Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Fish and ICAC and Sheer Madness

The Universe is in dis-array; the laws of space and physics are rent in twain; rhyme and reason cease to be; Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Barker Tony Pasin, "...has thrown his support behind the Coalition's planned National Broadband Network." (The Border Watch 17/04/13)......my god.  

Time stands still; night is day and day is night; "The State Government's Brighter Future reforms have gained the support of the South East department of Education and Child Development regional office. Regional director David Chadwick said the changes....were a positive development." (Also TBW 17/04/13)

I...I...I don't understand....I...the...no, wait....The Liberal candidate agrees with Liberal policy.....and the DECS (DECD, whatever it is this week) employee agrees with DECS policy....madness....what's happening?...stop the world, I want to get off.....

I genuinely do not understand why the Labor state government is 'centralising' everything else, but 'de-centralising' Education. I disagree that Principals should have more individual authority to employ teachers, etc, because this allows the Minister and Department (and therefore the State) to defer and deny
responsibility. If something goes wrong the Principal is in the breach and the firing line at the same time...ouch.

Also, I believe that there is huge potential for 'layering' and/or disadvantage from 'clusters or networks' of schools. Ours is supposedly a fair and equal democracy, where supposedly each and every citizen should have equal opportunity, and the government, whom are our employees, should provide equal services, eg, health, education, etc.

Education is a fundamental responsibility of a democratic society, and must be available at a base level to all citizens, children and adults. We already have massive inequities in Education with government funding for private schools, etc, and regional/country schools are at the mercy of Adelaide-based, Adelaide-focussed  funding decisions; very much the poor cousins of city relations.

Tony Pasin's statements in support of the Coalitions Broadband scheme are...well...a Liberal candidate spruiking Liberal policy....ummm.......

I Fish - Anyway, not quite so hilarious, the devastating fish die-offs in South Australian Gulf waters. I saw some footage for the first time on the news recently, and it was truly terrible; hundreds of fish of numerous species on only a small area of a long beach covered in fish...I believe that I may have shed a tear...(bloody hippy-Ed)

I had wanted to say 'Frenetic Forensic Fact Finding Follows Further Fish Fatalities, Fueling Famous Fisho's Filthy Fall-out Fears' but it seems a little in-appropriate in the circumstances. Whatever the cause, this situation is an environmental disaster, the repercussions of which may be felt for decades.

Has a whole generation or generations of juvenile fish, crustaceae, etc, been wiped out? Is this permanent damage to the ecosystem or just an unfortunate temporary overload? Are the particular contaminants and/or pollutants and/or conditions still present/prevailing?

It is ludicrously irresponsible to ignore the De-Salination Plant as a critical factor. Even if the damn thing is working properly, and again I do not believe it is, when working exactly to spec it is designed to pour super-saline sludge back into the Gulf.

I am not an engineer, a hydrologist, a biologist, etc, but it occurs to me that given the minimal tidal flow of the Gulf, any discharge will obviously linger and potentially just sink and/or get pushed up the Gulf by the prevailing winds.

Water can only hold a certain concentration of dissolved solids, eg, salt, and temperature affects that level; warmer water holds less solids. I believe it is roughly the 'Blue Lake' principle; as summer sun heats the surface water, the dissolved limestone (calcium carbonate-I think) cannot be held in solution, so it forms tiny 'blue' crystals that sink to the bottom.

As that super-saline discharge gets pushed up the Gulf into shallower and therefore naturally warmer water, more and more of the dissolved solids will precipitate out. And to what degree is chemical pollution concentrated in the discharge?

Also, if the discharge is not being dispersed by strong tidal movement, how long before it is getting drawn back into the De-sal Plant via its own intake pipe? Surely this has been considered in the initial design...surely...pleeeeeease.....

The De-Salination Plant is the massive White Elephant carcass stinking up the waterhole. With forecasts for drier trending long-term weather patterns, is Adelaide going to be forced to drink from that fetid puddle? Noooo...they're going to drain the Murray...no, wait...they're going to do both....hilarious...poison the Gulf producing massively expensive water from a mal-functioning De-sal Plant and destroy the Murray and Lower Lakes with wiers and withdrawals.

Just heard the Katter Party's SA rep (name...?, sorry) saying 'let the Lower Lakes go saline again and more water for irrigators in the Eastern states'....just super....Premier Jay Weatherill is saying Adelaide is going to draw it's water from the Murray, and Katter wants more from the same river for irrigators.

Good thing that the Murray River is a magic river where unicorn bunyips frolic in the pristine waters bubbling from the mystical Spring of In-exhaustable Resource that....what?....not magic?...no mystical spring of?...not?......but, where is all that water going to come from?...what do you mean you don't know?...hey, I'm talking to you...hey!...

And where is all this water coming from that everyone seems so happy to distribute and re-distribute and distribute just a little bit more? Just how many times can you allocate the same litre of water? And I didn't hear the Katter rep mention plans for another massive drain in the South East, or current drainage, and/or the Coorong.

ICAC - Heard the Commissioner (former Judge) Bruce Landner on ABC Radio last week stating that once an issue was 'in the ICAC', that it is an offence for it to be discussed outside of the ICAC. To what extent is this to be applied? What restrictions on free speech under the guise of the integrity of the ICAC?

This ICAC is just a vehicle to bury the corruption deep, and back it up with government sanctioned sanctions for those whom dare resist.

I entirely reject the authority of the South Australian Independent Commission Against Corruption as a body conceived, designed, and implemented by a corrupt Parliament; it is non-sensical to expect that a corrupt government is going to institute any sort of authority that might hold it to account for anything.
Secret meetings with secret findings means malfeasance remains secret.

I entirely reject the ICAC as having any authority to make any such 'secrecy' ruling with the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-Up Issue.

If I were the Lutherans or the Labor state government, both so desperately keen to continue the St Martins Cover-up, the first thing I would do is 'self-refer' to the ICAC and try to bury it there for umpteen more years.

I don't care what these clowns do, I will not allow some-one else to take the St Martins Issue and bury it in the ICAC. I will say what needs to be said as long as it continues to appear to go unheard...and I'm sure I'll get many more letters of support from upstanding citizens like Neville John and Bill DeGaris....

Laters.

This Arvo: TFTIM Former Mt Gambier High School Principal Gary Costello










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