Vexed Question

This article about school funding appeared today -
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080109/2/15h0g.html
There have always been issues with developing a funding model that is fair and equitable. Many years ago I was responsible for allocating Special Program funding to a group of remote bush schools . No matter what we did, taking into account SES data, and indexes of cost and distance , no measure was ever completely fair.
We used a committee of locals drawn from the area and this helped a little, but it was necessary to structure the meetings carefully to ensure everyone had a fair go - the more confident and assertive were often in the ascendancy.
Bottom line is that no system will ever be completely fair, but that the decisions need to be made by those closest to the action.
Unfortunately, the current bureaucratic model is moving towards greater centralisation and control which works against this principle.

An End to Fear?

Former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is quoted in Cut and Paste from Today's Australian -

I believe the most precious gift the next president could bestow upon America is an end to the politics of fear. Fear, of course, has its place. Seven decades ago, the world did not fear Hitler enough. Today, Iraq remains a powder keg, Afghanistan a strug­gle, Iran a potential danger and North Korea a puzzle not yet solved. Pakistan combines all the elements that give us an international migraine. Al-Qa'ida and its offshoots deserve our most urgent attention, because when people say they want to kill us, we would be fools not to take them at their word.

Still, we have had an overdose of fear in recent times.

We have been told to be afraid so that we might be less protective of our Constitution, less mindful of international law, less respect­ful towards allies, less discerning in our search for truth and less rigorous in question­ing what our leaders tell us. We have been exhorted by the White House to embrace a culture of fear that has driven and narrowed our foreign policy while poisoning our ability to communicate effectively with others.

One manifestation of fear is an unwilling­ness to think seriously about alternative perspectives. America’s standing in the world has been in free fall these past few years because our country is perceived as trying to impose its own reality — to fashion a world that is safe and comfortable for us, with little regard for the views of anyone else.

Perhaps Barak Obama's rapid rise has something to do with this sentiment - i.e. a yearning for hope over fear. Parallels are being drawn with Labor's victory in Oz.

David Hicks

There are two completely separate issues relating to David Hicks.

The first is how he should be treated.
He offered his services to a group of militants who were/are a risk to our national security. From this point of view, he has a strong case to answer, even if there is no law on our books that makes it possible. In an ideal world, such a law should have been created, and he should have had his day in court being tried against it - here in Australia. He continues to have a case to answer.

The second issue is about the treatment of an Australian who is in the custody of a foreign power. He was held without trial for five years. Irrespective of what he did, this was simply wrong.

The two issues are muddied. It is possible to condemn his actions, as I do, but also to condemn the way his case was handled. Condemning the way he was treated doesn’t mean that I support his actions.
What we are left with is a complete mess - no trial, no recognition of habeus corpus, and no real closure.

How'sThat?

Kannan Venugopal in yesterday’s Australian –

RICKY Ponting could have resolved the issue in a much more amicable way. than by going to the umpires. Can we get on with the cricket, please?

My sentiments exactly. I played cricket as a kid, and coached as a young teacher, and if any of the kids in my team had behaved the way our Australian players have in the last test in Sydney, they would have been booted out. This behaviour, of course, is not confined to our national team, but they have made it an art form.

The term that would have been used back then was ‘Mug Lairs”.

It's a Gas

About twelve months ago I had one of my vehicles – the one I use to drive long distances – converted to LPG. By now, it has traveled 30000 since the conversion, and taking into account the subsidy provided by the federal government, the conversion has paid for itself.

For that twelve months, the price of LPG in Queensland (where I live) has sat more or less in the mid fifties (cents per litre).

In the last fortnight, it has suddenly risen to the high sixties, representing an increase of about 25%. The LPG Autogas Australia website provides this information about the origin of the product –

LPG can be obtained from two different methods or processes.

Most commonly in Australia it is extracted directly from ‘wet’ natural gas or crude oil. Almost 80% of Australian LPG is produced from this process and includes places like Bass Strait (VIC), Cooper Basin (SA), Kwinana (WA), North West Shelf (WA) and Surat Basin (QLD).

LPG can also be obtained as a by-product of the petroleum refining process which produces around 20% of Australian supplies. There are seven local refineries - Mobil Altona (VIC), BP Bulwer Island (QLD), Shell Clyde (NSW), Shell Geelong (VIC), Caltex Kurnell (NSW), BP Kwinana (WA) and Caltex Lytton (QLD) all producing LPG.

Australia has plentiful natural supplies of LPG and in 2005 exported 1.6 million tonnes (about 3 billion litres).

If this is the case, what is the reason for the dramatic increase? What has changed? Or have the oil companies simply decided that they can make a greater profit, understanding the the ACCC seems impotent to identify price-fixing in terms of unleaded prices, and they’re safe to work the same scam on LPG?

Sounds like an invitation for an aspiring investigative journalist to get busy.

Unfit for Service

From today’s Courier Mail –

After a $1.4 billion "upgrade" the navy's front-line fighting ships can­not defend themselves and are unable to be sent into battle. A navy whistleblower says send­ing the 4000-tonne Adelaide Class Guided Missile Frigates to war would be like sending a VK Commo­dore to race at Bathurst.

Senior officials admit the 1997 FFG upgrade project was a "debacle" created by the Howard govern­ment's decision to maximise the sale price of the Sydney-based contractor Australian Defence Industries when it was sold to the French firm Thales. The project is four years late, includes four ships not the original six and they just don't work. The navy informant told News Limited, which publishes The Courier-Mail, that the situation was so bad sailors were quitting because their ships could not be sent to the Middle East or any other conflict zone. Late last year, navy chief Vice-Admiral Russ Shalders refused to accept the first ship in the program, HMAS Sydney, for "operational release" because its war fighting systems did not function properly.

Whilst this story has all the characteristics of a beat up, there is plenty of evidence that defence procurement is in a parlous state. How it got to be that way results from a mix of circumstances, but confusing alliance with equipment selection was a hallmark of the Howard years. We’ve finished up with unsuitable heavy armour (M1A1 Abrams tanks), underperforming subs (Collins class vessels which whose hulls are OK, but are dogged with Raytheon fighting systems when Atlas ISUS 90 would have been more suitable) and Brendan Nelson’s individual decision, against the advice of the RAAF to procure Superhornets.

Surely defence procurement is one area which ought to be quarantined from political decision making or commercial vested interest. Our men and women in uniform deserve the best.

Another way of looking at the issue is to develop our own defence industry to the point where we don’t have to rely on anyone else. It’s possible, given time and resources, and would help us avoid the desperation that developed in the early months and years of the Second World War. Remember the “Boomerang”?

Help for Brigitte

For years I’ve been hooked on French cars – real ones with engines in the front driving the rear wheels. Currently I own two – 1969 Peugeot 404 and a 1984 Peugeot 505. The 404 sits forlornly in the shed waiting reproachfully for me to begin a restoration project. It’s been waiting for eight years now. This was to be a retirement project, but I seem to have less spare time now that I’m “retired” than when I was working.

The 505 was being driven by my son, but he’s moved interstate, and it was extremely unlikely that it would have survived the journey. It’s covered nearly 300000kms, so doesn’t owe me much. Problem is, the alloy motor has been eaten away from the inside by Toowoomba water (not in my ownership – I always used the recommended coolant) and both the engine oil and coolant have both assumed the characteristics and appearance of mayonnaise. These two vital fluids are mixing somewhere in the motor, and Brigitte's condition is terminal.

A major rebuild is beyond my time and ability, so a replacement long motor would be the way to go. The rest of the car is in good nick. So far, enquiries through all my usual channels to acquire such an exotic lump have proved fruitless.

It there anyone out there who knows where I could find a ZDJL 2.2 litre with Bosch K Jet Tronic Injection? The car is a 505 STI with automatic transmission.

I can’t live without her.