The flowers that bloom in the spring

This little black duck Uncategorized

The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Breathe promise of merry sunshine —
As we merrily dance and we sing,
Tra la,
We welcome the hope that they bring,
Tra la,
Of a summer of roses and wine,
Of a summer of roses and wine.
And that’s what we mean when we say that a thing
Is welcome as flowers that bloom in the spring.
Tra la la la la,
Tra la la la la,
The flowers that bloom in the spring.

IMG_8482.JPG

Pour yourself a drink

and enjoy the show

292 thoughts on “The flowers that bloom in the spring”

  1. Drowning. Not waving

    Theresa May will urge EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday to keep the door open to continuing Brexit negotiations, after a two and a half hour cabinet meeting that underscored the challenge of bridging the gap between London and Brussels in the days ahead.

    May told her colleagues on Tuesday: “If we as a government stand together and stand firm, we can achieve this.”

    But a string of ministers intervened to stress the importance of time-limiting the Irish backstop and ensuring it did not separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK – both areas where the UK and the EU27 remain at loggerheads.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/16/theresa-may-calls-for-unity-after-winning-cabinet-backing-for-brexit-strategy

    • This little black duck

      I worked in the construction industry in the 80s-early 90s. Vote 1 BLF ! 🙂 The building industry unions are bloody bolshie bustards and there is a very good reason for it. Safety costs money and by fcuk did companies take short cuts as soon as any back was turned. Short cuts also = dead bodies. In my time two poor buggers were killed on site, a fall and a ‘large object dropped from above’ . In both cases short cuts were to blame and pathetic fines imposed. Jail some of the company directors as it is from above the pressure to cut costs comes . Why the fark should working class Joe Blows pay the (ultimate) price 😦

      As bad a companies were even @$$@$#!!!!! worse were the tradies who , encouraged by effing Labor’s ‘reforms’, took to being sub contractors for the big companies. when it came to screwing workers for pay and safety they were the kings. Made worse because not so long before the very same tradies had worked side by side with those they screwed over as employees of the Multiplex’s and Concrete Constructions. No wonder they lurved Howard. Greedy grasping bustards.

      Rant over. Praise the Lord i be back ‘Laboratorying’ 🙂

    • kaffeeklatscher,

      The thing about this blog is that we have memories.

      I know your background, as you do mine.

      Here in pbxmasland it is all good. The stuff we research and comment on, not so much.

  8. The Libs are really, really desperate to win Wentworth.

    Wentworth byelection: Kerryn Phelps targeted by email smear campaign
    Independent candidate dismisses ‘dirty tricks’ alleging she has HIV and is pulling out of the race

    Kerryn Phelps, the leading independent candidate in the Wentworth byelection, has become the target of smear campaign in which emails have been sent to various organisations alleging she has HIV and has pulled out of the race.

    The emails reported on the ABC said Phelps had been diagnosed with HIV on Tuesday and that voters should now divert their vote to the Liberal candidate, Dave Sharma

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/17/wentworth-byelection-kerryn-phelps-targeted-by-email-smear-campaign

    I’ve seen these tactics before, from the National Party. Deluges of mail with names and addresses taken from the electoral roll, sent out to spread filth about independent candidates. Nats don’t do emails, I don’t think they know such things exist.

    The problem is these filth campaigns seem to have the reverse of the intended effect, they drive voters to the target, not away from them. It’s all too easy to work out where they come from, and to decide to put the sender last.

  10. A reminder when and why the USA’s moral authority shrivelled up and died. Remember also some of those being praised for going after Trump were up to their eye balls in this obscenity.
    .
    .

    The New York Review of Books

    The Innocence of Abu Zubaydah

    ……………………………And so Abu Zubaydah was tortured. As often as it has been repeated, the litany of this torture is still shocking. His captors hurled him into walls and crammed him into boxes and suspended him from hooks and twisted him into shapes that no human body can occupy. They kept him awake for seven consecutive days and nights. They locked him, for months, in a freezing room. They left him in a pool of his own urine. They strapped his hands, feet, arms, legs, torso, and head tightly to an inclined board, with his head lower than his feet. They covered his face and poured water up his nose and down his throat until he began to breathe the water, so that he choked and gagged as it filled his lungs. His torturers then left him to strain against the straps as he began to drown. Repeatedly. Until, just when he believed he was about to die, they raised the board long enough for him to vomit the water and retch. Then they lowered the board and did it again. The torturers subjected him to this treatment at least eighty-three times in August 2002 alone. On at least one such occasion, they waited too long and Abu Zubaydah nearly died on the board

  11. I saw bits of TV on the royals in Dubbo on the news.

    Harry won me over totally: no problem with getting his shirt totally drenched. His wife held the brella for him on the dias..

    There are so many young royals going around these days and they are all human.

  15. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Bevan Shields tells us about the Nationals’ death wish.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/they-have-lost-their-minds-government-fuming-over-growing-push-to-topple-deputy-prime-minister-20181017-p50aax.html
    Michelle Grattan has something to say about it.
    https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-barnaby-joyce-stalks-deputy-prime-minister-mccormack-105162
    It’s getting desperate and dirty in Wentworth.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dirty-tricks-fake-email-sent-to-wentworth-voters-claims-kerryn-phelps-has-hiv-20181017-p50aam.html
    Turnbull has left New York but delayed his return to Sydney, allaying fears it would destroy the byelection hopes of the Liberal candidate for Wentworth, Dave Sharma.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/malcolm-on-the-move-turnbull-delays-return-home-and-avoids-byelection-20181017-p50a9n.html
    And Dennis Shanahan tells us that John Howard will intervene in the Wentworth by-­election campaign in a last-ditch attempt to win over ‘grumpy ­Liberal voters’.
    https://outline.com/MtRbKb
    Our Prime Minister has declared that the Wentworth by-election threatens the stability of our country unless a majority vote for the Liberal candidate. The Wentworth by-election may be the most hotly contested in living memory and also reveals much about why our democracy is broken and needs fixing!
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/wentworth-democracy,12005
    Jennifer Hewett says that Morrison’s government seems to be focused on distractions.
    https://www.outline.com/q3g6Ap
    Katharine Murphy writes that as conditions become critical for dozens of children, paediatrician Paul Bauert is alerting MPs to an emergency they can no longer ignore. He has spent days roaming the corridors of Parliament House trying to get politicians to focus on what’s happening on Nauru.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/18/it-galls-me-the-doctor-turning-the-political-tide-on-naurus-child-refugee-crisis
    In a very good contribution Michael Pascoe says that Scott Morrison’s Australia resembles the 51st American state.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/10/17/scott-morrison-donald-trump-australia/
    John Warhurst is unimpressed with the way the religious freedom report has been handled. A good contribution.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/freedom-of-religion-policy-making-debacle-20181016-p50a2d.html
    Education academic Emily Gray explains why legislation should ban schools from discriminating against LGBTIQ+ students and teachers.
    https://theconversation.com/why-legislation-should-ban-schools-from-discriminating-against-lgbtiq-students-and-teachers-104940
    The Australian’s John Uren tells us that the claimed benefits of the small to medium sized business cuts are still unproven.
    https://outline.com/Pn553R
    Richard Denniss says that Trump’s tax cuts will increase inequality and Australia shouldn’t follow his lead.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/17/trumps-tax-cuts-will-increase-inequality-australia-shouldnt-follow-his-lead
    Niki Savva accuses Pauline Hanson of leading the country gown not the sewer.
    https://www.outline.com/7CKsFy
    Anglicare’s Kasey Chambers explains how work is becoming more casual. For the first time, less than half of all Australians are in full-time work. About one in four are working casually.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-jobs-boom-is-leaving-some-people-behind-20181011-p5090k.html
    Anna Patty says it’s not easy out there for young job seekers.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/i-missed-one-day-and-they-fired-me-alex-joins-rising-number-of-low-skilled-jobseekers-20181016-p50a06.html
    And Greg Jericho tells us that penalising low-skilled unemployed who are already doing it tough is absurd. It’s not a pretty picture he paints.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/oct/18/penalising-low-skilled-unemployed-who-are-already-doing-it-tough-is-absurd
    Australia’s tepid response to the growing disaster of climate change should make every thinking voters mad as hell, writes Stephen Williams.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/will-wentworth-force-the-morrison-government-to-act-on-climate,12002
    David Crowe fills us in on the travails of the rather hapless Minister for the Environment.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/for-the-pacific-it-s-always-about-cash-environment-minister-in-diplomatic-incident-over-climate-change-20181017-p50a6b.html
    Doug Dingwall looks at the focus Cormann is putting on the APS now he has been given responsibility for it.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/for-better-or-worse-the-public-service-has-a-motivated-minister-20181015-p509sr.html
    David Wroe explains how that now the dust has settled on Morrison’s shock announcement that he would consider following the path set by Donald Trump on Israel and Iran, questions are turning to how this bombshell decision came about just days ahead of the Wentworth byelection.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/it-kicked-off-with-a-flurry-of-phonecalls-scott-morrison-s-dramatic-foreign-policy-u-turn-20181017-p50a70.html
    Jess Irvine writes that we’ve lost our stomach for tax reform. But we need to find it, or suffer the indigestion of a tax system which fails to efficiently raise the taxes we need to fund the kind of society we want to live in.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/have-we-lost-our-stomach-for-tax-reform-20181017-p50a56.html
    Elizabeth Knight tells us that the increasing incidence of shareholders voting against the executive remuneration schemes is mainly about money – not corporate misbehaviour.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/shareholders-fury-more-about-money-than-naughty-behaviour-20181017-p50a8a.html
    Peter Hannam says that there will be nowhere for the government to hide as it will be less able to delay the release of embarrassing national carbon pollution figures after the Senate approved rolling deadlines for the quarterly data.
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/no-more-hiding-morrison-government-set-emissions-data-deadlines-20181017-p50a80.html
    Abortion will no longer be a crime in Queensland, after state MPs voted on Wednesday night to remove the procedure from the criminal code. So now it’s only NSW as the remaining holdout.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/abortion-will-no-longer-be-a-crime-in-queensland-after-historic-vote-20181017-p50a8b.html
    Michael Sainsbury expands on Scott Morrison – Defender of the Faiths.
    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/scomo-defender-of-the-faiths/
    Italy is a key risk and the country’s evolving political situation could result in a break-up of the European Union, Citi’s global head of macro strategy, Jeremy Hale, has warned.
    https://www.outline.com/HCR5Vp
    Wow! The IMF reports that Britain’s finances are weaker than all other nations except Portugal, and says privatisation is to blame.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/17/economic-lies-neoliberalism-taxpayers
    His killers were waiting when Jamal Khashoggi walked into the consulate in Istanbul, according to Turkish officials. Charming stuff!
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/gruesome-details-of-khashoggi-killing-on-audio-turkish-official-says-20181018-p50ab9.html
    A repeat of the failed attempt to roll out the Australia Card threatens to follow Coalition efforts to create digital IDs for web-users, unless the government makes changes protecting privacy, a defence think tank has warned in a new report.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/govpass-on-brink-of-becoming-the-next-australia-card-debacle-report-20181017-p50a51.html
    Tabcorp chairman Paula Dwyer has accused investors and proxy advisers of “caucusing to undermine our leaders” after the company was hit with a strike against its pay at its annual meeting.
    https://outline.com/zypeJM
    And there goes another retailing franchise.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/future-of-max-brenner-stores-in-doubt-after-liquidators-appointed-20181017-p50ab0.html
    Gutting the rights of Australian workers starts with undermining unions, and the right to collectively protest. And the recent experience of Lion Brewery workers is the case in point, writes Giri Sivaraman.
    https://newmatilda.com/2018/10/17/xxxx-problem-australias-industrial-relation-laws/
    Former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser has called for a radical rethink to policy-making, saying the way to a fairer, more equal society is with a pragmatic approach. He’s turned on neoliberalism.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/10/17/bernie-fraser-neoliberalism/
    Teething problems with the new $50 note should be kept to a minimum, argues the Reserve Bank after it embarked on a heavy programme of testing and engagement with industry ahead of Thursday’s launch.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-new-50-note-is-out-but-will-it-work-in-cash-machines-20181017-p50a85.html
    Why negligible Amazon grocery shopping savings aren’t worth the extra fees.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/consumer/2018/10/17/amazon-australia-grocery-prices/
    Key conspirators charged in the Plutus (remember them?) tax fraud secretly controlled a separate network of labour hire firms and payroll companies that were wound up owing the tax office, former business associates have alleged.
    https://outline.com/jCW8A3
    An astounding 93 per cent of women working in agriculture have suffered sexual harassment, taunts, victimisation and even rape.
    https://outline.com/k5U8X5
    Here’s a contender for “Arsehole of the Week”.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mosman-pharmacist-charged-over-illegal-supply-of-cancer-drug-20181017-p50a5s.html

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe exposes Trump’s negotiation method.

    A message form Alan Moir.

    Peter Broelman on the “administrative error”.

    Zanetti and the royal visit.

    From Matt Golding.

    Ouch! Glen Le Lievre goes for the Libs’ jugulars.

    A big catch up from Sean Leahy.






    David Pope on the passage of the TPP bill.
    https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1.34%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_620%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/w_828/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/6b3ec5a8dc0796ec54ade04c31bf3a44c3b95c3c
    Jon Kudelka takes us to the beach.
    https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/0f40e8f4b67751e32f259955fde4f598
    Plenty of good ones in here.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/best-of-fairfax-cartoons-october-18-2018-20181017-h16rcu.html

  16. Why do the Libs keep on dragging out Howard? He’s very much last century’s man. Don’t they have someone younger? Someone who doesn’t look like a mummified corpse? Someone who doesn’t remind voters he’s a big loser who pulled off the rare feat of losing both his own seat and government?

    Howard’s appearance didn’t help the Libs in the Super Saturday by-elections, and might have contributed to Labor’s near-win in Bennelong.

    Sharma must be dreading the appearance of the desiccated little coconut.

    • He’s all they’ve got. If he’d left politics in a manner of his own choosing, he might still be a handy weapon for the Liberals. But he didn’t. His humiliating ousting in 2007 was a blunt reminder to him that Australians didn’t want him any more. At all. Looks like he still hasn’t got that message.

      The idea that Shorten can be raised as some kind of spooky threat has long, long passed its use-by date. It now comes across not as a clever tactic but more as a tired gesture.

  17. Since it won’t be long till the 11th November, where there are so many momentous events to remember on that date..I want to get in early to remind people that it also is the day of the death of one of Australia’s greatest revolutionary sons…: Ned Kelly….Let us never forget to revere this Australian icon and revolutionary hero who, if he did not lead a mass revolution against the “born to rule” class, at least bloodied it’s nose! And truly.. was there any other “As game as Ned Kelly”?

    https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/as-game-as-ned-kelly/

  18. You know how new subdivisions have one entry / exit that becomes a bottle neck at peak hour

    Well the local council at urging of greens busybodies has cut off the 2 easy access exits from our block of 4000 densely packed residents leaving 2 exits into dense traffic.

    There goes any idea of helping the Greens MP return

    And the bloody council won’t shift the dumped car outside my house!

  19. Though I did find this lot amusing..

    Jasper.

    Jasper was a “Balt’ ”..ie; he was of those states centered around the Baltic Sea..perhaps he could have been Estonian…he was a tall ponderous sort of chap…with a long serious gaze, with one of those what are called “lantern jawed” faces. He always spoke in a slow , carefully chosen word way..I don’t wonder many philosophers came from the Baltic States..Jasper appeared to put a lot of thought into what he said before he said it…but then he didn’t ever say much of great import.

    “You gotta watch those ‘Balts’ “ Jack Mitchell warned..’Ooo..they’re trouble..those bloody Balts”.

    He always wore shorts in the summer..not short shorts like a footballer, but loose baggy ones to the knee. He would sit at the bar pint in hand with legs crossed in a peculiar effeminate way..that is; with his legs entwined like women do…and he would stare incessantly at one person or spot before delivering some profound statement.

    “Michael”..he announced out of the blue one day “Michael..would you tell your girlfriend to stop staring at my legs…I know I haff good, manly legs…but could she please not to stare at them so ?”

    Of course , Mick was astonished and choked on his beer…Tracey, Mick’s girlfriend, was outraged and put on one hell of a show…Jasper was nonplussed by the whole affair and just commenced to roll a cigarette with his slow ponderous methodology.

    Jasper had huge hands…big fingers more suited to blacksmithing or a farrier for draught horses than what he did do…but no-one knew quite what that was as he was an awful liar. Jasper’s toil at rolling a cigarette was something to watch..he was so clumsy with those big hands that it was quite a chore that exasperated him at times.

    One day a “airy” young lady sitting next to him at the bar took out of her dilly-bag one of those automatic cigarette rollers where you place the paper then the tobacco, then lift or flip the lid and a perfectly formed “rolly” appears to greet you. Jasper, ciggy-paper stuck to his bottom lip watched this magic with deep concentration, his big paw all the while shoved deep into the pouch of tobacco…as he watched, the ciggy-paper fluttered with his breath on his lip…he detached it and addressed the young lady.

    “That is a cleffer machine…a vonderful machine …where did you obtain it?” he asked in his slow deep voice.

    “Well I didn’t steal it if that’s what you mean?’ The young woman replied.

    “ I vas not accusing you, madam…you look like a honest young lady..an honest AND attractive young lady…perhaps later I would like to get to know you in a more familiar way..I like you..and I like your machine..I am asking where you haff purchased it”…

    The following week, Jasper was seen to have one of those machines ..it would sit at his elbow on the bar next to his pouch of “Drum” tobacco…Jasper now had a contented look on his face, and he would gladly demonstrate the marvels of that machine to anyone who asked..and many would take advantage of his hospitality of the proffered resulting cigarette until he woke up to the fact that he was being taken for a ride…philosophers are like that, they learn fast!

    Jasper disappeared out of our lives as quickly as he appeared..Late one night he asked Mick for a lift home on the back of his 1000cc. Suzuki…Mick delighted in putting the fear of god in anyone silly enough to ride pillion with him..Jasper had no sooner settled himself on the trembling machine and informed Mick to drive carefully as he, Jasper, was…and that was the last we heard of Jasper as Mick took off full-throttle and it was impossible to tell if it was the roar of the motor, the squeal of the tyre or the Joe. E. Brown howl of despair from Jasper as they disappeared down Yakka Road toward Sth. Brighton.

    But he never came back.

  20. All this “nothing to see here, there’s no chance of a leadership change, we all love one another…..” stuff from teh nats sounds like the usual script the conservatives follow when they are about to knife a leader.

    Most recent example?

    The current (and interim) PM giving Turnbull a shoulder hug and saying “he’s my prime minister” just a few hours before he became PM himself. While he was gushing over Turnbull his fellow conspirators were finalising numbers for an assassination.

  25. What next, Gladys?

    Installing poker machines in schools?

    I found this quote from “a spokesman for Clubs NSW” particularly stupid –
    “It would mean, for example, that residents in Coleambally in the NSW Riverina region would no longer have to drive an hour to Griffith or Narrandera to renew their driver’s licence,” the spokesman said.

    You can already renew your drivers licence online in NSW, there’s no need to drive anywhere to do it, unless you are over 75 years old. Oldies still have to front up in person. There are a few other conditions, but most of the population of Coleambally can already renew online.
    https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/renew-nsw-driver-licence

  26. New depths of stooopid have been plumbed.

    Here’s Nationals MP David Gillespie claiming extra preschool can leave kids with a lower IQ

    video/1

    • Maybe not so stupid. Without reading his whole speech – what he’s saying in this clip is it’s daycare that does the damage. Much as I hate to agree with Gillespie, just in what we see in this clip, I think he’s right.

      There’s a big difference between preschool, which is structured education, usually for only two or three days a week, and depending on the age of the child might only be for a couple of hours a day, and daycare, which is basically just child minding and can be full-time, even long day care, 5 days a week. Childcare centres often play on parents being ill-informed and talk up their “education” programs, but these are pretty much non-existent and what is done is more along the lines of “stuff” to keep kids entertained instead of educating them.

      Ms Workman doesn’t have kids, she doesn’t understand the distinction.

      This is why preschool staff have to have degrees in early childhood education while daycare staff only need a TAFE Certificate 3 in childcare.

    • Actually my niece’s baby attends day care. It is run by trained pre-school teachers. The kids are being exposed to a quality program like painting, farm yard animals, petting zoo, eating with other kids.

    • Do you really think Tony Abbott’s school chum, Dr Doolittle, has actually read the research or is he grasping at any excuse to keep the little woman at home tied to the apron strings or domestic servitude

    • Good point re child care centres ( Nice little earners for a number of Coalition mate.) v Preschool.

  27. I’d normally be mildly anti-Royalist, but my godson met Prince Harry today so I’m making an exception. He was one of the schoolkids at the beach clean-up thing, and I’ve just been informed he had a short chat with Prince Harry. Channel Seven had rolling coverage all day, but because of the delays earlier, the beach bit came after their scheduled programming during whatever ghastly show they have from 3-4 pm, so they were running infomercials and ads while the royals were meeting the schoolkids. Channel Nine filmed the interaction, apparently, so I’ll be watching the news to see if there’s anything.

    Nice moment for the boy. He’s already had a great year, having gone to Japan on a school trip (he’s state school, not private) and passed his Grade 6 piano exam (with an A – he’s 11, and I’m told this is a pretty young age to be passing Grade 6 piano). I’m quite proud of the kid.

  29. David Gillespie (Lyne) said yesterday

    Dr GILLESPIE (Lyne) (16:07): It’s obvious that there is universal agreement across this House that early childhood education is critical in developing the best for every child. I just want to point out some pretty obvious facts that have been distorted by the other side.

    We are funding compulsory preschool of 15 hours a week, with $428 million this year and $444 million next year. There are also negotiations already afoot to make sure that the money actually leads to children attending preschool. You don’t get any benefit from funding; you get benefit from going to preschool for those 15 hours a week. As the minister, the member for Wannon, so accurately pointed out, the attendance figures for 15 hours a week of preschool are notoriously bad in many states who are quite happy to accept the funds but don’t ensure the children turn up for preschool. In some states it’s at low as 40 per cent—in many it’s 50 per cent—and the more remote and disadvantaged areas are the ones with the lowest attendance. That’s why there are negotiations going on. In fact, the federal government never paid for preschool—it was solely a state responsibility—up until 2008, so we want to make sure that states are not taking the money without delivering the service.

    Everyone understands that early learning influences the transition into school, but a lot of the argument is based on overseas experience. We have evidence, which many on the other side are familiar with, that attendance at preschool in the year before your schooling improves your NAPLAN score in year 3. There are lots of figures showing that going to preschool before your schooling means you are much more likely to finish and graduate out of school, less likely to drop out from school, and more likely to have better outcomes.

    But there is nothing wrong with your early learning being delivered in a family daycare centre rather than a formal preschool situation or with your own family. In fact, there is a lot of evidence coming out of Europe, from Germany and Italy—I’ve got the articles here; I can show you later, Mr Deputy Speaker—that in some quarters extra formal daycare leads to a lower IQ down the track and that there is less beneficial social and emotional wellbeing and more aggressiveness in children that are in very long daycare. So we’ve got to be careful how much we take on as a state and how much we let parents interact with their children.

    The evidence is that the benefit is greatest to the child where the parents aren’t delivering that sort of one-on-one stimulation, play, interaction, early reading, looking at images and speech development. In remoter areas English might be a first language or a second language or third language. We have lots of migrant parents in this country who aren’t fluent in English and theirs are the kids who will get the biggest benefit. That’s what our policy is all focused on and that’s why we are arguing with the states to get the attendance figures up, and we’ll deliver the money.

    The other thing that is not very well appreciated is a lot of these figures about attendance in the years before school are based on the European experience. Children in a lot of countries in Europe—and I’ve got some figures here—do not start school at 4½ or just turning five like here in Australia; they start at seven and six, so the two years before school are actually older than what we are advocating here in Australia. In Finland, school starts at seven. In the UK, it has been an issue in the press there that children who have just turned five shouldn’t be let to go to school because they start their school in the middle of their summer, or our winter, whereas we start school in January, in the middle of their winter. In Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and Hungary, they start school between six and seven, so preschool for them is when you’re five and six, not four and three. I mean, we’re not all going to end up rocket scientists and with PhDs because we have our children in preschool at the age of three.

    • Thanks.

      Obviously a response to Labor’s plans to fund a year of preschool for all kids. That idea goes way back to the Whitlam era.

      So yes, I do agree with him on the importance of preschool education, but he’s wrong in saying the federal government never funded preschools. They did.

      Whitlam wanted as many kids as possible to have one year of preschool education, but getting that funding up and running was quite a battle. The process kept getting derailed by protests about working mothers needing daycare more urgently than preschool. The policy morphed into one that provided childcare and preschools. The responsibility for funding childcare and preschools was gradually handed over to the states by 1986 all funding was a state responsibility. Now the federal government is more involed, as are some councils.

      My eldest attended a community-run preschool built with funding from the Whitlam government. There were similar community preschools popping up all over the country from about 1975, when funding was finally approved. Unfortunately Howard’s privatisation saw many of them sold off to ABC Learning and turned into profit-making ventures.

      I’m not getting into the debate on when kids should start school,it’s too complicated.

    • Yes.

      The “problem” is that kids are different.

      Kids need social interaction whether that be by extended family or by school, it has to be. For us, the mothers in the street had “coffee clubs” where they and the kids got together for a morning. Worked a treat.

      Preschools are fine, provided they don’t pretend to be schools. You shouldn’t try to school three- or four-year olds.

  30. Hopefully you can open the FT article via the twitter link, as you get one free read by social media a day (I think). Or you coud have installed that paywall dodging Firefox add-on like I suggested a while ago, and read all you want!

  33. Just read The New Daily email PM Update for this afternoon. And for a split second I wondered who was our new Prime Minister *sighs*

    What does that say about the way in which I am now informed about political news these days?

  34. Always interesting to see the AP, AFP, or Reuters summarised versions of Australian news, as that’s the only bit of news the casual overseas reader is likely to see about us. The sort of articles that end up on hundreds of other websites.

  35. La Tingle was talking to Leigh on 7.5.

    Her thinking was that, if the Libs lose Wentworth, then the Nats will have a huge look at replacing McCormack.

    That first 10 minutes on 7.5 was all about what a horrendous week the government has had, all of its own making.

    • I don’t understand why the Nats would replace McCormack because the Libs lose a by-election. It would not be McCormack’s fault. No-one in Wentworth votes National, they couldn’t if they wanted to, they aren’t allowed to have a Nats candidate.

      I think the Nats are just holding off their leadership problem until after the by-election because they don’t want to cause a distraction. For obvious reasons (hung parliament, becoming the opposition, etc) they want the Libs to keep that seat.

  39. Brought to you by the same incompetent, untrustworthy dim-wit who couldn’t read a two line Senate motion without getting it completely wrong.

    Christian Porter should be asked to hand in his resignation. The only reason he won’t be doing that is there’s no-one else Scummo can use to replace him.

  40. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    In what he describes as an astonishing shambles Davide Crowe says that nothing is working for the Morrison government. He chronicles the shocking week that hasn’t yet ended.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/astonishing-shambles-nothing-is-working-for-the-morrison-government-20181018-p50agc.html
    With a Coalition in crisis Dennis Shanahan writes that Scott Morrison is being drawn into cultural and religious battles with enormous political import at a time of great political weakness. The Prime Minister is trying not to retreat on key issues while simultaneously cauterising those needing immediate treatment.
    https://www.outline.com/Et3hdC
    And he tells us that Julia Banks has sent a powerful signal to voters that she may run as an independent candidate.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/email-from-julia-banks-signals-she-may-leave-the-liberal-party-to-run-as-an-independent-mp-20181018-p50al0.html
    Phil Coorey ponders over what to expect if Wentworth goes belly-up for Scott Morrison. It’s not pretty.
    https://outline.com/BDYzgE
    MIchelle Grattan writes on how Morrison is bracing himself for judgement by Turnbull’s old voters.
    https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-scott-morrison-braces-for-judgement-by-malcolm-turnbulls-old-voters-105241
    Liberal party member Kristina Photios says that the Wentworth byelection is a vote on the Liberal party’s lurch to the right.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/18/the-wentworth-byelection-is-a-vote-on-the-liberal-partys-lurch-to-the-right
    The upcoming Wentworth by-election is generating all sorts of political noise as Morrison’s Liberal Party desperately tries to hold its place, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-vice-of-wentworth-white-motions-and-jerusalem-blues,12011
    The AFR’s Andrew Clark writes that the Wentworth byelection battle is exposing deep-seated Liberal and national divisions.
    https://outline.com/2Ev5yP
    More from Crowe as he reports that former Nationals leaders have warned Barnaby Joyce to abandon a growing push to reinstate him as deputy prime minister while also urging federal MPs to “save the ship” by rejecting the leadership turmoil that has taken hold in Canberra.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/former-nationals-leaders-warn-barnaby-joyce-to-abandon-push-for-deputy-pm-comeback-20181018-p50aix.html
    Paula Matthewson tells us why Barnaby Joyce leading the Nationals would be such a dumb move.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/10/18/barnaby-joyce-nationals-leadership/
    There really is nothing like a monumentally important by-election, in which the fate of a government hangs in the balance, despite the fact that said government engineered it. It’s human rights vs the Morrison government.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/human-rights-vs-the-morrison-government,12010
    Alexandra Smith reports that senior Liberals are saying a ‘miracle’ is needed for Sharma to win Wentworth.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/senior-liberals-say-a-miracle-is-needed-to-win-wentworth-20181018-p50ak7.html
    The Australian headlines “Phelps open to tearing down the government”.
    https://outline.com/dkaKYz
    Richo writes that Morrison inherited this mess, but it is up to him to sort it out quick smart.
    https://outline.com/vngAvs
    Our current Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has been in the top job for 50 media-filled days. Here are a few of the highlights of Australia’s newest, media-loving Prime Minister, as written by Belinda Jones.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/fifty-days-of-scomo-a-chronicle-of-our-new-pm,12009
    The SMH editorial says that If Barnaby Joyce does somehow engineer a swift coup, that will not be the end of it. Unless he is handed some juicy foreign posting to stop him wrecking, undermining and sniping, Mr McCormack will be a standing reproach to him.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/no-more-leadership-changes-before-the-election-20181018-p50ae1.html
    Tony Wright calls for a vampire kit as Barnaby threatens to rise from the dead.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/send-vampire-slaying-kit-urgently-barnaby-s-rising-from-the-dead-20181018-p50aeh.html
    In an excellent and well written op-ed piece Roman Quadvlieg tells us that there’s a solution to the refugee crisis – but no one will like it.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-solution-to-the-refugee-crisis-but-no-one-will-like-it-20181017-p50aaq.html
    Reuters’ Peter Apps explains how the Khashoggi case shows faltering US clout in Middle East.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/khashoggi-case-shows-faltering-us-clout-in-middle-east-20181018-p50abi.html
    Adele Ferguson tells us how the clock is ticking for CBA’s Dollarmites program for children.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/clock-ticking-on-dollarmites-survival-time-for-asic-to-step-up-20181018-p50ah6.html
    Matt O’Sullivan reveals that the loser of the tender to build an underground motorway junction in Sydney’s inner west as a part of WestConnex will receive up to $20 million in compensation from NSW taxpayers.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/20m-in-compo-to-be-paid-to-losing-westconnex-bidder-20181017-p50a8c.html
    The AFR tells us that we should brace ourselves for increases in food prices.
    https://www.outline.com/9W8EwN
    Michael Koziol writes about Gillian Triggs giving Morrison some unlikely support.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/you-have-to-be-practical-gillian-triggs-backs-scott-morrison-on-lifetime-new-zealand-refugee-ban-20181018-p50al8.html
    As the casualisation of the workforce continues Jennifer Hewett explains how the government is taking action on a more arcane sounding employment issue likely to have a greater impact on millions of employees and businesses.
    https://outline.com/rLKSGG
    A trio of Fairfax reporters says that the Morrison government suspects a state Labor government may have leaked a secret ASIO briefing that warned the Prime Minister’s mooted shift on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel could provoke unrest and violence in Palestinian territories.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-government-hints-labor-state-behind-asio-leak-on-jerusalem-move-20181018-p50ah8.html
    Michael Koziol explains how the Sydney Anglican diocese is set to ban same-sex weddings from any Anglican church or building, and prohibit its properties from being used to promote homosexuality or “transgender ideology”. He also tells us about the church’s concerns over the move to protect LGBTI teachers. We are headed for quite a stoush methinks.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sydney-anglicans-set-to-ban-gay-weddings-and-pro-lgbti-advocacy-on-church-property-20181018-p50aga.html
    Jenna Price says that Barnaby Joyce has made one thing perfectly clear, to her at least. We must put the responsibility for handing sexual harassment claims straight into the Fair Work Commission.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-one-quick-way-to-stop-sexual-harassment-in-its-tracks-20181018-p50ahj.html
    Government contractor Thales applied to the attorney-general to have information removed from an auditor-general’s report that was critical of a $1 billion deal it had with the Defence department. This story might have legs.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/defence-contractor-tried-to-block-parts-of-critical-auditor-general-s-report-20181018-p50ad9.html
    Property prices in Sydney and Melbourne are on course to fall 20% and the risk of crash “cannot be ignored”, according to a significant rethink on the direction of the market by one of Australia’s most high-profile economists.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/18/australians-told-property-prices-could-fall-another-15
    Environmentalist Julien Vincent writes that next week investors will get the opportunity to vote on whether an ASX100 company that is custodian of their money should align its strategy with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/whitehaven-next-in-frame-for-investor-pressure-on-climate-20181016-p50a07.html
    A lack of coherent policy for managing Australia’s liquid fuel reserves represents a risk to national security, a Senate select committee heard yesterday.
    https://outline.com/dKdWsp
    The Australian constitution’s power to “enable” and “permit” racial discrimination should be removed as a matter of urgency, the joint select committee on constitutional recognition has been told.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/19/constitutions-power-to-enable-race-discrimination-should-be-removed-mps-told
    The deadline to opt-out of the federal government’s controversial My Health Record system should be extended by 12 months and legislation substantially rewritten to safeguard patients’ safety and privacy, a Senate inquiry has found.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/major-changes-to-my-health-record-laws-needed-to-safeguard-australians-senate-inquiry-finds-20181017-p50a47.html
    Professor of Politics Judith Brett explains how climate change denial is the Morrison government’s biggest economic problem.
    https://theconversation.com/the-morrison-governments-biggest-economic-problem-climate-change-denial-105125
    Sarah Danckert goes into a new survey that reveals poor judicial conduct, a lack of sleep and stressful workloads are among the issues affecting the mental health of some of Victoria’s barristers.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/judges-behaving-badly-key-concern-for-barristers-20181018-p50ajf.html
    Gary Younge writes that US presidents have been appeasing brutal dictatorships for years. Trump merely does it with appalling and brazen clarity.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/18/donald-trump-saudi-arabia-us-presidents-appeasing-dictatorships
    Meanwhile the US has joined other major trading partners in boycotting an upcoming investment conference in Saudi Arabia until the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is completed.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2018/10/19/saudi-conference-boycott/
    Isabelle lane explains how a parliamentary inquiry into the shadowy world of ‘debt vultures’ will expose an industry accused of preying on struggling Australians.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/consumer/2018/10/18/debt-vultures-payday-lenders-inquiry/
    Doug Dingwall reports that the Home Affairs Department wants its junior and middle-ranking bureaucrats protected from having their names revealed in documents released to the public under freedom of information laws.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/protect-our-public-servants-from-foi-home-affairs-20181018-p50afl.html
    Sally Whyte tells us that a public servant who told parliament that minutes of a ministerial meeting didn’t exist faces questioning by senators after freedom of information documents proved him wrong.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/public-servant-to-be-referred-to-committee-over-incorrect-answers-20181018-p50aet.html
    The Olympic gold medallist Edwin Moses wants the world to follow Australia’s anti-doping lead against the IOC bullies.
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/world-needs-to-follow-australia-s-anti-doping-lead-against-ioc-bullies-20181018-p50ai6.html
    Leading cyber security and data experts warn that smartphones could be eavesdropping on conversations to target users with ads According to Dr Belinda Barnet, data expert and senior lecturer in media and communications at Swinburne University, technologies “certainly existed” for phones to listen to your conversation.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2018/10/18/phone-listening-conversations/
    What immediate actions should companies take to assure a smooth transition to compliance with the Modern Slavery Transparency in the Supply Chain Bill?
    https://www.outline.com/UFLGqj
    Women’s health advocates warn that the Trump administration is set to try tightening access to birth control by broadening religious exemptions for companies providing health insurance.
    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/18/trump-administration-trying-to-expand-religious-exemptions-for-birth-control-coverage
    A vigilante group that allegedly financed and assisted women in Australia to abduct their own children and keep them hidden in violation of family law court orders has been struck down by authorities. That’s today’s nomination for “Arseholes of the Week”.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/children-hidden-and-their-identities-changed-by-parent-abduction-ring-20181018-p50ajl.html
    Although this grub is in with a chance . . .
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/doctor-charged-after-allegedly-drugging-indecently-assaulting-woman-20181018-p50alk.html

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe and a pre-orgasmic Barnaby.

    Mark David has three for us today.



    Jon Kudelka on the Nats’ leadership tension.
    https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/48a41f28ae06b862dcbdeea1d275323e
    More in here -especially Cathy Wilcox’s.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/best-of-fairfax-cartoons-october-19-2018-20181018-h16sof.html

  41. What a hoot!

    Another “administrative error”

    The PM’s website expired today, someone (guess who) forgot to renew it.

    Now it has been taken over by trolls and is playing endless repeats of a rock song “Scotty Doesn’t Know”.

    PM’s website taken over by troll, plays loop of ‘Scotty doesn’t know’
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/pm-s-website-taken-over-by-troll-plays-loop-of-scotty-doesn-t-know

    Get there quick, before it’s taken down.
    http://www.scottmorrison.com.au/

  42. My archives for South Australia, dating from the 19th century show a class intent on looking after its own interests..to the point of actual murder and reckless irresponsibility to secure either the health OR future well-being of a developing state. Any substantial infrastructure that DID evolve seems to have been from desperate community lobbying in times of absolute despair or from opportune discovery of mineral potential…THEN..those powers that were in situ moved fast! …oh if there was a buck to be made, they were right onto it!…

    Small pox and other introduced contagions were apparent from the first years of boat arrivals, yet there was little precaution taken to halt its spread among the indigenous population…as a matter of recorded fact, one could find reason to conclude that “contact” between young indigenous women and those first settlers infected had no hindrance..indeed, even a nudge / wink encouragement…after all, two ethnic groups : The Anglo / European are company…the third was a tad crowded..especially if that third were owners of the land…if you get my drift.

    As example, in the early years of the 20th century, a railway was proposed to continue from Truro in the eastern hills, down onto the Murray Flats where there were numerous Germanic settler farmers opening up the land and then onto the local centre on the Flats : Sedan.

    This was mapped, planned and wanted by all concerned in the district..its benefit would have been immeasurable to that area of cropping and stock produce, supplying a reliable source to the capital..Likewise would the Telephone to that same area have been a boost to the Germanic population there, giving them a ready access to rural suppliers and business / medical connections.

    But then the 1st WW broke out and suddenly those third generation Germanic settlers became a button for the racist National Defence League ; the fore-runner of the Liberal Party, to push to get more fear into the community and their own bums on seats in Parliament…So BOTH projects were canned on the fear that the first could be blown up by German saboteurs and the telephone could become a direct line from the Germans to Kaiser Bill….

    “The borders must be secured”…

    This nation has been infected with a ruling class bacterium for much too many years..Mao was correct with his announcement : “Away with all pests!”

  43. Arrogant fool.

    ScumMo ignored an Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warning that a proposal to move Australia’s Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could cause violence in Palestine.

    Obviously the alleged daggy suburban dad knows better than all those experts.

    Australia’s spy agency warned government Israel embassy move could provoke violent unrest
    Exclusive: Asio document highlights possible protests on back of Scott Morrison’s Jerusalem relocation and Iran nuclear deal withdrawal suggestion
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/18/australia-spy-agency-asio-warned-government-israel-embassy-violent-unrest

  44. Police are dropping terrorism charges against a NSW University student who was accused of plotting to assassinate Australian politicians.

    Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeenm, 25, was arrested in August and accused of writing in a notebook about plans to kill former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his former deputy Julie Bishop.

    He was released on bail last month after prosecutors conceded a handwriting expert could not prove he had written the notes in the notebook.

    More to come.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-19/nsw-police-drop-charges-on-student-accused-of-assassination-plot/10395172

  49. White Ribbon Australia –

    I’ve had mixed feeling about this organisation for quite a while. I think that doubt started when I read this, a few years ago.
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2016/11/19/exclusive-white-ribbon-splits-direction/14794740003994

    And this, by Nina Funnell, who was mentioned in the above Saturday Paper article.
    https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/10-reasons-why-i-will-ignore-white-ribbon-day/news-story/9e07fea8e148250dfd72fbc3da911cdc

    Since then my doubts have grown. Despite all the hype domestic violence is becoming a bigger problem, rates are increasing. It seems White Ribbon Australia’s approach, using men to target men, isn’t working. There have also been a few reports of decisions to accept donations from hotels, proceeds of gambling and liquor wholesalers. Alcohol and financial problems resulting from gambling are two of the main causes of domestic abuse, yet the organisation was happy to accept the proceeds of these activities as donations.

    The most illogical decisions have been about whether or not the organisation supports abortion. They are damned if they issue a statement of support, as they did in November 2017, and damned if they retract a statement, as they have just done. It would have been better to stay away from the abortion issue completely. I know statistics tell us unwanted pregnancies are higher among women experiencing domestic abuse, but there must be better ways for White Ribbon Australia to support women than by making what are really publicity statements and then retracting them.

    Here’s an article and an update from the Catholic Church on their outrage over White Ribbon Australia’s support for the Queensland government’s plans to decriminalise abortion.
    http://catholicleader.com.au/news/controversy-growing-after-white-ribbon-pledges-support-for-decriminalising-abortion-in-queensland

    An organisation that allows itself to be dictated to by churches and “other Christian groups” is not really in the business of putting an end to domestic abuse. It’s in the business of empire building and will say and do whatever it thinks necessary to keep that money and publicity rolling in.

Comments are closed.