Hello Malaysia, Romania, Germany and India, and welcome to the blog...and it's a public holiday here in South Australia for Adelaide Cup Day, which many people consider a farcical excuse for a day off given that it's not even a 'Group A' race, and it has been repeatedly moved around the calendar...(the Adelaide Cup is the geegees-Ed)...yes, thanks...
I'm not particularly interested in Horse Racing, but that's hardly the issue here...in some other states (Victoria, Tasmania?) it is Labour Day, celebrating the 1850's protest movement for the '8hr Day' that centred on Melbourne...these strikes, etc, led to the standard '8hr Day' that we accept as a reasonable template for modern living, where the average week is considered to be 40hrs over 5 days with a weekend, allowing ample time for rest and recreation...these are very current issues given that the Abbott Liberal government is 'reviewing' penalty rates, particularly across weekends.
I reserve the right to disagree with everything the Liberals do, but I do believe that there's a compromise that can and should be reached re 'Penalty Rates' for working weekends, public holidays, etc...it is fact that some even many if not all small businesses, eg, cafes, are forced to close on holidays because they cannot afford the wages of their staff...there is an argument for marginally reducing penalty rates at these times, in a manner that still compensates workers appropriately.
Yesterday (Sunday 9th March 2014) there were only a handful of shops open along Mt Gambier's Main St (Commercial St)...and given that today is a Public Holiday, it may well be the same....(yes, and again today-Ed)..ta'...whilst there may be other factors, eg, the lack of tourists due to poor planning and woeful Tourism SA advertising that doesn't even recognise Mt Gambier exists, I understand that the penalty rates are a key factor, particularly for small businesses that might need to have one or two casual workers to operate, but don't have the turn-over and profit margins to be able to pay them.
Tangent Time: because I noticed that the ABC 24News TV channel runs a promo that lists off cities down Australia's East Coast but doesn't mention Adelaide...(and Perth?-Ed)...didn't notice...and I have previously identified the Channel 10 morning news services that run weather maps that include Adelaide, then Victor Harbour (100kms South of Adelaide), and then it's Melbourne...Mt Gambier is not even identified on the map...(Mt Where?-Ed)...hilarious...
Tangent Time Times Two: I did miss small bits of it, but I understand that the ABC Insiders program yesterday (ABC TV and ABC/BBC Radio) made a one sentence reference to SA Premier Jay Weatherill writing to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, with an accompanying throw-away comment, something about 'an election'...but there was quite extensive coverage of the Tasmanian election which is also being held on Saturday 15th March 2014...if there was any specific coverage of the SA election it must have been very brief 'cos I saw nuthin'...to my mind, this is just another indication of how irrelevant Adelaide is to the Eastern states.
Arguably attention has been focused on Tasmania by Tony Abbott's recent ludicrous comments about the need to clear-fell the tiny remnant stands of Native Forest across the country but particularly in Tasmania where the vast majority of this 'reserve' exists...(is he going to "liberate" those trees from the burdens of being living, vertical ecosystems, and offer them new high-tech opportunities to come back from Asia wrapped around new tellies and white goods, etc, because they'll be exported as chip or pulp and we no longer manufacture anything here?-Ed)...well not quite...
Mr Abbott didn't say "liberate" those trees, but he did say he was "liberating Qantas" by trying to remove Foreign Investment restrictions...and of course he has already "liberated" all those poor employees of Holden in Adelaide...to whom the blame should genuinely be pinned is not the debate here, it's the notion ridiculous in thought let alone annunciation, that people losing their long-term employment is "liberating" for them...yet again I insist that we "liberate" Tony Abbott from the burden of office...(and do us all a favour-Ed)...indeed...but I digress...
There is some merit to the argument that it is better for businesses to be open and paying staff at a slightly reduced rate than closing because they can't afford wages...part-time workers should always be seen as equal to full-time where workers do the same tasks, but working evenings, public holidays, etc, is part of some industries where it is unavoidable, eg, kitchen hands, part-time waiting staff, theatre staff, etc, usually work evenings because that's when customers dine-out and/or go to the theatre.
It is a well established 'right of passage' that Uni students do part-time bar work because they need their days free to attend Uni but still need to work to get the cash...(you're not suggesting that they work cash-in-hand to avoid taxes, etc?-Ed)...no, no, turn of phrase...but it is true that there are many people who rely on work being available at times outside normal business hours, eg nightclubs and pubs, etc...however, obsessive pre-occupation with relentlessly drinking alcohol until the wee small hours is entirely another issue for another post.
There are of course many shift jobs in industries where it's just not practical to turn plant/equipment on and off, eg, timber mills in the South East, or Health Service provision...(Fracking at Penola, that's going 24/7-Ed)...yes, most Mining operations, etc, and usually extra allowances apply for the inconvenience of working outside usual business hours...regular shift work has been proven to interfere with natural 'biorythms' and compromise health with issues of sleep deprivation, etc, and obviously it's pretty hard to socialise, even with your own family, if you're operating outside the hours everyone else is.
There is a reasonable balance to be set just back from the current 'penalty rates' without lurching into the mindless offence of people like Gina Rinehart belly-aching about how wages and Social Security payments are destroying our economy...(she truly is a piece of work-Ed)...indeed...and heard the other day where the little GR Airways...(Gina Rinehart's private jet-Ed)...jaunt that Liberal Julie Bishop and National Barnaby Joyce took to India for a wedding, that wedding was thrown by the man who's company now owns large amounts of the Thermal Coal reserves in Queensland that are driving the Gladstone Harbour expansion with associated dredging and dumping...(charming-Ed)...
The Child Abuse Royal Commission: is now looking at the case of John Ellis, where Mr Ellis lost his claim for compensation in the Courts, and where the Court ruled that the Catholic Church is not a legal entity and therefore not responsible for his abuse...Mr Ellis turned down $30,000...(sound familiar?-Ed)... because it would have required he sign 'confidentiality agreements' to never discuss his case in future...(wouldn't that conflict directly with Mandatory Notification legislation?-Ed)...well it would if authorities were genuine on these issues and prosecuted that MN law and ones like it...
Anyhoos, in 2007 the NSW Court of Appeal ruled that the Churches properties were actually owned by 'Trustees' and that they (the Trustees) are immune from any responsibility...it also ruled that priests are not technically employed by the Catholic Church but by individual diocese, so again the Church is not liable...the threat of future claims failing due to this Court ruling is enough to stop claims or greatly reduce potential compensation...obviously the Church is again bleating out the line that this is all terrible and they didn't realise, etc, etc...bollocks, poppy-cock, and balder dash...
I am just paraphrasing reportage of that Court case and apologise if I have not hit the nail on the head exactly, but the issues are broadly accurate, namely, the Catholic Church was cleared of all responsibility for Child Abuse committed by Catholic priests operating out of Catholic Churches...cleared by a NSW Court in 2007...this isn't just some horrendous abuse case that happened decades ago, it's that and the modern Court system legally exonerating the Catholics of legal responsibility...only 6 years ago...and still the Catholics are bleating...(bastards to a man-Ed)...well quite...
Hot Guilty: And the jury is back in a very different Court, that of Public Opinion, so judge for yourself...this summer there were 150 high temperature records broken in South Australia, and we are being nationally recognised as the centre of the 2013/14 heatwave across Southern Oz...record high temperatures in the mid 40Cs, record consecutive days over 42C, etc, and all whilst global weather influences like El Nino are in relatively neutral positions...I've seen some reports that these new records were expected but not until 2030...is this Global Warming?...a natural anomaly in a constantly changing paradigm?...is it just a Thang?...
My personal position remains that we as a species are exacerbating natural processes by our collective behaviours, eg, burning fossil Fuels, polluting eco-systems to the point of collapse, de-forestation, building concrete jungles that change weather patterns, etc...I cannot accept the position that everything's just fine and Global Warming is a beat up by Leftist Greenies...I'm sure I've covered this before, but we humans, are already recognising ourselves as the 5th...(possibly even 4th by now-Ed)..indeed, the 4th/5th largest extinction episode in the history of the planet, and the only one that is 'species-driven'.
Enough for today, more...
Tomorrow: Rail Lands and Child Abuse at Naracoorte High School
Just some stuff about stuff that's stuffed...(nice-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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