Category Archives: Life

Hockey does it again

    Hockey’s proneness to mistakes matters well beyond issues around the housing bubble. It’s not just that he has been a serial creator of problems for the government. It’s also that this is a particularly challenging time for the economy, which requires a treasurer who’s seen both as competent and as in touch with ordinary people’s situations.

Continue reading Hockey does it again

Saturday salon 6/6

1. Vale Joan Kirner, 1938-2015

    She will be remembered for her tireless work promoting women’s rights, conservation, and education, and her love of Essendon Football Club.

    In 2012, Ms Kirner was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for her work in advancing equality for women, and for her political achievements in the 1980s and 1990s. Continue reading Saturday salon 6/6

Saturday salon 30/5

1. Hockey in a tangle over tampons

On Q&A Hockey was asked by a young woman why pads and tampons should carry a GST while “condoms, lubricants, sunscreen and nicotine patches are all tax-free”. Of course economic orthodoxy says they should all be taxed, but Hockey agreed with her and has undertaken to put the matter to the states. Continue reading Saturday salon 30/5

Saturday salon 23/5

1. Child sexual abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse continues to amaze, this time with the horrific abuse in the Diocese of Ballarat. At the same time we find that the Catholic Church will continue to use the so-called Ellis defence, whereby it can’t be sued for compensation because it does not technically exist as a legal entity. Continue reading Saturday salon 23/5

Nurses highest in esteem, daylight second

Nurses again rate, for the 21st year in a row, the highest in esteem amongst the professions. Fully 92% of Australians over the age of 14 rated them either high or very high when asked the following question in the Roy Morgan Image of Professions Survey 2015:

    “As I say different occupations, could you please say – from what you know or have heard – which rating best describes how you, yourself, would rate or score people in various occupations for honesty and ethical standards (Very High, High, Average, Low, Very Low)?”

Continue reading Nurses highest in esteem, daylight second

Saturday salon 18/4

voltaire_230

An open thread where, at your leisure, you can discuss anything you like, well, within reason and the Comments Policy. Include here news and views, plus any notable personal experiences from the week and the weekend.

For climate topics please use the most recent Climate clippings.

The gentleman in the image is Voltaire, who for a time graced the court of Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great. King Fred loved to talk about the universe and everything at the end of a day’s work. He also used the salons of Berlin to get feedback in the development of public policy.

Fred would only talk in French; he regarded German as barbaric. Here we’ll use English.

The thread will be a stoush-free zone. The Comments Policy says:

The aim [of this site] is to provide a venue for people to contribute and to engage in a civil and respectful manner.

Here are a few bits and pieces that came to my attention last week.

1. Hilary Clinton runs for president

As expected Hilary Clinton has thrown her hat into the ring to become the Democrat candidate for the US presidency. So far it looks like her against the Republicans, perhaps about 20 of them. Mashable Australia takes a look at alternative Democrat candidates.

It seems that Senator Elizabeth Warren is the only one that would cause real fear to the Clinton campaign, and she has said about 4,398 times she’s not running.

2. Neanderthals made jewellery 130,000 years ago

neanderthal-eagle-claw-jewelry-1-537x402

A team of American and Croatian scientists have uncovered evidence that European Neanderthals were manipulating raptor talons to make jewelry at least 130,000 years ago, or about 80,000 years before the first Homo sapiens even stepped foot on the continent.

In the popular mind Neanderthals are thought of as bumbling simpletons, but we should remember that their brains were bigger than ours.

The article also points out that catching three of four eagles to make the jewellery was no mean feat.

3. CEO radically redistributes staff pay after reading wellbeing research

Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments in Seattle, decided to pay everyone $US70,000 after reading wellbeing research. He did this by reducing his own salary from $1 million to $70,000 and redistributing some of the company’s profits. He gave two reasons.

Firstly the research shows that increased wellbeing tapers rapidly after reaching $75,000. Secondly, happy staff are more productive.

A very rational decision!

4. Not so good news

There’s been plenty to be sad and sorry about on the intertubes lately. The stories of bestial treatment coming out of the Neerkol Orphanage in Rockhampton are beyond belief. It wasn’t just the priests and nuns who did the abusing. A Queensland Government official covered up the abuse. The former bishop allowed a priest to stay on at a parish even though he knew he was a paedophile, gave the priest a character reference and described reports of abuse at Neerkol as “scurrilous”.

On the box we were told that 31 women had died from domestic violence so far this year, shaping as worse than the 84 deaths recorded last year.

COAG laboured and came up with some measures which don’t cost money. It’s all well and good but probably won’t make much difference.

The biggest killer apart from probably tobacco has been suicide:

The National Mental Health Commission’s findings show more people die by their own hand than are killed in road accidents or by skin cancer. And it notes while Australia’s road toll has more than halved in 40 years, there has been little change in the suicide rate, which was double the road toll in 2012.

Health Minister Sussan Ley has sent the Commission’s report off to a reference group. She has “confirmed she won’t accept a key recommendation to channel $1 billion of hospital funding to community health programs instead.”

Truth be known we probably need additional funding to crank up community programs while then winding down hospital funding as the need diminishes.

5. Centre for Policy Development loses some sheen

The Centre for Policy Development is supposed to be a left wing think tank. Now it has supported a broadening of the GST base including a GST on fresh food. Mark Bahnisch, Eva Cox and John Quiggin have resigned as Fellows as a result. Here’s Quiggin’s statement.

Good on them!