Question of the day

How are libraries filled with books different to libraries filled with videos and DVDs ?

Obviously, what they loan out is different. I'm not after that answer.

Why is one treated as a "public good" to be operated by councils and funded by taxes?

And the other one manages to operate by private enterprises where rentals are funded by people's savings. I'm not against the concept of a library that loans out books at all. But why do we still spend millions operating libraries for books, when they can be privatised and run like a business ?

(assuming there is some demand for books - which there undoubtedly is due to the thriving business of Borders, Amazon et al).

Flying pig moment of the day

When will I ever again see a headline that combines the words - "Greens .. oppose .. tax" ?

Greens threaten to oppose alcopop tax

Samantha Maiden, Online Political Editor THE Senate is threatening to blow a $3bn hole in Kevin Rudd's first budget as the Greens warned they may oppose the alcopop tax hike.

Your tax dollars at work

Courtesy of the Victorian gov't, here is the biggest waste of tax dollars I've seen recently.

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Media Internships, Government Branch The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) is leading a whole of Victorian Government suite of initiatives to strengthen community harmony, build resilience, and help to counter negative stereotypes which may be expressed in response to contemporary social issues. Muslim communities have been under particular pressure, indicating the need for initiatives to promote a broader understanding of Islam and Muslim culture and lifestyles amongst the wider Victorian community.

In this context, DPC is seeking applications for the 2008 DPC Media Internship Program. The Media Internships will commence during the university vacation period between Semester 1 and 2, 2008 (from mid-June to mid-July 2008). The Internships will run for a total of up to 2 months (up to 8 weeks), and may involve a combination of full-time and part-time employment. Applications close COB Monday 26 May 2008.

Position Details

The Media Internship seeks to:

1. Increase the interns’ awareness of the operations of Victoria’s mainstream media;

2. Provide an opportunity for the interns to engage with mainstream media staff and diminish cultural barriers;

3. Enable the interns to identify ways to increase knowledge and understanding within the mainstream media of issues affecting and relating to Victoria’s Muslim communities;

4. Increase awareness within the host media organisations about the diversity and complexity of Victoria’s Muslim communities;

5. Develop the interns’ practical newsgathering skills and journalistic experience within a mainstream media organisation; and

6. Enable the interns to develop their leadership potential.

Organisational Environment:

The interns will be employed by DPC, and seconded to a Victorian-based mainstream media organisation, such as a commercial or public television network, newspaper or radio station.

Accountabilities:

The Media Interns will undertake a combination of day-to-day tasks and journalism work. Duties may include compiling or checking standard editorial material, basic research, reporting, writing, photographic or editorial work under close supervision and working/liaising with a variety of staff and members of the community.

Key Selection Criteria:

DPC are seeking applicants who can demonstrate that they are completing their final year of journalism studies, or are a practicing journalist in a non-mainstream media outlet. The applicant must have an appreciation and thorough understanding of Muslim culture as well as a strong sense of newsworthiness and commitment to news journalism as a career path. The applicant must demonstrate strong research and written skills, and possess the ability to prepare concise and accurate news stories information to short deadlines and have excellent attention to detail, including good proof reading and sub-editing abilities.

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People often refer to these things as "jobs", but I am always quick to point out that they are not jobs in the economic sense. Your labour is not being employed towards a productive end and the employer is not exchanging any of their property (i.e money) for your services.

Instead the government is literally throwing somebody else's money towards somebody who can fulfill a role that they invent. Not because they need the skills to perform an economic function, to manufacture something, to provide services that are in demand. But because governments will not exist if they don't put on a moral and benign appearance. So we promote vaguely defined positions which don't have to produce anything tangible - about community service, social officers, cultural awareness, indigenous affairs, women's representatives etc etc etc.

I like my government small, simple and not certainly not racist. Why should one particular community deserve a media intern to represent them and not another ? (I am definitely *NOT* advocating all communities be represented).

Why not have colour blind laws and the function of local government ought to be simple - collect the garbage, sweep the streets, provide road lights and maintain the roads. Roll back the thousands of public servants who earn money but don't satisfy market demand for anything.

Won't somebody think of the polar bears

Astonishingly, because the polar bear population is healthy and growing, this headline was published today:

US lists polar bears as threatened species

WASHINGTON: The US Government has listed polar bears as a threatened species, warning that melting of Arctic sea ice is risking their habitat.

“Today I am listing the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,” said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, after satellite imagery found ice coverage had fallen to its lowest level yet recorded.

The Government was acting on advice from scientists and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mr Kempthorne detailed greater steps to monitor polar bear populations in Alaska and outlying islands in the Beaufort Sea, and more co-operation with foreign governments to protect the species.

Earlier in the week, the Boston Herald suggested what some of the dire consequences of this stupidity would be:

If the bears were listed, the service would be obliged to designate "critical habitat." The Endangered Species Act provides that each federal agency would have to `insure that any action authorized, funded or carried out by such agency is not likely to jeopardize any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification (our italics) of (critical) habitat of such species."

The environmentalists, if not the service, could claim that any activity that emitted carbon dioxide, the chief gas causing the supposed warming, could not be authorized, financed or done by a federal agency. The agencies would have to bring the modern world to a crash as no fossil fuels could be burned in power plants, no highways built and so forth throughout the economy.

And it seems the report upon which this foolish decision was based is far from perfect:

A new study has claimed that the research done by the US Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species.

The research came about when on April 30, US District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. But, after professor J. Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School and colleagues undertook an audit at the request of the state of Alaska , they found the Interior Department report to be flawed.

As part of the subsequent study, the authors examined nine US Geological Survey Administrative Reports. Professor Armstrong and his colleagues concluded that the most relevant study, properly applied only 15% of relevant forecasting principles and that the second study only 10%, while 46% were clearly contravened and 23% were apparently contravened. Further, according to them, the Geologic Survey reports do not adequately substantiate the authors' assumptions about changes to sea ice and polar bears' ability to adapt that are key to the recommendations.
...

"These studies are meant to inform the US Fish and Wildlife Service about listing the polar bear as endangered," said Armstrong. "After careful examination, my co-authors and I were unable to find any references to works providing evidence that the forecasting methods used in the reports had been previously validated. In essence, they give no scientific basis for deciding one way or the other about the polar bear," he added.

On a personal level, I find this incredibly stupid. Last night I just read the chapter in Atlas Shrugged were Washington passes the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill" which causes dozens of American industries to hit the wall and suffer. Also in the novel was the proposal by "community of disinterested citizens" to investigate Rearden Metal for its safety when used in railroads. The citizens started signing a petition to prevent the railroad for opening for 12 months until an investigation was carried out. The fact that this would have caused bankruptcy for several involved firms in massive projects was totally disregarded.

I recommend everyone read Atlas Shrugged. Its as relevant as ever.

Pork pork pork pork

The Australian has a list of budget items that are known before the official announcement tonight. The list is staggering. There is not a single area of society where government doesn't meddle.

Just remember, the problem isn't spending on health, education, aged care.. the problem is when you hand over most of your money to politicians to do it for you. The good bits are in green (hard to find !) and the bad news is in red.

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AGED CARE/DISABILITIES

* $1 b to fund disability services and increase support for carers, including $100 m for supported accommodation for the disabled.
* Retention of the The Conditional Adjustment Payment worth more than $100 m a year to aged care homes.
* $420 m over three years to fund almost 130,000 places a year for respite for the elderly and disabled.


CLIMATE CHANGE/ENVIRONMENT

* Climate change announcements to exceed $2 b. (!!)

* $500 m for a National Clean Coal Fund including: $50 m in a Queensland pilot coal gasification plant, $50 m to demonstrate carbon capture in NSW and $ 5 m for mapping and testing carbon storage in Western Australia.
* Low-interest green loans of up to $10,000 for water and energy efficiency will be offered to 200,000 existing homes.
* Rebates of up to $1000 will be offered to up to 225,000 homes to install solar and heat-pump hot-water systems.
* Rebates of up to $500 will be on the table for up to 500,000 homes to install new piping for greywater or rainwater tanks.
* Rebates of up to $8000 for the installation of rooftop solar power panels
* Landlords of up to 300,000 homes will receive a rebate of up to $500 to install insulation.
* Subsidies for businesses that retrofit existing buildings to help reduce their carbon footprint.
* Grants of $10,000 to $500,000 for small and medium manufacturers to become more environmentally friendly.
* A $100 m national manufacturing network will provide small to medium businesses with expert advice on how to improve their energy and water efficiency.
* $150m will be spent on an energy innovation fund to keep scientists and researchers in Australia.
* $15m for a Clean Energy Export Strategy to help Austrade promote and compete for clean-energy exports.
* $20m for a Clean Energy Enterprise Connect Centre to research and improve products.
* Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads targeted under a $100 m Community Coast Program.
* Local councils will be able to apply for grants of up to $50,000 to help communities plan for coastal inundation, storm surges, health risks from tropical mosquito-borne diseases and more severe tropical cyclones.
* $200 m pledge to sustain the Great Barrier Reef. (!!)
*Schools will to apply for up to $20,000 to install 2 kilowatt solar panels and rainwater tanks.
* Deception Bay PCYC to receive $250,000 for solar heating panels for its pool.
* Surf Lifesaving Clubs to share in up $3 m for rainwater tanks under the Government's National Water Security Plans for Towns and Cities.


EDUCATION

* The first instalment of the $1 b to give all students from Year 9 to senior access to a computer at school.
* First instalment of the $2.5 b plan to build new trade centres in secondary schools
* An expected portion of the surplus to be used to top up the $6 b Higher Education Endowment Fund.
* $700 tuition vouchers for struggling students and summer school for teachers will be axed.


FAMILIES/WELFARE

* Means-testing for Family Tax Benefit Part B, probably at the level of $150,000 for the main breadwinner, deceased from $250,000.
* A 50 per cent childcare tax rebate – an extra $71 for an average family, with two young children and a mother working two days a week.
* Government will raise the threshold for the Medicare Levy Surcharge for families from $100,000 to $150,000 and from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles.
* A new means test for the Baby Bonus will be introduced so high-income earners will miss out on the $4258 payment.
* A debit card that quarantines half a person's welfare for essentials such as food and clothing. Indigenous people in Western Australia and the Northern Territory targeted first.


IMMIGRATION

* $40 m for extra English lessons.
* $9.2 m for migrant traineeships under the English and Work Readiness plan.


INDIGENOUS

* $90 m over five years to employ up to 300 indigenous rangers.
* About $19 m to protect children from abuse in South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
* Up to $1 m over two years for extra playgroups in the Northern Territory.
* More than $6 m to tackle violence and child abuse in indigenous communities.
* Almost $40 m for the Indigenous Boarding Hostels Partnership, which provides accommodation for students to go to secondary schools in regional centres.
* $10 m to build an eco-tourism transit hub outside the entrance to the iconic Mossman Gorge north of Cairns.


INFRASTRUCTURE

* A new multibillion-dollar fund to pump money into national road projects with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
* Hundreds of grant schemes to be be axed.

HEALTH

* The threshold for the $600 Medicare surcharge will increase from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles and from $100,000 to $150,000 for couples.
* Boosting the former government's $1.8 billion mental health program to services outside the capital cities.
* An $87 to extend bowel cancer screening programs to 50-year-olds.
* 18 organisations to share in $3 m to work with families affected by substance abuse.

TAX

* Almost $8 b in tax breaks to be slashed over four years.
* Spending cuts worth more than $3 billion for the 2008-9 financial year
* Budget surplus of at least 1.5 per cent of GDP or $18 billion for the next financial year.
* Tax on expensive cars -- proposed increase from 25 per cent to 33 per cent on the GST-exclusive value of cars exceeding $57,123.
* Likely axing of annual $40 m program to subsidy ethanol production.
* Closing a $80m tax loophole used by the wealthy to reduce tax on share options.

TRANSPORT
* $17 m over five years to give more than 200,000 free driving lessons to learner drivers and their parents.
* $20 m over four years to improve the safety of aerodromes in remote and isolated areas of Australia

Budget 2008 - part 1

One of the first items from K-Rudd's first budget to reach the news was the health insurance changes.

It turns out that the public health system is getting a funding increase to the tune of $1bil. As usual, there is no discussion if this will do anything positive or create more bureaucrats, administrators and paper-shufflers. As usual, there is no discussion about the already bloated budget and whether it has been productive to shovel money to public health.


An interesting change, because it is actually a good one, was to raise the threshold of the Medicare surcharge from $50,000 to $100,000 for individual,s. Previously under Howard, there was a carrot and a stick approach to private health insurance. You would get the stick of an extra 1% tax on your income if it was over $50,000 and you didn't have private health cover.

So if you earned $60k and didn't take private health, you would be stung with an extra $600 in tax. This acts as a big incentive for people who earn over $50k to take out health insurance.

You would also get the carrot of a 30% rebate on the premium. Which still stands.

Rudd has lessened the stick by putting the income threshold where the surcharge kicks in up to $100,000.

So in the sense that less government meddling is a good thing, then this is an improvement. It will however push more people out of private and back to the crumbling public system where service is rationed out to those who can wait and hang on for months on end.

The problem with Rudd is that he is trying to engineer a better carrot and a better stick, but the approach is still a blunt instrument - government. It is a one-size-fits-all approach to a complex industry which should be coordinated by individual needs.

The governemnt ought to remove all carrots and all sticks. Not just for private, but for public. If I want to opt out of the public system and keep the medicare levy (1.5% of my income), then that should be my choice.

Rudd also plans to continue the $5000 baby bonus. The most misguided and hare-brained intrusion of government into the family home and people's private lives in a long long while.

Atlas Shrugged

I finally started reading before the weekend, and I find myself 100 pages into the book already.

Tis book is considered one of the greatest political tracts ever written, and is taught in American colleges. If only a wider audience could be reached.... but with talks of an upcoming Atlas Shrugged movie in 2009, starring Angelina and Brad, this novel could make a huge resurgence.

It is brilliant, illustrative and engaging. Written in 1957, the ideas it promotes are more relevant than ever.

The themes of work, accomplishment and the right to pursue individual happiness exists through every chapter.

The set of characters are all deeply engaging and well portrayed.

The sense of pride that the honest entrepreneurs gain through hard work and success are best shown by the attitudes of Dagny Taggart, Hank Rearden, Francisco D’Anconia and Ellis Wyatt. All of them accomplished executives in the mining, railroad or metals industries.

Ayn Rand also inserts many dishonorable characters and charlatans into her story;

James Taggart, the incompetent executive, as well as the bickering and parasitic socialite family of Hank Rearden are all entirely concerned with other people's affairs and how a society ought to make individual sacrifices for the common good.

Ayn Rand certainly had a fierce intellect. This book will make many readers appreciate the individual and their freedoms above any ambiguous concepts of society.

Centrelink should be run like a business

Which means, in a nutshell.. if they continue to operate as they have in the past, they will be forced to file for bankruptcy and go out of business or be taken over by new management.

Centre-flunk is an interesting website with hundreds of stories, anecdotes, links to news reports and discussion forums that tear into Centrelink.

Some of the rhetoric is a bit over the top, and I'm not sure how valid some of their complaints are.
I certainly don't agree with their calls to increase Centrelink's funding as a solution.

But this is what you get with government ownership of an entity. Is there a private business in operation today that has as many complaints ?

Rudd announces spending cut

A lot of political doublespeak in this article in The Australian.

The budget would deliver a 2 per cent cut to government departments' operational spending.

``We'll have to make significant cuts to a number of existing government programs to achieve that higher surplus,'' Mr Rudd said.

``I can announce today that this budget will achieve a one-off 2 per cent efficiency dividend across government.

Well 2% isn't huge.. but whats really worrying is that it isn't 2% of government spending in its entirety. Only 2% of the operational spending. Kevin Rudd should be a PR spin doctor with his invention of the phrase "efficiency dividend".

And it certainly is a one-off.. just watch as government continues to expand and blow its operational spending by billions more. The number of public servants has skyrocketed and roughly doubled in the past decade.

The budget would increase the child care tax rebate from 30 to 50 per cent and pay it quarterly, at a cost to the Government of $1.6 billion.

Well there goes the savings ! What a waste. Instead of letting parents research and make their own decisions on child care, the government is massively subsidising parents to buy child care services. Heres a novel idea - stop taxing the life out of us and then some parents will choose to return to the workforce !

It will also honour its commitment to help working families under financial pressure.

Ahh of course the mention of "working families". See how similar Rudd is to Howard ? We can expect another decade of middle class welfare and massive tax churn. The government takes ever increasing amounts of wealth, and it allows those who reproduce to keep a large share of it. Wouldn't it be simple to just let us keep our property in the first place ?

It seems Rudd entirely misses the mark.

``Inflation is not just a number on a page, it is not just a bureaucratic statistic, it is a cancer which eats away at the living standards of all Australians,'' Mr Rudd said.

Yep.. and lets ignore the elephant in the room. The RBA continues to destroy our currency and fuel inflation by its reckless monetary expansion. They'll buy any junk these days, take anything as collateral for their bonds, and double the supply of money every 10-15 years.

Why can't we just have a nice budget that halves income tax, gets rid of Centrelink and forces the RBA to return to sound currency. I guess it would be too easy and not grab enough headlines.