I don’t know if you’ve seen it, it’s probably taken me a while since we hardly ever watch channel 9, but am I the only person who is annoyed by the new show “Random Acts fo Kindness”?

What’s random about it? The acts of kindness are only ever to those channel 9 think deserve it. Should we only show random acts of kindness to people we think deserve it? When going through a toll booth with a bit of extra change, do we check the person behind us is worthy before we pay their toll as well? Do we grill people before we bestow on them a gift?

I suppose the show wouldn’t have the same ring to it if it was called “Acts of Kindess to Those We Think Deserve It”. Or “See, Karma is Real!”.

So, is it just me?

I had planned to write  a post today about how wonderful it is helping out at my daughters school, and how great it is to see the children learning and enjoying it so much, when today happened.

Below is a letter I have just written to my childrens daycare centre

Dear A,

Please consider this letter notice that Kiki and Miss Moo will no longer be attending your centre and their last day will be Friday 15th of May.

Yours Sincerley,

Kin.

Here’s what I wanted to write:

Dear A,

Please consider this letter notice that Kiki and Miss Moo will no longer be attending your centre and their last day will be Friday 15th of May.

The girls have very much enjoyed their time at your centre, but due to our continual battle with headlice I cannot justify spending over $150 a week in child care fees for the 2 hours it seems to take for you to find lice in my childrens hair - again- even though I checked it this morning with my sepcial tea tree oil spray and couldn’t find anything - I will be removing them from your centre

And thanks so much for pointing out the eggs to me. I can see the eggs. We’ve had lice for 4 weeks now, I know what they look like, but since you and your staff don’t have children and haven’t dealt with this issue, let me explain to you that not all the eggs you see are necessarily eggs, some of them will have already hatched - indeed weeks ago, and the shells remain, and no, a brush won’t remove them.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the few days my girls have passed muster on your inspection every time one of my kids scratches their head (which is in fact a trait picked up from me) Kiki has been sick, not, as you assume, with gastro, but because she has reflux, and reacts badly to some foods. We’re still figuring out which foods cause this reaction, but until we do she will throw up occasionally.

But the real kicker came today, when, knowing the struggles we’ve had keeping on top of the lice, you knowingly moved my child into a room that is filled with kids with lice, and then wondered why 2 hours later she had some on her head.

So, thank you for the excellent care you have taken of my children the few hours they have actually being in your care, but I will have to find someone else to take care of my children.

Regards, Kin.

PS in 5.5 years of child care and school the first time we had lice in our house was exactly one week after starting at your centre. I don’t think the problem is with what I’m doing at home.

…. but no, you can’t have the internet.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, no internet for Kin.

This is suburbia for heavens sake. 3 schools and a university within walking distance. 350sqm blocks of land. Thousands of people. Thousands of people apparently unable to get internet.

I kind of had an idea this might be a problem, but not the straight out “no” answer I got from….. TELSTRA!

In the end we have 3 excuses reasons so far: we have a shared line (what we have to share a phone line? what is this? a third world country?), we are too far from the exchance (except my father is further away and he has internet, as do both our neighbours) and something to do with rims which may be able to be fixed (similar problem to what we had in the last house, apparently).

So, on the off chance that only the 3rd one of those excuses reasons is actually the case, we’re pursuing that option at this stage, however that will take up to 8 weeks, so I’m not holding my breath. Our only other option, apparently, is wireless, for which Telstra want to charge me $130 a month for the priveledge of downloading 10gig a month. Considering my last plan (through someone else) was $50 a month for 50gig, I’m thinking that’s a crap deal.

There are other options, like for the same price Telstra was offering I could download 40gig and be using a local company, but I am strongly objecting to paying more than double what my neighbour is for the same service for no good reason.

As you may or may not be aware, our region has been affected by floods for the better part of the last month. Fortunately, due to our location, our homes generally don’t flood, and we can still get around town. It’s getting out of town that can be a problem (or getting to schools even)

Area’s further north of us have been cut off for weeks. And it is this that’s caused our biggest problem.

You see, I live somewhere between Mackay and Townsville. For those whose knowledge of Queensland geography is a little sketchy, here’s a map:

Now the problem has been our food supplies - in particular fresh produce and perishable items such as meat, dairy and frozen goods.

It amazed me when I first moved here to learn that the majority of our food arrived from Brisbane by rail. But what I didn’t realise was that the warehouse for our food was located in Townsville.

And don’t go thinking it was as simple as putting the food on a train up to Townsville either. Oh no.

Our food, apparently, is sent by train, from Brisbane to Mackay, where it is taken off the train and put on the back of trucks for the 4 - 5 hour drive to the Townsville warehouse. From there it is sorted and placed back on the same trucks and delivered back to us, somewhere between the two centres.

Is that not the most rediculous thing you’ve ever heard?

With all this rain and Townsville isolated by floodwaters to the north, south and west (and now that I think about it - on the east as well) food has been both unable to reach Townsville, or be delivered from Townsville, leaving large parts of North Queensland without food supplies. Including us.

Not for the first time have I been glad of my obsessive bargain buying as we have been fine with a freezer full of meat and frozen vegetables and a pantry full of tinned foods and powdered milk that has enabled me to continue feeding the family on our usual fare without much drama.

I wonder if this years floods will change the distribution chains of the major retailers? Or if this will continue to be a process that boggles the mind in its complexity for years to come?

In this day and age, I’m quite accustomed to reading things that make me stop and go “what the…?”, but sometimes I read something and am lost for words. Tonight was one such occasion.

I am probably labeled a rabid feminist behind my back (no one would dare do it to my face), although I prefer to think of myself as an equalitist. I suspect this post will do nothing but firmly affix the feminist label.

Tonight, the ABC is reporting the Centre for Independant Studies suggesting that parents and not the government or business should fund paid maternity leave. Now if you’re reading this, and don’t have children and subscribe to the argument that “I’m not a parent so why should I fund paid maternity leave with my tax dollars?” or a business owner who asks “why is this another cost that I should absorb?” I’d like to ask you who will be funding your pension (or what’s left of it) when you reach retirement age? Who will be funding the public and private health systems, aged care facilities and working in the supermarkets, pharmacies and bottle shops when you retire, get old and desperately need these services? It is in everyone’s  best interests to increase the population.

But that’s not the worst part about this report by the ABC. The representative of the Centre for Independant Studies, Jessica Brown, is suggesting parents could do this by a superannuation style fund, or, in the absence of time to save up enough, a HECS style loan.

Let’s follow this logically through:

There are some things that bug me you know? Not bug me as in oh my god that totally bugs me to the point I’m going to lose my mind and go on a shooting rampage, but more like

gee that’s annoying and I really wish everyone would do it my way cause clearly my way is superior and gee that feels better to get it out of my system like that. What’s for dinner?

Like our cutlery drawer. For years the knives, forks and spoons have gone in just that order from left to right: knives, forks, spoons. Easy, simple. For some reason when I was away Hubby decided that it should go: forks, spoons, knives. Because that’s how you set the table. Ok, fair point, but it’s now 6 weeks later and I’m STILL not used to it. Because it should go: knives, forks, spoons. It’s gone that way ever since we’ve been living together. I’m fairly certain my parents do it the same way.

So chime in dear readers, what is the order of cutlery drawer?

We interrupt your irregularly scheduled blog posting to inform you that even though the life of Kin has been disrupted enough by the temporary loss of her shiny new car, and the loss of phone lines again, it will be disrupted even further by the temporary removal of internet service for an indeterminate period of time. It seems that in fixing her phone line, we have broken the internet, so she’s just going to have to live without it until such time as we can figure out how to fix it.

In her absence, feel free to poke around in her archives, check out the terribly out of date blogroll and generally just make yourself at home.

And it might just be time for her sister-in-law to give her a phone call on her phone which is perfect working order, instead of just reading her blog.

Last year I guest posted on Snoskred’s blog about politics in a small town. I live on the fringe of a World Heritage Listed National Park. As a result we are also a popular holiday destination for people from all over the world.

With all this tourism comes development, and with development comes opposition.

Since my in-laws moved here ten years ago, and us five years ago, we have witnessed, and been party to fight after fight from the local people against their elected officials over development in the area.

They have fought the over-use of golden arches - and won

They have fought a major developer over a 4 story building in the main street - and won

They have fought the development of a new marina in a mangrove swamp and known feeding ground for dugongs - and lost

They have fought the sale of our local airport to a private developer whose intention was to close it down in order to further his private airport a further 20 minute drive from the current airport (a total of 50 minutes from here) - and won.

They have fought the development of ANOTHER marina in a harbour ten minutes from town, currently a haven for local vessels during bad weather and for repairs - and lost

They have fought the introduction of traffic lights on the main street - and lost

And now they are fighting possibly the biggest fight they have faced yet, and everything they’ve learned over the last ten years will need to be drawn on to beat the biggest threat to our environment yet.

Not content with the slow and agonizing death of the Great Barrier Reef thanks to global warming, there is now a proposal, sorry, an “investigation” into mining our airport site for shale oil. There are so many things wrong with this I just don’t know where to start.

Despite the hundreds of thousands spent last year by council and the community on a legal challenge to the contract for sale of the airport the local community now face loosing the airport again, this time to an open cut shale oil mine. Now, I’m no expert, but I cannot see how this will not hasten the death of one of our nations greatest assets. Especially in light of the result of the same company and their experiment of a mine near Gladstone, about 600km south of the Whitsundays, which resulted in closure after two years due to the ongoing illness of many residents of Gladstone. If it has that affect on people, what effect will it have on our reef?

The land that is proposed to be mined, sorry, being “investigated”, is state government land. To date our local councillors have been reluctant to state an opinion on the issue, with only two confirming an opinion (both against) while the others sit on the fence and wait for “more information”.

Is this how the Rudd government propose to “fix climate change”? Allowing the destruction of a world heritage listed site and the illnesses to affect residents in an effort to “produce more oil”? I thought the idea to reverse global warming was to CUT emissions, not produce more oil at the expense of the state’s (his state’s) largest tourism region, and the health of the residents.

I get so mad thinking about this it has taken me days to write. My heart starts racing and my palms sweat. While all our “political activities” until now have been important, the general feeling has been “you win some, you lose some”. This is one we as a nation cannot afford to lose.

What can you do?

1. Probably the easiest thing you can do right now is click on this link and sign the petition. Make no mistake, this is a global issue and the government needs to realise this, so it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the Great Barrier Reef is your issue as well.
2. If you’re in Australia, you can call the Federal Government’s Emissions Trading Feedback line on 1800 057 590 if you’d like to comment to a person or send an Email: emissionstrading@climatechange.gov.au
3. Below is contact information for local Whitsunday councillors, government organisations, State Government members, ministers, and Federal Government ministers including the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. Feel free to write to/contact your local federal member about this issue as well.
4. Digg, stumble, *insert social networking method of choice here* this post so as many people are aware of the impending destruction of the Great Barrier Reef as possible.

What do I say?

Here are some ideas of topics you could specifically point out in your letters/emails:

• Austrailia’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol of March 2008: It is estimated that between 20 to 40 Mt. of carbon dioxide emissions will be produced annually by the mine
• Shale Oil Mining is an Experimental Industry. The full effects are not known.
• We have custodial responsibilities to protect the World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef.
• The effects the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef on Queensland and Australia’s Tourism economy
• The associated costs involved in relocating the airport, highway and other facilities currently on the site
• The health effects for residents.
• Anything else you can think of.

That’s great, but how does it affect me?

Have you ever dreamed of visiting the Great Barrier Reef?

Lazing on Whitehaven Beach?

Or taking a sail and watching humpback wales frolic in the warm water?

An island holiday with snorkelling, perhaps a dive? A visit to the home of Nemo?

If you plan on visiting the Great Barrier Reef for a holiday - you might want to do it sooner rather than later, while it’s still there. There’s no telling what would be left with the combined effects of global warming and the results of an experimental mine will have on the fringe of one of the worlds great holiday destinations. It really could be “bye bye Nemo”

Do you live in Queensland or Australia? Are you aware of the impact the loss of this Tourism destination and associated income would have on our economy? Jobs? Families?

Are you willing to risk it? Leave it in the hands of the politicians? Or are you going to click on a link, and tell the politicians exactly what you think? That if this mine were to go ahead, they will go down in history as the government who allowed the destruction of one of our nations greatest assets, and lied to the Australian people about their commitment to stalling climate change.

What are you going to do?

Contact Details:

Whitsunday Regional Council –Info: info@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Clr Mark Gaudry: mark.gaudry@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Clr Dave Clark: dave.clark@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Clr Peter Ramage: peter.ramage@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Clr Jennifer Whitney jennifer.whitney@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Clr Jan Clifford jan.clifford@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Clr Rogin Taylor rogin.taylor@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

Mayor Mike Brunker mayor@whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au

The Honourable Kevin Rudd MP
Prime Minister of Australia
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Online Contact Form
Fax +61 (0) 2 6273 4100

Senator the Honourable Penny Wong
Senator for South Australia
Minister for Climate Change and Water
Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT 2600
Online Contact Form

Fax: + 61 2 6273 7330

The Honourable Martin Ferguson AM, MP

Minister for Resources and Energy; Minister for Tourism
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Email: Martin.Ferguson.MP@aph.gov.au
Fax: + 61 2 6273 0434

The Honourable Anna Bligh MP

Premier of Queensland
PO Box 15185
CITY EAST QLD 4002 Australia
Email: premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Fax: 61 7 3221 3631

The Honourable Geoff Wilson MP

Queensland Minister for Mines and Energy
PO Box 15216
CITY EAST QLD 4002
Email: MinesandEnergy@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Fax: + 61 7 3225 1828

The Honourable Desley Boyle MP

Queensland Minister for Tourism, Regional Development & Industry
GPO Box 1141
BRISBANE QLD 4001 Australia
Email: trdi@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Fax: 61 7 3229 0434

You can also access the contact details for your local federal member and senators here and send your opinion to them as well.

If there was ever a subject to cause tempers to rise then this is it. Every time there’s an election we hear about how the Government gives more per student to private schools than state schools. And then there’s this from ABC News:

Revealed: Australia’s $2b school funding gap

That’s right, a new study has found that the government puts $2b a year more into private schools than public schools. I have so many issues with this story it’s hard to know where to start.

1. The report only looks at FEDERAL government funding. We all know the federal government puts more money into private schools than state schools. Because they’re STATE schools, funded by the STATE government.

2. The “new report” commissioned by the Australian Education Union tells us nothing new. A comment I made that was left unpublished on the story told how I searched for “state funding per child for state school” turned up this brochure from the Federal Government. If you look at the graph on the bottom of page one you will clearly see that the Federal Government funds state schools at a cost of $3b a year, while it funds private schools at a cost of $5.5b a year. Wait. Hang on. The Education Union commissioned a report into something they could have found out by doing a search? And these people are educating our youth?

So, we’re all clear that the federal government puts more money into private schools than state schools? Good. Wouldn’t want to lose anyone.

But what about total funding? It is clear from the graph on the brochure that there is nearly $13b difference between combined government funding of private ($7.6b) and state schools ($22.7b).

And the question that always comes up: Should governments fund private schools at all? To this my answer has to be yes. Ignoring fear inducing theories about what would happen if all the students currently attending private schools turned up at the state schools on Monday morning, it is clear that those parents who choose to send their kids to a private school are SAVING the government money. What’s that you say? How? Here are my calculations. All figures are taken from the Federal Governments Schools Funding Brochure

Federal & State Government funding for a private school student = $5092

Federal & State Government funding for a state school student = $9908.

Thus every parent who sends their child to a private school saves the state and federal governments $4816 in funding. Wow. So not only do parents who send their children to private schools take pressure of the public system, they actually save the government money?

And why is this so different to the Private Health debate? You get the nice 30% rebate and medicare funds some of your medical expenses, so how is it any different to the government funding approximately half the cost of a state school education to the private sector?

The timing of this is amazing as I struggle to write a Criminal Law assignment on theories of punishment. In my Google Reader I have a feed showing the latest news headlines from the ABC. Today I refreshed to find the following headlines:

Judge jails p-plater for driving 255 kph

followed by:

No jail for doctor who raped patient

Are you serious? I know I only wrote about the appaling rate of rape, sorry, sexual assault convictions a couple of weeks ago, but it appears that even when a woman goes through SIX YEARS of charges and trials in search of justice, and have the rapist found guilty, the guy (a doctor no less) walks free? Yet a 20 year old gets sentenced to 9 months jail for speeding? Where are our priorities?

I’m not sure what’s more appalling. The sentence or the fact the doctor’s name was supressed.