The Travels of the
Techno-Freedom-Fighter

Gambling is one of those things that really get me fired up. My I attended a Salvation Army church that has a rehabilitation centre attached to it. Therefore a lot of my friends have been through the rehabilitation service. On top of the addiction issues that a lot of them face gambling is a catalyst for their slide into troubles.

The argument that the money that goes into poker machines is required for government revenue to provide services to the people is just ludicrous. As well as that licensed clubs provide support to the community through community grants. I would really like to see someone to a longitudinal study into the benefits and cost the Society of gambling.

Obviously there are a number of complex issues around the industry and because people make their livelihoods within the Gambling industry. It is not a simple knee-jerk reaction of banning all of the poker machines in the country that will solve the issue. This is just a extreme news grabbing opinion, because in the end it may cause as much social harm is the current situation.

And it does not have to be all that difficult a number of small changes at the venues would be helped to ensure that less harm is caused. Such as require venues to display clocks on the wall and ensure natural light is visible from poker machine areas during daylight hours. And remove ATM's and EFTPOS facilities from all buildings with a gambling license to avoid unplanned spending. As well as require venues to provide nongambling, socially interactive activities at poker machine venues.

In a government level it would be good to replace the current license system with one in which poker machines are owned by the state government with a fixed operator's fee paid to venues for running the machines. This particular model has worked quite effectively within Canada. All poker machines to be located in licensed clubs (not hotels).

I just got back from a talk that I did for the Queanbeyan Evening View Club. Mum has been a member for a long time and I tend to do a talk there every once and a while on my last posting. This was the first opportunity that I had to talk about my last posting to PNG from November 2006 until February 2007. it was just ment to be a informal slide night where I get to talk about being chased down the road by people with machetes :(. I will have to admit that I was surprised that the audience of suburban middle-aged women where really switched on about the topic of International Development. The basic idea is that International Development is all about the fight against poverty.

The fight against poverty may appear daunting but the efforts arising from the Millennium Declaration in 2000 shows what can be done when the world works together to solve a global challenge. The Declaration gave rise to the establishment of eight Millennium Development Goals targeting key indicators of development, including extreme poverty and hunger, education, gender equality, child mortality, and disease control.

Progress against these goals has been encouraging but more needs to be done if we are not to fall short of achieving the Goals by 2015. The Australian Government has committed to spending 0.7 percent of Gross National Income on overseas development assistance (ODA), yet did not set a timeline for when this level of spending would be reached. Our level of ODA as a proportion of Gross National Income is currently 0.3 percent.

The Australian Government's in-principle commitment to increasing aid expenditure to 0.7 percent of Gross National Income extends all the way back to a 1975 United Nations General Assembly resolution but was more recently affirmed at the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico.

Australia has not yet set a timeline for the achievement of that spending level, unlike five countries that have already met that level and 16 that have committed to reach it by 2015. Australia's ODA as a proportion of Gross National Income is currently 0.3 percent, significantly below even the OECD average of 0.46 percent.

This stands in stark contrast to the generosity of Australians, who are the second most generous amongst the 22 OECD countries when it comes to private giving. This corresponds with growth in the number of people who approve of official development assistance and who feel that Australia should spend more on aid.

Focus development resources intensively on high-priority nations, with the intent of achieving a more rapid and sustained improvement in economic and social conditions for example work towards an increase in basic health & education and the availability of micro-credit. We should support further cancellation of developing country debt. As well as work for the resumption of multi-lateral talks aimed at the further reduction of trade barriers.

As I have had a massive set of assignments this week for Uni I have not had the time to do a lot of media releases, the Capital punishment issue has been something that has really annoyed me, Darren Churchil one of our local Dems here in the ACT wrote this piece and it was published in the Canberra times, I though that it said exactly the way I feel so I thought I would post it on my blog.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That the perpetrators of the Bali bombings need to be brought to justice is and should be unquestioned. But the death penalty is not about justice. It is about revenge.

It can only lead to an escalating cycle of violence. The taking of a life is a horrible and evil act, that we as a tolerant society rightly condemn. But if we are to continue to condemn the taking of a life, we must be consistent in opposing it. And that means opposing the death penalty.

It is the mark of a fair and compassionate society that we lead by example on human rights issues. The right to life is a fundamental human right. It exists regardless of race, nationality, religion, gender, creed or any other distinction. Those who take life should be condemned in the strongest terms and brought to justice. But that does not involve retaliation by committing what is essentially the same crime.

The strong stance taken by the Australian Democrats in opposing the death penalty shows that that there is one political party in Australia prepared to take a stand on human rights. Labor appears to want to take a stand but is frightened of the Howard Government playing wedge politics.

We need some consistency. Australia needs to take a strong, fearless stand against human rights abuses and violations in our region. We must not allow our opposition to the death penalty to be seen as in any way ambiguous.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm a motorcycle rider and very rarely do I get all that caught up with the price of petrol at the petrol station. But tonight I ended up paying $1.38 per litre to fill my motorcycle. As I rode back to home I really started to wonder about how we actually approach infrastructure and land transport in Australia.

Petrol prices have been gradually rising for almost two years. Crude oil is probably going to hit $100 a barrel soon compared to $35 in 2004. The rising global oil price translates to rising domestic fuel costs. Given Australia's heavy dependence on private transport - rising fuel prices along with the cost of living, interest rates and inflation are all contributing to the household affordability pressures and debt levels.

Our dependence on a rapidly depleting resource will mean sooner rather than later need to reduce our dependence on oil and switch to sustainable alternatives in order to have continued energy security and minimise the impact to our economy. Australia must undertake as soon as possible, aggressive actions on both transport supply and demand side. On the supply side, develop all feasible options for producing alternative liquid fuels. On the demand side, Australians should increase the fuel efficiency of the national fleet, increase expenditure, availability and patronage of public transport, mass transit, rail and light rail infrastructure.

Back in the late 90s are really helped with the plan for a very fast train project there was going to link Canberra to Sydney using the Siemens MagLev technologies. It was evident back then that the whole approach that we have two developing infrastructure in this country is based around road infrastructure. This is becoming even more of an urgent problem due to the impending climate change scenarios.

There is a distinct lack of government policy to address greenhouse emissions from the transport sector, peak oil and energy security. Most notably the recommendations from the Government’s own House of Representatives inquiry into sustainable cities have not been implemented.


The Democrats have been pushing pretty hard on this issue for a fair while now a lot of the things that we would like to see are things like;
- fringe benefits tax reformed to encourage public transport, cycling and car pooling.
- Excise on alternative fuels removed until agreed targets have been met
- Tax incentives for fuel efficient and low emission vehicles, funded from higher taxes and registration fees for inefficient vehicles and the reintroduction of fuel excise indexation (abolished in 2001).
- The ban on blends of more than 10% ethanol lifted and mandatory biofuel targets of 20% of all petrol and diesel sold phased in by 2020. Ethanol petrol blend (E10 and E85) availability mandated at all outlets,
- All government vehicles switched to alternative fuels and fuel efficient vehicles on re-leasing.
- Democrats-negotiated alternative fuel vehicle conversion maintained and extended to electric and LNG vehicles of all sizes.
- Grants for compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, hydrogen and electricity refuelling infrastructure.
- Auto industry subsidies conditional on producing high efficiency vehicles including hybrids

Mental illness is responsible for 13 per cent of Australia's disease burden but receives only 7 per cent of health funding - half as much as the spending in comparable OECD countries.

62% of people with mental health disorders do not use mental health services, because there are not enough services, they are difficult to access, they cost too much and they do not provide the right types of treatments and assistance

The Democrats want Federal government support for the proposals of Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, who says “people aged between 12 and 25 are most at risk of mental health problems, and early intervention can save the health system millions of dollars in the future.”

Of the 38% of people who do access care, it’s mainly through GPs, and the decline in bulk-billing is making it even more difficult for people with mental illness to obtain even basic primary care services.

We need a fundamentally different approach to providing mental health care - one that is community-based not hospital-based, and focused on promoting well-being and prevention and early intervention, rather than only treating people when they become seriously ill

The Democrats want to see a national roll-out of youth mental health services designed specifically to provide intensive early intervention services for people aged between 12 and 25

There should also be substantial increases in the number of short, medium and long term supported accommodation places to foster recovery and help prevent relapse, including specialist crisis accommodation services for people with dual diagnosis and complex conditions involving disruptive behaviour.