Conroy's Folly

There is a huge amount of noise being generated by Conroy's Folly - which is of course the communications minister's misguided attempt to impose an internet filter on us all.

And those who apparently know about these things are talking about how politically it will be a win for the government amongst the over 50's (or those who don't use the internet) with a loss amongst the under 35's (or those who use it extensively). The net effect is supposed to be zero or so close that it doesn't matter.

But I don't know about that. I am well over 50 and so are a number of my friends and we all think Senator Conroy's plan stinks. In fact some of my friends are so annoyed that they have been moved to write to the good Senator expressing their concern. This issue is BIG for them.

A typical missive from my friend Peter is reproduced below.

Dear Senator Conroy

I am writing to express my alarm at your proposed internet censorship legislation.

Firstly, I am outraged that you consider it a political entity's prerogative to interfere with and constrain the great public property that is the Internet. This is the People's Internet Senator, not your political play thing.

It appears very clear to me that your motivations are based on political ambition and expediencies and have much more to do with back-room deal making than with a reflection of the majority will of the Australian People.

In fact, there seems to be very little popular support for your project and almost none at all from informed sources who are qualified to comment on its practicality and likelihood of success. That you have refused to engage in a meaningful debate on these types of topics further supports the view that you are determined to carry this initiative forward in the face of popular opposition and sensible, practical objections.

Beyond issues of principle, I am very concerned about the harm you may actually do. Qualified, independent technical commentators are generally sceptical about the possibility of creating an effective filter of the type you propose.

Whatever you do implement will undoubtedly result in a reduction in Australia's general network performance and user quality of experience, adding to the disadvantages we already experience with high bandwidth costs and poor overseas connectivity speeds.

The impost on ISPs will inevitably drive our already high service costs up. Innocent content will inevitably get caught up in the filtering. Senator, you really should consult with some experts on these issues, and not just those on your payroll or belonging to the religious right.

Of perhaps greatest alarm is your blacklist idea. I find this extremely disconcerting and sinister. How can you imagine that such a list can be maintained with guarantees that legal content will not be caught up? How can victims of this process seek redress if the list itself is censored? Why should a citizen of this country face the prospect of losing their basic right to do business on the People's Internet without any visibility of how and why?

In conclusion Senator, and to be quite blunt, your "trial" really fooled nobody. It is widely seen for what it is; a foil that attempts to make your stubborn and determined march forward with this ill-advised legislation appear considered, consultative and fair-minded.

We're just not buying it.

Sincerely,

Peter

So there you have it. Will it and the hundreds of others expressing similar concern make a difference? Probably not but what it will do is cause all of us old techies to reconsider our support for this minister at the next election.

PS: Conroy is a Labor Senator from Victoria - and a right wing catholic - and the only chance we will get to move him on at the next election is if we end up with a Double Dissolution - when the whole Senate gets to open their kimono.

PPS: Actually I think he is up for re-election in 2010 anyway - if I can count correctly. And if he gets the gig again then he will be back for six more years of Senate bliss. And he even looks a little like that other Victorian right wing Senator - Steve Fielding. Maybe they are related?

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, once famously described Australia’s Senate as "unrepresentative swill". I will leave it up to you dear reader to work out if that is true.

Fraud and Flatulence

Just watched the Tony Jones, Ian Plimer and George Monbiot jousting match - here.

And the amazing thing is that one of them has built an academic career based on fraud and flatulence.

I will let you work out which one.

Not that it matters much - it's all somewhat academic because ordinary Australian's will have turned off after about 30 seconds and won't have seen the full extent of this very flatulent performance. Only the hard core who are interested in climate change and politics will have bothered to watch it through to it's conclusion.

I am still shaking my head - quite amazing stuff from Plimer.

What do you think would cause an ageing - over the hill professor of mining geology to go into bat for the anti climate change *numbnuts*? Let me guess.

* Could it be for the book royalties?

* Does he need a higher profile with the dipsticks?

* Possibly for the directorships handed out by the mining industry?

* Is it about fame or fortune?

* Possibly he wants to be friends with Barney Rubble?

* Maybe he is just thick?

* Or perhaps just a stirrer?

My guess is that he is just another doddery and delusional right wing *numbnut* with time on his hands - and with an ego that needs massaging. The University of Adelaide should be looking to increase his workload to keep him out of any more trouble.

PS: I should point you here - where the folks who know the real questions and answers to climate science have comprehensively demolished Professor Plimer's story. Would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious.

Ignorance is bliss

As I travel throughout this country I am continually amazed by the incredible ignorance that is on display around the *climate change* problem.

Particularly in rural and regional Australia we find a collection of politicians, local functionaries, small business people and so-called community leaders who have more in common with Barney Rubble than with a modern and educated community. How did we ever get to this point? Ignorance seems to be the new black - and apparently they are proud of it?

I am now more convinced than ever that we won't be able to do anything about this problem before we experience serious and major disaster. Even then I am not sure it will be enough to wake up a population that is living in dreamland.

The nub of the problem is that a large subset of our population doesn’t have the education or the curiosity to discover for themselves what the issue is about. Many of them are flip-flopping around between alternative *numbnut* views - simply because they have no ability to "search for the truth". Don't mention science - that is as foreign a concept as travelling to mars.

Mostly these folk rely on their local newspaper, radio, commercial television or the test pattern for their news and information. Not to mention lapping up the disinformation campaign that is being pushed heavily by the ultra right wing conservatives and their fellow travelers’.

It's easy to see how they are misled - all you have to do is spend an hour or two looking at the Murdoch press, commercial television and the antics of the federal opposition.

And it's easy to understand why they are being misled - it's simply politics with the *numbnuts* trying to regain the treasury benches - after all they were "born to rule".

And as we all know Australian's are as well informed about politics as they are about science.

So we know why and how they are being misled - what I don't understand is why they won't make the effort to search out the truth - because there is plenty of information and many sources that are reliable and trustworthy.

My suspicion is that they don't care. And they won't care until they experience a personal physical impact - by which time it will be far too late. Frogs and boiling water - how apt.

Jobs and Skills - again

It has recently been suggested that some people may not appreciate what I am on about when I suggest that the bulk of the hype about "Skills Shortages" is mostly BS.

I don't mean to suggest that there are no "perceived" shortages of skills in the workplace - clearly there are.

The small businessperson who wants to find a particular skillset and has expectations about what the person will look like, what their cultural background is, what they will cost and all the other pieces of the equation - may indeed find it difficult to find the *right* person.

This is because there is often a serious mismatch between the expectations of the *employer* and those of the potential *employee*.

Especially in the domain of the traditional "small business person". Now I don't want to be rude to anyone but my personal experience with Australian small business is rather sad.

Mostly the jobs they provide are fairly basic and are often low-level. These jobs are focussed around the retail, services, agriculture and manufacturing industries.

One of the unfortunate characteristics of small business in this country is that there are few modern businesses employing many people and there is a lot of rearview focus by employers. Unfortunately, innovative science and technology businesses are few and far between - courtesy of decades of a "she'll be right mate" - attitude.

Which doesn't bode well for the future - because we will need to maximise science as we mitigate against the effects of *climate change*.

And the rewards are always poor - I have yet to find an employee of an Australian small business who is happy with their reward - and an employer who is happy with their costs. Why would anyone imagine that AU$20 bucks an hour is a reasonable reward for effort?

But to suggest (as some people do) that there is a major skills shortage is just plain wrong. What exists is a mismatch of expectations.

Often a small business employer wants a young, flexible, experienced, cheap and compliant employee. And usually the available candidates are older, less flexible, very experienced, more expensive and not at all compliant.

This is the mismatch - and which usually gets mis-represented as "skills shortages".

A big new broom is needed

Anyone who is even remotely interested in the administrative performance of the Australian States will know they are failing dismally - on just about every important measure.

The state based political leadership and administrative management processes are so badly broken that I wonder why the responsible people even bother to front up each day. Actually I do know - they like their enormous salaries and they will tell you that "It's not my fault".

Yesterday we discovered that the Victorian Police DNA system is seriously broken and today we find out that evidence in drug cases is unreliable. Systems don't work, people aren't accountable and the Police service seems to be out-of-control - yet again.

And so various witch hunts are underway - spin is out of control and the identified individuals blame "a lack of resourcing". It's not my fault they say.

I don't know what is wrong in these particular cases but I do know what is wrong - across our state administrations generally.

We have a mindset in this country that allows state governments to fail regularly - without penalty. What has happened to the concept of accountability?

The states seem unable to deal with bushfires, crime and policing, health and mental health, education, transport, utilities, water and any number of other important services that are state responsibilities. They get elected - put their mates in power - pay them too much - they then stuff up - and then we ought to tell them to bugger off.

In this case we need both the *Police Commissioner* and the *Police Minister* to be moved aside and to be replaced by professionals who can deliver a quality outcome for the people of Victoria. No debate necessary.

And if their replacements fail then they should also get the boot - until we can discover individuals who are capable and smart enough to deliver.

And the great thing about doing this in Victoria - is that it will wake the other states up - because they are probably worse. Some are much worse.

But it won't happen - this will blow over in a few days and the people responsible will go on a nice little holiday for a few weeks and be back in their offices next year - all ready to *fu_k* it up again in 2010.

Barney Rubble - slightly confused

Barney Rubble is confused - he thinks that he is the Finance Minister in the Federal Cabinet!

Or at least that is what he has told the ABC - here.

No Barney - apparently what you are is the "shadow spokesperson on Finance" in the "Coalition" - which is not in government but is in *Opposition*.

This is a role that has absolutely *no power* whatsoever - regardless of what you and Tony Abbott might think. Zero, nada, null.

Either Barney knows that and he is playing games - or he doesn't know it and he is trying to audition for the role ;-)

I will leave it up to you dear reader to work out which is true.

No Shrinking Violet

Thank goodness Malcolm is no shrinking violet.

Minchin, Abbott and the rest of the *new blues* white anted him throughout his term of leadership and now he is paying them back. He certainly has balls as well as brains.

But it is clear that the *blues* supporters are hopelessly divided. This analysis by Possum shows some of the early "net effect" of the Abbott ascendency.

So in answer to the question:

"Does the election of Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party make you *More Likely* or *Less Likely* to vote Liberal?"

According to the poll result - 21% thought "More Likely" and 33% "Less Likely". So the net Abbott effect is (33 - 21) or negative 12%!

So the surveyed people think that Abbott is less attractive as a leader than Turnbull by a substantial 12% of the people who were polled.

And if you are a Labor voter then apparently you find him 32% less attractive and Greens voters find him 57% less attractive. Not many votes for the Abbott team to be found here then.

Lets see the *blues* right wing suck on that little gem for a while and see if they can spin those numbers into a Kevin beating margin.

The truth is that most thinking Australian's won't tolerate another *numbnut* right wing government - beating up on workers, foreigners, the environment and anyone else who threatens their "born to rule" mindset - especially while the memory of the Howard Government is still fresh.

Abbott and Co can look forward to a 35% - or thereabouts primary vote. Because there are about 35% of the voting population who are naturally sympathetic or can be coerced into supporting their *numbnut* view of the world. And if they are smart - they might be able to parlay that into a 45% two party preferred vote. Note the word "smart".

Fortunately in our version of democracy - they will need to find 50% plus to win an election.

Go Tony - you are clearly doing the right thing maaate ;-)