The Federal Dream USDU

Those Impossible Dreams

2010-03-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

Politics is always about the possible . Otherwise its not politics.
That doesn't stop people from dreaming. That's OK -Its good to dream
The real danger for ecomia is when leaders try to live out their dreams without knowing their limitations.
Leaders who ignore the danger of politicaceleste will not retain their role. Heavenly minded we like, but earthly use we depend on . Sustainable political leadership is totally dependant on making decisions in the real world.

This post is not to discourage dreaming because infact it has a place . See Neibuhr but a speight of Federal Government initiatives in terms of dreaming led policies on environmnet , education and health in February 2010, appear to have no clothes. Avoid laughter in the street - Get competent advice and ditch the quickfixers , and best of all keep blogging .

Would Regional Government really work ?

2009-09-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

What do you think ? the main reason for this blog was to start some discussion. Personally , I don't think it would be cost effective mainly because Australia is such a urbanised country, and we can't really afford, humanly and practically to get rid of the States . There is value too in having "More rather than less advice " . The main reason I see for reform is the ongoing risk of a growing rural/urban and independance / dependance culture divide with the current system . Independant Senators, while useful, are not going to be there to secure the long term view is actually in view . Tell me the long term is anyone's view?

If USDA could establish a better framework ,long term , for rural political discussion ( not even happening now even amongst Nats ) I would think about it -Why ? Potential hub of the culture of innovation and long terem research Regional governence may help that ?

What do you think? up to you to add your thoughts please ! Would a sound federation make for an effective, and more reasonable, republic campaign? Copyright EA 10sept 2009

Regional disservices

2008-10-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

One of the great threats to the federal dream is often not recognised - the danger that if regional services ( so well funded by Canberra) are not credible, the States , and others , will haul them back .
This is already happening ( DPI victorian rural research) and Canberra clearly doesn't care because rural people everywhere are suffering from the well paid , but not always responsible (moving on yet agin ) services the feds are creating .
For eg People from the big smoke looking for a promotion do a stint in some remote area( When does anyone get a promotion in a small country town -thankfully teachers do)
This needs to change . Its Time gov fund managers did what the people want - insist that so called responsible people live in the area and otherwise show their commitment to the area -its the sort of discriminating and rewards policy that us who are competent can handle .think of the fuel it would save alone ! Can Canberra handle such complexity? This very action might help save the federal dream from the white anting is it celarly getting at the moment !!!!!!
and why should Canberra care? - what represreetaion do small regional communities have in all this.

Close to home too are the wasted regional research dollar efforts ( non accountable soil and risk research and policy impact by some cmas ) and the silly technofix preoocupations of some politicians that will help drag all research back to the cities --as DPI seems to be doing.
I rememember about 15 years go advising the top university specialists in water and earth science research that the most efficient way to "get results" was NOT to create infiltration and runoff reserach groups ( something that still happened) but to drive integration of this complex earth science by building on regional research - unfortunately i lived in the country and my voice was not heard.

Tell us something we don't know Roxon

2008-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Protection policy talk is just that unless the labor party moves onto
professions policy

Take an example from our humorists in the background
As Shaun Macalief said so well on Newstopia last week -

For heavens' sake " put the mental back in environmental" - before we all go completely mad over more irrational and blinkered touting at windmills by politicians .

A lot of hot air and touting at windmills at this 20-20 ???

Diversity not Conformity

2008-02-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

Scott Morrison ,Former State President of the NSW Liberals has helped Liberals regain some credibility about big picture politics this week by reminding Aussies of the basics of their freedom and the 'liberal' tradition . ,

Too many wannabes of the recent past and many in media church are too easily caught up in the shallow attractions of rawpower and the unity and conformity that that must go with it . Diversity is the price of freedom and intellectual openess; both for those who want to close the mind down, or open it up.
we can chose the boundaries, but others may disgree with us about just how far out we are prepared to set them !

"Australia is not a secular country — it is a free country," Hon Scott Morrison
"This is a nation where you have the freedom to follow any belief system you choose. Secularism is just one. It has no greater claim than any other on our society.

"As US senator Joe Lieberman said, the constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not from religion."

Building from the bottom up

2007-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

If Rudd is to get anywhere with the Federal dream , he will need to go right to the bottom and find out what's missing there . He knows that his team needs to keep doing that ,but does he know which links he must break and which new leads he should take ?

Links to break

--Rudd will need to ditch many of the bookkeepers at his door ( the ledger probably won't contain the critical line, let alone represent it well ) the problem is so serious that drastic measures are required.
Do what the states did with teachers and pay people not on how much money they administer , but on how close they are to the workface. Restore seniority before mentoring itself turns into a weasal word; Ensure all managers have studied and worked in the areas they administer(tell me where it shouldn't apply except in Canberra where it might never apply?)don't always choose managers on the basis of experience in high office- what practical person wants to spend their whole life in Canberra!) offer limited term appointments
---Rudd's team will need to go deeper than the States who think they can revive state education with a facade of new buildings. Reminds me of Hackers best run hospital - the one with no patients.

Links to make

Professional groups/ people with expertise/ no ambition to be in middle management The point is, no poly can really afford to listen to every noise that comes from the very bottom . There has to be some trust involved. The trust of training should be a start . However ---Lots more regional appointments won't neccesarily work .The first qualification for new look rudd field staff should be , not their degree, but whether they look down not up.

One big test for Rudd is whether he can bludgeon the army of accountants and bookkeepers in his counsel to cut the cords with their paper trails to nowhere.

Patience is something the new Rudd team will all need, if his team is not to run, with all that new noise from listening, finally in frustration, to the hall of remedies. The same foreign school that most incumbents find themselves if they don't really know who they should really listen to.
Nothing is easy - especially passing the power batten down the line to the very bottom - but it must be done, if Rudd is to win his right to rule.

Tasmania parliament in big trouble

2007-08-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

The Premier recalls parliament -- to do what, you might well ask ?
The parliament was recalled to get around the systems they have set in place to stop corruption and retain the independant voice . NRMC
Moves might not be so bad if it was to stop the corrupt ,but the move to stop the mechanism to stop corruption is big news and a big problem -it brings the willingness of parliament to hear the truth into question .
Such moves are of historic and monumental proportions but who is talking about it.
The other paradox is the way governments, in facing an issue of progress (A papermill in Tamar valley)invoke the superman and the superparaliament - not very realistic .

Walking on water

2007-08-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

Turnbull and Howard tried to make it happen in 2006 with the Murray Darling system but when the big dry dissipates, will the States swallow the pill? 10 billion dollars is a lot of incentive to take the bitter pill of salinity but even the rich can't buy everything - especially their credibility o when they throw it away in fearmongering and incompetence on the real conservation issues and dilemmmas of land management.