Overland to Adelaide

Tomorrow morning at first light I set out to drive from Toowoomba to Adelaide with my no. 2 son. The reason for undertaking this relative marathon is to help him get settled at Flinders, a much easier proposition with a car (and trailer) than with a pushbike – his sole means of transport.

Both of us have seen Vietnamese people carry all manner of appliances around on pushbikes when we visited there year before last, but this method of conveyance loses in the translation south.

I bought a new (locally-built) tradies trailer, which can be locked, and is large enough to take his worldly possessions – mostly books and CDs – without pulling the proverbial out of the vehicle, a BA Falcon with LPG conversion. This afternoon I spent $92 ($75 unleaded plus $17 LPG) topping up on fuel. This gives a theoretical range of 1100km, which is more than we need in the unlikely event that LPG supplies aren’t available en route. In theory they are, but it will be interesting to see what the prices are. Hopefully, we can avoid unleaded altogether, given the astronomical costs in more remote locations.

Not that we’ll be anywhere too remote – day one is Dubbo, day two Balranald, and we should arrive at the city of Light on Sunday evening. The whole idea of travelling south-west at this time of the year is counter-intuitive, but my kids have never been all that conventional. Total distance is 1900km, and temperatures along the way are between zero and fifteen. Thankfully, the recent westerly seems to be on the wane.

When this marathon is over, the trailer will be useful in (over time) disposing of twenty years of accumulated gear that gathers around children at their various stages of development. As they’ve left one at a time, they’ve left their gear behind, and apparently lost all interest in it. There will be garage sales!

The intention is to submit a report at the end of each day using my Telstra blue tick country phone linked to my laptop. If no report appears – blame Telstra.

With Friends Like These....

This report in Adelaide Now: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23977671-5006301,00.html?from=public_rss

It's apparent that the Americans made a request to Australian authorities to test sarin gas in North Queensland in 1962. They wanted to test the results on "jungle foliage" and "personnel traversing". This jungle was in an area near Lockhart River, and the "personnel" were to be diggers, not GIs.

Harold Holt had the backbone to say "no". His reaction to getting the request must have been interesting.

The testing was vetoed by then prime minister Harold Holt in 1966. Holt's former staffer Peter Bailey told Channel Nine the nerve gas plan had been considered by the Australian government and ministers were concerned that scuttling it could damage Canberra's relationship with the US. He said the ministers felt "if they weren't pretty good and pretty faithful to the Americans we would be dumped," he said.

With allies like these, it's a wonder we survived the last fifty years - although there are plenty of Vietnam Vets living the consequences of indiscriminate spraying of chemicals.

This historical thread of Australian service personnel being considered expendable by foreign regimes is woven through our national narrative. It can be seen as far back as the Boer war, and was at its height during the first world war.

Then there was Churchill's tendency to see Aussies as cannon fodder to protect British interests in Burma, rather than allowing them to return home to protect their homeland in the face of an invasion threat from the Japanese.

John Curtin and Harold Holt have something in common.

Reality Check

The following editorial on Drive.com makes some telling findings on the real costs of motoring, and cuts through the hype about diesels and hybrids. More to the point for me, is that it makes a strong case for LPG -

When it comes to fuels, LPG is the only option that really saves buyers money.

I've posted on this before -

here

and

here

Another interesting piece is published in August 2008 Wheels magazine -

Size isn't everything Even the land of the free and the home of the truck is feeling the petrol pinch. For the better part of two decades, Ford's F-Series 'trucks' have been the best-selling vehicles in America. In May, the once mighty F-Series fell to fifth spot, with Honda's Civic claiming pole. The last car to topple the F-Series was another Blue Oval, the Taurus sedan, in December'92.

To conclude - If you want to save money - convert your car to LPG. You might also be helping the environment. The other point of interest is that Yanks are buying less big dumb vehicles. They've been a bit slow in catching on, but the market rules, doesn't it?

Special Schools

This is from today's Courier Mail -

Call to abolish Special Schools
by Renee Viellaris in Canberra
A QUEENSLAND sena­tor has called for special schools to be scrapped and disabled kids sent into mainstream education. Liberal Senator Sue Boyce, who has a daughter with Down syndrome, said it was time someone was "brave" and "crazy" enough to push for total integration of students. "We won't fix education until we abolish special schools," Senator Boyce told a Down Syndrome Association of Queensland fundraiser last week. "If mainstream schools had no option but to accept children with disabilities, they would concentrate on how to make it work, not how to avoid getting involved. "And if all the human and funding resources cur­rently tied up in special schools were handed over to the mainstream system, it would be so much easier to make it work." Senator Boyce said her 24-year-old daughter had always gone to main­stream schools and is now a bakery assistant. "In the 60s and 70s, no one believed a child with Down syndrome could be educated," she said "Special anything is a way of excluding them from the community." She said she had yet to express her opinion to her Liberal Party counterparts because it was her "per­sonal view". But Education Minister Julia Gillard said special schools had an important role in educating many Australian students. "The Rudd Labor Gov­ernment has promised an education revolution to ensure no Australian kids miss out on a quality education," Ms Gillard said last week. "Unfortunately, it seems the Liberal Party's only plan for education is to shut down schools."

This is an interesting comment, particularly coming from someone on Senator's Boyce's side of politics. The fact that the Senator is the mother of a person with a disability adds credibility to her opinions. It also sounds like a comment straight from the heart - that in itself is unusual from any politician in these days of minders and spin.
Julia's Gillard's comment is simply a political response, and political responses have bedevilled this issue for years. This is not a political issue.

It is an issue about which I harbour strong opinions, as for a period (on and off for about eighteen years) I was a special school principal.

Special Schools exist simply because regular schools are not yet ready to support all students. Unless resourcing, support and training for teachers, and public attitudes change, I can't see their demise in my lifetime.

We've come a long way - when I started teaching, there were still children who were considered "unreceptive to education" . (This was a quote from an orthopaedic surgeon of my acquaintance who defined education in the most narrow of terms - generally what used to be called classical education).

To my way of thinking, the only child who can't learn is dead. The attitude so clearly expressed by my learned friend persists in many quarters, and particularly in many private school communities. This was emphasised over and over again by parents who would bring their child with a disability for enrolment at my Special School, bitter because they had been turned away from their private school of choice on the basis that "this school doesn't cater for your son/daughter". The fact that parent had the money, and was making a clear choice cut no ice at all.

I'd recommend that any private school that turns a student away on the basis of a presenting disability should have its public funding removed immediately. In the end, these schools run on taxpayers money, and many of these taxpayers are people with disabilities.

These wealthy schools could then spend the necessary funds on facilities for students with disabilities, and training and resourcing specialist teachers. Then they would be able to "cater".

Maybe a little less spending on facades and artwork and a little more on education for all would have a better national result.

Liberals fail to redefine beliefs (or the end of Left/Right)

I came across this letter in today’s “Toowoomba Chronicle”.
Liberals fail to redefine beliefs The left has lost. So says the left. This is not a point-scoring statement from someone from the right but the words of the people from the left themselves. They say that market-based capitalism has proven it works. They no longer hate it. This may seem simple but it is staggering in its consequences for politics in Australia. It is seminal and all embracing. The Liberals are strategically blindsided. They are in determined denial about the changed ALP. They have missed the shift, failed to read the changed environment and hence failed to redefine and reposition their beliefs and brand. The Labor movement is a conglomerate and culture of thinkers. Political argument, frequently aggressive and fiery, is a core function. Ideas with passion matter. It causes great divisions. But when cohesive themes emerge, formidable strength is the outcome. A close look at the Rudd Government allows these twin elements to be seen. It's why respectful discussion of spirituality, relationships, family and self-worth are comfortably interwoven with economics, business, finance and tax. It's a new framework for politics and public policy debate. The simple two-way split has gone. For each of the political parties, for business, unions and individuals, it's a new environment. Richard Wood Darling Heights

It's interesting in a number of ways.
The author has been a guest speaker of the League of Rights -

here

so it’s fairly safe assumption that his sympathies are towards the Dexter side of politics. It's refreshing then that he’s put his finger on one of the main factors separating the current government and opposition –
“The Labor movement is a conglomerate and culture of thinkers. Political argument, frequently aggressive and fiery, is a core function. Ideas with passion matter. It causes great divisions.
But when cohesive themes emerge, formidable strength is the outcome.”
And his slant on the Liberals –
“They have missed the shift, failed to read the changed environment and hence failed to redefine and reposition their beliefs and brand.”
I’d put it differently, but don’t disagree with the thrust of his argument. Any political group which embraces values beyond the material will always be driven by passion. There is no “left/right” anymore, but there is a defining difference between the politics of the material and the search for a spiritual ideal. Richard Wood describes it quite well.

I guess the cohesive themes may include climate change and "your rights at work".

Bush contemplates writing memoirs

This story was posted on ABC on-line this morning. See here

I can’t wait. The chapter on “Why I Invaded Iraq” would make fascinating reading, as would “Hurricane Katrina – How I Dropped the Ball”. There might also be some interesting material on his service in the Reserve.

He’d need a writing coach.
I’ll volunteer.

Hybrid Hysteria

There’s been heaps of media lately about Rudd’s announcement on local production of Hybrid Camrys by Toyota at Altona. Some of the comment, both for and against, has bordered on hysteria.

Precious little commentary has focused on the merits of the hybrid as a vehicle.

About four years ago, the manager of the fleet that I use in my advisory work leased three Toyota Prius Hybrids*. All three have just about finished their lease period, with an average odo reading of about 80000km. This distance has been covered by a range of drivers (a mix of gender, age and experience) and in a variety of conditions (city and bush driving, extremes of temperature, and roads varying from freeways to graded gravel).

On a couple of occasions I used a Prius to drive to places as far west as Cunnamulla, and on one trip I covered 1600km in 5 days. You get to know a vehicle pretty well in these situations.

The cars have proved the most reliable in the fleet, with less down time than, for example, the Commodores. Most drivers, once they’ve adjusted to the unique gear drive selector, enjoy driving them. My personal experience has been positive, especially when driven in the city, where 4.8lit/100km is the best I’ve seen in real world conditions. On the open road, they drop to 5.5 lit/100km, just the opposite phenomenon of conventional vehicles.

They’re not very suitable for gravel surfaces, because of their light build and low ground clearance, but driven with care, they can be used in these situations. They are also not an enthusiast’s car, having as much personality as a wheeled household appliance. But then, if I want to drive something for enjoyment, rather than as a work tool, I’d use my MX5 roadster. My hire vehicle of choice is the Prius, because of the fuel savings. I drove one around Adelaide last January in temperatures over 40 degrees with no hassles.

In fact, if I hadn’t needed a car that would tow a trailer, my last purchase would probably have been a Prius, bought through an ex-government fleet auction. For mine, this is their single biggest disadvantage. Assuming that the engineering on the Camry hybrid is as well-sorted as it obviously is on the Prius, the vehicle itself would be well worth a look. The inability to tow is a liability in the Australian market.

All the rest is politics – and you will understand, dear reader, that I don’t want to go there, despite the fact that everyone else has. Even Barnaby Joyce, a pollie that I admire for his independence, had a go, describing them as “golf carts”. Having driven one out to Barnaby’s territory (St George), I would suggest to him that he drives one and makes up his own mind.

Of course, his comment wouldn’t have anything to do with the politics of the announcement.

*I don't know the plural of Prius.