Ambulance Services Campaign Success

It's always nice to see a good outcome from activism. Below is an email following the Ambulance Service campaign, in which I - along with many others - participated. I didn't have to spend a lot of time to be active in the campaign in order to experience the shared sense of achievement at its success. I heartily recommend 'desk chair' activism to all those with an interest in living in a fair and socially just world. Check out my links if you're inspired to get into action.

Response Time! latest news: Your support has been vital in winning a safer ambulance service

Dear friend,
Together we have won a safer ambulance service.
Late last night, the government finally agreed to 10-hour rest breaks and fairer wages for paramedics.
Proper rest breaks will make life safer for ambos, and safer for the public.
Many paramedics are convinced that someone would have died unnecessarily because of fatigue.
Your support over the 15-month campaign has been crucial in making this government wake up and address fatigue.
Your emails, petitions, calls to the Health Minister, to talkback, to friends and to family have all played an important part in saving people’s lives.
Fairer pay will also make our ambulance service safer, by helping to attract new recruits and to retain the incredibly skilled and experienced ambos we already have.
In a few weeks, ambos will be voting on this new agreement.
Although you may not be able to see it, you have not only made a real difference to hard-working ambos quality of life, you have helped save lives.
On behalf of all our dedicated ambos, and the public of Victoria, I thank you very much for your support.
Steve McGhie
Ambulance Employees Australia

Manufacturing fear to undermine our freedoms

I've been quietly (OK, LOUDLY) fuming for years about the increased efforts by a variety of organisations and governments to make us all feel so unsafe we would accept any level of infringement on our privacy and other human rights to feel safer. I know I'm not alone in my concern over the 'patriot' laws enacted in many countries, including our own, over the more recent past (mainly post-911). In fact, these laws and policies have succeeded in making me feel very unsafe and somewhat afraid - not of terrorist threats but of those charged with protecting me.

I also resent this trend because it forces me into common cause with many right-wingers and I'm never comfortable in that territory :(.

I've been listening to an interesting podcast series - The Suspect Society - that brings a lot of what's happened in (mainly) the USA into focus and thought others might find it thought-provoking and educative, not to mention validating, to listen to these as well. It is presented in Parts 1, 2 and 3 (which is apparently no longer accessible online unfortunately).

It's worth a wander through the CBC podcast website if you're into social issues and podcasts.

The question of complicity with torture

"Few Australians will have heard about an extraordinary meeting involving some of the nation's most powerful government figures held at the Attorney-General Departmentin Canberra on October 23, 2001. Perhaps more should know that it concerned the possible torture of this Australian citizen." quote from Age article: Turning a blind eye to torture.

The Rudd Government has an opportunity to make it very clear that this Government opposes the torture of its citizens and that it will ensure consequences for those complicit in the USA's abominable behaviour. Again, from the article: "Now the Rudd Government has the opportunity to set the record straight, to reveal what really happened at that 2001 spring meeting in Canberra. This will not be the last time Australia faces critical security issues. It's time to act to ensure that torture is never again part of the response."

We need to make it clear to our Government that we expect it to act in the interests of human rights for all people and that we will not accept 'wishy washy' opposition that implies acceptance. Our Government acts in our name, so, unless we tell our Government NOT to comply, we are responsible. Our record is not so good (e.g., the Indonesian invasion of East Timor). Short-term solutions that include compliance with human rights abuses need to have consequences. To our shame, we knew our Government was implicated in the treatment of 'prisoners' in US custody and did not send the message at the ballot box that it was unacceptable - quite the contrary.

We now need to hold those Government officials who were responsible - and ourselves - to account. This is essential if we are to clear a path to better behaviour in the future. It can't be excused, it shouldn't be covered up; human rights abuses need to be exposed to the light of day. It is up to the citizens of all countries to instruct their Governments and, while many Governments torture and kill their own people for speaking out, we are in the very fortunate position of having power to expect ours to listen - if enough of us speak out and speak loudly enough to be heard.

You can't protect your way of life by destroying the principles on which it depends. Tell the Government that we're not complicit with torture and we expect to have full disclosure, as well as compensation for victims - whether we 'like' those victims or not.

Telstra: shafting workers? What a surprise!

As long as I can remember, Telstra has treated workers badly. While there always seems to be money for obscene executive packages, there is never enough for sufficient staff. Over the years we have had the absurd explanation for getting rid of people that they're 'downsizing' in order to improve services. I mention that just to demonstrate how much contempt one CEO after another has had for the public's intelligence.

Today I'm on about their despicable push to get their remaining employees onto AWAs ahead of the deadline . It's worth taking a look at their 'training kit' to see just what they've been up to. Drop Telstra a line to let them know what you think of them. Here's the HeraldSun article.

I'm angry at Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard for providing Telstra (and others) with a window of opportunity to do this. They are taking too damn long fixing the IR situation and "Forward with Fairness" is (though better than what it amends) hardly adequate. In their desire to take control of Industrial Relations into federal hands, they're dragging their feet in protecting those who voted them in.

Online info/views/actions

Here's a link to the final report from the 2020 summit.

http://www.australia2020.gov.au/final_report/index.cfm

Also, if you're interested in giving the federal government your opinion on anything they do (or don't do) you can do so from the ALP website: http://www.alp.org.au/

I always think that governments are waiting with baited breath for my views, LOL. It never hurts to let those in power know what we think of them and their decisions and it takes little time.

On that note, the Victorian Government is doing consultation on mental health issues and you can download the consultation papers here and consider making a submission: http://www.health.vic.gov.au/mentalhealth/reformstrategy/index.htm

If you'd like to become more active in online 'opinionating', you'll find links to some of the places I go to participate in campaigns (or just to keep informed) in the INFORMATION/ACTION LINKS section on this page.

Health Insurance - state mandated theft

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080229-What-do-you-think-were-running-here-Medicare.html

A commentator after most - if not all - of our hearts :).

As a 'refuser', I deeply resent the cost of not being a member of a private fund (i.e., my tax 'fine' for exercising free choice not to further enrich insurance companies).

The introduction of a system that has failed to deliver health equity outcomes or budget savings in the USA is not, in my view, likely to save us here. The previous government's continuous attempts to force us to buy a product that delivers higher health costs and lower health benefits, demonstrates that their purpose was to serve other than human entities - especially when you consider that no one actually 'owns' these companies.

How peculiar is it that all these benefits flow to 'virtual' entities - i.e., businesses that exist without 'base' ownership in the human world. They have 'shareholders' and their boards and executives change/rotate/stagnate over time, without anyone with a real relationship to the 'service' to keep them in line. The 'powers' within the companies just come in, 'stick their snouts in the trough', then move on to another trough, to which they have as little commitment or personal investment. Meantime, we get the unenviable job of filling those troughs and carting off the waste when the feeders are through.

If in doubt, just look at the current ABC (the child care centres, not the media outlet) scandal. A business, with control over arguably the most precious of our species, run by and for the profit-makers. They get the benefit of government rebates to those who need childcare, while pushing up their prices to well beyond government subsidy levels for enrichment of their shareholders and the top dogs get to sell their own shares 5 minutes before the bottom drops out of the share price. Never mind the question of how the price can go down on this 'gold mine' growth industry, where ABC is the dominant player (and, incidentally, where those who do the real work of caring for our children are among the lowest paid of workers, with a very high level of responsibility and risk).

Too late to say "don't get me started", I think, LOL; but you get the point.

The nation of Australia is sorry

Wednesday, 13 February, 2008. The day Australians of conscience and compassion can mark in their personal histories, as the one where our elected leader linked us all in a gesture so important that it can hardly be overestimated. Aboriginal people had bared their souls in telling their traumatic life stories to produce the 'Stolen Generations' report, only to have their pain exacerbated by the refusal of the Howard Government to say 'sorry' in vindication of their suffering and courageous willingness to 'relive' and share it.

They were robbed of their apology by the election box, no one can doubt that Paul Keating, who commissioned the report, would have made one had he been in power when the report was tabled. Now the election box has returned it to them. All those who voted to remove a government intransigently opposed to genuine reconciliation, can feel proud that they've been instrumental in bringing about this wonderful event. We can also feel humble in the face of our First Australians' patience, understanding, forgiveness and charity towards us for being 'a bit slow' - in terms of time and ability to learn - and showing such good grace in allowing us to begin our redemption.

So many gems were uttered in Kevin Rudd's speech to and for our nation and hearing and reading the words for ourselves is the best way to experience it. The full speech can be read at the link at the bottom of the Blog page and all quotes from the apology used here are taken from that document.

"I move that... today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history." In his opening remark, Keven Rudd set the scene, no other comment need be made, I think, than 'here, here'.

"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry."

May all Australians contemplate how their own family histories anchor them in 'time and place'. How we talk about our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, etc., in an almost unconscious way, using them to explain who we are and why we are as we are. Adoptees are the most obvious ones among white Australians who can come anywhere near understanding the 'displacement' loss of family brings but even they cannot contemplate what it would feel like to have had their life and history stolen because of their colour and to find themselves racially and culturally alone in an often hostile place.

"To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry."

May we all contemplate our own loved ones, what each of them means to us as individuals and how much poorer our life experience would be without one or more of them. Those who voluntarily relinquish their children still suffer the grief of loss. Those who have their children taken from them through illness, accident or violence, suffer agonies of loss. No one is ever replaced because no individual can be. Now, contemplate what would be our pain if the Government took away many or all of those precious people who give our lives meaning!

"And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

May we all contemplate the truth of our cultural heritage in providing us with confidence and belief in our value. Imagine the undermining of that confidence and belief if we are considered and treated as 'less' because of our birthright. If all the things we valued were seen as barbaric and we ourselves were disdained as unworthy of inclusion. If your people had not even been counted as people for most of the nation's history, would this not impact on your psyche?

In December, 1992 Paul Keating - speaking as our elected Prime Minister - delivered one of the seminal speeches in our history. He said, the following (and so much more):

"It begins, I think, with the act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the disasters. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion.

"It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us. With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask - how would I feel if this were done to me?"

This speech is worthy of rereading again and again, to keep reminding us of our power. We can insist on our politicians doing, in our name, what is just and fair, what is humane and moral. If those are not the core values of our elected representatives, we need to elect some who do hold those values and act on them for the benefit of all people and for the good of our national 'soul'.

It is important that we don't fail again, as we have so many times in the past. The apology is made on behalf of the Nation, its Governments and Parliaments but we must never forget that it is 'the people' who put them in power and bear responsibility for their actions - carried out in our name. Our Governments can't be allowed to forget that they govern for ALL Australians and our First Australians are starting from a long way behind the rest of us.

Liberals are never sorry - or responsible

"Dr Nelson said he personally had a "bit of concern about the idea of one generation being responsible" for the past." http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/opposition-slams-planned-apology/2008/01/28/1201369037426.html

This pretty much says it all about Dr Nelson! Funny that the Liberal Party has had no trouble taking credit for our ancestors 'good' deeds. John Howard waxed lyrical about the 'diggers' spirit, for example, intimating that it formed the Australian character, along with the 'fair go', which has been largely mythical but, nonetheless, grew out of the past. There are many examples of the Liberals playing these games, so Dr Nelson is continuing the 'tradition' of all credit and no blame that was so much a feature of John Howard's tenure (see previous article "Is John Howard actually God?", 12 November 07).

Tony Abbott (a truly 'painful' man) has run true to form with his comment, reported in the same Age article, that an apology would reinforce the 'victim mentality'. Please! What reinforces the sense of being victimised is being victimised. Can the Liberal Party find no portfolio where this man doesn't get the chance to demonstrate his lack of humanity?

Dr Nelson also reportedly said: "You have to ask yourself … whether that is the most important issue that's facing Australia when we've seen a decline in the share market, home interest rates go up, petrol get more expensive and a basket full of groceries harder to fill".

Many things come to mind about this comment but I confine myself to two. First, are we capable of paying attention to only one thing at a time? How does a government run if that's the case because our world is obviously more complex than that. Secondly, Dr Nelson demonstrates Liberal priorities yet again (and a lamentable habit of assuming we all think the same way he does and of pushing people's 'fear/selfish' buttons) with all the important issues being about money and none about the quality of our society.

Did being thrown out of government teach them nothing about the values Australians want their leaders to foster?

Australia/Invasion Day

Today I find myself in the 'place of mind' that I come to every year on 26 January. There are always mixed feelings in 'celebrating' our nation's 'feast day'. We celebrate with every imaginable party trick too, so it's no small thing, this day we stop to ponder what it is to be Australian.

First, I always feel an overwhelming sadness and regret that we, of European heritage, ever came here at all. The displacement - holocaust - of the indigenous people weighs heavily on the mind and conscience to the present time and will do so with increasing intensity until we start to reverse the damage. Increasing intensity because we should know better now. The original invaders had the excuse - if one could call it that - of some ignorance due to an arrogant 'world view' about the value of the 'western' culture they were bringing to the lands they colonised. The other major element of invasion/colonisation, greed, remains a motivation for our failure to take full responsibility and genuinely address the harm done - from which we all benefit to this day - in that original act.

I am strangely relieved at the revision of Cook's history in a recently shown ABC program. He was depicted as a much more humane man than I had heard of before, who actually respected the aboriginal people and was not responsible for the abomination of 'terra nullis' (empty land). Also, it was good to see that his later behaviours were interpreted as aberrant in context with his earlier attitudes and practices, viewed as indicative, possibly, of some mental health problem. For the first time I can see our 'discoverer' as someone of 'character'. This doesn't change the horror of what followed but does, in some strange way, get him 'onside' with the protests against them. In my view, he can now be cited as an opponent to atrocity, rather than just an harbinger of oppression.

Secondly, I am overwhelmed by a sense of wonder and tearful love for this country. Not its government, or its wealth, or its suburbs or any of the other meaningless elements. Rather for itself. This amazing island continent, still expressing itself so grandly, so spectacularly, in the life of our planet. Its geography is stunning (although not always 'liveable'). My emotion, as I muse on what it is to be Australian, almost overwhelms me in contemplation of the grandeur and wonder of the landscape. I'm a city girl, how can this 'country' be so embedded in my psyche that it moves me to tears? I don't really care! I'm just overjoyed that it does. Now if we could only stop digging it up and chopping it down!

Thirdly, I feel a fantastic sense of opportunity each year, as this day rolls around, so close to the beginning of a New Year. It is placed in a 'calendar' time of renewal, of potential for change, of thoughtful assessment of the past and contemplation of the future as we'd like it to be. As a nation, we can take this opportunity to change direction, to 'swear off' behaviours that have not served us well and replace them with ones that make us better. We are, at this point in time, where we are! We can't change what has happened before but we can stop the effects from continuing under our 'watch'.

Australia's history is actually very short in terms of nationhood. We can still get on to a path of genuine reconciliation. We can still mould ourselves into a country with the values we've 'spouted' almost since inception. A fair go, an example of a just society for the rest of the world, a safe haven for those from other places, seeking to rebuild their shattered lives in a new land, an advocate for change in the wider world. All these values - and so much more - are our possible future. Why would we not choose such a future?

Is tolerance about to enter the cultural arena?

The voting public is a big animal so it takes a while to turn but, when it does, it sweeps everything before it. John Howard won his elections largely on the back of lies. The Labor economic 'black hole', that he was the one to keep us safe from terrorism after 911 and Bali, that wretched asylum seekers were 'baby killers' who would throw their own children in the sea. These are just the 'red letter' lies; he's told so many others it's impossible to document them - perhaps someone will do a book of them for us.

Howard and his so called Liberals have undermined the hard won multiculturalism of Australia. I know many people are uncomfortable with Muslim migrants, however, they've been uncomfortable with most migration that wasn't people 'like us' always. It's human nature to see those who are not like us as a potential threat. The government's job is to soothe those fears and help people understand that they needn't worry, not to whip them up into a frenzy and build the fear out of proportion.

Those who remember post-war migration could tell you that many thought bringing in Europeans, who spoke a foreign language and had different cultures, would displace the Australian culture. Well, they didn't destroy it, they expanded and enriched it while becoming Ozified themselves. When the Vietnamese started arriving in boats, we had a government that reassured the people. Yes, there was still fear and racism but we didn't change our immigration laws to target these people. We didn't make it impossible for them to live by so restricting their access to welfare that they couldn't feed themselves. We helped them reunite with their loved ones so they would make Australia their true home. And they didn't overwhelm us or make us unsafe.

African migrants will expand our culture too. If we give them the chance, they will become as Australian as those who came before them. They're not more inclined to violence and crime than the rest of the population. It's just another lie. They will adapt their own cultural habits to their new social environment over time, keeping what's important to them and moulding themselves into Australians over the generations, usually making huge moves by the time the first generation born here is grown. We'll absorb elements of their culture that suit our way of life and, hopefully, be tolerant of those things that don't.

Religious based intolerance is not new to Australia; we had our anti-Catholic backlash years ago. I grew up to the taunt "Catholic dogs leap like frogs in and out the water". Who knew what it meant? The heat was out of the argument by then, so mindless jingles were just that. I still live in a country that doesn't recognise my religious views as I'd like - and believe they should. I'm an athiest and have to put up with all sorts of religious effects on my life. They're made more tolerable by the religious public holidays, as I look at the Queen's birthday holiday as payback for putting up with the monarchy. Perhaps we could incorporate some Jewish and Muslim holidays into our calendar. I'm sure additional public holidays would help us be more tolerant.

God knows (excuse the expression) what will make us more loving towards our 1st Australians! Tolerance is obviously beyond many of the God-fearing.

Is John Howard actually God?

I have to ask the question because he's showing many of the characteristics of the God we hear about. This came to my mind with the debacle about interest rates and 'sorry' but 'not sorry'. I do understand the distinction he's trying to make and would find it acceptable, except for his whole thing about being responsible for the rates going down - and thus being the proper person to manage the economy - but not to blame when they go up - and thus being the proper person to manage the economy; this is a little mysterious, to say the least.

It calls to mind how we're always told that God is responsible for the good that happens to us - thus gets the credit - but not the bad - thus escapes the blame. Maybe we're just not being good enough, or praying hard enough? Maybe our faith is being tested? Another phrase comes to mind: God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.

I, of course, am an atheist, so it all slides by me... except for the bloody irritation.

Call out the thought police!

Mr Hocking has exposed us. He's uncovered our plot. Now everyone knows that Australian people are writing letters to newspapers, criticising the government. Now everyone knows that there is a campaign against the Workchoices Legislation. Even worse, that campaign is being organised by UNIONS! Oh horror! Who would have guessed it? Unions are organising people to fight for their rights in the workplace. Stop the presses (literally?).

There's a lot that could be said about this man but it's all so obvious, why bother? Suffice to say, he's an idiot.

Big bad wolf

What are we afraid of? Apparently, according to the Howard Government, we're more afraid of the Unions than we are of this Government. What on earth can this mean? Howard believes it means that he can win this election by running a scare campaign on how many of the Labor Party are previous union officials. This from a Government that introduced the most anti-worker legislation we've seen in my 59 years!

A Labor Government, led by a former leader of the ACTU - Bob Hawke - gave us compulsory superannuation, so that we'd be able to do things like pay off our mortgages and other debts on retirement, perhaps have a supplement to our pension or even not be dependent on the Government for a pension, afford to follow recreational pursuits, etc. This fantastic social policy has been a fundamental change in the lives of working people. Certainly Howard has liked it enough to try to put his own stamp on it by claiming to make the biggest changes in super ever (another of his 'sleight of tongue' exercises). He has, of course, brought in some positive changes (tax rules for over-60s) but he's also opened it up to commercial providers, who do not match the Industry funds' performances and left many, if they choose those providers, vulnerable to the sharks.

The Hawke/Keating Government also gave us privatisation - a personal bugbear of mine - selling off the Commonwealth Bank, for example. Howard has taken and run with this one. If it's not nailed down, he'll sell it, with no regard to the public good. Much of what used to be our national inheritance - Telstra being the highest profile sell-off - now belongs largely to SOME of us instead of ALL of us.

Hawke/Keating gave us Enterprise Bargaining - not a favourite of mine - where, instead of industry wide bargaining, we bargain in our individual workplaces, through the relevant unions if we have any concept of the real world at all. Howard gave us Workchoices, where we bargain alone against management in a modern gladiator sport for survival, where we have virtually no weapons and our opponent has them all PLUS is the favoured of Nero.

Can Howard sell the Unions as THE BIG BAD WOLF successfully, when they are actually 'the woodsman' come to save us? Is he that good, even when we can look back at a stream of his scare-tactic lies, for which we've fallen time and again? You're really good if you can sell people a bill of goods, even when they know you're a liar. Where even the language can be usurped and made to mean the opposite ("decent" comes to mind as an example - don't start me on that one - and "fair go" - nor on that one).

Ultimately, the decision belongs to the people. Howard and his crew can bribe with tax cuts and scare with lies but we know he's doing it and that he has more anti-worker plans in reserve for his next term (should he win one). If we fall for this again, it says more about us than it does about the Government. Those of us who aren't scared of shadows - we know who is really scary - will be stuck with the Australia the mindlessly fearful create for us.

Howard style reconciliation (Claytons?)

"I sense in the community a rare and unexpected convergence of opinion on this issue between the more conservative approach which I clearly identify with and those who traditionally have favoured more of a group rights approach." (John Howard)

What can we say? On the one hand, Johnny vilifies Africans who must be among the most inoffensive of Australian residents, to pander to the underlying and shameful racism that lurks in the hearts of the fearful, while on the other hand, he talks of a fundamental change of heart about our much maligned and mistreated aboriginal population.

Apart from the obvious inadequacies of his 'change of heart' (miserly recognition after 11 years of racist rhetoric and policy) an interesting part of his statement is that it indicates there must be signs that the community see his attitude towards the aboriginal people as a negative. He would change for no other reason because he just doesn't make progressive change unless there's an election benefit for him (and from the rarity of these 'events', we're not very demanding of moral policies - East Timor belated intervention comes to mind; strugglling to remember others).

It seems his research indicates that, while we are concerned enough for our own 'black' people to at least want the appearance of caring, we are uncaring about those from other places and we find racist statements and policies on them acceptable.

I refer back to my question at the top of this blog: If so many people must be easily led, must they be led by idiots and villains?