ferries and trams, Malcolm Turnbull, has donned his Armani Hi Vis Vest and helmet to proclaim a (wait for it) Very Fast Train.

Remarkably this wondrous merchant banker (rhymes with?) has worked out a way for his VFT to pay for itself. Appearing somewhere Industrial in a marginal electorate, as part of his not in the election period taxpayer funded advertising of an infrastructure agenda for shoring up such marginal seats, he explained with only a sneer of condescension that the principal of ‘Captured Value’ would meet the costs.

Malcolm, doing his best to assume the posture of the Fat Controller of the nation’s Hornby Model Train set, went on to add a layer of creamy condensed condescension to say that this was not a new idea, indeed it was a well-established old nineteenth century idea that built, wait for it, railways.

ONYA HENRY!!

Henry was a leader, innovator, thinker, who popularised the use of cigars way way way before Bill Clinton did.

Now I try to travel on one such railway at least three times a week. Not like Malcolm, to prove myself a lover of public transport or a man of the people, and not even on public transport. I travel on my bike. What is left of the reserve for Melbourne’s old inner circle railway line, a speculation at the height of the Land Boom of the 1880s which finally spluttered to a close in 1948, is now a very busy bike path. Its promoters probably saw rich profits in serving growing suburbs and for the first few years creamed those off, until unprofitable, it became a public liability. The collapse of the Land Boom actually reinforced the principal of Captured Value. Henry George, the American born proponent of a single tax on land, developed his theory by observing the massive profits made by Railway Barons in America, and for years the Henry George League office on Hardware Lane sported fading pamphlets in a dusty window. Now the legacy of the League is under the care of a fringe group called Prosper Australia and judging by the heavily contested Wikipedia entry this organisation spends a lot of time disassociating itself from even crazier associations. In the words of Henry George’s biographer: “His central ideas of the ‘unearned increment’ and single tax are now historical curiosities.”

Leaving aside the awe inspiring possibility that Malcolm the Rich might be a closet Georgist, there is a fatal flaw in his Captured Value argument for a Very Fast Train. To make it work, the government would need to tax increasing land values of places serviced by the train. For its current ardent backbench advocate, member for Bennelong and former tennis champion John Alexander, the prospect of a quick trip to work will open new housing estates in areas currently far, far away. It’s good he could play tennis well, because no one will remember him as an economist or a railway planner.

NEW IDEAS BOOM Signage at North Melbourne Station.

Surely the critical thing for a Very Fast Train is that it doesn’t stop too many times. On occasion I do travel on a Very Fast Train, except it is usually late. Flush with unlikely success, Steve Bracks, slayer of Jeff Kennett, found himself responsible for implementing policies including fast rail links to Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. With fanfare and panache new trains appeared old lines were refurbished and under his successor John Brumby, a bottleneck at North Melbourne Station was artfully overcome with a curving overpass.

Soon to be released!!! FAT CONTROLLER with BONUS THOUGHT BUBBLE!! ( Sales restricted to children over 3 years old, as thought bubble if swallowed may result in choking)

Promises filled you might say, well not quite. Value management meetings designed to keep the project budget marginally under control made cuts. Tracks were welded in longer lengths, perfect for cooler, stable climates, but doomed to buckle in moderate heat of 30 degrees, and the curving overpass curved too tight, wearing the wheels on the new trains at an alarming rate meaning more were out of service than in. As a result I often meander at a cycling pace along the tracks to Castlemaine and past Clarkefield, another reminder of Value Capture. When Sir William Clarke (Bart) saw the opportunity he ensured the line to Bendigo would pass his front gate and have its own siding, now a station. Sadly for the workers and residents of Whyalla and the increasingly marginal Minister for Industry, the Hon. Christopher Pyne, the Very Fast Train will not result in orders for Aussie Steel Railway tracks any time soon, and fortunately for my health I will stick to the bike’.

DEAR READER AREN’T YOU JUST SICK AND TIRED OF THE MALCOLM ABBOTT AND TONY TURNBULL SHOW? It just goes on and on. We deserve better than this! Surely there can’t be a more devastating index of jadedness, a more abject example of capitulation to the entropy of it all. We get so thoroughly tired of the mind numbing precitablilty of it all we can’t even be bothered releasing the caps key. It’s what happens when you get ‘Ideas Boom Overload’. Is there a cure for three word slogans? What happens after prolonged exposure to ‘IBO’?

Glad then, that Beau has sent us this visual diary of what happened in New Orleans when he stepped outside with camera in hand. Not since LIFE was made lifeless has the camera captured Life. It’s a resuscitation we all need. The soul of humanity.

Back to the same-ol tomorrow then.

And now a few words from Beau: (in his very own words)

‘I got a new camera last week because I am tired of things being out of focus when I want them to be IN focus, and there have been

moments here in the USofA that I’d like to put on the wall of our already overcrowded home for memory’s sake, but what I’ve ended up with has been altogether too small for the purpose.

So, Thursday evening last I was at Verret’s Lounge to see Calvin Johnson’s band and saw  this; 

and Noo Awlins is of course PARTY TOWN and we all so happy (and slim) ……

But why is it that, on the whole, black faces are more interesting than white ones? Am I just being patronising about this? Is it just would-be liberal white man’s projection? Black kiddies are just sooooo cute (before they turn into THUGS and start dealing meth and carrying firearms). This one was concentrating hard, playing hangman with Elli. The game would be more up to date if it were called “lethal injection”:

Considerations of this sort keep Beauregard ruminating rather than pontificating at present’.

Once again another scintillating instalment on the phoney election from our sage of psephology Paddy O’ Caermeda. They say there’s nothing new in politics, and human behaviour, but Paddy begs to differ and if he’s listening, our P.M, Mr Malcolm Abbott, would be uneasy. And it’s not just about banking, but Accounting 101, and the inevitable consequence of what happens when one and one mean one percent. Problem is, that’s what happens when you’re only tuned to the one percent. Fortunately the other 99 percent, seem to be tuning into a different wavelength.  ‘Hmmmm’…as the Bishop said to the Abbott,  “Interesting times”. And now for Paddio’s take. …. read on.

Malcolm Abbott. Our current school captain. Captain of first eleven, and has expressed an interest in accountancy and banking when he grows up.

There is just a chance that Malcolm Turnbull could be the third Prime Minister out of four to only have a single term (joining Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott) and the third Prime Minister out of four not to have a full term (joining Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott).

Kevin. Former assistant wicketkeeper. Dismissed as twelth man, demonstrates his batting average.

This galling possibility may be faint, but there is in the lack of a clear agenda and the on again off again policy announcements a sense of free-fall. Now I should at this point declare that I am a republican (of the no monarchy type not the American version) and so I really shouldn’t be excited by the prospect of a Royal Commission, but the idea of Australia’s Banks being held to account for all the business they do to make money that generates nothing of value is tantalising. In any other context, at any other time for a Labor opposition leader to propose this would be death, with those of long memory recalling Chiffley’s failed bid to nationalise the banks.

Julia, scorer and statistician of second eleven. Had hoped to be captain of the first eleven team but deposed by school council subject to section three, paragraph four.

But these are not other times. Bill Shorten is looking positively statesmanlike and has the unlikely cheer squad of dumped Nationals front bencher Luke Hartsuyker, that huge intellect George Christensen, fellow National John Williams and the conscience of the North, Warren Entsch. Should the Prime Minister decide that his derided Labor thought-bubble is in fact the foundation of policy and decide to act he will be caving again to a group including the right wing fringe.

Former Captain of school’s first eleven, Tony Turnbull. Wrote section three  paragraph four, which excluded wonen from the change rooms and selection committee. Planning a comeback to first eleven as manager.

So let’s distract – announcement after announcement of infrastructure, with just enough public transport over roads to make him look different from Abbott. These are backed by a television advertising campaign that would make the scriptwriters of Utopia blush. Combined with a new Union bashing exercise by threatening to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (of all things) this non-campaign campaign is looking very reactionary. The almost inescapable conclusion is that the government is not setting the Agenda.

By placing its fate and the date of the election in a group of cross-benchers it gave away its key advantage, without a story to tell.

There’s just a chance…..

Will Dyson, On God and banking.  ” My son, Alas, we are powerless, the Bankers have Spoken’!

There is absolutely no need for an enquiry into the conduct of the banks.

The Australian banking system is world renowned for being the most efficient banking system in the word. During the GFC Australian banks outshone their overseas competitors by demonstrating, thrift, due diligence and cautious bank practice. Whilst other banking systems collapsed like nine pins the Australian banks demonstrated once and for all their solidity and security. Our big four are justifiably proud of their record, because of this, they like to tell us so. Our big four run a sort of minor monopoly. They don’t like to tell us that so often.

And our big four, don’t like people, journalists, politicians and the public sticking their nose into their affairs, they are inclined to tell us that also. Over the past decade we’ve heard unpalatable stories about what the banks have done to their loyal customers. Seems there’s not much loyalty and reciprocity meted back to customer when an investment wing buries its mistakes, and customers are wasted. That’s a sort of kind of collateral damage. Not much reciprocity when the customer is denied legitimate insurance payouts on illness, and the problem is literally buried. When the banking process is skewed to profit, there’s not much reciprocity when the investment portfolio of customers are wasted and their lives destroyed when so called managers within the banks prepare false, fraudulent and entirely dishonest documentation and gamble away their customers assets. The banks are not fond of telling us this.

The Innovation P.M Mr Malcolm Abbott, knows a little bit about banking. No need for an enquiry there.

Apparently there’s a conflict of interest here, when brokers within the banks are offered incentives for brokering risky investment deals without telling the customer. And what seems to be fraudulent almost criminal activity, is best left to an internal enquiry. Still the banks tell us they’re the world’s best, and they’re entitled to. The perpetual quasi monopoly that leaves them free to engage in their ‘worlds best practice’ methods is not for the public to question.

Even politicians on the right side of politics are not encouraged to speak out, and when they do, (as Warren Entsch did last week), they are howled down by the ministers, a silent P.M, (who has a little bit to do with banking) and the big four unite and do what the coal miners did when they faced the RRT, ( Resource Rent Tax). Adopt the green – movement policy of declaring themselves marginalised, victimised, and vulnerable. And to date that strategy has worked. Leave the banks alone!! They know best!! Even the best companies may from time to time have a few bad eggs!! Why penalise the vast majority of individuals within the banking sector just because of the odd shonky manager? Besides, if you haven’t tired of hearing they’re the worlds’ best and chock full with integrity, Even the criminal behaviour of their staff, is excusable and will only be checked if quite a few people get shafted and dudded, and someone within the system, glacially responds with a caution.

And why do they get away with it? Because, I’ve been told that it’s the one big industry that is “world renowned and reliable “, the banks tell us so. To question the banks sends a very dangerous message to the rest of the world which stands in awe of the Australian banking system. They like to tell us this. And there is need for another enquiry, and absolutely no need for a Royal Commission. They’re just sick of having enquiries foisted upon them, and sick of the public bashing banks. Consequently, there wont be a Royal Commission, because they know that when push comes to shove, no one, the pollies, the public, and the regulators, (when they’re about) have the stomach for it.

And why is this so? Because the banks have told us so!

So Listen hard, and Shut-UP!!

You’ve been told!!