A long way from nowhere...

House at Gapuwiyak, NT

Meanwhile, still in the Northern Territory, reports are in The Australian to-day of the whitefella knows best policies of Mal Brough. Isn't this great news for Aboriginal people? Isn't it just what ignorant whitefellas in urban Australia want to hear as they sip their caffe lattes in Degraves Street, Park Road and Darlinghurst Road?

As he surveyed the house he helped to build, the house he will one day own, Barney Narjic was only too aware that he was the first to walk this path. "But when I pass away," the 51-year-old said, "my kids will take this over."
The Federal Govt estimates its value at $270,000. In the better suburbs of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, where the real estate in the better 'burbs is running full steam ahead, they wouldn't have a clue about relativities in Wadeye and environs.

Just to give you some point of comparison. Tennant Creek, in the middle of the NT, at the cross-roads of the nation has a population of 4,000 - 50% of whom are Aboriginal. Tennant Creek has an economy. It is in the centre of pastoral and mining activity and is a community service centre for the 250,000 square kilometres that is the Barkly Tableland. It is serviced by air, buses, and The Ghan on a very well-maintained Stuart Highway just south of a very well-maintained Barkly Highway. Miss Eagle knows of no one who would spend/invest $270,000 on a home in Tennant Creek. In fact, the biggest driver to home purchasing in TC has always been the scarcity and cost of housing in the rental market - but not to the tune of $270,000. Miss Eagle will admit though that the cost of housing in the NT is expensive because of the cost of bringing in the materials. Its just that outside the high prices of Darwin and Alice you have to have a big hard think about it - and most people do not build but purchase existing housing.


Now let's switch back to Barney and his new home. The idea is supposed to be - as it has been publicised to the Australian polity - that Aboriginal people would be able to own their own homes on freehold land just like other Australians. The idea would be that they would become property owners like most Australians.

Well, it's not happening at either Wudapuli or Wadeye. Barney gets to rent his $270,000 home and we are not told precisely what the rental is. Now, there is a rule of thumb in Sydney and Melbourne which means that, on average, you drop the three noughts off the end and that's your weekly rental. So, as a generality, a $270,000 property would rent for $270. Barney is reported to earn $300 a week on the work for the dole scheme.

Now does Miss Eagle have your attention, dear Reader, for this little lesson in home economics?

Barney is not permanently employed. Don't think the banks would want to lend, do you? Servicing a $270,000 mortgage? How do you manage that in one lifetime, particularly the lifetime of a 51 year old, and particularly the shorter lifespan of an Aboriginal man who, statistically is already on borrowed time? Will Barney still be around in 22 years when he will be 73 - after two years of rental and twenty years of mortgage repayments.

And this mortgage - unlike yours and mine, dear Reader - has strings attached. Barney will only be eligible to purchase his home if .....
.....after two years if his rental record is unblemished and the children are sent regularly to school.

When did your bank manager last check on the attendance record of the kids, Miss Eagle asks?

The federal Government says the four families will take up to 20 years to pay off their homes, with an average weekly rent of $150 for one four-bedroom house to be paid through indigenous home-ownership schemes.
Mr Brough said mortgage payments would be the same cost as rent. "I have no doubt that these families have gone through a very vigorous process of financial assessment to ensure that they have the will, they have the financial capacity (to make the payments)," he said.
"No one is being left out here high and dry."

More home economics:
If Barney earns $300 per week on the work-for-the-dole-scheme and he pays $150 in rent, how does he manage basic food and clothing for six people (himself, his wife and his five children). Now, there may be additional family benefits, but remember that, just as housing is expensive because of the costs of materials, so is food very expensive. The food that is available is basic - not organic niceties, nor health food shop niceties as in urban Australia. Why? Because there is no economy. Not even an economy which might discriminate against Aboriginal people. This means virtually no choice; little, if any, competition; virtually no employment; no diversity.

The Oz reports:

The handover came as The Australian revealed the Howard Government was set to unveil a $1billion-plus plan to encourage private home ownership and lift education and health standards among indigenous people. Tuesday is expected to provide significant backing for private home ownership and economic development in Aboriginal communities.

So, dear Reader, you will have your ear glued to the budgetary details, won't you? And if the comments above have any truth or any semblance of hope in them, Miss Eagle can provide a measure to gauge them by. If the Howard Government is deadly serious, he will fund - for soon completion - a first-class, all-weather road to Wadeye.

You see, without this there will never be an economy at Wadeye. The $270,000 home of Barney's dreams will never be worth two-bob - because there will not be an economy. No local economy means that there will be no housing market in which to create value.

And all Mal Brough and John Howard will have done - out of their utter and complete ignorance - will be to re-arrange funding for Aboriginal communities once more - this time with invective as a lead up.

Better barra than a river no more

Meanwhile, in the Northern Territory, certain North Australians are busy shooting themselves in the collective foot and legislating for a massive environmental disaster of the future: here are the future eaters of to-day. What is the alternative? Being able to catch the best fish in the whole of Australia: the beautiful barramundi of Borroloola.

Inserting the word McArthur in the search space at the top left of this blog will lead you, dear Reader, to Miss Eagle's previous posts on this topic: the destruction of the Northern Territory place of beauty and barramundi, the McArthur River.

Read the debate here. Find out why Barbara McCarthy, Alison Anderson, and Karl Hampton who are Aboriginal ALP members of the NT Legislative Assembly cross the floor of the House to vote against their own party. It is noteworthy that Barbara McCarthy who represents the NT seat of Arnhem is a Borroloola girl and firmly embedded in that community.

How other Aboriginal ALP members voted: Marian Scrymgeour who is the Northern Territory Minister for Natural Resources was absent when the vote was taken. Elliot McAdam, the NT Minister for Housing and Member for the seat of Barkly in which Borroloola and the McArthur River mine are situated, voted for the legislation. Those who were bound by the convention of cabinet solidarity voted for the bill - except when absent from the House.

Agriculture going North?

Will a shift of agribusiness to Northern Australia mean that the picture of the flooded Durack River in Western Australia will become a scene similar to the picture on the left of salinated soil?

Let's listen to Tim Flannery and the voices of knowledgable people before replicating in Northern Australia what Australians of European descent have done to Southern Australia.

Back in January 2007, John Howard did a not very good job of the old soft shoe shuffle with his ministerial arrangements. The Prime Minister appointed his vile-hearted attack-dog friend and close Liberal ally, Senator Bill Heffernan, to lead a taskforce that will consider ways to encourage farmers to move north.

Miss Eagle was so gob-smacked by this horrific appointment and its antecedents, implications, and portents for the future that it has taken this long for her to try to achieve some coherence in commenting on this mind-boggling scenario.

Miss E will start with some bullet points (and a warning, dear Reader: this post is almost certain to descend into incoherence, frothing at the mouth, tearing out of hair and similar lunacies. Please be patient. Northern Australia is Miss Eagle's very lifeblood. It is her very being even though she has been transplanted to the Land of the Eagle, Creator Spirit in this part of the world.)

1. The Howard Government has never given a damn (or a dam) about Northern Australia. "One of the first acts of this coalition government was to cut $250 million in regional projects as well as cutting general purpose funding to the Northern Territory by $12 million. In the Territory we have experienced massive cuts to the Public Service, which means not only jobs are taken out of the region but also vital services are removed. Offices that have closed in the Northern Territory include Darwin's office of the Department of Transport and Regional Development, AusAID--the Australian Agency for International Development--Radio Australia, the Office of Northern Development, and the Department of Finance's regional office. " From the maiden speech in the Australian Senate by NT Senator Trish Crossin.


2. What does Bill Heffernan, farmer from southern New South Wales, know about Northern Australia? Someone correct me please with some good solid facts, but Miss Eagle thinks Bill knows sweet you know what. Bill was born in Junee and has not moved far. He was educated at St Joey's at Hunters Hill. For my North Australian friends, Miss Eagle wishes to advise that when she went to live in Sydney, on her first day there she went to hear Richard Rohr speak at Joey's. Miss Eagle knows of no school as posh as this in Northern Australia. In fact, Bill, most of your generation and mine who grew up in Northern Australia - and of a number of generations since - had no educational opportunities such as you had. So, Bill, the Liberal Party under Menzies, Holt and McMahon and the Liberal-National Party Coalition under Bjelke-Petersen have much to answer for.


3. Farmers following European and North American farming practices have wrecked the soil and water of this nation, none more so than those practising farming in the older settled areas of southern Australia - where Bill has his farm.


4. Agriculture, in some areas of the north, has not been successful. One of the major reasons is insect attack. Again, correct Miss Eagle if she is wrong by producing some facts, but Miss Eagle believes that if widespread agriculture is to succeed north of the Tropic of Capricorn heavy use of pesticides will be required. There is an exception. Genetic modification of crops is being given or will be given the green light to avoid pesticide use. This will be of great benefit to cotton which has GM crops ready to go.


5. The cane growing industry, because of its chemical run-off, in North Queensland has been detrimental to the Great Barrier Reef and contributes to its almost certain demise. The industry organisation has been antedeluvian in its denialist attitudes. If these attitudes have changed, please give Miss Eagle the evidence. Miss Eagle is targetting the industry as a whole in these comments and the industry organisation in particular. Miss Eagle is aware of some of the insightful, innovative techniques undertaken by individual growers to prevent run-off from their farms.


6. The grazing industry now sends more live cattle overseas than it does to meatworks. There are few meatworks in the north these days. The live cattle - and sheep - trade is severely detrimental to animal health and welfare. In fact, it is downright cruel.

So, dear Reader, are you now ready for a reality check after that tirade (minimalist, BTW. More could be said.)? Pop across to these statements by Tim Flannery.

Miss Eagle is not alone.........

Miss Eagle is not alone in finding praying for rain a dubious pursuit. She is in good company - with Father Bob. Father Bob is a major identity in Melbourne: a humourous man posing and imposing as the old fashioned Catholic parish priest in his parish at the inner city suburb of South Melbourne. You can hear him on the radio, see him on TV, and now he's podcasting from his blog.

Howard put the fear of Hell Fire into Bill?

Miss Eagle was not clear on the role of John Howard in the Bill Heffernan's Julia Gillard comments. Here is an article from The Age printed in full because it clarifies Howard's role - and Miss Eagle loves Kate Lundy's remarks. Please note Heffernan's vile remarks on the celibacy of Catholic priests. Now many people take issue with the celibate priesthood of the Catholic Church, but to make your point like this? Vile Bill Heffernan Vile (punctuate according to taste)! More evidence of his character.

Howard forces Senator's apology
Brendan Nicholson, Ben Doherty and Andrew Darby - May 3, 2007

BLUNTLY spoken Liberal MP Bill Heffernan has apologised to deputy ALP leader Julia Gillard for suggesting that she was not suited to be deputy prime minister because she chose not to have children.
The man dubbed John Howard's "boundary rider" got a blast from the Prime Minister after he insisted on standing by a comment he made last year that Ms Gillard had no idea what life was about because she was "deliberately barren".
"I won't walk away from that," Senator Heffernan told The Bulletin.
"One of the great understandings in a community is family, and the relationship between mum, dads and a bucket of nappies."
The comment about Ms Gillard drew a barrage of flak from Labor's ranks, and strong criticism from Mr Howard and ministers clearly annoyed about the extent to whichit drew attention from their attack on Labor's industrial relations policy.
The question of whether people married and had children was entirely a matter for them, Mr Howard said. "I don't approve of those sort of remarks, and I made that very clear.
"Julia Gillard's life is her business, and she has a right to live it according to what she thinks is appropriate."
Labor MP Kate Lundy said that if controversial Muslim cleric Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali had made such a remark, the Prime Minister would have been the first to criticise him.
Treasurer Peter Costello said it was wrong to comment on a person's decision to have children or not.
Labor leader Kevin Rudd said he believed Mr Howard was a decent man and he must pull Senator Heffernan into line over the outlandish comment.
Senator Heffernan had also repeated his observation that priests should be allowed to marry because they, "like the rest of us, wake up with a horn at four in the morning".
Mr Howard called the senator to tell him his Gillard remark was out of order and that he should apologise immediately.
Mr Heffernan's written apology was prompt.
"I apologise to Julia Gillard and anyone else who was offended for my completely inappropriate and insensitive remarks," he said.
Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella said there was no outrage from Labor women when an ALP candidate made a similar suggestion about her fitness for Parliament during the 2004 campaign.

The find the flaw project

Senator Bill Heffernan - with horns

Bill Heffernan's serial vile offences demonstrate a flawed character. Now, one feature of flawed character of the serial offence kind is repetition. In other words, an offence is not a once-only. It keeps coming out time and again. As Miss Eagle has pointed out in this post.

Now the offences mentioned are the ones regarded by the media as newsworthy. Miss E reckons that there are probably lots of other incidents which have not been regarded as worth the effort by the metro media.

Dear Reader, if you have knowledge of other incidents of Heffernan's vile and peculiar manifestation of foot-in-mouth disease or his vile and peculiar investigatory digging-the-dirt crusades, could you please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar: after all neither of us want to be enjoined in legal proceedings by the nasty Senator.

No real contrition, no real job - resign Bill

Senator Bill Heffernan - with horns

Bill Heffernan has apologised. This morning Miss Eagle heard his apology on radio. His voice sounded off-hand as he said "I apologise to all the people that's offended, so there you go." Gee, Bill. That sounded really sincere and contrite - NOT.

Now Miss E, dear Reader, is all for forgiveness in public life. Miss E has, on occasions, mused on this topic here on this blog. But, dear Reader, there are two types of contrition - perfect and imperfect.

As a practising Catholic, Bill Heffernan would be aware of this.

If these theological niceties escape you, dear Reader, Miss E will come to your rescue.

Perfect Contrition is where the offender is sincerely sorry, remorseful and repentant. The offender sincerely seeks forgiveness, wishes to reform, and seeks to make amends for his or her actions.

Imperfect Contrition is when the reason for the offender's sorrow is fear of Hell Fire.

Bill Heffernan is a serial offender.

And, as Bill Heffernan knows, a priest in the confessional is quite justified in refusing absolution to an offender who continues in his or her way without any attempt at reform.

The words, Bill, are too little too late. Have you called on Julia Gillard in person, cap in hand to apologise and make amends to her? How do you suggest we re-assure ourselves of your sincerity, Bill, when so many people have been on the receiving end of your offensive tongue and vile actions?

And, Bill, just why did you apologise? Did John Howard chastise you and that was as the Fires of Hell? If John Howard did not chastise you, Bill, why would that have been? Yes, John, if you did not chastise Heffernan, why would that have been?

Senator Heffernan must resign. He is a serial offensive offender. He has brought shame to the public life of Australia. He is a waste of space in the Senate.

Time to go, Bill Heffernan...we don't need to hear from you ever again

Well, dear Reader, do you think the above touched-up photograph is fair political comment?

You see, he's at it again.

Yes, Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan is once again reminding us of his infinite capacity to breach one of the two commandments enjoined upon all Christians and Heffernan is reputed to be a faithful Catholic.

The Second Commandment is commonly known as The Golden Rule. It is "loving your neighbour as yourself".

Bill can't keep his mouth shut. In fact, it appears that he may never have heard of that wise saying which states that if you can't say something good about someone then don't say anything at all.

Now, ordinarily, someone like Bill probably wouldn't get airplay. Bill would never pass as an intellectual. His resources aren't such that they would be a source of power. And it is doubtful whether he could lead legions of followers across a desert. In fact, his comments would probably die for want of oxygen except for one crucial fact. You see, dear Reader, Bill is a good mate of John Howard's and a sort of attack-dog-come-dirt-digger for him.

But Bill is not infallible - and definitely not reliable.

This became clear when he tried single handedly to destroy one of Australia's finest jurists, Michael Kirby. He failed in a major, major way.

You see, Bill has a tendency to unapologetically shoot his mouth off and doesn't give a fig even if it is someone on his own side of politics.

But headlines and attitudes which say that "Bill is just being Bill" won't cut the mustard anymore. Bill's mouth and mind are too despicable for that.

Apologists for Bill from the PM down only show their own lack of ethics, show their own bigotry and bias, and shame Australia and Australians.

The Garnaut Report on Climate Change and its effect on Australia

What do you do in Australian politics these days when you have real clout?

When you control six state governments and there are all those resources?

What do you do with all that when it looks likely you will form the next Australian Government?

You commission a major report into climate change and its effects on Australia.

What else.

Miss Eagle thinks the appointment of Ross Garnaut is great.

While the Liberals are union bashing and ripping off working familes Labor is doing something concrete to advance the national interest.

Australian Labor is keeping its eye on the ball.

How big and how bad are those unions and their leaders!

Ya know what Miss Eagle thinks. Howard is running out of objects of fear. He's worn out the refugees. El Qaeda has faded a bit - provided there's no more Bali bombings. So there has to be something to fear - so they're dusting off the latest version of reds under beds - notice the colour of the site background.

O-r-i-g-i-n-a-l thinkers aren't they? Primal fear, primal hate. So we have to hate unions. We're a free society. One of the hallmarks of a free society is a free trade union movement. But we have to hate unions and those who work in them.

So the next election will be run on this fear. So in all this I think Rudd's "Fresh thinking" will work - and he won't buy into the fear thing as Beazley did. And after all "Fresh" works for Woolworths!

The policy is here...the campaign hots up

The IR policy has arrived - or most of it. Remember, there's still fine details to come in the transitional policies.

Everything you need to know, including a photo of Klever Kevvie from Queensland who's here to help, is available here.

The "Your Rights at Work" Campaign would like to hear what you think. So would Miss Eagle.

If you live anywhere near Upper Ferntree Gully and would like to assist Miss E leaflet the neighbourhood for the YRAW Campaign, please email her off the sidebar.

The Alternative Anzac Commemoration

I am indebted to Dale Hess (once again) for forwarding the following material from New Zealand. If you wish to receive a pdf booklet of the commemoration, please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar.

Away from all the official ceremonies, fly-bys and flag raising, five families commemorated ANZAC Day in their own way today.

The friends and neighbours gathered to remember New Zealanders and others who sacrificed their lives for the sake of peace and freedom.

Some of the people remembered include:
Te Whiti o Rongomai

the prophet of Parihaka who refused, along with his followers, to retaliate against the violence of the colonial government bent on annexing Taranaki land for settlers.
Archibald Baxter

one of 14 pacifists in World War I who was shipped to France, sent to the frontline, tied to a pole in front of the enemy, starved, beaten and left for dead for refusing to bear arms in support of the British Empire.
Ormond Burton

a decorated World War I veteran who publicly denounced New Zealand involvement in World War II, was imprisoned with hard labour and thrown out of the Methodist Church for refusing to preach against conscription.
Archibald Barrington

the founder of the Riverside community near Motueka who toured the country opposing New Zealand participation in World War II and was arrested in Gisborne for speaking out against the war.

Ann Newlands

representative of New Zealand and a key figure in the drafting and passage of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Rod Donald

environmentalist and Member of Parliament.
Moana Cole

Catholic Worker peace activist who broke into a US Air Force base in 1991, sabotaged a B-52 bomber en route to indiscriminately bomb civilians in Iraq and was jailed for a year.
Pauline Tangiora

the kuia from Mahia who went as a human shield Iraq and has campaigned tirelessly for peace in the Pacific and Aotearoa.
Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith

the New Zealand born doctor who refused to undertake a second tour of duty in Iraq with the British RAF as he considered the occupation is illegal and was found guilty last year on five counts of disobeying orders.
After reading James K. Baxter’s poem ‘To My Father’, the families wrote their own peace poems and drew pictures.

Nine year old Hugo Robinson wrote this poem:

Peace and love
are like a flying dove;
No time for war
you just have to soar;
A tui flies
through the skies;
Open free
unlike you and me;
War, revolution
is not the solution.

Others created t-shirt slogans, pictures and designs such as:
‘Drop aid, not bombs’
‘We shall remember, we shall not cease’
‘War does not breed peace, guns do not breed security’

And another poem:

My name is peace
My name is life
My name is choice
My name is mine
My time was then
My time is now
My child, my love, my future
My name is peace.

The commemoration concluded with a rendition of ‘Maori Battalion Marches Off to War’ interspersed with ‘Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside…’

Organisers of the commemoration are expecting even larger crowds next year and are also hoping to produce a booklet of Alternative ANZACs for other groups to use.

For more information contact: Manu Caddie – ph 0274202957 / manu@ahi.co.nz

Who is addicted? Who gives a damn?

Why is Miss Eagle not surprised at this? Why do people consider that those - governments, hotels, clubs, casinos - who promote gambling give a damn about the community? They don't give a damn about the individuals who come to their venues and are entrapped by the insidious web of gambling. So why would they give a fig for individuals en masse woven into a community.

State Governments are as addicted to poker machine revenue as any hotelier or any gambling addict. Meanwhile at a national level our so-called anti-drugs, zero tolerance Federal Government is addicted to revenue raised from the two major drugs of addiction which are, between them, responsible for so many deaths, so much violence, so many broken marriages, so many car accidents, so many hospital and prison admissions: alcohol and tobacco.

When governments get serious about drugs and addictions and rid themselves of revenue gained from them, we will have sure evidence that they give a damn about the community. When governments give a damn, the community parasites of hotels, clubs and casinos might learn to give a damn too.

Otherwise the motto, to paraphrase Rhett Butler, is "Frankly, Citizen, we don't give a damn!"

Fair Work Australia: a fair deal?

Eight days after Kevin Rudd appeared at the Press Club and gave Australians an idea of future directions in the ALP's policy on industrial relations, Julia Gillard has begun to flesh out the policy, has started to paint the picture, to show us the landscape of IR under Labor.

Last night on The 7.30 Report, Julia broke the news about Fair Work Australia. Fair Work Australia will take over from four agencies/institutions involved in setting the industrial law parameters that govern the working lives of a significant number of Australians: the Fair Pay Commission, the Office of the Employment Advocate and the Office of Workplace Services and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC).

Rudd and Gillard say that the AIRC has served Australia for more than 100 years but it is a 20th-century institution that is too remote from the needs of modern Australian workplaces.

Miss Eagle suggests that making a disconnect between the old AIRC and establishing a whole new edifice might not be the best idea.

Miss Eagle has no longing for the old "industrial relations club" to be re-established. This was a long-standing boys club which did not keep pace with a changing economy. The club was a cosy one for construction and the tradeable goods sector (manufacturing) but it had no - and Miss Eagle means N.O. - understanding of the service sector which has been a burgeoning part of the economy over the last two decades.

In fact, some union and business leaders and Commissioners gave the impression that they knew all about the tourism and hospitality industry because they drank alcohol, ate at restaurants, and slept in hotel beds.

Another factor contributing to the lack of knowledge of the economics of the service sector has been that it tends to be dominated by women and young people. So we are talking about an entrenched form of discrimination. Women and young people were less likely to agitate and strike to improve their conditions so they were ignored. Some unions were happy to take their union dues but union attentions remained with the non-service sectors of the economy.

So, if there could be a more universal understanding of the sub-economies of this nation, it would be an improvement.

After that little vent, back to why a disconnect with the AIRC might not be the best idea.

Business is said to be angry about the prospect of a Fair Work Australia. One of the saddest things and one of the greatest hindrances to the well-being of this nation is the lack of consensus (as once there was) on major issues confronting Australia. The AIRC has delivered a great service to this nation since the earliest days of Federation.

While John Howard has gutted the AIRC, he did not abolish it.....at least not yet.

So if the ALP goes to the trouble of establishing Fair Work Australia, does this mean that it will be dead easy for a change of government to blow it out of the water?

Why not an AIRC for the sake of continuity and the possibility of some form of call to consensus?

Another thing that is not clear about Fair Work Australia is whether it will have a research function as the Fair Pay Commission does. Miss Eagle believes that this should be a function. If it is not be a function of this new one stop shop and shopfront, why not?

Miss Eagle likes the idea of the shopfront inspectorate function if it carries out its duties effectively and diligently. This will be a further challenge to union recruitment. In fact, it will be a challenge to those states which refuse to hand over their industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth.

Look to Queensland. Peter Beattie has said that Queensland will not hand over its powers which would result in the abolition of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. Beattie would not be game - Bill Ludwig and the AWU will see to that. The AWU would be the biggest loser if Queensland handed over its industrial powers. The AWU would be gutted.

Outside the south-east corner of Queensland, the AWU has coverage, under Queensland's industrial laws, across a range of industries which in other states are the province of other unions. Transfer of powers to the Commonwealth would see coverage in regional Queensland go to these unions. This would mean for instance the Shop Assistants Union would then cover all of Queensland. Award coverage in retailing is the largest union coverage in the AWU. A transfer of powers would see this coverage lost along with a massive slice of the AWU's income.

So, will the Beattie government be prepared to establish a shopfront role for its industrial inspectorate to compete?

Miss Eagle will be watching.....

Anzac Day 2007

To-day is Anzac Day.

This is a significant day in Australian life.

All around Australia from the Australian War Memorial (below) to every tiny country community, Australian and New Zealand war dead will be remembered.

All around the world, Australians and New Zealanders will gather.

They gather for the Dawn Service in Gallipoli in Turkey.

They gather in Flanders Fields.

The troops in Iraq and every place on earth where there are Australian and New Zealand military personnel, there will be solemnity and memorial.

After the solemnity, there will be the traditional two-up game

"Two up" game in progress troops returning from service H.M.A.T. MAHIA

Museum Victoria Collection

When Australians remember those who died in the service of their nation, on Anzac Day, at the going down of the sun in RSL Clubs across Australia, the verse below is said as a sort of prayer, a testimony of sacred intent:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Praying for rain: a doubtful pursuit?

The Burrinjuck Dam - Christmas 2006 - getting lower and lower

The following email, dear Reader, was in Miss Eagle's inbox this morning, forwarded by my friend K. Please note: Crossway is Australia's largest Baptist congregation.

This is a message that Stuart Robinson Senior Pastor of Crossway Central shared with the congregation this morning.

Dear Family in Christ,

While at the garage getting my car fixed, I received a call from Pastor Danny [Nahlia] stating that as he and his wife were having a time of prayer this morning, the Lord revealed that it's time for the Nation of Australia to once again come together and pray for rain in response to Prime Minister John Howard's call to pray for rain! (just like Old Testament Biblical days when the King and the Prophet worked together to call the nation and people to prayerfully return to the Lord God of Israel)

In immediate obedience to the voice of God, Ps. Danny and Catch the Fire Ministries are calling on the church and nation of Australia on Wednesday 25th April (Anzac Day) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm to gather together wherever you are to prayerfully seek the Father in heaven for rain! "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

If you live in Melbourne, we encourage you to join with us on Wednesday 25th April at Fitzroy Gardens (next to Captain Cook's Cottage) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm as Catch the Fire Ministries will lead a gathering of repentance and prayer for rain across Australia!

Most amazingly, 1 hour after I received the call from Ps. Danny, he was contacted and interviewed for 30 minutes by the editor of the Age Newspaper who asked him, "Have you thought of responding to the Prime Minister's call for prayer and what are you going to do?" Tomorrow's (Sunday 22nd April)edition of the Age Newspaper will carry an article about calling the church and nation to pray for rain.

Please forward this email and spread the Word to everyone you know across
our nation!

Let's unceasingly seek the Lord in prayer, fasting and repentance for Him to send the early and latter rains across this Great Southland of the Holy Spirit!

Thanking and Blessing You,

Jason Golden
Catch the Fire Ministries
PO Box 7427
Dandenong
VIC 3175 Australia
Tel: 613 9794 8211 Fax: 613 9794 9311
www.catchthefire.com.au

Miss Eagle replied to K. as follows:

K., I don't altogether agree with this praying for rain stuff.

I think what we should be doing is praying for ourselves and the condition we are in. I am pleased to see this scripture quoted - "If my people,who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek myface and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heavenand will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

But an hour of prayer at Capt Cook's cottage won't do it.We have to reflect openly on what we have done and have a national discussion about this.We have wrecked this continent in just over two hundred years. We have turned large tracts of land to salt, we have polluted the rivers, and the oceans. We have denuded the land and now there is a word heard in this country which I had never heard before - desertification. There is a company in Queensland, Cubby Station, that no one does anything about - perhaps they don't have the power but I also wonder if they don't have the will - which has diverted water for itself. This water used to flow into the Murray-Darling Basin. Now it doesn't. Australia is losing animal species to extinction faster than anywhere else on earth. So that's what we are doing to the land, the trees, the water, and the animals. And this prime minister says pray!

Then lets look at what we have done in the last few years to people. We have concentration camps on Australian soil. We have deported our own citizens away from their country and locked up our own in these concentration camps. We are turning away to other countries humanity in need - in spite of the bible's injunction on how to treat sojourners....because, as Yahweh reminds us, you were once sojourners. Jesus, Mary and Joseph fleeing from a murderous Herod would not make it into this country! Australia has supported a prime minister who does this. A prime minister who writes letters of support for Danny Nahlia and whose support Danny Nahlia welcomes. And this prime minister says pray!

Let's take a look at our society - we pay sportsmen small fortunes, idolise them and tolerate their abuse of human beings, their rape of women, and their drug habits. Our country rushes to wars they have no business to be in and oversees large scale bribery in the sale of wheat. And this prime minister says pray!

Every day of my life I look out my windows at the Dandenong Ranges National Park - a very beautiful God-blessed part of the world. Last week, in a part of the Ranges I look at often, two young women took their lives in what is believed to be a suicide pact. Suicide and depression in Australia is a major issue. In fact, it appears to be a significant barometer of ourselves.

John Howard came to power saying he wanted to make Australians feel comfortable. Look around. Some are comfortable and a lot of those who are comfortable are self-interested, self-seeking, greedy and ambitious. The needs of the poor are neglected. Ordinary people have their public schools de-funded to provide funds for schools who are so wealthy one would not think they needed more money. Our public facilities like hospitals are falling to pieces. Our national infrastructure - around which we build our economic well being - is in dire need of investment. No one seems to be able to figure out how to run a university system without hanging hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt around the necks of the young. Housing for rental and purchase is becoming out of reach. And the prime minister says pray!

The prime minister could do something about the significant problems listed above. And, if he had tried to do all this, and we had tried to get all this done and reformed ourselves, and then we had failed, I think we could then reflect and pray. But to throw prayers God-ward and yet not acknowledge our sins....I think that is blasphemy.

Let me know what you think, K.

Blessings and bliss

Into the Everlasting Arms

Each morning, I look across from my sunroom to the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

Sadness has come to my heart since news broke yesterday afteroon that two young women (unknown to me) named Jodie Gater and Stephanie Gestier were found dead high up in the park.

Reports indicate that Jodie and Stephanie, who had been missing for a week, had taken their own lives.

The tragedy of young lives cut short and the overwhelming sadness that must have engulfed their families haunts me.

What a society, what a world have we built for our young that they cannot feel secure, creative, and hopeful within its bounds?

Ten years ago, this very month, a young woman came to my home who I had never met before. I only met her for an hour or so.

One month later she was dead by her own hand.

The poem below was written then.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of Jodie and Stephanie.

These young girls/women are now in The Everlasting Arms.

PERCEPTION

How did I not see
the troubled heart and spirit?
Did I only look at you
to see myself
reflected back?

And if I
thought you carefree
was that only the perception
of my own comfort?

Why could I not see
through your body frame
to the pain
of old time’s torment
in your soul?

Eyes to see
a heart to understand
are what I need
to see the wounded Christ
in your life

For help or information visit beyond blue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251 or Lifeline on 131 114.

The times they are a-changin' as chickens roost?

Chickens are coming home to roost:

not only for John Howard but for globalization, too

Dear Reader, do you sometimes think you have a different wisdom from the professionally wise? By the professionally wise, Miss Eagle means politicians, senior bureaucrats, leaders of commerce and trade.

Do you think that you recall a certain history of events which the professionally wise - use above definition - seem to have either forgotten or completely bypassed?

Miss Eagle has come across to-day two articles which should reassure you, dear Reader, in regard to your memory and your powers of interpretation and comprehension.

The first is about John Howard in the long, long ago - before he became Lazarus with a triple by-pass - when he was Treasurer and when that name of "Honest John" was coined, not as a compliment as some use it to-day but as a perjorative.

The second concerns the fact that some Americans with strong economic and business credentials are finding holes in that smelly gorgonzola cheese that is globalization. You knew, dear Reader, as did your present correspondent that all was not well in the globalized world. We knew, you and I, that many people were ending up the poorer and missing out on the much- and oft-touted benefits of free and globalized trade.

Now, Miss Eagle is not railing against globalization in and of itself. It is an old and ancient phenomenon. Modern people like some things such as international communications and travel and dislike others like the migration of jobs off-shore, the driving down of wages.

In Miss E's view there should be one catch-cry against globalization and that is Accountablility.



Not the unctious and self-righteous catchcry of CEOs and senior mangers about looking after the stakeholders. No, dear Reader, CEOs and senior managers need to be held accountable in regard to what they deliver and the amount of remuneration, share holdings, and sweet deals they receive. Companies need to be held accountable in their countries of origin as well as their countries of location. They need to be accountable to the communities in which their places of business and their employees are located. They need to be transparent and accountable when governments give them favourable and special treatment. Of course, companies need to be accountable to their shareholders but "stakeholders" goes well beyond shareholders.

Finally, those who believe in free trade, need to be honest - not unctious - about the hidden favours they give or receive from governments and the taxpayers.

For instance, why are companies allowed to go bankrupt or into liquidation without paying workers their wages and entitlements? What happens in Australia is that businesses and corporations can avoid honouring workers entitlements, avoid paying any remuneration, or perhaps pay very poor and minimal redundancy payments and then the shoddily treated employee is thrown on the welfare heap for the taxpayer to take responsibility.

In other words, the employer; the business; the corporation can make a decision to offload employees and offload their responsibility for workers' entitlements. The employer, the business, the corporation can make a decision to benefit itself to the detriment of others. The taxpayer then has the pleasure of paying for the consequences of a decision it had no part in.



But then Australia does not provide subsidies to business! Yeah!?!

Kevin, Labor and IR go to the Press Club

It is with a sigh of relief that Miss Eagle has been watching Kevin Rudd addressing the National Press Club to-day. It was Rudd's first address to the Press Club since becoming ALP leader on 4 December 2006.

Why the sigh of relief?

Because at last the cat is officially out of the IR bag for all to see. Well, one cat is out of the IR bag. More still are lurking - but the important, seminal one is there for all to see.

For those who might have thought (and Miss E was never one) that all that needs to be done is elect an ALP government and wait for the rollback of Howard's draconian IR laws, listen/read the Rudd speech and you will have your hopes dashed.

The facts have always been that once the eggs are scrambled there is no putting them back in their shells. And Howard has effected a scramble of workers rights in no uncertain terms.

Be alert!

Be alarmed!

Howard has more to come - make no bones about it. One way or another - whether he bribes you, dear Reader, with tax cuts to take a wage cut or brings in masses of guest workers to drive down wage rates - your work and your wages will be affected. Work will be upped and wages will be downed.

Miss Eagle does not pretend she will be happy with the ALP's IR platform. In fact, she is certain she will not be. What Miss Eagle does assert, though, is that Labor is the best bet for workers' rights. Labor is the best bet for workers being able to influence federal and state governments with regard to their rights.

Rudd was questioned by Paul Buongiorno with regard to whether the Fair Pay Commission would stay and whether the Industrial Relations Commission would be re-instated to its former glory. Rudd wisely said that he had no answer on this and these were issues of transition.

For those not familiar with the finest of details of political platforms - particularly the platforms of parties who have a very likely chance of winning an election - transition or machinery of government policies are vital for the smooth transition from one brand of government to another. The transition or machinery policies are finalised very late in the electoral cycle. The arrangements for transition may receive a great deal of publicity but not necessarily so. Or some areas may receive publicity but details of other portfolios are not mentioned. The astute follower of the political process will be watching, reading, listening closely for transition details.

Miss Eagle, dear Reader, is about to stick her feathery neck out. Miss Eagle bets London to a brick on that the Fair Pay Commission in one form or another will survive. Not necessarily with the same membership and not necessarily with the same name (and aren't our pollies great at changing names and the stationery) - but survive it will. Why.

The Fair Pay Commission - in some form - will remain because it is a good idea and it does have something to offer. The idea came from Blair and his so-called new Labour. In this globalised world, where the cost of labour as a factor of production is eyed off internationally, some form of research and policy facility is the only way a social and pluralist democracy can fine tune its wages bills.

You will recall, dear Reader, that when Bob Hawke came to power way back in 1983 he brought with him the Accord - an agreement on wages which was supposed to be tripartite (business, government and unions) but finished up bipartite (government and unions). The research behind the Accord, while substantial, did not have the clout of the research that is building within the Fair Pay Commission. However, the motivation to-day varies little from what Hawke had in mind.

So to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the price of your rights, dear Reader, is eternal vigilance.

Have the gates of hell prevailed in Catholic Ireland?

If you don't want your heart touched with sadness, don't go here. The Knitter writes in the blog titled Days in the Life of Ireland's Child Care Institutions n the 20th century. Miss Eagle was raised in a pre-Vatican II background of Irish-Catholicism, Australian-style. We hear of the great fall away from the Roman Catholic faith in Ireland which is stunning for those who, like Miss E, were taught by nun after nun with an Irish accent who had left far-away Ireland as teenage girls and never saw their homeland again.

The Knitter shows us why in stark terms. Like this:

LOVE is never having to say you're sorry, but if you do, you don't have to mean it.

LOVE is never having to admit to physical abuse.

LOVE is never having to admit to sexual abuse.

LOVE is never having to admit to psychological abuse.

LOVE is never having to admit to illtreatment of abandoned children.

LOVE is never having to admit to cruelty to children.

LOVE is never having to admit to the starvation of children.

LOVE is never going to win any part of the argument.

and then there are graphics like this:

Free at last....?

David Hicks spruced up to meet the demands of the Military Commission aka as Kangaroo Court

Miss Eagle's rejoicing is postponed until he arrives on Australian soil. The news is here. John Howard clearly thinks this will remove the Hicks issue from any consideration by Australian electors in the forthcoming Federal election. Who can tell? He may be right. But one thing is clear to all who give a moments thought to the situation of David Hicks. That is the collusion of the Australian Government in the manner of his "trial", his "sentencing, and his expected release.

Howard clearly thinks Australians are mugs.

It is quite clear that what Howard has done now, the Australian Government has had the capacity to do and could have been done previously (give or take legal manoevering around the Military Commissions legality issue). This re-inforces the belief that Howard could have done for Hicks what Blair did for Britons.

Howard refused.

Howard was inhumane.

Howard was vengeful.

Hicks breached no Australian law but Howard was determined that, one way or another, punishment would be visited on David Hicks. Some Australians may want to just put the Hicks matter away in a bottom draw. Others of us will remember David Hicks. We will remember John Howard.

LEST WE FORGET.

LEST WE FORGET.

Hicks, hair, and light

An artist depicts David Hicks' appearance in the US military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, today.Photo: AP

Published in The Age, Melbourne.

David Hicks has grown his hair to chest length in an attempt to try to avoid the never-ending light in his cell.

The charges - or lack of them - against Hicks are noteworthy:

The charge sheet does not allege Hicks fired on US troops or attacked a US target, but says he conducted surveillance on the abandoned US embassy in Kabul and met Osama bin Laden as well as accused "shoe bomber'' Richard Reid.
Previous charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy have been dropped, with defence lawyers saying the move shows US authorities have a weak case.

The prosecutor in this jumped-up, stuffed-up, kangaroo court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay has used the argument that Terry Hicks told David Hicks that taking up arms was wrong.

So this is to prove the guilt of David?

In that case what are we waiting for? Let's arrest Bush, Cheney, Rumsefield, Blair, Howard & Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. After all hundreds of thousands - at least - of their citizens have told them that they are wrong in what they are doing and how they are doing it. What is the measure of their guilt? Are their circadian rhythms interrupted? Do they sleep well at night?

They have proved themselves gun-totin' cowboys with no idea of nation building. Afghanistan is still a mess. Freedom loving democracy is not a reality there. It is not a reality in Iraq.

The US cannot build a decent democracy itself. The most powerful political figure in the world does not have and cannot prove that he has the majority of support of the citizens of his nation. Because it's a good day if more than half of the US population turn out to vote. The US cannot help its own. Hurricane Katrina proved that beyond any shadow of a doubt. And in the case of New Orleans many, so many of us, believe that the US will not help its own if they are black.

Nation building? The Government of the USA should try it some time.

A remembrance for C. Wright Mills

Those of us who have dipped deeply into that marvellous well labelled Sociology will be aware of C. Wright Mills. While relating to the American tradition, the writings of C. Wright Mills served as an impetus for critiquing Australian society as well. He set afire the sociological imagination. The Power Elite is not only seminal. It is timeless. This week, the forty-fifth anniversary of the death of C. Wright Mills was commemorated. For more, see here and here.

And if, dear Reader, you wonder about whether the personal is political or the political is personal, think on this:

Do not allow public issues as they are officially formulated, or troubles as they are privately felt, to determine the problems that you take up for study. Above all, do not give up your moral and political autonomy by accepting in somebody else's terms the illiberal practicality of the bureaucratic ethos or the liberal practicality of the moral scatter. Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues - and in terms of the problems of history making. Know that the human meaning of public issues must be revealed by relating them to personal troubles - and to the problems of the individual life. Know that the problems of social science, when adequately formulated, must include both troubles and issues, both biography and history, and the range of their intricate relations. Within that range the life of the individual and the making of societies occur; and within that range the sociological imagination has its chance to make a difference in the quality of human life in our time.

C Wright Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination, page 226

NSW election: a sigh of relief but no congratulations

Miss Eagle is well pleased with the NSW election result....for one simple reason. The Liberals don't hold the reins and resources of government in the premier state with which to undergird a Federal election campaign.

Miss Eagle won't congratulate Morrie Iemma. Debenham's campaign - if you can give it that name - is lamentable and uncommentable.

Miss Eagle suffered the insult that is City Rail in the last years of the 20th century - and things, clearly, have become worse. In fact, have gone from worse to awful.


She prays for the sake of the commuters of Sydney that the premier of Italian descent can emulate the leadership of another Italian in one area only - managing the trains as well as Mussolini.

Sign of the times

Photo: Craig Abraham/The Age

"JUSTICE FOR DAVID HICKS"

has become a cause for Melbourne's Anglicans. Not only is the demand made in an eight-metre banner hanging from St Paul's Cathedral, but new Archbishop Philip Freier has written to Prime Minister John Howard on Hicks' behalf.

Drought

Photo by John Mitchell
And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 58:11 / KJV

Howard the Sycophant talks about Honour!!!

In the middle of all his political woes, Howard is digging Australia further into the falsity of Coaliting of the Willing aspirations for Iraq. Honour, he says.

Bah, humbug, Howard! How dare you wrap up the mountainous death toll of Iraqis in what you chose to call honour. There has been little honour in the defence of US policy by the Australian government.

You, John Howard, have taken Australia and Australians into a war which is not in their national interests. You, John Howard, have taken Australians into a lock step position on flawed and failed US foreign policy in relation to Israel and the Middle East.

Australians did not want participation in the war in Iraq without UN involvement. They do not want it to-day. This was clear in polls and the hundreds of thousands of Australians who voted with their feet in peace marches.

You, John Howard, ignored your own people. You took the side of the US against us and our best interests. You, John Howard, are a war monger. Not a peace maker.

Peace is not in you, John Howard.

You, John Howard, do well as a sycophant.

You, John Howard, cannot and will not make peace.

Dissenting Jewish voices

In all the debate on the Iraq War, US foreign policy and US support for Israel has become increasingly focussed. In recent times, dissenting Jewish voices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (those great allies in the Coalition of the Willing) have come to the fore.

In Australia, the ABC's Religion Report on Radio National has devoted three programs in recent times to this topic. Go here, here and here.

George Soros has now entered the fray.

Jews in western democracies who have become sycophantic and chauvinistic in their defence of the state of Israel need to do a rethink. The inherent racism in Israel; the religious discrimination in Israel including against Jews; the failure of Israel to consider the aspirations and needs of others beside themselves need to be addressed.

Consideration needs to be given to how helpful it is for democracy when, in a place such as Australia, Jewish funding - and through such funding influence - of political parties is well in excess of their demographic representation.

Democracies are in danger when money - whether it is corporate, Jewish or from some other source - can buy and influence political parties in excess of voting representation within the community. The balance of community representation and political funding must be maintained equitably. Otherwise, the situation can develop - as in US foreign policy - where the interests of citizens is overridden for the sometimes nebulous idea of "the national interest".

CHRIS HURLEY TO TRIAL OVER DEATH OF MULRUNJI

Policeman faces death in custody trial
is the headline in The Age in Melbourne to-day.
The item puts the situation in an historic context
but if one knew nothing of the Australian penal system
one might think that a policeman is facing a death sentence.
Sensationalism?

Meanwhile, over at The Courier Mail in Brisbane, Queensland
the headline is terse.
Hurley trial in June
The reporting is succinct. Bare detail.
Trying not to offend anyone are we?
Like the Queensland Police?
Like Peter Beattie and the Queensland Government?

Promises, promises

There are optimists in the world and they are at The Truthmaker. Their current focus is on the NSW election trying to keep Morrie and Mates and Peter and Pals and assorted hopefuls to their word.